Magnetized

What, no Jay Farrar?? What a shocker!

That's in the related expense category--buying a bunch of new music to get familiar with artists I don't know well. But what a nice problem to have. Very excited about this lineup so far. Anybody care to guess who's going to make the E's? Eels?

Wait. . . no Autumn Defense???

B is for Border Music featuring Marc Ribot and Dave Hidalgo (of Los Lobos), and The Blisters. Holy crap, this is great!!

From Facebook: A is for musician Sam Amidon & comedian Al Madrigal. Al Madrigal we knew about. I don't know Sam Amidon. Anyone?

I'm hoping to hear that Spencer's band, The Blisters, will play. They're good--they're even doing a Daytrotter session in May. I think that would be a really fun set. We won't have long to wait to find out, since it's a B.

Oh, the sweet, sweet torture!!

Just got a tweet that Solid Sound lineup announcements would start today at noon!! Follow twitter @solidsoundfest. !!!!

Oh my god, that is hilarious! I wish my life was freewheeling enough to make that my ringtone for someone, but with my luck that would go off at a meeting and I'd get canned for sure. Just brilliant, though.

Between their current commitments and the start of the Australia and Asia tour in late March, it doesn't look like they're going to have much time to get together in the loft till late April. Think of how fresh and exciting those Australia shows are going to sound, though! Maybe they'll live stream one--one of the Sydney show, maybe?

In case anyone's interested. I'm attempting to cut and paste from my iPad and I haven't quite got the hang of it, so if the link doesn't post correctly someone else please do it right. http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/02/09/171492049/sunday-8-p-m-et-spend-grammy-night-staring-at-screens-with-us?sc=fb&cc=fmp

I love you, lost highway. You say what I was trying to say so much better and so much less emotionally than I do.

No, I heard that too somewhere. I can't remember where, but some snippets got released right after they recorded this conversation. But keep listening--you'll find a lot of new stuff and much to love!

I went for the first time last year and I honestly don't remember the details about whether the shows started on time, but I don't remember them being very late, so I assume they'll be close to on time, especially since Sue mentioned the early start time. However, if I were you I would plan on the later bus, just because who wants to be checking their watch at the end of a show, or worrying about finding a taxi to make a mad dash for the bus station? If you're making this special trip all the way to Chicago for these shows, what's another few hours on the bus? You'll be sleeping anyway. But th

Yeah, I've wondered about Mikael too. He's moved from Brooklyn to CA and is planning to open up his own music studio, I gather.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't take up the cause of advocating for repeal of the second amendment. Talk about tilting at windmills! I can't imagine that could ever happen and it would just lead to more gridlock and polarization, as well as wasting time on an ultimately unwinnnable propostion.

I ranted on a similar topic earlier and I won't repeat myself here, but I will just say that this quibbling over the fine points of gun registration, etc., seems to me like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The whole culture of gun worship/fascination seems inexplicable to me. They're instruments of death! A dark, miserable manifestation of the meanest, ugliest side of human nature. There are bad people with bad motivations who want guns, and we have law enforcement agencies who need similar weapons to protect the rest of us from them. Quite frankly, that's about where I personal

In the Uncut magazine piece, it says late 2013 for the new album's release. That would seem more likely. But I'll bet we'll hear a few new songs at Solid Sound!

I listened to it really early in the morning while getting ready for work and then again in the car driving home. It's even better the second time--I was grinning from ear to ear. Seriously, isn't it great being a fan of such a wonderful guy?

It's up as of this morning! Listening to it right now.

There are certain things that wouldn't make economic sense to private industry but that we rely on to be reasonably available to ALL people in our society. Police, firefighters, well-maintained roads, basic postal service. . . . the list could go on and on. If these services were to be delivered exclusively by private industry, they would be prohibitively expensive except in high-income or densely populated areas. Having said that, it may eventually come down to people in rural areas needing to accept less frequent mail delivery than those in cities, which would be unfortunate but maybe nece

Oh hell yes!

That's a real bargain price for someone who hasn't already got their tickets. I would suggest seeing if you can post something to Facebook's Solid Sound Festival page, or to Wilco's page, if possible, or you could try the page I set up, Solid Sound 2013--it was intended to be an open group where people could hook up with travel arrangements, etc. Of course, most people on there have probably already got their tickets, but there might be a few people who were holding out based on cash flow. It couldn't hurt. There's always craigslist, too, but there may not be much demand until closer to the

I heard a story on NPR about this. They said they'd already gotten a pile of inquiries from women who had volunteered to carry the little Neanderthal clone baby to term. Isn't that adorable? And also they were having discussions about the ethical issues that would arise in making reasonable accommodations for the lil' Neanderthal in our school system, how to ensure that he would live a fulfillled life, etc. I felt like I was in bizarro world!

Hint to those of you without gold tickets: As I recall, the first row behind the gold circle is on a little riser and it's an excellent place to sit. You'll probably have to line up early and do the mad dash to get there, though. But honestly, it's a small venue and there probably isn't a bad seat in the house. Just different perspectives. Last year on one of the nights there were some chatty drunks sitting up in one of the boxes--to the right from Jeff's vantage point. Jeff called them out a couple of times and dedicated "So Much Wine" to them!