lost highway

It's true. I can see a level of snarkiness, or analness, might be a response to the deluge of artists. People trying to filter through a sea of new albums might feel more effective by being pickier, and therefore more cynical. It seems the best music journalism warrants another listen after reading the review. It might bring up points to enhance, or challenge the listening experience. Some writers at Pitchfork seem pretty good at that. If anything a site like Pitchfork gets picked on because of their cultural relevance. People resent a false pretext that what Pitchfork says is necessar

Ah ha. Got it.

Oh boy.... I didn't start buying LP's til I was a teenager. But there were albums. First cassette: First CD: Yikes.

Here's a good one. John Cusack (of all people) takes Obama to task for civil liberty issues with the help of a law professor: http://truth-out.org...as-constitution This article seems to be a good bridge between some of Sparky's more flippant remarks and the issue at hand. I for one think the Democratic Party is just as much in need of a paradigm shift (most seriously on these issues of international law and U.S. foreign policy) as the GOP. The conversation on the thread has batted (sometimes eloquently and sometimes rabidly) back and forth domestic issues, most importantly the tax

That's a good question. It is certainly easier and more comfortable to indict the artistic shortcomings of a band than to defend them. Especially when your nose is high in the air.

I think all three of those men are particularly funny.

Love that song.

Man.... if they would've happened upon Montevideo at the same time that I was that would have made my summer even better.

For my money Rubio is a truer republican than Romney, and more reasonable than Ryan.

Freudian typo?

What I expect from 'ol Joe is not factual distortions, but bumbling subversions of good taste and charisma. He's my favorite drunk uncle.

Jon Stewart on the current psychology of the GOP "A party wide persecution complex, where any reference to the collective good is somehow taken as a denigration of an individual's achievement; you did build that. A moral code that equates parental financial assistance with moxy and entrepreneurship, while equating government financial assistance with lack of character and way-of-life destroying dependency; yes, you did build that."

Most of the autobiographical information he gave to people was fictitious. His entire persona around the time of being signed was based on Woody Guthrie. He made up a lot of stories about being a train hopper and a hobo, they just weren't true. Dylan stepped over a lot of people in the Dinkytown community of aspiring folk singers in MN. He seems to have been a compulsive liar. Which is exactly what makes him interesting: the fact that it doesn't matter. The dude is like batman. The symbol he constructed of himself was so apt, and became so important to the modern American psyche that s

If it's a question of writing top notch songs, then David Byrne has a strong case. As do a ton of people named in this thread. But David Byrne as an entity is a very different machine than Dylan. The most quintessential Byrne stuff (to me) is this weird promotion for modern living which is always tilting on a knife's edge of sarcasm. The whole question of Byrne is: Does his love off shopping malls and highways come via irony, or not? Dylan had a much more earnest kind of vitriol. From his early "protest songs", to his early electric personal indictments, Dylan used metaphor and the ima

Jules got Jules-sized. This thread goes from interesting, to frustrating, to hilarious about every couple days. Good work people.

I think I can celebrate Romney's birther joke. It shows desperation. The dude is on a sinking ship.

Yeah, I think the live version is better. Also it has a different guitarist rocking the slide.

Yeah, Deeper Down is great. Is it wrong to say that Sunloathe is an even more successful version of this kind of song from them?

If anyone on here has had an opportunity to listen to Rodriguez, his songs are darn good. I am one of the many music fans who's jumping on his bandwagon after he was rescued from obscurity by this popular new documentary: http://landmarktheat...t.asp?id=114153 He seems an easy sell for people who like Dylan, Bill Fay, Buffalo Springfield. Cooler still, he got a second lease on musical fame (kinda like what happened to Mississippi John Hurt). Here he is rocking Letterman decades after his LP release: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oYwMBHI39g

You might, and I won't get upset. My goal wasn't to define an opponent, but to demonstrate the overreaching lack of subtlety in the mission statement of two parties. You seemed to feel insulted by my sketch of the going pitch of the republican party, but you missed that I was indicating that your struggle with the party's average M.O. and your attraction to the status of an independent was a sign of intelligence on your part. I don't mind tough questions, that's kind of how this discussion gets good. Is the environment more important than jobs? That's a really reasonable, and difficul

You should read my post again. Either you didn't understand me, or I explained myself poorly; the point was these are the selling points of the parties- the prescribed narrative. Most people don't fit this. That's the point. I was trying to step outside of party confines. I get that falling right of center in this thread leaves you a bit on your own, and for that reason you add a needed element. Don't be a jerk, this is the respector edition. If you think something doesn't warrant response, don't respond. This might be the part that was missed.

I could put it in a box with 'Leave Me Like You Found Me', 'I Thought I Held You' and ship it to Abu Dhabi. But that's what's great about Wilco, different people find beauty in different tunes.... even Jay Bennett's rendition. More power to you. On a related note, anyone ever here what Jay did with Car's Can't Escape? Not my favorite, but again, someone out there found some glory in it.

This is the funny thing about the rigidity of our two party system. If you associate with a particular party you label yourself with its values (even if you don't share them). Republican is supposed to mean: Business over the environment. Business over unions. Social programs make people lazy, and are unjust. Lower taxes help the nation prosper. Democrat is supposed to mean: Environmental stewardship. Union protection against business power. Social programs in order for all people to have the opportunity to prosper. A level of taxation is necessary to have a productive and prosperous

Yeah, it looks like the choice is between another recession, or another addition to the deficit. Neither would be ideal.

I do feel like this election (although full of entertainingly crappy attacks) is more economics oriented than the last two. Maybe I'm just noticing more, but I feel like the right wing is trying to give a voice to specific economic theories instead of just condemning people on social issues. I like to see someone's tax plan get looked over by a bunch of economists who write editorials about it. In this way I feel like the Ryan pick actually has heightened the conversation a bit.