Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 12/12: Carole King, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”
WXPN’s contest countdown is nearly through (as I post this there are fewer than 60 songs to go) and most of the entries I put on my ballot because I thought they’d be underrepresented have been played. So have most of my late rejects. This song has been played, too, but not by this artist. […]
I Don’t Give a Fuck What You Think About Israel and the Palestinians
Seriously, I don’t give a flying fuck what you think, and if you’re honest with yourself – a heavy lift for a lot of people – you don’t give a flying fuck what I or anyone else thinks, either. Simple acid test: Has a month-plus of nonstop discussion of this changed your mind about it? […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023
Governments around the world like to pretend they’re doing something about global warming, but for all the talk about renewables, 80% of the world’s energy is still derived from fossil fuels. Lots of petroleum-producing countries, and oil industry in this one, want to keep it that way. Their latest victory came at the UN’s COP28 […]
Song of the Day 12/11: Laurie Anderson, “O Superman”
WXPN’s year-end countdown of the 885 Greatest Songs by Women – I know, the title sounds more ridiculous every time you hear it – reached my pick for No. 1 yesterday afternoon. “O Superman” clocked in at No. 262, between Phoebe Snow’s “Poetry Man” and Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces.” I don’t know if […]
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 […]
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