Sunday Random 10 (x3)

Been busy, blah, blah, blah, so let's get caught up on the little green Nano's selections.

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

01/29/2012

Elvis Costello & The Attractions - License to Kill

R.E.M. - Supernatural Superserious

Kirsty MacColl & The Pogues - Miss Otis Regrets

Jonathan Rundman - Local Road

U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations

The Ventures - Walk Don't Run

Thea Gilmore - I'll Remember You

Muddy Waters - I Feel Like Going Home

Bruce Springsteen - Fire

The Costello and Gilmore tunes are from the Chimes of Freedom - The Songs of Bob Dylan 4 CD set that dropped earlier that week. Good to see the remaining Beach Boys on the Grammys tonight singing "Good Vibrations."

02/05/2012

Greg Brown - Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

The Beatles - Wait

Solomon Burke - I Need Your Love in My Life

Beki Hemingway - My World

Adele - Make You Feel My Love

Los Lobos - Anselma

U2 - Beautiful Day

Muddy Waters - Mean Red Spider

Sussan Deyhim - All I Really Want to Do

Drive-By Truckers - The Day John Henry Died

Hope Adele rented a pickup truck to carry home all her hardware tonight.

And "Anselma" is one the kid and I used to dance around the room to. (We need to do that again when you're back from Russia.)

02/12/2012

Van Morrison - Domino

Jonathan Rundman - The Loneliness of Happiness

Everything But the Girl - These Early Days

Marah - 20,000 Streets Under the Sky

The Avett Brothers - Kick Drum Heart (Live)

Loggins & Messina - Angry Eyes

Greg Brown - Remember the Sun

Tom Waits - House Where Nobody Lives

Steve Dawson - Goodbye

The Beatles - I'm Only Sleeping

If you don't own EBTG's wonderful Idlewild, do yourself a favor and go get it. Coincidentally, we just heard Nils Lofgren on World Cafe last night talking about helping Danny Whitten finish the song "I Don't Want to Talk About It" and EBTG does a terrific cover of it on that very same record.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question (What the hell was that Nicki Minaj deal?), already in progress.

Sunday Random 10

Finally starting to get wintry here in the land of TWDQ. Fortunately, not wintry enough to shovel or blow winter out of the driveway.

Let's see what the little green Nano has in store for today.

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

Mary Lou Lord - His Indie World

Nick Lowe - I Read a Lot

Ry Cooder - Do Re Mi

Todd Snider - Disorganized Crime

Elvis Costello & The Attractions - This Year's Girl (Live)

Fountains of Wayne - Nightlight

Split Lip Rayfield - Fallen

Tracey Thorn - Late in the Afternoon

Al Green - You Ought to Be with Me

The Avett Brothers - All My Mistakes

The wonderful Mary Lou Lord song that leads this off is one we'll throw on repeat, so this list could well have been ten repeats of that. Couldn't find it on YouTube, but there is a nice version from the BBC in the link above. Nick Lowe is aging so, so gracefully. We highly recommend his most recent album. Couldn't find a live clip of the Split Lip Rayfield tune, but do check out the clip to see the awesome gas tank bass.

We even got a little Al Green this week, which is a pretty good excuse to link to the other Al Green we got this week. The kid thought the aside to the wings was so The West Wing.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Sunday Random 10

Let's see what the little green Nano produced this morning!

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

XTC - Blame the Weather
The Beatles - Sea of Time
The Beatles - Lovely Rita
Dr. John - Mos' Scocious
Brook Benton - Rainy Night in Georgia
Lyle Lovett - Cowboy Man
Los Lobos - Carabina .30-30 [Live]
The Temptations - My Girl
Elvis Presley - Blue Moon of Kentucky
Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)

Love that it picked up from last week's XTC song at #10 to leading off with XTC this week. (Again, not that the odds of it hitting an XTC tune are terribly long.) The first of the Beatles tracks is one of the instrumentals from Yellow Submarine. (The odds of hitting a Beatles tune are way shorter than XTC.) Brook Benton's tune is from the album that is pound-for-pound the Best Album in Our Collection. [1] There's our choice for the Best Band America has Produced [2], followed by The Tempts singing The Greatest Song Ever Written, and the B-side of the record that made it all happen for The King. It wraps with those crazy Canadian kids who were the highlight of last year's Grammys telecast. [3] Not a bad ten at all.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question (Is Mitt Romney a serial killer?), already in progress.

