Tag Archives: music

#627: B is for The Boomtown Rats

It is difficultto put into wordswhat The Boomtown Ratsmeant to me as an aspiringpunk rocker and 16 year-old.Attracted mostly to music from across the bigpond, XTC, Elvis Costello, and these guys, these guysespecially, gave voice to every creative vibration pulsating through my little brain. Bob Geldof, that gangly, Irish punk, with his imprecise, manic, snarlingContinue reading “#627: B is for The Boomtown Rats”

#626: B is for Blood, Sweat & Tears

It’s 1968. Hey, I know, let’sopen up a rock recordwith Eric Satie and follow that with somewild, short, orchestral Satie variation thing, and then we’ll play the funk rock real hard with horns and organs and lyrics about gettingyourself togetherand then we’ll swingharder than any jazzband and the drummerwill just kind of go crazythrough theContinue reading “#626: B is for Blood, Sweat & Tears”

#623: B is for Black Midi

I heard Black Midithe first time in the video for “John L,” a.k.a.“John 50,” which must have been the first single from the 2021 Cavalcade album, the band’s sophomoreeffort. Visually insane, a group of dancers in nude-beige body suits, in clown-like white face, wearing wigs, cavortingand contorting wildly around some obelisk figure with armsand a single eyeball. Musically, it was like a marriage between King Crimson and Primus, but weirder, noisier, aContinue reading “#623: B is for Black Midi”

#620: B is for Bird, Andrew

I He’s a whistler. He does the whistlingfor Walter, the muppet, in one of the Muppet movies.More than a decadeago (maybe two!) an intern of mine turned me on to Bird.Back in the oughts of this 21st century, I usedto purchase records for download, before streamingwas a thing. For a shorttime I subscribed to aContinue reading “#620: B is for Bird, Andrew”

#615: B is for Belle and Sebastian

I I had never consideredthe origin of the band’s name. I googled that. Now I know it comes from a French children’s book about a boy and his dog. I wonder if Belle is the dogor Sebastian is the dog, and the reason for my hesitationis the surprising placementof the names in the title. Wouldn’tContinue reading “#615: B is for Belle and Sebastian”

#608: B is for The Beatles

I I couldn’t have beenmore than five or sixyears old, sitting on the floor of my sister’s bedroomin front of her portable suitcase record player spinning Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Bandover and over. Too youngto understand the magnitudeof their success or brilliance, and too young to be susceptible to whatever commercial influences mighthave beenContinue reading “#608: B is for The Beatles”

#603: A is for Aurora

It’s Halloweenand next up in this October listeningritual is oneof the least frighteningfamous human beingson the planet.But she is kind of other-worldly, sprite-like, impish, adorable, and monstrously talented. Watching her interviewsand clips of her stage banterhas become a favorite pastime. She’s funny, personable, almost awkwardly honest, a kind of personality that is winning, irresistible.It happens,Continue reading “#603: A is for Aurora”

#602: A is for Asia

Get a bunch of superstarprog-rockers togetherin the early 80’s and watch them writehit pop songs. “The heatof the moment showedin your eyes” is objectively a dumb lyric. Does thischorus speed up? I think I inherited this album from my brother’s discardedrecord collection, but it’s got a price tag on it: 95 cents,and I can’t imagineContinue reading “#602: A is for Asia”

#597: A is for Angel

Let’s say you’re a youngmusician in the early 70’s with big rock star ambition. First, you need a schtick, a look, something glammy, something preposterous. Yeah, Cooper did the make-upthing, but you could go bigger, and you watch as some fellow musicians from neighboring New York Citygo the whole hogon the face-paint, so yougots toContinue reading “#597: A is for Angel”