A few random notes...

- This has been an odd month for Bruce Springsteen. On one hand, he won a Golden Globe and got more publicity than any 59 year old musician probably ever has. On the other hand, he was snubbed out of an Oscar nomination, he made a deal with Wal-mart that he immediately apologized to his fans for, and he put out a sub-par album.

Fortunately, he topped it off with an inspiring Super Bowl performance. He made us forget about that album with wild, reckless versions of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" and "Born To Run". Then he made "Working On A Dream" ten times as soulful as it was on record - the gospel choir definitely helped. They closed with a loose, hilarious version of "Glory Days" where he followed rule number one of playing halftime shows: don't take yourself seriously - this is a football game (take note of this for next time, Bono). Bruce's acrobatics were ridiculous - I'm trying to figure out how to do that knee-drop maneuver he did at the beginning of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out". I'm a 26 year old in good shape and I can't pull that off. Beautiful show, guys.

- A couple of years ago, my little sister told me that Bruce could crap on a CD and Rolling Stone would give it five stars. Thank you, RS, for proving her right on this one. Meanwhile, they write two sentences on the Animal Collective and give it 3.5 stars. Way to alienate young listeners, guys. Does anybody under the age of 50 read or write for this magazine? Why don't you just admit you don't understand modern music and move on?

- Speaking of Animal Collective, check out their excellent interview with Bob Bollen on the All Songs Considered podcast. I enjoyed hearing them confront the idea of being "artists" versus being "musicians" - good discussion. By the way, Merriweather Post Pavilion is one of the ten greatest albums of this decade. That's my claim and I'm sticking to it. Get this album now.

- February 2009 seems to be the slow month that January typically is in other years. M. Ward has a new record on the 17th, but that's about it for new releases. Neko Case and U2 have new records March 3rd, but it is going to be a slow month.