Every Moment Has A Song

William Shatner’s Riot Fest Rider Demands Are Out of This World

17 Jul 2026 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: riot fest, weilliam shatner

(via Heavy Consequence) by Spencer Kaufman

After recently announcing that he’ll be playing Riot Fest in September, 95-year-old William Shatner has unveiled an outrageous list of rider demands that puts classic-era Van Halen to shame.

Shatner’s ready to bring the metal to the three-day Chicago festival, as he has confirmed that he’ll be playing on Sunday, September 20th, with his metal backing band The *uckers.

Among his preposterous requests are having a boat renamed in his honor so he can captain a ship again; being invited to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at a Chicago Cubs game; having an intro video created by GWAR; and being transported around in a DeLorean instead of a golf cart.

But that’s not all. His backstage demands are pretty wild, too, including naming his dressing room “Shatner’s Shag Shack”; four feet of Polish sausage; a Montreal Canadiens hockey sweater autographed by John Stamos; eight pallets of Faygo (not to be shared with Insane Clown Posse); and an assortment of adoptable puppies…

Video of the Week: Michael Jackson and Prince Make a Surprise Appearance at a James Brown Concert (1983)

17 Jul 2026 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Video of the Week Tags: james brown, michael jackson, prince

Video of the Week: The Messy Reason LeAnn Rimes & Trisha Yearwood Dropped the Same Song and Battled For The Same Grammy

15 Jul 2026 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Video of the Week Tags: how do i live, leann rimes, trisha yearwood

Songs You May Have Missed #853

15 Jul 2026 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: donnie iris, that's the way love ought to be

Donnie Iris: “That’s the Way Love Ought to Be” (1981)

Pittsburgh legend Donnie Iris was effectively a one-hit wonder twice–although the story is a bit more complicated.

The writer and singer of the Jaggerz’ sole, idiosyncratic 1970 hit “The Rapper”, he later joined Ohio funk band Wild Cherry, though his tenure came after their one megahit, “Play That Funky Music”.

From his first solo album, 1980’s Back On the Streets, came Iris’ most enduring solo hit, “Ah! Leah!”. Interestingly, it wasn’t quite his highest-charting hit, but sometimes chart performance doesn’t tell the whole story. Despite the appreciation locals show for much of his catalog, “Ah! Leah!” is the biggest reason a national audience knows the name of Pittsburgh’s beloved “Dohnie”.

Having said that, after 1981’s King Cool, which was just loaded with pop rock bangers, things, uh, cooled.

Though he never again cracked the top 100 with an album release, Back On the Streets and King Cool are both essential, and full of the retro pop vibe and call and answer song structure which were the specialty of Iris and songwriting partner Mark Avsec.

Even as an octogenarian the bespectacled belter still boasts one of the great high-register wails in the game and still plays his hits in mostly local concert appearances. He’s deservedly a Pittsburgh institution.

Recommended Albums #119

12 Jul 2026 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Recommended Albums Tags: a brief history of rhyme, mc hawking, mc hawking's greatest hits

MC Hawking: A Brief History of Rhyme: MC Hawking’s Greatest Hits (2004)

This blog celebrates wide ranging musical endeavors, from the sublime to the ridiculous. And we’ve given plenty of attention to the sublime lately, so…

Nerdcore rapper and web developer Ken Lawrence a.k.a. MC Hawking rose to internet prominence in the early 2000’s with mp3’s, released through his website, that employed a gangsta-rappified persona of physicist Stephen Hawking.

His songs proved so popular Lawrence was signed to a record deal and A Brief History of Rhyme: MC Hawking’s Greatest Hits was the result.

Creationists and MIT rival scientists serve as the arch villains here rather than cops and rival rappers. But Lawrence synthesizes the worlds of gangsta rap and hard science as effectively as he synthesizes the voice of Hawking–achieved by use of the text-to-speech program Willow Talk.

Backed by the beats of DJ Doomsday (also Lawrence, using samples, midi compositions and loops available royalty-free) MC Hawking imparts a fair amount of actual scientific theory within spot-on rap parodies.

“Big Bizang” takes on the Big Bang. “E=MC Hawking” deals with the theory of relativity. “Entropy” explains thermodynamics. And “Fuck the Creationists” weighs in on the Creation vs Evolution debate.

If this extremely well-executed collision of two disparate worlds could be described in a word, that word–fittingly–would be “genius”.

Lawrence returned a decade later with “Fear of a Black Hole”, which was performed at the 2016 Starmus Festival with Brian May, Richard Dawkins and the real Stephen Hawking in attendance.

It seems Hawking’s energy can never be destroyed.

Listen to: “The Hawkman Cometh”