To Recreate Us

The Faces were the best thing Rod Stewart ever did. Why, why, why did he ever think he could be better than that band?!? Not that I don't like "Forever Young" and "Young Turks" and "Downtown Train", but seriously, you can't argue with, say, "If I'm on the Late Side".

Sufjan Stevens is really pretty special. I shied away from him for awhile for various reasons, not the least of which was how much everyone seems to swoon over him, but credit and love is due. A bit of a one trick pony (look who's talking, right? :), but special nonetheless. He makes my stomach do somersaults of longing. Never a bad thing.

Denison Witmer is also something special. Again with the one trick, but he seems more honest and more interested in exploration. I dig his simpleness and his honesty. What can I say... Denison defines "diary songwriter" to me, and that's not a bad thing.

Iron and Wine: another rave fave. I like, but frankly, he scares me. Like a just-getting-over-being-shy, really introverted "Goldfly"-era Guster. The music is either soothing or seething, and I'm not sure how to trust that.

I just now, this instant, found out about Alexi Murdoch, and yes, yes.

I'm pretty happy about Phish getting back together, unlike most other people that like song-based music. They really don't get their due from the regular music folks, but whatever, I guess when you can pull in a city sized amount of people for a two day fest of which you are the only act, I guess you probably don't worry about the naysayers. Still, can they age effectively? Not many bands can. Even U2's latest, which is great, is slighter shades of their former greatness. As long as they don't hire Tchad Blake, we'll probably be okay.

Inquiring minds want to know... will Ryan Adams and Mandy Moore do anything musical together? That would be weird, but possibly also really good.

Scientists are like musicians: some are doing great stuff, some are doing... less than great stuff.



Your ideologies will kill you. Remember that.