Alby's Latest Posts
DL Open Thread Thursday, October 7, 2021
If you’re paying close attention to the latest Debt Limit Ceiling Crisis, well, I pity you — you’re an all-day sucker. Last I checked Republicans were offering to move the standoff to December, but frankly, I don’t give a flying fuck. It will happen or it won’t, and nothing you or I do will make […]
Song of the Day 10/5: Eddy Grant, “Electric Avenue”
Has anybody in history lost in court more often than Donald Trump? He was at it again last week, when a judge ruled against his effort to dismiss a lawsuit brought against him by Guyanese-British singer-songwriter Eddy Grant over Trump’s use of “Electric Avenue” in a campaign ad. Such cases typically get settled, usually with […]
Song of the Day 10/4: Happy Mondays, “Step On”
I think Jason requested some Happy Mondays, so here’s the band’s biggest hit, from 1990’s “Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches,” considered one of the landmark albums of the Madchester scene of the late ’80s/early ’90s. For those who’ve forgotten, those were the days of rave culture, which began in Chicago but quickly spread, establishing its […]
Song of the Day 10/3: Elaine Paige, “Memory”
Stephanie Grisham’s tell-all tome about her time in the Trump White House contains lots of anecdotes that would be dismissed out of hand if they were about anyone other than Trump. They usually contain more than a kernel of truth, of course — for example, nobody doubts that Trump would go into towering rage tantrums. […]
DL Open Thread Sunday, October 3, 2021
My theory about why conservatives behave the way they do — they’re inferior and they know it — isn’t original to me. Angie Maxwell, an academic at the University of Arkansas, wrote an entire book about it, “The Indicted South: Public Criticism, Southern Inferiority, and the Politics of Whiteness,” and explained in an interview how […]
Song of the Day 10/1: Gilbert O’Sullivan, “Alone Again (Naturally)”
I mentioned this song yesterday, comparing its opening verse to Paul Westerberg’s original version of “Can’t Hardly Wait” because the protagonists of both songs start their soliloquies by announcing they’re going to throw themselves off a tower. Sadly, Westerberg’s paean to despair never enjoyed the kind of commercial success that Raymond Edward “Gilbert” O’Sullivan achieved […]
Song of the Day 9/30: The Replacements, “Can’t Hardly Wait”
Listening back to the Replacements, which I do fairly frequently, I’m struck by how far out of their way the band had to go to prevent Paul Westerberg’s punchy, melodic songs from becoming hits. Years of drunken performances and other self-sabotaging behavior — indie cred in those days required not just indifference toward but active […]
DL Open Thread Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021
Are the media invested in ending American democracy? Sure seems that way to a lot of people, including Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post, who’s hopping mad that the Eastman memo, laying out how Mike Pence could have thrown the election to Trump on Jan. 6, has gotten almost no attention from the mainstream media. […]
Song of the Day 9/29: Son Volt, “Livin’ in the USA”
Son Volt’s 10th LP, “Electro Melodier,” released in July, continues Jay Ferrar’s turn toward political lyrics since Trump’s election. The music, though, fits right in with the Americana/roots furrow he’s plowed his entire career. I haven’t noticed any big market for this sort of thing, but the album has gotten some of Farrar’s strongest reviews […]
Song of the Day 9/28: Bob Dylan, “Tomorrow Is a Long Time”
Bob Dylan, now 80 years old, yesterday announced the resumption of his Never Ending Tour, which took its longest break since 1984 because of the pandemic. This probably won’t make the setlist this year — I’m not sure Dylan’s reduced vocal flexibility would do it justice, and the woman he wrote it for is now […]
DL Open Thread Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021
You can’t build a shit nation like the USA unless you have a lot of pieces of shit to assemble into the final product. One giant piece of shit is, of course, the Previous Guy, but he had help from many, many shit humans all along the way. One of those shit humans, Mark Zuckerberg, […]
Song of the Day 9/25: Devo, “Satisfaction”
When Devo hit the mainstream in the late ’70s, they espoused a philosophy that seemed as odd and silly as their electronica-inspired music: devolution, the idea that humans had stopped evolving and were now regressing, or “devolving.” Taking a look at this country’s recent history — or even just Marjorie Taylor Greene — I don’t […]
Song of the Day 9/24: The Electric Prunes, “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)”
Judging by the hangover I definitely had too much of something yesterday, but I think it was Propofol. The Electric Prunes released this classic slice of psychedelia in late 1966. It was a moderate hit, reaching No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1967, but its place in rock history was cemented when […]
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