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Damn, I hope Nels is ok. Having read his tour diaries from his days with Mike Watt, it's pretty clear that Nels would probably rather die on stage then let a show suffer due to pain or illness. I can imagine these long/no-opening act shows are taking a toll on him, considering the pain he's in after a shorter show (as seen in the Ashes dvd). Anyway, I'll be there tonight. Sounds like this run of shows is going to be incredible, and, speaking as a native, there's nothing in Atlanta better than The Fox Theater.

When I was a teenager in the early '90s there was a place nearby that had bins and bins of records on the floor underneath the more expensive records, ranging from 25 cents to $2. I'd go in there every couple months with $20 and leave with as many records as I could carry. Only rarely did I get one that skipped or was below my standards. I still know of a couple decent dollar bins around town, but I wish it was still like that.

Totally. If I had $70 to spend on records, I can't even begin to tell you how much more appealing 70 dollar bin records would be than, say, one copy of the upcoming Wilco "Kicking Television" box set.

Definitely more Joe Jackson-y than anything on Parc Ave.

Definitely a dumb question, especially from someone with thousands of LPs, but: Does "non-virgin vinyl" = melted down LPs repressed into other LPs? Or is it vinyl from some other source?

No offense taken. I've only heard one Besnard Lakes song (courtesy ofthe current Uncut sampler, definitely a highlight of the sampler), and it was after I posted about them, so I wouldn't disparage them. What I said was that their name always makes me think I'm seeing the name Barenaked Ladies. There's actually a sceintific phenomenon that has shown that our eyes detect the first and last letters in words, while paying much less attention to the middle letters. Besnard Lakes Barenaked Ladies Lots of similar middle letters amongst those four words. Well, I was referring to Parc A

There have been plenty of albums I've learned about and enjoyed as a result of participating in this website. Plants and Animals is one that come to mind off the top of my head.

Fair enough, although I never said anything about "around here", so nobody needs to be taking my opinion of this cd personally. I was not aware that purchasing a heavily hyped/buzzed cd and listening to it four times in two days = being scared, across the board, of liking any and all music that has gotten a a little bit of hype/buzz.

Uh, yeah, you couldn't be more wrong. What specifically have I said that makes you think I'm "scared of liking ANYTHING that has even the tiniest ounce of buzz"? A few examples: I love the St. Vincent albums, and I was exposed to approximately the same amount of buzz, maybe more, for those as for the Beach House album. Dungen got buzz all over the place and they've been one of my favorite bands for the last three years, or so. I never owned a Wilco album or attended a Wilco concert until after all the YHF buzz. Surfer Blood sounds good to me. Tons of buzz there. I've only heard a

For me, the keyboards ruin it. I've listened to it four times now. I can appreciate the melodies more, and some of the songs are somewhat catchy, but the keyboards gloss over virtually the whole album, locking it into a very narrow dynamic range. The album has no high or low points that I've been able to detect. Anyway, now playing:

Music is powerful stuff. Sounds like you tapped into that power in a pretty profound way, and by doing so there's no telling how much you might have helped those guys. I never served, but if I had I'd probably find a great deal of comfort in the fact that people at home are thinking seriously about the experiences of those who do serve, and are trying to create something positive out of it.

Listening to it now. The songs are ok taken individually, but listening to the whole album at once is still a chore for me.

I definitely wasn't expecting the best thing ever, but I also was not expecting such dull monotony...exactly the type of thing I don't want from any album.

Of course, my above post assumes that they'll always play to roughly the same size audience they currently play to (where I live, that means 5,000 seat venues). That could change up or down, obviously.

True, and they're not getting any younger. Right now, they make their money on the road. At some point (hopefully not any time soon) they're probably going to want to, or have to, spend less time on the road, and will need more of their income to come from product sales compared to concert ticket sales.

First of all, damn you for 1. rekindling my GAS for an Epiphone semi-hollowbody, and 2. reminding me of my regret for getting rid of the one I used to own. Second, thanks for posting that video. The most important music revelation I've had in the last several years is realizing how much I love harmony and background vocals, and that revelation hit me listening to Big Star's first album (and that song, secifically) last summer for the zillionth time.

Not a bad idea. Suicide started looking like an increasingly attractive option a few years ago when I was painting the paneled walls in my rec room.

In honor of my accidentally learning how to play Mr. Sandman on guitar last night: Kind of a disappointing soundtrack to my morning workout. I find that "Free Your Mind..." is better in that context. Still cool, though: I should have knonw by the WAY-over-the-top hype for this one that it'd fail me. Maybe it'll click for me at some point, but I doubt it:

Yeah, during the mid to late '90s you could get new/sealed copies of SST and Matador releases for $9 or $10, and at that time the LP was much closer to extinction than it is now.

Thanks for the info. I bought the amp used, but I think tubes are the original Groove Tubes. I'll check it out. Any recommendation for new tubes? I've had pretty good luck with JJ/Teslas in my other amp, but I'm open to any reasonably affordable option.

There's a good version of 13 on this:

Should've happened a long time ago. Does universal own Sub Pop? I just got the Beach House cd (+ DVD) for $7.99 from Amazon.

Dan Erlewine, author of the Guitar Player Repair Guide, swears by naptha (lighter fluid) as an all purpose guitar cleaner.

That is a good idea. Things that have your scent on them are comforting for most dogs. In my case, my dog loves to destroy remote controls...I guess because the little buttons and crevices on a remote contain oils and dead skin cells from our hands. She destroyed four or five remotes before we were able to outsmart her.

Books aren't going anywhere. Borders does a terrible job of selling books and an even worse job of making peope (especially me) want to buy/read books. Any time I walk into a Borders, I see tables full of the most mundane reading material (Twilight, corny BBQ books written by fake rednecks, books of meaningless trivia, tabloid-esque biographies, etc.) I'm lucky if I see a few out of the hundreds that I'd consider reading. Contrast that with a small store like Kramerbooks in DC. Evry time I've had the pleasure of walking into that cramped store, just about every book on their front tab