Nice, I love this. I’m still dreaming of the strings returning for another Islands’ album, but I appreciate the variety of sounds he’s taken on. Each album is definitely it’s own entity.

This one time when I had a lot on my mind, I started running up and down the stairs at my town’s local football stadium. Well, I was a little distracted and probably pushing it a little too hard, but I noticed another guy running the stairs pretty darn fast.

Needless to say, I ended up falling and hurting my ankle while trying to match the speed of this stranger. The other guy noticed me fall and came over to help me. We had a nice chat and I enjoyed his Scottish accent. He also said goodbye in a mysterious way that I really liked: “See you in another life, brother.” Intriguing.

Anyway, to make a long story short, a couple of years later I eventually realized that this guy was the singer for the Twilight Sad. Small world, huh?

“…and the guitar tone sucks.”

Don’t ever watch Friday Night Lights (or listen to Explosions in the Sky). It’s basically that guitar tone played over shaky-cam shots of high school football and family turmoil.

I love FNL & WU LYF, for the record. I thought they pulled off a great performance here.

I give him points for trying, but the voice is too much for me. I love singers with unique voices who may not hit the traditional notes, but it sounds like he has not found his voice yet, particularly live. The yell-singing-talking type thing works okay for them in the studio, though.

The cover of They Might Be Giants that they did was just as grating because of the vox: http://www.avclub.com/articles/titus-andronicus-covers-they-might-be-giants,53051/

Perhaps it’s just me, but this is a band that I associate with the vibes of a college party, thus the drinking metaphor. It’s fun for a bit, then you’re all set with it and look for more sustainable pleasures in life. Maybe it’s just because I’m an old man now and have little interest in this type of stuff.

Matthew James Simerly, yes, Kafka is my favorite author, but now I’m mortified.

Matthew, help me become a deeper person and internet-commenter. Franz Kafka mislead me down this dark path of feigned-depth.

Alright, I tried to resist this in my initial post, but the tangent needed to come out.

M83′s double-album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, which I do love, is the same length as Smashing Pumpkins’ single-disc albums, Adore and Machina. (If you count that downloadable bonus track, M83 is five minutes longer.)

Billy fills discs, whereas M83 used the double-album as a marketing tool. Those four albums I listed above are equal to 8.23 indie rock albums (scale: indie rock album = 40 mins). The quantity of stuff he released is insane and almost every second of those four albums is of excellent quality. You could probably shed 10 minutes off Adore and maybe 15 off of Machina, but everything else is essential.

Now that is an interview – excellent job. I’ve been on a huge Smashing Pumpkins kick recently as I’m sure many others are after the re-releases of Gish / Siamese Dream.

I was really into them as a teenager, but Mellon Collie was the last album that I had listened to until my recent obsession. Adore and Machina are much better albums than I expected them to be. There is some classic material on both.

I sincerely think that if some new band were to come on the scene tomorrow and release Adore as their debut, Pitchfork would slobber all over them and give it a 9. The dark-tone and electronic elements would fit right in with a lot of the modern “laptop rock” bands, as Billy calls them in the interview.

I’d vote for Andrew WK, but he may get America a little too ready for some football. That’s just too much testosterone in one place.

“Yes, you better believe I’m f***ing READY!” *smashes brick on nose*

Yeah, but Elliot Smith would win *mad* bonus points for performing a miracle by rising from the dead to make it to the audition. That’s Jesus-level talent. (Cue “Jesus Was So Cool” by King Missile… NOW.)

Wait, Dan Boeckner would do well and Spencer wouldn’t? I feel like Spencer could sing traditionally better than Dan if he tried. He belts it out sometimes (“You Go On Ahead” is a good example), whereas Dan kind-of alternates between talky, barky, and shouty.

Anyway, I think both would be good examples for the Wouldn’t list, though. Their voices on “Apologies to the Queen Mary” are so spectacularly weird and awesome. They’ve kind of evened their voices out in recent years.

I love the subscription music model and I am happy that Spotify is bringing it more into the public eye, but I wish they had the same depth in their catalogue (in the US) that Rhapsody and Mog have.

Here’s a sample of albums/artists that I have noticed that Spotify is missing (and Mog & Rhapsody have):

- Arcade Fire: (zero albums)
- Chad VanGaalen: “Diaper Island”
- Mister Heavenly: “Out of Love”
- Grandaddy: everything but “Sophtware Slump”
- Human Highway: “Moody Motorcycle”
- Modest Mouse: “The Lonesome Crowded West”

Sure, it’s just a random sample of stuff that I was looking for, but I hope they beef up their US catalogue soon.

I prefer my pretentious Nirvana covers by actors to include full-on Kurt Cobain costumes. Jared Leto knows what I’m talking about.

I look forward to the inevitable Keanu Reeves cover of “Dumb.”

Ha- oh, man. My comment got dominated. That hurts, folks. That hurts bad. Sorry, Matt & Kim, the people have spoken, so you are still allowed to sing. I will take my ears elsewhere.