[1] Atlantic Rhythm & Blues 1947-1974 - Volume 6 1966-1969. Try to find a 2-album set with more great songs on it, we dare you.
[2] Excellence in a broad variety of styles, solid body of work, longevity, same lineup all these years.
[3] But were noticeably absent from tonight's commercial for this year's ceremony.

57 Channels and Nothin' On

Saw the following item in the latest Comcast Xfinity e-mail under the heading "Editor's Top 5 Picks":

Rob: Rob Schneider stars in this new sitcom as a bachelor who marries into a tight-knit Mexican-American family.

An "editor" picked that? Sweet Mother of Pearl, we've only seen the commercials for this stinkfest, so here's This Week's Discussion Question:

How much cash would someone have to pony up to get you to watch an episode of that "editor's pick"?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "I think there's an editor with a death wish -- or a new Mercedes," "To paraphrase Arthur Dent, 'Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word "stars" that I wasn't previously aware of," or "Hell, it'll make the Republican presidential debates look like Masterpiece freaking Theatre."

Discuss.

Sunday Random 10

Let's see what the little green Nano offered up this week!

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

Erik Brandt - The Ballad of Janos Sinko

Blind Pilot - We Are the Tide

Husker Du - Makes No Sense At All

Nick Lowe - Somebody Cares for Me

Ike Reilly - Put a Little Love In It

Wilco - Someone Else's Song

Wilco - Solitaire

John Hiatt - When New York Had Her Heart Broke

Los Straitjackets - Close to Christmas (The First Noel)

XTC - Generals and Majors

We're thinking about catching Mr. Brandt opening for Koerner and Glover in the near future. Bought the Blind Pilot album via download on Saturday after seeing them on Letterman (and recalling my buddy Tom raving about them). We're suckers for a band with an extra tom-tom player. Five bucks on Amazon. The Husker tune is the A-side of the single we bought years ago for the terrific B-side, the video of which we'd never seen until just now. There's a pair of pretty obscure Wilco tunes, and Los Straitjackets track is from their terrific new album, Yuletide Beat. And let's just say that as time goes by, the chance of an XTC tune popping up in the mix gets more and more likely.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Sunday Random 10

Happy New Year! Here's what the Nano dropped on New Year's Day 2012!

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

Eurythmics - Missionary Man

The Band - When I Paint My Masterpiece

Gear Daddies - African Killer Bees

Florence + the Machine - Hurricane Drunk

Wilco - Handshake Drugs

Fountains of Wayne - Revolving Dora

Todd Rundgren - Marlene

The Beatles - Get Back (Let it Be...Naked)

Old 97's - Love Is What You Are

The New Standards - The Dark End of the Street

Hope 2012 is off to a good start!

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question (Iowa? Really?), already in progress.

Sunday Random 10 (catching up for 2011)

Getting caught up here after a long holiday week. Here's the last of the 2011 randoms. Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

12/18/2011

The Coasters - I Must Be Dreamin'

Joe Henry - This is My Favorite Cage

Florence + the Machine - Cosmic Love

Fountains of Wayne - All Kinds of Time

The B-52's - Good Stuff

Ivy - She Really Got to You

Todd Snider - Unorganized Crime

The Beatles - Misery

Diane Birch - Forgiveness

The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself

12/25/2011

Ry Cooder - Taxes on the Farmer Feeds Us All

Susan Werner - Sunday Mornings

Beki Hemingway & Jonathan Rundman - Easy Chair

Beki Hemingway & Jonathan Rundman - Everything to Everyone

Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)

Wilson Pickett - I'm In Love

Over the Rhine - Here It Is

Dolly Varden - Balcony

The Replacements - I'll Be You

The Ike Reilly Assassination - Garbage Day

Didn't have a lot of holiday music on the Nano this year--or anywhere, for that matter--so it's nice that Over the Rhine's terrific Christmas tune turned up on Christmas Day.

