I've liked plenty of bands with a single leader and ever-changing line-up, i.e. the Chills and the Wedding Present, but I had not previously realized just how much turnover the Fall had experienced, the only constant being Mark E. Smith. The Guardian ran a piece, "Excuse me, weren't you in the Fall?" in which writer Dave Simpson attempted to track down more than 40 former band members, many of  whom told fascinating tales of being recruited and/or fired abruptly. It's the second time I've read recently that Smith constantly shakes up the line-up as an intended strategy to keep the music fresh, that it is not an inadvertent effect of his cantankerous personality. It also reaffirms my perception that there is no such thing as a mediocre Fall show: "'Smith doesn't do average,' says bassist Steve Hanley, who met me in a Manchester pub. 'He'd rather do 10 great gigs and 10 rubbish gigs than anything in the middle.'"

Make your own Fall Out Boy jokes.

When the Wedding Present announced a few months ago that they were planning a North American tour for 2006, I feared that they would hit Chicago shortly after my new baby is born and I'd have to miss them again. But the new year is off to a great start: they are scheduled to play the Double Door on March 12, almost two weeks before my due date. Considering that I made it to the Fall and the Strokes three weeks before my due date with my first child and Fountains of Wayne three days before, I'll certainly buy advance tickets and hope the baby doesn't arrive early.

However, I'll hold off on the Wedding Present baby t-shirt for the new kid since my son has never had a strong reaction to the band's CDs, not the way he has with the Ramones, which warranted the purchase of his Ramones shirt.