Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 9/13: The Decemberists, “Valerie Plame”
Valerie Plame, the former CIA agent who was controversially outed by the Bush administration in 2003, left Washington for New Mexico a few years back and is now running for Congress. She released an attention-grabbing campaign ad this week that set the internet abuzz. She’s a long way from her goal — the primary in […]
Song of the Day 9/12: Fountains of Wayne, “California Sex Lawyer”
Nobody’s heard much from Michael Avenatti lately, but I thought of him again when I was listening to FOW’s “Out-of-State Plates,” its collection of B-sides from 2005. In fact, the only way you can tell this song isn’t about Avenatti is that it was originally released in 2000 on the International Pop Overthrow Vol. 3 […]
Song of the Day 9/11: Glen Campbell, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”
Green Day made its name with a pop-punk combination, starting with “Dookie” in 1994, but this simple ballad is probably Billie Joe Armstrong’s most lasting contribution to popular music. He wrote it at the same time as the songs for “Dookie,” in response to his girlfriend leaving him to move to Ecuador, but it didn’t […]
Song of the Day 9/10: The Human Beinz, “Nobody But Me”
The Human Beinz from Youngstown, Ohio, were a late-’60s one-hit wonder thanks to this rocked-up rendition of an all-but-forgotten Isley Brothers track. Originally the Premiers, the band changed its name to the Human Beingz, but Capitol Records dropped the g, reputedly to capitalize on the “be-in” movement of 1967, when the band’s first album was […]
Song of the Day 9/9: The Highwomen, “The Chain”
I’m treading in El Somnambulo territory here, as the LP by the country supergroup The Highwomen — formed as a sort of “answer group” to the ’80s supergroup the Highwaymen — dropped just last week. I don’t know modern country music tastes well enough to forecast whether an album by Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren […]
Song of the Day 9/8: Pacific Gas & Electric, “Are You Ready?”
Gospel-soul fusion? Anything was possible back in 1970, when Pacific Gas & Electric formed in Los Angeles. The band’s most notable member was guitarist Glenn Schwartz, the original guitarist for the James Gang. He moved to Los Angeles in 1967, opening the door for Joe Walsh to join the band. This song, written by lead […]
Song of the Day 9/7: The Fireballs, “Bottle of Wine”
The Fireballs, originally Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs (named for the Jerry Lee Lewis song), are most famous for their 1963 No. 1 hit “Sugar Shack,” a tune that in retrospect seems to sum up popular music in the period between Buddy Holly’s death and the Beatles’ arrival in the U.S. The subsequent British Invasion […]
Song of the Day 9/6: Average White Band, “Pick Up the Pieces”
Everyone knows they’re white — it’s right there in the band name — but I ran into a millennial the other day who didn’t know they were Scottish. This video, from the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary party in 1988, is as much visual proof as I could offer: Hamish Stuart rocking out in a kilt. […]
Song of the Day 9/5: Neil Young, “Like a Hurricane”
Yeah, Dorian is just a flimsy excuse to play one of my favorite Neil Young songs. It was written in 1975, recorded for “American Stars and Bars” for release in 1977, and has been part of virtually every Neil Young concert ever since. Not many people have covered the tune, perhaps because it’s such a […]
Song of the Day 9/4: Zedd and Aloe Blacc, “Candyman”
Gene Wilder died last weekthree years ago last week, which sent me to YouTube for his greatest film clips, which led to “Candy Man” by Sammy Davis Jr., which led me to this modern remake. It gained wide play as an M&Ms commercial, which, given my lack of TV viewing, left it entirely new to […]
Song of the Day 9/3: Sheer Mag, “Hardly to Blame”
It’s been just about a year since I first featured this Philly band in Song of the Day, and they just released a new album, “A Distant Call,” that tops the Rolling Stone September Quick Hits list of “albums you need to know about now.” This one’s better produced — not slick, but not as […]
Song of the Day 9/2: Bruce Springsteen, “Joe Hill”
I was watching the PBS series about Reconstruction recently and heard a bunch of historians lament how that part of American history is so little studied and poorly understood. That’s true, but an even bigger piece of American history has nearly been wiped from collective memory — the history of capitalism’s war on the labor […]
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes: August, 2019
A strong final week rescued what otherwise would have been a relatively weak month for new music. Thanks to that final week, it’s weak no more. Not even close: More proof that Bon Iver is a national treasure: Someone wrote on a blog somewhere, “What appeared to be a comeback record was in fact a […]
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