TheMaker

I hate RNR. What little of it I can honestly remember, that is. Sorry.

Oh, wow. I didn't even know he was ailing. A friend of mine saw the Love/Zombies tour a summer or two ago and said it was a blast. Now I wish I'd gone.

This is the time and life that I am living

And I'll face each day with a smile,

For the time that I've been given is such a little while

And the things that I must do consist of more than style

There are places that I am going

There'll be time for you to start all over

This is the only thing that I am sure of

And that's all that lives is gonna die

And there'll always be some people here to wonder why

And for every happy hello, there will be good-bye

There'll be time for you to put yourself on.

Wow, this is surprisingly New-New Wave-y. Just another hat for Ryan to try on, I suppose. I think it's a decent song. Nowhere near as execrable as anything on Rock 'n' Roll (which is about the most forgettable record I've ever heard).

Please fill in the blanks:

If this heatwave does not end by ______, I am going to ______.

I'll go first!

If this heatwave does not end by RIGHT NOW OH MY GOD, I am going to SHOOT MYSELF IN THE FUCKING FACE.

P.S., Canadians are not meant to deal with 106-degree Fahrenheit heat at three o'clock in the fucking morning. So much for sleep...

Bear Hodgson.

What's with the unnecessary divisiveness fosterage?

Hey, don't level that shit at me. That's a question I ask myself every time I visit the site.

Welcome to VC, groselicain. Now you know which side of the clique fence you fall on!

"Friends" of the band to the left, the rest of us... well, wherever.

Bound for Glory is one of the great folk songs of all time.

A lot of us were converted by the brilliance of Being There. That's pretty awesome.

I'd imagine it's a bunch of dudes who have good taste in naming their band.

Basic stats: 27, have a Y chromosome, St. Catharines, ON

Like another poster, I (almost) have a print journalism degree, but I had to abandon the world of post-secondary education because I just couldn't stand the shit. I'm a human being with principles, and the day I realized that an obvious schism existed between what I was considering to do with the rest of my life and the person I am was the greatest day of my life (no foolin'!).

I'm not a yuppie, which most Wilco fans seem to be (desk job, iPod, large urban centre, etc.), and I've decided to start a career in art after a lot of cajoling on the part of my friends and family. Right now I'm doing spot illos for music magazines and my first comic book will be premiering at Wizard World Chicago (if you're going, do me a favour and pick up a copy! It's called Downhill from Here). It's self-published, but it may not be that way for long (fingers crossed). Every few months I take a full time desk-job to keep me in food and rent and help get the creditors off my back. During these periods, sleep is not an option, which is why I'm the official board prick (seriously, let's examine your general comportment when you're snagging around two to three hours a night for two months at a time). In September, I will be working for Apple for a while.

Life is interesting! Most importantly, though, it's fun.

And that's me in a nutshell.

I'm a Dylan obsessive, and I just... don't get it. Safely outside my top ten, I must say.

Well, okay, I should say that I do get it. As a song cycle, it represents The Old (Weird) America better than just about anything, and it's a wonderful record by any other artist's standards, but as a Dylan album I can't help seeing it as merely standard.

There are moments of sublime beauty, to be sure; songs like Frankie Lee and St. Augustine are stunning, but there's also a lot of schmaltz that in my opinion presages the more contentious (and in my opinion virtually disposable) follow-up LP, Nashville Skyline. Down Along the Cove and I'll Be Your Baby, for example, are breezy little songs, but not much more than that.

As a document of pre-war America, I think Dylan superseded this album when he gave us Love & Theft five years ago. It's a little more scattershot than JWH, but its musical range and at times irrepressible imagery are a lot more comprehensive and engrossing than anything on this disc. That's my take, for what it's worth.

Does anybody else find it strange that Joey Fatone is the fat one?

but Hitler was a Jew

And he was also a nutbag. Case closed.

Not a huge fan, but You Forgot It In People is one of the best of the '00s. The other stuff all sounds like a band trying either too hard or not hard enough to me.

It's weirdly satisfying that Hitler is more popular than Ann Coulter (though it'd be nice if they could end in a tie).

I'd have liked it if Jay Bennett had been included as an option. Then I'd finally have all the proof I need that Bennett is indeed worse than Hitler in the eyes of the VC crowd.

almost bought an album the other day. what do you think?

GET OUT. This is VC, not VJ. When you registered here, whether you realized it or not, you were signing an oath that you'd destroy Jay Bennett like an unwanted pet if you so much as bumped into him in the street.

You can't like Wilco and Jay Bennett. That'd be like being a Jew and worshipping Hitler.

If I didn't understand English then I'd probably really like Walken too.

And so you voted for - ahem - What Light instead. Hmm.

"If you're trying to paint a picture

but you're not sure which colours belong

just paint what you feel

don't let anyone say its wrong"

Also, the line "Don't let anyone change your bag" is hilarious.

Whose blood?

Here's an answer that I think will please nearly everybody here: Jay Bennett's.

To answer part of your question, I just found a new torrent "The Desire Sessions" on Oink. Its in FLAC format and it includes "Money Blues." I'll download it and I'll send the track to you (or post a link here if anyone else would like to hear it) at some point tomorrow. Either way is fine with me.

Could I be so bold as to beg a copy of Money Blues for myself?

God, that Letterman clip is great. If only those IRS records sounded anything like R.E.M. did live during those years (read: better than anything else)...

Yeah, anybody who denies that Eli Cash is Owen's best character creation ever is on some hella powerful crack that I don't want. No, sir.

Pfah! UTRS is weak. The best songs translate better live than on the record.

Okay, I'm loaded and keep spinning the Modern Times preview MP3 ad nauseam. If anybody gets an advance of this record, I will pay you in blood for a crappy MP3 copy.

Just puttin' it out there...

I'll sheik yer bouti-! (N.B., I am drunken.)

If my hand is to be forced, then I'll say disc one. GRUDGINGLY. I've never listened to just one disc, though.

A lot of Summerteeth, actually. Forget the Flowers actually kept me from getting into Wilco for the longest time. I bought Being There when it came out, just after I'd turned 17, and thought the song was "too country." What can I say? I was a stupid kid.

I keep saying it and saying it: it's one album. I refuse to vote.