lzzoso was banned but if I'm not mistaken, he's back under a new name (imagine that).

I liked it. There was quite a bit of jumping back and forth between time periods but never to the point of leaving me totally lost.

I'm sure I heard the Beatles before this but my love affair with them began in earnest with this album, which I heard for the first time during a month long trip to Europe back in 1972. One of my older brothers purchased this and Led Zeppelin IV on cassette while we were over there and neither of them rarely ever left the cassette deck during our travels. To this day, whenever I hear a track from either one, it takes me right back to that family trip. I'm sure my brother also had some other tapes along on the trip such as something by Grand Funk Railroad (I can't think of the name of the album) but it's the Beatles and Zeppelin tapes that stand out in my memory.

I didn't care anything about seeing it as I'd already seen Kiss in concert on the Rock n' Roll Over tour in 1976. You know how some people don't want to look at the corpse at funerals because they prefer to remember people when they were alive and well? That's how I felt about seeing Kiss again. Plus, as I've mentioned, I'd lost interest in Kiss a long time prior to that.

I'm sure that's a huge part of what their appearance on Unplugged was all about but as I've mentioned, I lost interest in Kiss many years ago. They barely even register on my musical radar these days and when they do, it's purely for nostalgic reasons.

My favorite post Zep stuff from Page is still the Whatever Happened To Jugula? album. Unfortunately, I have only seen him in concert once and that was when I drove to Atlanta in the mid-90s for the Page/Plant show at the Omni on the Unledded tour. I had a chance to see him with the Black Crowes when they played at Walnut Creek in Raleigh on July the 4th weekend back in '99 but I passed it up. I'm still kicking myself in the ass over that one.

Never say never. I feel fortunate to have run across the 12" remix of "Radioactive" back when I'd given up all hope of ever finding a copy. Like I've said before, I also enjoy hearing The Firm on XM's Deep Tracks channel whenever they break out the odd cut every now and again.

I liked it well enough back when it was first released but those two records are something I've never owned on CD and very likely, never will. I have them on vinyl though so if I ever want to transfer them over to iTunes using a USB turntable the option remains to do that. Of course, I will need to purchase a USB turntable first.

Want quirky? This movie is full of it. Despite the near overload of quirk and neuroses, the underlying message (which is revealed at the end), it succeeds in spite of itself. I could see where someone could find a lot to hate about this movie but I stuck it out until the final scenes and found it to be well worth it. Everything I've read about this movie was that it's less a sequel than it is a remake of the original. While that's true, it still has some funny scenes. Where it seems to fail most is when it tries to outdo the first one in shock value. Overall, I enjoyed it but it never even came close to topping the first one.

They've opened for Drive-By Truckers and the North Mississippi All-Stars on a lot of dates in the past few months but I have a feeling that by this time next year (if not sooner), they'll be headlining their own shows. I saw them open for the North Mississippi All-Stars at the Lincoln in Raleigh a month or so ago and they blew the roof off of the dump. They'll be playing the third night of the Truckers' three night NYE run at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC on the 31st along with Booker T. That should be one for the ages. BTW, in case you haven't run across it yet, the Alabama Shakes' debut EP is streaming at Bandcamp.com.

http://youtu.be/PECpA9a_2zQ

Imagine Wilco's "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" recast as a R & B footstomper....

Yes, indeed. I need to pick up both the movie and soundtrack at some point.

We had a maid when I was growing up but it was nothing like the situations presented in this movie. She was treated like a member of the family, was included in holiday celebrations, birthdays, etc. and certainly wasn't expected to use outside facilities. I was born in 1962, the year this movie was set in so I could relate to it from that standpoint in a certain sense. It was horrifying to learn of the treatment the maids were treated to in Mississippi (and elsewhere).

http://youtu.be/YEz3NwlPZhg The Backbeat band: Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum): vocals Greg Dulli (The Afghan Whigs): vocals Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth): guitar Don Fleming (Gumball): guitar Mike Mills (R.E.M.): bass guitar Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters): drums

For anyone that may be interested, here's a review of the 40th anniversary edition of Aqualung from Pop Matters. Believe it or not, my collection of Jethro Tull on CD is scant at best so I look very forward to adding this edition of Aqualung to my collection in the not too distant future.

If you're referring to Backbeat that was probably my favorite. They also assembled one hell of a band to play on the soundtrack. I also finally got around to seeing Across the Universe this year. I thought that was very well done especially considering the overall concept left plenty of room for failure but the filmmakers really pulled it off.

One of the better Beatles related movies that I've ever seen and the really remarkable thing about it is, I don't think you really have to be a Beatles fan to fully appreciate it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyS2EYJngt0

this giant theremin. Cool story behind it here.

Kevn Kinney of Drivin' n' Cryin' covers "Here Comes A Regular" by the Replacements.