• Trent Reznor took Thom Yorke's idea and ran with it. The Saul Williams experiment was his first foray into the "varied formats at varied prices" realm, but things really took off when Reznor started releasing his own material—Ghosts I-IV, and then The Slip—on his own terms, through his own Web sites. If anything, I'd refer to these new digital-heavy, price-optional distribution models as "the Nine Inch Nails model," since Trent really perfected the form after Radiohead's (and Stars') initial forays into the digital rush-release world.

• Other acts with substantial fanbases decided that they could probably experiment with release dates and pricing, too. David Byrne and Brian Eno, Tori Amos, Weird Al ... of course, these are all artists who built their fanbases while working in the major-label salt mines. But in a way, helped the idea of release date as "event" return, if only because of the sheer number of people who knew the names of these artists.

• The "free preview" ideal became de rigeur for many major-label acts... They may not be distributing low-bitrate copies of entire albums as part of their promotional run-up, but when freaking Nickelback is (and breaking the six-figure mark in sales of that song anyway) you know the idea has percolated into the mainstream.

• ... and the majors moved to MP3s. Sure, this is probably more a function of Wal-Mart behaving like the two-ton gorilla that it is when it announced that it was moving to an all-MP3 store, but still, it was pretty significant as far as allowing digital-music consumers to stop asking why their file of "Bitch" that they'd purchased a few years back had suddenly become unavailable.

• The phrase "the Radiohead model" was misused approximately 10,000,00 times by lazy journalists. Sigh.

• The record? Pretty good, once the endless hype about how it was released died down. Seriously. (Although I didn't spend enough time with the second disc of the box at all.)

This is obviously an incomplete list, so feel free to add—or subtract!—from it as you see fit in comments.

With that 79-place jump (which, ahem…I called last week), T.I. accomplishes two major chart feats. New No. 1 “Live Your Life” featuring Rihanna sets the record for the biggest leap to the top in history—which would be unremarkable, given the frequency with which this record has been broken recently, if not for the fact that T.I. is beating himself, having reset the mark just six weeks ago.

More impressively, by ousting his own “Whatever You Like,” T.I. joins a very elite club: acts that succeeded themselves at No. 1. During the Hot 100’s entire 50-year history, there have only been eight, and if you ignore featuring-artist credits, the number is six.

Besides these chart feats, T.I.’s hit also sets a record for the biggest debut sales week for a digital single. But we might want to get used to that happening. Already, iTunes is reporting a wave of new best-sellers as the music industry’s last blockbuster holiday hits full swing.

Let’s hold off on discussing T.I.’s record-setting leap (yawn) and talk about how the firehose of digital sales affects his single and several others.

Since Apple’s iTunes Store opened for business five years ago, the week just after Christmas has set a new record for digital sales volume, as millions of new iPod owners rush to their computers to fill the devices. By early January, Apple has crowned a new song the all-time one-week best-seller. The most recent beneficiary and current record-holder is Flo Rida, whose pop-rap smash (and likely No. 1 hit for all of 2008) “Low” sold nearly half a million downloads in the week between Christmas and New Year’s.

Just to give you an idea of scale, in a typical week, maybe five songs sell more than 100,000 copies. During that most recent late-December week, the top 24 songs all sold that well, and the 10 best-sellers moved more than 200,000 each.

That’s what makes this otherwise ordinary early-October sales week notable: almost the entire Top 10 of Billboard’s Digital Songs chart sold in the six-figure range, and each song in the Top Five moved more than 140,000. That’s not Christmas-big, but it’s impressive at a time that doesn’t seem to have any specific holiday or special-event-related trigger. If the forthcoming (inevitably dreadful) holiday season has any effect at all, it’s the fact that all of the blockbuster albums on which the industry has pinned its fourth-quarter hopes have leadoff singles, and they’re all dropping now.

These include new tracks by Christina Aguilera, Nickelback and David Cook, all of which we discussed in this column last week. Two of those three records make even more impressive Hot 100 debuts than I expected, and a fourth one I didn’t mention last week outperforms expectations as well.

Aguilera’s “Keeps Gettin’ Better” and Nickelback’s “Gotta Be Somebody” both debut within the big chart’s Top 10—at Nos. 7 and 10, respectively. Each is fueled by a decent amount of airplay and a whole lot of sales: 144,000 downloads for Xtina, 127,000 for the Canuck post-grungers.

The Cook single, by contrast, is a bit of an underperformer. With 109,000 downloads, Cook’s “Light On” makes a respectable Hot 100 showing at No. 17. But compared with fellow American Idol finalist David Archuleta, whose “Crush” debuted at No. 2 in August with 166,000 downloads in its first week, those numbers look a little… um, light. (Sorry.) Where Cook’s hit goes from here will depend on radio’s embrace, and so far things don’t look good: “Light On” is totally absent not only from the all-genre Hot 100 Airplay list but from both the Mainstream and Modern Rock charts, despite Cook’s status as the first Idol “rocker” winner and the presence of co-writer Chris Cornell.

Finally, the Killers' catchiest song (and weirdest chorus lyric) in years results in their second-biggest Hot 100 debut: “Human” sells 70,000 copies and enters the big chart at No. 32. Only 2006’s “When You Were Young” did better, debuting at No. 29. Credit their promotional team with good timing: the band’s appearance on Saturday Night Live last weekend, in the last 24 hours of the tracking week for the chart, probably accounts for many thousands of those downloads.

All of these songs’ sales totals are impressive, but they’re dwarfed by the song at No. 1.

“Live Your Life” isn’t the lead single of T.I.’s Paper Trail, which debuts atop the album chart this week. Technically, “Life” isn’t even a single at all—despite previewing it at MTV’s Video Music Awards in early September and giving radio stations advance copies, Atlantic Records (and Island Def Jam, Rihanna’s label, which is co-promoting the song) never made it available at iTunes in advance of the album, Weezy-style. But the instant T.I.’s album dropped at iTunes, with all of its tracks simultaneously on sale at 99 cents, an army of fans swept in to buy the song.

To be exact, 335,000 fans bought it, making “Life” the second-biggest one-week seller of all time behind Flo Rida’s “Low,” and the biggest-selling digital song (a) in a non-holiday week and (b) in its debut week. The previous record-holder for that last distinction was Mariah Carey, who moved 286,000 copies of “Touch My Body” in its debut week last spring.

The first-week sales of “Life” are more than double those for this week’s second-biggest seller, Pink’s “So What.” In terms of the Hot 100, sales like that made the leap to No. 1 by the T.I./Rihanna song inevitable, regardless of how much airplay the song was receiving. But hey, airplay ain’t shabby: “Life” is already the 22nd most-played song at radio nationwide. On the airplay-heavy Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, “Life” is already in the Top 10.

As for the records T.I. sets, succeeding himself at No. 1 is the real mind-blower, because so few acts have done it. And when they do, it’s usually a sign that they’re at a peak of culture-dominating popularity: think the Beatles in 1964, Boyz II Men in 1994, or Usher in 2004.

In his column this week, Fred Bronson at Billboard has the complete list of acts that have done it, and he counts nine. But that includes an Elvis Presley twofer that precedes the existence of the Hot 100 (back in the days when Billboard reported multiple big singles charts), and two acts that scored with a featured-artist credit: Puff Daddy in 1997 (his “I’ll Be Missing You” was succeeded by the Notorious B.I.G.–fronted “Mo Money Mo Problems”), and Ja Rule in 2002 (his “Always on Time” was followed by Jennifer Lopez’s “Ain’t It Funny”). I’d argue to put those acts on a lower tier, leaving a half-dozen who did it on the Hot 100, with tracks they fronted: the Beatles, Boyz, Nelly, OutKast (a bit of a cheat to those of us who regard “Hey Ya!” as an André 3000 single and “The Way You Move” as a Big Boi single, but never mind), Usher, and now Clifford “T.I.” Harris Jr.

When T.I. soared from No. 71 to No. 1 with “Whatever You Like” in late August, I sniffed that this chart feat was becoming less amazing all the time, as several current acts like Usher and Maroon 5 had leapt to the top from outside the Top 40 (or, in Rihanna’s case, routinely: she’s done it three times).

Indeed, by beating his own record this week with the 80–1 leap of “Live Your Life,” the Atlanta rap king shrinks the time between record-breaking instances almost as low as it can go. It took 38 years for the Beatles (“Can’t Buy Me Love,” 1964, 26–1) to lose the record to Kelly Clarkson (“A Moment Like This,” 2002, 52–1); four and a half years for her to lose it to Maroon 5 (“Makes Me Wonder,” 2007, 64–1); 16 months for them to lose it to T.I.’s “Whatever”; and a month and a half for him to beat it himself.

Let me reiterate one word in the prior paragraph: almost. The smallest possible gap between record-setting instances, of course, would be one week, and it’s possible that that’s about to happen.

This week, Britney Spears debuts on the Hot 100 at No. 96 with “Womanizer,” entirely thanks to radio points. The song was until recently not available for purchase. Like T.I. a week ago, Spears has garnered remarkable out-of-the-box airplay, as “Womanizer” already ranks 55th among all songs spun, just a couple of weeks after going to radio. Which means the formula that sent T.I.’s last two hits to No. 1—first, early airplay, then an instant explosion of sales—is working for Spears as well: “Womanizer” was put on sale at iTunes three days ago, and lo and behold, at this writing it’s Apple’s top-seller, beating “Live Your Life.”

