Yeah, but you were always too cool for school, Jon.

Jon's way wicked cool.

I quite like James, but only in small doses. Tim Booth's voice grates after a while. Actually, I think I'm safe in saying I only like their uptempo songs, and can't really stand their ballads.

Love "Sometimes," "Sit Down," "Born of Frustration," "Seven" and "Just Like Fred Astaire" off their little-known (?) album "Millionaires."

Tim Booth also did an album with Angelo Badalamenti called "Booth and the Bad Angel." I can't remember if it's good or not, but it's got a lovely song called "Hands In the Rain."

I used to date a guy who was a HUGE James fan. So there you go.

From Salon's Audiofile column (Hayden especially will be interested in this):

Next month I'll be headed to South by Southwest, the huge annual music festival in Austin, Texas, and reporting back daily on Audiofile. I've never been to SXSW before, but one look at the schedule, posted earlier today, makes it obvious that I'll be able to take in only a fraction of the action. I've already started getting invitations to showcases, but I'd also like to get reader recommendations. If there are any particular showcases or events that you'd like me to report back on, e-mail me with subject line "SXSW picks." I may not get to all of them, but I'll squeeze in as many as I can.

There are MP3s scattered across the SXSW site, but not collected onto any one page. Another nice place to start exploring this year's lineup: See You in the Pit, an MP3 blog devoted solely to artists appearing at the festival.

Check out the column's section about Tonic, too. I went to the Smokey and Miho/Chocolate Genius and Marc Ribot show & it was excellent. (That would be Miho Hatori of Cibo Matto, who played the Bronze -- or at least were playing at the Bronze; maybe Sean Lennon was headlining -- in "When She Was Bad".) And speaking of Sean Lennon... I knew one of the Tonic benefits was Sean and Yoko, and I knew that Vincent Gallo was doing one too, but I had no idea that VG appeared with Sean & Yoko until reading the column! Yoko "War Is Over If You Want It" Ono and Vincent "I'm a militant Conservative Republican, including the war war and culture war parts, the hardcore porn in my last movie notwithstanding" Gallo on the same bill? Now that's weird. Who says art can't bring us all together?

Heh. Somebody discovers the dBs for the first time.

I've only heard the dBs once, when they opened for R.E.M. I was not impressed, but then again, seeing a band live is often not the best introduction to that band's music for me. I've always meant to give the dBs another chance....

That does happen to me from time to time - I'll be aware of a band and have a feeling (based on friends or critics) that I should give them a listen. Years can go by. Then I do listen to them and I think, hey, they were right.

I'm not sure what the point of this post is.

Ooh, he mentioned Of Montreal.

I've never heard of the dBs, let alone heard them, but that should surprise no one.

It's funny to me because I bought their albums when they came out. And they weren't easy to find or cheap since they were both imports.

Old 97s Live concert DVD gets a thumbs up

I saw the dBs at Tower Records in New Orleans during Mardi Gras 1988 (Lundi Gras to be specific if memory serves.) Probably wouldn't have gone had a friend of mine not been a big fan. I got her an autograph after the show. Peter Holsapple asked me to whom he should sign it, at which point I drew a complete blank. Uh, uh, uh... I can picture her and her name is... He laughed at me, but I came up with quickly enough for him to sign. "Cathy! With a C!"

Old 97s Live concert DVD gets a thumbs up

Which album did Misha write about? (I'm at work so I can't look it up.)