I see the term "herky-jerky" has been dragged out of deserved rock-crit retirement. Let's hope it doesn't make it to the review. Suggestions: spastic, nervous, off-kilter, unsavory, brittle, harrowing, histrionic.

No disrespect to Heller, but Ben Ratliff over at the Times is the only critic I've found who can talk about Callahan's work in a way that is both interesting and legible and feels right on.

Script Doctor Horrible!

Hey, the Coens ripped off "Vineland" for Lebowski, so Pynchon can return the favor. WITH A VENGEANCE!

I saw them twice — they were really good when the dude from Skeleton Key was still with them, and a little scattered after he left. Also, Paul Harding was in the Ft. Apache band Cold Water Flat, so there's a very real possibility that he knows about Enon the band.

Did this get ported over from the Entertainment Weekly site by mistake?  The whole stale yet hokey endeavor feels like something forced through by Corporate because it will be "good for numbers."

Man, with this piece and Heller's Unwound thing, AVC has really been hitting up my PacNW college years. And I ain't complainin'!

I don't get the love for Scott Pilgrim. It had its moments, but its glorification of a lame main character and his lame girlfriend problems (Girls, right? They're so terrifying and mean!) really struck a sour note for me.  And the pandering to nerd culture annoyed me, too. But maybe I was just in a bad mood when I…

Bob, I don't have to be a carpenter to know a shitty table when I see it.

I didn't want to sound like I was just beating up on the writer, (we all have our off days at work) but yikes, that "cloud" one is pretty bad, now that you mention it. This piece really did need to be edited with a firmer hand. Or just a normal hand would have been something, at least.

It's true, it's at every Housing Works store I've ever been to.

How does a "shimmering mystery" part to reveal a way to peel an onion of mysterious death? Can an a method of onion-peeling really be unearthed? Is anyone editing this stuff anymore?

I attended a Neil Young tribute concert once with Eugene. He mocked a dude who was blocking our view with elegance and wit.

They were amazing live. It was like going from black and white to color.

@sluglife No way, Idaho was rife with skinheads. Moses Lake and Moral Crux fo'evah!

Man, most of my hearing loss can be traced back to getting trapped in the front row during D-Jr.'s Lolla 3 set. Jesus Lizard played that year too, right? I'm pretty sure Yow dropped trou for that one.

Yes, the Hot Topic-ization of ska-punk pretty much made it insufferable by '98. You couldn't walk down the mall food court without some clown in a porkpie hat elbowing you in the face.

I think it's a gloss on how a lot of instrumental music can be either conceptual, like it's based on a philosophy or idea or work or art, or process-oriented, like the musician wants to execute something specific in a really programmatic way, whereas this is something more straightforward and conventionally…

I assume that the review rightly avoided the term "postrock" to avoid all sorts of annoying arguments and sniping, but this is pretty classic turn-of-the-century postrock, in the Don Cab/A Minor Forest/Too Many Chicago bands to count vein.  I'm glad some warhorses are keepin' the dream alive.

He may not actually believe she's alive, like Norman, but he could be staging a conversation with another part of himself in her guise, fully aware that he's doing it.