Very little to report today other than reiterating yesterday's post about tonight's show at The Waiting Room -- Adam Franklin of Swervedriver. Local heroes Kyle Harvey and Reagan Roeder are opening. Tickets are $10; show starts at 9 p.m. You should go.

And this: I've spent the last day or so listening to the new Springsteen album, Magic. I didn't want to like it. After the schmaltz that was The Rising, I figured "The Boss" had seen his better days. Then I saw that Rolling Stone gave the new album five stars, which is unheard of (I assume part of the rating has to do with politics at Rolling Stone and leveraging their position to get an interview with Springsteen -- just the opposite of what new bands have to deal with at the once-important music magazine. The cover of Stone is gold, but it's only going to happen if your music rates with Joe Levy. Springsteen, on the other hand, could give a shit, and it's Stone that needs him to give the publication credibility in an era when they're putting shit like Zac Efron on the cover). While five stars is unwarranted, I like this album more than I care to admit. It has a cohesive quality that I haven't heard from a new album in a long time. Someone I spoke with compared it to Darkness... It's not nearly as bleak or introspective. It also isn't as bubbly and back-slapping as Born in the USA or as cheesy as Born to Run. Yeah, you can hear when he's trying to sound like his older stuff (He should have let "Livin' in the Future" be a B-side somewhere), but even moreso I hear a modern-day Dylan influence, a return to simple songwriting. Definitely rates a "Yes."

Tomorrow's column: Happy Birthday One Percent...

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