"The idea was to make this record sexy," says Curtis Brown, frontman for Brooklyn's Bad Wizard. "My favorite records are Prince records, absolutely." Wizard's second CD, Sophisticated Mouth, is closer to Deep Purple than Purple Rain; this Seventies-style stoner-rock band would sound at home on the Dazed and Confused soundtrack. The shtick can get out of hand, though. Guitarist Tina Gorin, Brown's girlfriend, recently quit. Maybe she was tired of seeing Brown's nonstop lewd onstage behavior. Don't expect him to tone it down. "You know," Brown says, "rock & roll has always been about sex."

DAVID SWANSON
(September 27, 2002)