added to TiVo to-do list!

Music by Jim Thirwell, incidentally.

Seems like that would be the point of iTunes.

I don't have the tech for iTunes -- dialup, no burner. But it's possible I'm the last person stuck in the 90s.

Jesse, that's me at home. Dialup, no burner, Windows ME ("where the ME means Maximum Excrement!"). My G4 at work (with T1 line) is where I get all my CD burning done.

Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I no longer work at work. It's all about illicit media.

I caught the Venture Brothers last night and cracked up at the Stiv & Lydia mention.

This was, of course, once I got home from seeing BRIAN WILSON! Holy shit, was that absolutely incredible. I'm not sure I ever want to hear a Beach Boys song again that doesn't feature nine-part harmony vocals. And every member of the band is better than me at, like, six different instruments. Brian Wilson himself even seemed to be having a great time, waving his arms, (fake-)conducting the string quintet, favoring the audience with huge grins, especially when he pulled a power drill out from behind his keyboard for "Workshop." I was on the 4th row, just off of stage center, and had an excellent view of all the different instruments and silly props (e.g. the strings and horn players throwing cale, corn, carrots, and cabbage at each other during "Vega-Tables," one of the guitarists pulling out a hook and pirate flag during "Holiday," the fireman helmets, the power tools, the surfboards, the glockenspiels (and how many of the Wondermints actually play glockenspiel? I counted four. And how many songs have a vibraphone breakdown, anyway?)), and this band played "Good Vibrations," which, as we all know, is impossible to play live. Featuring one of those not-quite-a-theramin things from the original recording (what are they called, Jon?) custom-made by an Austin luthier/electronic instrument dabbler. The guy who played the theramin-ish thing also played guitar, trumpet, French horn, banjo, keyboard, penny-whistle, clarinet, and, at one point, a sheet of steel for an odd, booming background sound. I'm completely flabbergasted.

Bwahahahaha! About the Ashlee Simpson thing -- I missed it.

Also, was talking to friends about the October lyrics thing and here is what I want U2 to do:

record those lyrics and then release a special double cd of October as it was released orginally and the newly recorded newly found lyrics.

I'd buy it.

"Vega-Tables,"

Every time I listen to this, I think of Dana Carvey singing "Chopping Broccoli."

Every time I listen to this, I think of Dana Carvey singing "Chopping Broccoli."

"Vega-Tables" is a silly song for sure, but on the way out, I overheard some teenagers talking about how SMiLE suddenly clicked for them on that song. It was flat-out inspirational live.

Also, the audience was very mixed between the hipsters (from both the 30ish and late teens varieties), cosmic cowboys, and Republican golf-shirt guys with plastic wives.

I saw that Asslee Simpson screw-up, too. And I hate her a ton for blaming the band right before the end credits.

I downloaded it. The screw-up sucked, but she could have handled it so much better --storming off and blaming the band was the most classless option available.

Kind of wonderning who the audience for this is. Wouldn't fans of that era already have that stuff?

I'm (or, well, people like me) probably the target market, Hec -- too young to buy the stuff when it first came out, interested in it as influential, but not quite willing to spend bazillions of dollars tracking down each CD included.

I haven't looked at the box set's track listing, but it sounds like something i would want.

Featuring one of those not-quite-a-theramin things from the original recording (what are they called, Jon?) custom-made by an Austin luthier/electronic instrument dabbler.

A Tannerin

I haven't looked at the box set's track listing, but it sounds like something i would want.

Oh yeah - almost everything on the box is essential listening. Great great stuff. I'm just a little over familiar with it. AMG summed up my feelings pretty well:

If you did listen to this sort of music devotedly back in the '80s, in fact, much of this will be like revisiting familiar hits and standards, even if few of them actually made the charts as actual hits (and then usually in the U.K.): R.E.M.'s "Radio Free Europe," the Dead Kennedys' "Holiday in Cambodia," the Jesus and Mary Chain's "Just Like Honey," Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," the Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun," XTC's "Senses Working Overtime," the Sugarcubes' "Birthday," Faith No More's "We Care a Lot," the Church's "Under the Milky Way," Siouxsie & the Banshees' "Christine," Gun Club's "Sex Beat," and Suicidal Tendencies' "Institutionalized," for instance, all fall into that category. And if you didn't experience the music directly during the era, this box set still gives you a pretty good idea of what was going on, and what paths to travel down for further investigation.

Some of the segues were odd - I can't quite imagine why they had Lone Justice sandwiched between Ministry and Killing Joke.