🔷 new playlist 🔷

STRAIGHT ’98

cool blue sounds from an era after hours

Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube

🖤 NEW PLAYLIST 🖤

STRIKE, DEAR MISTRESS: SEXY GOTH 1967-1994

Sensual, sexual, romantic sounds to warm the cold dark

Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube

STARDUST: THE ABSOLUTE BEST OF DAVID BOWIE

Over 110 carefully selected songs spanning his entire career, including every phase and album (plus singles and collaborations), some more than others. Fully updated and patched since it was first posted — now with Spotify and YouTube versions too.

Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube

UNCONTROLLABLE URGES: HORNY PUNK 1969-1983

Sweaty, desperate, down bad tracks that need it all through the night, from in and around the punk explosion

Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube

For a while now I’ve been making playlists exploring certain (mostly nocturnal, mostly sexy) vibes. Each one is 23 tracks and each one is straight fire. I’ve been sharing them with my friends and on Bluesky, but it occurred to me I’ve never done so here. Let me rectify that!

NIGHT YACHT

Yacht rock and yacht rock adjacent music for a moonlit pleasure cruise

Apple Music | Spotify | Youtube

NIGHT YACHT 2

A second soundtrack for romance and glamour at sea after sunset, in the key of yacht rock and its fellow voyagers

Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube

NOW APPROACHING MIDNIGHT: AMERICAN TRIP-HOP

Hazy, smoky, sexy pre-millennium grooves from across hip-hop, r&b, and alternative, all made in the USA

Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube

DOIN’ IT AFTER DARK: DISCO NIGHTS 1972-1981

Select classics from a nocturnal genre, more or less chronologically

Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube

80s SEX BOT POP ROCKS

Mirror-shiny dance/rock/pop with an aggressive strut and a one track mind

Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube

RETURN OF 80s SEX BOT POP ROCKS

More chrome-plated, hot-blooded dance/rock/pop classixxx

Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube

Happy listening! And if you celebrate, Happy Mother’s Day!

Updated and expanded! A 100-song career retrospective, hitting every phase and album (plus select singles and collaborations), some more than others. My pride and joy. Listen on Apple Music!

1. Liza Jane [Davie Jones with the King Bees, single, 1964]
2. You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving [Davy Jones and the Lower Third, single, 1965]
3. I Dig Everything [single, 1966]
4. The London Boys [b-side of “Rubber Band,” 1966]
5. Love You Till Tuesday [David Bowie, 1967]
6. Space Oddity [David Bowie aka Space Oddity, 1969]
7. Memory of a Free Festival
8. The Width of a Circle [The Man Who Sold the World, 1970]
9. The Man Who Sold the World
10. Changes [Hunky Dory, 1971]
11. Oh! You Pretty Things
12. Life on Mars?
13. Queen Bitch
14. Velvet Goldmine [recorded during the Ziggy Stardust sessions, 1971; b-side of UK re-release of “Space Oddity,” 1975]
15. Five Years [The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, 1972]
16. Moonage Daydream
17. Starman
18. Ziggy Stardust
19. Suffragette City
20. Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide
21. All the Young Dudes [Mott the Hoople, All the Young Dudes, 1972]
22. Satellite of Love [Lou Reed,Transformer, 1972]
23. John, I’m Only Dancing (Sax Version) [single, 1973]
24. Watch That Man [Aladdin Sane, 1973]
25. Drive-In Saturday
26. Cracked Actor
27. Panic in Detroit
28. Time
29. The Jean Genie
30. Hang on to Yourself [Live July 3, 1973; released on Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture, 1983]
31. Sorrow [Pin Ups, 1973]
32. Diamond Dogs [Diamond Dogs, 1974]
33. Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise) [edit, iSelect, 2008]
34. Rebel Rebel
35. 1984
36. Young Americans [Young Americans, 1975]
37. Can You Hear Me?
38. Fame
39. Station to Station [Station to Station, 1976]
40. Golden Years
41. TVC15
42. Stay
43. Breaking Glass [Low, 1977]
44. Sound and Vision
45. Always Crashing in the Same Car
46. Be My Wife
47. A New Career in a New Town
48. Subterraneans
49. Sister Midnight [Iggy Pop, The Idiot, 1977]
50. Nightclubbing
51. Lust for Life [Iggy Pop, Lust for Life, 1977]
52. Some Weird Sin
53. Beauty and the Beast [“Heroes”, 1977]
54. Joe the Lion
55. “Heroes”
56. The Secret Life of Arabia
57. D.J. [Lodger, 1979]
58. Look Back in Anger
59. Boys Keep Swinging
60. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) [Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), 1980]
61. Ashes to Ashes
62. Fashion
63. Under Pressure [Queen & David Bowie, single, 1981]
64. Remembering Marie A. [David Bowie in Bertolt Brecht’s Baal, 1982]
65. Cat People (Putting Out Fire) [from Cat People: Original Soundtrack, 1982]
66. Modern Love [Let’s Dance, 1983]
67. China Girl
68. Let’s Dance
69. Loving the Alien [Tonight, 1984]
70. Blue Jean
71. Dancing in the Street [David Bowie & Mick Jagger, 1985]
72. Absolute Beginners [from Absolute Beginners: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 1986]
73. Magic Dance [from Labyrinth, 1986]
74. Beat of Your Drum [Never Let Me Down, 1987]
75. Tin Machine [Tin Machine, Tin Machine, 1989]
76. You Belong in Rock & Roll [Tin Machine, Tin Machine II, 1991]
77. The Wedding [Black Tie White Noise, 1993]
78. Black Tie White Noise [feat. Al B. Sure!]
79. Buddha of Suburbia [The Buddha of Suburbia, 1993]
80. Strangers When We Meet
81. The Motel [Outside, 1995]
82. The Voyeur of Utter Destruction (As Beauty)
83. I’m Deranged
84. Little Wonder [Earthling, 1997]
85. Battle for Britain (The Letter)
86. Dead Man Walking
87. I’m Afraid of Americans (V1) [remixed by Nine Inch Nails, single, 1997]
88. Thursday’s Child [‘hours…’, 1999]
89. The Dreamers
90. Toy (Your Turn to Drive) [Toy, recorded 2000, released 2021]
91. I Would Be Your Slave [Heathen, 2002]
92. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone
93. New Killer Star [Reality, 2003]
94. Never Get Old
95. Province [TV on the Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain, 2006]
96. The Next Day [The Next Day, 2013]
97. Dancing out in Space
98. Blackstar [Blackstar, 2016]
99. Lazarus
100. I Can’t Give Everything Away

