Posts tagged as Antony and the Johnsons
Today Is Flag Day, Unfortunately
Did you know today was a holiday? It is. It is Flag Day, when we're all supposed to fly the American flag somewhere, in commemoration of the Second Continental Congress's June 14th, 1777 adoption of the design commonly, but, many believe, mistakenly, attributed to Philadelphian seamstress Betsy Ross. The best thing about this holiday, to me, is that it reminds me of my favorite song by the Housemartins. (That's former Housemartins singer Paul Heaton, above, performing it last year.) The worst thing about it is pretty much everything else. I don't like flags. READ MORE
Bird Songs For The Apocalypse (Or, The Last Mixtape Any Of Us Will Ever Listen To)
I guess it shouldn't come as any surprise that a list of rock songs with the word "bird" in the title would be a list of great songs. After all, birds fly (or, well, they used to) and rock stars like to pretend to fly by using drugs and airplanes. Anyway, with the recent planetary news, birds are on the brain. It's not hard to connect the dots (though it is very hard to do so as wonderfully as some other people do): the world needs a soundtrack to end to. And, actually, we could do worse. READ MORE
Antony and the Johnsons, "Swanlights"
When you're young, everything is one big joke. You hide behind layers of disaffection and eye-rolling to shield others from the things you care about. You define yourself by your obsessions, set yourself against the rest of the world with the artifacts of a burgeoning internal life; you ardently defend these things from other people. Caring is weakness and apathy is strength. And in growing up, the very least that is expected of you is that you recognize the courage of earnestness. READ MORE
Antony and the Johnsons, "Thank You For Your Love"
There's a new Antony and the Johnsons song out. Interesting: you can download it in exchange for your email address. It has nice horns on it and is the title track to a five song EP that will arrive at the end of this month. A teaser, I suppose, for the new album Swanlights, due October 12. Also on the EP, a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine," which I sang with my class at my 8th grade graduation ceremony. There was some controversy about that, due to the blasphemous nature of that song, which is about making the world better. But we students prevailed. (Attica!) I look forward to hearing Antony's version, though. I'm thinking he'll sing it better.
