Last week, The Decemberists announced the release of a double live album, We All Raise Our Voices to the Air, on March 13. On that date, the Portland band, almost caricature-ishly known for their erudite topics and lyrics (Google results for “Decemberists” + “hyper-literate” = 49,800), will join KISS, The Allman Brothers, Peter Frampton, The Grateful Dead, Kraftwerk and Sting in the pantheon of artists who have documented their stage performances. The live album has fallen into mostly-deserved ill repute (Google results for “live album” + “hoary” = 16,000), but perhaps Decemberists leader Colin Meloy can refresh the tradition with his sesquipedalian panache. Here are a few guesses at the [...]

"Third Eye Blind wasn't one of those crappy, non-cute rap-rock bands that proliferated in the nineties, wearing polyester shorts and chin beards. In hits like 'Never Let You Go' and 'Semi-Charmed Life' (remember how great that song was in Dirty Work?) they rapped and they rocked, mixing guitars and hip-hop. What singer Stephan Jenkins did is hard to describe – 'extremely fastly spoken lyrics' someone wrote on Wikipedia, which sums up how totally unique it is." Rob Tannenbaum's "defense" of Third Eye Blind is super on its own, but is made even better by the quality of the comments which follow it.

1) Who is your favorite Beatle? A) John: +0 points. B) Paul: +1 point. C) Ringo: +0 point. D) George: +5 points.

2) Who is your favorite musical Jackson? A) Michael Jackson: +0 points. B) Janet Jackson: +0 points. C) Wanda Jackson: +0 points. D) Jackson Browne: +5 points.

3) How many members of the Indigo Girls can you name? For each one, +5 points.

4) Do you own any jazz records? A) Yes, many: + 0 points. B) No, none: +3 points. C) I own one jazz album, “Kind of Blue” by Miles Davis: +3 points. D) Yes, I own several Kenny G albums: +5 points. [...]

On any given night, there are dozens of rock bands in New York. Tonight, we're hosting an unusual convergence of which, it seems, only I am aware. The rock band Heart is playing a concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom tonight, and the rock band Spoon is playing a song on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," then opening for Arcade Fire tomorrow and Thursday at Madison Square Garden. If I had personal acquaintances with both bands, I would suggest they meet while they are in town together, and discuss a similarity between two of their songs.