(art by Brian Cunningham)

2. Losing My Religion

Impeccable, untouchable, not a note out of place. Despite its acoustic nature it sounds as insistent and relentless to me as something off of …And Justice for All. Once you learn what the song’s about — I had no freaking clue back when it was a hit — it feels like Stipe pounding on your door, begging for help, using Buck as a battering ram.

I wrote about my five favorite R.E.M. songs for the great Luke O’Neil’s newsletter Welcome to Hell World along with tons of other cool writers and such. My relationship with R.E.M. doesn’t go that deep but the stuff I know and like I REALLY know and like, so I hope that’s an interesting perspective.

NB: I would name the core unit at the heart of both Parliament-Funkadelic and the JBs (and their many side projects) as the greatest American band, followed by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and then probably R.E.M. But that’s really neither here nor there.

9. Interview With the Vampire

“Home Is Where You’re Happy” by Charles Manson

“Look, Charlie Manson wrote a couple of beautiful songs. Still, he was Charlie Manson.” Controversial, Daniel Molloy! The conductor of this vampire drama’s titular interview, played by Eric Bogosian, has very little patience for the bloodsucker in question, Louis de Pointe du Lac, and even less for Louis’s psychotic, pubescent protégé, the teenage vampire Claudia. It’s her Molloy compares to Manson, the cult leader who defined the death of the Age of Aquarius … and much to my everlasting surprise, it’s Manson who soundtracks the end of this episode. Molloy is right: Manson could be a talented songwriter in very limited doses, as his buoyant ode to personal freedom, “Home Is Where You’re Happy,” makes clear. It’s just hard to hear that happiness when you recall the fate of Sharon Tate, which is what makes the song a strong choice for the soundtrack of a show about magnetic mass murderers, even when they’re of the supernatural variety.

I wrote about ten of the best uses of popular music on TV this year for Vulture.

‘Sesame Street’

PBS, 1969-Present; HBO, 2016-20; HBO Max, 2020-Present

He wasn’t a big yellow bird or a furry blue monster, but Joe Raposo was as integral to the success of the children’s educational institution Sesame Street as any Muppet. In addition to writing classic Sesame songs like “Bein’ Green,” “Sing,” and “C Is for Cookie” — that’s good enough for me — Raposo composed the jaunty, instantly recognizable theme song that helped lodge the show in the public consciousness. With lyrics by Raposo, Jon Stone, and Bruce Hart, “Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?” conjures up images of smiling kids running down the sidewalk on a sunny day — headed, in the words of Don Draper, to a place where they know they are loved. —S.T.C.

I contributed over a dozen entries to Rolling Stone’s list of the Top 100 TV Theme Songs of All Time, from Game of Thrones to Cheers to Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Go read and argue!

