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It seems to me that a lot of my posts are like, “This guy never got his due,” or “People talk about her style, but never her voice,” or the like. Like I’m trying to right some wrongs. Remind me about this when I go back into therapy.
Anyways, the Ramones are certainly lauded for all [...]

This is a fact.
I’m telling you: Any rock band, at any time, can bust out with “Gates Of Steel” and drive the crowd absolutely jumpylovey bonkers. Doesn’t matter if anyone’s ever heard it before. It’s just got that anthemic, triumphant sound that makes you lose it in a really really good way.
Devo - Gates Of [...]

This one’s a special dedication to Mrs. Vegetables. We have many “our songs,” but this one’s a classic.
I know that Parliament/Funkadelic gets a lot of props, but still I just don’t think it’s enough. Shouldn’t people be shouting about them from the rooftops every single day? I feel almost the same way about Prince. Don’t [...]

Jimmy Webb’s Wikipedia entry calls Glen Campbell “the finest interpreter of Jimmy Webb songs,” and I would have to say that “interpeter” is the perfect word choice, because who knows what Jimmy Webb is talking about most of the time?
That’s not a slight (at least not in my universe) — I’m about as big a [...]

Greatest song of all time withoat a Scottish doat.
Too many songs about going out and “having a good time” — not enough songs about the desperation and waste. Aidan Moffat spells it out perfectly here.
Arab Strap - The Shy Retirer from Monday At The Hug And Pint (insound / amazon CD / itunes)

You know you’ve made it as a band when you take over a word. Newscasters around the country can’t refer to “an unidentified slayer” without thousands of people in their living rooms throwing up devil horns and yelling “SLAYERRRR!!!”
When South Of Heaven came out, many of us were astonished at just how slow it was. [...]

This is one of those songs where you know right away by the artists and title whether or not you’ll love it.
You’ll love it!
Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty - You’re The Reason Our Kids Are Ugly
http://www.lorettalynn.com

I haven’t posted a “song that makes me cry” in a while.
This one’s a top-notch weeper. I first heard this song the same way many people my age heard it — by This Mortal Coil with the ungodly good Elizabeth Fraser.
The first time I listened to the Tim Buckley original, I was expecting it to [...]

Philip “Snakefinger” Lithman occupies a very special place in my heart. When I was an impressionable Bay Area youngster in the mid-80s I saw Snakefinger, The Residents, and the whole Ralph Records roster as living proof that San Francisco nurtured maniacal genius.
Snakefinger frequently collaborated with the Residents (his guitar playing is all over the phenomenal [...]

Come and step in brother’s temple, see what’s happenin’. Gather ’round the fire for the scroll that I deliver. Come into my oven, devils, come and you burn. Chilly and Magilla. Chocolate and vanilla. How could polar bears swing on vines with the gorillas? Please. Deeper than the sea floor traveled by the mantis. What’s [...]