Things we are: exhausted, run-down, already tired of the Austin City Limits Festival mania. And it's only Tuesday. Well, maybe, at least, we'll get a chance to see The Stills in all this madness. That's a plus! BTW: Did you know that yesterday was the first time I'd missed a weekday post without being out of town or deathly ill in the entire time we've kept this blog? Yep. It's true. Anyway, we'll do some kind of snarky guide to ACL at some point this week. Until then, though, if you're coming into town (or live here) and are looking for some hott action on Thursday night, you should definitely check out Austinist's second annual edition of Local Music is Sexy. The bill is promising (IV Thieves, Brothers and Sisters, Loxsly, Till We're Blue or Destroy, Horse + Donkey), TRGAW pal Laurie Gallardo and mashup masters Car Stereo (Wars) are mc'ing and dj'ing, respectively -- and we'll finally have a chance to check out the new incarnation of the Caucus/Le Perv Privilege/Velvet Spade space, Mohawk. On top of that, apparently some big name bands crashed the party last year, so... You never know what will happen!

Things thought wilst listening to The Hold Steady's "Chips Ahoy" for the fifth time around (I do this everytime someone posts it again...), trying desperately to like it, because I liked the previous two Hold Steady albums and the Lifter Puller ones too: "Wait a minute. Why am I not listening to Bruce Springsteen's Greetings from Asbury Park? (And yes, I still think it's an incredibly poorly engineered track. And. Vagrant sent me THE TOTALLY AWFUL LEMONHEADS RECORD instead of Boys and Girls in America. It feels like a cruel joke -- and perhaps it is.) However, Craig Finn won me back a little with his charming contribution to Pitchfork's The Guest List. Because what's more adorable than the thought of CF devoted to Jens Lekman? So there's that, at least. (Speaking of, you've heard Jens' great end-of-summer mix, right?)

Meanwhile...

"I don't know why, but people are in here all the time buying used vinyl." We thought that was something that DJ Mel said to justify his existence as Waterloo's premier vinyl buyer, but it seems our favorite turntablist was right. Someone unloaded the largest 4AD collection either of us have ever seen outside of a record show (or Pinkie's apartment), and we became the guilty parties. Said collection was purchased virtually lock, stock, and barrel with the exception of repeats, things either of us already had, or releases from Heidi Berry and Lisa Germano. Ancillary items included Beggars Banquet pressings of Bauhaus, releases from Breathless and Cindytalk and self-released X-mal Deutschland (which is like, really, really, really good). The goods were good enough that we both speculate that there is more yet to hit the bins, if it wasn't alredy picked over by the time we arrived. The prize? Swallow's Blow, for which Pinkie has been on the lookout for over a decade. We left behind fairly obscure items in the 4AD vein that may require some research. No, Pinkie didn't take notes. She was too busy grabbing records! Anyway, we liked Swallow so very much (Pinkie: It's the quintessence of 4AD!" Me: "This is the most perfect song of all time!" -- said this about every single track on the record) that we thought we'd share a little with you... The band's main influences seem to be the Cocteau Twins, Brian Eno, and 60's girl groups, which may explain why we flipped out the way we did...

Swallow -- Lovesleep
Swallow -- Sugar Your Mind
Swallow -- Peekaboo

And finally: Geez, who wasn't at that Raconteurs show @ Prada? Us, I suppose. And probably you! We'll all get over it eventually. BTW, I know Mr. Christgau already poked at this beehive, but what exactly is the awful Brendan Benson doing in that band anyway? Seriously.

(Due to technical difficulties, our dj gig last night was kind of non-existent. If anyone wants to underwrite our purchase of our own turntables and a mixer, we might be your best friends for life. It's time we had our own, really... Luckily, the presence in the Pinkster's cd case of one of Andrea Warped Reality's famous mix CDs saved our collective shirts. Thx, lady! We might even post it later this week, it's really that good!)