Word: howlett
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...band the Prodigy played Irving Plaza in New York City this month, something extraordinary happened. Yes, the performance had punk-rock vigor; Keith Flint, the singer-dancer with the shock-rock hairdo, made Halloween faces at the crowd, emcee Maxim did some barechested stage strutting, and band mastermind Liam Howlett coolly orchestrated the show from behind his banks of keyboards. But from the first note, the sweaty, expectant crowd, which had seen the band pushed on MTV for months, began to dance. There's no dancing at alternative-rock shows--people merely mosh, which is as close to dancing...
...most ambitious track, Climbatize, has an orchestral span but maintains a rock immediacy. While only a few other tracks on the album (Breathe and Mindfields) stand out, the CD is consistently dynamic. The only real misstep is the first track, the punchy but unfortunately titled Smack My Bitch Up. Howlett says the title isn't literal; let's hope this isn't a trend, given the success of singer Meredith Brooks' song Bitch...
...Howlett, the founder and creative core of the band, and a native of Chelmsford, England, says he received his earliest inspiration from American hip-hop acts like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. He subsequently submerged himself in Britain's burgeoning hip-hop-influenced, Ecstasy-popping rave culture. In 1989 he formed a band with Flint, Keith Palmer (Maxim) and Leeroy Thornhill, who became the group's featured dancer. Their early CDs featured soft techno-dance tunes. They were hits in England, but they sold poorly in the U.S., and the Prodigy's first record label, Elektra, let the band...
Which is exactly what the band members say they don't want to be. "It's not us," says Howlett. "Techno is maybe some stuff that comes out of Germany. Being called techno basically limits my music. We're definitely not techno. We're a hard-dance act that incorporates certain elements of music we like. This whole electronica scene to me is just f______ crap. We don't need that to come across here...
Companies face other suits for negligence in hiring, retaining and promoting violent workers. "The defense that employers used to have, that a violent employee acted out of the scope of his responsibilities, has been eroded," observes Karen Kienbaum of Varnum, Riddering, Schmidt and Howlett, a Michigan law firm. When an off-duty store manager chased a child who had urinated on the side of the building and attacked his four-year-old companion, the parents sued the company and won. "The jury said, 'Forget it. The man had a history of violence, and you made him store manager. Then...