By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net

BOOKSALE rats may have found this already (and you must know it’s rare for magazines there to actually include promo CDs). The Spin Magazine July 2007 ish comes with a Smashing Pumpkins tribute CD courtesy of Myspace. Contemporary emo/alternative bands pay homage to some of Billy Corgan’s hit songs — The New Amsterdams, The Bravery, Panic! At The Disco, Ben Kweller, etc.

It does have some gems in it — Panic! plays quite a gut-wrenching cover of “Tonight, Tonight” and an R&B-ish take on “1979.”

As a long-time SP fan, hearing the songs harks me back to my college dorm days, when everyone was head-banging to grunge staples Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains while I was commiserating with Billy’s endless whining.

Steal this magazine for P130. If you’re not satisfied with the CD, then you at least get to read about Amy Winehouse. Her music (think 60s soul-jazz… Supremes!) is worth checking out, if you haven’t heard her yet.

BURN, the music magazine of INQUIRER.net’s sister company, Hinge Inquirer Publications, interviewed Maroon 5 for its July-August issue, now out in newsstands.

Here’s an excerpt from the Maroon 5 interview:

Not red, but maroon, of course. The talented quartet with the sizzling hot vocalist have tasted the oh-so-sweet taste of success and have poured most of that sweetness into their sophomore effort. With an upbeat, very danceable single, seems like Grammy Award winners Maroon 5 will be tasting even sweeter success the second time around.

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