Don't listen to Cooking With Cranston. I care what a Pearl has to say.

Music is not a zero-sum game. You can get turned on to old AND new bands.

Good write up. It's always good to see one of the most unique and underrated bands of the 90's alt-rock scene getting attention. Now how about a Downward is Heavenward follow up? YPAA is a classic, but Downward is Heavenward is a masterpiece of the highest order. It's one of first albums I think of whenever I compile…

One fucks up the energy at rock shows and the other doesn't.

Also: I have no problem with subcultures (I belong to a few myself), but hipsterism isn't even a subculture, just a vague alligence to some paint-by-numbers sense of "authenticity."

Unfortunately, developing who they are involves all the same fashion choices, an air of trying too hard and, most egregiously, being a bunch of sneering, indier-than-thou ponces at music venues I frequent. Not a fan.

People say that, and yet I see and deal with quantifiable hipsters and hipster culture regularly in my city. I guess my point is: Just because people misuse hipster doesn't mean that hipster isn't a thing.

You saw how hard it was for Rush to finally be inducted. The Rock Hall hates prog. Yes will be waiting a while…

Oh yeah, there's certainly a good to crap ratio at work in any period and your adult sensibilities are better at sorting the two than as a kid. But something can also be said for that ratio changing over time. US toons seemed to turn a corner somewhere in the 2000's. While there was still junk, there was also a…

While I agree with the bulk of what you're saying, I do think you're selling kids' shows of today short. I was a kid in the eighties and I find the kids' shows of today leagues better than what I grew up with. Shows like The Legend of Korra, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe have far better senses of characterization,…

2001 is kind of beyond talking about in terms of proper plot and pacing. That isn't what it's about.

"Party at Ground Zero" by Fishbone really deserved to be on here.

Eh, I find calling it "conformity" a little cynical and it's often used by people who have more, shall we say, conspiratorial views about media content, hence my hesitance in using it (*cough*GlennBeck*cough*). But yeah, strictly speaking the word fits and The Complainer is Always Wrong is pretty much the gist of it.

Violator was released in 1990, got play for years and is seen as one of the most essential albums of the decade. Songs of Faith and Devotion and Ultra also got some play. DM were one of the lucky acts that got to straddle decades.

Or how about the time they put forward a five year plan to increase grain production by collectivizing the farms? A classic right there.

I've heard that before (though without using the word conformity, which is a loaded term culturally). And as a child of that time, I can distinctly remember the emphasis a lot of those shows put on playing nice, sharing and general life lessons. This was an era when adults were especially concerned with what their…

Yup. As someone who both loved (and I mean LOVED) G.I. Joe growing up and went on to get a degree in European History that focused on Nazi Germany and fascism, I always kind of rolled my eyes at those guys who'd make the Cobra=Commies point in some stoned out dorm room bull session. It isn't so much that they're…

Eh, I've always found the Cobra=Commies thing really reductive, especially given that Cobra is pretty much a lift of Hydra from Marvel comics, itself more modeled on fascists like the Nazis than anything else. Heck keep in mind that Cobra had a front corporation named Arbco and its members were often shown to be…

Dude. Dude… Dude. I mean, I have no idea where the story will go from here but DUDE!!!

It really is, isn't it? I can't think of a show I look forward to more.