@PG — I will say the magazine did seem to change in some negative ways over the past few years, but I never got an overall sense of smugness (maybe a whiff occasionally, but that's about it). Most of the writers did a good job of actually caring about what they reviewed, minus the standard music journalism cynicism.

Yup. I know lots of folks that work for the magazine (and casually know the editor), but this comes as a shock. They've done a great job of at least giving tons of music (much of it good stuff) to their readers over the years.

Joel Schumacher
Just sayin'.

As a former bookseller, this might be the most wonderfully accurate thing I've read in a month.

Yankee, I'm almost positive that's him.

I think Kozelek's guitar skills were there from Down Colorful Hill onward, with all of his fancy pants open tunings and elaborate fingerpicking.

I'll come out and say it: I actually dig the Thorns album a lot. The version I bought came with a bonus 'live acoustic' version of the album, and hearing some of the songs stripped down a bit really helped sell them (since the studio album was 'eh' the first few times through).

I love how, at the 1:45 mark….
…the fine fellow on the right nods. "Damn, professor. Slayed 'em."

Their earlier b-sides and compilation cuts are consistently killer: "Jamie," "Suzanne," "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams," "You Gave You Love to Me Softly," and "Mykel and Carli."

This kind of reminds me of a book that came out a few years ago called The Expected One, by Kathleen McGowan. It was released in the wake of the Da Vinci Code, and lots of authors were trying to cash in on that book's popularity, so HOLY CRAP THIS LADY CLAIMED TO BE JESUS'S SUPER GREAT GRAND DAUGHTER or something. If…

There are plenty of people that would read them, I think. N.D. Wilson is the son of Doug Wilson, a pretty popular (in some circles) theologian, so there's a built-in audience right off the bat (Wilson and his gang are all for ripping up the Left Behind books). I mean, sure, they're not stocked in airport bookstores or…

For what it's worth, the Slacktivist Left Behind blog is a riot.

I was volunteering at a conventional at a hotel in Pittsburgh a few years back. I met some friends for a drink at the bar in the hotel and, before too long, the bar got really quiet — Pauly Shore and two burly guys sauntered in, pointing at people. Someone in the back of the bar said (loudly) "Is that Pauly Shore?"…

I've noticed that Joe Carnahan tends to do this a lot. He also likes start flame wars with people in comment sections as much as he can. I mean, I like 'Narc,' but he tends to do things like this all of the time. I wonder if that's one of the reasons why he has a hard time getting films made (see: MI: 3, White Jazz,…

Uh, Doc…I think he was making a funny at Lost.

Naw, naw!
Tons of lame violence and sex, from a Joe Carnahan movie? Say it ain't so!

Altered Beast really is a good album. Good comparison!

I really don't think the band has a bad album at all (though 'Howdy!' gets the least number of spins from me). I think Songs from Northern Britain might have the highest concentration of my favorite TFC songs, but Bandwagonesque and Grand Prix aren't far behind. I really hate choosing one over the other, and am…

Interestingly enough, the same goes for Joe Carnahan.

I actually got into them with their previous two 'pop' albums, and have since become a fan of all of their stuff. They really don't have a bad album.