Well, even though my iBook is out-of-commission, the Spins will try to muster on (even if this lab computer only has Safari, so don't expect any fancy things like "italics" or "links"). Especially today when I got a gem of song. I find it odd that considering the vast ouevre of Pavement that my favorite song by the band is from the relatively forgotten compilation No Alternative. The song is classic noisy Pavement and the whole darn song is about … R.E.M. It is a sonic love-letter to the Georgia band right down to track-by-track desriptions of R.E.M. albums like Reckoning and fun profiles of the band ("the singer, he had long hair and the drummer, he knew restraint/and the bassman, he had all the right moves and the guitar player was no saint.") If that's not enough, Pavement then goes on to do a little revisionist history by asking us to go "way back to the ancient times when there were no 50 states" and who makes the last stand in Georgia against the North and Sherman? R.E.M.! Take that warriors of Northern aggression! You are no match to R.E.M.!