In honor of the anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr, I'm listening to U2's Unforgettable Fire.

On another note, at the bar Saturday night, I tried to do a Pope mix on the jukebox, to little avail. Anyone have any good Pope songs, besides the Prince one and the Meryn Cadell?

Ha! I thought about using that song after I'd already sent my other choice. But I figured people would roll their eyes and say, "Gosh, Alicia picked that? Shocking."

Alicia K: trying to think outside her box since April 2005

Well, I could always pick Belle & Sebastian, but figured I'd leave that for someone else.

Funny! I have The Meadowlands here at work for listening today.

It is so good. My current favorite tracks are "Happy" and "Everyone Choose Sides". I have no idea how I stumbled across it - but I decided to download it after reading a review in pitchfork . For some reason this paragraph grabbed me:

Disappointed, I shelved the disc and stubbornly refused to listen to the final pressing, even after it arrived at the Pitchfork P.O. box loving wrapped in Tiffany-blue ribbon and paper. Which was about when everyone I knew began raving. People were stunned at my reaction: Surely we'd just heard different albums? And we had, but upon finally listening to the finished version after heavy persuasion from friends, it began to make more sense. This was a completely different band, defeated, miserable, and exhausted, absolutely, but not hopeless. Defying the unwritten rule that any band breaking a five-plus year hiatus must return lethargic and sapped of inspiration before retreating again to obscurity, here The Wrens prove themselves even more shockingly relevant than before-- they have survived extinction, and, fully inspired, they are telling the tale: The Meadowlands is a crushing confessional, documenting every disappointment of the past seven years, every difficult breakup, every bad gig.

Hey David! The dB's are reuniting!.

Right on! I hope Rigby can still do his crazy sideways drumming.

A question on the music promotion biz. I'm listening to Billy's newest, "Devil's Playground," and I'm wondering how record companies decide what songs to release as singles. They put "Scream" out as the single for this, but "Rat Race" or or "Super Overdrive" would have been better to my mind. Who decides?

Who decides?

The record company. There are a bunch of marketing factors involved. In Billy's case they've got an uphill climb because there's no obvious place for him in the market nowadays.

Yeah, rock has changed. I've been trying to find industry reviews as opposed to reviews pre-disposed to liking it, and they're trending to "It doesn't suck. Parts of it are quite good." Interesting to find out Sanctuary Records approached him on doing an album. There are a couple of tracks I skip outright, but on the whole it's growing quite nicely on me. He must be so pleased that he's allowed to say "fuck" on recordings now.

Ugh. I just tried to post to a Shins message board to see if there were any extra tickets to the Chicago show (friend who was supposed to buy mine put it off until it was sold out) and I accidentaly started a new thread (which I cannot now delete) and got the serious smackdown from some asshole there.

This is why I only post with the buffistas. I'm so glad I don't have to fear that my internet ignorance will break this board.

Whatev. I've seen the Shins twice already - it's just that I caught them on Austin City Limits (with the Flaming Lips - it was a couple years old, I think) last weekend and thought I might try to find an extra ticket.

Mean people do, in fact, suck.

Also - I still don't have a password so I can check out the Emmett Mix song selections. Sorry to keep asking - but can someone send it to tbone1915 at yahoo dot com?

They might be able to get him onto a heavy metal station. He's certainly got some hard rock like "Blue Highway" and "Rebel Yell" which still gets played. But frankly, these comeback shots almost never amount to much. The Bangles and Go Gos both had reunion records in the last few years and both were met with absolute indifference. It wouldn't have mattered much if they were good, either. The marketing moment has passed and unless something forces them back into the public eye (like being featured in a big movie - see, Trainspotting and Iggy Pop, or a commercial, see Nick Drake and Volkswagen) then it's hard to do much more than appear on the Surreal Life.

It's different for somebody like Morrissey, since he still has a rabid fanbase. He can take 7 years off and come back and still get a look-see.