How sad! The awesome music blog Post-Punk Junk is going off the air today. I've been downloading like mad all day just to make sure I get tracks before they disappear.

If I switched to a different web hosting company, nothing would change, because they probably would grow tired of PPJ straining their servers after only a few months. PPJ’s traffic increased every single month without fail, and that wouldn’t change if I jumped somewhere else.

It would if you coughed up the money for a private server, dude.

FAQWife is on the American Musicological Society listserve where, she informs me, there has been a debate raging as to whether one can get away with doing a dissertation on a rock music topic. One list member took the time to list a bunch of such topics, which I now share with you here:

• Detail the \"musical dialogue\" between these artists through these albums, The Beatles \"Revolver\", The Beach Boys \"Pet Sounds\", Pink Floyd, \"Pipers at the Gates of Dawn\", The Beatles, \"Sgt. Pepper\"
• Describe how the Who\'s \"My Generation\" represents the African American work song through the broken reflection of a Mod aesthetic. (be sure to mention the use of call and response)
• \"That\'s not even Michael Nesmith\'s Real Hat!\": The role of the session musician in the 1960s LA music scene. Were the Monkees actually the first band to play on their own album?
• How does Rush\'s \"Red Sector A\" draw from the prophetic traditions of the O.T. to relate the Holocaust survival story of Geddy Lee\'s parents.
• Describe the Anti-war aesthetic and compositional form of Black Sabbath\'s \"War Pigs\"
• Describe how the music of Carol King provided a foundational kernel for the Beatles, \"Tell Me Why\"
• Diagram and Describe how the Beatles, \"All My Loving\" is an example of synthesis from Girl Groups, Doo-Wop, and Rock-a-billy guitar.
• How does Queen\'s \"Prophet\'s Song\" draw upon Western Musical Practices of \"Shelving-in Orchestration, Strict Canon, Coro Spezzati, Antiphonal Singing, and Hocket.\" Be sure to include an example from Mahler, Gabrieli, and Machaut.\"

"That's not even Michael Nesmith's Real Hat!": The role of the session musician in the 1960s LA music scene.

This is so much a perfect dissertation title that I can't believe it hasn't been written yet.

How does Rush's "Red Sector A" draw from the prophetic traditions of the O.T. to relate the Holocaust survival story of Geddy Lee's parents.

Whereas this was going to be the sequel to the Unabomber's manifesto.

It would if you coughed up the money for a private server, dude.

It was also that he kept the files from all of the 250+ posts up on the server. While that's awesome for, say, me, it meant that his traffic was always going up because people found they could download from the archive as well as the most recent posts. *shrug* He's going to keep making his mixes, though, and they rock.

The Scissor Sisters appear on NBC's Passions.

You know what I love most about Cake? I know two other people who are mad about them, each is passionately in love with their Very Best Album and all three of us love a different album the best.

So I'm listening to WFMU and they played this cool track by Camera Obscura ("Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken" "If Looks Could Kill") so I ran off to eMusic to see if they had it and they did so I added it to my "save for later" list... but then I noticed that that album art looked familiar [link] so I checked and found I'd already downloaded that album. I think a few months ago. Damn, I am just adding albums to my iTunes faster than I can try them out (like, listen to a few times).

Another thing that's occurred to me is back in college I could listen to my favorite albums quite often, as back then I had maybe 250-300 albums by the time I graduated. Now I think I have about 1200, so even if I like an album a lot, the set of all albums that I like a lot is quite large, so a lot of those albums in that set only get listened to a couple times a year - or less.

Still, totally a first-world complaint. I should be grateful I'm part of a culture that produces so much excellent music.

I didn't know Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney) was playing with S. Malkmus now. That's just cool. If they can just get Mike Watt on bass, then they could have supergroup.