The National: finally playing D.C. on March 15. Huzzahs and hoorays all around. I'm getting back into this "going to a show" thing, and there are some choice ones imminent.

In other show news, Ted Leo is sold out almost two month in advance. I have no tickets for that show, but I do have tickets for the very unsold out Hold Steady song, where I'm praying they sell temporary tattoos that say "Damn right he'll rise again".

Desert dry, that's my creative mind right now. Forthwith, the highlights of the past few days:

• I got Hold Steady and Belle and Sebastian/New Pornographers tickets. I have an extra of the latter which I drunkenly promised to four people last Saturday. We may have to hold a lottery.


• My iPod was so close to playing today what I played on the jukebox at the Pourhouse on Saturday. Like, two songs away on one album. Freaky Thursday.


• Heard not only a Buffalo Tom song on David Letterman, but later on in the same show a Bill Janowitz solo jawn. Extra freaky.


• My computer blew up. Maybe I played "Like You Used to Love Me" too many times.

File this under: should've been so much cooler. I mean, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan together should be great. But no fires are lit. Maybe I'll like it tomorrow. Maybe poor Mark and Izzy are victims of my over-inflated expectations. Maybe the full-length will be better. I am a confused man and I contain multitudes of undercooked opinions.

The Constantines' "Soon Enough" on the other hand? Firearms. Absolutely.

Ian Svenious said hi to me in a record store today. I got all girly inside and looked at the Calexico/Iron & Wine album to show him how cool I was. I think he knew.

After that I paged through graphic novels in a bookstore while Belly's second album played in the background.

Maybe I had a little bit to drink, and maybe I convinced myself, while watching Conan O'Brien, that the new O.A.R. song is good. You know what? It's not. It's really not. Maybe I tried to convince myself it sounded like The Tragically Hip's "Something On", of which I'm a big fan. It's not. It's poop.

That Faith Hill song she does with Tim McGraw, on the other hand? Gold. Yeah, I've been listening to a lot of shit recently.

"Cold Case" advertised tonight's episode as being based around Springsteen songs, and it didn't disappoint. Only reason I watched it. So if it wanted to draw in that oh-so-sought-after Springsteen-fan demographic, then kudos. I was there. It was funny how the whole episide was written for the Springsteen songs, with stolen cars and Atlantic City playing pivotal roles. Props should also be given for using the Tracks version of "Stolen Car" (my preferred jawn, though I'm a sucker for the chorus of The River's version).

I couldn't stop thinking about an old friend of mine who, to sell it amazingly short, is in a tight spot. The tightest fucking spot you can imagine. And I remember talking Springsteen with her back in college. And I remember making her a Springsteen mix tape, the only artist-specific mix tape I've made. She actually listened when I spouted off about Bruce's live introduction to "The River" and how it almost brings me to tears. And she won't read this, but when she comes home - and she will fucking come home because she's tough as goddamn nails - we're going to listen to some Springsteen together. Promise.

On a semi-related note, fuck Hostel being the number one movie this weekend. Fucking torture porn.

Never could count myself a Rilo Kiley fan, but the two songs from Jenny Lewis' solo album I've heard are aces, especially "Rise Up With Fists!". Her lyrics and melodies still have that rambling tendency that I never liked, but those aspects are in trace amounts, and for the most part the songs are focused. Pehaps even Neko Case-esque. I'm not promising anything, but I may have to get this album. Or at least put it on my list. Or allow someone to burn it for me.

That New Pornographers/Belle and Sebastian tour? They've announced dates. Two nights in D.C. You know what that sounds like? An excellent Valentine's Day present.

Cough.

1. Spoon Gimme Fiction. Merge Records releases my favorite album of the year for the second time in as many years. Kudos, Mac and Laura. Now start recording a new Superchunk album.
2. The New Pornographers Twin Cinema. So close to number one. Ask me tomorrow and it may be number one. But not as tight as the current champeen.
3. Bloc Party Silent Alarm. Shouldn't have liked it so much. Did. Get the "2 More Years/Hero" single on iTunes.
4. The Hold Steady Separation Sunday. Late entry. Sprawling. Kick ass. Makes me want to get a tattoo that says "Damn right he'll rise again."
5. DangerDoom The Mouse and the Mask. Feel-good album of the year.
6. Death Cab for Cutie Plans. I shouldn't like this one either. Calculated to touch heartstrings of girls with librarian glasses everywhere, it still manages to provoke real emotion.
7. Greg Dulli Amber Headlights. Did you know this isn't officially a Twilight Singers album? That so effs with my CD organizing system. It's kept me up at nights, but I'm a screw-up. The album? Slight, incomplete. But Dulli rocks even on his laziest Sunday. He's like a garage door, automatic.
8. Sleater-Kinney The Woods. The anti-headphone album, which may be why it took me so long to get into it. Just dirty and nasty, recorded in the red. Janet Weiss steals my heart with every drum roll.
9. Wilco Kicking Television. Another late entry. Nels Cline steals my heart with that solo during "At Least That's What You Said". a ghost is born's songs find the spark lacking on the studio versions.
10. The National Alligator. Top ten just for "All the Wine", second only to "Since U Been Gone" as single of the year.

Honorable Mention: Bruce Springsteen Devils and Dust. "Black Cowboys" will break your heart, but songs about anal sex and drowned men seem desperate. Flawed, but good.