It makes me happy that, even for just one thing, Jon Stewart, Janeane Garofalo, Chris Kattan, and Denis Leary worked together. I doubt Jon brought in the other three, but he always has this remarkable ability to work in the orbit of other comedians that mesh well. That’s part of what made The Daily Show as important a showcase for the next generation of comedy superstars as SNL or The Dana Carvey Show. (Oh yeah, the song. Annoyingly catchy, still not sure what “flow like a harpoon” or “rhymes like a chemical spill mean,” at least they sound better than when he actually for real compares himself to a Nazi on “Play That Funky Music”).
A few weeks ago, a singer named Hayko, who represented Armenia at Eurovision, passed away way too young because of Covid. In the YouTube comments section for his entry, among the flood of tributes to him, one message came from an Azerbaijani YouTuber. He said that he loved the song and believed it was common courtesy that when one of the beloved people of your supposed enemy passed away, you should extend condolences. It was the first time I’ve EVER seen an Azerbaijani express any kind of sympathy toward an Armenian (I’ve seen it a couple of times the other way around) and it became a whole thread of Armenians thanking him and wishing for peace someday. All this is to say: things like this can help restore your faith in people sometimes. Nothing but sympathy to the people of Armenia. Peace will come someday.
First person I’ve ever seen put quotation marks around the Al instead of the Weird (full disclosure: it’s “Weird Al” Yankovic if you’re saying his full name, Weird Al with no quotation marks if you aren’t), but as a sentiment I agree
Sounds incredibly dope. My only hope is they have her do Catherine O’Hara’s other role so we can see her, Weird Al, and Danny Ellman sing Kidnap the Santy Claus
I’ve never read “_____ will not appear in this column again” with so much spite before. In most cases, this is just a statement of fact, but ending it on that sentence is like throwing her out of a club.
That is some seriously cool shit. I’ve always been impressed at how Maori and Polynesian languages and traditions (like the haka) have been incorporated as regular, celebrated parts of New Zealand society. Certainly, from my moronic Westerner perspective, they’re a lot better on cultural integration with native peoples than Australia has ever been (granted, there’s probably a lot of history that says otherwise, but I’m just going on what I know from the recent past). Good for Lorde.
This is a fantastic article. I still would rather eat hot pokers than listen to the album, but like the myriad of great books about terrible films and whatnot, I can at least appreciate this on its own.
I'm not dealing with any more bullshit about him being "misunderstood" and a "tortured genius" or whatever. If you feature someone like Marilyn Manson on your album, knowing full well what he did (not even allegedly, fuck that, we all know he did every single horrible thing he's been accused of), what you're saying is that the feelings of sexual and physical assault survivors mean absolutely nothing to you. You care more about making some kind of bullshit point about "cAnCeL cUlTuRe" than you do about listening to people and understanding your words and actions have consequences. Kanye started out making himself out to be the underdog who made good. Now all he cares about is making other people feel small. I don't know how you can support someone who gets off on that. If you forgive him all of this for this bloated wankfest of an album, to quote John Mulaney: "You have the backbone of a chocolate eclair." There are so many non-pieces of shit who make better music and don't have a tenth of the acolytes that hang on Kanye's every inane word. He doesn't deserve the attention, he doesn't deserve whatever praise he's getting now, and most of all, he doesn't deserve even a tiny shred of respect.
Fuck him for deliberately featuring pieces of shit like MM and DaBaby on this. This could be the next Highway 61. I don’t give a fuck. He’s pretty deliberately flipping off the people who were very hurt by both those men, and for that, he can go scratch.
Holy fuck. I know you said before that "The Ballad of the Green Berets" was your least-favorite number-one, but the venom you inflicted on that one was like a slow lethal injection compared to the way you've basically beaten "We Didn't Start the Fire" and "Don't Worry, Be Happy" to a pulp with a sledgehammer. I don't hate this song. Wouldn't even call it my least-favorite Billy Joel song 'cuz at least it has energy. His schmaltzy stuff ticks me off way more ("Honesty" is his contribution to what I call "CVS Rock," the same way a song like "Human" or "I Can Dream About You" is - vaguely annoying oldies only suited to soundtrack trips to pick up medication). I will also defend Storm Front for having two strong contenders for Billy's best song, "The Downeaster 'Alexa'" and my very favorite of his, "And So It Goes." The first time I saw Billy Joel live (yes, I've seen him live multiple times. I'm a Jewish Manhattanite, of course I did), he brought out Itzhak Perlman to do "Alexa" and "And So It Goes," and I was in heaven. By utter coincidence, when I saw him a second time, Perlman was the special guest again, except while they did "Alexa" again, they switched out "And So It Goes" for "We Didn't Start the Fire." THAT time, I might've hated it a teeny tiny bit.
Look, maybe I get defensive of Billy Joel because he's soundtracked a lot of my life and I love most of his songs dearly (also, what failed experiment? Billy Joel in Oliver & Company led to "Why Should I Worry," that song slaps). But obviously he isn't for everyone, and I can't even muster up that much of a defense for "We Didn't Start the Fire." I don't loathe it, but lord knows I have very few fond memories of it.
I remember hearing the story as Mick going “Ah, there’s my drummer!” PUNCH “Im not your fucking drummer. You’re MY fucking lead singer!” Ah, the great apocryphal rock stories. But as a drummer, I’ll always idolize Charlie Watts. What a legend.
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