Bass player for mayor

"Politics is not a good forum for the truth, where I have found fiction is a good forum," Friedman offers from his home on the range in Kerrville. "I had a hell of a time. I wasn't running as a joke. I wanted to do something on a local level, and most people perceived it as a joke. It's probably the best thing that ever happened to me losing that election. I mean, I can see why they didn't take me seriously, but the human race has a long record of not taking people seriously, dating back to Jesus."

Sound check
Soundtracks are becoming the K-Tel compilations of the '90s, with every single "hit" artist of the moment landing on at least one of the dozens of movie-music records to hit stores every week. It used to be a badge of honor to get included on a soundtrack record (remember Saturday Night Fever?); now, it's the Scarlet Letter. It's all Lisa Loeb's fault.

Tripping Daisy appears alongside the likes of Spacehog, Jewel, Juliana Hatfield, and Letters to Cleo on the just-released-this-week soundtrack to The Craft, performing Harry Nilsson's "Jump into the Fire"; Daisy frontman Tim DeLaughter also joins Matthew Sweet and former Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell as part of a "supergroup," All Too Much.

A month later, on May 21, the Toadies will pop up on the record accompanying Jim Carrey's The Cable Guy, as will Porno for Pyros, Cracker, and Silverchair, among others. The Toadies, who will also have a song on the Crow II soundtrack sometime this summer, have contributed "Unattractive"--which originally appeared on last year's Observer rare-track collection, Scene Heard--to The Cable Guy.

Scene, heard
Mess is recording an album's worth of all-new material at Big Noise studios in Garland which the band figures to deliver either through an indie label or on its own should anyone be damned fool enough not to release the thing...

Pantera's new album, The Great Southern Trendkill, will be released by Elektra Records on CD and cassette May 7, with a vinyl release to follow two weeks later. Can you feel the electricity in the air?

Street Beat welcomes e-mail tips and comments at robertwilonsky@dallasobserver.com.