Haven't had a chance to listen much lately so there's a few things that I'd like to spend some more time with. That new Decemberists is really sounding good. Love "The Bagman's Gambit", but I just don't know the whole disc very well yet. Gonna be fun to gradually get to know it. Also in the same boat with the new British Sea Power. Managed to listen to parts of it and it is a lot different, but there's some very good music there. Man is it mellow, though. Finally snagged a copy of the 4-disc Joy Division box just recently but haven't even read the whole book yet that comes with it, let alone listened to all the discs, although I'm already very familiar with Unknown Pleasures and Closer. Gonna be a lot of fun exploring that one. And some recent mathy rock from an Austrian band called Valina, recorded by Steve Albini, that might make it onto CRS, but I'm thinking that I also may want to go for more mass appeal. And tons of new stuff keeps coming in from all my buddies here, but so far it's only been trickling through my player. No fair!

And I think there's only one or two bottles of Beck's in the fridge so I gotta stop by the store on the way home to fill my prescription for hoppy malt. Any suggestions? They've got Sam Adams 12-packs on sale for $9.99 at the big label grocery store so I may just grab one of those. But something more exotic from the indie store sure would taste good. What do you have on deck for soothing the beast?