We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Talk About Geese

I just don’t want to like them. Everybody loves Geese. Everybody loves their new album, Getting Killed. Everybody seems to be falling down stupid-in-love with their singer and principal songwriter, Cameron Winter. Even people whose opinions I trust and whose art I respect or love, St. Vincent and Marc Maron, as examples, are falling overContinue reading “We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Talk About Geese”

#632: B is for Bowie (“Brilliant Adventure,” The Box)

I I could read more, I suppose, to be more learned (“LUR-ned”)on the subject, but sometimesit’s just fun to imagine. Five yearspassed between albums, a totalmystery for a guy who had beenso prolific now for two full decades. He may have just been resting(entirely unlikely, I think). Or doing other stuff. Didn’t the first TinContinue reading “#632: B is for Bowie (“Brilliant Adventure,” The Box)”

#631: B is for Bowie (“Loving the Alien,” The Box)

I It will be forever and a single daybefore I get to the M section of thealphabet, so, even though I won’t write about them, I will from timeto time listen to an album from artistsin other parts of the alphabet. And the only reason I mention thisis because I listened to Magdalena Baythis morning,Continue reading “#631: B is for Bowie (“Loving the Alien,” The Box)”

#630: B is for Bowie (“A New Career in a New Town,” The Box)

I “You’re such a wonderful person, but you got problems.”The second tune on Low, all one minute and 52 secondsof it, contains this gem of a lyric. It’s 1977 and records are beginning to sound reallygood, although people at thetime didn’t think so. Tony Visconti has a newtoy called a Harmonizer andit makes the drumsContinue reading “#630: B is for Bowie (“A New Career in a New Town,” The Box)”

#629: B is for Bowie (“Who Can I Be Now?” The Box)

I didn’t rememberliking Diamond Dogsall that much at the firstlisten, but today it’s freshand weird and good.I’d have to study the lyricspretty carefully to understand the Orwell references beyond the titles, “We Are The Dead,”“1984,” and “Big Brother,” but I’m not going to do that; I rather just letthe record wash behindme as I toolContinue reading “#629: B is for Bowie (“Who Can I Be Now?” The Box)”

#628: B is for Bowie (“Five Years,” The Box)

I “Ground Control to Major Tom,”are likely the first words any of usever heard from David Bowie. Maybe I was five, and for yearsI would hear that distinctive voiceon the radio and knew the hits, but my older siblings, the arbitersof new music into the householdnever brought home a Bowie album. I didn’t start buyingContinue reading “#628: B is for Bowie (“Five Years,” The Box)”

#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”

#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”