"It's such a beautiful day, I wish the sun would go away." - Small Factory

Astute readers may have already stumbled on the cut from the new Wilco album that has made its way online via the very good MP3 blog SaidTheGramophone. If you haven't, you must. Right now. The song is called "At Least That's What You Said," and it is part somber piano ballad, part annihilatingly awesome Neil Young/Crazy Horse-styled guitar freakout. If I was 10 years younger I would have cranked my stereo up to 5, listened to this 10 times in a row, and started smashing things during about the fourth or fifth listen. Even the Monkey, after Herculean effort, is roundly praising this tune:

"You know, on a shitty dial up connection like we have here, it took me almost an HOUR to download that fucker ... but you know, when I listened back to it, at the 3:13 point --- that song just turns into total fucking GOD. Amazing, and so worth it. Plus, I spackled the bathroom walls while it was downloading, so no biggie."

The prospect of seeing the band rock out to this while Nels Cline is melting faces with his guitar pyrotechnics is really the most exciting thing I can think of right now. Anyway, I am also into new cuts I have found online from Pedro the Lion and Leslie Feist (a particularly hooky tune called "Mushaboom," of all things). So there.

Ripped four Kronos Quartet records to my ITunes this evening to boot. Felt like listening to it at work this week. So there you go. Also ripped the Blue Skied An Clear comp. Decided to sit out St. Patty's Day festivities -- Lopez and I figgered if we weren't feeling it and there was no groundswell, we can wait till next year. It's not like they stop serving beer at midnight tonight for the next 364 days. Tho I will feel pretty gypped if it turns out that that is the case.

That is all.