“From the Trader’s Desk”:
Bobby Axelrod – a Man and his Music *UPDATED FOR SEASON 5*

**UPDATED FOR SEASON 5**

What metal shirt will Axe reveal in Season 5? I’d love to see (and Gingersnap is with me on this!) an Iron Maiden classic (The Trooper, or Piece of Mind), or Judas Priest. But now we know Axe likes the classic metal bands as well, so it could Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Rush or even Rainbow.

Yes, I wrote those words back in December, before we were teased with the Billions trailer and Season 5’s metal shirt was revealed to be none other than Rainbow.  I’ll go into who they are and why Axe would be a fan later in the post.

In each season of Billions, at least one episode has featured a song and a t-shirt of a metal band that must be Axe’s favorites.  (Gingersnap and I are always trying to predict which band will be featured. We’re holding out Season 6 will finally be the year of Maiden!!) The writers of Billions don’t do anything just to do it, so we know that these choices are there to tell a story, shine light on who the character is, and to set a tone. Continue reading ““From the Trader’s Desk”: Bobby Axelrod – a Man and his Music *UPDATED FOR SEASON 5*”

“From the Trader’s Desk”:
Bobby Axelrod – a Man and his Music *UPDATED*

**UPDATED**

There are many things that Bobby Axelrod and I have in common: New York born and bred; working class backgrounds; very non-traditional road to Wall Street; our love of gambling lead us to our career paths. However, the one thing that has always been my favorite commonality is our love for heavy metal bands and their music. Heavy Metal is not the most well known genre of music, so let’s explore Bobby Axelrod and his music, and what it says about him.

In each season of Billions, at least one episode has featured a song and a t-shirt of a metal band that must be Axe’s favorites. The writers of Billions don’t do anything just to do it, so we know that these choices are there to tell a story, shine light on who the character is, and to set a tone.

Metal is very misunderstood: devil worship, drugs, biting the heads of bats, or just screeching guitars may come to mind if you say the words “heavy metal”. But, it is so much more than that! Last season, I used Black Sabbath lyrics to open (and in some cases close) my “From the Trader’s Desk” recaps. In most cases, if I hadn’t referenced it to Sabbath, you’d have wondered what philosopher or poet I was quoting. Metal lyrics are some of the best I have ever heard; they tell stories of pain, loss, confusion, success, etc. – lyrics that would certainly resonate with a young man from Yonkers whose Dad has up and left, and whose home life is full of conflict. Continue reading ““From the Trader’s Desk”: Bobby Axelrod – a Man and his Music *UPDATED*”

Best of Billions Season 2

source: Showtime

As we cannot wait to welcome the Season 3 Premiere of our favorite show in a few days, how about getting into a Billions state of mind with a fun visit to the BEST of Billions Season 2?

Continue reading “Best of Billions Season 2”

Billions Season 2 Music

We know how important music is the world of Billions. Showrunner Brian Koppelman recently said on his podcast The Moment that he writes to music. He shared that he wrote the penultimate episode of Season 2, “Golden Frog Time” with Tom Petty’s “Even the Losers” as inspiration and that song played during the writing of the show as well as within the show itself. When the question arose to whether they’d get the rights to use the song in the episode, Koppelman insisted that without the song there’d be no episode, literally and metaphorically. Thankfully they did get that song and many more memorable cuts for Season 2.

In a wee bite of a taste of what to expect in Season 3, we learned that “Born in San Antone” by Garrett T. Capps will open the first episode. Here’s some of his Lou Reed-ish styling here:

Just occurred to me and I had to go and listen and check to make sure they indeed haven’t used this song in either S1 or S2: LCD Soundsystem’s “North American Scum” totally brings up the ethos of the Billions world. Again, not one from the show as we know it, but certainly one metaphorically connected, at least in this viewer’s head.

In the spirit of getting geared up for another season of rich musical accompaniment to this show, let’s revisit Season 2’s playlist. Enjoy!

Continue reading “Billions Season 2 Music”

Music of Billions Season 2 – Repost

Compared to Season 1, this season of Billions, for whatever reason, used a bit less music, fewer seminal tracks to accompany its richly crafted scenes. Music was still important this season, but somewhat less so than last. In my review of last year’s music, you’ll count 36 tracks. Here, the major songs in all episodes amounted to 20. Interesting revelation from this exercise is that they seem to follow a certain pattern in genres from one season to the next. That is to say, the aural landscape of this season seemed to contain the same proportion of arena metal, 70’s funk, contemporary alternative, live ballad, perennial classics, and lovely alt-country. All the tracks they chose, regardless of number, hit all the marks.

Let’s follow along with Season 2’s playlist, shall we?

Continue reading “Music of Billions Season 2 – Repost”