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In October 1990, the food critic Jonathan Gold reviewed an inexpensive fast-food joint on Pico Boulevard called Oki-Dog for the
LA Times. The piece, “Trans-Global Junk Food,” doubled as an obituary for the late-night hangout of his youth: the 24-hour Oki-Dog on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, which had recently closed. In the early days of punk, Gold spent many a night at the nearby nightclub, the Starwood, which gave many future rock heroes their first big gigs, and played cello in two short-lived bands, Overman and Tank Burial. Years later, he was still an evangelist for Oki-Dog and its eponymous dish: two hot dogs, a slice of cheese, a slice of pastrami, and chili wrapped up in a flour tortilla, which he described as “a cross-cultural burrito that’s pretty hard to stomach unless you’ve got the tum of a 16-year-old.”
Hi folks!
Since I have now completed my two countdown radio shows for the Top 50 albums of 2020 see the big takeover “radio” button above to hear one song from each! here is my complete list of the 180 best albums, 100 best archive/retrospective/reissue releases, and 100 best stand-alone singles and EPs of this previous year my best bets on another great year for music, old and new.
And in one of the worst years of our lifetimes, here’s a small tip of my well-worn ballcap in profound gratitude to the artists below, for giving us this music to listen to while stuck at home. Perhaps half the below had already been recorded and was in process before COVID-19 shut us all down, which also curtailed many a scheduled recording session to go with all the cancelled tours.
2020, YOU GAVE ME THE BLUES
There wasn’t a particular Day The Music Died, but, like coronavirus victims, it was taking painful last gasps by mid-March.
The music didn’t die, but it is on life support, in a deep coma. The COVID relief bill (still including, I trust, $15B specifically for live music and theater venues) has finally passed, through the grasping, small, tight, clumsy, incompetent, vengeful pale hands of the Monster of Mar-a-Largo
Hey, let up, will ya Charles? He’s almost gone. But I say, he did not let up on us for four years and he continues to fiddle on the golf course right up until the end, while Rome burns, people die, the economy collapses, families lose their jobs and homes and iconic music clubs ponder their very existence. The hundreds of thousands of lives lost because of his making the pandemic a political calculation instead of a life-saving one, cannot be forgiven.