So, am I overreacting when I call this guy the tooliest tool who's ever been compared to a socket wrench?

You're not wrong.

I read TNR as TRL and automatically assumed you meant the First King of Tools Carson Daly. However, the TNR guy is actually Toolier.

2-second new CD reviews:
New Pornographers, Twin Cinema: love it
Waco Brothers, Freedom and Weep: bored now

So, am I overreacting when I call this guy the tooliest tool who's ever been compared to a socket wrench?

No, not overreacting.

Hi. Officially entering the thread I probably belong in.

So, am I overreacting when I call this guy the tooliest tool who's ever been compared to a socket wrench?

Tooliest? I think Pat Robertson currently holds that title. But a tool nonetheless.

One thing that annoys me about a certain segment of "music snobs" is that unless you grew up/lived/went to college in Chicago/Boston/NYC/LA/SF you don't know good music. And, in a sense, they're right. But the one thing that the MP3 revolution has done is get the good stuff to the kids who, like me, grew up in godforesaken places like Oklahoma. When I was in high school you could count on one hand the number of kids who listened to anything that wasn't hair metal or bad country. Now, the kids have access to the sort of music that I had never heard of back then, thanks to iPods and music sharing.

Last Christmas I watched a pack of teenage girls debate the merits of the Decemberists vs. Weezer in a Tulsa Borders store. And we're not talking goths, we're talking makeup and hair and 16. That never would have happened in Tulsa circa 1990.

the kids who, like me, grew up in godforesaken places like Oklahoma

Having grown up in SW Alabama, all I can say is: I hear ya. We were lucky enough to have an indie record store open up when I was 15, the same year I discovered punk music. I pretty much lived there.

Unfortunately, not even the biggest tool at TNR.

Well, that's true. One of the music geeks on my other board said that his rule of thumb is that the more ridiculous a statement by a TNR writer, the more likely it is that he or she means it.

He is such a tool that he comes with a free set of ginzu knives and an in-the-egg egg scrambler.

This made me laugh: that highly obscure album of AC/DC songs performed as tender acoustic ballads

because, hey, it can't be that obscure, because I have it! It's on eMusic.

This made me laugh: that highly obscure album of AC/DC songs performed as tender acoustic ballads

I've got it too (and love it!), but that's no guarantee of non-obscurity.

I'm trying to think of what I've got that really qualifies as obscure.

Yeah, I was laughing at that bit. Oh, that obscurity Mark Kozelek, who appeared in Almost Famous and who I first read about in Rolling Stone in 1988? That guy? Truly, people who listen to him must work hard to deserve to hear his songs.

I'm trying to think of what I've got that really qualifies as obscure.

You'll probably have an easier time going the other way.

I'm trying to think of what I've got that really qualifies as obscure.

I suspect the only thing that I've got that qualifies is the cd copy of Rasputina's orginal demo tape.

Having grown up in SW Alabama, all I can say is: I hear ya. We were lucky enough to have an indie record store open up when I was 15, the same year I discovered punk music. I pretty much lived there.

Yup. We had a place like that, though they specialized in stoner music and the sorts of things you hear on classic rock stations now (Zeppelin, Allmans, Dead). However, they also had lots of punk and funk you couldn't get at Musicland. They sold me my first Replacements tape.

MTV, ironically, was our primary dispenser of the non-mainstream, thanks to 120 Minutes. Then we got a short-lived lightbulb-powered alternative station that played lots of goth and college rock.

This made me laugh: that highly obscure album of AC/DC songs performed as tender acoustic ballads

It's on eMusic? I need to check that out. I have a soft spot for musical changeups and contrarian covers.