I’m back. It’s been a while. It has been a combination of busyness, sickness and laziness. When those three get together, it’s like a Voltron of not getting columns written… or something.

Anyway, let’s get down to brass tacks. I didn’t listen to any of your musical suggestions, because they were so long ago and I forgot what they were. So let’s start again this week. Let me lay down the ground rules for those of you that are new to the table: suggest a band or artist that I should listen to. Genre matters not; the only criteria is that should be relatively new. I’d say in the past five years or so. I pretty much know about all the old, good shit. Now it’s time to get down with what the kiddos are listening to.

A couple of weeks ago I went and saw Dashboard Confessional on his Swiss Army Romance 10th anniversary tour. The logic in deciding to go to this concert show (I can’t bring myself to call any musical event a concert, it’s just not in my punk rock blood) seemed pretty flawless for my old ass. A band I used to love when I was 18 performing the album that made me love them in the first place?

What could go wrong?

Almost fucking everything.

Read the rest of this week’s Old and Jaded.

I write this under great duress.

The tyranny of allergies has tightened its iron grip around me — my skull mostly -– and I do not know how much longer I will last. To be quite honest, I am not even sure this letter will find you.

Dramatics aside, I feel like utter shit. I get really bad allergies, and today I’ve got them bad. One time I even got a shot of steroids in the ass to combat a sneezing fit I had.

Sneezing fit. Geez, I sound like I’m Macaulay Culkin in My Girl. Next thing you know, I’ll get killed by stupid ass bees and Anna Chlumsky will be screaming about my glasses.

My Girl funeral scene reference? Check.

Read the rest of this week’s Old and Jaded.

Sufjan Stevens – All Delighted People EP
Release date: December 7, 2010
[amazon.com]

Not all of them, I don’t think, but it looks like a good number of them.

Maybe I’ve been too hard on Sufjan Stevens of late. He has fly girls now, so he can be all bad, right? Plus he looks like Kesha from that episode of Saturday Night Live, and that has to count for something, doesn’t it?

:: Sufjan Stevens’ new record might be subpar, but at least dude is dressing more deftly these days.

:: It looks like Capt. iTunes finally bagged its white whale: the entire Beatles catalog.

:: If you were wondering whether a label change would affect The Chariot’s new material, you can get a sneak peek at the answer.

:: Daniel Martin Moore, who had a hand in one of the best records of last year, will be releasing In the Cool of the Day Jan. 18. You can already get your hands on the album’s first single, though.

:: Greg Weeks, bassist of The Red Chord, states the obvious: Canadian football is confusing.

:: Alejandro Escovedo laid down some tracks from his last couple of records for Daytrotter.

:: The Decemberists will be touring on the heels of their upcoming album, The King Is Dead.

:: Random tracks that don’t suck:

In a recent interview, Sufjan Stevens was the unwitting subject of a miniature inquisition. Things were floating along rather swimmingly for a while. It was all song forms this and producing record that. But then the subject of Christianity came up, and the interviewer apparently decided it was time to try and get a money quote.

Sure, most of the questions seemed harmless on an individual level. And they would’ve been — even the bits constructed in an obviously divisive manner. Nothing wrong with brass tacks discussion, after all.

But the fact that the interviewer just kept pressing the issue with statements and inquiries about whether or not Stevens prefers to work with believers, why churches are ridiculous, how awful the writings of Paul are, whether non-Christians are going to hell and just how weird Jesus-loving folk are in general.

I’m not necessarily against axe-grinding or posing tough questions in an interview (especially when they serve a purpose), but this really seemed to be less about getting to the heart of what Sufjan Stevens believes and challenging him in thoughtful ways and more about eliciting a salacious and controversial linkbait-worthy quote. You know, that old chestnut.

Maybe this dude and the guy who did that GQ interview with Steve Albini could compare notes.

Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
Release date: October 12, 2010
[amazon.com]

That is one strange name for a state that I’ve never heard of.

A whole slew of new stuff this week worth checking out.

Antony and the Johnsons have a new one that’s guaranteed awesomeness.

Belle and Sebastian is back with some more sad bastard music.

Envy. YES. Seriously, check this one out.

Mutemath has a new live album.

Slayer has a damn huge 10-piece vinyl box set for the die-hards.

Sufjan Stevens is returning to his prolific habit with a new record.

And Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross are doing that Social Network thing.

:: All That Remains, For We Are Many

:: Antony and the Johnsons, Swanlights

:: Arson Anthem, Insecurity Notoriety

:: Badly Drawn Boy, It’s What I’m Thinking: Photographing Snowflakes

:: Banjo or Freakout, Way Slow

:: Beach Fossils, Face It / Distance

:: The Beets, Stay Home

:: Belle and Sebastian, Write About Love

:: Belleruche, 270 Stories

:: Benoit Pioulard, Lasted

More »

:: NPR is streaming the new Sufjan Stevens album. While they (and many others) seem all too enthused, I’m just wondering if this is the exit strategy he hinted at years ago…

:: MC Hammer seems none too pleased with Kanye West.

:: Metallica‘s Robert Trujillo claims he and the rest of the boys have way too many good songwriting ideas. That begs the question: Where have they been hiding them all these years?

:: The Replacements taught Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn that rock stars didn’t descend “from some rock mountain.”

:: Thrice is working diligently on a new album. Or at least the band is now, since Dustin Kensrue is back from vacation. And look, I didn’t mention The Illusion of Safety or The Artist in the Ambulance this time around. Um, nevermind.

:: When you get robbed, you might call the cops. When Mark Ronson gets robbed, he congratulates the perpetrators.

:: Granted, there are some pretty bad festivals out there, but it looks like Epicenter might be at the top of that list.

:: Too. Many. Flutes.

Just a few days after the release of a 60-minute EP, Asthmatic Kitty has announced the release of a full-length Sufjan Stevens album. The Age of Adz has an Oct. 12 street date for the CD, with a double-LP dropping Nov. 9 — both of which can be pre-ordered now. And if you go ahead and get the album, you’ll get a digital version of the record Sept. 28.

The Age of Adz promises plenty of divergence from the All Delighted People EP, with “extensive use of electronics (banjos and acoustic guitars give way to drum machines and analog synthesizers)” and “an obsession with cosmic fantasies (space, heaven, aliens, love),” according to the label.