With the department secretary switching over to the all-Christmas-songs station, and Jason Hare and Jeff Giles celebrating holiday tunes that bring the suck, it seems like a good time to re-ask the eternal question: Are there Christmas songs that can hold their own against “Fairytale of New York”? Or, more to the point, name me… Continue reading Annual Request: Christmas Songs That Don’t Suck
Category: Music
Death of the Hit Parade?
I’ve been thinking off and on all day about the Jon Sobel post I mentioned in the previous post. I think he’s got a point, but something about it strikes me as slightly off. To get this out of my system, I’m going to babble about it a bit here, and see if anything coherent… Continue reading Death of the Hit Parade?
Year’s Best Music: Candidates
Following on yesterday’s post about books, I started thinking about the best pop music for the year. Since getting iTunes, I’ve been able to do this quasi-scientifically, by putting together playlists of the top-rated songs for the year, which provides an easy guide to what I liked best. My first impression, thinking back, was that… Continue reading Year’s Best Music: Candidates
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Kate and I went to see Bruce Springsteen last night in Albany. The show was listed as starting at 7:30, but it was 8:25 before the band took the stage. At about 9:30, they were playing “Devil’s Arcade,” one of the slower and more political songs off the new record, which gave me time to… Continue reading Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
New Songs from Old Singers
Having done a giant weighty physics post, I feel like I should post something more frivolous, so here’s something about music… I recently purchased a bunch of stuff from iTunes (yeah, yeah, Amazon has DRM-free MP3’s, blah blah, blah. 1) I had a gift card, and 2) I’m not Cory Doctorow), and there was a… Continue reading New Songs from Old Singers
Kids Those Days
One of the odd things about blogdom, and the commentariat in general, is the way that people will all seem to latch on to some particular idea at about the same time, despite the lack of any obvious connection between them. I keep having days when I scan through my RSS feeds, and find the… Continue reading Kids Those Days
Many Worlds, Many Blinking Lights
In the “You Learn Something New Every Day” file, I was double-checking some dates for the Many Worlds chapter, when I ran across the following at the end of the Wikipedia page for Hugh Everett III: Everett’s son, Mark Oliver Everett, is also known as “E”, the lead singer and songwriter for the band Eels.… Continue reading Many Worlds, Many Blinking Lights
Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, and Amos Lee
The title sounds like the opening to a really odd joke, but in fact it was the concert bill last night in Albany. Bob Dylan is touring as always, and Elvis Costello is along doing a solo set, with Amos Lee opening for both. Kate and I went to the show, and it was… unusual.… Continue reading Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, and Amos Lee
Disappointed by Pop Music
I picked up three new albums from iTunes last weekend (yes, I know, you can buy DRM-free MP3’s from Amazon now, but I have some iTunes credit to use up, and I haven’t steeled myself to download and install the necessary application yet, which I just know is going to irritate me). The three were:… Continue reading Disappointed by Pop Music
Occasional Random Pop Songs Post
I had a 9pm intramural hoops game last night (the other team didn’t show, so we won by forfeit, but it still pushed bedtime back a bit), and I have an 8am meeting today, not to mention the beginning of a nasty head cold that is turning my brain to cotton wool. Sounds like a… Continue reading Occasional Random Pop Songs Post