One for Friday: They Eat Their Own, “Like a Drug”

At 90FM, certain songs were marked with a little red dot. There were other colored dots used to designate songs that had grown especially popular, either on commercial radio or our own airwaves, but the red dots were the important ones. They signaled to the DJ that there was some word in the song’s lyrics that the average listener or, more importantly, the FCC might find objectionable if we played it. There was all sorts of content that might get a song flagged that way, although, realistically, the red dot usually meant little more than the presence of the word … Continue reading One for Friday: They Eat Their Own, “Like a Drug”

Top 40 Smash Taps: “Watch Out For Lucy”

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. This may seem an odd statement, but Eric Clapton was so firmly entrenched as a full-fledged rock ‘n’ roll legend by the time I started paying attention that I found it easy to forget how successful he was on the Billboard charts. This is partially because I rarely think of straight-ahead rock songs as having a significant place on the Top 40 chart. … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Watch Out For Lucy”

Arteta, Bergman, Howard, Newman, van Heijningen

Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972). This intricate, cerebral, elusive drama from the acknowledged master of intricate, cerebral, elusive dramas takes place at stately mansion at the end of the 19th century. A woman named Agnes, played by Harriet Andersson, is on her deathbed and is seen to by her two sisters, both returned home due to their sibling’s terrible need, and the loving household maid. Each character gets their own individual segment, usually devoted to a flashback to some terrible emotional incident in the past, Bergman scraping at their existential agony like a merciless physician slicing at a poisonous … Continue reading Arteta, Bergman, Howard, Newman, van Heijningen

Spectrum Check

The first thing of mine that went up on Spectrum Culture this week was an attempt to write on a new music release that was outside of my normal wheelhouse. Punk music speaks to the inner part of me that still craves the opportunity to descend into a basement somewhere and turn the stereo playing the angriest music I can find with the volume turned up as loud as it will go. Another challenge: the whole EP is less than ten minutes long. Writing a full-length review about something like that is a challenge. I think I did all right. … Continue reading Spectrum Check

One for Friday: Thelonious Monster, “Lena Horne Sings Stormy Weather”

I’ve haven’t meticulously combed through all the One for Friday entries meticulously to verify this assertion, but I believe today’s song represents the first time I’m featuring a track from someone who utilized his skills as a drug counselor to help out Drew Pinsky on Celebrity Rehab. Apparently, Bob Forrest, the chief songwriter and frontman for the band Thelonious Monster, went on to a career in drug counseling, even as he occasionally kept his various musical outfits going enough to put out the occasional album and play one-off gigs. Not only is that totally unexpected, I never even would have … Continue reading One for Friday: Thelonious Monster, “Lena Horne Sings Stormy Weather”