Other recent writings
This March 25th Number Ones column on Lunchmoney Lewis’s ‘Bills’ (Lewis is the son of the one in Inner Circle who wrote ‘Bad Boys’ and ‘Sweat (A La La La Long)’, and the song reminds me a bit of Cee-Lo’s novelty pop soul. If Australia’s recent track record as the canary in the coalmine for future US hits is any indication, America will hear more of this one.
My March Music Reader column, linking to lots of writing on Courtney Barnett, some writing about the recent ‘Blurred Lines’/Marvin Gaye’s estate stuff, Tom Ewing on Britney, people who are still fans of Gary Glitter, Michelangelo Matos on Aphex Twin, a tribute to the great Lesley Gore, Stephen Thomas Erlewine on the first flowering of rock retromania, and the forgetting of hip-hop.
My March Science Reader column, featuring stuff on the cancer treatment lies of Jess Ainscough, #thatdress, the role of junk DNA, science’s struggle to define emotions, why left-brain right-brain stuff is garbage, what foreskin does, and the amazing ability of astronomers to see supernova reruns.
This February 26th Number Ones column on Ellie Goulding’s ‘Love Me Like You Do’, a song from the soundtrack of 50 Shades Of Grey. I argue that the song is meant to parallel the audience’s reaction to what is apparently at least intended to be a sweet love story (and that it is really a bit too ‘song written to a brief’ even for Max Martin).
My February Music Reader column, featuring Johann Hari on the politically-motivated hounding of Billie Holiday, Anwen Crawford on the whole Beck v. Beyonce thing, Jon Ronson on the legend of the never-was-a-soul-singer Mingering Mike, an interview with Noel Gallagher that actually goes beyond the quote-a-minute schtick, Jessica Hopper interviewing Bjork, oral histories of Laurel Canyon singersongwriter stuff and shoegaze, and Marcello Carlin tearing Wet Wet Wet a new one.
My February Science Reader column, featuring stuff on hypersomnia (the opposite of insomnia), the sad tale of JFK’s sister Rosemary, Aboriginal memories of the end of the last Ice Age, a piece with the amazing title “Barns Are Painted Red Because Of The Physics Of Dying Stars”, a piece on why people doubt science, how optical illusions work, the increasingly likely spectre of using geoengineering to solve climate change, why we are terrible at keeping our facts straight when we tell our stories, and why people who say Putin has Asperger’s don’t really know what they’re talking about.
And I continue to do a daily column for Max TV’s website called On This Day, which discusses something or other from music history every day. The content falls away into the ether unless the Wayback Machine archives it. What’s there today, as I look at the website: a thing about ACDC in 1980 - 35 years ago today - deciding on Brian Johnson as the new lead singer to replace Bon Scott.
Phew.