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DL Open Thread Monday, Dec. 11, 2023
Cynics might consider a UN climate conference a study in hypocrisy – thousands of people burned fossil fuel flying to a desolate stretch of sand atop a petroleum patch so they can emit a lot of hot air pretending to do something about global warming. Oil-rich nations, though, see it as an existential threat. Reuters […]
Song of the Day 12/8: Imogen Heap, “Hide and Seek”
WXPN’s countdown of the 885 Greatest Songs By Women – yes, it’s grandiose, but they had to call it something – has passed the halfway mark, and my strategy of picking cuts I thought might otherwise be ignored isn’t looking too successful. So far only two of my 10 selections, “Birthday” by the Bjork-led Sugarcubes […]
Song of the Day 12/7: Denny Laine’s Electric String Band, “Why Did You Come”
Denny Laine, who died Tuesday at 79, might have been who Andy Warhol had in mind when he said everyone would get 15 minutes of fame. For about that long in 1964 it looked like the guy born Brian Hines would be a big rock ‘n’ roll star. The band he fronted, the Moody Blues, […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023
Everyone knows that Donald Trump has never had an original thought and that most of his insults are simply projection. You’d think the mainstream media would have noticed this by now, and investigated him for any of the complaints he has about someone else. For example, his constant drumbeat of “Joe Biden is old and […]
Song of the Day 12/5: Nine Inch Nails, “The Beginning of the End”
Could this be a message for Valerie Longhurst? You decide. It comes from Trent Reznor’s 2007 LP “Year Zero,” a concept album about an American dystopia. Reznor set his tale of a United States beset by terrorists and ruled by a Christofascist regime in 2022, 15 years in the future, because that was the year […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023
Proof, as if more were needed, that politics is now professional wrestling: Disgraced ex-Rep. George Santos is monetizing his graft in various ways. One of them is selling cameo greetings – give him a few hundred dollars and he’ll record a short message for someone. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, one of the few Democrats who […]
Song of the Day 12/4: Jim Bryant, “Something’s Coming”
El Somnambulo insisted I feature this tune today. I have no idea why, but when a man in a luchador mask tells you to do something, you do it. Though Richard Beymer portrayed Tony in the film, his singing was dubbed by Jim Bryant. The music is by Leonard Bernstein, lately portrayed by Bradley Cooper […]
DL Open Thread Monday, Dec. 4, 2023
This story came out a week ago and sank without a trace: The president of the United Nations’ annual climate summit planned to use the talks to lobby dozens of countries and business leaders to increase their use of oil and gas, a fact that’s a lot easier to understand when you know that Sultan […]
Song of the Day 12/3: Ratboys, “The Window”
El Som included a tune from Chicago band Ratboys in his monthly favorite new tunes post back when their fifth studio LP, “The Window,” came out in August. The album, produced by former Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla, got good reviews from the music press, and almost all of them cite the soaring […]
Song of the Day 12/2: The Pogues, “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah”
It’s been a tough year for Ireland’s musicians. Sinead O’Connor died in July, and this week Shane MacGowan, frontman for the Pogues, died a week after being discharged from a hospital. He was 65 and, given his problems with alcohol and heroin, many people were surprised he lived that long. MacGowan is often called a […]
Song of the Day 11/30: Billy Joel, “Only the Good Die Young”
Henry Kissinger was already 54 years old when Billy Joel, a scamp half his age at the time, released this banger in 1977. The third single from “The Stranger,” his best-selling album, it only reached No. 24 on the Hot 100 but has lived on via classic rock radio. He introduces this live performance on […]
Song of the Day 11/29: André 3000, “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time”
The music world is still trying to figure out what to make of the new album from André 3000, best known as half of the hip-hop duo Outkast. Though he’s chipped in guest vocals for lots of other artists in the 17 years since the last Outkast LP, André, unlike his former partner Big Boi, […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023
This isn’t getting the media play it should: Hunter Biden said he’d testify in the House GOP “investigation” of his business dealings, but only if the session were open to the media. The Republican response: They shit themselves with fear and explained that they won’t do that, because they’ve already admitted that the sole purpose […]
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