hardwood floor

dime purges inactive accounts and bad ratios every 10 minutes

keep trying to get in

eventually you will

meh

brilliant

the fading captain stuff is mind-blowing

Tight Globes

Total Exposure

Death of the Party

Beaten By The Target

Stifled Man Casino

Bull Spears

Time Machines

Alone, Stinking And Unafraid

Fairly Blacking Out

It Is Divine

I'm Dirty

Look At Your Life

Harrison Adams

All Men Are Freezing

Zoom (It Happens All Over The World)

Pop Zeus

Island of Lost Lucys

Feathering Clueless (The Exotic Freebird)

Trial Of Affliction And Light Sleeping

Children Come On

7th Level Shutdown

Frequent Weaver Who Burns

Most of the stories in Phil's book had already been told in one place or another, but the firing of Dan Healy and how that came about was something I'd never heard in detail. So I guess it was worth it just to read about that. I sure wish he would have talked about Kimock - there's a story there!

 

My major gripe was it just wasn't long enough - I mean hell, Clinton's autobiography was nearly 1000 pages and what the hell did he do that was as important as being in the GD for 30 years?

yeah, ya know, i just never read music books so i hadn't heard any of the stories. plus i arrived late to the dead, finally getting it after turning up my nose at 'em for 35 years. so it's all still new to me.

including this june 10, 1973, rfk show i just downloaded from bt.etree.org

ncaa hoops on the TV, jack straw on audio

i liked it

i've never read anything about the Grateful Dead, so this really shed a lot of light on many things for me

gave me a good feel for phil's perspective as the music and audience evolved and changed

just finished Phil's book

what a great read

highly recommended

ecial Beat Service

R.E.M. - Murmurs

the record is called Murmer

no "s"

these 2 are absolutely essential ... two of the greatest records ever made ...

Rave-Ups, Book of Your Regrets

Silos, Cuba

also brilliant:

Dumptruck, For the Country

Love Tractor, This Ain't no Outerspace Ship

Tommy Keene, Based on Happy Times

Tommy Keene, Places that Are Gone

Game Theory, Big Shot Chronicles

Game Theory, Lolita Nation

Game Theory, Two Steps from the Middle Ages

The dBs, Like This

Scruffy the Cat, Tiny Days

Smithereens, Especially for You

Reivers, Translate Slowly

Rainmakers, self-titled

and Robert Pollard (not all that good, frankly).

standard gargoyle decisions + superman was a rocker are shit

the takeovers + psycho and the birds records each have like 3 great songs and a ton of filler

circus devils is unlistenable, other than the one or two token songs that sound like GBV

coast to coast carpet of love starts out inspired and then just fizzles out

pollard hasn't released a record that's up to his usual standards since From a Compound Eye

unbelievable slump for the greatest songwriter who ever lived

after 40 or whatever masterpieces in a row, from sandbox through FaCE, i wonder if he's capable of putting out a great record anymore

now playing

nov. 11, 1973

winterland

i heard impossible germany at a 7-11 convenience store yesterday

stuck around to listen to it even though i already had my newspaper + bottle of water

left before the guitar solo was over

this sounds terrific

Steve Hackett (not into genesis anymore, but love his tone, sound)

i saw hackett solo a couple years ago & he was tremendous

i didn't think to put him on my list but he really is a hell of a player with a masterful sense of melody

here's what bugs me about REM

i mean, i grew up with REM as my favorite band -- for quite a long time. they were my doorway from prog into the guitar-heavy pop shit i've listened to for the last 20 years

but, christ, every record they put out since they commenced sucking i'd read stipe say, "This is our best album yet." Every fucking one. And you know what? they all sucked. Up, Reveal, Around the Sun. sucked. and yet I'd read each time these arrogant fucking quotes from Stipe about how they've grown so much and are now releasing their stuff ever

and i'd listen to this shit and say, um, no, this sucks. you used to be the greatest band ever

so now, i just have a hard time reading Stipe say, oh yeah, those albums really did suck. so now we're gonna ROCK AGAIN.

you know what? i'm sure this record sounds good but i have no fucking desire to listen to it

these guys lost me a while ago with their suckitude and hypocracy

fuck 'em

Congratulations, pal. Me? I couldn't give a solitary fuck about "The Smithereens," whoever they are, and I consider Leonard Cohen to be one of the ten best songwriters who has ever lived. My point is that your dislike for this song is perfectly legitimate, but your vendetta against it is totally ridiculous, bordering on laughable. Enjoy that yellow cereal!

lol

not sure what you mean by a vendetta, bro ... i just don't buy into the genius of this song. way too dramatic to make any sort of true emotional impact

it's like being emotionally moved by a soap opera

when you're being slammed over the head that something is emotional, it generally doesn't have any emotional resilience for me

big fat meh to this song

way too overly dramatic for my tastes

i'm more at home with some crunchy smithereens guitars than some overly wrought sobbing, moaning jeff buckley wannabee droning "hallelujah"

can't stand the song. can't stand buckley either. makes me wanna puke

this is one of those songs that you're supposed to like for the purposes of indie cred but i suspect half the people who claim they love it actually can't stand it

all i know is that jay bennett was in wilco when they were recording one of the best albums of all time. nels is in wilco and was in wilco when they were recording one of their most forgettable/uninteresting albums.

dig

couldn't agree more

it's not about "shredding"

it's about making great music

and that whole "bad vibe jay brought to the band" thing or whatever it was called ... let's not forget whose perspective the movie was made from, whose side it told

top 10 ideas for countdown shows

Suitcase 2 is the greatest 20th album ever

1987 - Devil Between My Toes

1987 - Sandbox

1989 - Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia

1990 - Same Place the Fly Got Smashed

1992 - Propeller

1993 - Vampire on Titus

1994 - Bee Thousand

1995 - Alien Lanes

1995 - Box

1996 - Under The Bushes Under The Stars

1996 - Tonics And Twisted Chasers

1997 - Mag Earwhig!

1999 - Do The Collapse

2000 - Suitcase: Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft

2001 - Isolation Drills

2002 - Universal Truths and Cycles

2003 - Earthquake Glue

2003 - Hardcore UFOs: Revelations, Epiphanies and Fast Food in the Western Hemisphere

2004 - Half Smiles of the Decomposed

2005 - Suitcase 2: American Superdream Wow

anything by Capstan Shafts (that guy is a bona-fide genius)

great job, Doug ...

not crazy about the last record, but the previous 50 or so were amazing ... euridice proudhon is spectacular ... dean wells is his name & he records everything in his kitchen in some little town in vermont

absolutely brilliant stuff

and much of it is available via free download

how 'bout 10

Doug Gillard

Robert Pollard

Richard Thompson

Lindsay Buckingham

Mark Spencer

James Walbourne

Steve Howe

Bill Nelson

Jerry Garcia

Terry Wilson

come on, kids

Bee Thousand

Guided By Fucking Voices

got married in a Church of Christ, so there was no dancing at the reception... but the first song sung at the wedding was "If" by Bread... WTF? i should've paid more attention to the actual wedding details, methinks...

"If" is actually a great song

better than anything on Sky Blue Sky!

had a girlfriend in college who loved Bread. yep, seriously. I laughed at her but later realized, damn, they're actually pretty good

listen to "Everything I Own". great mid-tempo pop ballad

I don't see how this is possible.

yeah, after all the buildup, i was surprised & disappointed

We got married outdoors in the mountains. We had a guitar and a mandolin guy playing a medley of GD and Folk tunes for the ceremony and a Bluegrass band for the reception. I don't recall a first tune, just lots of good music in general.

Our first dance was a 38-minute Dark Star!

ours was Gun