I have been listening to this new band that the kids are into these days, they’re called R.E.M., and are from Athens, GA. Their new album is called Accelerate and it’s pretty darned good. And I hear that the band members are over forty! Wow!

Joking aside, this is the best album I’ve heard from them in years. And not because there are a few songs where the band sounds like they’re doing R.E.M. covers. I haven’t been looking for “R.E.M. Classic” in the last three or four albums they’ve made, I’m not that kind of fan. I have just wanted to hear them be excited about taking the time to make an album, and I haven’t gotten that feeling in the last few years. But they sound fantastic; Stipe is energetic and poetic and it is fun to hear Peter Buck play guitar like he says he didn’t used to be able to.

I’m really glad to find that some of the bands I loved growing up still have something to say, musically. It’s inspiring. I certainly wouldn’t begrudge them if they didn’t. Life is hard enough to live without feeling like you have to mirror it with Art.

In similar news, I got to see Bain and Amanda’s new baby this weekend and boy is Basil cute. He’s like a little Buddha. Basil Buddha Mattox. Baby Basil Buddha Mattox. Compared to Jonny’s twins Zeb and Edge (yes, their real names), he looks like a freaking giant. Giant Baby Basil Buddha Mattox.