My Year in Song (2022)

Remember when I didn’t do this back in December but there’s no time like the present to think about the past? January: “Bunny is a Rider,” Caroline Polachek February: “Oye Como Va,” Santana March: “Julien,” Carly Rae Jepsen April: “You’re Gonna Make It,” Dope Saint Jude May: “Company,” from Company June: “The Game of Love,”Continue reading “My Year in Song (2022)”

Inspirations have I none…

All I have is my love of love, and love is not loving. Today my beloved entrée to the land of concept albums, the record whose production quality still bears the standard, the galaxy’s greatest release by a metafictional band, turns 50. Similar to past honorary breakdowns (see here and here), I now break downContinue reading “Inspirations have I none…”

It’s gonna be May!

Or, a multi-purpose song Well, kids, it’s that time of year—the time when we whose formative understanding of music was indelibly shaped by *NSYNC (among other iconic boy bands) quote the central thesis of one of their hits to ring in first truly springlike month in the Northern Hemisphere. And I mean quote it exactly,Continue reading “It’s gonna be May!”

Hang onto your ego…

…but I know that you’re gonna lose the fight! So, remember when I started that podcast about Pet Sounds? Well, in the process of researching for it, I kept coming across articles that mentioned it or had something to do with it. Eventually I made a concerted effort to track down these and more pieces,Continue reading “Hang onto your ego…”

A POD SOUNDS special!

In which we interrupt our regularly scheduled programming This past week on the pod I got my act together (well, the timing was somewhat planned, as we just finished the album portion of season 2) and released an episode I’d recorded back in mid-December. With our first-ever guest. Who isn’t a blood relative! On thisContinue reading “A POD SOUNDS special!”

David Bowie at 75

In which I *am* the young American Happy what would be three-quarters of a century to the one and only Starman. Though the ‘man’ part of that portmanteau, I think, belies his enormous contributions to bringing gender weirdness to the fore of the music industry and mainstream media. Hunky Dory has been on heavy rotationContinue reading “David Bowie at 75”

My Favorite Christmas Songs

Or, FS for CS (if ya know ya know) It’s that time of year when the world outside of my bloodline suddenly cares about Bing Crosby again. Christmas music has a special power; there’s a reason some people don’t reserve it solely for the season (definitely not me though haha). Here are just a fewContinue reading “My Favorite Christmas Songs”

Get back, JoJo!

In which I dig a pony (and a lot of other things) On Saturday, from mid-afternoon to midnight, a friend and I marathoned Peter Jackson’s new three-part documentary The Beatles Get Back. This is supposedly (and I do suppose) the entirety of the footage from which the original Let It Be film was culled. YouContinue reading “Get back, JoJo!”

So Long, Freddie

In which I prolong the goodbye Today marks thirty years since Freddie Mercury, or the former Farrokh Bulsara, left us for a world where everyone’s inner ear finally matches his. He had something like a four-octave range, he could play the piano upside down, and he rocked a fur coat better than he had anyContinue reading “So Long, Freddie”