"I'm wrapping up my love this Christmas and here it is."

Peace on earth, goodwill to all...

Sunday Random 10

Before we get another week in the hole, let's clean out the queue of Sundays.

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

12/04/2011
John Coltrane - Everytime We Say Goodbye
Laura Nyro - Stoney End
Dan Zanes and Friends - I Am What I Am
Dwight Yoakam - Wichita Lineman
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Simplest Love
The Autumn Defense - Why I'm Like This
Professor Longhair - Whole Lotta Loving
Allen Toussaint - Just a Closer Walk with Thee
The Beatles - Long, Long, Long
Allen Toussaint - West End Blues

The Nano was in a jazzy New Orleans mood, it appears.

12/11/2011
Dolly Varden - Some Sequined Angel
Wilco - That's Not the Issue
Ricky Nelson - Hello Mary Lou
Badfinger - No Matter What
The Honeydogs - I Miss You
Greg Brown - Tenderhearted Child
Professor Longhair - Meet Me Tomorrow Night
Yusuf - Heaven/Where True Love Goes
Fountains of Wayne - The Girl I Can't Forget
Nick Lowe - All Men Are Liars

Even though we didn't get tickets for the Wilco/Nick Lowe shows last week, the Nano apparently thought we should have.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Sunday Random 10

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We're thankful for you and we're thankful for music! Shall we see what the little green Nano served up today?

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!!!

Tres Chicas - Drop Me Down

Hank Williams - Jambalaya (On the Bayou)

Ace - How Long

Muddy Waters - Stuff You Gotta Watch

The Who - We're Not Gonna Take It

Drive-By Truckers - The Righteous Path

Michael Penn - Mary Lynn

The Who - Call Me Lightning

The Rascals - Mustang Sally

Todd Rundgren - I Saw the Light

Bonus 11 and 12 because, um...well, it's the first Sunday in Advent, so it's the Christmas season, and um...yeah, like the "Twelve Days of Christmas", and it's a Christmas song, so that's a sign that we ought to do twelve! Yeah, that's it! (Actually, 11 was a pretty great song and then twelve is brand new and we simply must mention it.)

Rodney Crowell - Closer to Heaven

Los Straitjackets - Que Verdes Son

Okay, we see the Nano is liking The Who this week. Ace's one and only hit appears (though Paul Carrack went on to have several more), there's some Hank Sr. and Muddy, and the terrific lead track from the great Something/Anything?, which we'd strummed on the uke earlier in the day.

Now to the bonus tracks. The Rodney Crowell song is the beautiful closing piece from the Joe Henry-produced Sex & Gasoline and we introduced a bunch of folks to Los Straitjackets' first holiday record several years ago, but didn't get in early enough to get one of the limited run of the Yuletide Beat CDs, so we ended up downloading it last week and "Que Verdes Son" is one of those tracks. We're not sure why we waited so long. Go. Get. It.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question (While Jimmy Fallon and The Roots are apologizing for the sexism, shouldn't they also apologize for assuming our former Congresswoman knows enough about what she speaks to be lying?), already in progress.

Sunday Random 10 (x3)

Yeah, we've been busy, busy, busy. Here's what the little green Nano's spit out the last few weeks.

11/06/2011

Wilco - Black Moon (Alt.)

Feist - Cicadas and Gulls

Rod Stewart - Reason to Believe

The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun

Robert Palmer - Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)

Buffalo Springfield - Mr. Soul

The Beatles - Rain

Wilson Pickett - In the Midnight Hour

Ivy - Distant Lights

Preservation Hall Jazz Band (feat. Anita Briem) - C'est Si Bon

(A few new tunes here. We like the new Wilco album better than Wilco (the album) but not as much as Sky Blue Sky. The new Feist is quite good. The new Ivy record is heavy on the electronica, but we're liking it.)

