Bottle Rockets – What a kick ass good time guitar/rock/country collection. How is it I didn’t have anything by them? Oops, I DO have something, but I never listened to it. I’m just not paying attention obviously. This stuff is alternately funny, touching and passionate with the kind of plain talk lyricism that that puts so many esoteric modern bands to shame. Spent more time listening to this than the rest of the month's stuff combined.

AC Newman - Seems to be trying way too hard to be interesting musically. And it’s off putting. I like my melodies straight ahead with this type of songwriting and it just wasn’t. I’m guessing that this is the type of record that can grow on you as you absorb the quirky music, but I just don’t have the time. Not awful, just frustrating. 2.5

U2 - Yup, I knew I could review this without listening. New single that sounds like the last cool single is OK and the rest is a snooze. Let’s be honest, these guys were really never any good. Bono’s engaging, but they put out Boy, October and War (basically the same album released in 3 different versions) at a time (’80 – ’83) when just about anything would have sounded good by comparison. Couple of decent musical moments later on in the ‘90s when people mistakenly considered them relevant, but basically it was just Bono being a great self promoter. This is even worse than that. Boring. 1.5

Good Rats - What would happen if Hollywood combined Almost Famous and This Is Spinal Tap and they needed a band to write and record the soundtrack? Well they wouldn’t need to find a band to do that. Good Rats already recorded it.
So classically classic rock sounding that, listening to it in 2009, it straddles the line between classic and parody. Good music, but the "we’re pretty cool we’re in a band writing hip, smart tasty rock music for the people, man" feel of the album seems a bit much at times. Musically, it wins out, though.........3.0


Spoon - I thought this was really good when I first heard it – on a recommendation from Mongillo I’m sure. And it didn't disappoint a few years later. No real standout songs (that happens when EVERYTHING is really good - no bad shit to compare) and it's a little too reverential at times to the (overrated) Pixies, but that's quibbling and this has plenty of melody and loud guitars to satisfy me. 4.0

Side projects

Racontuers (does this count as two?)
Minus 5 (does whis count as five?)
Manitoba's Wild Kingdom (3/5 of Dictators)
Flatlanders (Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock)
Tinted Windows (Fountains of Wayne and others. Yeah, I know it's not even out yet, but it's going to be great)

Croquet Question

Answer - I really haven't played croquet lately.**

**Note that the answer makes as much sense as the question.

Or perhaps Kant had the answer:

"All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?"

So there.