I saw them on the Kiss Me tour and three things stand out even after all these years. First, the "Wham, wham" of the title track as the projection screen disappeared, and Smith's epic wah-guitar solo was about the best show opener I've ever seen. Second, they kicked ass the entire show. Third, you could see the…

I'd call him "sir." Anyone who can hang with Killing Joke and Sir Paul has a knighthood of pure badassery. KPBa.

I have actually used "People! I ain't PEOPLE!" in conversation.

Missing Chairs was the first CD I ever bought, based entirely on word-of-mouth back in the pre-interweb days. No, this is not a failed firstie. But it's amazing how much those three records resonated in other bands for the next, oh, 25 years. Who else has had that kind of impact from the post-punk era? XTC I suppose,…

Pedro the Lion: Control.

A concept album in the very best way, with a real story arc, repeated motifs, and chilling lyrics. I'd say one of the best albums ever.

Engine Room is fantastic. No weak spots, and the nautical theme somehow is what Watt's delivery is made for,

Ronnie James Sabbath was pretty great, in a strange way. Dio had that Shirley Bassey "Gold-FINGAAAAHHHH" thing that made the band shift from a kind of creepy underworld feeling to a sort of operatic arena-demon vibe.

Oh gosh, on the guitar geek boards his scooped, chainsaw-compressed tone is pretty routinely dissed as horrible. While his playing, even for a non-metal guy like me, is clearly sublime. I think if Ozzy had not found RR, his solo career might have fizzled after one record. Iommi seemed kind of rooted in blues and…

I think as a human being and in movies it's tough because, as with so many conditions, there are so many variable and nuances that each individual situation's unique. I have a cousin who seemed completely healthy until a high fever from meningitis when he was… two, I think. His behavior then became subtly and then…

I was incredibly dumb lucky in that I caught the Heads on the tour that was made into the movie Stop making Sense. Cobo in Detroit. It was life-changing. In the pre-interwebs days, you didn't know about the big suit, the slow build of players on stage, the projections behind the band, the boom box. Then saw them again…

I saw them on the Reckoning tour, playing for free on the green at University of Florida. Cool bits…

A former bandmate who's done a lot of touring was in a band that opened for Oasis, and the guy who engineered our last CD had done some concert recording of the band. Both reported the same thing: the Gallagher brothers were super nice guys and got along fine among other musicians. The moment there was media around,…

Heh, it's not that far off. I used to base my life around playing music and mountain biking. Then my divorce (Cause and effect? Huh? Nawwwww!) left me literally homeless… a few quick calculations told me if I didn't start sticking $20k a year in savings I was going to be lucky to afford the GENERIC cat food in…

I kinda get this. Once you get into six figures, unless you're an entertainer or billionaire tech genius prodigy mutant, you have to conform to societal norms or you won't move up. In fact you may be drummed out of this society. A friend and I were bitching a while back that we had to buy nice cars (he just got an…

I don't exactly want to defend Lemur here 'cos I think he is arguing because it's fun for him. But I can see his original contention: stating that one immediately respects a fake-watch-wearer over a real-watch-wearer is as reflexive a class judgement as immediate respect given a Rolex-wearer.

Do any of the AV Club writers have kids? I used to know about new bands, new TV shows, latest directors. Then I had a kid.

She's great. And my wife, who is from Sweden, is a dead ringer for Nordenstam.

They rehearse in the same mega-rehearsal-space complex in Atlanta. Those dudes are scary looking and have a metric shit-ton of gear. The Coathangers on the other hand are cute and nice and cheery. But nearly as inked. Oddly, the area has gone from super-sketchy wasteland to chic, with a park, swanky condos and such,…

Aren't a Cossack militia roughly the Russian equivalent of a bunch of angry"patriots"? They weren't cops (though I'd assume the cops turned a blind eye) but more like a lynch mob. Cossack is an Slavic ethnic group from what I understand, who had the occasional habit of fighting on the Nazi side in WWII.