Also this issue:

Burn, Viacom, Burn
When the music biz destroys itself, Chuck D will get to say “I told you so.”
-Chris Parker

No Looking Back
After coming to terms with their past, Wire go back to the future.
-Sam Adams

David Alvarado
-A.D. Amorosi

Sparta
-Andrew Parks

Exile Follies
-Chris Parker

Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone
-Sam Adams

Rudy Adrian
-A.D. Amorosi

The Gig
-Nate Chinen on Jazz

September 19-25, 2002

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Gene

At this point, Gene have been around longer than The Smiths, and released more albums as well, so it might be time to lay those comparisons to rest. Sure, singer Martin Rossiter employs his share of quavery theatrics, and guitarist Steve Mason knows his way around a Marr-tial riff. But Rossiter's less a sardonic schoolboy than a full-on romantic, a tendency that's increasingly held sway over the band's output. Libertine (Contra/iMusic) occasionally succumbs to self-importance -- the string coda on "Does He Have a Name?" stretches on for two and a half interminable minutes -- but then it's not easy being a sensitive boy in today's world. Libertine arrives on these shores many months after its European release, and the band's last album, Revelations, never made it here at all. When everything clicks, as on the classic "Fighting Fit" or the new album's "Yours for the Taking," Gene knows how to sell the drama, and giving in is the easiest thing in the world.

Fri., Sept. 20, 9 p.m., $12-$14, with Mathew, The North Star, 27th and Poplar sts., 215-922-LIVE, www.northstarbar.com.

—Sam Adams