Can I embed my plaque on my Facebook page?

I'm not 100 percent on this, but I'm pretty sure that if you ask most garage bands when they're just starting out what achievements they'd like to accomplish, you're probably less likely to hear, "Get inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame" than you are to hear, "Date someone on Gossip Girl."

Still, for an insanely small number of those garage bands, they're gonna end up with the plaque at the Rock Hall.

This weekend, AP's neighbors at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame welcomed in a fresh new batch of inductees. English guitarist Jeff Beck really kinda fits the mold considering it's kind of difficult to delineate his career from that of Eric Clapton, and even Run-D.M.C. are pretty universally revered as pioneers of both the worlds of hip-hop and bling.

But the dark horses of this year's class are the metal and merchandising machine of Metallica.

While it really kinda makes sense for Lars And The Gang to be enshrined, it's sort of an eye-opener that some of the bands of our generation are eventually gonna be honored alongside Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones.

So who are some of our most likely candidates? And what are their odds of making it in?

GREEN DAY

ELIGIBLE: 2015

THEIR CHANCES: Pretty frickin good.

Unless you've only been listening to EMF and Saigon Kick since 1990, you know that Green Day have been one of the biggest bands in the pop-punk and alternative music scenes since grunge was buried in its Doc Martens. But aside from huge radio hits and a few graduation party anthems like "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)," it wasn't until 2004's American Idiot that Green Day solidified their place in the upper echelon of "important" rock acts that even your Aunt Berniece knows about. And when it comes to getting into something like the Rock Hall, you really need to count on the Aunt Berniece vote.

BLINK-182

ELIGIBLE: 2019

THEIR CHANCES: Not completely out of the question.

Before they announced their reunion, Blink-182 probably had about as much chance of getting into the Hall Of Fame as You Don't Mess With The Zohan had of winning Best Picture. Sure, they influenced about 93 percent of the bands in AP, but did you notice the kind of underwhelming response they got when they announced the reunion at the Grammys? Kids at home were flipping shit, but Mr. and Mrs. Sting had no idea who Blink were. Now that Blink 2.0 are around, they're instantly kind of catapulted into a level of importance that their own American Idiot could bump them up into the Green Day stratosphere. The fact that Travis survived an effing plane crash has to work in their favor, too. Key factor: They need to focus on keeping their pants on. Bob Seger doesn't put up with that kind of shit.

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE

ELIGIBLE: 2027

THEIR CHANCES: Gettin' better.

Here's the thing: In 2027, who's gonna be on the board of voters for the Rock Hall? Probably the 25 year-olds of today. And who is gonna seem like a "classic" rock band to them? My guess is it'll be the band who blended everything from Queen to Sgt. Pepper, uniforms and all. Even without all the pomp of The Black Parade, My Chem have been iconic enough to a generation that they could saunter their way into the Rock Hall. And wouldn't it be sweet to see Bert McCracken call them onstage?

TAKING BACK SUNDAY

ELIGIBLE: 2027

THEIR CHANCES: TBD

Taking Back Sunday are the emo-quivalent of the movie Bottle Rocket--great on its own, but it seems like everyone who's been involved goes onto pretty big things. First, there's the whole Long Island-scene thing. It was sort of the modern-day Haight-Ashbury. Then there's the fact that TBS spawned offshoots like Brand New, Straylight Run and, well, the Color Fred. Everybody's all abuzz over the new Taking Back Sunday album, and maybe that'll put them on the Rock Hall-approved career course. And yes, I'm incredibly proud of the word "emo-quivalent."

FALL OUT BOY

ELIGIBLE: 2028

THEIR CHANCES: Seems unlikely.
Maybe I just have a difficult time believing that a band named after a Simpsons character can ever be seriously considered for the Rock Hall. Then again, the Lovin' Spoonful are in there. Fall Out Boy seem to be the next logical band in the Green Day/Blink-182 line, and for better or worse, Pete Wentz is practically synonymous with everything about today's mass-marketed musical climate. Sure, FOB have created some pretty timeless tunes, but you kinda get the feeling that this band's future reputation is gonna ride pretty heavily on how the next couple of decades go for Pete and the Mrs. and how legitimate future generations consider TMZ.

