Yes, he is. I don't recall anyone saying he wasn't.

From Stereogum.com: We’ve heard the studio version of “Oh My Heart,” that gently echoing New Orleans-inspired ballad from R.E.M.’s forthcoming Collapse In Now. When we posted it, I mentioned the spacious production and accordion reminded me of the Walkmen. Watch them perform the song at Hansa Ton, Berlin, under the watchful eye of Jacknife Lee. Before they begin, Michael Stipe offers his thoughts on the track. *Since there's no way to embed videos from Vimeo on here (at least that I know of), you'll need to click here to watch the video.

Alice is full of it. How many times is Plant going to have to explain and defend his stance on this? For eternity I'm guessing.

Former member Jason Isbell sits in with the Drive-By Truckers in Huntsville, AL (l-r) Patterson Hood, Jason Isbell & Mike Cooley (l-r) Jason Isbell, Patterson Hood & Mike Cooley Drive-By Truckers Crossroads Huntsville, AL Thursday, January 27 2011 You can listen to a stream of the show here. Birthday Boy Go-Go Boots Where The Devil Don't Stay Puttin' People on the Moon Cartoon Gold Box of Spiders Pulaski Mercy Buckets Marry Me Boys From Alabama Three Dimes Down Play It All Night Long Get Downtown It's Gonna Be (I Told You So) Drag The Lake Charlie Self Destructive Zones Sinkhole Uncle Frank Hell No, I Ain't Happy (dedicated to Jason from Patterson) Encore Heathens* Carl Perkins' Cadillac Used To Be A Cop Zip City Let There Be Rock* Buttholeville> State Trooper> Buttholeville* People Who Died* * with Jason Isbell on guitar and backing vocals

Once security apprehended him Roth gave him a karate chop to the neck which was more comical than anything. After the guy was escorted off stage Roth kept glaring over towards stage left so I'm sure security got a mouthful after the show was over. The whole front of the stage was surrounded by security so it's a wonder he even got past them at all. However, they were very slow to react. I'm not sure what was up with that.

Doing 4 Zep songs in a set that generally lasts a couple of hours is hardly on the same scale as a full blown Zeppelin reunion where those songs are the primary focus. Even then it would be an exercise in nostalgia so if ever there was a Zep reunion there would have to be new material. Perhaps to shut folks up he should just go back to not performing any Zeppelin during his concerts. Know what? People would still find something to bitch about. Chief among them would be, "why doesn't he do any Led Zeppelin songs?" He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. Thankfully he could give a shit what people think and just does what he wants, as well he should.

I have a lot of respect for Alice (who will be regrouping with the surviving members of the original Alice Cooper group later this year) but not in this instance. Plant has made it clear time and time again as to why it would be futile to resurrect Zeppelin at this point. Yes, his age is one of the issues but it's not the only one (funny how they conveniently left that out of the headline). Alice's comments are only going to add fuel to a fire that doesn't really need it. Plus, if he thinks Plant is only doing "folk" music at this stage of his career I suggest he give a listen to the Raising Sand and The Band of Joy records. If that doesn't work then he should attend one of Plant's concerts.

...and more here from the Prefix Magazine website. These were taken by Tim Bugbee of Tinnitus Photography who shares a lot of his photos with us over on the Drive-By Truckers messageboard Three Dimes Down. As you'll soon see, Tim does magnificent work.

"Steve McQueen, Steve McQueen... Bullitt was my favorite movie that I'd ever seen I totaled my go-cart trying to imitate that chase scene That Duster had six hubcaps, know what I mean? and I love the way they all flew off when it landed in that ravine..." "Steve McQueen" by the Drive-By Truckers The Secret Of Steve McQueen's Bullitt Chase Scene For all the attention Steve McQueen has received for the famous chase in "Bullitt," he only drove 10% of the scene. Marc Myers got to drive the route with the stuntman who deserves credit for the scene. -Ed. Click on the photo above to read the article

The first time I saw Van Halen in Raleigh it nearly turned into a riot when concertgoers starting tossing NC State cups at the stage, prompting Dave to threaten to kick someone's ass and to stop the show. When they played here again in '08 it was no less eventful. Just watch the clip below for an "I Love You, Man!!" moment. It's a wonder the guy even got onstage considering the amount of security. In fact, since it took so long for security to get to him, I was beginning to think it was part of the act.

"Posing" isn't unique to U.S. bands or even to one particular geographic region, it happens everywhere. That said, Manowar usually tops most of those "worst album covers ever" lists and for good reason.

I'm turning Buffett's tribute to the late Tim Russert into a tribute to Buffett himself. Thank you Jesse Winchester (the songwriter who originally penned this excellent tune).

Jimmy Buffett Auckland Show Is On Posted: Thursday, January 27 2011 Jimmy Buffett's Auckland show will proceed as scheduled on Saturday despite minor injuries received when Mr Buffett fell from the stage in his Wednesday evening show in Sydney. Although sent to the hospital for reasons of precaution, Jimmy Buffett and his crew will take a charter flight to Auckland. The show, at Auckland Viaduct's Te Wero Island on Saturday evening, will go ahead as planned. Tickets are available through Eventfinder. Click here for more information about the show.

