Category: Music
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18 August Adds
It’s mid-August, and I’m back with another unsolicited listening report. All of these songs are highlights from my annual, evolving mega-playlist. No genre constraints, no “newness” mandate, no rankings, no funny business. It’s just the shit I like right now. But because I have no self-discipline, it’s only August, and it’s already a nine-hour mess.…
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The Green Day Answer
These days, when people ask me who my favorite band is, I always say the same thing: “Do you want the cool answer, or the Green Day answer? “Because it’s Green Day.” It’s true. It’s partly a Bay Area pop-punk localistic loyalism, sure. It’s largely nostalgic. Mike Dirnt and I share a birthday. Counting in…
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Left Ogres: Anatomy of a Shrek Song
An Expedition Through the Cultural Swamp in Search of Happily Ever After Cinematic Swamp Sounds This shouldn’t surprise you, but Shrek, based on the 1990 children’s book by William Steig, is the second highest grossing animated film franchise of all time. From the movies themselves, to the decades-long avalanche of schlocky merchandise, to its horrendous…
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22 June Tunes
It’s mid-June, and I’m back with a mid-year listening report. All of these songs are highlights from my annual, evolving mega-playlist. No genre constraints, no “newness” mandate, no rankings, no funny business. It’s just the shit I like, in chronological addition date order. But because I have no self-discipline, it’s only June, and it’s already…
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She Bought It
Why I love Survivor (Destiny’s Child, 2001) What happens when you take the classic “dramatic musical girl group” concept, isolate its very essence, supersaturate the batter with Chemical X, and turn every knob on the machine up to maximum? Does it spiral hopelessly out of control, or does it manage to produce a musical Powerpuff…
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“If I Am A Dog, The Party Is On”
Revisiting Baha Men’s Who Let The Dogs Out Recently I’ve been all about the “Dollar CDs” shoebox at a certain record store in Monterey. Maybe someday I’ll buy an actual record from those guys. But in the meantime, here’s a score from said shoebox: Surprise—it’s Baha Men, the holy prophets of the 2001 Grammy Awards…
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“It’s 2003, And Where Do You Wanna Be?”
Revisiting Smash Mouth’s Get The Picture? OK. I found this CD at the bottom of a drawer in my childhood bedroom on a visit to my parents’ house one weekend. You have to understand, I listened to this album a lot when it dropped. I was in second or third grade, and I was at…
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Censured Centrist Selections: 2021 in Tunes
Introduction New Year, Still Winter 2021 shuffled in unceremoniously, wisely keeping its annual head down to avoid all those inevitable comparisons to the last fucker who careened through here. Like everyone else damned and lucky enough to cast out a fate on the face of this rock, I was both physically and spiritually frigid when…
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Recent Spins and Paper Scraps: 1/17/22
Happy MLK Day. I still am constantly learning and I hope you are too. James Goodman, Stories of Scottsboro (Vintage 1994) Daniel Widener, Black Arts West: Culture and Struggle in Postwar Los Angeles (Duke University 2010) Stephen Duncombe & Maxwell Tremblay, White Riot: Punk Rock and the Politics of Race (Verso 2011) No less than…
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