I do think Jeff had one huge advantage in the Uncle Tupelo split: Wilco's manager, Tony Margherita. I think he's done a lot to brand the band (he was very smart to see the potential of the the whole Yankee Hotel Foxtrot fiasco, which really made a mountain out of a molehill but was a good story for rock publications)…

Trust me, that's not always the case. Especially when you write for a free alt. weekly in Mississippi. Also, don't take my post as saying your post wasn't true, I'm just giving a different perspective.

I have a friend from Birmingham who hated that song until he was living in Germany for a couple of years and hadn't met another American for a few weeks and wandered into an American bar where the band was playing it. It brought a tear to his eye and he even found himself singing "roll tide roll!"

Brian Henneman from the Bottle Rockets played with Wilco on their first album and tour and tells a story about the time Tweedy and co. played Trace for the first time and just said "fuck…" It definitely lit a fire under Tweedy's ass to up his game (I say that as a huge fan of A.M.).

Trace and Straightaways are pretty much a double album but Wide Swing Tremolo is quite a bit different, they moved into more of an R.E.M.-esque alternative rock direction, way less country. Still, Farrar has a distinctive voice and writing style so nothing is going to sound drastically different. Sebastopol is good,…

I don't think he has contempt for his audience so much as he's a shy, serious guy. But I will admit their shows, at least after the original lineup broke up, can be pretty dull.

To give a different perspective, I interviewed Farrar once and he was perfectly nice and pleasant. He wasn't exactly charming or funny like Tweedy, but he was nice and intelligent. He strikes me as shy but he was happy to talk to me for an hour or so. Not all artists are as accommodating.

Short has appeared in the Five Timers skits though. There was one with Baldwin and Martin hanging out in the Five Timers lounge and Short was serving them drinks and they pretended like they didn't know him.

I think he appeared on the first Five-Timers Club skit in the early 90s but hasn't since. Maybe he still has a bad taste in his mouth from that last time he hosted during the Jean Doumanian season.

Might be mistaken, but I think he hosted quite a few times in the seasons shortly after he left when the Not Ready for Primetime Players were still there (I think his first hosting gig is when the "medium talent" altercation occurred). I can only remember him hosting once in the past 15 years.

I don't think Lee and Smith were ever close buddies like Smith and Affleck were, but Smith did champion him a lot (like when he was gonna make the Fletch Won movie) and Lee did show up in Cop Out (or so I'm told). Jason Lee's career kinda disappointed me. Not as much as Smith's but I had high hopes for that guy.

I don't think he's ever been interested in filmmaking or at least not since the '90s. Once he started making money he seemed to turn his attentions toward monetizing the rabid Clerks/Mallrats following and, recently, making himself the star in ways that don't require as much heavy lifting as filmmaking (podcasts,…

I don't remember much about it, except that there was some cloying scene with Craig Robinson towards the end. I did like the part where Mewes showed Rogen how to do the mutual jerkoff thing.

@avclub-29501df08e5d9ae59e432e4f188d3735:disqus Yeah, I agree. It is a pretty dated concept now, but it seemed pretty edgy at the time and made for a good hook. There were at least 3 movies that used the same hook that came out around the same time. I liked Joey Lauren Adams. Too bad her voice seems to have hurt her…

I found it highly unrealistic that they would be working at a fast food restaurant in their 30s at all (especially with the likes of Rosario Dawson). That may actually be a step down from clerking at a convenience/video store. There are plenty of jobs that make more sense for a 35 year old male that are equally soul…

Well, to be fair, he was taking it back.

@avclub-29501df08e5d9ae59e432e4f188d3735:disqus If the scene where Affleck earnestly suggests they all fuck each other had been played for laughs instead of playing out like it was some realistic situation, it might hold up ok. As such, it does not. Although I would probably be okay with him if he'd kept making low…

He figured out how to move the camera a bit in Clerks 2 and I'll admit it felt very wrong.

I guess Red State. I haven't seen it but people seem pretty positive about it. I still say Clerks is the best (and possibly only really good) movie he ever made. I loved Chasing Amy when I was 14 and had no idea how ridiculous it was.

The problem with being a huge blowhard who is also something of a web pioneer like Mr. Smith is that there are those of us who remember 10 years ago when he blogged that Jersey Girl would be the best movie he ever made. And again about Zack & Miri. And Clerks 2. And Red State. Maybe one of those could be ranked as the…