Fuck this sloppy seconds hangup, Kanye didn't do a quarter of what you could do in a studio with Jon Brion. Brion always creates at least one respectable 'single' out of anything he does, and the rest will just endear you further to the independant-record-store crowd. You wanna get on some Phish/Dave Matthews shit? Learn from them. Their attempts at reaching a mass audience failed miserably (Hoist and Everyday respectively), whereas everything they've done just being true to themselves got more and more people to their shows. Play a longer set with less solos, and that will bring more people to the shows. More people = bigger places = more tickets sold = more $$ in your pockets than you'd get from selling albums (you know Trey ain't hurtin' at the bank, and Phish has probably only sold as many albums total as y'all).

For that matter, the big turnaround for both bands came via Steve Lillywhite. Maybe you guys need to hole up in upstate New York somewhere and get your hippy on with Mr. U2. You know you'd love to hear what he'd do with Riq's voice.

So that's my vote, either get with Brion anyway (like you really care whose bed a producer that fine has been in), or make your Billy Breathes/Crash with Steve Lillywhite.

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