I'll buy that Christgau paraphrase, Barefoot. I don't know, it always just struck me that the US version was less "punk" and more "commercial" by upping the singles content. I mean White Man, Clash City Rockers and I Fought The Law are mind-blowing songs but they're totally singles and show the Clash progressing…

Clash City Rockers?
Come on Jason, for a supposed punk lover, you highlight the US version of The Clash, which included songs (such as Clash City Rockers) that weren't even written until 1978?

I do love AllMusic.com as well, but it is true that they're not the most discriminating reviewers. It seems to me that almost every album hovers between three and four stars unless it is truly horrendous or mind-blowing. Often there will even be a fairly unfavorable review and the thing still gets three and a half…

Obligatory AVC DFW Reference
How about Eschaton and the films of James Incandenza from Infinite Jest?

Although perhaps not front-to-back amazing, Wyclef's The Carnival was also a '97 album and had some damn fine songs.

Meh, my point is that there's something to be said for NOT having all things instantly available, both in terms of your appreciation of them and in terms of what they mean to you. Of course there's also a lot to be said FOR that, I guess I've just been recently vacillating between which is better.

Interesting Conclusion, Steven
As someone who came of age a decade later, it's interesting to think how our generation who grew up with everything at our fingertips (or at least who barely remembers not having everything at their fingertips) will come to regard this culture. Time was, you had to go to college to be…

Fuckin' A!
Solid, AV Club. Solid gold.

@ImMyOwnGrandfather, don't take away the one thing that the city of Aurora has going for it.

More Cubs-bashing, please
I'm sorry, but any show starring a Polack who hates the Cubs can never get below a B in my book. Ever.

A perfect AV Club statue would be Rob Gordon, from High Fidelity. He probably looks like most of the men who post on here (maybe minus facial hair and some stomach) and sure as hell sounds like them. You could put it on the corner of Honore and Milwaukee which is where Championship Vinyl was supposedly located and is…

Let's Not Say Things That We Can't Take Back
The Thanksgiving Filter is one of my favorite songs on the album. The best anthem for America's best holiday since Styrofoam Plates.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike…

All I Heard…
Clearly the most important lesson from all of these films? Cubs fans are jerks. Don't believe me? Take the Red Line on Tuesday afternoon, post-Cubs game.

Now, I don't know if this is very well-publicized, but with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco actually was crazy enough to stream the album online for free, thus forever defeating evil musical corporations. That happened in 2001, it was the year when they played Grant Park and I Am Trying To Break Your Heart was filmed, so…

2001
As someone who really came of age over the past decade, it seems to me that 2001 was really a breakthrough year for a lot of the music that would come to define the musical landscape, 2004 and 2007 were good as well, but check 2001.

Yeah, All My Friends at p4k was perhaps the musical highlight of my year last year. I was also at the Hot Chip/LCD show in October and I agree, Yeah was a clear highlight. I think LCD is such a great communal experience because they're a dance band. Anytime people are moving it means they're interacting they're…

I initially misread the title of this thread as "Just Shoot Him". Which is both good advice and a mildly clever pun on an old NBC show. A missed opportunity, that.

John + Yoko

Not really, no. They were all pretty close to type. John's (if you discount Two Virgins) was artistic, challenging and political, Paul's was poppy and a little saccharine and George's was folk meets pop with some religious/world influences. Sure, all of those are present in Beatles albums, but, if anything I think…