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Rock News: Music's high and low notes

By PENNY NELSON BARTHOLOMEW, United Press International
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POLLS, WE GOT POLLS

America's pop music critics are seriously at odds with the Recording Academy on the question of the best album of 2001, judging by the Village Voice critics poll that landed Bob Dylan's "Love and Theft" on the top of the heap.

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Dylan's set was an easy winner with 3,005 points in the polling system. "Is This It" by the Strokes was a distant second with 1,613 points.

But apart from Dylan, none of the five nominees for the album of the year Grammy finished in the critics' poll top 10. The rest of the critics' top 10 are "Vespertine" (Björk); "White Blood Cells" (White Stripes); "Amnesiac" (Radiohead); "Gold" (Ryan Adams); "The Blueprint" (Jay-Z); "Party Music" (The Coup); "Essence" (Lucinda Williams); and "Poses" (Rufus Wainwright).

The other four Grammy nominees for album of the year are "Acoustic Soul" (India.Arie); "Stankonia" (OutKast); "All That You Can't Leave Behind" (U2); "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (Soundtrack, various artists).

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Williams is a Grammy nominee for female pop vocal performance for "Essence" and for female rock vocal performance for "Get Right with God." Adams is up for rock album for "Gold" and male rock vocal performance for "New York, New York." "Vespertine" and "Amnesiac" are up for the Grammy for alternative music album of the year. "The Blueprint" is nominated for best rap album and Jay-Z is up for best rap solo performance for "Izzo (H.O.V.A)" and rap performance by a duo or group for "Change the Game," featuring Beanie Sigel & Memphis Bleek. "Love and Theft" is also up for best contemporary folk album and Dylan is up for best male rock vocal performance for "Honest with Me."

(Thanks to UPI Hollywood Reporter Pat Nason)


JANE'S ADDICTION

Members of Jane's Addiction about about to start work on their first album in more than 10 years.

The band, fronted by Perry Farrell, reunited last year to headline the Coachella Festival, and then performed a string of dates across North America. Now, new bassist Martyn LeNoble tells Rolling Stone magazine the band wants to continue playing live although not "the same repertoire."

"We love playing together, and we play great shows but if we're ever going to do that again we know that we need some new material. I don't think we want to stop playing, but we do want to stop playing the same repertoire," he said.

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The band's last studio album, "Ritual de lo Habitual," was released in 1990.


OASIS'S NOEL GALLAGHER

Noel Gallagher of Oasis says music now is the best it's been in years. "If I were a kid right now, I'd be so excited," he told NME.com.

The Oasis guitarist said the albums he has heard in the last few months are better than "anything that's been out in the last six years." He cited Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's self-titled debut CD and the Strokes' "Is This It" as among his favorites.

Gallagher said Oasis's upcoming new album is "not a massive departure. It's still Oasis; we're still a rock 'n' roll band. But I reckon if we were a new band and this was our first album, people would be pretty blown away."

No title or release date for the new Oasis recording has been announced.


NICK CARTER

Backstreet Boys fans can hear where Nick Carter got his start on "Nick Carter: Before The 'Boys' 1989-1993." The CD -- due in stores March 26 -- features Carter's first professional recordings, made in the Orlando, Fla., studio of Carter's producer and vocal coach Mark Dye. The 14 tracks include two songs written especially for Carter by Dye.

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Carter was barely a teenager when he joined Kevin Richardson, Brian Littrell, A.J. McLean and Howie Dorough in the Backstreet Boys. The group became a hit in Europe in 1995 and three years later in the United States.


COURTNEY LOVE

Singer-turned-actress Courtney Love reveals she has had second thought about her marriage to the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.

In an interview with actress Carrie Fisher on her Oxygen cable TV show "Conversations From The Edge with Carrie Fisher," Love said that raising their now nine-year-old daughter, Francis Bean Cobain, she recognizes the intense scrutiny that children of rock stars must live under.

"I wish that I hadn't married him (Kurt)," said Love, speaking about their daughter. "It is cool having the last name, but once I was sitting talking to Lisa Marie Presley and thought 'This is going to suck.'"

Love also discusses rumors of a relationship with actor Russell Crowe. "There are two trillion women who want to sleep with him and I don't," she said. "I just want to have a hug."

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The show with Love's interview airs March 3 (at 7 p.m. EST).

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