Dumbek's Random Stuff

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People, Stereogum has compiled a tribute album called DriveXV, with various bands covering each song from the record. I normally hate these kinds of things, but this is actually quite good. Rogue Wave, Shout Out Louds, The Wrens, Meat Puppets and more. Best of all - it's free. Go get it.

I have kind of a love/hate relationship with A4TP. It's kind of like my relationship with Radiohead, except for the love part. I really don't like Radiohead at all. Anyway... They have a new record coming out, but you know that by now. I'm very interested to see how that whole thing works out. I hope they release info on how many copies they sell and what the average donation is. It's a great experiment. I'm sure records execs are pissing themselves. No, I don't plan on buying it. Even for free.

Bob has some interesting ideas related to Radiohead's bypass-the-record-companies-altogether experiment. For the record, I voted for the $20/year plan. There are very, very few artists I'd sign-up for any subscription-type plan - especially for more than $20. I think it changes the whole artist/fan relationship. If I'm paying for a subscription, you'd better damn well produce a quality product in a timely manner. But I'm not really comfortable with that relationship. I don't want a forced product or throwaway demos, just for the sake of meeting the requirements of the subscription. For $20 you can give me one physical cd and maybe a presale password or a downloadable b-side or two. That's all I need.

We saw Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello the other night. Not too bad. Not great. I thought Dylan's voice sounded pretty crummy for most of the night. I've seen him about a dozen times over the years, so I knew what I was in for. I just think his voice was a little rougher than usual. Still - "Desolation Row", "Summer Days", "Workingman's Blues", "Tom Thumb" all sounded great. Maybe I just couldn't recover from "Simple Twist of Fate" (possibly my favorite Dylan song), which I thought was abysmal. Dinger loved it though, so maybe I'm being a little harsh. Elvis was really good. A few hits. A few more obscure things. A Van Morrison cover. All solo acoustic. Very nice, if a little short.

We're going back to my alma mater for homecoming next weekend. That'll be interesting - taking my boyfriend back to meet my old fraternity brothers. I'm a little nervous about that, but more excited, really. If nothing else, we're going to be hanging out with a handful of folks who already know everything, so it'll be a blast. In fact, they're the ones that convinced us to go. Now if only the football team wasn't imploding...

I got a raise at work. Oh - and a 30" Mac monitor. I can think of so many uses for that at home, yet it seems so unnecessary at work. I didn't ask for it - they volunteered it. I wasn't about to say no.

Not much in the way of shows this month. Mickey Hart at Lisner next week (front row!). The Hives the following week. Bob the Saturday after that. Oh - Travis Morrison at the end of the month. Maybe Partyline next week. Wait - I guess I do have a bunch coming up. Good times.

September was a pretty slow month overall. I think I'm ready for fall.