11/13/2011

The Beatles - Sexy Sadie

The Civil Wars - 20 Years

Steve Goodman - Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Steve Cropper & Felix Cavaliere - One of Those Days

Dwight Yoakam & Buck Owens - Streets of Bakersfield

The Civil Wars - Girl with the Red Balloon

Arcade Fire - Sprawl I (Flatland)

Erik Brandt - Shit List

Joe Henry - Last One Out

The Replacements - I'll Be You

(The Nano likes The Civil Wars, too. Dwight and Buck are terrific.)

11/20/2011

Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire

Laura Nyro & Labelle - I Met Him on a Sunday

Rockpile - Play That Fast Thing (One More Time)

The Beatles - Honey Pie

Husker Du - Love Is All Around

The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations

Titus Andronicus - Theme from "Cheers"

This Train - The Missing Link

The Rascals - Love Is a Beautiful Thing

Elvis Costello and The Attractions - This Year's Girl (Live)

(The new Ryan Adams record is gorgeous. You know how we feel about Ms. Nyro's collaboration with Labelle that predates "Lady Marmalade" by a couple of years. Yes, the Huskers' are covering the theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It was a B-side that any respectable Minnesotan ought to own. Nice to hear This Train after seeing Mark Robertson's current band Thursday night.)

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question (Christiane Amanpour's roundtable today: George Will, Peggy Noonan, Matthew Dowd, and Paul Krugman prompts us to ask (again) "What liberal media?")

Wedding Bell Blues

So Kim Kardashian filed for divorce today after 70 days of marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries. Irreconcilable differences. Seventy days. Hard to imagine things couldn't be worked out after such a lengthy effort at reconciliation.

Here's This Week's Discussion Question:

Tell us again how allowing gays to get hitched undermines marriage?

Please keep the discussion civil and feel perfectly free to wander off into "Why are you famous?" and "Can we never hear her name again, please?"

Discuss.

Sunday Random 10 (x2)

Been a couple of busy weeks, so let's get caught up on what's shaking with the little green Nano.

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

10/23/2011

Rod Stewart - Seems Like a Long Time

The Kinks - Susannah's Still Alive

Jonathan Rundman - If I Ever Get There

The B-52's - Debbie

The Civil Wars - To Whom It May Concern

The Waterboys - Sweet Thing

R.E.M. - Romance

Los Lobos - Carabina .30-30 (live)

Dolorean - Beachcomber Blues

The Replacements - Achin' to Be

Try explaining to someone under the age of, oh, thirty-five, that Rod Stewart was once a vital and critically-acclaimed artist. Good luck.

10/30/2011

Erik Brandt and The Urban Hillbilly Quartet - Helplessly

Ike Reilly - The Assassination of Sweet Lou Diablo

The Beatles - Get Back

Joe Henry - A Friend to You

Jonathan Rundman - No More Walls

Rosanne Cash with Johnny Cash - September When It Comes

Kaivama - Mosalarium

Ivy - Suspicious

The Rutles - Joe Public

Golden Smog - Easy to Be Hard

Just loaded UHQ's fine "Amelia's Boot" over the weekend. Also tunes from the new Kaivama and Ivy records, and Gary Louris's take on "Easy to Be Hard" is simply gorgeous.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Monday Random 10

Sunday was a busy day at TWDQ HQ, so we fired up the little green Nano late that night for a few tunes and--especially since Derek and the Dominos' 20-minute live version of "Let it Rain" came up midway through--we decided to shut it off and go on shuffling along in the morning. When we plugged the iPod into the laptop at work, none of what played showed up under "Last Played" so we needed to do it all again.

Fortunately, it gives the Nano an opportunity to choose something from a couple of lunchtime acquisitions.

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)

Lost Dogs - I'm a Loser

Jonathan Rundman - Oswiecim

Derek and the Dominos - Keep on Growing

The Ike Reilly Assassination - Good Work

XTC - Stupidly Happy

The Baseball Project - The Ballad of Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson

Bruce Springsteen - Fire

Neil Young - Southern Man

Bob Dylan - Boots of Spanish Leather (demo)

Well, no 20-minute guitar epics and none of the recent acquisitions turned up, but it was worth redoing if only to link to Sal Nunziato's stupidly wonderful piece on a stupidly wonderful song.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question (Nick Punto in the World Series?), already in progress.