INTERNET KILLED THE VIDEO STAR

Hey, while I got ya, I figured I'd reward you for making it the whole way to the end of my ramblings. Here's the skinny on a few brand new songs posted online this week that you can head towards. Just come back to Altpress.com when you're done, k?

I've got a mouth to feed, you know.

• Jimmy Eat World -- "A Sunday (from Clarity Live)"
• Cobra Starship -- "Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We're Famous"
• Mae -- "A Melody, A Memory"
• The Bled -- "When Exiting Your Vehicle" and "Mouthbreather" demos
• Zao -- "What Will You Find?"
• As Cities Burn -- "84' Sheepdog"
• Conor Oberst -- "Slowly (Oh So Slowly)"
• Green Day -- Clip from "Know Your Enemy"

South By So What?

It seems like forever since last we spoke.

The world is now a different place. Soundgarden got back together without Chris Cornell, which is the grunge equivalent of Double Stuf Oreos without the Double Stuf. Craig Owens debuted his 36th side-project, Isles & Glaciers, at AP's South By Southwest party. And I'm not even gonna get into the mind-boggling changes that went on over the past two episodes of Lost.

But instead of focusing on current and potentially relevant goings-on with this particular blog, I'm gonna take it back to October 2008-era Tim Karan blogs.

Translation: I'm mostly gonna talk about myself.

What can I say? I'm devastatingly interesting. 400 Twitter followers can't be wrong.

But here's the pretense under which I'll provide my masturbatory account of the past couple weeks: I went to the aforementioned South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Even if you followed my informative and occasionally drunken updates from the road, I figured I'd let you guys know how it went in increments larger than 140 characters.


So here's the thing about SXSW.

Although it's a four-day booze and music fest for most of the people stumbling to the nearest Fake Problems performance, if you're an industry-type (which I'm told I'm supposed to be), SXSW isn't really that different from an orthodontists convention at the Atlantic City Sheraton And Conference Center. But instead of talking about synergy next to exhibits on cutting edge bonding adhesives, we go talk about synergy next to a Jaguar Love show.

This was actually my first time at South By Southwest, and let me tell ya: The first thing anyone thinking of going needs is two gratuitously padded pairs of comfortable shoes. Everybody warned me ahead of time, but nobody could've prepared me for the searing pain of four days on your feet. By Day 2, I'd worn a hole in the bottom of my left shoe like I was a damn Charles Dickens character.

I felt like I was dying from the feet up.

But I still managed to see and do some pretty sweet stuff.

HANDS-DOWN BEST REAL SHOW: Manchester Orchestra @ Radio Room Patio.
If you pull out your issue of AP 250 and flip to page 109, you'll see the lead review I wrote on Manchester's upcoming album. I won't ruin the surprise for you, but let's just say I like it. Anyway, I was a few rows back for the show, standing on uneven, loose gravel. But it was without a doubt, an amazing set. They played nothing but new songs (of which you'll see I'm quite the fan) and their stage presence was effing insane. Have you ever seen keyboardist Chris Freeman onstage? Dude's playing air guitar, pulling his shirt over his head and smoking the whole time. And, to top it off, the encore was a slowed down, hoed-down version of the theme song from The Fresh Prince.

HANDS-DOWN BEST UNREAL SHOW: Silversun Pickups, Metallica, DJ Shadow @ Stubb's.
First of all, these were three big check marks that had been absent on my list of acts I need to see before the 2012 Armageddon. Now I got 'em all. Metallica playing SXSW is kind of like U2 playing the Baldwin County Strawberry Festival. It was a "secret" show that leaked out the week before the festival, but it was probably the most difficult show to get into. I was able to rely on mover/shaker Scott Heisel to snag us photo passes that didn't allow us to take photos, but did allow us get in. And that was all we needed to maneuver our way straight to the front barricade. Now, I'm one of those guys who refuses to wear earplugs to shows even though I'm almost assured not to have any hearing by the time I'm 33. And I tried it for Metallica. During soundcheck, I literally lost 19% of my brain function. Believe you me. That's a serious amount for me to lose.

