TRUST US: One of the most common...

TRUST US: One of the most common questions posed to pop music industry insiders is, “How do you find out about new music?”

One good answer: “The Trouser Press Record Guide.” With radio programmers more conservative than ever and with “120 Minutes” the only MTV outlet for real alternative bands (not counting Nirvana), the encyclopedic book’s value to the musically adventurous is incalculable.

The guide, an outgrowth of the now-defunct Trouser Press magazine, has just published its fourth edition (the first came out in 1983), with entries for more than 2,500 acts covering more than 9,500 albums. With each edition, editor Ira A. Robbins and his staff of critics have broadened the guide’s territory, and this is the most comprehensive yet, with expanded explorations into hip-hop, African, reggae and speed-metal realms complementing the ‘70s, ‘80s and now ‘90s punk, new wave and college-radio acts that are the Trouser Press staples.

What’s more, the critiques are as eloquent and authoritative as they are comprehensive. And they’re also very opinionated.

For example: Robbins’ entry on Jane’s Addiction begins by calling the group “obnoxious Los Angeles glam-punk poseurs,” goes on to say that Perry Farrell “sings in an aggressive womanly warble” and describes the band’s alternative hit “Been Caught Stealing” as “the pathetic bleat of a spoiled rich (expletive) that inexplicably begins with barking dogs.”

Get the picture?