Sunday Random 10

Today's shuffle played out on the flight to Houston. Was a beautiful day in MN, rainy in TX. We're glad we took the late flight out.

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

Rosanne Cash - Sleeping In Paris

The Beach Boys - Sloop John B. (live)

The Decemberists - January Hymn

Jackson Browne - Doctor My Eyes

Aaron Neville - Stand By Me

Los Straitjackets - Ana (Anna)

The Hold Steady - A Slight Discomfort

Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - Couldn't I Just Tell You

Boiling Point - Long Way (All the Pretty Reasons)

The Twilight Hours - Yes

The King is Dead might be our favorite album of 2011. Los Straitjackets' Rock en Espanol is a terrific album of 50's and 60's rock 'n roll done in Spanish, of course. (Los Lobos' Louie Perez's liner notes are pretty terrific, too.) Mr. Sweet and Ms. Hoffs cover our favorite Todd Rundgren tune, and we close with a couple of local bands. Boiling Point is our worship leader's band and the Twilight Hours are half of Trip Shakespeare (John Munson & Matt Wilson) making really fine, tuneful pop.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Take Me Out to the Cathedral

At the Values Voter Summit, Bryan Fischer, of noted hate group the American Family Association, suggested that the United States hasn't been attacked by America-hatin' Muslims since Sept. 11, 2001 because we started singing "God Bless America" instead of the "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the 7th inning stretch.

Take it away, Brian:

"By God's blessing, we have not been hit by a Muslim attack since 9/11," Fischer said. "I suggest that in part, we have Major League Baseball to thank. You remember that the week after 9/11 Major League Baseball converted the seventh inning stretch from the singing of 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame' to the singing of 'God Bless America.'"

"Now 'God Bless America' is not just a song, it is a prayer. When we sing that we are inviting God to bless America, to stand beside her and to guide her through the night with a light from above," Fischer said.

"So for one brief, shining moment every night, Major League Baseball has converted our stadiums into cathedrals in which tens of thousands of ordinary Americans lift their hearts and voices as one and ask God to watch over and protect the United States," Fischer said.

"Ladies and gentleman, I think that those prayers have been heard and they have been answered," Fischer said.

First, some clubs only sing GBA on Sundays (for which TWDQ thanks God). We believe the Yankees do it every game less out of patriotism than to use Ronan Tynan's 17 minute rendition to ice a visiting pitcher that's in a groove.

Second, nothing got "converted". We still sing 'em both on Sundays at Target Field. More people sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". Way more.

Third, though it may be a prayer, GBA is a sentimental, mawkish, schlocky prayer. Woody Guthrie disliked it so much he wrote "This Land is Your Land"--originally titled "God Blessed America for Me"--in response.

Fourth, his last line reminds us of a great line in Barbara Brown Taylor's "An Altar in the World":

“I do not know any way to talk about answered prayer without sounding like a huckster or honeymooner. When someone wants to tell me how God has answered prayer, those are the first two possibilities that occur to me, anyway: 1) This person wants to sell me something, or 2) This person is not quite sober yet.”

And lastly, the last time we checked, Irving Berlin, who penned GBA, was Jewish, leading us to This Week's Discussion Question.

So wouldn't that be synagogues instead of cathedrals?

Please keep the discussion civil and please do not wander off into "Values? What values?" but do feel free to wander off into your Slim Pickens impression. (Quote #2, to be precise.)

Discuss.

She's Gone

We interrupt This Week's Discussion Question to bring you the news that former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin will not run for the presidency in 2012.

In other news, the sun rose in the east today.

Palin's decision means, of course, that TWDQ's CEO will not be consuming his headwear in front of City Hall at high noon on November 6, 2012, as promised had the FHTG been the GOP nominee.