Here's a cell phone pic Scott managed to snag:

We were so close, I got hit with some of James Hetfield's beer.
That's a good, good time right there.


COOLEST SHOW I'D NEVER SEE ANYWHERE ELSE: Right Away, Great Captain! @ St. David's Church
Okay, so this is yet another Manchester Orchestra-related band, since it's frontman Andy Hull's side-project. But if you'd been there, you'd put it on this list too. It was in this little community room in St. David's Church and it was just Andy, a guitar and an amp. He played The Eventually Home from start to finish and told the incredibly complicated backstory behind every song. I was so close, he started to ask me for help with his amp.

MOST UNCOMFORTABLE SHOW: Earlimart @ Central Presyterian Church
Yeah, another church show. But this one took place in a straight up church. Like frontman Aaron Espinoza was set up literally on the altar and the sound guy was up in the choir box. Aaron did the show solo with a sweet multimedia video set-up and tons of bells and whistles that the confused parishioners (who must have gotten free tickets to shows at their church) didn't fully comprehend. But when Espinoza played "Great Heron Gates," with the line, "But Jesus are you really there?," most of those parishioners took their well-dressed toddlers and promptly left. Still, I thought it was an awesome show and one that I'd probably never get to be at in any other situation.

JUST THE WORST SHOW EVER: Third Eye Blind @ Austin Convention Center
Look, I was never on board with Third Eye Blind. When I was a teenager, they were just another radio rock band with hollow-yet-catchy hits on Now That's What I Call Music 43. Then, all of a sudden, thanks to Ryan Ross and a bunch of others, 3eb became instantly influential. I still wasn't convinced, so I went to see them at a show that was recorded for TV. I'm sorry, kiddo, but I immediately knew I wanted to leave. But I couldn't. They were recording it for TV. The lyrics to the new songs are clinically horrible and the when it was over, I felt like I'd just watched a group of music education majors performing "Happiness: A Medley of Hits from 1994" at a mid-level amusement park. Stephen Jenkins thinks he's some sort of pretentious cross between Bono, Jesus Christ and Weird Al Yankovic.

Case in point:



Dude. You're in Third Eye Blind. You don't see the dude from Collective Soul with a Christ complex.




CRAZIEST SHOW EVER OF THE WEEK: The AP Party @ Emo's
Obviously, I'm biased because I want to keep my job. Still, you can't debate the staggering insanity that was the line outside of Emo's for this thing. It stretched about five city blocks at like 10 a.m. That's pretty easily the longest line at this year's festival--although I'm not sure how many people stood in line to see Kanye West. But three stages, a zillion kids, the bands of the AP Tour along with the Used and the first show by Isles & Glaciers... all for free? If you didn't make it, don't fret. I ran around like like the world's fastest emo recording performances for you. We're posting them on the site and some are up already.

Check out:

3OH!3 playing "Punkbitch"

Family Force 5 playing "Numb"

The Maine playing "The Way We Talk"

And while I got ya, you should really also check out our cool exclusive videos of performances from bands in unconventional settings. Like:
The Matches on a police vehicle in the middle of the street

Cursive in some office park alcove

We've got plenty more on the way, too. You're gonna wanna see...

All in all, I had a good time at SXSW. I had a few drinks at a place I thought was the Alamo but turned out to be a Taco Bell. And that, my friends, is symptomatic of a good time.

SIX MORE THINGS WE THINK WE LEARNED THIS WEEK

Okay, so this week I'm trying something new with the news briefs.
Normally I'd give you some snarky take on whatever interesting stuff I think is going on. But enough about me.
I'm gonna pull some of the best comments from the news stories to do the talking for me.
Wanna make it in the next blog?
Start commenting, kid!
(Man, being the web editor translates to a lot more shameless pimping than I anticipated. Way more than when I was actually dabbling in pimping.)


