Sometimes I feel like these Random Weekends are part of a stealth marketing campaign by music studios that have tapped into my iTunes account.
Shelby Lynne pops up today, with a track from her 2005 album Suit Yourself, and it prompts me to see what she’s been up to recently. Lo and behold, she has a new, self-titled, album that dropped less than a month ago. So I listened to a couple of tracks from that record, a release I would have known nothing about if not for the Random iTunes Fairy.
Happy Mother’s Day to my wonderful mom, who I haven’t had a chance to hug in a couple of months now. I hope that changes soon.
And Happy Mother’s Day to my lovely wife, who along with our two daughters has made this extended quarantine something special. I’m going to look back on this time fondly, especially when my older daughter leaves for college (coronavirus willing) later this year and we miss the chance to see her all day every day.
Fernando Meirelles’ City of God was my #1 film of 2003 and my #4 film of the 2000s. It’s a vibrant, violent immersion into Brazil’s lawless favelas, and one of the most exhilarating films I’ve ever seen.
I haven’t watched it in full for close to a decade, I’d guess, but hearing this track from the movie’s soundtrack has me wanting to revisit it. The movie it is compared to the most is Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, and it shares that film’s dark humor and rewatchability.
Every so often the Random iTunes Fairy serves up a Michael Penn song and gives me an excuse to dip my toe into his five albums, the last of which was released 15 years ago, and bemoan the fact that he stopped recording pop songs in favor of work on TV and movie soundtracks.
‘Cupid’s Got a Brand New Gun’ is one of my favorite tracks from Penn’s debut album, 1989’s March. That album included the almost-top ten hit ‘No Myth’ (it reached #13 on Billboard’s Hot 100, though it did climb all the way to #4 on the Modern Rock chart) and it proved to be the commercial peak of Penn’s career.
How many bands can put out a string of Platinum or multi-Platinum albums in a row, lose their lead singer and replace him in less than a year, then release one of the top-selling albums of all-time? That list starts and ends with AC/DC.
Bon Scott fronted the Australian rock band for five years, culminating with the massive 1979 hit album Highway to Hell. Then he died in the back seat of a car after a night of heavy drinking. The band held auditions for a new lead singer, landing on Brian Johnson, whose distinctive shrieking rasp helped make 1980’s Back in Black an all-time classic.
Meet Me In Montauk 