Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 2/8: Honey Cone, “One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show”
I didn’t watch Biden’s SOTU speech, but I saw plenty of still pictures of Marjorie Taylor Greene. They didn’t remind me of a clown — more like one of those Japanese macaques popularly known as snow monkeys. Maybe it was just the effect of the fur collar — as Jesus sorta said, you can’t hide […]
Song of the Day 2/7: Spinal Tap, “Christmas With the Devil”
MAGAt Nation (motto: Nostra braccas semper nodantur, roughly “our knickers are in a perpetual twist”) is raising holy hell about Sam Smith’s performance at the Grammy Awards. Seems the British warbler dressed in a Mephistophelean outfit (basically a top hat with devil horns) and scampered about a flame-lined stage drenched in more red than a […]
Atrios Nails It
Atrios wrote this as part of his explanation of why the Very Sensible Centrists are full of shit when they talk about trans kids, but it applies whenever they play their “the right has a point” game. Which means it applies to just about everything. I’m not interested in playing Whack-a-Mole with every dumb thing […]
Song of the Day 2/6: Tom Jones, “Delilah”
Many people don’t listen to lyrics, and even those of us who do often know the chorus of a popular song but get hazy on the verses. You can hear this at any crowd sing-along — mumble, mumble, mumble, then everyone, even people who don’t listen to lyrics, joins in on the chorus. This song […]
Song of the Day 2/4: Lily Allen, “Air Balloon”
Look, up in the sky! It’s a UFO! It’s the moon! It’s a…Chinese spy balloon! The media loves a balloon story — remember the Balloon Boy Hoax of 2009? — and this one has it all: International intrigue! Jet fighter planes! Calls for shooting it down! (To be fair, “shoot it down” is the knee-jerk […]
Song of the Day 2/3: Iron Maiden, “The Writing on the Wall”
Despite its reputation as an industry tool, the Rock Hall of Fame has snubbed lots of popular bands and artists. I don’t think any act on the outside has sold more records than Iron Maiden. The band, formed in 1975 in East London, was part of the late-’70s new wave of British heavy metal that […]
It’s Just Logic
So Republicans throughout America’s Stupid Belt are trying to legislate against family drag shows, supposedly because some of the performers are pedophiles who are grooming children for…uh, homosexuality, I think… by exposing them to men in ridiculously heavy makeup acting like women. Let’s follow the trail of logic here. In order for this to be […]
Song of the Day 2/2: The Spinners, “It’s a Shame”
The Rock Hall of Fame released its nominees for the class of 2023 yesterday. As usual, the contenders fall into a few predictable categories: * Superstars whose fame has nothing to do with rock (rap icon Missy Elliott, country institution Willie Nelson) * Actual rockers who didn’t sell enough records to make them shoo-ins (Iron […]
Song of the Day 2/1: Ozzy Osbourne, “Patient Number 9”
Rock’s Prince of Darkness, Ozzie Osbourne, announced today that his physical condition has forced him to cancel a tour of the UK and Europe planned for spring and summer of this year. The 74-year-old was hoping to promote his solo album “Patient Number 9,” released last September to generally positive reviews, but his health problems, […]
Song of the Day 1/31: Dwight Twilley Band, “I’m on Fire”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona Dwight Twilley was one of those shoulda-been coulda-been rockers. But he’ll never really be forgotten by any fan of twangy power-pop. Twilley’s “I’m on Fire” can be found on pretty much any list of best songs in the power-pop genre. The 1975 release was part of a wave of songs […]
Song of the Day 1/30: Tom Verlaine, “Breakin’ in My Heart”
Back in the ’60s, teenagers Tom Miller and Richard Meyers ran away from Sanford School in Hockessin (it was a boarding school back then) and went to New York, where they became Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell. Television, the band they started in the ’70s with another Delaware kid, Billy Ficca, became one of the […]
Song of the Day 1/29: Philadelphia Eagles Pep Band, “The Eagles’ Victory Song (Fly, Eagles, Fly)”
I’ve always had a problem with the lyrics to this song. Flying eagles are not on a road, to victory or anywhere else. They’re flying, they don’t need a road. That’s the whole point of flying. To be fair, when it was written in 1964 at the behest of owner Jerry Wolman, those weren’t the […]
Song of the Day 1/28: Public Image Ltd, “Hawaii”
Turns out Johnny isn’t so Rotten after all. Not all the time, anyway. John Lydon, better known in public (and Neil Young’s lyrics) as Johnny Rotten, has released a new, surprisingly mellow song with his longtime band Public Image Ltd. On the surface, his effort to represent Ireland in the Eurovision contest sounds like his […]
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