“You’ll forget everything you learned in college,” he said, in between taking a drag, turning on his heel, walking and then repeating this like a smoking metronome. Smoke. Heel. Repeat.

My last semester, and this is what I have to sit next to as I limp to the finish.

Broken Bells, the collaborative project between James Mercer of The Shins and mash-up guru Danger Mouse, takes a listener several places. The best place is when it simply sounds like the Shins with a DJ and at its worst sounds like a boring new wave album with a DJ.

If the state gets what it wants, in 15 years half of Colorado students graduating from four-year institutions could be graduating with $80,000 in debt on average. That might be best-case scenario, too, because if colleges and universities get what they want, going to school could be even more expensive. Welcome to the party, my name’s James.

Before Alkaline Trio releases a new CD, they always say this album will be a return to their original, raw, more punk form. But once you’ve seen the mountains of heavy production, it’s hard to go back to the hills.