Bobapalooza 2025: One Nation Under Bob

Posted: July 5, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Bobapalooza, Culture, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

I asked, and you delivered! What an amazing Bobapalooza lineup! This year is a truly diverse and wonderful list of artists, ranging across styles and decades, with a host of surprises and firsts befitting Bobapalooza. What do I mean? Well, for the first time ever we have a DJ on the Main Stage, and this year I got Rickrolled in the best possible way. If you don’t see someone you think should be on the list, well, you should have nominated them!

Some of our Main Stage artists could have been on the Stage of Legends in their own right, but there can be only one – um, sorry, there’s only room for five, and here they are!

THE STAGE OF LEGENDS

Willie Nelson, nominated by June Bonsall: If you don’t know the Red Headed Stranger, where have you been? Star of country music for decades, he’s also been in over 30 films, written dozens of songs (including “Crazy”, made famous by Patsy Cline), and is a political activist who founded Farm Aid. There are over 420 reasons to love Willie, and his music is just one of them.1

Tupac Shakur, nominated by John Taylor: Considered one of the greatest rappers and hip-hop artists of all time, and taken far too soon, 2Pac was and is a Legend indeed. Not just a musician, but an actor and an activist, he ranks 49th on the list of artists with the highest certified album equivalent units sold as of July 23rd, 2024, with his double length posthumous greatest hits album being one of only nine hip-hop albums to be certified diamond in the United States.

The Who, nominated by Sue Anne Touart: I feel like I should have put them on first, but these kids are alright. A staple of classic rock radio, The Who are one of those groups that everyone knows and have a list of hits that goes on longer than their rock opera Tommy. Anyone in my generation will agree they belong on this list.

Leonard Cohen, nominated by Patrick Hoolahan: Dark and introspective, soulful and moody, a complicated man who lived a complicated life. His artistry is not easy to approach, but if you do, you’ll find a wealth of beauty and insight. His song “Hallelujah” has been recorded by almost 200 artists in various languages. He’s a poet and a songwriter, and everybody knows he’s a Legend.

Bette Midler, nominated by June Bonsall: Who can say no to the divine Miss M? Star of stage, screen, and song, Bette Midler has a career that spans decades and is a cultural touchstone for generations. Whether you know her from The Rose, the penultimate episode of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Beaches, or Hocus Pocus, Bette Midler has managed to stay not just relevant but truly divine.

And now for the Main Stage! It was a hard-fought year, with a lot of strong contenders to choose from, but these fifteen won out.

Fleetwood Mac, nominated by Marcel Smeester

LL Cool J, nominated by John Taylor

Marc Broussard, nominated by Vicki Sheldon

Ren, nominated by Russ Kirkman

BAD Boy Bill, nominated by John Taylor

5 for Fighting, nominated by Vicki Sheldon

Rick Astley, nominated by Pat Hoolahan

Lexington Lab Band, nominated by Vicki Sheldon

Heart, nominated by Marcel Smeester

Pearl Jam, nominated by John Taylor

Talking Heads , nominated by Jen Taylor

Nat King Cole, nominated by Marcel Smeester

They Might Be Giants , nominated by Mike Sherman

Santana, nominated by Marcel Smeester

Joe Cocker, nominated by Vicki Sheldon

That’s the lineup for this year, folks! Thanks to everybody who participated!

  1. It’s a marijuana joke, mom. ↩︎

Bob’s Jukebox: Lincoln

Posted: July 28, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Bob's Jukebox, Culture | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I decided to pull out something random for this week, and I guess it’s true what they say – be careful what you ask for. Strap in kids, it’s gonna get a little bit weird. Our selection for this week is They Might Be Giant’s Lincoln.

I first heard this album back in high school, although it wasn’t the first album I heard by TMBG. That would be Flood, which we’ll get to eventually, I’m sure. I vaguely recall at least some people giving me a rash of shit about not having heard of Lincoln when I was listening to Flood one time, and I don’t know to this day if they actually thought it was a superior album or if they were just proto-hipsters determined to make a big deal about the fact that they liked the band before they were cool. Personally, I preferred Flood then and now, but that’s neither here nor there.

The first thing I notice about Lincoln is that it involves a lot of word play, and not particularly clever word play, so much as weird word play. Not to say there’s isn’t a certain cleverness in the word play, and it does have the quirky rhythm and flow that is unique to TMBG, but the oddity of it seems to lean into “weird for the sake of being weird” rather than “weird because we’re trying to make an artistic statement” or “weird because metaphor be like that, yo”. And I am fully willing to acknowledge two things: first, that not all of the weird word play misses its mark of being satire: “Purple Toupee”, “Pencil Rain”, and “Kiss Me, Son of God” are not exactly subtle satire. But a lack of subtlety does not excuse an overabundance of inanity (and that’s ME saying that).

Before it sounds like I’m trying to completely poo-poo all the “weirder” songs on the album, I enjoy some of the more “out there” songs specifically because they are doing something different, but they aren’t trying to do too much at once. Which is to say, they nicely balance their lyrical explorations with a musical joi de vive and lightness that is missing from those other songs. In particular I’m thinking of “Where Your Eyes Don’t Go”, “The World’s Address”, and “Snowball in Hell”.

“Santa’s Beard” seems to be mean for the sake of being mean. “Ana Ng” and “They’ll Need a Crane” are the stand out songs that are about as close to approachable as I think you’ll find on this album, which honestly isn’t saying much. It seems to be telling that both of these songs are about troubled relationships.

Here’s the thing I’ve found about They Might Be Giants: they’re not the kind of band I can really just sit down and listen to cold. I have to listen to them several times, either all at once or (preferably) over the span of several days or a couple weeks. The first time I hear them I find them annoying and try-hard, college radio holdovers who had a couple of catchy songs that hit big. After I’ve listened a few times, they start to infect my brain, the different musical styles they range across keeping me from comfortably boxing them away and ignoring them long enough to hook me. That gives the lyrics and the music time to remind me that I actually do like them, at least somewhat. They’ll never be my favorite band, nor will I ever understand the fascination some people seem to have with them, but I can still enjoy their music.