Congrats on your move, Tina! Send an addy my way and I'll send you my year-end mix.

I think I finally have my year-end mix together. It's better than 'eh', less than 'scintillating', just like 2004 itself. If you want a copy, email me at the profile addy. Tell me whether you want a standard audio (plays anywhere!) or mp3 (less typing!) CD. Also tell me whether you would like me to include, at random, a book from the towering stack of inappropriate review copies, surplus galleys, and dupes cluttering up my offices ...

I managed to get U2 tickets for the second Seattle show (added because the first show sold out in about 5 minutes). They're painfully expensive, but it was all that was available, and I'm going.

Time to start working some overtime to pay for them...

Tina, if you want, I can burn off a copy and send it on to Angus.

DX, that would be so great if you could. I would appreciate it. I have *two* CD burners that don't work right now and I'm not sure when that is going to change.

Or tina, if you want to hang out sometime, I could bring along my iBook and copy some CDs for you.

Also good. We should hang - a trip to an area comic book shop and some music stores with any other Chicago-istas who felt up for such things would be a fun thing to do...as soon as my money situation is just a little more stable. Which actually might not be too long from now.

There is a Midwest Buffista mailing list. When I got a sec I'll dig up the URL where you can sign up for it.

Again, I appreciate it.

Send an addy my way and I'll send you my year-end mix.

Woo-hoo! Insent in just a sec, hayden. Thanks - for the mix and well wishes!!

If you want a copy, email me at the profile addy. Tell me whether you want a standard audio (plays anywhere!) or mp3 (less typing!) CD. Also tell me whether you would like me to include, at random, a book from the towering stack of inappropriate review copies, surplus galleys, and dupes cluttering up my offices ...

Again - woo!! Again, insent.

I have no year-end mix to offer. But as soon as the ol CD burner is back up and running I am going to begin going through my roommate's collection of rare stuff and bootlegs, etc. and there will be mixes..oh yes, there will be mixes.

eta: Did anybody else catch the Pixies on ACL last night? It was great to see them that close after seeing them live. Yes, it was almost the exact same songs done the same exact way as the live show I saw - but my Pixies love has been at new levels since I saw them so I was happy to catch them on the teevee.

Did anybody else catch the Pixies on ACL last night?

Yes! It was on here a few nights ago. It was really good. Much better than I expected.

I might be going to U2!!!

Arrgh. I'm having email problems. Anyone who emailed me about a mix CD, could you do so again?

Was the Pixies show on ACL from the ACL fest? 'Cause the sound was shit for those of us who were there.

No idea, but the sound was really good on the TeeVee.

My friend Jeremy saw the Pixies thing on television and was telling me about it last night; he was raving about how great they sounded and how nice it was to be able to see it from the comfort of his own living room, without being surrounded by a bunch of kids in some dank little club. I think he realized about half-way through his shpiel that he sounded like an old fart, and the look on his face was priceless.

Any Low fans in the room? I'm curious about your reactions to the new album, because I'm mystified by some of the reviews I've read. Critics and reviewers praised the album before this most recent one (Trust) but were quick to say that it was more of the same and that they were getting close to exhausting their creative options within the confines they'd created.

The newest album (The Great Destroyer) is definitely a step in a new direction but it still sounds like Low to me. They have a very distinctive thing going on, and nothing on this new album seems unrecognizable.

The reviews that I've read have panned it, and while some of their criticisms are legitimate (even to my untrained ear, some of the tracks sound overproduced), mostly the reviews focus on how different it is and how they've turned their backs on the slowcore thing. So apparently last time they weren't different enough and this time they're supposedly too different. Very few reviews have taken the album on its own and reviewed it for its strengths or weaknesses.

I think The Great Destroyer is brilliant, though I'll admit that it took me three listens to appreciate it fully. And their show at the Somerville Theater on Saturday night was fantastic. I definitely recommend getting the CD and seeing them live if the opportunity presents itself.