Should Britney pull a one-week sales total on the scale of T.I.’s—over 300,000, or even just the low 200’s—next week she could leap from No. 96 to No. 1, defeating his record after just seven days and possibly setting it for all time. That is, unless one day the stars align and a song debuts at Nos. 97, 98, 99 or 100 before shooting to the top. And then, once we’ve run out of Hot 100 positions, we’d never have to talk about this increasingly dubious chart record again.

Here's a rundown of the rest of this week's charts:

• A couple more tidbits about the Killers: “Human,” with its New Order–esque synth sound, is being received warmly at the band’s “home format.” Last week, the song entered the Modern Rock chart at No. 13. That’s by far their best debut there—“When You Were Young” debuted at No. 27 on that list in the summer of 2006. And this week, “Human” becomes the band’s fastest Top 10 Modern Rock hit, rising to No. 8; “Young,” by contrast, took three weeks to move into the winners’ circle.

• When Billboard publishes its year-end charts, I’ll be a bit surprised if the person with the No. 1 R&B/Hip-Hop song of the year isn’t Keyshia Cole. She’ll either do it with her seven-week chart-topper from last winter/spring, “I Remember”; or her even bigger nine-week chart-topper from last spring/summer, “Heaven Sent.” I mention this because the latter just won’t die: a week after “Heaven” dropped out of the R&B/Hip-Hop Top 10 after a four-month run there, it jumps back to No. 9, for reasons known only to urban radio programmers. Interesting tidbit: because “Heaven” moved into the Top 10 last May the week after “Remember” dropped out, last week’s chart was the first week since early January that Cole hasn’t been somewhere inside the R&B Top 10. Even Alicia Keys (the other likely year-end winner) has been out of the winners’ circle more weeks than Cole.

• Some quick notes on struggling hits: Sony’s quest to give Leona Lewis a second Top 10 hit on the Hot 100 hasn’t died yet, as “Better in Time” creeps up four spaces to No. 14. "Better" might still make it, but Lewis’ team is really sweating it—the song is now in its 13th week on the Hot 100, and the label was pushing it to radio a couple of months before that. Just for perspective, “Bleeding Love,” best-selling single of this calendar year, made the Top 10 in its fifth chart week last March.

Right next to Lewis, at No. 15, is a song that just two weeks ago I thought stood a chance of reaching No. 1: Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown.” The collapse in his digital sales, in a week where iTunes buyers have other shiny new songs to distract them, is the culprit; “Lockdown” now ranks 12th on the Digital Songs chart. On the big chart, “Lockdown” has probably peaked overall, but continued growth at radio—it now ranks 48th there, up from 69th a week ago—could bring it back to the Top 10 by the time ’Ye’s 808 and Heartbreak drops in November.

Top 10s
Last week's position and total weeks charted in parentheses (Digital Songs chart includes total downloads/percentage change in parentheses):

Hot 100
1. T.I. feat. Rihanna, "Live Your Life" (LW No. 80, 2 weeks)
2. T.I., "Whatever You Like" (LW No. 1, 9 weeks)
3. Pink, "So What" (LW No. 2, 7 weeks)
4. Rihanna, "Disturbia" (LW No. 4, 16 weeks)
5. Kevin Rudolf feat. Lil Wayne, "Let It Rock" (LW No. 15, 6 weeks)
6. Katy Perry, "Hot N Cold" (LW No. 6, 10 weeks)
7. Christina Aguilera, "Keeps Gettin' Better" (CHART DEBUT)
8. T-Pain feat. Lil Wayne, "Can't Believe It" (LW No. 7, 10 weeks)
9. M.I.A., "Paper Planes" (LW No. 5, 12 weeks)
10. Nickelback, "Gotta Be Somebody" (CHART DEBUT)

Hot Digital Songs
1. T.I. feat. Rihanna, "Live Your Life" (CHART DEBUT, 335,000 downloads)
2. Pink, "So What" (LW No. 2, 165,000 downloads)
3. Kevin Rudolf feat. Lil Wayne, "Let It Rock" (LW No. 10, 148,000 downloads)
4. T.I., "Whatever You Like" (LW No. 1)
5. Christina Aguilera, "Keeps Gettin' Better" (CHART DEBUT, 144,000 downloads)
6. Nickelback, "Gotta Be Somebody" (CHART DEBUT, 127,000 downloads)
7. Katy Perry, "Hot N Cold" (LW No. 4)
8. David Cook, "Light On" (CHART DEBUT, 109,000 downloads)
9. Taylor Swift, "Love Story" (LW No. 5)
10. Rihanna, "Disturbia" (LW No. 7)

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
1. T.I., "Whatever You Like" (LW No. 1, 12 weeks)
2. Jennifer Hudson, "Spotlight" (LW No. 3, 21 weeks)
3. T-Pain feat. Lil Wayne, "Can't Believe It," (LW No. 2, 13 weeks)
4. Jazmine Sullivan, "Need U Bad" (LW No. 4, 23 weeks)
5. Ne-Yo, "Miss Independent" (LW No. 6, 11 weeks)
6. Lil Wayne feat. Bobby Valentino, "Mrs. Officer" (LW No. 5, 14 weeks)
7. Lil Wayne feat. T-Pain, "Got Money" (LW No. 7, 21 weeks)
8. T.I. feat. Rihanna, "Live Your Life" (LW No. 16, 4 weeks)
9. Keyshia Cole, "Heaven Sent" (LW No. 13, 28 weeks)
10. Robin Thicke, "Magic" (LW No. 9, 20 weeks)

Hot Country Songs
1. Kenny Chesney, "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven" (LW No. 2, 10 weeks)
2. Darius Rucker, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" (LW No. 1, 25 weeks)
3. Toby Keith, "She Never Cried in Front of Me" (LW No. 3, 15 weeks)
4. Carrie Underwood, "Just a Dream" (LW No. 6, 13 weeks)
5. Kid Rock, "All Summer Long" (LW No. 4, 21 weeks)
6. Brad Paisley, "Waitin' on a Woman" (LW No. 8, 17 weeks)
7. Jimmy Wayne, "Do You Believe Me Now" (LW No. 5, 28 weeks)
8. Tim McGraw, "Let It Go" (LW No. 9, 12 weeks)
9. Taylor Swift, "Love Story" (LW No. 11, 4 weeks)
10. George Strait, "Troubadour" (LW No. 7, 19 weeks)

Hot Modern Rock Tracks
1. The Offspring, "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" (LW No. 1, 11 weeks)
2. Weezer, "Troublemaker" (LW No. 2, 13 weeks)
3. Staind, "Believe" (LW No. 3, 15 weeks)
4. Apocalyptica feat. Adam Gontier, "I Don't Care" (LW No. 6, 14 weeks)
5. Rise Against, "Re-Education (Through Labor)" (LW No. 4, 7 weeks)
6. Metallica, "The Day That Never Comes" (LW No. 5, 7 weeks)
7. Carolina Liar, "I’m Not Over" (LW No. 7, 23 weeks)
8. The Killers, "Human" (LW No. 13, 2 weeks)
9. Theory of a Deadman, "Bad Girlfriend" (LW No. 10, 16 weeks)
10. Kings of Leon, "Sex on Fire" (LW No. 17, 7 weeks)

My roommate loves him some Daft Punk, to the exclusion of the rest of the canon of western music. He might branch out to such fare as Cut Copy, Hot Chip, and "Love Lockdown"; one time, he borrowed my copy of Discovered: A Collection of Daft Funk Samples to head-scratching results. But beyond that, it's solely the work of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo that gets him going.

So you might presume that he would automatically be a fan of the French duo's most recent artistic endeavor, a full-length film entitled Daft Punk's Electroma. And yet, he's avoided it so far. He is not alone. Take this testimonial from the IMDB message board about the 71-minute film that premiered to fleeing audiences at midnight movies across the country: "Daft Punk is one of my favorite bands of all time. I love the mood, texture, feel and dance-ability of their music. I love their costumes, live shows, and their (robotic lack of?) personality. But I did not like this movie."

The film was written and directed by Bangalter and De Homem-Christo (with Bangalter handling cinematographic duties), though with Peter Hurteau and Michael Reich playing the DP roles, clad in Hedi Slimane Dior Homme leather— the Discovery-era helmets of silver and gold still firmly affixed. How could Daft Punk fans detest such fare? It's easy: hushed, patient, stilled, naturalistic, sparing in releasing its pleasures, Daft Punk's Electroma is the absolute antithesis of Daft Punk's music.

Which is no doubt how the duo likes it. In the latest issue of Stop Smiling (full disclosure: my essay on Breathless actress Jean Seberg also appears in this issue), Daft Punk discuss the film, and when interviewer Matt Diehl confesses to hating the movie the first time through, Guy-Manuel responds: "Cool, I'm happy you didn't like it the first time. You're not the only one." Indeed. In much the same way that viral video footage of Daft Punk's Coachella performance (and subsequent US tour) exponentially spread the gospel, fans have taken to YouTube again to "remix" Electroma to their liking.

For this YouTube viewer, the movie is too long at 1 hour 11 minutes (?!) and since its soundtrack features decidedly "non-banger" fare from the likes of Brian Eno, folkies Linda Perhacs and Jackson C. Frank, Franz Joseph Hayden, and Fryderyk Chopin, Daft Punk's music is plopped on top. Which wholly misses the point.

