Ben Mackenzie

More songs should start like Monkey Gone to Heaven. "There was a guy." Ok I'm listening, what's this guy up to

If you know John’s work, it really isn’t

A photograph of Elton John and Luciano Pavarotti. Pavarotti is pointing at something and Elton is looking. Above them it says “Elton John and Luciano Pavarotti: Live Like Horses”

They famously did - during this period in the mid 1990s Elton and Luciano could frequently be seen eating out of a bucket, running around a big field and defecating in full view of passing motorists and pedestrians

colorful collage of 69 pictures in various art styles, inspired by each track on the album 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields, in the bottom right corner is a small recreation of the album cover

69 pieces inspired by love songs // @themagfields.bsky.social

Futurama Slurm Factory meme: THAT'S THE META AI. YOU CAN ASK IT ANYTHING says Slurm tour leader. ASK IT TO FUCK OFF says Prof Farnsworth.

I sometimes check a walkthrough when I get stuck in a game but Myst is one I don't get. You could theoretically "beat" it in about a minute since (iirc) everything you need to do is on the first island, it's just the order of switches and codes to use that you have to figure out with the rest.

Sitting at my grandparents house watching daytime TV. A quiz show hosted by Clive Anderson has just come on and my first thought was “Wow, he’s aged well” before I realised that for some reason they’re showing a 20 year old episode of whatever this is

Did Maine Elect the Wrong Collins?

Rockstar Phil would at least admit that there must be some misunderstanding in Minnesota.

(Nik Cohn’s Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom for anyone wondering)

Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42, post the second sentence.

“But almost best of all was Sweet Little Sixteen.”

Think my comment on Rate Your Music calling Diamond Dogs “Bowie’s gayest album” got deleted. Obviously they don’t realise that’s a huge compliment

Not sure how I’ve heard Let’s Dance so many times and yet only upon this listen has the line “Let’s dance, for fear your grace will fall” brought the image of David carefully dancing with an Archbishop to mind

Have finally gotten to the 2018 re-do of Never Let Me Down, which takes a pretty dismal 80s Bowie album and turns it into an honestly pretty great 90s Bowie album. It sounds like it should have come out in the late 90s when Hours did. I guess that I'm just a sucker for Reeves Gabrels guitar squeals?

Giving Bowie's Hours a relisten - it's just not very good, is it? Outside was an incredible burst of creativity, Earthling was slightly patchy but with huge highlights, then Hours comes and gives us about 40 minutes of dull adult contemporary with The Dreamers put on the end to give it a little edge

On the other hand, he doesn’t mention “camel shit” on part 1, so who’s to say which is better or worse

Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) is a lot like Low or Heroes conceptually, but instead of the second side being instrumental/experimental the second side's concept on Scary Monsters is "being good and yet still somehow unsatisfying"

Going to be tweeting a lot of my odd Bowie opinions in the next few days I feel so buckle up for that.

Why did Harry Maslin listen to Station to Station, which he produced spot on in 1976, and think "I could do better in 2010" and then he just kinda removed the vocal effects from Bowie's voice and made it uncomfortably dry sounding. People rag on Visconti's 2017 Lodger (which I like) but ignore this?

This is like Are You That Somebody, a defining song of late 90s R&B, being done for the Dr Doolittle soundtrack

aspirational

Too much Bowie stuff now takes the attitude that nothing he did between about 1980 and 2010 is worthy of much discussion.

I don’t have a solution to this, I just wanted to vent.

It is with deep sadness that we as a family regret to inform you that Matthew Kwasniewski-Kelvin has died after a long battle with his mental health. A talented musician and a kind, loving young man finally succumbed; despite all efforts. Matt was 26 years old. He will always be loved. Please take a moment to check in with your loved ones so we can stop this happening to our young men.

Absolutely horrible to hear the news about Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin (ex-Black Midi). Never got to see them live while he was in the band but from live recordings the dual-guitar attack was absolutely fierce. Rest in peace.

www.instagram.com/p/DTaf9tJiAoL/

Mr. Show - Pallies YouTube video by Laser Time

Remembering the time I was so bored working a retail job I spent about 4 hours thinking about the Mr Show Pallies sketch

youtu.be/Svr6Zl2QgX8

what fresh hell is this on the streets of brooklyn?

A woman recording an ICE agent tells him "Shame on you."

The agent responds, "Have you all not learned from the past couple of days?"

"Learned what?" she asks

Then he knocks her phone out of her hand

Listened to new Morrissey single out of morbid curiosity - sounds like a bad Brosnan-era Bond theme 25 years too late

I love the book! I hadn’t actually heard any of the songs so far so it’s been nice to get acquainted with the early early stuff

Watching the David Bowie: The Final Act documentary that was on Channel 4 last night which, despite its title, spends 20 minutes giving us a perfunctory overview of the bits of his career everyone already knows about. This is the only time I’ve ever genuinely wished for Tin Machine to come on again.

Thought it was good but not particularly interesting, but I remember feeling the same about Panopticom when it came out and I ended up loving i/o so we’ll see

Peter Gabriel: First "o\i"-Song "Been Undone" out on 3 January - Genesis News Com [it] On January 3, Peter Gabriel will release the first song from his new album oi – it's called Been Undone.

PETER GABRIEL: The new album "o\i " will come in 2026 and the first track "Been Undone" is out on 3 January. Details: t.ly/IV9tf
@itspetergabriel.bsky.social