I was looking through the discs I've listened to at the half-year mark, and rather than post a list, I started to notice a weird pattern they seemed to share. Then, I read a few reviews of some albums I was interested in getting, and discovered it may not just be me….

Albums, as a whole, are getting much shorter.

Let's quickly look at a few noteworthy discs. R.E.M.'s Accelerate breezes by in under 35 minutes. Heck, the last time an R.E.M. came in at under 40 minutes was Document waaaaaaay back in '87. The new Beck album that…

"You never get a second chance to make a first impression."

I've always known that phrase from television commercials (though, as irony would have it, I can't quite remember what product it was designed to sell – underarm deoderant, I think) and as time marches on, it's becoming one hell of a universal truism. After all, why do so many companies spare no expense when wining and dining a potential client to land that huge account? Exactly how many marriages result from a horrible first date? And, why hasn't Tom Green made another feature film after Freddy Got Fingered?…

Hey, just like last year there were a lot of noteworthy releases from the oh-seven I didn't get to yet. Here's a list, not in any order, I believe.

**PJ Harvey – White Chalk
**Kanye West – Graduation
**The White Stripes – Icky Thump
**Wu-Tang Clan – 8 Diagrams
**Travis – The Boy With No Name
**Low – Drums and Guns
**Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
**Ghostface Killah – The Big Doe Rehab
**Dinosaur Jr – Beyond
**Bruce Springsteen – Magic
**Neil Young – Chrome Dreams…

As a guy, I admit enjoying the NFL season wrap-up known as the Super Bowl. I don't get all alpha-male about it, but football's a fun sport to watch and follow. I was a little more excited this year, because of a certain team I share a home town with may end up playing (er, go Pack go?) but even if they don't get there, here's a little news nugget about a Super Bowl commercial featuring one of my top 20 bands….

Goddamn Right, Feb. 3rd is a Beautiful Day

If this ends up happening, this could end up being…

15. Y Society – Travel at Your Own Pace

Considering how heavily I was into hip-hop in high school and college, it’s a little dissapointing that I don’t keep up with the genre. Too much of the popular stuff (in my opinion) is really watered-down gangster rap cliches heard 1,000 times before with dull beats and R&B choruses. If that’s the criteria for sales, this album won’t sell much. But when it comes to the stuff I dug about hip-hop waaaay back when: clever sampling, addictive beats and smart, well-written raps (no obscenities – no kidding), Y Society comes up…

As the New Year looms in the distant future, the internet is abuzz with the best releases of 2007.Not that I don't enjoy such a practice (indeed, my own Top 15 will be revealed January 1st) but I thought as a nice preamble to that, I'd revisit my Top 15s for the past two years.

As I wrote here about this time last year, I have an odd little habit of keeping track of all the albums I listen to, day by day. While the practice may strike some as exceedingly nerdy (maybe even mildly creepy?) it really pays off…

Sun 28 Oct – Josh Rouse, Maria Taylor

The weekend before Halloween can bring to mind many opportunities for Joe Public, most of them involving dressing up in costume and makeup and engaging in myriad forms of revelry. Halloween comes but once a year, after all… who can resist a chance to play dress up in public without being chastised? Well, about 75 hardy souls sacrificed costuming and chose to watch Josh Rouse at the Annex in Madison, WI instead.

Of course, Rouse began his career with an album called Dressed Up Like Nebraska, but with his last five…

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/5967/512mh0b8knlaa2406a57b1qf0.jpg

By now, the typical rock star biography can be considered as hacknayed and cliched as a Harlequin romance. The early struggles, the hard-earned fame, the overindulgences which lead to the eventual downfall… been there, done that, watched the VH1 Behind the Music special.

Here’s the truth: as familiar as that story arc is, it only happens to a fraction of a percentile of a segment of folks who form bands. Plus, “fame” is a slippery and elusive term. Bette Midler and William Hung are both considered famous, after all, depending on how far you want to stretch the terminology.…

Wednesdays aren't usually much of a day to celebrate, I know. But if you were feeling like celebrating but didn't have much of a reason to, I'll give ya one.

Today marks my 1st year anniversary of joining Last.fm!

So, 365 days and almost 22,000 tracks scrobbled (and honestly, that's probably closer to 21,000 due to the Audioscrobbler doubling up my tracks played) and I have to say I wished I've have known about this site a while ago. Not only is it a great way to keep track of what I listen to, it has also allowed me to…

Just look at all the new releases hitting the shelves…

* New Interpol!

* New Spoon!

* New They Might Be Giants!

* A new Nick Drake retrospective!

* A new Crowded House album, their first in over a decade!

* A new Garbage compilation!

* A re-release of Young Marble Giants' absolute classic Colossal Youth

* A re-issue of an Anal Cunt album, with the shoulda been a #1 single "Limp Bizkit Think They're Black, But They're Just Gay"

* A really poorly-timed release of a new BJ Thomas holiday album, which looks…