The Man in Blak

We're talking about the Score here, remember? I haven't found a single mention of this story anywhere. It's not even the top story on their own website. Is there any other source or report out there that corroborates this?

I finally got around to this one, but I wasn't exactly blown away. I liked "Lovecraft in Brooklyn" and the driving pizzicato (what?) on "San Bernadino", but I'm not a fan of the vocals and the rest of the songs were very business-as-usual, even with the Andrew Bird imitation throughout. I'll concur that "Michael Myers Resplendent" has a lot of room to grow into something, so long as that growth clips out the weak falsetto near the end of the song. Ultimately, though, didn't do much for me.

The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers Another tough choice, even when picking from their red hot run in the late 60's/early 70's, but I always find myself coming back to this one, obsessing over a different song each time I return. Jagger's lyrics and contemplations all seem to have escaped from one altered consciousness or another, set aback and stumbling between punchy, overdriven riffs and supple slide guitar licks. A phenomenal opening track ("Brown Sugar") opens the way into, arguably, the band's best forays into country-influenced folk ("Wild Horses"), bluesy soul ("I Got The Blues") and, er, Aerosmith ("Bitch"). As refined a presentation of sex, drugs, and rock and roll as you'll ever find.

I played the Michael Jackson's Moonwalker arcade game for the first time when we stopped at a Circle K on the way to this show. Donatello, on a keytar. A microcosm of my wasted youth.

Sorry for the delay - still doing overtime at work. The Beatles - Revolver Picking from the ridiculous assortment of albums available was hard enough, but it's even harder to write something meaningful when your album is made by the Beatles. Believe me, I know that Everybody Is Tired Of The Beatles and, frankly, I completely understand the counter-cultural backlash that has been left in the wake of tribute after tribute after nauseating tribute; The Beatles are unfortunately saddled with an overwrought, overbearing legacy that goes a long way towards undermining the brilliance and absolute brevity of their greatest work. So, rest easy: Revolver did not invent music, nor did it reveal new and previously untouched horizons of artistic concept (or, perhaps, even conceit). It's simply a damn good album by a damn good band, impossible in breadth but still immediate, featuring great moments for all four Beatles amidst a variety of remarkable and memorable songs. Twenty albums to two, Revolver is my pick.

Nuh uh.

Interesting idea. I'll play.

Please don't tell me you're actually looking for a rational perspective from the guy that felt that the Patriots backlash was indicative of a downfall of society last year.

Ah, okay, my mistake. I thought that the twelve man deal had come from the previous play.

Sure, but you can fault the referees for allowing the punt on 4th down to go, whistling that play dead, and then deciding to challenge the preceding play. The snap of the next play is supposed to nullify any opportunities for throwing the challenge on the previous play, right? Or did Belichick really get that flag out there before the punt and I just missed it from the broadcast? EDIT: They lobbied for it during the TV timeout that followed the punt? Are you fucking serious?

Who gets the blame for starting the trend of tasteless over-arrangement in recent indie music anyway? Is that a Sufjan Stevens thing?

I haven't had any issues reading discs, but I am going to have to send mine into Nintendo for repair, as it's artifacting like crazy whenever I play a game that leans heavily on the GPU. Most people are speculating that the WiiConnect24 can fry your system in standby mode by constantly pinging for weather and news updates when the fan isn't running. Having recently picked up my console to get the serial number for registration last night, I can see where this theory comes from; the console was very warm, probably even warmer than it was during gameplay, and it had been sitting in standby for a solid week without any activity. I never encountered any problems when I played through VC games, but Super Mario Galaxy and (especially) Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition both brought up a number of distorted vertical draw lines, about two inches in length, through the middle of the screen during gameplay and cutscenes. Considering Nintendo's previously stellar track record with console reliability, I'm a little disappointed.

I finally got around to picking up White Chalk today, even though the critical response was a little mixed. And I can see where they're coming from; you really don't expect the same chick that ripped your face off years ago in the early 90's to do a gloomy Sufjan Stevens concept album. But, somehow, a lot of it still manages, even though the context (even when delivered in a brisk ~30 minute package) is pushed too far, even though it does tend to evoke some unsavory comparisons to the aforementioned Stevens or pre-soul Cat Power or even the quieter moments from last year's Arbouretum release. The presentation throughout is too straightforward, which is a surprise when you consider that the artist in question is very aware that her Art Is In Progress. Every song reinforces that we're dealing with the kind of folk music that haunts the darker corners of your grandparents' house; hilariously un-tuned piano at the forefront and whispers and airy vocals in constant reverb, lingering around a higher register that is as unfamiliar to Harvey as it is to her fans. But, for the most part, the songs are still there, with all of the structural wrinkles and cutting lyrics that one would expect, even if it makes you look twice at the volume knob on your stereo. White Chalk isn't good enough to be Harvey's Nebraska, but it's good enough to warrant checking out if you enjoy her previous work or gravitate towards that kind of stripped down folk. As for the actual thread itself, how does everybody else feel about the rest of her work? Personally, I'd consider all of her mid career stuff from Rid of Me (engineered by Steve Albini) to Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea to be essential listening for the period.

