I watched one season of American Idol a few years back out of a combination of boredom and morbid curiosity. It was everything I had imagined and less, a welcome-to-the-Fall-of-Rome extravaganza where everything wrong with popular music, if not American popular culture in general, was frog-marched past the cameras in a weekly parade of cynicism and banality that would have
Read moreOriginally published June 20, 2004. Updated February 14, 2011. For some time – a few years, to be honest – I’ve been trying to imagine how some artists get better with age (or at least retain the level of energy and creativity they exhibited when they were younger), while others go completely to hell. Peter Gabriel, Graham Parker, Van Morrison,
Read moreGods, this is feckin’ brilliant. In fact, it’s so good I could have sworn I heard three cellos at one point. NOTE: No children were molested during the recording of this song…
Read moreThings fall apart, but the band plays on. There have been a lot of years where the competition for CD of the Year was hotly contested, but I’ve always been able to make a call in the end. I think I probably got it wrong a couple of times (like in 1999 – as great as Godspeed You Black Emperor’s
Read morePreviously: Part 1: The Gold LPs Part 2: The Platinum LPs Things fall apart, but the band plays on. There have been a lot of years where the competition for CD of the Year was hotly contested, but I’ve always been able to make a call in the end. I think I probably got it wrong a couple of times
Read moreYesterday S&R revealed its Best of 2010 Platinum LPs. Since, as a famous man once said, “you can’t get the sound from a story in a magazine aimed at your average teen,” today we’re going to offer you some sounds. And sights. Click. Enjoy. And if you like what you hear click back over to yesterday’s post where we have
Read morePreviously: part 1: The Gold LPs Welcome back to the S&R/Lullaby Pit Best CDs of 2010. This week, part two: the Platinum LPs. Brief format note: The CD title will link to the AllMusic Guide or eMusic (where you can sample and click to buy, if you like it), followed by a brief comment or two by me. The Platinum
Read moreWelcome to the annual Scholars & Rogues/Lullaby Pit Best CDs of the Year. I should be tired of saying this by now, but for the sake of tradition: it was a good year for music. An odd year, perhaps, but a good one. Rather than blather on setting the stage, let’s get right to it. This is the first post
Read moreIn a recent discussion on one of my political lists Sara Robinson (easily one of the brightest folks in the blogosphere) made an important point about what often causes people to migrate from socially conservative perspectives to more progressive points of view. In describing her experiences with a particular activist group that helped people leaving fundamentalist religions (something that can
Read moreIt’s been a tough week in the Famous Death Department. First we lost Dandy Don Meredith, whose work with Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford in the Monday Night Football booth was one of the most important factors in the explosion of the NFL’s popularity over the past several decades. Then Elizabeth Edwards left us the other day. I try to
Read moreFreddie Mercury died 19 years ago today. If you’re a Baby Boomer you probably remember how you felt when John Lennon died. Freddie was my John Lennon. I finally wrote something about his death a few years later. In truth, it’s not a very good poem at all, but I kept it around and treated it with reverence because it
Read moreThose of us from the Carolinas know that the term “Beach Music” has nothing to do with The Beach Boys. Instead, it’s an amalgam of old dance R&B (The Drifters, The Tams, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, plus some Sam Cooke and a host of Motown artists) and “similar” music produced by contemporary artists such as The Embers, The Catalinas,
Read moreToday would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday. In his honor, S&R is hosting a monster mashup party. Let’s get it started in here. Item 1: Guns? Screw guns. What we need is a mandatory five-day waiting period for the purchase of any audio or video editing software. Then again, happiness is a warm gun, they say. Although this is
Read moreThe other night I’m settling back to watch the game and out comes Kelly Rowland to sing the national anthem. And to nobody’s surprise, we’re treated to … the obligatory butchering of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Such is the mode of pop music these days – it isn’t acceptable, where a G appears in the sheet music, to sing a G.
Read moreGit yer ya-yas out, folks. We’re on a mission from God.
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