The 1990s albums reissued here, however, tell the story best. After a period in the pop-music wilderness, this is the decade during which Bowie reasserted his role as the godfather of alternative music, in pretty much any form it took. (The missing link between this box set and its 1980s equivalent Loving the Alien are the two records he recorded with his unjustly reviled rock band Tin Machine; I’ll just say “Justice for ‘You Belong in Rock n’ Roll’” and leave it at that.) Accusations of trend-hopping dogged Bowie at the time, for reasons that now feel increasingly silly—who wouldn’t want to hear him take a stab at industrial or jungle? This is the kind of genre play that paid dividends with his avant-jazz inflected swan song Blackstar, two decades later.

I reviewed the new David Bowie box set Brilliant Adventure—which features all his 1990s albums, including Black Tie White Noise, Buddha of Suburbia, 1. Outside, Earthling, ‘hours…,’ and the previously unreleased Toy—for Pitchfork.

The fourth and final installment of the Zeptember podcast series on Led Zeppelin from me and Matthew Perpetua is out! This one’s a Q&A episode. Go subscribe and enjoy!

Matthew Perpetua and I continue our discussion of Led Zeppelin with a look at their albums IV, Houses of the Holy, and Physical Graffiti in the latest episode of ZEPTEMBER, now available through Matthew’s Patreon. Go subscribe!

I’m joining my pal Matthew Perpetua for a four-part podcast series on the work of Led Zeppelin, starting with the opening installment on Zeppelin I, II, and III. Go subscribe to his patreon so you can listen!

I’m back on Matthew Perpetua’s Fluxcast, discussing music of all kinds. It’s a fun ramble between two pals. I hope you enjoy it!

Two of Vol. 4’s ten tracks have found enduring second lives as storied covers by other acts. The rollicking, science-fictional “Supernaut”—like an inverse “Iron Man,” it’s about a voyager through space and time who’s actually enjoying the trip—received a thrashing industrial makeover at the hands of a dubiously named Ministry side project dubbed 1,000 Homo DJs by Jim Nash, the (gay) head of their record label WaxTrax!. (Hold out for the version with vocals by Trent Reznor, which wound up suppressed by his old record label for years.) On the other end of the sonic spectrum, the moving piano ballad “Changes” was converted into a gut-wrenching soul scorcher by singer Charles Bradley, who transmuted its lyrics about a dissolved romantic relationship into a lament for his late mother. Blessed with one of Iommi’s wickedest riffs and Osbourne’s most vulnerable vocal performances, respectively, the original versions of both songs can stand next to these excellent reinterpretations without being eclipsed; Ward’s carnival-like percussion breakdown in “Supernaut” in particular feels like finding a prize in the song’s otherwise thunderous Cracker Jack box.

I reviewed Black Sabbath Vol. 4 for Pitchfork.

The annual holiday tradition returns: I wrote about ten of the year’s best TV music cues for Vulture.

I’m back on Matthew Perpetua’s Fluxpod in a free-ranging discussion about rock’n’roll, covering Tears for Fears, Human League, Aerosmith, Guns n’ Roses, Nirvana, Lenny Kravitz and more. It’s a Patreon-exclusive episode, so go and subscribe already!

I’m the guest on the latest episode of Matthew Perpetua’s Fluxpod podcast, talking about industrial music! Specifically we’re talking about this industrial music playlist we curated together. Enjoy!

The fifth and sixth volumes of Ghosts (subtitled Together and Locusts respectively) return to the atmospheric terrain now familiar from Reznor and Ross’ soundtrack work: buzzy ambience, simple melodic hooks, an emotional palette that vacillates between peace and dread. But rather than soundtracking an on-screen drama, they arise from the very real COVID-19 pandemic and its society-wide remedy, social distancing. The musicians say that the current crisis was the reason they completed the two records in the first place, “as a means of staying somewhat sane.” As such, Ghosts V-VI—released for free less than two months after the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency—are very likely the first major albums to have been inspired by the coronavirus crisis.

I reviewed the two new, free Nine Inch Nails albums Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts for Pitchfork.

The horror-movie atmospherics of Quake are the closest reference point for Watchmen’s first and strongest track, “How the West Was Really Won.” The show’s unofficial theme music—it recurs repeatedly in the series’ most frightful moments, including the ripped-from-the-comic image of a gigantic alien squid in the ruins of Manhattan—it’s the sound of Reznor and Ross going full John Carpenter, with a simple synth hook that seems to swallow up more of the world around you with each repetition. Its melodic structure recurs throughout the score, in the gently acoustic “Watch Over This Boy” at the end of Volume 1, the jazz throwback “Nostalgia Blues” on Volume 2 (co-written and performed by John Beasley), and the major-key weightlessness of “The Waiting Sky” on Volume 3. The original song is resilient enough to mutate in this way, showing off the duo’s skill with leitmotif as well as their considerable range. It’s the theme music Nine Inch Nails fans have been waiting for them to deliver.

I reviewed Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross’s excellent three-volume Watchmen score for Pitchfork.