ALIEN ANT FARM’S’ANTHOLOGY’ CERTIFIED GOLD

FROM: MAGGIE WANG/KRISTINE ASHTON

ALIEN ANT FARM’S
‘ANTHOLOGY’ CERTIFIED GOLD

“SMOOTH CRIMINAL”
A TOP 5 MODERN ROCK AND MTV “TRL” HIT;

ORIGINAL SONG FEATURED ON ‘AMERICAN PIE 2’ SOUNDTRACK

Continuing to climb up Billboard’s Top 200 album chart, ALIEN ANT FARM‘s debut ANThology (New Noize/DreamWorks Records) has achieved gold status just as the CD lands at #18 this week (selling over 60,000 copies), its highest position since the album’s release in early March. Adding to the band’s recent success is their Top 5 hit single “Smooth Criminal,” a hard rock interpretation of the Michael Jackson classic, which is bulleted at #4 on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart.

Meanwhile, the Marc Klasfeld-directed video has been a regular in the Top 10 of MTV’s “Total Request Live” and is also in rotation on VH1. “It’s just a fun, non-intimidating video,” said frontman DRYDEN MITCHELL in HITS (July 20, 2001). “‘Smooth Criminal’ was a heavy song to begin with, so we didn’t have to change it much. We added heavy guitars and it’s slightly faster, but for the most part we kept it the same. When it came down to the singing, Tye [bassist] and I thought it would be way cooler if we did it in falsetto rather than try and make it some heavy song…We heard through the grapevine that the man himself really digs it.”

“Smooth Criminal” follows ALIEN ANT FARM‘s Top 20 Modern Rock track “Movies” and has been cited as a standout track by critics. “Smooth Criminal” is described by the Los Angeles Times (March 11, 2001) as “dynamic and daring,” while Entertainment Weekly (3/30/01) comments: “As Michael Jackson prepares new material, Ant Farm reaps the fruits of his labor, adding crunching guitars to the original’s rollicking bass line and an aggro sneer to its chorus of woos.”

The song will also be featured prominently in the forthcoming American Pie 2 movie this summer. While “Smooth Criminal” only appears in the actual film, ALIEN ANT FARM have penned an original song “Good (For A Woman)” for the soundtrack.

Look for ALIEN ANT FARM—MITCHELL (vocals), TERRY CORSO (guitar), TYE ZAMORA (bass) and MIKE COSGROVE (drums)–to wrap up dates on the Warped Tour August 12 in Detroit, MI. Following a brief European trek immediately after, they have plans to play a string of dates with 311 in October before heading out on the road for their own headlining tour in the fall.

The current tour dates are as follows:

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