Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 2/20: The Presidents of the United States of America, “Mach 5”
As is traditional on Presidents Day, today’s song is by the Presidents of the United States of America, the three-piece Seattle band that scored a triple-platinum debut album in the mid-90s on the strength of the singles “Lump” and “Peaches.” They were notable at the time because they were the only Seattle band of the […]
Song of the Day 2/19: Radiohead, “Paranoid Android”
The Media Freakout of the Week is … drum roll, please … no, not spy balloons, that was last week … Chatbots! (cymbal crash) A lot of tech journalists have interacted with Microsoft’s new AI-powered Bing search engine, powered by ChatbotGPT, and have reported that we should be afraid, very afraid, of the coming Chatbot […]
Song of the Day 2/17: Hall & Oates, “It’s Uncanny”
Not long ago I heard something I didn’t think was possible — a song by Daryl Hall and John Oates I didn’t know. And I don’t mean some 21st-century recording (I’m sure I’ve missed some of those) but a tune from their early years on Atlantic Records. After the duo’s third LP, “War Babies,” flopped […]
Song of the Day 2/16: The Kinks, “Lola”
We all know Twitter has been experiencing lots of problems since boy genius Elon Musk bought it, but this one is more funny than ominous — though not to Dave Davies. It seems an over-reliance on algorithms in lieu of humans has led the site to flag all the band’s tweets as “sensitive content.” As […]
Song of the Day 2/15: De La Soul, “Eye Know”
Unless you were a rap fan back in the golden days of the genre, before copyright laws reined in free-for-all sampling and the creativity it inspired, you probably don’t know De La Soul, so you might not have noticed the death Sunday of David Jolicoeur, aka Trugoy the Dove, aka Plug Two. He was only […]
Celebrate Mardi Gras With Shamarr Allen & The Underdawgs!
One of N’Awlins’ greatest party bands will get you out of your seats and onto the dance floor this Saturday, Feb. 18 at the Arden Gild Hall. Why, you may ask, are Shamarr Allen & The Underdawgs escaping the Crescent City during Mardi Gras Week? The answer is that, when they remain in N’Awlins, they […]
Song of the Day 2/14: The Troggs, “Love Is All Around”
The Troggs didn’t quite fit into the second wave of the British Invasion. Their version of Chip Taylor’s “Wild Thing” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966, but the band never invaded — they didn’t tour the US until 1968. “Wild Thing” was made even more famous in 1967, when Jimi Hendrix […]
Song of the Day 2/13: Maureen McGovern, “The Morning After”
Apparently I missed an exciting football game that ended badly for the Eagles on a questionable call by an official. At times like this it pays to remember the immortal words of former Cowboys running back Duane Thomas. Asked how it felt to be playing in the ultimate game, he responded, “If it’s the ultimate […]
Song of the Day 2/12: Steve Miller Band, “Fly Like an Eagle”
What else did you expect? I already used the Eagles fight song before the NFC title game, so today’s tune is the one chosen as the best-ever song about birds by the readers of Birds & Blooms magazine. You don’t have to be an old head to recognize the version of the song released in […]
Song of the Day 2/10: Kent Nishimura, “25 or 6 to 4”
YouTube has brought some amazing musicians to broader public attention, but I haven’t seen anyone finger-pick a guitar the way this 20-year-old Japanese kid does. Kent Nishimura first came to my attention when I found his version of “Man in the Mirror” a few weeks ago, and I’ve seen several of his other videos since. […]
Song of the Day 2/9: Ronnie Milsap, “Any Day Now”
Burt Bacharach, the preeminent American tunesmith of the mid-20th century, died Wednesday at age 94. Though he’s best remembered as an easy-listening composer for his the songs he wrote with lyricist Hal David and produced with vocalist Dionne Warwick, he collaborated with several other lyricists over the years and scores of singers performed on the […]
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 […]
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