#786: An American Sonnet after the Billie Eilish Concert Film

For a 1:40 showing on a Monday, I sat alone, the only person insidethe neighborhood multiplex, theater #8, to watch the Billie Eilish concert film.No 3D available here, I watched it binocularly, with my own glasses.Even without stereoscopy, I was still movedby the spectacle, the music, the magnitudeof it all, the tears streaming down faces.ThousandsContinue reading “#786: An American Sonnet after the Billie Eilish Concert Film”

#785: L is for The Last Dinner Party

In another alphabetical mishap, bypassing the newer records insidethe browser cubes, I momentarilyforgot about this top-notch all-female English chamber pop rockgroup called The Last Dinner Party, a band so good I almost don’t like them, not because I’m jealous, not because I believe for a secondthe accusation that they’re industryplants (whatever the hell that means),Continue reading “#785: L is for The Last Dinner Party”

#783: L is for Laufey

Lo eh veh. Or Lo eu veh. Or LOI-vay. Not Laffey, please, as many of us likelymispronounced her name once we became aware of this young Icelandicsensation bringing what sounded likestandard vocal jazz to the world of pop. Right next door to k.d. lang in the stacks, a comparison seems appropriate. Whilethe quality of theirContinue reading “#783: L is for Laufey”

#782: L is for lang, k.d.

I found myself in the middle of an MFA creative writing programlistening obsessively to k.d. lang, in particular these three albums, Ingénue, All You Can Eat, and Drag. Even though the first of these threewas released a couple of years earlier, I discovered her in 1995. How I came across this music, I do notContinue reading “#782: L is for lang, k.d.”

#781: K is for The Knack

As popular as The Knack was, as big of a splash as they made with their debutalbum, my understanding is that they, relatively soon after their meteoric rise to rock stardom, got some extreme push-back to lyrics that were pretty much blatantly pedo adjacent. What am I saying? The fact that “My Sharona” was writtenContinue reading “#781: K is for The Knack”

#778: K is for Kiss

I don’t know how I feel about this. There’s really only one album by Kissthat I think I would like to have on vinyl, and it’s not one in the bunch of four that I have here. Somewhere along the lineI stumbled or my wife stumbled upon these used editions of the first three KissalbumsContinue reading “#778: K is for Kiss”

#777: K is for King Crimson (81-03)

It would be seven years between Redand the next album from King Crimson, the cover of which would be red, adorned in the center of the jacketwith a silver Celtic knot, bearing the title Discipline. It was the first King Crimson album I would ever hear, the first King Crimsonrecord I would ever buy, theContinue reading “#777: K is for King Crimson (81-03)”

#776: K is for King Crimson (72-74)

After making five albums with Yes, Bill Bruford, drummer extraordinaire, migrates in 1972 to King Crimson, John Wetton joins on bass guitarand vocals, and a new lyricist showsup, one Richard Palmer-James, the guy who would eventually co-foundthe supergroup Supertramp. On their first outing together, the strangely titled Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, it appears that RobertContinue reading “#776: K is for King Crimson (72-74)”