The story we linked to is headlined, "Sarah Palin's Decision Not to Run Shocks Supporters", which brings us to This Week's Discussion Question:

Really? Who didn't see this coming?

Please keep the discussion civil and try to keep the guffaws down.

Discuss.

Idiot Wind

While we're waiting for country music stations all over Amurica to sponsor rallies to burn and smash Hank Williams Jr. records, here's This Week's Discussion Question:

Who gives a rat's behind what Hank Williams Junior thinks about anything?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "That's a mighty generous use of 'thinks', bucko," or "Remember kids, don't drink before breakfast."

Discuss.

Sunday Random 10

Let's see what the little green Nano kicked out on this first Sunday in October!

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!!!

Son Volt - Route
The Beatles - The Long and Winding Road (from Let it Be...Naked)
Badfinger - No Matter What
Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies
Los Lobos - La Pistola Y El Corazon
Titus Andronicus - Four Score and Seven
Eurythmics - Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves
Everything But the Girl - Oxford Street
Fountains of Wayne - Acela
The Beatles - Only a Northern Song

Really nice mix this week. Son Volt's debut, Trace, is one of those albums we could sing along to from start to finish by heart but couldn't name the song titles at gunpoint. (Seriously, this album is so deeply engrained that on a family vacation, I pulled the family off the freeway to see St. Genevieve, Missouri. A co-worker told me he'd also done the same side trip.) We're always thrilled by the Phil Spector-free version of McCartney's ballad following the 28 year wait after hearing it for the first time in the film "Let it Be" in 1976. There's Donovan's guest shot with Alice, some excellent rootsy Los Lobos (The Best Band America Has Yet Produced, in our not so humble estimation), some Civil War-based (sort of) Jersey rock, Aretha & Annie, and the vastly underrated and underheard Tracey Thorn and EBtG.

And, boys and girls, right there at number three is the first full-flower of power pop, with a tune from the fine new album by our current favorite power pop purveyors checking in at number nine.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Odds and Sods

We've had a few little things we wanted to get off our chest lately, so let's unload:

Norquist to Buffett: Send Government Your Money - Here's the Envelope, You Pay for the Stamp

TWDQ to Grover: Here's the short pier, you take the hike.

Crazy Train Keeps A-Rollin':

Seriously, how can anyone take this lunatic seriously?

Montana GOP Fears School Lunch Fraud is Eating Taxpayer Money

Yeah, beating up poor kids for their lunch money is the way out of our economic malaise.

There, that feels better.

Back tomorrow with tunes...

The Great Beyond

Was a little surprised the Nano didn't turn up any R.E.M. today in the wake of Peter, Mike, and Michael hanging it up this week. (It seems like it's got a spidey-sense about those kinds of things.)

Had read some buzz about them and I have a strong memory of hearing "South Central Rain (I'm Sorry)" on an AM station while commuting home along I-694 one sunny afternoon and digging the jangle. I also loved Peter Buck's 12-string work on the Mats' great "I Will Dare", so I bought Reckoning, and in the not-yet-codified TWDQ Hierarchy of Recording Artists, they quickly became a "buy their new album on release day" band.*

* That said, didn't pick up Green until years later. Maybe they were playing it on the radio so much I didn't think I needed to. Never did get Up or Behind the Sun, possibly because I'd heard them first. ;-)

Loved Life's Rich Pageant, Document, Out of Time, Automatic, and yes, even Monster. "What's the Frequency, Kenneth" still makes me want to grab a guitar and play along. Loud. And move like Peter Buck. The kids loved "Shiny Happy People" and even though I've seen it a thousand times, still think the "Losing My Religion" video is pretty terrific.

Only ever saw 'em live once. They were on the Vote for Change tour with Bright Eyes, Fogerty, and Springsteen (with interloper Neil Young) in 2004 and they were terrific, with an energetic Stipe bouncing all over the Xcel Energy Center stage. Got back on the release day bit with Accelerate, which is a terrific record.

So thanks, Bill, Peter, Mike, and Michael. It was a great run.

This is still my favorite: