It's the difference between leather pants and distressed jeans.

Yeah, I get what he means (i.e., it's not like Whitesnake was a third-wave ska band or something; they were playing in roughly the same hard rock vein), and that album does sound extremely inessential. But still…!

4) @willharrisinva:disqus
5) film crew, especially Ignatiy + featuring Adam Nayman and Chuck Bowen (even if their best stuff appears elsewhere)
6) the return of the olds (NoelMu, Rabin, Tashinson)

Upvoted for the courage to make a point which is factually correct but not that interesting.

Pope Francis was robbed!!!

Yeah, but the libs can get down with him, too.

This is funny to me, because I did kind of get into metal via Burzum (not exactly, but "Filosofem" was undeniably a major gateway), and now Varg is like my embarrassing racist uncle.

I was just joking, but also kinda hoping someone would chime in with nominations.

Just listened to Algiers based on your mention her and Kevin Warwick's write-up above. I'm really digging it! Seems like they would be pretty killer live.

I think the issue is that the old crew left all at once, which just created a vacuum that had to be filled, and it was naturally filled with freelancers, who naturally tend to be younger and greener. The best possible scenario would have been a situation where the old crew nurtured some fresh talent and gradually…

What were the best garden-variety-conservative-approved albums of the year?

For a lot of people around hear, A is more likely to refer to podcasts than new music. Also for the audio component of movies and TV shows, I guess.

It's sure to make the Least Essential Albums list, right?

Just saw Dheepan this weekend, which has a pretty good Jaar score. Not 100% sure it fits the movie that well, but that's not so much his fault. And making this comment reminds me that I still haven't gotten around to watching Color of Pomegranates with his alternate score yet.

Whoa whoa whoa, nothing wrong with being the Steely Dan of Doom Metal! But I agree Kannon wasn't their best. Their collabs (which M&D basically was) tend to be their best stuff.

Don't have a list made up, but these albums come to mind as stuff I played a lot. I know I'm probably forgetting quite a bit.:

"Most people agree on interpretations of the Bible. There are all kind of interpretations of the Quran."

Yeah, it's tough with it being right around the holidays. I'm covering a bunch of the EU Showcase movies for a website, but I'm still missing The Treasure, which is the one I most want to see.

Assuming "here" is still the DC metro area for you, it's playing at AFI a couple times as part of the EU Film Showcase: http://silver.afi.com/Brows…

Sure, I hope you like it! Wood gets pretty dense at times, especially when he gets into Lacan and Freud, but he's incredibly insightful about the way certain kinds of movies interact with the culture. His stuff on horror movies is phenomenal.