At the Start of the Sales Season, a Date Few Will Touch

Mariah Carey released her “Glitter” album last year on Sept. 11. How much that day’s terrorist attacks can be blamed for the album’s ultimate poor showing is up for debate, but it’s a good bet Carey won’t be releasing a new album in the week of Sept. 11 this year.

Nor will just about any major recording act.

In deference to what is certain to be a national and international focus on commemorating the anniversary of the tragedies, the pop music world is largely steering clear of scheduling major-act releases not only for that week, but the weeks before and after as well.

This is no small matter for the beleaguered music business. Labor Day weekend traditionally marks the start of the pre-Christmas season in which many superstar albums are released with great promotional fanfare. Last year, not only was Carey’s album in stores on Sept. 11, but so were new albums by Jay-Z, Bob Dylan, Nickelback, P.O.D. and the soundtrack to the movie “Training Day” (all of which had strong sales).

While release schedules are still fluid at this time, a new Kenny G album is the only top-rank release tentatively planned for Sept. 10, a Tuesday, the day of the week U.S. albums generally arrive in stores, while rapper Xzibit and country star LeAnn Rimes are the only high-profile ones currently scheduled for Sept. 17. Even very few lower-profile releases are set for those dates. Many records that had been there have been moved, including ones from the Foo Fighters (now set for Sept. 24), Toni Braxton (Oct. 8) and Third Eye Blind (sometime in October)--although the changes are being attributed to such factors as recording delays rather than proximity to the anniversary.

Although this means losing two key weeks of the season, Bob Bell, new-release buyer for the Wherehouse stores chain, says it’s right for both emotional and business reasons.

“It would be hard to get people excited about a pop record on a date that has that much significance,” he says. “And the media is going to be very much dominated by Sept. 11 at that point.”

That means that regardless of the appropriateness of promoting pop product at that time, it would simply be hard to get the message through to the public.

“We decided to tastefully bow out of the spotlight around that date,” says Joy Freuer, Capitol Records vice president of sales. “We were scheduling Coldplay and OK Go and Shivaree and said, ‘OK, we need to avoid the 9/10 street date.’ ... It came up spontaneously in a sales meeting, but we looked at each other and said, ‘Wow.’ And [distributor] EMI was completely understanding.”

Sensitivity to the dates is also apparent on other pop fronts. The MTV Video Music Awards, usually held in early September, have been moved to Aug. 29 (at New York’s Radio City Music Hall), with Sept. 11 concerns being the stated reason for the change. Concert promoters are also taking the anniversary into account. Brian Murphy, chief operating officer of Clear Channel Concerts, says that regional promoters in his company as well as artists’ managers have expressed concern about booking dates, especially in major cities, in the week of Sept. 11.

“Five or six [promoters] have gotten on the phone and said, ‘Does anyone think it’s a good idea to do anything on Sept. 11 other than stay at home?’ ” Murphy says. “And at the [KROQ] Weenie Roast last week, there were two managers who told me that their artists are coming back in September, but said they’d not only like to avoid Sept. 11, but avoid the days before and after. All of our focus will be another place in the days around Sept. 11.”

HIDDEN SHADOW: For the first video in connection with his new album, “The Private Press,” DJ Shadow has turned to Asia. The clip for the track “6 Days” was made in Hong Kong by Shanghai-born filmmaker Wong Kar-wai (who made 2000’s acclaimed “In the Mood for Love”) and features actor Chang Chen, co-star of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Shadow, who does not appear in the video, gave complete creative control to Wong, who turned in a piece said to feature sex and violence as well as stunning cinematography by Christopher Doyle, who also works with Gus Van Sant and Barry Levinson. Shadow’s manager, Richard Brown, says that getting the team to do the video was a coup. Wong had never done a music video, but Brown and Shadow made contact through a mutual associate.

“It turned out [Wong] already knew and liked Shadow’s music and was coincidentally in the middle of shooting his new film, ‘2046,’ ” Brown says. “He sent us an outline of an idea and told us who he wanted to cast, and three weeks later we were in Hong Kong shooting with him and his whole team. He works in a unique way--no script, no treatment. It’s all in his head and he invents it as he goes along. Nobody, including the actors, knows anything until they are about to shoot the scene. But he is so charismatic and enigmatic that you have complete confidence in him.”

The completed video is expected to be delivered this week.

WHO KNEW? Only the most devoted Who fans may know that there has never been a true stereo version of “My Generation” or any other song on the band’s first album. They were originally released in mono and then later in a “mock” stereo mix. That will change on Aug. 20 with the release of a deluxe edition of the collection, made from the three-track master tapes, which had been in the possession of their producer, Shel Talmy.

“We owned the music, he had the tapes,” says Andy McKaie, senior vice president of A&R; for Universal Music Enterprises. “For years there was discussion back and forth. We worked out a deal and I went into the studio with him.”

Not only did they create a true stereo mix, but they also discovered a previously unreleased song, “Instant Party Mixture,” as well as some overdub parts not used on the original album. Adding B-sides, alternate takes, mono versions of “My Generation” and “Legal Matter,” an instrumental of “My Generation” and a version of “Anytime You Want Me” featuring only Roger Daltrey’s vocals, the pair created a 24-song, two-CD edition.

The original was released in the U.S. as “The Who Sings My Generation,” but this will use the U.K. title, “My Generation.”

SMALL FACES: Fiona Apple, who hasn’t released new music since her 1999 album with the 90-word title generally abbreviated as “When the Pawn ... ,” is working on new songs, with plans to begin recording an album soon. Jon Brion, a musician and arranger on her 1996 debut “Tidal” and producer of the last album, will again be producing. No release date has been set.... Boston band American Hi-Fi is wrapping up “Beautiful Disaster,” the follow-up to last year’s debut. The album is tentatively due in late October, with the band set to appear on the Warped Tour in the summer.... With singer Josey Scott fronting the ad-hoc supergroup on “Hero” from the “Spider-Man” soundtrack, his group Saliva is in the studio working on its third album with producer Bob Marlette. Titled “Back Into Your System,” it’s due Sept. 17.

Steve Hochman is a regular contributor to Calendar.