On previous albums, the group melded disparate influences like DJ Sneak, the Beach Boys, Supertramp, Li'l Louis, and Dr. Dre; Electroma performs a similar feat but with their favorite directors. Traces of Godardian jump cuts, Antonionian alien landscapes, THX-1138's dystopia, Phantom of the Paradise's leather gear, and David Lynch's bent Americana all factor into the story. And rather than create their own soundtrack, the two draw on their extensive record collection (though other viewers have attempted to synch up Human After All to the movie, a la Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz, to mixed results). The ominous sinewaves at the film's opening soon reveal themselves as the opening to Todd Rundgren's acid-king pop opera A Wizard, a True Star.

After a few passes through the film, Electroma emerges as the story of two disconnected teenage friends unable to fit into a Twilight Zone-esque society of similarly masked robots. (The town sorta reminds me of my own youth, wherein I had helmeted astronauts from my space Lego set walk through my Lego town set.) The two friends, trapped in the despair that only such a small town can impart, rebel and become human. Such attempts at escape and being different only turn the town of silver and gold chrome-domes against them, so that the two friends flee as outcasts, abandoned to wander the scrublands of California until they come to realize the only real way to escape this life is through self-destruction and self-immolation.

Or are they wandering through the desert? After numerous slow shots of sand and people-less landscapes, lost acid-folk chanteuse Linda Perhac's exquisite song of longing, "If You Were My Man," comes on. Curvaceous mounds and dunes rise and fall as everything merges with the night. But I'll be damned if those two long, smooth ridges don't look like freshly shaved legs. And those two mounds higher up look awfully familiar. That scraggly bush seems strategically placed as well.

See for yourself at 3:05:

An art house film that climaxes with a shot that would make Gustave Courbet proud? How could Daft Punk fans not go for a beaver shot?

In May 2007 the British radio station BBC6 conducted a survey of the worst lyrics in pop.

BBC6’s Top 10 Worst Lyrics (listener poll):
1. Des'ree, “Life” (Sony, 1998): “I don’t want to see a ghost/It’s the sight that I fear most/I’d rather have a piece of toast/Watch the evening news.”
2. Snap, “Rhythm Is a Dancer” (Logic/Arista, 1992): “I'm as serious as cancer/When I say rhythm is a dancer.”
3. Razorlight, “Somewhere Else” (Vertigo, 2005): “And I met a girl/She asked me my name/I told her what it was.”
4. ABC, “That Was Then But This Is Now” (Mercury, 1983): “More Sacrifices than an Aztec priest/Standing here straining at that leash/All fall down/Can't complain, mustn't grumble/Help yourself to another piece of apple crumble.”
5. U2, “Elevation” (Interscope, 2001): “I've got no self control/Been living like a mole now/Going down, excavation/High and high in the sky/You make me feel like I can fly/So high/Elevation.”
6. Toto, “Africa” (CBS, 1982): “The wild dogs cry out in the night/As they grow restless longing for some solitary company/I know that I must do what's right/Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.”
7. Oasis, “Champagne Supernova” (Creation, 1995): “Slowly walking down the hall/Faster than a cannonball/Where were you when we were getting high?”
8. Duran Duran, “Is There Something I Should Know?” (EMI, 1983): “And fiery demons all dance when you walk through that door/Don't say you're easy on me/You're about as easy as a nuclear war.”
9. Human League, “The Lebanon” (Virgin, 1984): “Before he leaves the camp he stops/He scans the world outside/And where there used to be some shops/Is where the snipers sometimes hide.”
10. Black Sabbath, “War Pigs” (Warner Bros., 1971): “Generals gathered in their masses/Just like witches at black masses.”

Let’s get the ugly part out of the way first: I am in full agreement with No. 10, and no, I do not love Sabbath enough to let them get away with it. I’m not a huge fan, though I certainly like a handful of songs, “War Pigs” being one of them. But I thought the line was stupid when I first heard it, and I’m glad there are still people who haven’t immunized themselves against it over the years thanks to the riff bypassing that particular area of the brain.

“War Pigs” is one of only three songs chosen here that I would have picked out any of those lines from in particular. The others are No. 7 (whose negative properties, inextricable in my mind from a lousy period of my life generally, I discussed in an earlier column about the Modern Rock Top 10 of 1996) and No. 8, which struck me as gauche even when I was in third grade. (Everyone knew nuclear war was easy—it was a matter of two men pushing buttons—that’s what was wrong with it.)

Three others, though, I knew but hadn’t really thought of in terms of lyrics, much less god-awful ones. What I mostly remember about “Rhythm Is a Dancer” is the title phrase, plus the odd “feel the passion” to give the singer more than two notes to sing. It’s not that I’m necessarily surprised the song contains the line, “I'm as serious as cancer/When I say rhythm is a dancer.” It just never jumped out at me. Likewise, the U2 line strikes me as bald description of banal euphoria: more wallpaper than painting, and not much to get worked up over. “Africa,” of course, is total dogshit, so much so I never parsed the verses (being seven when the song came out surely has something to do with this), but on paper, that is some serious D&D-playing loserdom coming out, all right. Good to know that in addition to being the top session cats of the era as well as winning the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for the album containing “Africa,” Toto’s members all aced world geography.

The rest I’d never even heard until I saw this list. I watched the videos for each, and the results were enlightening. Des’ree: she rides a car through the desert. I’d seen this list without the lyric attributions before watching the clip, but it didn’t take long to guess which one this had been nominated for: “ghost/most/toast” is pushing it even if you’re in the breeziest mood of your life. Razorlight: I didn’t know Richard Ashcroft had an understudy. Did England really miss the Verve that much? For god’s sakes, why? On paper, I must admit that, “And I met a girl/She asked me my name/I told her what it was,” is my kind of deadpan mannerist comedy, but hearing this schmoe declaim anything above all those forcefully strummed acoustic guitars buried the offending line for me.

Speaking of confessions, I’ve never heard all of The Lexicon of Love, so the follow-ups I’m even sketchier on. This lives up to Martin Fry’s explanation to Simon Reynolds in Rip It Up and Start Again that he was trying to make the ugliest music he could in response to that album, because this is one sour little pastry. And the “apple crumble” line really is the song’s core, if you will. (I apologize.) Finally, “The Lebanon” not only gets points for those awesome lines fitting perfectly within an equally awesome, er, meditation on terrorism, Phil Oakey gets double points for blueprinting the look Dave Gahan would take to the bank once he stopped cutting his hair a while. They even have the same facial expressions!

Before I open it to the wolves by asking which lyric(s) BBC6’s listeners forgot to include in this Top 10, allow me to indulge yet again my personal all-time favorite bad lyric. It’s from a tune everybody knows: “Your Song,” by Elton John. Take a bow, Bernie Taupin, for this all-time clinker: “If I was a sculptor/But then again, no.” That’s what Taupin should have said! Haw! Anyway, I’ve had my fun: now you have yours. 100 posts by Monday! Let’s do it!

Devoted readers of this site will surely recognize the young woman who appears on the cover of the November 2008 edition of Blender: It is none other than Katy Perry, the bane of our esteemed Idolatrix's workaday existence.

Anono-Prick reckoned that Blender would have put “pop’s bi-curious babe,” as the display type on the cover puts it, front and center last month, since he remembered reading that the mag’s EIC Joe Levy hosted a party in Perry’s honor nearabout the MTV Music Video Awards. Clearly, the reporting and photo shoot for this cover story took place around that time.

It doesn’t much matter that Perry’s fashion aesthetic is premised on vintage Hollywood glamour tropes, and not upon those associated with Rick’s Cabaret, which Blender and its sister publication Maxim obviously prefer. When a young lady records a big summer hit song regarding inter-chick tongue dueling, it might as well be chum to sharks. It’s also clear which part of Perry’s physique Blender’s brain trust believes has the most appeal to their intended, perpetually erect readership.

So that’s settled! But! Wither whether Ms. Perry is good company? Levy charges longtime aide-de-quip Rob Sheffield, a man best known for excreting his airless, self-amused observations regarding popular music and television shows for whichever magazine Levy is running and for various VH1 talking head programs, with the task. This is notable, as it is seldom that Blender contributing editor Sheffield emerges from his one-liner-generating cocoon to interact with other humans in a journalistic endeavor. (AP only knows of one Sheffield-penned profile: an Aerosmith story for Rolling Stone).

And you know what? “Girl on Girl,” while headlined with startling lack of ingenuity, shows that Sheffield should go out and interview people a lot more. The piece ain’t gonna wow the American Society of Magazine Editors nominating committee —no article in Blender likely ever will. But Sheffield's prose seems much less caffeinated and clotted when he’s telling someone else’s story, and not rifling through reference after reference to little lasting effect, like Henny Youngman with a semiotics degree from Brown.

Sheffield follows Perry around for a few Warped Tour dates: the two discuss her childhood in her parents' evangelical ministry (her folks found the Lawd after both were immersed in the counterculture) and how she left the fold, her fondness for dressing up, her emo-hip-hop band-fronting boyfriend, and how That Song is imaginative more than autobiographical. Blender being fond of particular types of reportorial color, Sheffield also reports Perry’s fondness for making genitalia-oriented origami.

Perry seems like a fairly good egg, notwithstanding her perpetration of music that might drive a blog editor to jump out a 20th-floor window. Surely, her public profile and much of her music is calculated, but does she not project more individuality and spunk than the android strippers who adorned Blender's last cover? Heaven knows she didn’t appear to avoid topics many pop starlets dislike, and she certainly seemed to get along with Sheffield.

