You and everyone below you is right, "Trace" is basically perfect. That's one of the reasons I never got into Uncle Tupelo. It all sounds like lesser-Trace to me. As others have noted, most post-Trace Son Volt is the same. I've owned every Son Volt album since, and I think I have them collectively reduced to a dozen…

I'm in a similar camp. I am a Wilco completist and have most of the Son Volt catalogue as well. I've listened to each Uncle Tupelo album no more than two times, always concluding that I'd rather being listening to the solo ventures instead. I get the influence/importance, etc, but the songs themselves always seem like…

Afghan Whigs aren't for me, but they always have stellar album art. And anything that makes Bob Odenkirk happy is okay by me!

I think I've told this story before, but screw it, I'm a gonna tell it again. Through weird circumstances, many years ago I found myself helping Fred Armisen with a solo performance at a college in Richmond (I was a video tech/prop guy for the night). St. Vincent, in advance of her first album release, was the support…

Sign me up then. My Dad actually bought me the Allman Brothers "Dreams" box set when I was in junior high because of my emerging interest in classic rock. Just brought it home one day (back when a box set was a big purchase) and said "I was at Tower Records and thought of you." He actually didn't know the band well.…

Peter Hyams has had a really interesting career. It's cool to see he's still working, with his son no less. Speaking of fathers & sons, if you call my Dad right now and ask him to talk about "Outland" the space western Peter Hyams directed like 30 years ago, my father will immediately stop whatever he's doing and just…

And that is what's wrong with Sundance.

Having just watched the Raid 2 trailer, Dowd clearly chose poorly. March 28th can't get here fast enough.

O'Neal's powers only grow stronger the longer he does this gig. I honestly don't know how the AV Club would recover should he ever choose to leave. And he has to get a Hollywood offer at some point, right? His ascent seems inevitable.

When my wife and I went to England many years ago for a vacation, she and my brother-in-law (stationed there at the time) insisted we visit Morrissey's boyhood home and the Boy's Club that is on the cover of the first (?) Smiths album. I have nothing against Morrissey or the Smiths, but it isn't my cup of tea, so I…

I was totally done with this show, but Bill Paxton is reason enough to give it another shot. Dammit, Chet!

You'd think that having the guy from the All-American Rejects play Gregg Allman would be the absolute worst thing about your Allman Brothers biopic, but nope, "from the writer/director of CBGBs" managed the sneak in there and lower the bar even more. I can't imagine this reaching even VH-1 biopic levels of mild…

I should go back and give these another spin, but my back in the day I would hear a Bottle Rockets album and would immediately want to listen to the Jayhawks instead. Then again, I don't have any hipster cred, also believing that Uncle Tupelo can't hold a candle to either Son Volt or Wilco.

This is an wonderfully snarky and bitter Newswire, even by O'Neal's high standards. I'm assuming he must have worked there in the 90s. I would have as well, but Suncoast had it's hooks into me already. Too much glamour to give up. I was third key!

I saw Paul F. Tompkins do standup in Brooklyn a few years ago. Before the show, Justin Long walked past me on an iPhone saying "I don't see you. Where are you?" only to have John Hodgeman step out from a mass of people, also on his iPhone, and respond "I'm over here." They then smiled big and did that…

To make matters more insane, the 548 I have are carefully culled from the thousands I have in my archives of those live shows. I'm an editor by trade, so it's my weird little hobby to take full concert recordings and whittle them down, re-arrange, sometimes re-cut the songs themselves, to make shortened versions of…

The Black Crowes are among my favorite bands of all time. Including copious live material, I have 548 of their songs on my iPod, not including related solo material. That's a startling fact.

Making $50k a year to be in Third Eye Blind long after they were marginally famous seems like a pretty good deal to me. I can't imagine there was ever a version of this scenario in which this guy was gonna make tons of money.

Last week I had my yearly physical. My blood pressure was 124/81, which is really good for me because it used to be much higher back when I ate poorly and never exercised. I still have a doctor-mandated home monitor; a holdover from an unhealthier period in my life. Half-way through tonight's episode my wife suggested…

I saw Glenn Tilbrook just last night, and he still sings and plays with the the non-stop enthusiasm and melodic precision he was offering up 30 years ago. Dude doesn't seem to age.