The 43rd Grammy Awards are fast approaching, and never failing to capitalize on the demand for easily consumable prepackaged music — “Beatles One” and the ever-present NOW compilations, for example — the music industry in the form of the Recording Academy has released “Grammy Nominees 2001.”With its seemingly all-encompassing title, the album is actually quite deceptive. It features the nominees for the four categories that the renowned Academy must have found to be the most relevant — “Record of the Year,” “Album of the Year,” “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance,” and “Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.”So, basically, the album could be called “Grammy Pop 2001.”Normally, this would be reason enough to write off the record as completely worthless. However, this year’s award compilation is actually fairly diverse.Great songs such as Beck’s “Sexx Laws,” Radiohead’s “Optimistic” and Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady” exist alongside throwaway hits including Christina Aguilera’s “What a Girl Wants,” Britney Spears’ “Oops! … I Did It Again” and the Backstreet Boys’ “Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely.” There are even random, lesser-known adult “hits” by Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan. The main problem with Grammy: the gathering includes some great songs, but the album is lacking in depth. Most of the tracks are well-known radio and MTV hits: Consumers who will be satisfied owning a snapshot of the music that barely scratched the surface of sound innovation should buy this album.Everyone else, go buy Beck’s “Midnite Vultures” and Radiohead’s “Kid A.” And while you’re at it, pick up a copy of At the Drive-In’s “Relationship of Command.” Even though it will never come close to being nominated for a Grammy, it should be.

No matter what your opinion of the Grammy Awards is, the idea of reviewing this album is to determine whether or not it is worthy for your collection and worth the money — and it pretty much is.”Grammy R&B/Rap Nominees 2001″ is exactly what the title suggests — 10 R&B tracks followed by seven rap tracks. The album is basically a best-of from 2000 and may be a great opportunity to pick up some tracks that you don’t own yet.The first award represented on the record is best female R&B vocal performance. Songs such as Aaliyah’s “Try Again,” Erykah Badu’s “Bag Lady” and Toni Braxton’s “He Wasn’t Man Enough” are the highlights. The other nominees for this category include Kelly Price and Jill Scott.D’Angelo’s “Untitled (How Does it Feel)” and R. Kelly’s “I Wish” stick out for the best male R&B vocal performance tracks. But Joe, Brian McKnight and Sisqo are also highlighted. Sisqo’s “Thong Song,” one of the most annoying and fastest fading songs from 2000, is by far the biggest downfall for this compilation.The rap tracks begin with Common’s super-catchy “The Light,” heading up the best rap solo performance category. Also in this group, which is probably the strongest of the whole Grammy show, is DMX’s “Party Up,” Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady,” Mystikal’s “Shake Ya Ass” and Nelly’s “Country Grammar.”For best rap performance by a duo or group, the Beastie Boys’ “Alive,” which is only available on their double-disc collection of hits, and Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg with “The Next Episode.”Another high point for “Grammy R&B/Rap Nominees 2001” is the fact that it is available in the unedited format, which means these rap songs can be heard how they were meant to be heard.Having these seven rap songs in a row could make any record worth buying. Throw in the who’s who of R&B, and you have a must-own compilation if you’re missing the majority of these tracks in your collection.

After listening to Tantric’s self-titled debut it may seem like the group sounds familiar. They sound similar to one band in particular — Days of the New — for a good reason. Tantric was formed by the three former members of Days of the New who were ousted by Travis Meeks in 1998.Tantric does have every right to sound like Days of the New. After all, they were three-fourths of the band. And with the addition of vocalist Hugo Ferreira, the band continues the style incorporated by Days of the New, but also adds a more gritty, heavy rock sound.”Live Your Life” and “Astounded” display the Celtic-inspired guitar that was always so evident in Days of the New. The tracks are very melodic, but at the same time have that dab of darkness that always made the band attractive to fans of heavier music as well.Fans of heavier music will find Tantric even more appealing than the band that spawned them, as they have made a record with slow, very melodic acoustic type songs woven with down and dirty rock songs with crunching riffs and plenty of attitude.Songs like “Frequency” and “Revillusion” are perfect examples of the band just turning up the amplifiers and cutting loose. There are few groups out there today playing straight up rock ‘n roll, and Tantric seems to have taken it upon themselves to change that trend.The band’s first single from the record, “Breakdown,” is probably the stand-out song on the album. It features both the melodic guitar and heavy guitar work, plus a chorus that hooks a listener to the gills. “I know the breakdown/ everything is going to shakedown someday/ I know the breakdown/ tell me again am I awake now maybe.”Ferreira’s vocals do tend to get a little annoying after a while, not because of his lyrical content, but because he sounds like so many other singers out there today, namely Scott Stapp from Creed. But Ferreira also delivers a very soulful approach that isn’t heard much today.When Travis Meeks decided that Matt Taul, Jesse Vest and Todd Whitener weren’t fitting into the mix for the second Days of the New album, you couldn’t help but feel sympathy for those guys. Two of them even grew up with Meeks. But Days of the New has faded out. And now, with Tantric, the three former members are showing that they aren’t just backing musicians anymore.

Without a doubt, Hairy Apes Butt Moving Experience (Hairy Apes BMX for short) deserves the “most interesting name in musical history” award. What can be considered even more interesting is their mix of musical style — a continuous groove that is equal parts freak rock, space pop and acid jazz funk. Being thrown into a category with the likes of Phish, OAR and Widespread Panic, Hairy Apes are an intense, infectious, free-form jam band.With the release of their second full-length album, “Out Demons,” Hairy Apes have come closer to capturing the spirit of their live performances. This is partially due to the help of former Pearl Jam drummer and Hairy Apes fan Dave Abbruzzese, now a band member and producer.”Out Demons” might be the perfect title for an album such as this. Hairy Apes send out such demons by taking the listener on a musical voyage, telling stories of ex-speed-queens, potato farmers, seeing-eye dogs, bad acid trips, long-lost friendships and dancing-naked addicts.A memorable sound shines throughout the album, with Hairy Apes’ occasional rush of Latin feel. On tracks such as “Cal Dreams” done entirely in Spanish, Hairy Apes show the extent of their culture by jamming out something beyond what most high school Spanish experience is capable of translating. In “Poison Water” and “Speed Queen” Hairy Apes show an ability to express their deep artistic thought through musical emotion rather than words.It’s a sound comparable to that of jam instrumentalists Medeski, Martin and Wood. Vibraphone and an array of percussion are brought into the mix by Mike Dillion (mallets and percussion), John Speice (drums) and Abbruzzese (even more drums). Hairy Apes BMX fill their sound with amazing energy and soul. Comparable to none, this band presents something appealing for any real music lover.