In the news today

In the one and only time I link to People Magazine, everyone's favorite country-legend-turned-hippie Willie Nelson got busted with a pound and a half of marijuana on his tour bus. That Willie Nelson - always contributing to society's depravity.

Daytrotter has a great piece on exactly why I can't really get into Final Fantasy's music. Technical prowess can only get you so far. People don't remember Hendrix for his fast fingers, they remember him for playing the guitar like he was violently making love to a woman. Desire, inspiration, ingenuity and childhood dreams always trump the technical side of songwriting. Some of my favorite bands couldn't play their instruments very well and didn't know a lick of musical theory, but made ground-breaking music by sheer will alone. I'd write more about this if I were more motivated and had more time, but instead I'll just post funny pictures.

"I don’t believe that you need something to hit you in order to write music. It can be just like computer programming or building a house. It’s pretty simple,” he said from Toronto. “When people talk about genius songwriters, I’m just like, ‘No, it’s just somebody who made a series of correct decisions."

And to cap off my little splurge of R.E.M. posts (That And I Feel Fine compilation is solid fucking gold), Life And How To Live It, a must-view blog for R.E.M. fans, has live MP3's of last week's return of the four original members.

And The Hold Steady are my new favorite band. Boys And Girls In America will rock your face off on 10/3. Whoever mentioned the Springsteen influence was spot on.

Class and work schedules are shaping up for the fall, and though I will certainly be a busy man, I intend to keep feeding this blog my meandering, obtuse observations about some of my favorite music. I'm also planning on a redesign, so if someone with better HTML skills than me wants to hold my hand through some things, I'd be much obliged.