Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 2/8: David Bowie, “Watch That Man”
That man is Elon Musk, and it behooves the Democrats to not just keep an eye on him, but to tie the Bloated Dotard to Musk’s unpopular, pasty-white ass at every opportunity. But be careful – he talks like a jerk but he could eat you with a fork and spoon. David Bowie wrote “Watch […]
Song of the Day 2/7: The Dramatics, “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get”
Turns out a lot of people who either voted for Trump or skipped voting altogether are surprised that he’s doing all the things he said he would do, including things that victimize them and theirs. I guess they figured that because Trump is such a blatant and obvious bullshitter, then everything he said must be […]
Song of the Day 2/6: The Damned, “I Just Can’t Be Happy Today”
This one’s pretty self-explanatory. It should hold true for, oh, the next 1,430 days or so. Not that I’m counting or anything. The Damned were overshadowed by their more obnoxiously promoted contemporaries, the Sex Pistols, who headlined the first show The Damned played. They beat the Pistols to market as the first British punk band […]
Song of the Day 2/5: Johnny Rivers, “Secret Agent Man”
Word comes that the Musk administration has given all personnel in the Central Intelligence Agency his “buy-out” offer. It seems to me that pissing off thousands of spies might be risky business, but given how effectively the CIA has been at keeping the Russians from fucking with our lives, I’m not counting on their revenge […]
Song of the Day 2/4: Baby Huey & the Babysitters, “Hard Times”
Even without Demolition Donny’s pointless tariffs, prices aren’t going down anytime soon, by which I mean “ever.” Song of the Day is well-equipped for what’s coming, because as long as music has been recorded, people have been singing about hard times. Get used to it. You might know this as a Curtis Mayfield song. He […]
Song of the Day 2/3: The House of Love, “Beatles and the Stones”
As El Somnambulo noted, last night’s Grammy Awards handed out trophies to both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones – the Beatles for “Now and Then,” a John Lennon demo that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr massaged into one last Fab Four record, and the Stones for “Hackney Diamonds,” an album that plowed over old […]
Song of the Day 2/2: Delbert McClinton, “Weatherman”
As my late colleague Allan Loudell used to say, “It’s Groundhog Day all over again.” I’ll watch the 1993 cult classic again tonight as a tonic against our vile, egotistic times. I’ll bet the Young Chud Generation sees no reason for Phil Connors to change his behavior, which might be why we’re stuck in our […]
Song of the Day 1/31: Marianne Faithfull, “As Tears Go By”
Some people – old ones – will remember Marianne Faithfull as Mick Jagger’s girlfriend from London’s Swinging ’60s. She was 17 and just starting out as a folk singer when Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham “discovered” her at a party. Oldham, who fashioned himself the British Phil Spector, launched her career by giving her […]
Song of the Day 1/30: Rilo Kiley, “Portions for Foxes”
Summer festival lineups are being announced, and as usual the biggest news is about a band reunion. Wanna feel old? The band is Rilo Kiley. Formed by erstwhile child actors Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett in Los Angeles in 1998, Rilo Kiley hit their stride in 2004 with their third LP, “More Adventurous.” Both Sennett […]
Song of the Day 1/29: Billy Strings, “Gild the Lily”
I don’t think this song, released last fall, made it onto any of El Somnambulo’s monthly new music roundups, but it’s gotten lots of airplay on WXPN. Beware – it wormed its way into my ear, and my method of banishing earworms involves featuring them as Songs of the Day. Billy Strings (real name: William […]
Song of the Day 1/28: Grace Jones, “Demolition Man”
It’s easier to wreck things than build them. It requires very little brain – three-year-olds are good at it, which lines right up with Trump being good at it. When a powerful man with the mind of a three-year-old throws a tantrum, the clean-up is going to take a lot more time. Sting wrote this […]
Song of the Day 1/27: Noël Coward, “Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans”
There are those who think we should be nicer to MAGAts, because – this is their theory, not mine – MAGAts vote against their own self-interests in response to liberals looking down on them. That’ll show us, I suppose. Noël Coward wrote the tune in 1943 as, he said years later, “a satire directed against […]
Song of the Day 1/26: Cheap Perfume, “It’s Okay to Punch Nazis”
Elon Musk told Germany’s far-right party that Germans should get over their guilt about that whole Holocaust thing. So here’s a message for “Misunderstood Gesture” Musk from the – gasp! – female-fronted, Denver-based punk band Cheap Perfume. “It’s Okay to Punch Nazis” appeared on the group’s LP “Burn It Down,” released in 2019 during the […]
Recent Comments