BTW, dude you are sooo wrong on TVonRadio..I'm starting to think that you really don't like music unless it's written with a lot of hooks. (Post-OK Computer, anyone?) Are you sure that car radio is not on 'ZPL far too much? Or could it just be your anti-Brooklyn bias?

chris in illinois - - I expect a full report of the St.Peters, MO show!

Summer 1986, Blue Oyster Cult 'opens' for Cheap Trick at the Illinois State Fair. Cheap Trick was awful (and I like Cheap Trick), BOC kicked all our asses.

Fall of '89 (maybe '90, those days are f u z z y) Love and Rockets made fools of the Pixies, leading to my lifetime puzzlement over the Pixies critical buzz---didn't they ever hear Frank Black sing outside of a studio??? Maybe I caught them in a bad month.

TFD, glad to see that you are still around...unfortunately, I have unbreakable plans next Saturday and I just don't have the time off/babysitters to get away on Friday. Perhaps if I had a little more notice...

I am going to New Orleans in mid-March without the kids and that required something like seven months of planning and cajoling to pull off. Can't wait to get to NO to slurp down some oysters and to be able to start drinking at 10 AM guilt-free.

A small aside, Springfield Illinois is fairly buzzing with energy that I have never seen before, not only is his holiness Barack Obama announcing his candadicy tomorrow on the steps of the Old State Capitol, rumors abound that Mr. George Clooney is in town as well (hopefully he eats breakfact at the 'good' Denny's). Not since Fred Schnieder bought some old wax at Recycled Records has the Capitol City been so atwitter.

Good for Springfield. As you know, frankly it needs the buzz. Barack is one special leader, whether he can get elected or not I'm frankly pretty skeptical. This is an electorate that elected a intellectual dunce; not once but twice, mind you. (Thanks to Nader.) And say hi to George. It seems to me, right here in this-here-predecessor-space, a lot of us debated "Three Kings" and the genius of David O' Russell & GC...How more prescient could that movie have been?

I'm going to be in NO myself in June..looking forward to seeing how it looks. Unfortunately I won't make it to the 9th ward and such places, which we all know are still 3rd world countries. I'm afraid the NO culture will never really be the same.

Someday historians will look back on these eight years and marvel at our country, and wonder in the face of such prosperity, how we let a dictatorial fool drive the country (and others regions of the world) into such peril. It really is counfounding if you stop and think about it.

Be well, my man.

Still waiting for that report on 'Gilead'...:-)

O/U,

TFD

I will not pretend that a hook is not important to my ears. Hey, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and the Buzzcocks had them, so even the earliest and best punk bands knew it was part of great music. Noisemasters like Sonic Youth put hooks in their mid-90's work like Dirty and I will choose it over Daydream Nation everytime.
The ZPL comment was pretty harsh, though.

I suspect TV on the Radio will fadeaway over the next 5 years like most other flavor of the month's who lack hookiness. Hey, at least other past NYC bands that were going to "change music's landscape" like The Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeah's had some good singles. In 10 years, nothing from Cookie Mountain will be played on the 2000's alternative nostalgia satellite music channel.

Regarding Obama's electability: who can the GOP run that won't continue to splinter their damaged party?? The few sensible Republicans who realize that the continuing domestic 'War on the Weak' (you know elderly, gay, schoolchildren, the poor) will not help them carry anything in 2008 are outnumbered and outgunned by the crazies running the party. President Romney?? I think not.

Barack is a hell of a public speaker (his speech today in Springfield was most impressive) and compared to the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., he comes across as THE GREATEST PUBLIC ORATOR IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. I have to think that even the most die-hard mouth-breather is sick of hearing the world's oldest frat boy talk. I have to think this is why so many pols are entering the fray, as they realize that compared to W they might just look like one of the greatest presidents ever.

Re: Gilead, great, another thing on my list to do. Embarrassing as it is considering my occupation, I'm really not reading all that much these days outside of Curious George and Thomas the Tank Engine. One day soon that will change.

Obama in '08,
Chris