Yeah, Uh Huh Her is probably worth a mulligan - some of the songs are okay, but the instrumentation and production decisions don't quite jive with the material at all times. It comes off as a weaker Is This Desire? to me. (And, of course, I forgot that Is This Desire? actually came before Stories... - you can snip it from my previous recommendation). Stories... is fantastic, though. Sure, it's the PJ Harvey Pop Album, but it's a damn good pop album, with "Big Exit" probably serving as her best opener (and one of her best tracks overall, period.) In retrospect, it raises the eyebrows to hear Thom Yorke hanging around on some of the tracks, since Kid A came out a little under a month beforehand, but his contributions fare pretty well. White Chalk would probably make for a really good EP. The whole album sounds about as far removed as possible from the abrasive rock from her early career work, Rid of Me, but there are moments that sound more immediate than anything off of Is This Desire?. If you're looking for a quick three-track sampler, for the sake of curiosity, I'd investigate "The Devil", "When Under Ether" (the first single), and "Dear Darkness." The title track and "To Talk To You" aren't bad either, but they tend to exemplify the weaknesses that plague the overall album, either by piling on too much (banjos and autoharps and all sorts of shit flood the soundscape near the end of the former) or droning on a bit too long (the latter). I think you're thinking of Liz Phair but, considering that PJ Harvey once commanded Robert Deniro to sit on her face in song, you're pretty much in the same ballpark.

I've heard Yes and it didn't really strike me, as much as roll off my shoulders into oblivion. The instrumentation allows for some real possibilities, I think, but almost all of what I remember of that album involved the bari just mirroring the bass on some non-descript blues line, occasionally breaking off for a paint-by-numbers solo. It might as well have postage on the cover. For an alternative recommendation, I'd namedrop Last Exit, a band I've already alluded to elsewhere. Loud, free jazzy stuff with a Primus-esque bass and Peter Brotzmann screaming away on sax.

Yeah, he's already came out and clarified that the warning pertained to Ambien:

Guns 'n Roses made two goddamned albums in the 80's, one of which was a stone cold turd, buoyed on a river of drizzled shit by a half-assed acoustic ballad with some whistlin' in it. It's probably enough of a stretch to consider them The Band of 1987, considering that The Joshua Tree and The Return of Bruno came out that year. For fuck's sake.

I'm guessing some folks may feel that way because SF2T plays a fair deal faster than SSF2 and, outside of Cammy, the New Challengers in SSF2 aren't really that memorable.

Not sure I'd consider these in conversation for the best of the year, but some other interesting releases: John Cale - Paris 1919 (Stunned that Czech submitted Springsteen over this, by the way.) Henry Cow - Leg End Magma - Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters Also, a major year of crap in the Beatles' solo work: John and George coast on Mind Games and Living in the Material World, while Paul and Ringo release what many would argue are the best albums of their solo careers in Band on the Run and Ringo, respectively. I'm not even sure you could make a decent album if you clipped the listenable songs from all four albums into one, frankly.

I considered myself marginally responsible for the anti-Milky surge with my Simpsons comment, so I felt I needed to use my voting privilege to restore order to our little universe.

Milky Slayer Czech Alkeiper

INDIANA BASIN SILT REGION Agent KKK HELP, I'M A ROCK REGION Kingofthe909 Slayer CULTURE BEAT REGION Kinetic VX POWDERFINGER REGION Edwin MacPhisto Alkeiper

Of course, a liberal application of JHawk's Sexualeena Theory would interpret that gesture as an amorous declaration. Skeet skeet skeet.

INDIANA BASIN SILT The Man in Blak - Obviously, I've already seen that most people have voted for Milky, which is completely understandable...but I'm curious to see the follow-up if/when he wins it all. If Milky becomes universally loved, does The Chocolate Socket turn into one of the later seasons of the Simpsons, where every thread is a meta-contextual exercise that's structured around Milky doing something zany? "Oh, that crazy Milky!" How could he save The Chocolate Socket from himself? Agent of Oblivion Dr. Venkman KKK HELP, I'M A ROCK King Kamala Classic Kingofthe909 Slayer Treble CULTURE BEAT Czech Kinetic VX bob barron POWDERFINGER Black Lushus - I guess we can look forward to seeing Jason227_ThePit around these parts for the next round. Edwin alkeiper Smues

Oh, hey - didn't catch this over at the other place, but happy birthday, man.