No twang, but atypical good news for the cult of Ms. Mann... > Stand By Your Mann > > > Aimee Mann survives > label upheaval, gears up > for banner year > > Aimee Mann recently > received some good career > news: she still has a home > at the newly merged > Universal Music Group. > Mann had been signed to > Geffen, which was > drastically downsized > during the Universal's > $10.4 billion merger with > Polygram. And with more than two hundred acts > expected to be dropped in coming months from > labels such as Geffen, A&M, Mercury and others, > Mann, a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter who > does not typically top the sales charts, was just one > of many anxious artists wondering if they'd make > the cut. > > But according to the singer's manager Michael > Hausman, Mann has been told her next record, > tentatively titled Bachelor Number Two, will be > released by Universal's Interscope Records, > sometime this spring. "It was a little frustrating > because they didn't come right out and say, 'You > guys are in,'" says Hausman. "Finally they said, > 'Don't you get it? We only told people who are > dropped, not people who are staying with us.'" > > Mann, the former lead singer of the Eighties group > 'Til Tuesday, is particularly relieved since she's in > the final stages of completing her new record. If she > had been dropped, Mann might have had to buy > back the record from her label, which can cost > hundreds of thousands of dollars. Plus, Mann has > already gone through one label trauma in her > career. Her 1995 album, I'm With Stupid, was > recorded for Imago Records, but the company folded > before the record could be released. After much > legal wrangling Geffen finally issued the album. > > Helping Mann's case at Universal was the fact that > her A&R rep at Geffen, Jim Barber, was also picked > up by Interscope, which meant Mann had an > additional ally inside the company. Also, Mann is > working on the soundtrack to an upcoming movie > from box office champ Tom Cruise, which no doubt > interested Interscope. The film, Magnolia, is being > directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, who won acclaim > for 1997's Boogie Nights. According to Hausman, > the plan now is for approximately eight new Mann > songs to be featured in the drama/comedy, set in > the Valley outside Los Angeles. The movie will be > released either late this year or early in 2000. > > For Mann, who's also scheduled to hit the road this > summer with Lilith Fair, this potentially tumultuous > year is suddenly shaping up as one to remember. > Says Hausman, "Things are looking good." > > ERIC BOEHLERT > (March 5, 1999) >
