Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 3/26: Was (Not Was), “Somewhere in America There’s a Street Named After My Dad”
When Detroit natives David Weiss and Don Fagenson formed Was (Not Was), they both adopted the surname Was and combined to create music based on a simple philosophy. In the words of lyricist David, “the groove can handle anything,” a credo they put to the test frequently in composer Don’s mix of funk, R&B and […]
Song of the Day 3/25: Jay and the Techniques, “Keep the Ball Rollin’ “
Most soul music of the ’60s came out of Detroit, or Memphis, or Chicago. But sometimes it came from the most unlikely places, like Allentown, Pa. That’s where singer Jay Proctor assembled his integrated band the Techniques, who hit the Top 10 with “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie.” The band might better have been called the […]
We Couldn’t Keep It
“Well, Doctor, what have we got —- a Republic or a Monarchy?” “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
Song of the Day 3/24: Brian May, “New Horizons”
As most rock fans know, Queen guitarist Brian May also holds a doctorate in astrophysics, a fact that earned him an invitation to join NASA’s team for New Horizons, a program that sent a probe to Pluto and beyond. After its Pluto flyby in 2015, the probe made for at the Kuiper Belt, a ring-shaped […]
Song of the Day 3/23: Linus of Hollywood, “Don’t Fuck It Up”
Musicians who record power pop must realize by now that it’s almost impossible to make a living at it, so Kevin Dotson, better known as Linus of Hollywood, keeps lots of irons in the fire. Not only does the multi-instrumentalist record solo records, he plays with the geek-rock band Nerf Herder, writes music for TV […]
Song of the Day 3/22: Stevie Wonder and Tom Jones, “A Place In The Sun/Uptight/It’s Not Unusual”
“Ebony and Ivory,” the duet by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, hit the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic in 1982. But it wasn’t the first time Stevie paired with a British singer. Welshman Tom Jones, who won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1966, was so popular by 1969 […]
Why Wooing Fox News Viewers Is a Mug’s Game
A Democratic polling organization explored whether the party should try to woo Republicans through their propaganda organ, Fox News. The results are sobering evidence of the power of propaganda. The finding the Daily Beast used in its headline was frightening — 78% of Fox News viewers think the Trump administration has accomplished more than any […]
Song of the Day 3/21: The Buckinghams, “Kind of a Drag”
In 1965 a Chicago group called the Pulsations was hired as house band for a local TV station’s music show. With the British Invasion in full swing, the show’s producers asked them to change their name to capitalize on it, and the Buckinghams were born. They recorded several songs for a local record label the […]
Beto: Hero or Zero?
Love him or hate him, no candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination has polarized the party’s voters more than Beto O’Rourke. The only one close is also the only one who has attracted a similar number of small donors amounting to a large number of dollars, Bernie Sanders. Thomas B. Edsall of the New York […]
Song of the Day 3/20: Godley & Creme, “Cry”
Kevin Godley and Lol Creme were half of the art-rock band 10cc for much of the 1970s, but left to pursue an invention called the gizmotron, a device that attached to the bridge of an electric guitar and gave its strings indefinite sustain. It never really caught on, and the duo returned to making music […]
Man Who Stopped New Zealand Massacre Was Good Guy Without a Gun
The so-far unsung hero of the New Zealand massacre was not, per U.S. gun-sissy lore, a good guy with a gun. Abdul Aziz Wahabzadah, a refugee from Afghanistan, was with his four sons at the second mosque the gunman went to. He heard gunshots, looked out a window, and saw the killer, armed with an […]
Old-School Biden Preps Old-School Campaign
CNN has a piece up this morning about Joe Biden’s slo-mo campaign rollout. How will Joe sew up the nomination? By naming a vice-presidential candidate quickly plus…ENDORSEMENTS! Biden, who has been carefully watching the field of Democratic hopefuls grow, will try to quickly seize command of the race. Democrats familiar with his plans say he […]
The Center Cannot Hold Water
Corporate journalists are typing furiously to try to convince people that a majority of the country wants centrism and unity. Bullshit. Damon Linker at The Week goes after this notion with a sledgehammer, claiming the time for political pablum is over. “If Democrats want to unify the country,” he writes, “they should stop talking about […]
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