Monty Python’s Flying Circus is in my DNA.  The British comedy troupe that performed four seasons of their anarchic, silly television comedy show started in Britain in 1970. By 1974, my very young self was watching these shows presented in …Read more

 

Raise a toast to St. Joe Strummer  I think he might've been our only decent teacher  Getting older makes it harder to remember we are our only saviors  ----The Hold Steady, ‘Constructive Summer.’  Sixty eight years after he was born, …Read more

 

This is not your Grandpa’s Perry Mason. The original TV series with Raymond Burr and Barbra Hale ran from 1957 until 1966, and seemed to live eternally on TV in afternoon syndication. It was one of my favorite shows, …Read more

 

 

Robyn Hitchcock with Emma Swift Live From Sweet Home Quarantine (all requests) Part 26  Robyn said hello and mentioned he had a “stack of requests,” and launched into a “divorce” song, ‘The Devil’s Coachman,’ which was typical Robyn: sad and …Read more

 

 

Robyn Hitchcock with Emma Swift Live From Sweet Home Quarantine (RH songs by request) Part 30 Robyn opened the show with part 2 of the Three Directions story, getting surreal, and then really surreal. First song was ‘Unsettled’ from Globe …Read more

 

 

Steve Nieve, the classically trained, agile, and accomplished keyboardist, has been streaming quarantine shows from his home in France (near the English Channel) as “the Immobile Tour” (tinyurl/com.zubimmobile). His crew at home consists of Muriel Tedori, his French …Read more

 

50 years after McCartney and 40 years after McCartney II, Paul found himself in lockdown and decided to make this record “for fun,” playing all the instruments himself. This true “solo” recording follows the pattern of those previous records …Read more

 

Search Party aired its first two seasons on TBS, the third season it went to HBO Max. I have just finished binging all three seasons of this show, and it is a weird, wonderful, dark, dark comedy. The show revolves …Read more

 

 

 

Washington Irving's story Rip Van Winkle was first published in 1819. The trope of someone falling asleep/under a spell/unfrozen caveman lawyer is as old as storytelling itself, and this trope is the basis for An American Pickle. Rogen plays …Read more

 

If you are of a certain age, you remember Creem as a true rock and roll magazine. They ran from 1969 until 1993 and the magazine was a must have in my house as a kid who devoured rock and …Read more

 

When you watched MTV in 1982, there was a great video from an all girl band, The Go-Go’s. This cute, flirty video was attached to a great tune called ‘Our Lips Are Sealed’ (see our Podcast on this single at …Read more

 

 

BUZ AND MUF PICK THRU THE 2020 LITTER  Buz & Muf, the original Zub kitties, picked thru the litter for our Alert readers, separating the gems from the crap. For 2020, a litter box of a year if there ever …Read more

 

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark was one of the most frightening, sad, and remarkable shows I’ve ever seen. It could only have been a true story as there is no way that you would ever make up a tale …Read more

 

 

Because I am an obsessive music geek, I was an early adopter of Big Star. I read of them as an influence on many bands, sort of a Velvet Underground of power-pop. Their first two LP’s are undeniable, and I …Read more

 

 

Polly Jean Harvey seemed to appear, fully formed, out of nowhere in 1992 with Dry. This wisp of a woman with a Telecaster, Marshall half-stack, and crack rhythm section was Britain's answer to and antidote to grunge. She was almost …Read more

 

 

 

This is a gem of a television show produced by the British channel BBC four. The presenter, Tony Robinson, was Baldrick (a dogsbody) on the wonderful Rowan Atkinson series Black Adder. Fresh off his terrific history/archeological series Time Team, …Read more

 

 

As the COVID crisis began, Elvis Costello headed from touring the UK to Helsinki, of all places, to record, by himself, a couple of solo songs. Then to Paris to meet up with a horn heavy combo including Steve Nieve …Read more

 

Robyn Hitchcock with Emma Swift Live From Sweet Home Quarantine (all requests) Part 22  “Whatever I am, I’m something from the distant past.” Said Robyn, wearing his top hat and Lennon specs, looking like a crazy undertaker, then launching into …Read more

 

 

This was a very interesting way to present a history of a band. Beastie Boys Story, directed by their longtime video collaborator Spike Jonze, features the two surviving members of the band, Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz (third member …Read more

 

 

It's difficult to talk about Joy Division’s second LP, Closer, a towering piece of post punk perfection. Ian Curtis, singer and lyricist for the band, took his own life in May 1980 (see our Peter Hook review at tinyurl.com/zubpermanent), …Read more

 

 

When I heard that Tom Hanks was starring in a movie about the battle of the North Atlantic in World War II, for some reason I thought of that Progressive insurance commercial. The one featuring the coach who teaches new …Read more

 

 

There is a lot going on in this Hulu network food show. Padma Lakshmi, food writer and fixture on the show Top Chef, hosts this ten episode show in which she examines American food from an immigrant perspective. This, …Read more

 

Let’s hear it for Canada. Metz, the three-piece, Toronto based noise-rock band, (reviewed at tinyurl.com/zubmetz) has released an amazing new LP, Atlas Vending, their fourth full-length. Guitarist/vocalist Alex Edkins, bassist Chris Slorach, and drummer Hayden Menzies continue to …Read more

 

 

“Love is not enough, I wonder if it ever was”  Lydia Loveless, ‘Love Is Not Enough’  I first became aware of Lydia Loveless a few years back, as she was touring on the Somewhere Else record. I was the sound …Read more