Brand New cancels show in Alaska due to volcano
3/27/09 @ 5:15 PM
akbaysidegirl Posted 03.27.09 at 07:13PM
This sucks. that probably means the get up kids aren't playing either doesn't it. stupid volcano

Muse to open for U2, announce fall world tour
3/27/09 @ 12:48 PM
ludojoalex Posted 03.27.09 at 02:05PM
You meant to say U2 is opening for muse..right?

Brokencyde return trash talk to tourmate Buddy Neilsen
3/26/09 @ 10:53 AM
ryanmmacoustic Posted 03.26.09 at 04:34PM
[Brokencyde said,] "We're on tour with his band and helping them sell out venues in every city across the U.S." What in God's earth led you to believe that you were in anyway positively effecting Senses Fail's ticket sales? Trust me they can sell out shows on their own, they need no help from scenester rappers. lol. Brokencyde you make me giggle

Green Day announce 21st Century Breakdown release date
3/25/09 @ 10:30 AM
MCR_muggle Posted 03.25.09 at 11:41PM
Movies usually come out on Friday, and it's a concept album/rock opera, right? That's more like a movie, except better. xD

P.O.S. covering Pearl Jam's "Why Go" video up
3/24/09 @ 9:30 PM
aheadoftheCURVEtype Posted 03.25.09 at 10:16PM
POS is awesome. and very attractive. and a really nice guy. this song is pretty sweeeeet.

"Emo" fourth most "dangerous" word on the internet
3/24/09 @ 9:00 AM
LeahintheStreet Posted 03.24.09 at 10:22AM
Well I guess the AP website will be blocked for including 5 of the top 10 words every parent should fear....ha ha

I wanna Tweet you like an animal.

Okay.

Originally, I wasn't gonna make a big deal out this.

Partially because it involves two of my most beloved teenage idols. Partially because I don't wanna turn this blog into a chronicle of celebrity smackdowns.

But, damn it. There's something fascinating about this one to me.

So Nine Inch Nails chairman Trent Reznor (who has been on the cover of AP something like 431 times, almost all between the months of December 1993 and April 1994) wrote on his Twitter account last week that he's far from a fan of the new Chris Cornell solo album, Scream. Reznor said in 140 characters or less, "You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly YOU feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell's record? Jesus."

Cornell retweeted fire with this: "What do you think Jesus would twitter? "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Has anyone seen Judas? He was here a minute ago."

First of all, in the off chance that either masters Reznor or Cornell are reading this, I want you both to know that I literally have framed pictures of both of you in my apartment and I owe 86 percent of my former teenage angst to you--angst that I rolled over into a marginally lucrative career as a music editor.

But I kind of agree with Reznor. Look, when Cornell released his first solo album, Euphoria Morning, in 1999, I definitely spent $42.99 on a Japanese import just to get the B-side of "Nowhere But You." But for Scream, Cornell turned to Justin Timberlake's boy Timbaland to produce.

This collaboration led to an album that makes my 15-year-old self weep for even more reasons that I'll never understand and to photo ops like this:

In this picture Cornell looks a lot like at least two of my uncles. So I can't stay mad at him. But Reznor was onto something.

But here's the most disturbing part of this whole ugly situation: It's clear now that Twitter is yet another venue where whatever you say will inevitably come back to haunt you. It's a legitimate information source. I mean, each Tweet serves as a source for news on websites from here to Ashley Tisdale.

Hell, even I used Tweets as direct quotes. And that in and of itself is a sentence I wouldn't even have understood 16 months ago.

I guess the thing we can all learn is this: Instant gratification micro-blogging cannot be used for evil.

Do we really all want to get sucked into these cyber-wars where we're sniping and undermining each other through crazy-advanced technological devices?

