Agreed on the De La Soul love. Early 90s rap seems like a great gateway into earlier music, and most of the non-metal albums from this period that get me excited (Labcabincalifornia, Enter the Wu Tang, Doggystyle, etc) are rap albums.

Aside from vaguely positive impressions toward a few of these bands, I don't have much of a connection to the stuff discussed. Nevertheless, I've read every word of every one of these so far, because they're some of the best written and most insightful articles on this website, and nowhere near too long IMO.

I would put "Doublemeat Palace" and "Older and Far Away" as flawed-but-good episodes, though I can acknowledge that this isn't a particularly defensible position. Other than that, I guess I pretty much agree with Spicoli.

MAYBE A SPOILER?

If you absolutely HAD to pick a genre for Meshuggah, Death Metal is probably the best choice.

I'm not from Portland, but since Colin Meloy is from Montana, I feel like I should defend him occasionally on this website. Then I remember that photo where he looks like a spazzy leprechaun, and I think better of it.

With regard to the Lord of the Flies thing, I just meant a general turn to barbarism and moral degeneracy. Perhaps not the best choice of references, but it makes decent sense, even after I've had coffee.

J Serious - I lol'd so hard at that. $50,000 in internet money for you.

Most of the time, the comments section is pretty interesting. Unfortunately, whenever there's an interview with a woman, this place turns into Lord of the Flies. At least, a LOTF where everyone keeps pretending demeaning sexism is cool if done ironically.

Pit_Pat is correct. Good band, shitty sub-Deicide lyrics.

While I love Sludge Metal, and would have no issue with more coverage of it, I take some issue with your point regarding Black/Death Metal. Leonard gives plenty of time to Black Metal, but by no means does he give too much time to Death Metal. I mostly like the current balance, but I would very much like to see some…

The article by Matt Zoller Seitz
I don't watch Glee very much (caught an episode one time, and didn't have strong feelings either way), but this guy makes me want to be a fan. He obviously thinks it has tons of potential, and he makes a solid case for it, but he's also clearly a good enough critic to explain why it…

Yeah, there shouldn't be any reason Pudi couldn't be in a show like Rome, at least not period accuracy. Race is a modern construct, and the only real bigotry in the empire was cultural (ie a middle-eastern looking fellow who was an assimilated Roman citizen was acceptable, while a northern-European barbarian was not,…

I agree with the OP that this sounds pretty dire. I hate how (some) nerds pick a random group (ninjas and pirates and whatnot), mythologize them to the point of absurdity, and then turn the whole thing into serious fucking business. It's probably the lamest form of fetishism, and that's saying a lot. Still, I enjoyed…

I'm trying to come up with a thoughtful response that doesn't make me sound like a pretentious douche, but like all good outside criticism, your comments are a little different from how I've thought about it before. As I said before, your idea that we Americans have an inefficient system I basically agree with.…

Don't I feel stupid now. I just realized that by interim you probably meant like if a senator dies or whatever. If so, my answer doesn't apply, but I don't exactly see what your problem with those elections are.

I agree that we spend too much time running for office in this country, but just as bad is the 2 month gap between an election and the inauguration. It pretty much guarantees that any change in parties will result in no shit whatsoever getting done. However, I'm not so certain why interim senate and governor elections…

I didn't actually go through with it, but I had a similar experience just this year. I thought it would be fun to dress up like Angel, seeing as how I'm a die-hard Whedonite and I look kinda like David Boreanaz if you squint. I already had the trench coat, and so I just decided to wear a dark collared shirt and some…

Sometimes a -0;[; is just a -0;[;.

Yeah, SWPL is misnamed, and a lot of people don't like it for that reason alone. As an occasional reader, my take is that it isn't really about stuff exclusive to white people, but it's actually about the levels of pretension exhibited by some (ie hipsters), and the way this affects how they enjoy universally popular…