Sadly, the piece that directly precedes “Girl on Girl” finds Sheffield reverting to type. This month’s installment of his Station to Station column, “The Only Band That Matters,” finds him waxing euphoric over the act that apparently every individual to have graduated from an institute of higher learning since 1986 agrees is very, very good. AP daresays that "why Radiohead are so wonderful live" is a topic so commonplace that the marquee writer at a major music magazine should use the space dedicated to his musings to tackle a more novel topic. Self-identified music fans between the ages of 19 and 49 are more or less conditioned to like Radiohead, and it’ll be a long time before the band will be anything other than an exhausted topic. In any case, Sheffield doesn’t succeed in making a point beyond “Radiohead is boss.”

Incidentally, Sheffield never says that he attended a Radiohead concert this summer, only that his iPod contains two hours of live versions of “Idioteque” and other performances from the band’s tour. Perhaps attending a show would have inspired Sheffield to offer an original thought or two in his essay. If AP, for instance, had the use of a column in a music magazine to laud the music on his iPod, he’d talk about the greatness of Too $hort, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Blowfly, Robert Wyatt, or T-Pain. (The latter is given his due in “Pain’s World,” a fine piece this issue by senior editor Jonah Weiner.)

So Levy (who himself pens a four star review of Telltale Signs, the eighth archival series devoted to Bob Dylan; it’s the first piece he’s written for Blender) gives his pal free hand to do as he pleases, a mandate any critic would envy. Yet AP thinks it would benefit everyone—readers, interview subjects and most importantly Sheffield himself— if he got out of the house more. He has spent a decade processing staggering amounts of music and television so that he could proffer one-liners. This we know. But is he beginning to realize that getting out and encountering different people and ideas other than one’s own is healthy? You can listen to records and watch TV shows all you like, but records and TV shows can’t talk back to you. Proceeding down that path lies insularity of a most Christgauian variety.

The cover of James Taylor's new covers album—on which he puts his soft spin on "Wichita Lineman," "Suzanne," and (gulp!) "On Broadway"—is another example of the recently resurgent Old White Guy Looks Straight Into The Camera And Ends Up Looking Very Creepy album-art motif.

But staring into those color-corrected blue eyes on that color-corrected Silly-Putty face, I couldn't help be reminded that Taylor looks less like a steamroller, baby, and more like a guy who is ready to undergo some serious spice evolution and fight House Harkonnen as Muad'Dib, leader of the Fremen, rider of Shai-Hulud, and the one and only Kwisatz Haderach...

I've wasted my life.

Evidence (of my comparison, not the point of my existence) here:

One of the biggest rhetorical divides that distinguishes music broadcasting from visual media is the difference in accepted connotations of the word "adult." In film and television, using that word to describe content means that something sexy and/or exciting is on the horizon, but in radio, "adult" formats are the dullest, slowest stations, programmed for the broadest, most boring possible audience. Adult Contemporary and Adult Top 40 are looked at as background music for waiting rooms, the stations where the lamest pop hits go to die. Those formats have a younger, hipper sibling—Adult Album Alternative—that splits the difference between adult contempo and modern rock stations, but it didn't have its own Billboard chart until this summer, when the mag added Triple-A to its stable of rock airplay charts alongside the long-running Hot Modern Rock Tracks and Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks. Chris Molanphy touched on the new chart last month, but I thought I'd take a closer look since I'll be discussing it a bit more often in the future.

One of Billboard's sister publications, Radio & Records, has been publishing a Triple-A chart for years; Billboard simply appropriated the same data for its own chart, which first appeared in the July 10 issue. So while the Triple-A chart is technically only 14 weeks old, but several of its songs have been on it longer than it's ostensibly existed, including Matt Nathanson's 29-weeks-charting "Come On Get Higher." The most recent available Arbitron data shows that while AAA hasn't experienced substantial market share growth in the past decade, it's held remarkably steady while Alternative stations have declined in listenership.

One of the things that immediately struck me about the Triple-A chart is its resemblance to the Modern Rock chart of the pre-Nirvana years: tons of singer-songwriters, bands that are a little too hip for the mainstream, and bands that are so far behind the curve that most young rock fans are so over them. In an era where the Modern Rock chart is marked by AC/DC's first appearance and Metallica reaching unprecedented new peaks, it's refreshing to have an alt-rock chart that filters out all the insurgent hard rock and metal elements. For the first time in almost a decade, we now have both Counting Crows and Sheryl Crow on a rock singles chart. Classic rockers with declining commercial fortunes like John Mellencamp and the Pretenders are sharing space with young bands from the MOR end of the indie rock spectrum like My Morning Jacket and The Hold Steady.

Since Modern and Mainstream are both top 40 charts, it's always been easy to measure how many songs they have in common (the average is around 50%). Triple-A will be a little harder to triangulate, since it's only top 30, but the crossover is pretty minimal. It currently shares no songs with Mainstream Rock, and only "Cath…" by Death Cab For Cutie, "Take Back The City" by Snow Patrol, and two Coldplay hits with Modern. But that's not taking into account the fact that several songs have been hitting both charts at different times. Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale's "Love Remains The Same" was a blip on Modern Rock months ago, but it's been a solid performer on Triple-A.

And then there are the getting airplay on both Modern Rock and Triple-A with completely different songs. R.E.M.'s up-tempo "Supernatural Superserious" was a moderate Modern hit, but the lighter, piano-driven "Hollow Man" is all over Triple-A; Beck has "Gamma Ray" on the former and "Orphans" on the latter. And while the Raconteurs charted with two singles from their latest album on Modern Rock, it's a non-single, the rootsy "Old Enough," that's getting all the Triple-A love. Just for the novelty of it, I'll be very curious to see what song, if any, will be the first to appear on all three rock charts; my best guess is that it'll depend on whether U2 or the White Stripes releases a new album sooner. But then, if one of those bands releases a single hard enough for Mainstream Rock, I would be surprised if Triple-A stations skip straight to playing a mellower deep cut instead.

Mike Hellstrom: when nirvana hit big, executives flocked to seattle looking for the next nirvana.
Mike Hellstrom: and they found it in spades.
Mike Hellstrom: when athens and the triangle area starting producing huge indie bands—r.e.m., pylon, superchunk, archers, etc.—execs flocked to those towns looking for similar indie artists.
Mike Hellstrom: and they found them in spades.
StumpyPete1975: yep
StumpyPete1975: and later with E6 in athens
Mike Hellstrom: exactly.
Mike Hellstrom: and when executives flocked to our town thinking they'd found a sound [after the previously mentioned huge band broke -ed.]
Mike Hellstrom: it wasn't there.
StumpyPete1975: aha
StumpyPete1975: that one band was an aberration
Mike Hellstrom: the band(s) that were popular from the area weren't representative of the town.
Mike Hellstrom: we were always much more in tune with the athenses and the raleighs of the world.
Mike Hellstrom: so i think that's perhaps why our scene didn't stick.

The entire interview after the clickthrough!

