@kateyrich.bsky.social now that your former colleagues inevitably won’t, PLEASE bring @joereid.bsky.social onto your pod to do a 2027 Oscars year-in-advance preview!

I find it maddening how often people on text-based socials — & especially this platform — post responses to things without actually saying to what they’re responding (generally in the news). Some of us avoid mainlining current events for mental health reasons. Just a *little* context even?

The fact this is isn't on streaming services should be considered a hate crime. (#2 R&B/#40 pop in early 1983.) I may have more to say about "Put It in a Magazine" soon.

The timpani on Larry Levan’s remix of Inner Life’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is one of the greatest sounds in recorded music.

Oh look one of the 5 or 10 greatest singles ever released, hands down.

200 fucking percent.

Fuck Gavin Newsom. Fuck him, fuck him, fuck him. I will never, ever vote for him. And the institutional Dems had better fucking not even try it.

Happy 35th anniversary to one of the greatest singles of all time.

Supporting Gavin Newsom in the primary is announcing that you'll step over the dead bodies of trans people and unhoused people to get what you personally want. It's a character defect. We can't be friends.

The best Springsteen single is "One Step Up." I'll fight over this one.

Obv the Grammys are... let's just say the Grammys and roll our eyes. But that said they may have tipped me off to a couple of new-to-me artists this year in their winners, particularly Durand Bernarr, who referred to "butch queen"s in his acceptance speech and may be... pretty great?

Such, such a superb book. Highly recommended.

The world is a fucking trash fire but as I age I become increasingly convinced that THE RETURN OF THE DURUTTI COLUMN is one of the best albums ever made. (& the expanded edition is even better.)

Birthday boy Steve Perry is one of the greatest rock singers ever. Journey's GREATEST HITS, currently closing in on 900 weeks on the BILLBOARD 200, is one of the greatest rock comps ever. I wrote this appreciation almost 19 years ago and still love it.

It's Steven Adler's birthday, and while Guns N' Roses aren't considered hair metal by many now, they certainly arose from that primordial ooze. An appreciation of the genre.

If you'd told me a month ago that my most-played song for January 2026 would be a 20-year-old single by Wolf Parade, I would've scoffed and told you how crazy you are. But then Shane and Ilya and Scott and Kip came into my life, and well, everything changed. #heatedrivalry

How is it that this doesn't seem to get credit as, essentially, the first Afrobeats single to make a big splash in the U.S.?

I just heard part of “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” for the first time and it sounds like nothing so much as “Stuck in the Middle with You.” Unexpected. 🤔

“I went down to the beach and saw Kiki…” I get earwormed with, and listen to this, a minimum of once a week.

Enya is pretty goth. & this is one of my favorite cold-season albums. #NowPlaying #CDFriday (it’s Friday where Enya lives)

I know that schmaltzy Cliff 🎄 records are practically a genre unto themselves these days, but I’ll always love this one.

You mean there are people who *don’t* frequently get earwormed with Madonna’s Live Aid performance of “Into the Groove”?

If you'd like to see something that will -- or should -- bring you happy tears today, watch this. I don't care about the Emmys, but I definitely care about Jeff Hiller and SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE, which will eventually be considered a classic.

Oh, my god. THIS is the kind of queer art we need now. My kingdom to see this performed.

I was listening to an old Casey Kasem American Top 40 (I find this soothing these days) from 1985 where he told the story of Wendy Carlos, who scored The Shining and Tron, and her journey to becoming trans. Casey got all the pronouns right and it was presented as a slice of life, feel good story

#CDFriday thanks to Wall of Sound in Seattle. $1! This was the first place I — and I suspect many Americans — first heard “Unfinished Sympathy.”

Oh no, let's go: the charts of the summer of '84 were a *time*.

We don't need to be rallying behind Dems because they'll "protect" our democracy, we need to be pressuring Dems to RESTORE our democracy. They're not going to do it if we don't push them, and if you want my help in pushing them, then you better believe I'm also going to push them on trans issues.

They're openly calling to lock up every trans person by force. We need every ally to speak out forcefully against this because trans folks cannot do this on our own.

Joy and pain, as Frankie Beverly and Maze sang, are like sunshine and rain. And the R&B top 10 albums this week back in 1980 were mostly on the bright side. (Also: the *other* #1 albums of the week.)

I'd MUCH rather see Pedro Pascal starring in a gay romance from Todd Haynes than Joaquin Phoenix, so this is thrilling news.

How fucking good does this look, wow.

I voted for Newsom for Mayor when I lived in SF. I voted for him for Lt Gov, twice. I voted for him for Gov of California. But I WILL NOT and CANNOT vote for him again, as he's completely gone off the anti-trans deep end. And cis/het folks, you shouldn't either, if you call yourselves allies.

WGCI, August 1986: hotter than ever. Airchecks and a playlist included in my latest "Radio Romance" column.

Summer '83 on the charts was absolutely golden, and this proves it.

In 2005, Madonna released her last best album, which I reviewed for STYLUS, doing the same for its corresponding live album in '07. Because it's her birthday tomorrow, here are both reviews, newly republished.

Cardi B's new Jay-Z-interpolating single is killing me today. So so good. So ready for her new album next month, FINALLY.

Tomorrow's the birthday of pop's queen of the past 45 years, Madonna -- and even more than pop, she's been the real queen of the dancefloor. An appreciation, with some caveats.

This is a very important piece worth your time, which clearly enumerates some of my own thoughts this week. But also, c'mon, how could it NOT make me think of this? (@sotoalfred.bsky.social I'm looking directly at you.)

Rod's greatest single, full stop.

Well, I sure am glad I didn’t renew this year. No Richard Lawson or David Canfield? WTF.

Here comes the brand new flava in ya ear, in the form of the epic remix of a classic '90s hip-hop jam.

Read this and believe it. The Republican party is genuinely attempting to legislate trans people out of existence.

I ride HARD for the S.O.S. Band, and especially for the brilliant collaborative work they did with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. So does @thetwelveinch.bsky.social, and I heartily recommend their latest column on "Just the Way You Like," the legacy of S.O.S., and '80s synth funk.

What's better than love? Luther Vandross and Gregory Hines had some thoughts, on the first single from Hines's sole album.

There can only be one.

Happy birthday to one of THE definitive divas. A true singer’s singer.

Carly Simon's "Why" is one of the greatest records of all time; @markfrommusings.bsky.social breaks it down.

DeBarge were, simply put, SO FUCKING GOOD. HBD to Randy, whose bass was vital to many of their classics.

I wish I could stop, and switch off the clock: 1989 isn't exactly a banner year for music, but the top 40 from this week is pretty hot nonetheless. And yes, that's my beloved Winger in the link photo, because their hit in this countdown is magnificent.