My biggest problem with constant video-taking at shows has nothing to do with the obstructed view. I mean, there's always gonna be some asshole between you and the stage: if it's not a dude with a phone, it's a guy with a hat, a girl on someone's shoulders, etc. — you just deal with it and move on. The problem is that…

A respectable career, but this obit really could consist of one sentence: He's the one who made the drums on "When the Levee Breaks" sound the way they do.

If you'd told me years ago that I'd find myself on the verge of tears over the death of a movie critic I never actually met, I'd be incredulous. And yet…

Exactly. I mean, go back and look at some of the '77-era pictures of Debbie Harry. She's just…so…like…gah!

That's actually pretty awesome.

(Searches for nearby suicide booth.)

JT spent 20 days cutting that record? Doing what, exactly?

Very well-put. I feel like that could be a flow-chart in a music history textbook at some point.

Am I the only one who enjoys "Killing is My Business…" more than just about any other Megadeth record? I mean, it's obviously inferior to later Megadeth albums on just about every technical level, but I don't care: The production is hideous, the levels of cocaine consumption during recording were clearly off the…

I like the cut of your jib, Batcat.

I'd totally forgotten that they redid it for Era. Yeah, original is definitely best.

I was very recently playing Lullabies, and a female friend of mine called Tangled Up in Plaid the "most masculine" song she'd ever heard. Then I told her it was titled "Tangled Up in Plaid," and she laughed for like a minute straight.

Hanging Tree

Omigodomigodomigod…

Two thoughts:

And that's how yet another hip-hop classic was ruined for me forever.

I'm with you. My one experience at a Phish concert was pretty much exactly the same as my one experience at a late-90s desert rave: I thought the music was terrible, I thought the scene was silly and the clothes were hideous, but there were plenty of drugs and chicks and overall good vibes, and I decided, "fuck it,…

Preach! An essential element of my development as a young music nerd back in the '90s was the mere fact that I had a turntable. The $12 everyone else spent on a CD allowed me to pick up dozens of 25-cent-bin records, thereby exploring music on a whim that I never could have hoped to afford otherwise.

Absolutely right. Especially agree with your last sentence there. So many of these guys are technically skilled enough to be playing Baroque pieces in symphonies (well, symphonies that are progressive enough to make room for blast-beats), with music that can be just dizzyingly complex and imaginative from a…

Watched that episode with my (generally straight-laced) father as a little kid. He had just taken a large gulp of soda right before the cutaway to Homer doing the wiggle, and proceeded to spew a mouthful of Pepsi across the living room, then damn near fell off the couch laughing. I still remember it perfectly.