THE WILDS OF SUBURBAN MICHIGAN — As your Christmas holiday comes to an end, enjoy a Monster X classic while you fondly reflect on the gifts you have given and received this year.

“6 Foot 7 Foot” is an insane masterpiece, a declaration that Wayne has lost interest in making sense to you — keep up or don’t bother. I’m kind of shocked that it got performed on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ in the same way I’d be surprised if McDonalds ever slathered a quarterpounder with truffle oil or [...]

Complex has the brilliant idea to revisit the Nastradamus predictions. A prediction of my own: Nastradamus will enjoy the kind of critical reappraisal that Sandinista! enjoyed. No sarcasm. Believe in the 2011 revival.

My fiance and I are beginning to enter negotiations over music to play at our wedding. Suffice it to say that I know very well there is a time and a place for “Underneath” by Chokehold and our wedding is neither. But I still have a blog, even if I’m having trouble filling it with [...]

Joell Ortiz’s verrrrrry long-awaited Free Agent LP is finally out today… Well, maybe not, apparently. But Mixtapekings is telling me it’s now shipping the record, and even though I haven’t heard it, I feel comfortable advising you to pay money for it, as I’m about to do when I finish this post. Talib Kweli was the [...]

Anyone have any music recommendations for me? I like the new Kanye fine; liked the new Girl Talk; and I guess the records I liked the most this year were from No Age, Against Me!, Freddie Gibbs, Dangers, T.I.’s summer mixtape, Titus Andronicus and the Gaslight Anthem. In other words: the same stuff I always [...]

Via Pitchfork, first looks at Wild Flag, the post-Sleater Kinney/Helium supergroup. “Racehorse” is a monster, though I hope they’ll do something that features Janet Weiss, one of my drumming inspirations. Right, and speaking of ponying up. Check out Justin Elliott’s dive down the funding rabbit hole of who funded that 2008 “Obsession” video about the [...]

I’m just seeing this now, but Creigh Deeds, the Virginia Democrat who lost a gubernatorial bid last year, got through the Democratic decimation with the tonic of Operation Ivy and NOFX. And why not, right? Dude’s 52. He would have been about the age that I am now when both of those bands came out. [...]

Bill “Not The Rolling Stone” Wyman — wow. Inspired by his great conceit (and beautiful piece of writing), I’m rediscovering “Sway” from Sticky Fingers, an insanely good song I always forget about.

So Cliff Lee is a post-human model of remorseless efficiency and the Yankees have only barely escaped being down three games to none. There’s no shame in being beaten 2-0 by a performance like that, especially given how well Andy Pettitte pitched. There is, however, shame in a six-run ninth inning bullpen implosion. On the [...]