My colleague Ryan Beckwith is taking suggestions over at the N&O's political blog about what should be North Carolina's official rock song. A few states do have them, and a dust-up erupted in Oklahoma recently after the Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize??" proved to be a controversial state-song selection with more conservative members of the state legislature.

If they put this to any sort of vote, it's a lead-pipe cinch that James Taylor's "Carolina in My Mind" would win. And that's a lovely song, sure, but way too obvious. I'd put in a vote for something more left-field -- Squirrel Nut Zippers' "Put a Lid on It," say, or the Connells' "Stone Cold Yesterday"; perhaps Let's Active's "Every Word Means No." Or, in honor of the state's growing Latino population, Rey Norteno's "Raleigh."

Over to you, what should it be? Weigh in here, or at Under the Dome.

Check out the latest video from English mope-rock giant Morrissey, for "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris." Then compare it to another video that involves puppies and a washed-out white backdrop, 1984's "Every Word Means No" by Winston-Salem pop band Let's Active.

Visual homage, or freaky coincidence? You be the judge.

Meanwhile, Morrissey plays Durham March 11; and Let's Active main man Mitch Easter is on Wednesday night's "Meet the Producers" panel discussion in the Secondhand Freespace series at Chapel Hill's Local 506.

(Thanks, Glynn, for the point-out.)

For years, Mitch Easter seemed  reluctant to play songs from his legendary 1980s band Let's Active. So Easter's recent willingness to revisit the Let's Active catalog onstage under the name Gravel Truck (a moniker cribbed from the title of an instrumental on 1984's masterwork "Cypress") is wonderful news. Gravel Truck plays tonight at The Cave in Chapel Hill; and as an added bonus, Jon Heames -- a veteran of Let's Active as well as Motorolla -- will sit in on drums for this show.

ADDENDUM (10/27/08): Review.

The Revolve Film & Music Festival gets underway tonight in Winston-Salem, continuing through the weekend with a cool schedule of independent films. For our purposes, the festival's main event happens Friday -- a show at the Werehouse in Winston-Salem featuring recently regrouped '80s-vintage new-wave band Pylon. But I'm more interested in opening act Gravel Truck, a Let's Active tribute band (named after a song on Let's Active's 1984 magnum opus "Cypress"). Since Gravel Truck consists of Let's Active main man Mitch Easter "and friends," and since Easter went many years without playing Let's Active songs at all, this one is highly recommended for North Carolina music history buffs.