StumpyPete1975: do you have any inside scoop on the Creative Loafing situation?
Mike Hellstrom: not as such, unfortunately.
Mike Hellstrom: i only know what i've read.
StumpyPete1975: yeah, me, too
StumpyPete1975: I'm a little surprised it isn't bigger news
Mike Hellstrom: as am i, especially being from the southeast.
Mike Hellstrom: as that's where the majority of its papers seemed to be.
StumpyPete1975: yeah
Mike Hellstrom: atlanta, charlotte, a few in florida.
Mike Hellstrom: one in dc, too, i think.
StumpyPete1975: washington city paper and the Chicago Reader
Mike Hellstrom: yeah, chicago reader and city paper.
Mike Hellstrom: that's it.
StumpyPete1975: those aren't small papers!
Mike Hellstrom: not at all!
Mike Hellstrom: they just bought them, I guess
StumpyPete1975: does it freak you out at all?
Mike Hellstrom: last year, i think.
Mike Hellstrom: a little bit.
Mike Hellstrom: with mainstream and daily print media going the way its going, we can get a little ... i don't know, maybe sheltered is the word.
Mike Hellstrom: i think we think that weeklies are destined to outlast dailies.
StumpyPete1975: really!
Mike Hellstrom: obviously, chapter 11 doesn't mean creative loafings stop publishing.
StumpyPete1975: "reorganizing, right?"
Mike Hellstrom: but i think it speaks to a large problem in the newspaper industry as a whole.
StumpyPete1975: and what's that?
Mike Hellstrom: well, first and foremost, ad revenue seems to be drying up.
Mike Hellstrom: and the internet offering instant access.
Mike Hellstrom: to any and all information.
Mike Hellstrom: the daily newspaper used to be the go-to, trusted source for news and information.
Mike Hellstrom: now, we have wikipedia.
StumpyPete1975: ugh
Mike Hellstrom: which is almost completely unreliable as a source.
StumpyPete1975: sure
StumpyPete1975: but newspapers have adapted somewhat
StumpyPete1975: plenty of people go to nytimes.com
Mike Hellstrom: they/we/it have/has.
StumpyPete1975: what about weeklies?
Mike Hellstrom: i think the smart ones have adapted.
StumpyPete1975: I'm sure that ad revenues are peanuts for online compared to the print, right?
Mike Hellstrom: i would imagine, but i'm not up to snuff on the ad game to say for certain.
StumpyPete1975: sure
StumpyPete1975: y'all aren't part of a big chain, right?
Mike Hellstrom: we're not part of a big chain.
StumpyPete1975: what do you think the advantages are to staying independent?
Mike Hellstrom: we're part of a small-ish chain that owns three papers.
Mike Hellstrom: well, it's hard to out-niche a niche.
StumpyPete1975: haha
Mike Hellstrom: and that's what weeklies and alt-papers have to carve out.
StumpyPete1975: true
StumpyPete1975: you are one of about two games in town
StumpyPete1975: maybe three
StumpyPete1975: college paper
StumpyPete1975: daily
StumpyPete1975: weekly
Mike Hellstrom: well, there's the large, [conglomerate]-owned daily.
Mike Hellstrom: the student paper.
Mike Hellstrom: us.
Mike Hellstrom: and a handful of other local rags.
Mike Hellstrom: there's a black-news oriented paper.
Mike Hellstrom: a few arts and fashion rags.
Mike Hellstrom: we're the only aan-cerfitied game in town.
StumpyPete1975: what do you feel is a weekly's primary responsibility, particularly in the internet era?
StumpyPete1975: ombudsmen?
StumpyPete1975: raconteur?
StumpyPete1975: champion of localism?
Mike Hellstrom: i think it has to be a mixture of all three, and i say that perhaps because that's what we try to do here.
Mike Hellstrom: as a weekly, it can be hard to break stories and get big scoops sometimes.
Mike Hellstrom: but i think the trick is to be more ... maybe analytical about it.
StumpyPete1975: aha
StumpyPete1975: more depth
StumpyPete1975: a little time delay can offer good time for analysis
Mike Hellstrom: agreed.
StumpyPete1975: (that sentence makes little sense, but you understand...heh)
Mike Hellstrom: and google and sites like topix.net can't compete on a local level, because they have no local news gatherers.
Mike Hellstrom: the independent weekly staple is the local person.
Mike Hellstrom: it's often the "hip" crowd that's catered to.
StumpyPete1975: some are national, though, like The Stranger, the Voice
StumpyPete1975: do you ever wish you had that kind of presence?
StumpyPete1975: or do you think that you've got a good thing going focusing on local?
Mike Hellstrom: i think the paper i work for has a good thing going for it by staying local.
Mike Hellstrom: and i think that's what's going to keep weeklies afloat, is that provincialism, that inherent relationship it has with local merchants, bands, city councils, etc.
Mike Hellstrom: and perhaps i'm wrong.
Mike Hellstrom: but i don't think i am.
StumpyPete1975: no
StumpyPete1975: it makes sense
StumpyPete1975: hey look at the chain that just filed for bankruptcy
Mike Hellstrom: indeed.
StumpyPete1975: they bought Chicago Reader, a nationally-read weekly
StumpyPete1975: maybe got too big for their britches?
StumpyPete1975: I have a theory I want to float to you
StumpyPete1975: and it impacts your business
Mike Hellstrom: maybe tried to spread themselves a little too think, i'd say.
Mike Hellstrom: ok.
Mike Hellstrom: let's hear it.
StumpyPete1975: I've been thinking for a few years now that the blogs that will stick around
StumpyPete1975: besides a stray Stereogum or Fluxblog or what have you
StumpyPete1975: music blogs that stick around all have a strong local component
StumpyPete1975: MOKB has Indianapolis
StumpyPete1975: Each Note Secure is Cincinnati
Mike Hellstrom: the one in dallas.
Mike Hellstrom: uhh.
StumpyPete1975: Gorilla Vs. Bear is Dallas
Mike Hellstrom: gvb.
StumpyPete1975: (also I shot JR)
StumpyPete1975: in Athens we have the Day Jobs
StumpyPete1975: Brooklyn Vegan is a tip sheet in NYC, etc.
StumpyPete1975: I think that, in a lot of ways
Mike Hellstrom: and there are a few like that in [my town] as well.
StumpyPete1975: mp3 blogs are starting to muscle in on weeklies
StumpyPete1975: particularly in cities where the weekly presence might not be super-strong
StumpyPete1975: what do you think?
StumpyPete1975: do you feel encroachment from said blogs?
Mike Hellstrom: i suppose if i were in a king-shit town like new york or chicago or maybe in a scene with a strong history such as athens or raleigh i might.
Mike Hellstrom: but here.
Mike Hellstrom: ...
Mike Hellstrom: let me think of how i want to put this.
StumpyPete1975: ok
Mike Hellstrom: i guess the caveat is that i'm such an unrepentant homer for this scene here that when anyone starts a blog about our music scene, i'm happy that people are taking an interest.
Mike Hellstrom: but i think if you feel threatened by any and every blog, you're not doing a good enough job connecting with local folks.
StumpyPete1975: good point
StumpyPete1975: you have to get better
Mike Hellstrom: and it can also be helpful in certain ways.
Mike Hellstrom: say, if i see a new local band that's popped up that gets a shining review in a local-oriented blog, i'll see what's up there.
Mike Hellstrom: now, if a band from columbia gets a big write-up in, say, brooklynvegan, i've obviously missed something.
Mike Hellstrom: i think if the question is "will a local blog hurt local coverage," the answer is no, or perhaps more accurately, not necessarily.
Mike Hellstrom: unless, of course, your finger is far from the pulse of the community.
Mike Hellstrom: jammed straight in your ass.
Mike Hellstrom: then yeah, you might have a problem carrying some gravitas.
StumpyPete1975: I guess my main question is will it cut into ad revenues, coverage opportunities, etc?
Mike Hellstrom: coverage opportunities ... perhaps.
StumpyPete1975: but you don't see it as competition for now
Mike Hellstrom: i'd like to think that no one would turn down an interview with any paper simply because some dude on the internet did one with them.
StumpyPete1975: yeah, sure, though, as a publicist, you'd be very surprised what artists will turn down!
Mike Hellstrom: maybe it's just because of the situation i'm in, but i think right now, no.
Mike Hellstrom: ha ha.
Mike Hellstrom: i'm sure i would
Mike Hellstrom: i think that down the line, yeah, music blogs will probably become more and more of a threat.
Mike Hellstrom: as internet-enabled phones become more commonplace.
StumpyPete1975: but y'all can have blogs of your own
Mike Hellstrom: and we do.
Mike Hellstrom: we have a few.
Mike Hellstrom: and we're rolling out mroe.
StumpyPete1975: so...you are adapting as well
Mike Hellstrom: and many of our writers have blogs of their own.
Mike Hellstrom: and i'm lucky that they don't do it in direct competitin.
Mike Hellstrom: so yes, we're adapting.
Mike Hellstrom: i often get the sense that we've been slow in adapting.
Mike Hellstrom: but the local daily doesn't have a music blog that i'm aware of.
Mike Hellstrom: but again, their advantage is a round-the-clock newsgathering force that we simply can't afford to have.
StumpyPete1975: so your scene
StumpyPete1975: ever have scene(is) envy?
StumpyPete1975: I mean, you are in a pretty big American city
Mike Hellstrom: ha ha.
StumpyPete1975: with credible acts
Mike Hellstrom: uh ... yes and no.
StumpyPete1975: and good clubs
Mike Hellstrom: i think the grass will always be greener no matter where you go.
StumpyPete1975: but there hasn't been that breakout artist that I am aware of
Mike Hellstrom: well, other than ... [says a name of a positively huge band that everybody knows]
StumpyPete1975: oh haha
StumpyPete1975: YEAH
StumpyPete1975: breakout indie artist?
StumpyPete1975: hip-hop?
Mike Hellstrom: breakout indie artist, not so much.
StumpyPete1975: but I wonder why certain towns get it and others don't
StumpyPete1975: I've played with bands there
StumpyPete1975: I've seen the weekly
Mike Hellstrom: hip-hop ... well, there are a few emcees that actually have garnered a little interest from labels.
StumpyPete1975: I've seen scene support
StumpyPete1975: but why do you think it hasn't stuck nationally (and there are many, many more towns like that)?
Mike Hellstrom: uh ... the fickle nature of the industry?
Mike Hellstrom: i'm not sure, to tell you the truth.
Mike Hellstrom: well, i have a theory.
StumpyPete1975: shoot
Mike Hellstrom: when nirvana hit big, executives flocked to seattle looking for the next nirvana.
Mike Hellstrom: and they found it in spades.
Mike Hellstrom: when athens and the triangle area starting producing huge indie bands — r.e.m., pylon, superchunk, archers, etc. — execs flocked to those towns looking for similar indie artists.
Mike Hellstrom: and they found them in spades.
StumpyPete1975: yep
StumpyPete1975: and later with E6 in athens
Mike Hellstrom: exactly.
Mike Hellstrom: and when executives flocked to our town thinking they'd found a sound [after the previously mentioned huge band broke -ed.]
Mike Hellstrom: it wasn't there.
StumpyPete1975: aha
StumpyPete1975: that one band was an aberration
Mike Hellstrom: the band(s) that were popular from the area weren't representative of the town.
Mike Hellstrom: we were always much more in tune with the athenses and the raleighs of the world.
Mike Hellstrom: so i think that's perhaps why our scene didn't stick.
Mike Hellstrom: and with the ebbs and flows that any scene goes through, and with those days being the salad years for so many people, we have a lot of clamor about the scene being "better" back then.
Mike Hellstrom: and i think that's not true.
StumpyPete1975: oh God
StumpyPete1975: I get so tired of that here in Athens
Mike Hellstrom: i'd imagine.
Mike Hellstrom: i think athens and [name redacted] are similar towns in that regard.
Mike Hellstrom: but people here in [name redacted] absolutely love athens.
Mike Hellstrom: revere it.
StumpyPete1975: yeah
Mike Hellstrom: as if it were mecca.
StumpyPete1975: I've noticed
Mike Hellstrom: and not that athens is a bad town.
Mike Hellstrom: i like athens.
Mike Hellstrom: lot of good bands from athens.
StumpyPete1975: but you have to be your own town
Mike Hellstrom: cinemechanica totally one of my current faves.
Mike Hellstrom: but you're exactly right, you have to be your own town.
Mike Hellstrom: and i think that somewhere along the way, we forgot to develop our own identity.
Mike Hellstrom: we tried too hard to be athens or seattle or what have you.
StumpyPete1975: what is the point of localism? Why is what you do there important?
Mike Hellstrom: and whether that was the fault of people in this town or out-of-towners trying to make a [redacted city] sound, in the same way there's an "athens sound," i don't know.
StumpyPete1975: what is the weekly's responsibility? to be rarara?
Mike Hellstrom: i think that's part of it.
Mike Hellstrom: i've gotten shit for being a cheerleader at times.
Mike Hellstrom: but i think someone has to be supportive of bands that are doing well and doing noteworthy things.
StumpyPete1975: what about the bad ones?
StumpyPete1975: or worse
Mike Hellstrom: ah!
StumpyPete1975: the popular ones you hate
Mike Hellstrom: therein lies the rub!
Mike Hellstrom: that's the eternal question.
Mike Hellstrom: what do you do?
Mike Hellstrom: say you're in my shoes.
Mike Hellstrom: and there's one local band that you absolutely loathe
Mike Hellstrom: totally derivative sound.
Mike Hellstrom: absolute jerks.
Mike Hellstrom: terrible, terrible band.
Mike Hellstrom: but they land a major label deal, and they suddenly have a modern rock radio hit.
Mike Hellstrom: what do you do?
Mike Hellstrom: do you trash the band?
Mike Hellstrom: for being what they are?
StumpyPete1975: yeah, I think you can
Mike Hellstrom: or do you recognize them for what they do.
Mike Hellstrom: i think there's a balance there.
StumpyPete1975: but what about when they are just starting out?
Mike Hellstrom: and that, above all else, is what i strive for.
StumpyPete1975: do you trash baby bands that you don't like?
Mike Hellstrom: personally.
Mike Hellstrom: i try not to.
Mike Hellstrom: because i don't think that's either constructive or helpful
Mike Hellstrom: now, do i write glowing things about them?
Mike Hellstrom: absolutely not.
Mike Hellstrom: there has to be a level at which you prove yourself.
Mike Hellstrom: if you're in athens, and you start a band, do you immediately ask to headline the 40 watt?
Mike Hellstrom: not if you know what you're doing.
Mike Hellstrom: or if you're well-adjusted.
Mike Hellstrom: i think as a local alt-weekly music editor, you have to be supportive while being critical.
Mike Hellstrom: there's a balance.
StumpyPete1975: do you get hate mail?
Mike Hellstrom: i have before.
Mike Hellstrom: and i'm sure i will continue to.
Mike Hellstrom: it doesn't happen that often.
StumpyPete1975: that's nice
Mike Hellstrom: but i get phone calls or emails every once in a while from fans or family members.
Mike Hellstrom: or the band themselves.
Mike Hellstrom: you just kind of have to let it roll off your back most times.
Mike Hellstrom: last point on the last question: i think the bands that are worth their salt take the criticism you give and take it to heart.
Mike Hellstrom: they're not trying to please you, per se, but they take it as constructive.
Mike Hellstrom: but some folks, well, they're just gods of their own minds.
Mike Hellstrom: infallible in their tastes.
Mike Hellstrom: and there's no sense trying to reason with those folks.
Mike Hellstrom: those are the folks who will no matter what think their band is the best in town, and that it's a crime that universal hasn't listened to their demo.
StumpyPete1975: I may or may not have encountered such people
StumpyPete1975: heh
Mike Hellstrom: i was one of those people at one time.
Mike Hellstrom: when i was younger.
StumpyPete1975: that's pretty much half of the city of Atlanta
Mike Hellstrom: and first starting bands.
Mike Hellstrom: because i thought it was easy.
Mike Hellstrom: being in a band is hard work.
Mike Hellstrom: being in a band that's successful is harder.
Mike Hellstrom: being in a touring band, for a living, can only be excruciating.
Mike Hellstrom: i can't imagine.
Mike Hellstrom: i mean, i've played in bands and i've toured, and i can't imagine doing that with my life.
Mike Hellstrom: because it seems like a dream job.
Mike Hellstrom: but unless you're, like, pearl jam, it kind of sucks.
Mike Hellstrom: anyhow.
Mike Hellstrom: what was the question?
StumpyPete1975: haha
StumpyPete1975: are you concerned about the future of alt-weeklies and further homogenization of content
Mike Hellstrom: ah yes, homo alt-weeklies.
Mike Hellstrom: [tee hee! you see what i did there?]
StumpyPete1975: class move
Mike Hellstrom: i'm a dick, it's true.
Mike Hellstrom: am i hopeful for alt-weeklies or do i see them becoming more homogenized?
Mike Hellstrom: again, i think that provincialism is the saving grace for alt-weeklies.
Mike Hellstrom: i think that alt-weeklies inherently provide something to communities that dailies can't or won't.
Mike Hellstrom: that sense of pride that most alt-weeklies carry — or at least should carry — is that makes them viable in their communities.
StumpyPete1975: but what about these big chains?
StumpyPete1975: they can just come down and wave some money around and buy you up
Mike Hellstrom: they could.
Mike Hellstrom: it's true.
Mike Hellstrom: i suppose that's an inherent possibility.
Mike Hellstrom: but i like to think that smart publishers and smart chains look at the paper they're buying and if it's a good paper, they leave it alone.
Mike Hellstrom: they say, "you know, you have a good thing going here."
Mike Hellstrom: and i'm lucky in that i'm in a situation very much like that.
StumpyPete1975: yeah, you are
Mike Hellstrom: i'm a hockey fan, right?
Mike Hellstrom: and i knew the miracle story.
Mike Hellstrom: of the '80 olympic team.
StumpyPete1975: sure
Mike Hellstrom: and herb brooks said "i'm not looking for the best players; i'm looking for the right ones."
Mike Hellstrom: and that has to be the way any media outlet — daily, weekly, what have you — has to operate.
Mike Hellstrom: you're part of the new times or village voice chain doesn't mean you're king of the mountain.
Mike Hellstrom: so anyone chain that buys up a paper with a strong local bent and strong respect from the local community is going to have problems
Mike Hellstrom: i don't know specifically if that's what happened to the loaf.
Mike Hellstrom: but if they did, well then maybe we have our answer on why they went bankrupt.
Mike Hellstrom: i still think it's mostly the well of ad revenue drying up.
Mike Hellstrom: but once the economy bounces back, maybe some of that money will float back into alt-weekly pockets.
Mike Hellstrom: we'll see, i suppose.
Mike Hellstrom: i still think it isn't a bad time to be a weekly.
StumpyPete1975: of course, you could just take a big buyout and go live in the Caymans
Mike Hellstrom: ah, i'm not much of a beach guy.
Mike Hellstrom: i'm mostly irish; i burn way too easily and look ridiculous with a tan.

