Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 6/11: Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets, “I Went to a Party”
Nick Lowe has been playing and touring with surf-rock revivalists Los Straitjackets for a decade now, and he’s finally done an album with them. “Indoor Safari” is set for release in September, and a leadoff single was released yesterday. I know new music is El Somnambulo’s beat, but I figure he won’t mind a band […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Ever wonder why the American public opposes Israel’s war on Gaza but its elected representatives are for it? Here’s why: AIPAC funneled money from Republican donors to Democratic candidates more than any other organization. Shalom my ass. In a tape made surreptitiously, SCOTUS justice Sam Alito admitted his Christian nationalism, telling his interviewer that compromise […]
Song of the Day 6/10: Imagine Dragons, “Sharks”
Donald Trump’s fear of sharks is well-documented, but I think it’s confined to the oceanic sort. That’s not the kind of shark Imagine Dragons sang about in this 2022 single, a No. 12 hit on Billboard’s rock chart, but the video’s casino scenes make me wonder if it’s about him anyway.
DL Open Thread Monday, June 10, 2024
If you’re looking for something more esoteric to worry about than World War III or the climate-induced collapse of civilization, you might want to look into the latest outbreak of avian flu, which has infected two farm workers – one in Texas, the other in Michigan – who caught it from dairy cows. Pasteurization kills […]
Song of the Day 6/9: The Sundays, “Summertime”
Americans insist on regarding “summer” as the period between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. That’s the astronomical definition of summer, but it’s not the only one. The length of the astronomical seasons varies, so meteorologists break the year into three-month segments. For record-keeping purposes, summer consists of June, July and August, which pretty […]
Song of the Day 6/7: Chuck Wood, “Seven Days Too Long”
I like soul music on Fridays as much as the next guy, but sometimes I get tired of the same old songs. So I turn to Northern Soul, the British movement born in the ’70s that kept alive obscure ’60s singles that never made the charts in the U.S. when they were released. A lot […]
Song of the Day 6/6: Jim Radford, “The Shores of Normandy”
Certain minds think alike. Mike Dinsmore posted this in the Open Thread while I was writing it up. It’s worth hearing twice. Jim Radford was a British folksinger and peace activist who was just 15 when he served as a cabin boy aboard a tugboat that took part in the D-Day flotilla 80 years ago […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, June 5, 2024
Americans love scary stories, so it’s no surprise that American media dispenses countless articles about Trump. You rarely see his name in European newspapers, but their political leaders are frightened all the same. And, as in the United States, the constant drumbeat has a deleterious effect: As is true here, most are convinced Trump will […]
Song of the Day 6/4: Cyndi Lauper, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”
Cyndi Lauper announced her tour this fall will be her last. The now-70-year-old singer released the girl power anthem that defined her career in 1983 with a video that became an MTV landmark thanks to her sassy attitude and quirky thrift-shop wardrobe, a look Madonna swiped for her role in “Desperately Seeking Susan.” The video […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, June 4, 2024
For years now I’ve been told that attacking Donald Trump only makes his support stronger. Yeah, sure it does, buddy. Unfortunately for that argument, post-conviction polling says the opposite is true. On the other hand, lots of evidence points to facts not mattering anymore. In a rare sign of fight, Democratic senators Sheldon Whitehouse and […]
Song of the Day 6/3: Gladstone, “A Piece of Paper”
June 1 marked the 25th anniversary of the launch of Napster, the file-sharing network that destroyed the music industry as everyone knew it. Stories marking the date mostly focus on the its negative effects on artists and record labels, but a few acknowledge why it spread so fast and so far – it was the […]
DL Open Thread Monday, June 3, 2024
Their dangerous rival just got convicted on 34 felony charges, and the reaction from Democrats is just what we’ve come to expect: They not only don’t know how to capitalize on it, they’re not even sure they should mention it. Now do you understand why they lose? Self-doubt is not something that Republicans ever have […]
Song of the Day 5/31: Nazareth, “Guilty”
Yes, that’s Scottish rockers Nazareth covering Randy Newman on their breakthrough 1975 LP, “Hair of the Dog.” The tune, from Newman’s controversial “Rednecks” album of the year before, got lots of blues covers back then, notably by Bonnie Raitt and Joe Cocker. Though Nazareth is lumped into the hard rock genre, it covered lots of […]
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