Right about now, Aimee Mann is freaking out. "I always completely lose my mind before I go on tour," she says. It's hard to imagine Mann being frantic about anything. The honey-voiced singer-songwriter, who launched her career in Boston with 'Til Tuesday, achieved fame with her work on the Magnolia soundtrack, and is touring now to promote her latest solo album, @#%&*! Smilers (SuperEgo), sings slow and steady. On this latest effort, recorded largely live in the studio, she seems unruffled as ever by relationship woes, the sad tug of the open road, and the impossibility of quotidian life.
Take "31 Today," her straightforward take on growing older (the singer herself is 48): "I thought my life would be different somehow/I thought my life would be better by now/but it's not," she says, matter-of-factly. It's a sentiment that could be milked for its angst, but Mann treats it as many of us would: with resignation, bemusement, and even some appreciation of shared misery. It's one of her favorite songs on the album, which she describes as capturing some of "that great magic that musicians can have when they're all together and looking at each other." That magic will be on display at Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield on July 19, when she combines, as she did on the record, acoustic guitar with the "unacoustic synthesizer sounds" of two keyboardists. (The sonic aesthetic of this album was inspired by early Cars records, among other things, she says.)
If you attend the show on the 19th, come prepared to hear new songs as well as old favorites. Mann is planning, on this tour, to take a lot of audience requests — she's gone as far as to print lyrics for most of her 90-song repertoire. And it's required a lot of personal review: "Almost always I don't remember how to play them — sometimes I don't even remember having written them."
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Yule appeal, History bites, Artistic vision, More 
- Yule appeal
Aimee Mann has written many songs about heroin addiction so it’s pretty remarkable — even comic — that she launched a Christmas variety show last year.
- History bites
Just a few months after the close of its upstairs neighbor, the Roma Cafe, the Bramhall Pub, long an institution in the West End, shut its doors two weeks ago. And while there's talk it may reopen after renovations, one thing is for sure: The 11-plus-year run of Jerks of Grass shows on Thursday nights, the longest-standing weekly gig in Portland, has come to an end.
- Artistic vision
The vision is grand and ambitious, both in the big picture and in the details.
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The Woolly Fair, the annual art bash at Monohasset Mill, has quite the reputation.
- Candy for your sins
Confessionals aren't just for holy rollers anymore. They are for everyman, according to Melissa Joy, creator of the Truth Booth — a wandering tent designed to collect secrets.
- Motley crews
The history of Boston rock and roll begins with these immortal words: “Ding! Dong! Ding ding dong! Ka-ding dong, ding dong ding!”
- Libby Johnson
Earlier this year, this New York–based folkie had a handful of her songs featured in the Julianne Moore flick Trust the Man .
- Going on sale: October 27, 2006
Reverend Horton Heat, Aimee Mann, We Are Scientists, and more.
- Cheap cheer
Why bother caroling when you can spike your eggnog and sing karaoke? Heck, why venture into the windy streets when you can snuggle next to the radiator with a six-pack of cheep beer?
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Canadian singer Feist’s third solo album is a soundtrack for watching your lover walk out the door.
- Small-town gold
Like most 17-year-olds, Sonya Kitchell is struggling to figure out who she is.
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This Just In
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