George Orwell would be saying, "I told you so" while sipping his vanilla hazelnut chai latte and perusing TMZ.

(Perhaps this isn't the best time to mention it, but follow me at http://twitter.com/TimKaran.)

Radio Diss Me

It's been a rough two-week stretch for Radiohead.

Actually, it would have been a rough two-week stretch if Radiohead had any desire to be cognizant of what other human creatures think of them.

Last week, as you know, the Cure frontman Robert Smith pissed on Radiohead letting fans pay what they want for In Rainbows.

Now they've stirred the unbridled fury of one Destiny Hope Cyrus--known around the world as Miley Cyrus; known around first grade classrooms as Hannah Montana; known around my apartment as "Not Hilary Duff....the other one....no, not Amanda Bynes...Hayley Duff?"

Apparently Miley (if that is her real name--which it clearly is not) became enraged when she was refused face time with Radiohead (who she claims are her favorite band) at last month's Grammys.

This past Tuesday, her royal heinous told a radio show that, "They're my rock gods. These are the only people I would cry over." But when her manager tried to make it happen, captain, Radiohead said they weren't down. She said, "it's not like I was going to bring my crew. I had already texted all my friends that my life will be complete [if I got to meet them]." Miley was so offended that she couldn't even force herself to stick around long enough to watch Radiohead's performance. "I was so upset. I wasn't going to watch. Stinkin' Radiohead! I'm gonna ruin them, I'm going to tell everyone."

Okay.

1. Radiohead are not Miley Cyrus' rock gods. That is a scientific fact. Nobody can listen to and appreciate a complex and startlingly original song like "Motion Picture Soundtrack" and then go into a studio and record "Breakout."

2. For being the only people she would ever cry over, she seems to know absolutely nothing about them. If she had even a cursory understanding of who Radiohead are, she'd realize that Radiohead would never, ever, ever want to talk to Miley Cyrus.

3. She couldn't hang around to watch them? It's freaking RADIOHEAD. This isn't my cousin Stewart's Velvet Revolver cover band. If Thom Yorke came up to me, tossed me in a burlap sack filled with Peruvian biting turtles and despair, I'd still hang out to watch Radiohead.

4. I kinda get the feeling that Miley was kidding when she said she would ruin them. Even she has to realize that the offspring of this can't destroy a band like Radiohead. The only thing Miley Cyrus can ruin is the current state of popular music.

Sorry, kiddo. But I loved you in She's The Man.

TWO MORE THINGS WE THINK WE LEARNED THIS WEEK

1. I love the '90s Part Deux.

Maybe everyone's afraid of the 2012 apocalypse. Or maybe everyone is just so nervous about the economy that they're getting their most profitable bands back together and letting bygones be bottom-lines. Whatever the cause, it's a great time to own a pair of Zubaz pants or become a fourth-level Macarena dancer. Third Eye Blind, Blink-182, Limp Bizkit, No Doubt, Jane's Addiction, Faith No More, Sublime and now even the artist formerly known as Michael Jackson are all on the comeback trail. At this point, we're only weeks away from reunion tours from Saigon Kick and I Mother Earth. (For more information on bands like Saigon Kick and I Mother Earth, please visit your nearest unemployed 32 year-old cousin.)

2. If this is selling out, ring me up.

No matter which side of the aisle you fall into when it comes to little-known, French existentialist act Fall Out Boy, you really gotta love their new online game, Fall Out Boy Trail. If you don't, then you obviously grew up in an age where video games had already moved up above 8-bit quality. Based on the '80s home computer classic Oregon Trail, it was released just a few days ago and thanks to its rampant popularity, it's already seen a re-release with more features. I gotta say, it's funnier than about 93 percent of the video games out there and probably funnier than about 32 percent of the movies out there.

Not She's The Man, though.

Boys apparently do cry.

Look, I'm sorry about the pictures.

I needed to depict this story.

It's called a slow news week, people. Just be thankful I decided to avoid this whole debacle.

