The only thing I feel like writing about at the moment is how much it stinks to be sick and how much I’d rather be on my couch assassinating people in the virtual Holy Land. So instead, two brief pieces of internet advice as you seek worthwhile content elsewhere:
- Update your RSS reader! Spencer has a new home and a badass header. Don’t let the weird teaser view (which begins after the third entry) bamboozle you into missing this post, which I especially liked, and which also gives me a good excuse to link to DCeiver’s currently-running presidential ipod experiment.
- Whatever you do, don’t pay any attention to Stereogum’s review of the new Hold Steady (now available on iTunes thanks to the record company panicking over the leak). I admit I was slow on the uptake — it’s much better than I initially thought it was, largely due to the band deciding to stick its best stuff in the album’s second half.
But I didn’t get it as exactly backward as Stereogum does: “Sequestered in Memphis” is actually one of the album’s weakest songs; “One for the Cutters” is probably the best, newest thing on the album; and “Constructive Summer” is fun and catchy but completely incidental. He’s right about “Navy Sheets”, though: it really is bad.
Anyway, a much better take can be found at Tiny Mixtapes. The only thing I’d add: neither review talks about the title track, which is understandable in that it only sort-of works on the record, but also too bad in that the anthemic, wistful “Stay Positive” seems poised to be an incredibly great song to hear live — something I intend to do as soon as I can.