Daily Staff Writer

Private Parts Soundtrack

Various Artists

The soundtrack for Howard Stern’s new movie, Private Parts, is an eclectic mixture of both old and new music interspersed with sound bites from the movie. The disc is offered with four variant covers depicting Stern standing in different places and includes plenty of pictures of naked blonde women.

The sound bites included on the soundtrack, which deal with such topics as black penises, vaginas, gay men having oral sex and swallowing, bowel movements and sex, are all rather lame. There had to be better lines of dialogue from the movie that they could have included.

Fortunately, the music more than makes up for the movie excerpts. Rob Zombie teams up with Stern to deliver “The Great American Nightmare.” This song is a mixture of disco, industrial and metal that combines synthesized fuzzy vocals with a backing band which sounds almost like White Zombie.

“I Make My Own Rules” is an infectious song with a swinging beat and smooth lyrics. The song pairs LL Cool J with Flea, David Navarro and Chad Smith (three of whom are from the defunct Red Hot Chili Peppers).

Porno For Pyros’ members Perry Farrell and Stephen Perkins join Navarro and Flea to deliver “Hard Charger.” This combination is strange because Navarro swore never to work with Farrell again after the break-up of Jane’s Addiction.

Marilyn Manson delivers a sonic assault called “The Suck For Your Solution.” The Dust Brothers team with Stern on “Tortured Man,” a tepid song which features crappy Stern vocals layered over guitar and bass riffs which are far from great or catchy.

The best new songs on the disc happen to be cover versions of older material. Ozzy Osbourne teams up with Type O Negative on Status Quo’s classic psychedelic tune, “Pictures Of Matchstick Men,” while Green Day tackles the Kink’s immortal “Tired Of Waiting For You.”

The former is much more sinister than the lighthearted original. Type O Negative provides great music, but Osbourne’s singing leaves something to be desired (mainly Type O Negative vocalist Peter Steele).

The best material is the collection of older songs that are included such as AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” (which is a different live version than what is included on their album Live).

Ultimately, Private Parts serves up some really decent music and some really crappy sound bites. It is pointless to buy the soundtrack for anything other than the music, and the new material is enough to balance the overload of material that is available everywhere.

4 stars

— Ben Jones

Billy’s Not Bitter

Bill White Acre

When you think of one-man guitar bands, names like Chris Isaak and Matthew Sweet probably pop into your mind. But the solo guitar thing isn’t all about acoustic folk or pop, and Bill White Acre does a perfect job proving it.

Much like the album, Acre gives influence credit to (Beck’s Mellow Gold, The Beatle’s Sgt. Pepper’s and PJ Harvey’s Rid Of Me), Billy’s Not Bitter has a complete life of its own.

Beautiful ballads such as “Boy” and “Come Clean” strike raw emotions with a combination of six-string acoustics and clever lyrics, while the punk-driven “Say U Will” pounds an angst theme into a song that could have fit perfectly onto Sugar’s File Under Easy Listening.

The fun-filled “Meltdown” takes the listener on a radio-friendly journey to a world where Live meets Tripping Daisy. Lyrics like “mom’s on valium, dad’s on speed” add an even stranger twist to the tune.

“Counting” captures the same kind of Wallflowers style that seems to be dominating MTV lately, but adds a much catchier chorus to the flow. “All 4 Love” (no, it’s not a Colour Me Badd cover) captures a similar feel.

As a whole, Billy’s Not Bitter successfully mixes jagged-edged rock, classic pop and unplugged grunge into quite possibly one of the best albums of the year. Not since last year’s Gus has any one man captured so many different styles and moods on one record.

Perhaps some of the credit can be given to Acre’s recording band, which features Beck bassist Justin Meldal-Johnson.

4 1/2 stars

— Corey Moss

Feeding the Future

Dogma

Dogma’s latest release, Feeding the Future, comes as an unexpected surprise. It mixes the signature sounds of Helmet and Tool, which create a lush soundscape of industrial fuzz and heavy metal thunder.

Unfortunately, it becomes somewhat monotonous because the music is all based on the same guitar riffs and drum beats.

Songs such as “Cancer,” “Anyone At All” and “Seven Miles Per Second” feature heavy tempos which border between lukewarm and boiling. “We Talked For Hours” and “He Knows” are also great songs with thunderous melodies, though they don’t sound much different than anything else on the disc.

The only new thing presented is the stark innovative lyrics, which are contrasted by the group’s borrowed sound. Phrases such as “I am suicidal/I am always wrong/I am juvenile/Everything takes too long” (from “Anyone At All”) and “I should have learned/I should have known/I should have walked this road alone” (from “Cancer”) are vivid and picturesque.

Don’t get me wrong, Dogma definitely has talent. It’s just unfortunate that they borrow the same melodies that have nearly become clich‚s in this decade.

If Dogma would simply attempt something innovative, they could be a great band.

2 1/2 Stars

— Ben Jones

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All ratings are based on a scale of zero to five stars, with five being Chevy Chase in Fletch and zero being Chase in Vegas Vacation.