My Top 15 (in no order sans Whiskeytown songs)
Dear Chicago
Shadowlands (this is a top five song of all time for me)
Everybody Knows
This House Is Not For Sale
This Is It
Cry On Demand
When Will You Come Back Home
Nuclear
To Be Young
If I Am A Stranger
Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.
Love Is Hell
Crossed Out Name
Two
I Taught Myself How…

…but I guess my faith in mankind is shaken.

Sooooo glad to see…
…that 0 reasonable discussions are occurring as a result of this news.

Best Damien Albums (post-Rehearsals for Departure)
I agree with Scott that Caught in the Trees is head and shoulders above any post-Rehearsals for Departure album. All the other albums or EPs have some wonderful moments - see "Denton, TX" from And Now That I'm In Your Shadow, "Fuel" from On My Way to Absence, or any…

now that I recall…
It was a five-act bill, with Fleet Foxes. A very long, wonderful night.

…
I've seen them live twice. The first in a four-act bill (opening for Menomena, Blitzen Trapper, and Helio Sequence) and they were stupendous. The second time they opened for Modest Mouse and no one would shut up long enough to hear more than a snippet of each song.

From my initial listen
I actually like this album better than MOF, at least in its entirety. And that's saying a lot considering the last had flawless gems like "Old Old Fashioned" and "Keep Yourself Warm."

It's probably already been said…
…but I'm a little conflicted about seeing so many Northwest acts represented here. Elliott Smith, David Bazan, Damien Jurado, Sleater-Kinney. Maybe it's fitting considering Portland's recent designation as "The Nation's Most Depressing City" by Business Week. Couple that label with a…

"Essentia" - Feminine lubricant for women on the go.

An offshoot of "The Onion," which proudly specializes in forthright, snarky reviews of music, books, films and all things pop culture - what an appropriate place to defend a thesis statement.

Oh shit. I forgot…

I have a few…
I don't know if these make me feel patriotic…but they make me glad the person doing the creating was/is American.

I know - I was just kidding. I just got done commenting twenty-two times on The Mars Volta review. I fucking hate that band. That's why I spend so much frequenting their reviews. Because I hate them. And I like people to know that.

Calm down, calm down…
Excluding dead favorites (e.g. Jeff Buckley, Chris Bell, Nick Drake, Rich Mullins, etc.), seeing SDRE in concert is one of my (previously unrealistic) dreams. (Along with Pedro the Lion, The Posies (circa 1997), and early Starflyer 59). I live in Portland - a few hours from Seattle - and I'm…

Does the code name 'sapphire' mean anything to you?
A.V. Club. Oh deary me. How can you exclude one of the funniest, most irreverent courtroom scenes of all time? I'm talking, of course, about the scene from "Bananas" where Woody Allen is forced to prosecute himself, question a witness while bound and gagged, and ask…

Danger Mouse w/ Jason Lytle
Jason Lytle appears on two different songs on Danger Mouse's new, stuck-in-record-company-limbo album. I like him and I like Grandaddy but the new songs, along with the Iggy Pop collaboration, are a little dull and grating. It irks me when people say, about any band, "all their stuff sounds…

If you can forget about "Diary" for a sec…
…"World Waits" is a gorgeous album, in terms of sound and songwriting, and it stands on its own (much like "Return of the Frog Queen"). Give it a listen.

I'm consistently amazed about SDRE fans who say nothing was good after "Diary". That's like saying Radiohead peaked with "The Bends".

The Smoking Gun
The Smoking Gun published the original police report a while back. It's pretty brutal, odious stuff and it doesn't leave much doubt about what happened…

Glad to see this is getting some ink
Slate also did a review recently (before the new edition came out). Here's the best of it: