A little bird gave me the coveted Crooked Rain Crooked Rain: LA’s Desert Origins box set last night and I am now convinced of six things: 1) Any album that has come out since the original release of the Pavement classic, in Febuary of 1994, just isn’t as good; 2) Exception #1: Guided By Voices, Bee Thousand (released in June of 1994); 3) Exception #2: Guided By Voices, Alien Lanes (released in April of 1995); 4) Corollary: The first three statements depend on my ever-changing moods. For instance, there are some days when I’m convinced that Wowee Zowee is the best Pavement album. (But then I listen to that album’s “Brinx Job” and “Western Homes,” and know that it’s not true.) There are other times when I think The Shins’ Oh Inverted World is the best album ever (but then I wake up and smell what I’ve been cooking). 5) CRCR:LADO is the best reissue ever, improbably beating the Slanted & Enchanted reissue from a few years back, and that had “Ed Ames” on it. Wow. “Chief investigator!” 6) I don’t have a sixth conviction after all. Just buy the damn album.

WHY I’M ANGRY TODAY

I need a haircut, and I hate getting them. I don’t like scissors.