From the DC101.com website: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills on Collapse Into Now and the bands future Plus, find out why the band won't be touring this year by Rich McLaughlin - iheartradio Rock legends R.E.M. will be releasing their 15th studio album, Collapse Into Now, on March 8th. Recently, iheartradio sat down to catch up with bassist Mike Mills and he spoke about the new album and band's future. Tell us a little bit about where you recorded Collapse Into Now. The way we do it these days, we like to split the recording up between cities that we want to spend time in. We did the demos in Portland, which is the hippest city in America right now apparently. Then we did two-3 week sessions in New Orleans, which is the musical heart of America. It has been for many years and is also one of our favorite cities. And then we did three weeks in Berlin at Hansa Studios which is a very famous old rock studio. A lot of people have worked there over the years that people know about. We finished up with 3 weeks in Nashville, which is a city that we have a long and storied history with. You chose to bring Jacknife Lee back to produce the new album. What was it about his work on your last album Accelerate that made you want to bring Jacknife back for this record? The good thing about Jackknife is what we recognized within moments of meeting him -- he thinks like we do in a sense of how he wants to work. His description of what he wanted to do was that he wanted to make a thrilling record. And we said well how can we argue with that? We like the way he works. He's a positive person. He could be having a bad day but you won't know it. He makes you feel good about the music you're making. He makes you want to go in there and make better music. He and his crew get great sounds. You can relax knowing that as long as you do your part they'll do theirs. You've spoken about wanting to make the new album a more "expansive" record. With many great R.E.M. records there is a sense of expansiveness/diversity in sound. Do you think that's a key characteristic for any great R.E.M. record? I think we're very lucky in that Peter and I write music in all different sorts of forms and Michael can handle that. He can write lyrics to whatever we give him. I like diversity on a record. With Accelerate we sort of made a record that was - we wanted to focus on that record. We wanted to make short, fast and loud songs primarily. We felt it was necessary at that point in our career to do that. With this record we wanted to just not think about any particular type of song. We wanted to take the best songs that we wrote and give them to Michael and say take the ones that inspire you and do your best. I think that the best R.E.M. records have that quality. We can do slow stuff, we can do fast stuff, we can do mid-tempo stuff and it all has that essence. There seems to be a running narrative on this record. One of change and a sense of renewal and purpose. Would you say that those are the key themes on Collapse Into Now? I think that a lot of characters on this album are undergoing or have undergone some sort of massive change or trauma of some sort. A lot of the songs are about how they deal with that. As is usual with Michael's lyrics, because this is how we are as people, you deal with these things that life hands you but you try to hope for a better future. Know that as long as you persevere the outcome will be good. And if you apply yourself, not to sound like a preacher, but if you apply yourself and do the best you can than hopefully good will come of that to you. Good things will happen. You-ll emerge from whatever you've gone through, if not a better person at least a whole person. How did you come to the decision to not tour with this record? For touring with us, we tour because we want to play. We don't tour to support a record. We don't tour to get our name out there. We tour because we like to play. To tour when your heart isn't in it would be a real bad mistake for us. 2008 was a long hard year on the road and we're just not feeling it right now. We go with our instinct. Our two biggest selling records ever, we didn't tour on them. So maybe some of that magic will rub off on this one too. Your contract with Warner Bros. is coming to an end soon. Have you guys begun to think about the future of R.E.M.? We've certainly given it some thought. It's a strange time in the music world. The industry as we know it is gone. The paradigm has shifted. It is the end of our contract with Warner Brothers soon. Our options are limitless. We can do everything or we can do nothing. Right now we are focused on this record and helping it do whatever it can and we'll see where we go from here. We just really don't know. Collapse Into Now will be available March 8th.

No need for a single thread when there's an entire board here for that very reason.

Somebody's on the crack.

^7.3

Be sure to grab some hankies as Townes' story is a very sad one but it is very worth watching. Country music is still good now but you'd be hard pressed to find anything on commercial country radio worth listening to. There's still lots out there that's worthy of your attention such as Bill Kirchen (formerly of Commander Cody's Lost Planet Airmen), Hayes Carll (who was recently on Austin City Limits and has a new album due out next month), James McMurtry (son of Lonesome Dove author Larry McMurtry), Tift Merritt, Kathleen Edwards, Gillian Welch, Kasey Chambers, etc., the list just goes on and on. There's no reason to be embarrassed. This may be a Led Zeppelin site but I certainly don't listen to them (or just rock n' roll) 24/7. I also like folk, reggae, bluegrass, rockabilly, ska, zydeco and a wide variety of other kinds of music. I love Led Zeppelin but a person can't live by Zeppelin alone, at least I don't.

You forgot to include the "Poll" part.

I don't know if it's any big issue but I'd rather have them here than visit some of the lyrics sites out there. Quite a few are very iffy and not just from an accuracy standpoint.