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Probably "Man of Action." So depressing, but then again I was in the depths of that when I first heard it, so it will always mean a lot to me. It made me think about the absurdity of life and the inevitability of death. Not fun, I'll admit, but it helped define an important time in my life.

Since you're in Toronto, it's playing at the Carlton this week. If you present your used ticket stub, they'll give you a pass to see it a second time for free. Believe me, a second viewing is necessary.

King Crimson - "Epitaph" This is, quite possibly, the best progressive rock song I've ever heard.

I think it would be awesome. The setlist would have to be rather different from those in the past. Just imagine "Suburbia" for a couple of acoustic guitars. And there's always a chance that he'd play "The Inescapable Us," which I love to death but have never heard live. If Matt actually did an acoustic tour, I would definitely want to go to a show.

The only ones that I think he really did that with are "Avalanche," "While We Were Hunting Rabbits," and "Near Fantastica." Witness the fact that "Near Fantastica" was cut down a lot for use as a single. The one song that I kinda wished was longer was "21st Century Living." I do recall that "Avalanche" was extended even further when played live. That ruled. Anyway, I don't think he was trying to pull an Iron Butterfly or anything. I mean, he didn't have any songs over ten minutes, and none of the songs were tracked together to form larger compositions. I would be interested to see what the result would be like if he tried something like that.

I just finished Neuromancer by William Gibson. I'm sure some of you have heard of it - basically the original cyberpunk novel. It's amazingly stylish. If you're interested in cyberpunk (basically gritty underworld type science fiction, heavy on the cool style factor), I also recommend Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Amazing book.

I know a lot of people think this, but it's Beautiful Midnight for me. When I bought that album, it was the only thing I listened to for at least a week, no joke. Followed by White Light (gotta give that one an honourable mention).

This is, hands down, my candidate for the best film of 2004. "Primer" is about a small group of thirtysomething engineers who, in their spare time off work, meet, experiment and make their own electronic devices in a garage. Two of them figure out that what they're building at that time is a device of staggering and unexpected potential, and develop it on their own without the other two knowing about it... and then the film becomes about what these two end up using their new invention for. This movie was shot on Super-16mm film, on a budget of $7000. That's it. The writer/director also starred and did the music and sound effects. What he accomplished was to create the most compelling science-fiction film I've seen in years, with virtually no special effects to speak of. P R I M E R M O V I E "Primer" totally blew my mind, and few movies do that. Note: this is one of those movies that you have to see at least twice to be able to figure out. I did in fact do so, and although I understand it a lot more than I did the first time around, I still don't comprehend the whole thing.

I'll have to try to keep this semi-short. Matthew Good (Band) Pink Floyd Led Zeppelin Neil Young & Crazy Horse The Who The Beatles King Crimson Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Jethro Tull The Kinks The Eagles U2 Tool AFI The Used Jimmy Eat World

It's definitely a more slickly produced album than any of their earlier efforts (even Bleed American). Whether that works for you or not is a matter of taste. Certainly some great late-night kind of tunes on there, like the aforementioned Polaris. I have to mention Night Drive and the album-closer 23 as my two favorite tracks. If you're interested in how the album evolved, I recommend getting the special edition, which includes a bonus disc with the the demo for each song that the band recorded themselves. It's nice to contrast the raw feel of the demo album (sort of like their early stuff) with the final product.