Songs

In his musical counterpoint to the traditional Christmas carol, called "It's Good to be a Jew for Christmas," Rob Tannenbaum sings of the bonds that unite Jewish people every year on Dec. 25: "On Christmas Day we'll eat Chinese, walk city streets until we freeze." Tannenbaum and David Fagin are Good for the Jews and will appear at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., tomorrow and Saturday as part of their "Putting the Ha in Hanukkah" tour, sponsored by Heeb magazine. The two will rock out to songs with titles such as "Hot Jewish Chicks" ("Just look at all this cleavage and not one crucifix")

You thought you knew Marilyn Manson, the self-proclaimed "Antichrist Superstar" and one of the most controversial performers of the 1990s. He's the one with the strange makeup, bizarre contact lenses and hit albums extolling sex, drugs and Satanism. But time has softened the artist. Kind of. His look is still spooky, but his music these days is more revealing and romantic - in a dark, gothic way, of course. On Eat Me, Drink Me, Manson's latest album and sixth release overall, the artist is uncharacteristically vulnerable.

"I'm not a very good singer, and I'm a passable guitar player," says Jimmy Buffett in his disarmingly matter-of-fact fashion. "But I think that I write pretty well. That's my strongest suit, and I like that."Indeed, Buffett has done quite a lot of writing in recent years. In addition to composing material for his new album, "Beach House on the Moon," the 52-year-old has written several books, the score for a musical ("Don't Stop the Carnival," with a book by Herman Wouk), and a screen adaptation of his novel, "Where Is Joe Merchant?"

It was never about Elton John's glasses or his silly costumes. It was more, much more that spoke to me, inspired me and launched me on the road to fanaticism.I don't offer the term lightly. I've joined fan clubs, attended nearly 100 concerts and paid ticket brokers hundreds of dollars for prime seating (I'm seeing him again tonight at the Baltimore Arena). I've driven eight hours in summer heat in a non-air-conditioned car to make it to a concert in Albany, N.Y. I've planned a vacation to New York City around a talk-show appearance by Elton John and waited five hours in line to get in, only to be turned away at the last minute.

Because Mary Chapin Carpenter went from coffeehouse singer to country music star, there has been an ongoing debate over much of the last decade about what her success really means. Some say that Carpenter's success came because she adapted her singer/songwriter ideas to fit country music standards; others argue that Carpenter in fact subverted the Nashville process, and effectively changed country music from within.Carpenter, for her part, merely giggles."I just think it's so funny," she says, stifling a laugh.

Marc Anthony is on the telephone from Los Angeles, talking about the deepest parts of his art -- how he uses melody and vocal color to tell a story in his songs that's deeper than words -- when it occurs to him that he doesn't get to talk about music much in interviews."

There's a new jukebox in town that plays more tunes than most but has no records or CDs inside.It is the most significant advance in coin-operated music players since the compact disc replaced vinyl 45s.Because music is stored on a 4.5-gigabyte computer hard drive, it can be programmed to do things that had been difficult or impossible without the computer.In December, they will offer a selection of Christmas carols.When a new tune shoots up the charts, it can be added to the menu overnight.

You've Got MailMusic from the Motion Picture (Atlantic 83153)While we're in the theater, the music in a movie soundtrack has a very specific job: to underscore the action on screen and create an atmosphere that would give the images maximum impact. In other words, the music is meant to manipulate our mood and make us feel the way the director wants us to feel.Outside the multiplex, movie music has a different, but not dissimilar, role. When we hear a soundtrack album, we should get a sense of the movie's mood.

Because many of the artists in the original singer/songwriter boom had folk-rock roots, a lot of listeners have come to assume that musical introspection is best achieved with an acoustic guitar. That was the case in the early '70s, when Paul Simon, James Taylor and Joni Mitchell were at the top of the charts, and it appears to have carried over into the Lilith Fair era, thanks to the likes of Lisa Loeb, Jewel and the Indigo Girls.Still, self-revelation doesn't have to be an unplugged event.

They started lining up at 5 a.m. Five hours later, when auditions began at Max's on Broadway, there were 300 "Rent" wannabes. The hopefuls ranged from teen-agers who'd never auditioned for anything to pros who'd tried out before and, undaunted, were at it again. Some had never seen the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical; others were "Rent"-aholics, who follow it from city to city.The casting call was for replacements in any of the four North American companies of "Rent" (one of which arrives at the Mechanic Theatre tomorrow)

Chris Armbruster was standing in line to buy Moody Blues tickets when he heard Bruce Springsteen was coming to town. Armbruster didn't know much of Springsteen's music, but he'd heard great things about Springsteen's live shows. On a whim, he bought a ticket and went to the concert, at the old Capital Centre. Springsteen pinballed from one side of the stage to the other, firing up the crowd and tearing through his tunes. "He was an unbelievable performer," Armbruster said. "Even if you didn't know the songs, you were on the edge of your seat."

