I hear ya on the "world music," especially in that everything that been called that here for the last 30 years all seems to kind of sound the same (Afro-Caribbean rhythms? Check. Lots of flutes and other woodwinds? Check). There's way more to what's going on musically overseas than what Art professors are listening…

What do I want to see this year? Increased musical exchange with the U.K. We've been trading popular music back and forth to our mutual benefit for decades in ebbs and flows, and the last decade has really felt like an ebb, which is a shame. Why? Because the U.K. is killing it right now, especially when it comes to…

Yep. Just dropped a little over a month ago, called "Dead to the World". Haven't picked it up yet because I'm old school, want a physical copy and my local record shop was sold out. Saw them live though a few weeks ago* and the material sounded strong. Helmet still Thunders live.

I'm a big music geek, but this year I don't really have any albums to foist on folks beyond maybe Bowie's Blackstar. Oh, there were some solid ones (Savages, Slaves) and some I still got to check out (Helmet), but 2016 wasn't the embarrassment of riches 2015 was.

And therein lies Candy Land's deeper message: Free will is an illusion. Existence is futility. Victory is merely the weight of statistical advantage. For young children, it's just good clean fun. But after a certain age it is a stern life lesson.

A hot Queen Frostine you say?

-CHILL OUT, WHITE BREAD! I'LL CUT YOU.-

I was in the suburbs and there nobody gave a shit about The Bends until after OK Computer hit. Radiohead was a one hit wonder band as far as we, or a lot of mainstream American culture*, was concerned. I remember that around '96-'97 Spin magazine (pretty sure it was Spin, anyways) ran a little list of of One Hit…

While I was never a fan of the Post-Grunge that followed in their wake (Creed, Puddle of Miss, Default etc.) I'll always have a soft spot for Live. "Throwing Copper" is a good album and in a lot of ways was the 90's answer to Boston's first album: Broadly appealing and accessible, unapologetically pop yet also…

Devil's Prince!

*Checks The Taco Bell bell's user history*

You live for these moments, don't you?

Serious ideological commitment from the Colt-meister, to be sure.

*Eyes the pair of well-muscled NKVD dudes standing at Brosef's shoulders*

Nah. Why be that picky?

Still better than what happens when you seat a Stalinist next to a Trotskyist. Oy, the clean up…

He better put her back together. Pearl Perma-death=Bird MILF goes HULKRAGE!!! ;-)

Eyeball, like Bismuth, is a serious challenge to Steven's world view. In fact, Steven's tossing of Eyeball to space was something of a refutation of his stand against shattering, underscored by the revelation that Rose shattered Punk Diamond. Steven is finding out that the world is a complicated place and that there…

On point all the way down, but especially your description of Pearl's characterization. There is some serious, Bojack Horseman-level depth to her portrayal that I think a lot of people recognize intuitively but the writers aren't given enough credit for. She's a layered, very human character that even a lot of live…

Good episode and lots of nice discussion about it here. However, I would like to instead pitch a theory: Steven's about to change. Mature, grow, what ever you want to call it, I think the ever-a-kid Steven when know and love is about to be shocked into teenagehood. There has been a lot of episodes lately that have…