Pop Music : Pop Eye : Aimee Mann’s Post-Interscope Future Blossoming

Aimee Mann has more critical acclaim than record sales, but now two albums featuring the singer-songwriter’s music have been stirring a buzz in the music business.

Her still-unreleased “Bachelor No. 2” was in the spotlight earlier this year when it was held up in the Universal Music Group restructuring that saw the label she was signed to, Geffen Records, absorbed by Interscope Records. The Interscope team asked her to do more work on the album, she refused, and after some negotiations she was allowed to become a free agent.

Now a second Mann-related album is floating around as well, and it ranks among the most coveted projects in the business: the soundtrack to director Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming film “Magnolia,” a story that was actually built around the seven Mann songs it features.

That album was also supposed to be released by Interscope, but the company decided recently to let it go. Now, according to sources close to the film (which will open Dec. 25), it appears headed to Warner Bros. Records and the label’s soundtracks vice president, Danny Bramson. He’s on a major hot streak that includes the multimillion-selling “City of Angels,” the still-hot “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” (an album he co-produced for Maverick Records with that company’s Guy Oseary) and the much discussed Stanley Kubrick swan song, “Eyes Wide Shut.”

“I know the album is going to be great and Paul is a genius, and it was the biggest disappointment of my career to not be able to do it,” says Karyn Rachtman, Interscope’s vice president of soundtracks, whose credits include influential hits with “Bulworth” and “Pulp Fiction,” as well as “Boogie Nights,” Anderson’s last film. “We had this record. But it was right during the merger, and people above me determined that we could not release it.”

Interscope officials declined to comment, but a source close to the project says the label felt it had too many soundtrack projects coming up--including the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle “End of Days,” a “Celebrity Deathmatch” album and the next Baz Luhrmann film. Deciding it couldn’t do justice to all of them, the company let Mann’s go.

As for her own album, Mann and her manager, Michael Hausman, are planning to release it through their own Superego Records, with deals for distribution currently in negotiation. In the meantime, though, they’ve printed 2,500 copies of a seven-song preview EP that Mann will sell at upcoming concerts and can also be ordered by mail. For information, e-mail MannInfo@aol.com.

“We’re talking to some major labels,” says Hausman of the full album’s release. “But having been through all that, there are some basics we need. We’ll retain ownership of the master tapes, so any deal would be for licensing. The best thing that’s come of this is that Aimee is excited about her career again.”

HELL ON WHEELS

Some people buy a car and worry about it getting repossessed. Here’s one where you might have to worry whether it’s been possessed. It’s Marilyn Manson’s first car, a red 1986 Pontiac Fiero that his parents gave him as a high school graduation present. And it can be yours.

The shock-rocker is auctioning it via his Web site (https://www.marilynmanson.com). It’s not exactly in mint condition--it’s got 218,000 miles on it, though it’s described as being in very good running order. Resale value is listed as $2,300, but bids have already topped $5,000. Bidding closes Friday at noon.

As a bonus, the winning bidder will receive a framed letter from Manson recounting his favorite experiences in the vehicle (do you really want to know?). And the car will be filled with T-shirts, posters, CDs and other Manson memorabilia.

One catch: The car is in Ohio, and the buyer will be responsible for getting it delivered. And tax, license and exorcism are not included.

OPEN DOORS

Long-sealed vaults have been opened by the surviving members of the Doors, and the result will probably be an ongoing series of more than 20 CD releases of complete concert recordings done by the L.A. band. Plans are being worked out for the releases to be made available via an Internet sales site, possibly starting in 2000, in a program similar to the Grateful Dead’s “Dick’s Picks” albums.

The reason it’s taken so long, Doors spokesman and historian Danny Sugerman says, is that Paul Rothchild, the band’s longtime producer, had through the years sworn that the only usable concert recordings had already been released. But after Rothschild died in 1995, the three band members discovered that there were complete recordings of more than 20 concerts of good quality. One, a 1969 New York concert, was issued as part of the band’s 1997 boxed set. (A new boxed set, “The Complete Studio Recordings,” will be released by Elektra Records on Nov. 9.)

“We’re listening to them with the possibility of starting an Internet-based record company to release them,” Sugerman says. “Fans have made it clear to us that they want live Doors material. We were bombarded with e-mail after the release of the boxed set. Having listened to all the concerts now, I can tell you I’m very excited. It’s like hidden treasure. I had no idea there was stuff this good.”

Meanwhile, Sugerman questioned some elements of last week’s Pop Eye item regarding the origins of the “Mr. Mojo Risin’ ” line from “L.A. Woman,” which has been adopted by the New York Mets as the team’s victory chant. Sugerman says that the surviving Doors remember the line having been on the original lyrics Jim Morrison brought to the first rehearsal of the song, with Morrison himself noting that the phrase was an anagram of his name.

For the record, Patricia Kennealy Morrison--who wed the singer in a 1970 pagan ceremony--says it’s quite possible that Morrison, who loved doing anagrams, knew that his name could be rearranged that way before she discovered it one day while visiting him in Los Angeles during the making of the “L.A. Woman” album.