But I guess you have to ask yourself: By posting that link, did I actually avoid the debacle? Or did I just perpetuate it?

You also have to ask yourself: Is he just using 49-cent words to mask the obvious ridiculousness of the blog he's writing?

Of course not. That would be reprehensible.

What was I talking about? Oh, right. This whole Robert Smith thing.

For a seemingly easy-going, happy-go-lucky sorta guy, Smith is coming off just a little fussy these days. Is it because he's looking more and more like Doc Brown every day?

Not entirely.

No, Smith made some comments this week that he "disagreed violently" with Radiohead allowing fans to pay whatever they deemed appropriate for their most recent full-length, In Rainbows. Robbie said, "You can't allow other people to put a price on what you do, otherwise you don't consider what you do to have any value at all and that's nonsense. If I put a value on my music and no one's prepared to pay that, then more fool me, but the idea that the value is created by the consumer is an idiot plan, it can't work."

Nobody's debating that Smith definitely has a solid grasp on the fundamentals of capitalism. He's got that shit down.

But apparently nobody wanted to give him any spoilers and he missed the part where In Rainbows hit No. 1 in both the U.S. and the U.K., and still managed to net Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood a glockenspiel made entirely out of diamond and the tears of orphaned panda bears.

And I don't know anyone who paid a cent for it.

Look, I'm not an economist. But I'm thinking I'm gonna start telling people they can pay whatever they want to pay for this blog.

I'm still savin' up for that sweet jet ski.

2 More Things We Think We Learned This Week

Girl Power isn't dead. Two of the Spice Girls could be, but Girl Power is fine.

Dates were revealed for this summer's No Doubt/Paramore tour, which features a bunch of shows with the Sounds. For those with conscious memories of 1998, this will be the greatest concentration of X chromosomes on one stage since the heyday of Lilith Fair. Though I have a hunch there's gonna be a lot more frat boys at this.

iTunes is savin' up for its own sweet jet ski

Apparently tired of getting richer in 99-cent increments, Apple launched its first "iTunes Pass" this week with a package deal surrounding Depeche Mode. For $18.99, you'll get the upcoming Depeche Mode album and basically every other official release from the band within the next couple of months--from exlusive singles to videos. All in all, it ain't a bad deal if you're into pouty British electro-pop (which, believe me: I am). But passes for your favorite bands are likely sure to follow. Think you'd plop down twenty bucks for a Panic At The Disco or Brand New iTunes Pass?

Either way, Robert Smith's gotta be happy you can't name your price.

Touch And...ah, hell.

I had the perfect title.

I was gonna call this blog, "Touch And Gone," and talk about how the downsizing of Touch And Go Records is sad for about three zillion reasons, not the least of which being: Where will Ted Leo go now? Is he warm? I hope he's warm.

I even went and got quotes from folks at some of the labels (like Jade Tree, Kill Rock Stars and Merge) that used T&G for distribution. But I was so busy working on Scott's awesome interview with Mark Hoppus that another blog stole my title. To be fair, I guess it wasn't all that original of a title in the first place. Yeah, it's deflating, but there are issues going on that are bigger than me and my misplaced creativity.

In case you missed it, legendary indie label Touch And Go drastically scaled down its operation this week and announced that they would not only stop releasing new albums, but they'd have to stop doing the distribution work they did for the aforementioned labels among others. For those of you who didn't know that actual physical copies of albums exist outside of iTunes, it takes a distributor like T&G to put those CDs (and if you live in my hometown: cassette singles) on record store shelves. Of course, if you're lost on what CDs are, there's no way you can wrap your head around the concept of record stores, which popular movies will tell you were places of magic and wonder, where you could browse through a seemingly endless bounty of albums, occasionally argue over the best songs to listen to on a Monday morning and/or host a signing with Rex Manning.

Although the labels I spoke with all said they're definitely bummed on the news, most of the reps --like Kill Rock Stars VP Maggie Vail--told me that it's just sort of the nature of the business these days. "All of our titles will just be moved over to our new distro," she said. "We aren't anticipating much of a hiccup at all."

