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The Grid
The week's releases
Metro staff reviews the latest CDs, DVDs and books for your reading pleasure.
 
The Word
Stern: I’d do ‘Idol’ for $100M
Howard Stern took to his radio show yesterday to address the rumors that he’s a possible replacement for Simon Cowell for the next season of “American Idol.” To sum it up? He’s not going for it.
 
New York Arts
Dancing while the skinny lady sings
You’ve heard of the jukebox musical? David Parsons and singers AnnMarie Milazzo and Tyley Ross of the East Village Opera Co. offer a jukebox opera, playing nightly at the Joyce. Eleven Parsons dancers share the stage with Milazzo and Ross, who clutch microphones cranked to 11 and stroll through the action. On the recorded soundtrack, three drummers create a wall of sound so loud you — well, I — want to hide under the seat. Digital video of abstract patterns, natural landscapes and stunning architecture change for each song.
 
My Books
The facets of Anne Frank and her diary
Generations of schoolchildren have read and recognized their own experiences in the words of Anne Frank, finding surprising commonalities with this young girl despite the passage of generations and the unique horror of  her situation. But according to Francine Prose’s fascinating new account of the writing of Frank’s diary, our veneration of her outpourings has eclipsed a proper assessment of Anne Frank — conscientious author.

 
Movies
Channing Tatum on love and war
Channing Tatum has worked in his fair share of genres, from indie films (“A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints”) to dance flicks (“Step Up”) to blockbusters (“G.I. Joe”). In his latest, “Dear John,” the Alabama native takes on a heavy Nicholas Sparks love story about a soldier in love while at war. He talks with us about true love and blowing stuff up.
 
Published 18:18, April the 29th, 2009
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Singing the good 'Fight'

ENTERTAINMENT. For a genre with a sometimes unfair reputation as disposable and inconsequential, there are certainly a lot of bands who have managed to build a long career out of pop punk. Now in their twelfth year, Florida's New Found Glory continue to build on their legacy with the recent release of their sixth studio album "Not Without a Fight."

All the touches you might expect are here: snotty vocals, spiky power chord punches, sticky sweet harmonies, gang choruses and stop and start dynamics. The subject matter remains largely familiar as well, with the band hurling wounded missives about lost love and the stresses of life on the road tempered regularly by a cheeky sense of humor.

Notably, there's also a bit more aggression in the music than some of their poppier efforts in recent years, in particular the tongue in cheek albums like "From the Screen to Your Stereo Part II" where they covered sappy soundtrack hits from the likes of Sixpence None the Richer and Lisa Loeb. That aggression and sense of humor show up in the video for the first single from the album "Listen to Your Friends." In it the band take on the role of mixed martial artists squaring off against one another. The fighting angle is appropriate, given their up and down experience with major labels and the usual pitfalls of a decade plus on the road, says drummer Cyrus Bolooki.

"At times you do have to fight for what you believe in, especially for us with our music and politics and everything that happens in this industry. With this record it's like a new coming of New Found Glory. We're on a new label, new management. Things have sort of started over for us. We just want to make sure kids know we're still here and we're not going away."

Fortunately they haven't had to actually try out any of those moves on each other for real. "We've been in this long enough, and we're all united in the same purpose. No matter how mad we get at each other, put us up on stage after that and we're back to the way we were."

That brotherly cohesion explains their long, successful run.

"There's definitely something about the connection between us. A lot of bands have member changes, but for us it's been all the same guys. Any time we can look back and remember what it was like in 1997 in a van trying to make it 400 miles away from home let alone 4.000 ... the fact that we can all look back and know how far we've come, and how amazing it is that we're still here, I think that really keeps us together."

New Found Glory
with Bayside, Set Your Goals, and Fireworks
Friday, 6 p.m.
House of Blues
15 Lansdowne St., Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Kenmore
$19, 18+, 617-931-2000
www.hob.com


Selene Angier