I'm been reading a lot of New Cult Canon lately too.

Until three days ago, I had no idea My World Of Flops ever existed.
Over the past 72 hours, I've probably read about 20 of them.
Then I refresh the main page and find this brand new article.

Normally I've never heard of the C-listers badmouthing a particular Hate Song… And now I've never heard of the C-listers PERFORMING said Hate Song either.

No Michelle? No Mean Mr. Mustard?
MSH was probably the worst choice for this letter. Sorry.

It was either Get Lucky or Blurred Lines.
Probably the right call.

I need to go back to the old episodes of IAS. This entire episode was fantastic.

Well, the article is absolutely correct about one thing: the huge success of JLP pushed a lot of other female acts into the mainstream. Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, Ani DiFranco, Liz Phair, and Hole had already covered most of this ground well before Alanis, but 13 million units sold tends to kick a trend into…

I wasn't trying to suggest a black vs. white thing… Just that it's becoming a trend/cliche with SNL this season.
Kendrick Lamar: "Pay For It" opens with Chantal Kreviazuk (innocuous white person) singing the hook, on piano.
Nicki Minaj: "Bed Of Lies" opens with Skylar Grey (innocuous white person) singing the hook, on…

I imagine the booking process at SNL goes something like this….
FAMOUS RAPPER: Yeah, I want to perform on your antiquated-yet-still-weirdly-influential sketch show.
SNL BOOKING AGENT: Great. Do you have an innocuous white person handy to open your first number, so our older viewers keep watching? Preferably a white…

AV Club and Onion headlines are becoming harder and harder to tell apart.

Agreed. "Empty Garden" was one of his best later-period songs, and rarely gets played anymore… And he certainly doesn't have the voice to sing it like THAT anymore.

As have Soul Asylum over the years (including now).
The second guy from the left is clearly Dave Pirner. Then Karl Mueller and Dan Murphy (in the baseball cap).
The "black guy" looks to be Sterling Campbell, which would place this incarnation of SA in 1995-98. (Thanks Wikipedia!)

I saw him on With Teeth after taking many years off. Outdoor show, big amphitheater, show was OK but not spectacular. Then a lightning storm came up and they had to stop the show for about 30 min.
When they came back the crowd was appreciably smaller… and wetter… And Trent put on one of the best second halves of a…

Exactly. He's about 1.5 times the songwriter Billy is.

I was too young to go to concerts back then, but I remember some older kids going to 38 Special just to catch the opening band. They'd just gotten big with this song "You Give Love A Bad Name."

I'm glad I was never that young.

Is having a picture of Soul Asylum under the Spin Doctors headline supposed to be a joke? Or another intern screwup?

I've seen NIN maybe… 7 times over the years? With everyone from Bowie to Jane's Addiction to TV On The Radio to Marilyn Manson sharing the bill. Trent has never ONCE said a disparaging work to the audience… And his shows have stayed pretty epic, especially lately. (He clearly puts all that Fincher money into stage…

Hasn't Justified gone over a few times this season though? Not 90 min, but some episodes will run 1:10 on my DVR (with commercials).

That said, "Man, Severe Tire Damage is the best live album ever made!" is a phrase that has never been uttered by any human being ever.