The Mouse has already started spraying its firehose of promotional power over its boxed-in kiddie demographic: Two songs from the soundtrack are currently in the Radio Disney top five, and last night's London premiere of the flick was accompanied by reports that UK advance ticket sales had broken records two weeks out from the film's release. But still, there's something nagging at me about the soundtrack's prospects, what with ever-plummeting album sales, the aging of both the High School Musical demographic and the show's stars, and the brief, unfortunate forays into solo careers by HSM staples Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale. I asked chart guru Chris Molanphy for his thoughts:

Here's a question: how did "the base" like the songs on HSM2? (I have no idea — I have few tweens in my life right now.) The debut week of an album is typically a referendum on the perceptions of the previous product. For Those About to Rock goes to No. 1 because everyone loved Back in Black; Kid A goes to No. 1 because of the long, slow growth of OK Computer; etc. If HSM2—which sold in a quick burst—is less beloved by the fanbase than HSM was (and I'm not even factoring in kids aging out of the franchise), then HSM3 could surprise on the downside.

Judging by the (pretty unscientific) method of looking at user reviews on Amazon and iTunes, enthusiasm is high (the 3,914 iTunes reviews average four stars; the 94 on Amazon average four and a half), and "You Are The Music In Me" got a pretty big reception when Jess and I went to the High School Musical ice show. So maybe it's not the songs per se as much as the association kids have with them.

But what I think will be even more of a factor than the music, or the American populace's incrasing distaste toward buying albums (seriously, even Miley Cyrus is going the cheapo rush-reissue route), or the continued fallout from Hudgens' misdirected nude shots, even more than is the current economic climate, and how HSM3's theatrical release is forcing people who want to see it to head to the local multiplex and plunk down $10, instead of just hunkering down for a night in with the Disney Channel on the tube and some snacks on the coffee table. Sure, Hollywood in particular has been banking on the entertainment industry being "recession-proof" because of their ability to entertain in times of crisis, but the mood of the country is a lot darker now than it was in even August, let alone the relatively frothy moment when High School Musical and sequel No. 1 came out. If tightening belts result in a choice having to be made between the movie and the soundtrack, which will win? Something tells me that it won't be the item that can be easily picked up via a 10-minute session of hunting around Google for a Rapidshare link, but maybe I'm wrong.

