Hip-hop party

Let's get the party started at music stores today, with an area-spawned hip-hop sensation leading the way.

COLLEGIATE HUMOR: With 35 million (!!!) hits on MySpace to his credit, you better believe the party animals love Asher Roth's beer, bongs and babes anthem "I Love College."

Now fans are likely to find equal pleasure in the first long player by this Morrisville, Pa., native (and West Chester University drop-out). His contribution to the world of middle-class white-boy hip-hop is "Asleep in the Bread Aisle" (SchoolBoy/SRC/Universal, B+).

The biggest thing since Eminem? Yeah, Roth is already semi-sick of comparisons to that other pale face with a penchant for clever word play, as he shares in the reggae flavored (and tongue-in-cheek titled) "As I Em."

And truth is, there's hardly a note of gangsta in this dude, who sings almost as well as he raps. Roth even had to drag Beanie Sigel into the studio for a shout out to make listeners think seriously about his, ahem, struggles for artistry, voiced on "Perfectionist"

Roth is really closer in crossover, rocking groove spirit and high on life nature to a hipster like G Love. Yeah, this suburbanite started listening to Eminem when he was 7, Roth relates, but you can't help noticing all the "parents' record collection" influences he also flashes - illusions to Steve Miller and Lynyrd Skynyrd on the high-flying "Be By Myself" or name checking Earth, Wind & Fire and Springsteen (and layering on Brian Wilson-like vocals) on the autobiographical "Fallin'."

While semi-deriding himself as "a blond Bob Saget," Roth really piles on the raw comical imagery on tracks like "Lark on My Go Cart" and "Bad Day" - his saga of a gruesome journey to a wedding, underlined with wry answer vocals by Jazze Pha.

Roth plays a Wired 96.5 show Wednesday at World Cafe Live.

MORE PARTY ANTHEMS: In times of strife, get up and dance. That's the exhortation to "boys and girls all over the world" in "Yes" (Astralwerks, B), the 10th album by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, better known as the Pet Shop Boys. The bubbly dance pop tunes, Tennant's impressive, high-pitched vocals and Lowe's lush, synth-string arrangements evoke the duo's origins in clubland and kindred spirits the Bee Gees. So if you need a spark "Beautiful People," come start the "Pandemonium."

A guilty pleasure.

Veteran roadhouse rock twangster Commander Cody (George Frayne) is up for a good time (again) on "Dopers, Drunks and Everyday Losers" (Blind Pig, B). Put a grin on with ditties like "Wine Do Yer Stuff" and his immortal (or was that immoral?), "Seeds and Stems Again."

Even more rousing - and historically valid - is the brassy, sassy "How Big Can You Get" (Vanguard, B+) from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, an invigorating homage to the king of 1940s jump, jive and swing, Cab Calloway.

KEYBOARD KINGS: Legendary New Orleans pianist/producer/songwriter Allen Toussaint puts a sometimes jaunty, always sophisticated Louisiana polish on gems by Ellington, Monk and Bechet on "The Bright Mississippi" (Nonesuch, A-).

Booker T has traded in the MGs for Drive-By Truckers on "Potato Hole" (Anti, B), boasting light-'n'-breezy instrumental chuggers that sound familiar. Yeah, the man's always been a master of knicking little hooks from here and there, without being obvious.

FOLK NOTES? Veteran Canadian cowboy crooner Ian Tyson sounds shockingly different on "Yellowhead to Yellowstone and other Love Stories" (Stoney Plain, B-). He's all rough and gravely, half singing/half speaking, where once he was a clear mountain stream of a tenor. Tyson done himself personal damage trying to fight a poor concert sound system, but refuses to give up the fight.

Holding up much better is contemporary Jesse Winchester, a warm, congenial countrypolitan singer. Let Jesse fill your tank with genteel tastes of downhome country shuffles, '50s-style, swing-and-sway teen rock, folk gospel and more at the "Love Filling Station" (Appleseed, B+).

Simon & Garfunkel sound in perfect voice on their latest release. As well they should. It's an archive concert disc, "Live 1969" (Columbia, B+), at which they're introducing then-new songs like "Bridge Over Troubled Water." The album's best parts are the duo's opening and closing sets accompanied just by Simon's guitar. A band-outfitted midsection is shaky, probably why this didn't come out then.

JAZZ HAULS: Speaking of primo performances, you'll never hear Tony Bennett sound more at ease than he does working out with one of the most sublime jazz pianists on "The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings" (Fantasy, A). The new package compiles two noted, mid-1970s albums by the duo on one disc, with a full second CD of never-heard alternate takes.

Like Fantasy, the Prestige catalog is also under the Concord umbrella these days (bless you, Norman Lear) and getting renewed attention. A great place to start is the double disc "The Very Best of Prestige Records" (A) sampling the likes of Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Pat Martino, Dexter Gordon and many more. *