While scrolling down the entertainment page at cnn.com, I saw a link to this story about the best artists from each state. I was intrigued, so I followed the link. I clicked on each state I have lived in — Georgia, South Carolina and Connecticut — and was surprised by some bands listed and not so surprised by others.

Georgia's band was (obviously) R.E.M. and the solo act was Ray Charles. Not shocking on either account. I don't want to reignite the R.E.M. argument from a while back, but these sort of "best of" lists always seem to piss off someone. I am just the messenger on this one people … yell at the the Boston Phoenix if you think they chose the wrong bands.

S.C.'s band was Iron and Wine (who I will admit I've never heard of) and the solo artist was James Brown. I was a little surprised that a) James Brown made the S.C. list because Augusta so often claims him and b) that (thankfully) Hootie and the Blowfish wasn't the best band. When I was at USC (like five years after then were popular), there still were Hootie posters endorsing things like living on campus all over the dorms.

But sadly, Connecticut's were the most shocking for me. Not because of the bands that were chosen, but because I had no idea they were from Connecticut. I lived there for 17 years (OK, I was a baby and a child through most of that) and I had no idea that The Carpenters, Liz Phair or MGMT once called CT home. But in my defense, my dad never listened to '70s soft rock so I don't really know much about The Carpenters except that Karen was an anorexic. According to Wikipedia, "Phair was born in Connecticut, but was raised in Winnetka, Illinois." And as for MGMT, everything I have ever read about them says they are a Brooklyn band. I guess like me, these people hightailed it out of CT once they were old enough to realize that it actually is “Patheticut,” as The Phoenix called it.

So even though I know I am opening myself up to potential tongue-lashings, what do you all think of the list?