The album: This Is... Huey "Piano" Smith (1998), one of a handful of superb early-rock compilations brought to us by the fondly remembered, albeit short-lived, reissue label Music Club.

Classic material: Huey "Piano" Smith wasn't a singer, but a session player and bandleader with just about the strongest reputation on his instrument in New Orleans—which is saying a lot, given the number of piano prodigies from that city. The Clowns were a vocal group led by a drag queen named Bobby Marchan. Together they created a small but potent body of work, and Music Club chose 18 tracks for this reissue; it also delivered smart best-ofs on the Everly Brothers, Lee Dorsey, Freddy Fender, Los Van Van, Augustus Pablo, King Tubby, and Del Shannon, as well as a number of excellent African collections.

Highlights: "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu" is, of course, one of the all-time classic New Orleans rock and roll records: a number of the tracks here, such as "Little Chickie Wah Wah," basically rewrite it. "Don't You Just Know It" is famous to younger folks for its appearance in Snatch. But the one that owns my heart is "Little Liza Jane," one of the hardest-rocking songs ever recorded.

Why it's out of print: Music Club went under during the early part of this decade, depriving it of its rightful place as Rhino's true heir: an indie reissue specialist cleaning up with clean, well-chosen collections on important, largely second-rank artists (by which I mean not-Elvis-or-Beatles, not bad). It isn't likely anyone will revive it. The songs on this comp, plus six more, are also available on Westside's Having a Good Time With Huey "Piano" Smith & His Clowns: The Very Best of, Volume 1, released a year before the Music Club collection and still in print, albeit as a pricey import.

Chances it will return to print: Very unlikely, but again, you can find all the material elsewhere. Still, the used bins are worth the hunt: if you like music that's more than a little loose, you can hardly do better than this collection.

Cost for a used copy: Amazon Marketplace has a number of copies, beginning at $20.

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: Beyonce's attempt at a gender-bending single is a starkly intimate ballad that starts off with her waking up and reveling in the relatively low-energy process of getting ready—no eyeliner or lipstick to be trifled with here! From there, it goes into a description of how she'd spend her day as a he: chilling with the dudes, flirting with any and all women who enter their orbit, and generally ignoring any emotional needs put forth by the woman who's allegedly an important part of his life. (The lyric "I'd put myself first / And make the rules as I go / 'Cause I know that she'd be faithful / Waitin' for me to come home" has about eight levels of bitterness going on.) So yeah, it's pretty much a breakup anthem, as evidenced by the chorus, which is about women being taken for granted and men not realizing that they've got a good thing until said ladies have wised up, moved on, etc. In that sense, it's lyrically different from Ciara's attempt to play Man For A Day; Beyonce doesn't come off as put-upon by her man's screwups as much as she is determined not to make the same mistake twice.

WHERE TO HEAR IT: Z100 has the stream.

It's certainly OK to have your preferences (I certainly have mine), but I'm not sure bragging that you just haven't bothered to listen to Bob Dylan, or whatever artist, is something to be proud of. There's certainly a lot of music out there, and there are just as many—if not more!—lists created every single day that have as their sole function telling you what you should already own and enjoy. But what happened to championing curiosity? I realized a few months ago that I hadn't heard Patti Smith's Horses in its entirety (to my knowledge), so I bought it. I don't love it, but at least, I've formed my own opinion.

One commenter mentions how often he hears the line "I've heard of him/her/them but have don't know his/her/their stuff", a line I'm guilty of repeating more often than I'd care to admit, but that seems more of a honest response to not having heard Santogold or the Fleet Foxes or whatever local band your friend's cousin is in, and not a strange anti-canon retort. Sure, I haven't heard every single piece of music listed on Acclaimed Music, but I at least want to try. The chart books clogging my bookshelf almost taunt me with artists and songs that haven't made it to various artist comps or greatest hits collections; to me, that unavailablility is part of the thrill of the chase. And before you ask, yes, I get sick of the lists too—I can't even fathom trying to wade through that 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die book I've seen everywhere lately. But is the only alternative to pretending you like a band you're barely familiar with (Slint seems to be the usual suspect) swinging to the other pole and staying blissfully unaware?

In Name Only [Monitor Mix]

Largely because I'm the sort of jackass who gets most of his music for free, it's not terribly often that I head out to a retail store to buy a new release. But earlier this month, I bought Ne-Yo's Year of the Gentleman from iTunes. However, now that I think about it, I shouldn't have bothered. Not because the disc isn't great—it's probably the most enjoyable thing I've listened to this year—but because in six months or so, Ne-Yo will have a song on a soundtrack or in a commercial and I bet you that his label will tack it and a few other new songs on to a deluxe edition, so customers can experience the joy of paying for the music they bought last month all over again. If there isn't a bigger "screw you, fan" move out there, I'm not sure what it is.

According to Soundscan, the Colbie Caillat disc has sold 1.78 million copies in the United States. A lot of those people probably feel like suckers, having heard "Bubbly" on the radio and decided to go ahead and cough up the extra cash for the entire album instead of just grabbing the single on iTunes. To thank all those customers for their devotion to an artist in a time when 1.78 million scans for an album by any artist is a pretty significant achievement, Universal says, "Hey, unless you pay up now, you'll miss out on some covers, Colbie's duet with Latin artist Juanes, and her song from the Olympics." Shouldn't the process work in reverse?

The truly ridiculous thing is that the digital era should have put a stop to this. How difficult would it be to release the extra music as an EP on its own? That way everyone wins (at least, everyone who needs an acoustic version of "Bubbly" in their lives.) That's the way Coldplay is addressing the Jay-Z remix of "Lost", and it really makes the most sense. Sure, there's a premium for the new music, but it's a hell of a lot better than asking people to buy the same twelve tracks they purchased once again for the sole purpose of adding a few additional novelties to their iTunes library. Music executives, I get that having some respect for those funding your houses in the Hamptons isn't really the bi'sz M.O., but you could at least try to wean yourselves from the most ridiculously brazen offenses.

Colbie Caillat Expands Debut Album [Billboard]

• "People get sick...he's always performing. A rapper can't take a sick day?? Lol" [Interstate P]

• "I bet you if this was a regular concern he would have made it..For example Kanye did show right after his mother passed away..So if these dam rappers can do it for the money they can do it for a cause too..Sick or not [HOT97]

• "this doesnt change my vote for obama and i hope no one else changes but damn Jay. You couldn't come out and let us know what was wrong. Yea in the hot ass 305 wet, waiting for you, not fair. i came home smelling like ass and i passed on my midterm. I can go on man but screw this i got to give my professors this bootleg doctors note for missing my test." [Butter Balls]

• "we aint saying he cant be sick but we are saying its fucked up what some of us had to go thru to go support this event. if he was sick he shouldve canceled since he woke up. when im sick i call work before its my time to clock in. feel me?" [Gee Class]

• "I FEEL ABOUT THIS LIKE I DO ABOUT DARREN MCFADDEN PLAYING LIKE CRAP FOR MY FANTASY TEAM DUE TO HIS TOE INJURY..." [Doobie-Ashtray]

Jay-Z Cancels Free Obama Show, Throat Issues Blamed [AllHipHop]

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: The first thing you notice about AC/DC's maiden effort for Wal-Mart: It's long—15 tracks, four of which utilize the word "rock" in their title. (Never let it be said that the folks in Bentonville weren't all about maximizing value.) As a result, Black Ice, while enjoyable cock-rock at the outset, can be a bit wearying as a long-player. Most of the songs are firmly cast in the basic AC/DC mold: A stomping 4/4 beat, a chorus marked by a lot of barroom-ready shouting from the other members, and a hyperactive Angus Young guitar solo. So thanks to that overarching sameness, the length of the album, and the fact that some of the songs seem just a smidge too long, Ice hits a patch about midway through where a torrent of razor-sharp guitar licks and Brian Johnson caterwauls just starts to flow over the listener. There's a little experimentation here and there—the spindly, almost ballad-like (well, for AC/DC anyway) "Rock N' Roll Dream," the Southern-rock swaggering "Decibel"—but the AC/DC formula is in full effect. And it's so effective on most of the album, in fact, that one's left wondering if the more casual fans of the Aussie hard-rockers will feel like they really need to pick up Black Ice while on a deodorant run—or will their copy of Back In Black suffice, particularly in these hard economic times?

THE BEST TRACK: "Decibel" has a twitchiness about it that is pretty endearing. Plus I bet that lead guitar part is going to be awesome to play on the AC/DC-branded Rock Band.

