We’ll give Creed a rest this week and point out this quote about Nickelback, the Creed of the New Millenium:

Summer is the most important season for the concert industry. Even with the recession, 2009 is shaping up to be a good year.

"Normally, promoters are quick to cry when things are not going well, and we’re not hearing that," said Pollstar’s Bongiovanni.

Jason Garner, CEO for global music for Live Nation, the world’s largest promoter, explains the industry’s resiliency, using a hypothetical Nickelback fan in Omaha.

While that fan might put off an expensive vacation to Hawaii, Garner said, he won’t miss that one-time show in Omaha.

"That Nickelback show … is the Kodak moment of that fan’s life," he said.

Leave it to Jason Garner to point out that an examined life that ranks a Nickelback concert as a "Kodak moment" is no more worth living than the unexamined life. Even if you live in Omaha. Ten years from now (hell, ten weeks from now) excitedly reliving for your friends that "awesome" Nickelback concert you attended most likely will result in the same awkward silence that follows a confession of a drunken sexual assault  on farm animals. 

At least the animals won’t try to sell you a $40 t-shirt afterward to commemorate the occasion.

Onward to less disturbing things:

Mining For Gold – The Cowboy Junkies
Romeo and Juliet – Dire Straits
Team Handed – Mogwai
Murder (Or A Heart Attack) – Old 97’s
The Three Great Alabama Icons – Drive-By Truckers
Lausd – Jurassic 5
Supermaniac Soul – Ministry
Clementine – The Decembrists (Elliott Smith cover)
The White Lady Loves You More – Elliott Smith (Elliott Smith covering Elliott Smith)
No More Sorry – My Bloody Valentine
and one more guaranteed non-Nickleback song: I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up For Christmas – Aimee Mann

Possibly the best performance of one of the most beautiful songs of all time