Giuseppe Zangara

Man, I didn't ruin this for you guys, did I?

I'd read that about Hillcoat, too; if The Proposition was any indication, him filming The Road could be good, but, now that the source material is a Pulitzer Prize-winning "Oprah book," how long before Hillcoat's set aside and Spielberg comes in and ruins everything? EDIT: Hey, he did an interview in Vanity Fair just two years ago! That one slipped by me.

That's good that Rundgren doesn't feel compelled to just get by "playing the hits," though that would be the only reason I'd want to see him. That album he put out a couple of years ago was garbage.

I'm still a little stunned McCarthy will actually be on Oprah's show. While he's not at Pynchon-levels of publicity-shy, he's only done one print interview (which was 15 years ago) and no television interviews. Good for him, though, what with the deserved increase in book sales and the Pulitzer and all that. Here's hoping the Coen Brothers's take on his No Country for Old Men delivers.

Todd Rundgren is playing here in a few weeks. I'm this close to pulling a King Kamala Classic and going.

I had to google that, which, as potentially fun as this game can be, was all too tempting.

smitty, a scenario more likely than a Mexican standoff is some drunken, armed college student shooting at another one during an argument over a sports team/a girl/generally being a nuisance; or some lousy, intoxicated/high shithead mad at his professor over a bad grade, killing him and who knows who else. The booze/drugs factor is important here, as college students are usually one or the other. They don't need guns.

Curry is so hilariously oblivious.

I like those little throwaway moments on the White Album. Sure, a number of them don't stand outside of the album's context, but hey, that's why it's meant to be listened to from start to finish.

Only mildly related, but, given that I've been listening a lot to Miles Davis's fusion stuff again, allow me to lament the overall lack of good fusion. I like the Mahavishnu Orchestra (at least the first two albums with the original line-up; that's all I've checked out) and about half of Herbie Hancock's work from the early-to-mid-70s, but almost everything else I've heard is awful. Miles was the only great one in the field.

I don't approve of gary floyd's italicizing song titles. That should be reserved for albums, only. Songs are put in quotation marks!

I'm certain soulseek will be much more beneficial in finding this album than it was for that Tom Cochrane I was looking for. Here's hoping!

"Where's the Love," the follow-up single to "mmmBop," is good, too. I should download the album.

Have you and I discussed it? Because that covers my feelings on Steely Dan to a tee.

Fuck your good weather. We're getting slammed with a nor'easter right now; a palm tree near the entrance of my complex was blown over. Entirely uprooted!

Then knock yourself out! Vonnegut got really bad late in his life, though, albeit almost amusingly so.

That Radiodread version of "Airbag" was cute for the first minute or so. That, plus the two minutes that followed, is the sum of my exposure to the dub/reggae covers thing being discussed.

The Dirtbombs - Ultraglide in Black: Arguably the best band out of Detroit since the Stooges rips through a collection of 60s and 70s r&b and soul numbers, both well-known and obscure. An absolute blast of an album. Fuck what you think you know about modern day garage rock and check this out. Dump - That Skinny Motherfucker with the High Voice: Lo-fi, 4-track recordings of moderately known (in indie circles) James McNew (bassist for Yo La Tengo and sole member of Dump) spins his own versions of a random selection of Prince songs. A plus for McNew, he sings all the songs straight, which often gets at the heartache at the center of Prince's compositions, but without Prince's sneer. (Most notably on "When You Were Mine" and "Pop Life," both of which are borderline tragic tales in the hands of Dump, whereas Prince's originals were snide putdowns.) Bryan Ferry - These Foolish Things: The same year that his contemporary David Bowie released his dreadful covers collection, Pin-Ups, Ferry took advantage of a bit of downtime in Roxy Music's schedule to record and release an album's worth songs he, too, loved growing up. Whereas Bowie was interested in merely imitating his idols, Ferry threw his inhibitions out the window and went as gloriously over the top whenever he could. "Sympathy for the Devil" turns into a big and brassy Vegas revue showcase; "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" features proto-disco beats and unapologetically cheesey female backing vocals. Ferry goes all out here, taking on Leslie Gore's "It's My Party"—with narrative gender unchanged—completely straight, somehow transcending its novelty roots.

The one I'm talking about was the only real nutty one, fortunately. She was fairly normal while we dated, too (if a little moody); in fact, she was fine for about a month after she broke up with me. It got bad after I turned her down when she said she wanted to get back together.

Silverchair!

I think Songs in the Key of Life may be working its way into my all-time top 10. This is big news, guys.

Most music is derivative, though, so I really wouldn't harp on that.

I Would disagree with this. While I'm not that fond of the Jackson 5, and would never call them a classic group, I find them to be perfectly acceptable motown fare, while Hanson is just awful. They remind me of music you'd hear on a Veggietales soundtrack, if such a thing exists. I think you're really reaching with this comparison. Bullshit. The vocal harmonies on "mmmBop"—particularly the chorus—are heavily indebted to the Jackson 5. How different is this song from, say, "ABC?"

I wasn't saying Prince wasn't great.

Aside from viewing some concert footage from Roxy Music's 2001 reunion, I haven't given any attention to Ferry's work post-1985.