Copyright 1999 Newsday, Inc.

NewsDay
August 5, 1999


LENGTH: 809 words
EDITION: ALL EDITIONS
SECTION: NightBeat
DATE:  08-05-1999
BYLINE:  By Billy Altman. Billy Altman is a freelance writer.

 

Lilith's Lone Mann / Rocker Aimee Mann beats the odds with an
appearance at the all-women's Lilith Fair and a new album



    AIMEE MANN REMEMBERS the precise moment when she began to fully
comprehend why the music business is called a "business." It 
was 1986 and Mann, then the lead singer and songwriter for the Boston-based
new-wave band 'Til Tuesday, was riding high on the success of the
group's hit debut album and Top 10 single "Voices Carry." The 
quartet had just completed work on a second album it was quite proud of - and
was dumbfounded by its record company's reaction to it.
    "We knew we'd made a much better album the second time 
out," recalled Mann, speaking by phone last week from a stop on this year's
Lilith Fair, which hits Jones Beach Friday night - and which she'll
follow with her own headlining appearance Saturday at Tramps. "We 
found out that nobody at the record company cared one bit if it was better. It
was like, 'Better? What does that mean? We can't sell it because it
doesn't sound like the first one.' " "Funny, we thought, isn't 
that what you're supposed to do at any job? Get better at what you do? If it
sounds different but it's better - that's a problem?" Mann laughed. 
"I mean, when I was growing up, I only bought records I thought were good.
If a record is good, people buy it, right?" Unfortunately, as 
anyone knows who's followed Mann's critically acclaimed but star-crossed
career, that isn't always so. In fact, in Mann's case, just getting
recordings released has often been a struggle. A solo artist since 'Til
Tuesday's late '80s breakup, the gifted singer-songwriter has suffered
through a maddening series of distribution foul-ups, label collapses and
contract disputes that came to their latest head in December, when her
third album got caught in the crossfire of the Universal/Polygram
merger.
    The album bounced from Geffen, for whom Mann had recorded it, to
Interscope, which sat on it until April before finally letting her know
it was passing on the work. After more than a decade of professional
headaches and heartaches, however, Mann was undaunted. She financed a
buy-back of the album, and, with the aid of a newly constructed Web site
(www.aimeemann.com), is gearing up to release and market the album
herself.
    "Doing this is helping me reconnect to my job as a performer 
and writer, because at least I'm in control of my own destiny now," she
said. "With these big corporations, you're always being evaluated 
and criticized by people that you may not respect. I don't have to deal with
that now. It's like leaving a bad relationship - and it's not like
there's another guy, either. It's knowing I'm better off alone and,
indeed, may well be much healthier on my own." Mann said she was
extremely pleased about being asked to perform at several stops on this
year's Lilith Fair, especially since she was part of a show several
years ago that served as its inspiration.
    "It was Patti Smith, Paula Cole, Lisa Loeb, me and Sarah
(McLachlan). It just ballooned from that because Sarah thought, why not
put everyone together for a whole tour? Why is it always no more than
one woman on a music bill?" The key to the event's success, Mann 
feels, is that the participants have never seen it as anything unusual. 
"Lilith Fair is not one big estrogen fest," she said. "And it's not 
like we're a bunch of juggling, fire-eating, unicycling midgets, either. That's not
what this is about. There's probably been a million tours with all men;
anyone ever say anything about that? It's really more of a way of
saying, "Look, can we just maybe start a new paragraph here?" 
    Consider it done, Aimee.


    LILITH FAIR: Aimee Mann appears with Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow,
the Pretenders, Sandra Bernhard, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Mya and others at
3:30 p.m.
    Friday at Jones Beach Theater. The show is sold out. Mann also
performs at 9 p.m. Saturday with Josh Rouse and Juliana Nash at Tramps,
51 W. 21st St., Manhattan. Call 212-727-7788.
    Billy Altman is a freelance writer.


ILLUSTRATION/PHOTO: 1) Cover Photo by Sam Jones - Aimee Mann is at Jones 
Beach Friday and at Tramp's in Manhattan Saturday 1) Photo by Sam Jones - Aimee Mann

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