• "The Streets might have a happier, more positive outlook on the world, but it's hard to share Skinner's optimism: Even when you get on the same page as him and realize we're all just bags of self-replicating DNA on a cold rock hurtling through space, it doesn't help stave off the worldly worries of the day." [Aversion]

• "Fortunately for Skinner, however, his increasing mastery of the pop hook—from laddish sing-alongs such as 'Heaven for the Weather' to soulful anthems such as 'The Escapist'—makes this a highly listenable album, despite the high duh! quotient." [Sunday Times]

• "Skinner's still wrestling his party-animal dark side ('Heaven for the Weather') and trying to get laid ('Never Give In'). But his vivid introspection recalls rap forefather Rakim, whose mind power and love of fish are echoed on 'The Escapist,' a lush soul jam about thinking your way past barriers. It's English lit for the hoodie set." [RS]

• "In the end, though, Everything Is Borrowed's musical high points aren't enough to save it from its lyric sheet, and that, going forward, constitutes a real problem for Skinner. Given that he's threatened repeatedly to retire the Streets after five full-length albums, it might be an issue he's already well aware of. Either way, something's got to give; another record of similarly hollow platitudes might be enough to undo his legacy." [Pitchfork]

• "Fans of Skinner the man will want to give him a hug for all his hard-won serenity. Fans of his old work will miss things getting messy. A cannier move would have been to wrap up all this existential baggage in some euphoric pop music, as Roots Manuva's recent record did. As it is, you can't help but feel the Streets are on borrowed time." [Guardian]

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: The first single from Paul McCartney's forthcoming album under the guise of The Fireman got some ink for airing out Heather Mills' dirty laundry, but it should get even more ink for being a scorching rocker that sounds more like a lost Led Zeppelin b-side. It's almost as if severing ties with his ex-wife and Starbucks' failed record label at the same time freed McCartney in some way; he sounds pretty liberated here, ready to take on anyone who's intimated that he'll be the last Beatle to kick the bucket for cosmic "best to worst"-related reasons. If the rest of Electric Arguements is this, er, argumentative, I may be able to forgive him for "Freedom." (Maybe.)

WHERE TO FIND IT: Click, click:

Paul McCartney - Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight [MP3 / ATO Records]

• "For more than a decade, Oasis have continued to sell millions of records while stuck in a musical holding pattern. It's a perversely impressive feat, partly down to their fans, who, depending on your perspective, are either remarkably loyal or risibly undemanding. But it's also down to Oasis' willingness to graft, dutifully touring, never declining to play the hits. Neither masterpiece nor catastrophe, more experimental than Noel would allow but no one's idea of adventurous, a lot of Dig Out Your Soul sounds like hard work, and not in the latter-day Scott Walker sense of unorthodox or avant garde. Perhaps that's fitting." [Guardian]

• "The rest of the disc, featuring contributions from a still-sneering Liam and secondary members Andy Bell and Gem Archer, is predictably spotty, with fresh lyrical atrocities around every corner. But, hey, that's nothing new." [San Francisco Chronicle]

• "In addition to those four, Noel Gallagher wrote two more tunes here, both excellent. Unfortunately, age has softened his heart, and he cedes the album's other half to his bandmates (including lead-singing brother Liam), who offer subpar material such as 'I'm Outta Time,' a shameless John Lennon rip, and the undercooked garage-blues vamp 'The Nature of Reality.' (Surprise! It's 'only in your mind.') The result reminds us once again that while democracy makes sense in plenty of places, a rock band is rarely one of them." [Spin]

• "But for the most part, Dig Out Your Soul is an almost comically generic Oasis release, from its preponderance of plodding midtempo rockers ('Bag It Up,' 'Waiting for the Rapture') to the vaguely Indian raga-flavored psychedelic anthems ('To Be Where There's Life'). Then there's the issue of Liam's 'philosophizing'—he's entered the Maharishi phase of his Beatles worship, clogging songs with beatitudes like 'Space and time and here and now/Are only in your mind.' Got that?" [RS]

Last week, when I wrote about listicles, I forgot a non-print, but still big and obvious, agent of the format’s spread: cable television. The televised countdown goes back to the ’50s, when longstanding radio favorite Your Hit Parade counted down the Top 7 or Top 10 (depending on the season) songs of the week, as performed by an in-house band and singers. Then rock and roll happened, and bye-bye house bands. This begat the record hop (e.g. American Bandstand and Soul Train and, in the U.K., Top of the Pops), followed by video, which just before MTV led to the syndicated America’s Top 10 and Solid Gold, each using different chart data and methodology to deliver the week’s Top 10. MTV did some of that, too. It also spawned VH1, which started out MOR but soon found its footing when it adopted a campier, retro approach, becoming Nick at Nite to MTV’s Nickelodeon. Which mean, wouldn’t you know, tons and tons of countdowns of the all-time Top 100 thisses or thats.

The one the channel ran last week actually had me a little bit excited, in part because I had no real idea how it would shake out: 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs, which ran in five installments. Maybe I would have figured the outcome had I allowed myself to guess, but between having absolutely no time to myself lately and wanting to keep my responses fresh, I watched all of it cold.

VH1’s 10 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs (as aired Friday, October 3)
1. Public Enemy, “Fight the Power” (Def Jam, 1989)
2. Sugarhill Gang, “Rapper’s Delight” (Sugarhill, 1979)
3. Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Doggy Dogg, “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang” (Death Row, 1993)
4. Run-D.M.C., “Walk This Way” (Profile, 1986)
5. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious 5, “The Message” (Sugarhill, 1982)
6. N.W.A., “Straight Outta Compton” (Ruthless, 1988)
7. The Notorious B.I.G., “Juicy” (Bad Boy, 1994)
8. Snoop Doggy Dogg, “Gin and Juice” (Death Row, 1993)
9. Salt-n-Pepa, “Push It” (Next Plateau, 1986)
10. Kurtis Blow, “The Breaks” (Mercury, 1980)

(You can find the entire list at Stereogum.)

That’s a Top 10 I would never have guessed—“The Breaks” at No. 10? “Push It” at No. 9?—-and yet, reading it, I'm not surprised at all. Of course Public Enemy is No. 1: watching in order, I kept expecting “911 Is Joke” to pop up somewhere on the chart’s bottom half. That was the big one on MTV, right? That seemed to determine a few selections: No. 6, with its Symbolic Video; No. 38, Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise,” which makes every part of my body cringe; and No. 25, MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This,” whose talking-head segments seemed the most genuinely strained, as opposed to I-can’t-think-of-anything-to-say-help times 20 strained.

My guesses for the Top 10 mostly took place as the show reached the 30s. That’s one pleasure of this sort of thing: you get to play along. The game was tipped at the top of the final episode when its first selection, Kanye West ft. Jamie Foxx’s “Gold Digger,” prompted the arrival of Chuck D, almost nowhere to be seen in four prior episodes despite his obvious place as one of the most historically attuned rap pros. Surely he could be quotable about Hammer—whom Chuck D has always paid respect to in interviews—and his old tour-mates the Beastie Boys. Their entry—No. 27, “Hold It Now, Hit It”—was not a big hit at the time but has remained an enduring cult favorite, something the producers clearly did a lot of to balance out all that MTV.

Me, I’d wondered if the Beasties might not appear on the second episode, when 3rd Bass and House of Pain placed 70th (“Pop Goes the Weasel”) and 66th (“Jump Around”), respectively. If that sounds overly cynical, I’ll just say I figured they might make the list twice, along with others of their golden-era Def Jam ilk and maybe Jay-Z. (“Hard Knock Life” at No. 11?! Not “Big Pimpin’” or “99 Problems” or even “Izzo”? Come on!) The first episode made me especially suspicious of the way the numbers were running. The list was advertised as having been voted for by viewers, who must have been voting in very controlled patterns to place together three consecutive house/disco-inflected jams: Jungle Brothers’ “What ‘U’ Waitin’ ‘4’,” Wyclef Jean ft. Refugee All Stars', “We Tryin’ to Stay Alive,” and Heavy D. & the Boyz’ “Now That We’ve Found Love," Nos. 88 to 86. Come on, guys.

Aside from the usual wan jokes and “hey, I know the words of this very popular chorus too!” talking-head stuff, the clips and artist bios were rather more endearing here than on most of VH1’s 100-best-whatever fare. And more poignant: if you’re looking for a drinking game, wait till VH1 runs this as a marathon and swallow one shot for each time announcer Fab 5 Freddy mentions “the hip-hop nostalgia circuit.” You don’t even have to know the list to figure out who’s on it: Sir Mix-a-Lot (No. 17, “Baby Got Back”); Young MC (No. 47, “Bust a Move”); Tone-Loc (No. 39, “Wild Thing”); Arrested Development (No. 78, “Tennessee”); P.M. Dawn (No. 81, “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss”); Digital Underground (No. 29, “The Humpty Dance”); and 2 Live Crew (No. 83, “Me So Horny”), for starters.

It’s the old school, though, that got to me. (“Old school” has acquired too many meanings for its own good, so let me state clearly that I’m talking about artists who preceded Run-D.M.C.) Spoonie Gee (No. 65, “Love Rap”) walking around New York, head shaved, with a splendid orange-and-brown button-down, or J.J. Fad (No. 72, “Supersonic”) reminiscing about their younger selves, were somehow more poignant than their constantly touring descendants. And of course the Funky 4 + 1, creators of No. 41 (see what they did there?), “That’s the Joint,” still my favorite single of all time. Knowing that Sha Rock, the group’s female MC, does hip-hop bus tours—as does Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers (No. 77, “Cold Crush Brothers at the Dixie")—makes me want to do something touristy for once in my life. And hearing the group discuss their disappointment at never having made an album gave a little gravity to a show that needed it.

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To be fair, there are some good (maybe even great) songs on here. There are also some inexplicable ones. ("Sometimes Always" sharing space with Sister Hazel?) But which one should be wished into the alternative cornfield? The answer is up to you.

Buzz Ballads 2 [Music Space]