I just wanted to say:

Just noticed that two albums I was on, Landing Gear's "Breakup Songs For Relationships That Never Happened," and Shatterproof's "Splinter Queen" are now on iTunes.

The latter was the great Long Lost Masterpiece that me and Jay Hurley spent months demo-ing in our practice space, just the two of us, arranging everything carefully and wonderfully until we had what we THOUGHT was a genius frickin' album. The Big Major Label wanted to know why it didn't sound more like REM. Sigh.

I'm so proud of this music, though. That Shatterproof thing is maybe the thing I'm proudest of in the world. You folks should head over to iTunes and give 'er a download.

Just a brief note

Me and STEVE MARSH, WHO WRITES FOR MPLS./ST. PAUL MAGAZINE (enjoy the Google hits, man!) are all good. After an exchange of email, comparing each others' facial hair, mostly (my beard is fuller and richer, but I'm about to shave it off) it was decided that yes, he was joking when he asked the question in question, and yes, perhaps certain nuances get lost on a telephone conversation, and yes, the majority of folks on MNSpeak are assclowns (isn't that a great word? Assclowns?). And yes, perhaps (or not perhaps, definitely) I over-reacted. But hey, at least I *reacted*. At least I have that much passion and joie de vivre. Y'know?

In the meantime, enjoy this list of adjectives I was called in that thread!

- Simpering
- crying!
- naive
- emo
- insecure
- sissy-baby
- thin-skinned
- whiny
- stupid
- weak
- fugly

I like the last one best. Yes, I'm fugly. I've always known I'm fugly. I actually revel in my fugliness -- shit, I grew a fucking BEARD to EMPHASISE my fugliness, because as you know, fugliness = hipness. I'm so fucking fugly I'm hot.

Nelson's article, on the other hand, still blows.