But the real story is that Touch And Go was a model record label. Seriously. Other labels grew up idolizing T&G. Forget the fact that T&G released some of the most influential and groundbreaking albums of the past three decades from the likes of the Jesus Lizard, Girls Against Boys, Big Black, Blonde Redhead and Slint. That alone would've made the label legendary. But within the music business, it was common knowledge that label head Corey Rusk ran a flawless operation and treated everyone in the industry with the kind of respect that the industry just isn't used to. And if this happened to this label, what does that mean?

Jade Tree co-owner and president Darren Walters told me that the news is bad, bad sign. "It's an illustration of how both the decline of the U.S. economy and music sales combined have the power to deal blows to music companies that not even the best, the brightest, the biggest or most solvent of us may be able to weather," he said. "This may only be the tip of the iceberg."

Look.

Music ain't gonna go anywhere. Until teenagers decide they don't need to rebel or compartmentalize each other based on aesthetics, musicians will always have their place.

But, man.

If you have conscious memories of buying albums on cassette, or in extreme cases: albums, the end of Touch And Go represents much more than just the end of Touch And Go.

Marketing like it's 1999

Significant Other?

Limp Bizkit picked a weird week to reunite

Would you let me get away with saying, "What's old is nu again?"

Yeah, I didn't think so. And you'd be right to stop me.

This week's biggest news of 1997 comes from the announcement that nu-metal misanthropes Limp Bizkit are putting their original (or "classic," if you're a douche) lineup back together after going on hiatus in 2005.

Look, I can't even begin to pretend that I know what lead yelper Fred Durst has going on underneath that baseball cap, or how long this rap-rock revelation has been in the works. But of all the weeks to announce you're getting back together, you choose this one? Just days after Blink-182? Did inspiration strike Durst last Sunday after seeing Blink onstage together? Did he immediately text erstwhile guitarist Wes Borland something along the lines of, "my hart s in a blender. lets gt bac 2getha"?

Regardless, Durst has said that the reason that the band were "disgusted and bored with the state of heavy popular music." What's unclear, however, is what Durst considers "heavy popular music." Is it Underoath? Or is it Thriving Ivory? Who knows what he considers popular because, well, he likes Limp Bizkit.

Here's the thing.

(I'd really appreciate it if any of the other editors of AP could stop reading right now.)

I'm not nearly as appalled by this as I presumably should be.

I'm kinda curious to see what Limp Bizkit 2009 sound like. After all, this is the "classic" lineup. And they can't be anymore out-of-touch than Axl Rose seems to be.

Here's the question: If Blink-182 announced that they would be bringing Limp Bizkit with them on their tour in a sort of "Party Like It's 1999 Tour," would you go?

2 MORE THINGS WE THINK WE LEARNED THIS WEEK

1. Wanna snag a Hollywood starlet? Play some indie-rock.

Word got out this week that quirky-handsome indie crooner Ryan Adams is engaged to clinically attractive actress/XTC fan Mandy Moore. This after Death Cab For Cutie/Postal Service frontman Ben Gibbard revealed his engagement to actress/jazz cabaret fan Zooey Deschanel. Clearly, guys, if you're hoping to steal Scarlett Johansson from Ryan Reynolds, you're gonna need the following:

• Acoustic guitar
• Glasses
• Extensive library of your own heartbroken music
• No more than two degrees of separation with Jenny Lewis

2. Angels & Airwaves aren't going away ever. Not ever.

Amid the palpable jubilation that washed over the land in the wake of Blink-182's reunion, a few concerned citizens wondered aloud: "But what about Angels & Airwaves?" Turns out that Tom DeLonge's other band won't spell the end of AVA. He blogged, "Angels & Airwaves is never going to go away. Don't worry. Just a little something different for a bit. Stay tuned! AVA has a lot coming." So there ya go. Does that mean Blink-182 are technically a side-project? Dum, dum, dummmmmm...