When it comes to cover bands, Sid n Susie are a notch above the rest. The duo features Susanna Hoffs, singer and guitarist for The Bangles, as well as singer/songwriter Matthew Sweet. Together, they recorded an album of '60s songs called "Under the Covers Vol. 1" in 2006. This year, they followed it up with "Under the Covers Vol. 2," which features '70s covers. Sid n Susie will perform Sunday at the Birchmere in Alexandria, and Monday at Rams Head On Stage in Annapolis. Here, Hoffs talks about meeting Sweet and how they selected the songs for their two albums.

Stephen Lynch has always struggled to draw the line between music and stand-up. Lynch doesn't think he'd make it as a singer/songwriter. He's not a big fan of comedy, either. By bringing together a little of both, he struck a chord with audiences around the globe. "I didn't set out to become a comedian," he said. "I still don't think I have a real knack for it. I just happen to have found this really small window of opportunity that allows me to play music and use whatever skills I have at being funny."

Two years ago, it would have been much easier to name the 10 best unsigned Baltimore bands. That was before the word got out about Baltimore's boiling-over music scene. Since then, record labels such as Sub Pop, Thrill Jockey and Merge have swooped in and signed several of the city's best bands. But there are still groups that deserve some recognition. Here are 10 of the most promising Baltimore bands. J-Roddy Walston and the Business Nobody rocks quite like J-Roddy. It serves up blistering, old-time rock 'n' roll, complete with big riffs and big hair.

The past seems ever-present in Brad Paisley's music. One of country music's biggest stars, Paisley has filled his songs with sentimental snapshots from times gone by. His first single, "Who Needs Pictures," opens with Paisley singing about an old Kodak camera in his closet. That was more than 10 years (and 14 No. 1 singles) ago. Paisley's new album, "American Saturday Night," finds the 36-year-old West Virginia native sharing his childhood love of water sports and playing Pac-Man down at the arcade.

Big crowds don't scare singer/songwriter Ray LaMontagne. It's the little spaces that really unsettle him. For LaMontagne, performing live is such a painfully intimate process, he prefers to play larger venues where he is more removed from the crowd. "I don't like it when my audience is right on top of me," he said. "It's just too close. I need to have some distance from them. I need some space, that's all." LaMontagne will have all the space he needs when he performs with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra today at Strathmore and Friday at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

In the 1980s, the era of Pac Man, hair bands and Flashdance, seemingly anything synthetic and hyper-stylized ruled pop culture. If you were around then, you couldn't escape the sounds of Hall & Oates, the superduo of blond, clean-shaven Daryl Hall and raven-haired, mustached John Oates. The hits abounded: "Maneater," "Kiss on My List," "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)," "Private Eyes," "Out of Touch," "Method of Modern Love." Up and down the radio dial, black and mainstream stations spun their records regularly.

A week ago today, the street outside El Rancho Grande was cold and quiet. But inside the cozy one-room cafe, acoustic music from three remarkable singer/songwriters warmed the small crowd. Hot tea and coffee helped, too. When El Rancho Grande opened last year, it held shows on a sporadic basis. But in the past few months, the cafe has beefed up its live-music lineup and started to find its footing as an intimate venue for regional and local musicians. Last Thursday's show was a perfect example: Ellen Cherry, Rob Thorworth and David Glaser gave impressive, stripped-down performances over the course of a couple of hours.

Just below the resonant layers of pain and anguish, hope warmed the mighty voice of Odetta. No matter the song - a century-old spiritual, a lowdown blues number, a mournful folk tune - the Alabama legend used a palette of emotions when she sang. Though the shades were often dark, she still managed to transport and buoy the listener. The world of pop may have never made a place for her. But Odetta, with her regal bearing and natural hairstyle worn years before it became a politically driven fashion statement, was never a coy pop darling.

Hometown: Salisbury and Baltimore Members: Nick Haac, guitar; Jake Horner, bass; Autumn Haac, vocals; Michael Tull, drums Founded: 2008 Style : rock Influenced by: Coheed and Cambria, Say Anything, Every Time I Die Notable: The band's first album, a five-song EP called It's My Pleasure, comes out in about two weeks. Band members worked on the album for almost a year with members of the Baltimore-based alt-rock group Blind Rhetoric. Quotable: "It's got a story behind it," Nick Haac said.