The Clash's London Calling came out thirty years ago today. It still stands as punk rock's crowning achievement. In fact, it's probably as responsible as any other work for the fact that the term "punk rock" seems kind of silly now. The Clash were a punk band, coming out of England with the Sex Pistols in the late '70s. But the music on London Calling ranges from reggae to rockabilly to snazzy pop tunes. It's thoughtful and refined, even gentle at times, and delivered with as much subtlety as spit. It rages and sneers, too, to be sure, but even in that, it proves the futility of thin definition and sub-categorization. It's all just rock n' roll, really, right? London Calling is just some of the very best of the stuff ever recorded. (Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go do a tango about the use of flying buttresses in gothic cathedrals.) Oh, and for perspective, 30 years before London Calling's release, it was December 14th, 1949, Elvis Presley hadn't recorded any songs and no one knew what "rock n' roll" was. So now rock has been dead and reborn for longer than it was alive in the first place. Or something.

I sat in a parked car for an hour this morning, waiting out the no-parking-for-street-cleaning window, listening to Hot 97. I know they're basically a top-40 station, dedicated to whatever's currently most popular in "blazing hip-hop and R&B." But, God, I wish they'd expand their playlist. It really seems like they keep to a rotation of the same five or six songs at any given time. (Maybe they're a top-5 station?) Today, for example, they played Fabolous' "Throw It In The Bag" remix, featuring Drake, around 8:45, and then again at exactly 9:24. Twice in forty minutes! That's ridiculous. (The most recent playlist at Hot97.com has "Throw It In The Bag" ranked 5th. Trey Songz' "I invented Sex," also featuring Drake, is no. 1. So they're playing that one every, what 12 minutes? We're going to run into mathematical impossibility here...) But I don't even mind "Throw It In The Bag" so much. Much worse is the new Young Money song that's also playing with great frequency (ranked 9th on the playlist.) Have you heard it? It's called "Bedrock" and it absolutely plagued my drive back home from Boston after Thanksgiving. (So Hot 97's counterparts in Massachusetts and Connecticut must share some blame.) Young Money is Lil Wayne's group, featuring, yes, Drake, but also Mack Maine, Gutta Gutta, Nicki Minaj and, usually, way too much autotune. But the real problem with "Bedrock" is the chorus. READ MORE