Fun to see that Beck is the latest to fall victim to the hip indie band "pastel washed-out Instagram photo with minimalist sans serif lightweight font" album cover design trend. Though he loses points for not overlaying the image with a meaningless circle or triangle, his hat sort of works as a circle, so partial…

Vocal is trying way too hard - not that he's bad, but the "EVERY SYLLABLE IS EPIC AND IMPORTANT AND MUST BE FORCED OUT HARD and be very compressed such that there's no dynamics" thing gets old quickly. Music sounds like it could've come from any similar song - "drums and a guitar riff then BIG GIANT SLAMMING GUITARS…

Sounds like everything else of this genre. I need a drink.

Does she still use that swallowing-the-ends-of-words weak voice that so infuriated on their Undercover appearance?

Believe me, it seemed no less weird to me.

It was utterly, utterly bizarre, but apparently he was appearing in a stage play in town, or something of that nature.

I haven't had a ton of honest-to-goodness celebrity encounters, but in general, if they're free to say a word or two to, I just try to be cool and treat them like a person. You can tell pretty quick if they are A) totally cool and up for a chat, B) cool but exhausted/whatever so it's best to just say "hey, I really…

Bike lanes don't cause traffic. The country's massive over dependence on cars and their related infrastructure and development patterns causes traffic.

Not feeling it. It's not that this is bad - it's just not what I liked about DDG. Veered way too hard toward the "pop" side of the equation for me. I miss the lower-fi guitar rock.

Mission: Impossible - The Modell Constant

I've lost a lot of my youthful love of ridiculous sweets over the years, but damn, Oreos are still one of those things where I'll be all "sure, I'll have one" and the next thing I know, the bag is empty and I feel like I'm about to die.

Taste Tests have sure changed a lot.

I try to be that guy in the scene who's not a dick, so I come and stay and listen to all the other acts (or as many as I can), I stay until I get paid (which is often around 2:00 AM), I help load in and out the other folks - and when I get home, I smell like I've been rolling around in ashtrays all night, my voice…

Yeah, Randi never comes across as an asshole to me. He seems full of excitement at the reality of the world, even as he destroys the BS psychics and conspiracy nuts.

That's one of my favorite moments of the show, especially given the context - a 9/11 truther.

In some places - i.e., my town - you *still* can't go to clubs or bars without being assaulted by secondhand smoke. (We only ban smoking in such places if they serve more than a certain amount of food, because any attempt to get rid of it for good gets the local right wing up in arms about "destroying freedom" -…

I'd have thought that a better approach to writing "hey, let's pay attention to the awful garbage nominated for a Grammy this year" would have been to write some kind of roundup article containing all five, or whatever, of these songs. The site's done stuff like that before, and it'd be a concentrated spot for people…

Hey! I'm not…ok, fine, point conceded.

I've never been a huge R.E.M. fan, but kinda dig "Shiny Happy People" - Kate Pierson is unimpeachably awesome in every way - but the multiple Hatesong features are actually making me into an R.E.M. supporter.

There's plenty of "pop" music out in the world that's got a brain in its head. I thought the AV Club used to be more focused on that side of the coin.