Alby's Latest Posts
DL Open Thread Monday, April 8, 2024
Klaatu barada nikto, motherfuckers. Welcome to the Day the News Stood Still. Whatever else is happening in the country has taken a back seat to this afternoon’s total eclipse. In Delaware, 80-90% of the sun’s disc will be obscured, matching the amount of other news being overlooked because of the event. One story squeaked through: […]
Song of the Day 4/7: Len, “Steal My Sunshine”
Showing you can make up doomsday theories about anything, TikTokers and other assorted nuts – looking at you, Alex Jones – have concocted a witches’ brew of crackpot claims about “elites” conducting “Masonic rituals” when the sun disappears. Oooh, sounds scary, kids! Len is a Canadian brother and sister who record with various guest artists. […]
Song of the Day 4/6: Bill Haley and His Comets, “Shake, Rattle and Roll”
The battle outside is ragin’, but that’s not what shook your windows and rattled your walls yesterday. It was a 4.8-magnitude earthquake centered in northern New Jersey. It came just six and a half years after the big Dover shaker of 2017, clear evidence that we’re living in the end times. Though 1955 is often […]
Song of the Day 4/5: MGMT, “Kids”
Are the misogynistic people behind the forced-birth movement really so oblivious to popular opinion that they think they can put the birth-control toothpaste back in the tube? Do they really think their irresponsible moron-bro base will be in favor of impregnating the women they use sexually? Apparently so. If history is any guide, those new […]
Song of the Day 4/4: Eurythmics, “Here Comes the Rain Again”
H/t KentCoCat, who alerted me with how many days of heavy rainfall Delaware has gotten since the weather was supposed to turn cold – according to this article, triple the historical average. Apparently El Nino is to blame. Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox wrote this song, a No. 4 hit on the Hot 100, on […]
Song of the Day 4/3: Wilco, “War on War”
If we can have Peacekeeper missiles, why can’t we have a war on war? One would come in handy about now. From Wilco’s album “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” posted online by the band in 2001 when their record company refused to release it. After changing companies, the official release the next year earned rave reviews and […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Just when you thought that Israel couldn’t sink any lower, they drone-bombed a World Central Kitchen vehicle, killing seven people working to bring food to famine-stricken Gaza – despite having cleared the trip with Israel’s defense department ahead of time. Which demonstrates that this regime isn’t just evil, it’s also incompetent. RFK Jr. tried to […]
Song of the Day 4/2: Al Wilson, “Show and Tell”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona Everybody knew Johnny Mathis could sing. His satiny voice sold a lot of records. But he didn’t exactly swing and his voice didn’t have that earthy soul-man thing. So his recording of a song called “Show and Tell” never got farther than the lower regions of the easy listening charts […]
Song of the Day 4/1: Aretha Franklin, “Chain of Fools”
Written by Don Covay, a singer and songwriter who got his start working for Little Richard – as both his chauffeur and his opening act – when Atlantic Records head Jerry Wexler asked him for a song for Otis Redding. Covay dusted off something he had written back when he was singing gospel in his […]
Song of the Day 3/31: Ralph McTell, “The Streets of London”
No song about London has been recorded more often than “The Streets of London” – there reportedly have been more than 200 covers over the years. Ralph McTell wrote it years before his first album came out in 1968, but he thought it too depressing to include on his debut LP. It appeared the next […]
Song of the Day 3/30: The Clash, “London Calling”
In our apocalyptic age it’s hard to remember that the media has always peddled stories of impending doom. When Joe Strummer wrote this song in 1979, he recalled later, “I read about 10 news reports in one day calling down all variety of plagues on us,” including both an impending ice age and the sun […]
Song of the Day 3/29: Paul Melançon, “Jeff Lynne”
Sometimes a song intended as homage nails it so well it’s hard to tell it from the original. That’s the case with “Jeff Lynne,” indie pop-rocker Paul Melançon’s tribute to the Electric Light Orchestra frontman and songwriter. Melançon said the first record he ever bought was ELO’s “Out of the Blue,” and he certainly learned […]
Song of the Day 3/28: World Party, “Sweet Soul Dream”
Karl Wallinger, the multi-instrumentalist best known as the leader, and frequently the only member, of World Party, died at his home in England two weeks ago of a stroke. He was 66. Wallinger first gained attention in 1983 when he joined the Waterboys, where his keyboards set the mood of that band’s biggest hit, “The […]
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