God, I missed this. Was just listening to some Jansch last night too. His track "Tic-Tocative" with John Renbourn was, along with Shirley Collins' work, my main gateway into 60s British folk revival, which is now some of my favourite music. You'll be missed, Bert.

I grew up with Nirvana, and they were a huge impact on my young, dumb life. I still think that Cobain is one of the better songwriters of my generation, and it's weird to me that he seems to have been left by the wayside these days, I rarely talk to someone who remembers him as 'one of the greats'. I guess that's what happens to someone who becomes a superstar, but unlike, say, The Beatles who were able to maintain, people just got burned out on Nirvana. Hopefully with the 20th anniversary stuff coming out there'll be some changed opinions from people who forgot how good it was (and maybe in a couple years we'll actually get the Albini mix of In Utero!).

As for Albini and the Beach Boys...I dunno, Brian's production is very large and major-label backed, both of which Albini always seems to think as anathema. But I've never actually heard him say anything about the group one way or another.

Yeah, I grew up with the idea that 'guys' is a unisex term, and thus far at least no one's ever called me on it.

I've always been sort of curious as to what happened with Blondie, Ricky, and Riley (and tell me THAT isn't a good name for a band!). I've heard that Jack was keen on keeping the Wilsons as the principal songwriters, was the success of Endless Summer enough for Mike, Al, and Bruce to force him out and assert themselves as equal members of the group? Especially since he seemed working with the group pretty closely during Holland and before, it's weird that they experienced such a turnaround.