NOISE

As someone who's listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having created the "first completely sampled album," how liberating was it to compose several entirely sample-less tracks on new album The Outsider?

During my last album, The Private Press, there were times when I had a good bassline in my head, but I forced myself not to apply it because I had to stick to the sample ethos, which at a certain point became artistically stifling and frustrating, to not just allow myself to create music in whatever way it came to my head. So yeah, it's nice to be able to do songs without samples occasionally, although there are also songs on the new album that are entirely sample-based. I feel like all the things that I've ever heard people say they like about what I do, I tried to apply a little bit of that to this record.

You've never made a secret about coming from a hip-hop background, but some of your longtime fans seem upset about the presence of rappers on The Outsider. Are you surprised and/or disappointed at that reaction?

I couldn't avoid reading a lot of the feedback on the Internet, so it suddenly dawned on me that there's a good portion of people that will always know me as the sample guy and the guy who made Endtroducing ... and pretty much hate everything I do outside of that one record. I guess I just thought there were more people that weren't like that than were. But for better or worse, I guess to some people it'll always be about that record, and my big challenge is to not let that dissuade me from continuing.

SF Weekly compared your fan alienation experience to that of Bob Dylan when he went electric or Miles Davis when he ditched bop for fusion. Does that give you some feeling of vindication?

I don't think what I'm doing is anywhere near on that artistic plane, but I suppose [there are similarities] in the sense that there's a real and perceived disconnect between what I'm doing and what a lot of people want, which is something that I was never equipped to provide, the same thing over and over again. I suppose it's the same way that no matter what Radiohead does, to some people it will still always be about "Creep." I actually saw that in action at a festival in Belgium. Somebody called out for "Creep," and Thom Yorke kind of looked exasperated for a moment. So it's an odd situation I find myself in. But it's hard to feel too sorry for yourself when you know that you've done something that people feel that strongly about. When a record affects people that strongly, they sort of feel like they own a piece of it, which is nice as well. It's just a matter of trying to find some middle ground, and hopefully the live show achieves some of that.

Apart from being headliners, Mariah Carey and Jeff Beck have nothing in common, or so it would seem. One is a diva vocalist, recovered from recent personal and career nadirs; the other is a guitar god, on his first tour to feature a singer in nearly two decades. Dig deeper, though, and you'll find there's actually not much ground distancing the pair:

JEFF BECK played guitar in the Yardbirds, succeeding ERIC CLAPTON, a member of Derek and the Dominos, whose best-known song, "Layla," appeared in GoodFellas, starring ROBERT DE NIRO, whose Tribeca Productions company once employed MIRA SORVINO, who acted opposite MARIAH CAREY in 2002's WiseGirls.

Hey, Hey, He's a Monkee!

1. "Pleasant Valley Sunday" (Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., 1967) Carole King + Gerry Goffin + the Prefab Four = sunny pop perfection with a lyrical sneer.

2. "Mary, Mary" (More of The Monkees, 1967) Run-D.M.C. ain't got nothin' on these white boys.

3. "Valleri" (The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, 1968) Davy Jones breaks from his sappy ballads on this flamenco-guitar-paced favorite.

4. "Gonna Buy Me a Dog" (The Monkees, 1966) We know, we know—it's moronically foolish. But then again, so were The Monkees most of the time.

5. "Your Auntie Grizelda" (More of The Monkees, 1967) The song that best captures the bizarre psychedelia of the TV show.

LOLA RAY

LIARS (2 stars) The Brooklyn-based, one-time Good Charlotte discovery returns with a round of generic indie pop-rock that teeters somewhere between Hot Hot Heat's summery chirp and Interpol's angular darkness. Inoffensive but undistinguished.

SNOW PATROL

EYES OPEN (3 stars)