Edwin MacPhisto

I still think it's going to bomb, but I'm also tremendously excited to see it.

That's because it's not a very good book. You're not missing much; Stoker had good ideas but he was a hack novelist.

Well, I'd argue very few ska bands have ever made good music, for one. But swing metal? That's pretty low down on the "retarded musical genres" list.

Major innovations probably should have the potential to actually produce good music.

Return to the 36 Chambers pretty much ensures ODB a spot on here.

This bistro nearby has a beer sampler--$4.50 for four 5-ounce beers off their draft list, which is always composed of insanely expensive imports and great microbrews. Last night I had a Victory Hop cask ale (best room temperature beer I've had outside of England), a smooth pilsner, and both a light and dark Belgian beer that each normally go for $7 a pint. Great deal.

I wasn't referring to you, but if you keep thinking the best person for the job is, as Jobber said, this guy, I might have to start.

Inexpensive roadster probably has a good market. I want an Acura RSX myself and will probably make one mine after the Jetta finally breathes its last. Wish it was still called an Integra, though.

This dude's dumb.

I don't think that will ever happen. They've definitely slipped a lot, though. When I saw them live in 2001 they were my favorite band and now they're just token, largely. I'm always going to like the first half of The Joshua Tree. And what really keeps me from believing I'll ever not like them entirely is War, which is just sharp and good and I could probably pass off as post-punk if I was feeling hipster enough.

"City of Blinding Lights" and "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own." Every song on Achtung Baby is better than both of them, but you take what you can get in the twilight years.

It's not a small bit of time--it's for-fucking ever. If you're willing to leave your computer on transferring songs overnight, you'll be fine. It'll be much easier just to drop $20 on a USB 2.0 card and hook that up. Just search "USB 2.0" at Amazon.com and you'll find a whole slow of perfectly acceptable and easily installed little bits.

Someone pick Duke.

I still like U2 a whole lot, but you're right. Pop is way better than either of the two albums that followed it and a lot of the rest of the catalog too. Especially the last three tracks. I thought the newest album was good on first listen, but that was nostalgia talking. It's actually pretty awful. Two fine songs, the rest is utterly forgettable.

Okay. Still not close, but at least we've got something.

Top 10 what artist, then?

I'm a glutton for punishment. I'll stop now, Dad.

Who cares if the RZA decides he doesn't like his old production style? The artist's opinion doesn't invalidate his earlier work. It's still great, regardless of what he now thinks. By 1970, Lennon was bored with A Hard Day's Night. By the time Picasso was older, he thought a lot of his early cubist work was elementary and trash. It doesn't change the fact that "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" is a striking-ass painting.

Oh, it's apathy then. I was wondering why you had so little respect for actual hard work or for the amount of creative energy put into music. Even if it's only an facsimile of an older song, the layers of which took the creator hours uponhours to create - you don't care. Wanna talk about Prince some more? "When Doves Cry" was written, recorded, and completed in a morning. Does that make it less of a song? And the entirety of The Velvet Underground & Nico was recorded in two days. Sure, they already had most of the songs the songs written, but that's a phenomenally short period of production and performance for an incredible album. As several people have pointed out, the same arguments you're making about time and process can be applied to all manner of music. They don't detract there; why do they detract from rap? And Chevy's post says a lot of stuff I was going to bring up, but does so much more clearly than I would have. Good show.

From what I've heard of the Foo Fighters, their first album is definitely the best. Most of what came after that is pretty generic rock, largely mired in an uninteresting take on the mid-90s alternative sound. I like the songs I've heard off the first because they seem to be little pop ditties that aren't much more than Dave Grohl playing around and doing pretty well at it. I do like "Everlong," though.

Incorrect, but carry on anyway. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yeah, I know. Just playin', boyo.

Yeah, but you don't like anyone but Brian Wilson and the Doors. As for Lovesexy: I dunno. "Alphabet Street" is awesome. I also really dig "Anna Stesia" and "Positivity." The high points are really high but like Around the World in a Day I remember the surrounding materials coming off kinda flat. I haven't listened to it in a while, so maybe I'll make that a project for today. I would probably put it somewhere in the middle, maybe second tier--below Sign O' the Times, Dirty Mind, Purple Rain, and 1999, Parade, floating around Around the World in a Day, Controversy, and Diamonds and Pearls (which, despite a load of lousy New Jack Swing type stuff, has about half superb songs).

"Free" is the only song on 1999 I don't really like. And it's actually okay, but it totally doesn't fit on the album right, with all the long dancey jams. I'd probably like it better if it were slotted somewhere on Around the World in a Day or Parade. It came up on shuffle the other day and was pretty decent.

You can have that most recent post if you want. The use of "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" as an example of a great Prince song has kinda turned me off responding any further. Fuck, it's a good song, but every single song off the Four Big Albums except "Free" is better. Except for this: I don't fucking care what it is or where it comes from. The track as mixed suits the lyrics and flow perfectly. The knowledge of a good hook and how to use it you deride is as much musicianship as "engineering a synth from a flat waveform" or whatever other technical stuff you want to spout. The method is rarely what matters. The product is. And when it's as good as the first big hits of g-funk, it's great. If you still want to complain about that, direct your attention to a few of the people snuffbox mentions. And come on: are you really going to tell me that the tracks Organized Noise, Andre, and Big Boi whipped up for Outkast's "Spottieottiedopalicious," "Skew It On The Bar-B," and "Ms. Jackson" are worthless?