TA Inskeep (they/them)

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.

YouTube video by BruceSpringsteenVEVO Bruce Springsteen - One Step Up (Official Video)

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

YouTube video by Durand Bernarr Durand Bernarr - “Overqualified” (Official Music Video)

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 Return of the Durutti Column (Expanded & Remastered)

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.)

Journey: Greatest Hits, 1989 One of the sturdiest hits comps ever

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.

Pour some sugar: the best of hair metal The best hair metal rules.

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.

WHOA. I still listen to the first HELP album -- so good, so epic. This sounds awesome. There better be CDs!

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

YouTube video by FrenchMontanaVEVO French Montana - Unforgettable ft. Swae Lee

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.

YouTube video by Live Aid Madonna - Into The Groove (Live Aid 1985)

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

YouTube video by Television Academy Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series: 77th Emmy Awards

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.

FIGARO/FAGGOTS - Baryshnikov Arts Based on the Novel Faggots and Other Literary Works by Larry Kramer. Inspired by the Opera Le Nozze di Figaro by W.A. Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte

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.”

Pop Top 40: Hot 100, week ending 9/1/84 The good stuff is great, but the bad stuff...

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.

Can I help somehow? I’m so excited to finally meet in person next week!

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.

Thank you, John.

Pop Top 40: Top Soul LPs+, week ending 8/30/80 Let’s do something different.

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.)