TheMaker

Box Full of Letters! Okay, the A.M dusting-off is sort of getting me excited about this band again.

That sounds about right to me. If you're the kind of Joni fan like me, who really likes The Hissing of Summer Lawns, you really need to check this out. It's worth it, even if you walk away disappointed.

Shine is "out there" now, and it's very good. Her voice is a little too dusky for me to really get into anymore, but the arrangements and musicianship are very impressive. The lead track is an instrumental, and it reminds me a lot of my favourite Joni disc, Court and Spark. PS, "Strong and Wrong" is terrible. She actually uses the phrase "shock and awe."

Totally thread-worthy. Seriously, this is the coolest post I've seen on VC in five years of kicking around. I would've turned into a gibbering old fool, surely.

You won't find a bigger Band fan than me, but I'd just like to go on record as saying that I think MMJ's version of It Makes No Difference crushes Rick's completely. It explodes out of the gate and it doesn't let up 'til the last note. And Jim sings it better than he sings his own songs, to boot. It's sort of rote, I guess, but the song is so damned good that nothing matters aside from the fact that it's wonderfully performed. My favourite cover of the last several years, bar none, and the only good song on that Band tribute disc.

They're getting a little static live, yeah. I haven't seen them in two years, and I'm not trying too hard to get tix anymore whenever they come around. Also, they're positioning themselves in new and shameless ways, and as much as I hate to admit it, I'm beginning to think they've rounded the corner that most great bands turn after their first decade or so together: their classic work is behind them, and now they're simply a very entertaining band. There's nothing wrong with that, and I quite like the last two records, even if I don't think they're earth-shatteringly, ball-rattlingly spectacul

Don't. Conor Oberst is a massive douche. Devendra, on t'other hand, is one hell of a songwriter. "Hey Mama Wolf," cited once already for its brilliance, is the product of a mind that has more in common with, say, Will Oldham's than Oberst's. Do what I do and ignore any and all comments made by any and all people about affected singing styles. (Good lord, would I be a Tom Waits fan today if I hadn't learned to do that? Probably not.) And Jim Morrison ain't never play a Spanish guitar like Devendra can.

Seahorse is probably his best song to date. The rest kinda blurs together. (And I'm saying this as a guy who voted Cripple Crow the best of the hundred or so records he listened to in '05.)

Probably the best band of the '90s. The little kid who was whining about country songs should avoid talking to me, ever.

This doesn't cheapen their music in the least. Also, it's all about "selling out" and attracting the "wrong kinds of fans" at shows. Yep. Keep telling yourselves that. It makes me laugh, if nothing else.

Do we know for sure that this is the album version of the song? If so, consider me disappointed. It seems wildly idiosyncratic, even for NY, to plop a 19 year-old recording next to a bunch of newly minted ones on a brand spankin' fresh record. At least he recorded a new version of, say Silver & Gold when he cut Silver & Gold (still his best of the decade, he said, waving happily to those silly, silly Greendale fans in the crowd).

Actually, Dylan performed Seven Days on the RTR and Stepchild is from his gospel period. Those covers are certainly solid, though, you're right. Van Morrison's cover of Just Like a Woman probably takes the cake for me, but I have a number of favourites. OCMS doing Goin' to Acapulco live is pretty incredible, and I have an affinity for all of the White Stripes covers. Hmm, I guess I really prefer other artists' live takes on Dylan songs to their proper studio recordings. Weird that I never noticed that before.

Yeah, I'm gonna kill myself trying to get tix for Massey Hall. I'm years overdue to see Neil live.

I am pooping my pants in anticipation for this record. And isn't it just like Neil to release an 18-minute track to radio in the year 2007? Dear radio, Fuck you, too. Best, NY

Solace is right about this one, IMO. It's a decidedly mixed bag, which is true of everything Springsteen has done since the Eighties. Focusing on the good... Livin' in the Future is indeed classic E-Street stuff, and I really, really like Girls in Their Summer Clothes. It's got a beautifully rich vocal and the production is pretty titanic. Tell me this isn't a successful stab at recreating the Pet Sounds sound and I'll call ye a liar to yuir face. Terry's Song's really nice, too. Only Bruce could get away with saying that a departed friend is more unique and impressive than the Great Pyramids

That one about the dude who spends 12 hours a day at his computer doing graphic design and hasn't been on a date or had sex in four and a half years is so much like my life that it's downright eerie.

Ryan Adams, because the only activity related to Conor Oberst that I'd enjoy taking part in involves his big whinging melon and a swift roundhouse kick to it.

Pressing On Heart of Mine Every Grain of Sand Blind Willie McTell Jokerman Sweetheart Like You I and I Dark Eyes Brownsville Girl Silvio Rank Strangers to Me Congratulations Tweeter and the Monkey Man Ring Them Bells Man in the Long Black Coat Most of the Time What Was it You Wanted? Shooting Star Series of Dreams

Between the Wilco shit and the 826 shit, I think my love of Krasinski just quadrupled. MANCRUSH.

Nah, there's nothing to "get" on Modern Times. Sorry. The greatest trick the assembled rock critics of America ever pulled was convincing the masses that it is anything other than a lukewarm-at-best Dylan album. The voice? Admittedly jaunty in places, completely shot in others (woe be to any young kid whose first exposure to Bob Dylan is "Thunder on the Mountain"). For the most part, though, the bard sounds consumptive and a little like he swallowed a bug. The last album Dylan really sang his heart out on was Time Out of Mind, which was blessed with any number of attributes, but which was es

And the new Boss tune is a piece of shit. I'm kind of not surprised, sadly. There's nothing to it, and the poster who expressed frustration over Bruce being stuck in a triple-A, middle-ground wasteland is absolutely right. His last good album was Tom Joad, and his last great one was, shit, probably Tunnel of Love.

UHHHHH. You mean if you hadn't ever heard any of it, right? Okay, whew. MT is minor Dylan, not to be taken seriously. Probably one of his ten weakest efforts. There just aren't any songs on it. To say that it stands shoulder to shoulder with even his '90s highs, let alone any of his '60s or '70s output, is more than mere folly. S'ignorant.

Justin is singlehandedly keeping the flame lit for the bizarre contingent of fans who erroneously believe "The Thanks I Get" will be on the next Wilco album. If it'll help put the speculation/rumour mill to rest, I'll personally stake five thousand dollars on the fact that it won't be.

#5 for the cleverness factor.

Too Far Apart is a brand-new song. Pass it on.