Superchunk is a Great Band
They've pretty much done everything right for 20 years, and returned with what might be their best album ever.

I'm a lifelong unapologetic R.E.M. apologist (I probably love only The Replacements and Bob Dylan more), and would consider these classics any way you slice it: MURMUR, RECKONING, AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE, CHRONIC TOWN

@HDB

There nothing worse than young people shunning "old people's" music, except for older people shunning "young people's" music.

I kinda loved UP — and some of the bootlegs of the short European tour (w/ Joey Waronker on drums) they did to support it are amazing — and I really loved ACCELERATE.

Fact: bragging about not getting into some of the best music ever made simply because it's as old as you are is one of those things you'll hate about your pre-"bombshell" self after you grow up.

Michael Stipe Probably Not
But what about Mike Mills?

Lyle Lovett's Popularity
Well, considering that every album he released in a 10-year span from 1988 to 1998 went gold; he's won a few Grammys, and been in quite a few films, and continues to tour successfully to suggest that more people know of him from his marriage to Julia Roberts than his own musical output is…

"Private Conversation" from ROAD might just be his most sublime song.

Wouldn't It Be Funnier
If it was a gay marriage?

It would have been way better had he mentioned the Repo code.

Indie rock Basement Tapes. Especially on the last couple of albums.

I was 11 when that classic Saturday Night lineup was unfurled. I watched all of those shows with my parents, who were then barely in their thirties. Not everybody went out on Saturday night, not then, not now.

I'm glad that I'm not the only person who thinks that Lucky got cut dead before it got a chance to really shine.

High concept means that it's easily understood.

This is Perfect
Because my biggest fear is being forced to watch a high-concept character-driven procedural every week.

I liked Masked and Anonymous as well. Of course, that's just the crazy-ass Dylan fan in me.

While I've always found the big sound of the Rolling Thunder hit and miss (in that it works great for some songs, but not others) on Hard Rain, Bootleg Series and various bootlegs over the years, I do think that the live version of "Shelter From The Storm" from Hard Rain is utterly fucking transplendent.

Next album: "Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's Lady Gaga!"

Maybe eventually you can, though, as a way to connect with something your friend wanted to turn you on to, and therefore, him.