Author name: Alyson Camus

Live, Slideshow

Panda Bear At The Roxy, Friday April 17th 2015

Noah Lennox was not even hiding this time, still standing behind what it looked like a very complex soundboard, connected to a million electric threads but gloriously playing in front of colorful video projections, bigger and more kaleidoscopic than ever… may be he has read all these critiques calling his music, precisely, a kaleidoscope of sounds,

Interview, News, Slideshow

Best Coast Speaks,… But Not To Us

‘the two of us — me and Bob — don’t look like we belong together in the same band, which is something I’ve always loved. I’ll look at photos of us together sometimes and just be struck by what a strange-looking team we are. But that’s what makes us special.’

controversy, News, Slideshow, Streaming

Indie Musicians Are Not Sold On Tidal And Its ‘New School Plutocrats’

We wouldn’t have joined it anyway, even if they had asked. We don’t want to be tribal. I think smaller bands should get paid more for it, too. Bigger bands have other ways of making money, so I don’t think you can complain. A band of our size shouldn’t be complaining. And when they say it’s artist-owned, it’s owned by those rich, wealthy artists.’

Live, Slideshow

Father John Misty At The Glasshouse, Monday April 13th 2015

He jumped in the pit, making sure to shake everyone’s hands, signing vinyl, posing for selfies,… people were rushing at the front, I got crushed, and I wasn’t even really trying to fight, but when Tillman arrived at my level, I saw his blue eyes, his hand reaching mine for a frank handshake and I heard a ‘Thank you for coming’… wow, what was the myth he was trying to build?

News, Slideshow

Portishead’s Geoff Barrow Reveals His Streaming Income

The problem in the story is that we never know how much the labels get from streamed music of a specific artist, so we have no benchmarks. Why aren’t labels releasing the numbers? Because they are ashamed of them… If artists aren’t making money, Spotify isn’t still making any money, someone has to make a fortune

News, Slideshow

Did Lou Reed Die For Lady Gaga’s Sin?

Artpop’ was conceived in direct connection with the Velvet Underground, Gaga’s ‘Dope’ was the VU’s ‘Heroin’, ‘G.U.Y.’ was ‘Walk on the Wild Side’… ‘MANICURE’ was ‘I’ll be your Mirror’… oh poor Nico!… ‘Applause’ with the opening verse ‘I stand here waiting for you to bang the gong’, is Reed’s ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’, although they are not exactly waiting for the same thing… So, demos were sent to Reed in November 2012, and Reed didn’t answer, but when he did, he replied ‘I have no interest in any further involvement.’

Live, Slideshow

Oldies But Goodies: From J. Tillman To Father John Misty

Most of his songs are delivered in a slow pace, with a melancholic, solemn, almost severe tone, that was inspiring respect and a complete silence from the public who seemed to have been composed of the quietest people I had ever been with. He had more upbeat tunes, but, even there, the moaning and the mourning dominated the climate.

controversy, Movies, Slideshow

Kurt Cobain Died Of A Broken Heart? Or We Are Told…

‘I found his actual suicide letter, which was unexpected. I just opened up this heart shaped box and there it was. And I was like ‘Based on everything I’ve witnessed, this makes no sense.’ Kurt didn’t have a problem with quitting music; he talked about it openly. If he wanted to stop performing, he would just stop. Nothing was leading up to that suicide letter.’

Live, Slideshow

Nick Cave Reads ‘The Sick Bag Song’ At The Egyptian Theater, Wednesday April 8th 2015

Nick Cave can fill the 600 seats of the Grauman’s Egyptian theater, and just discuss his new book while not singing a single song? The evening was priced as high as a musical performance and the performance part was limited to him reciting a few of his incredible texts, but at this point many people (me included) would pay to see him just reading the phone book

controversy

Some Crazy Conspiracy About Lennon’s Murder

Lennon was not killed by Mark David Chapman as everyone thinks, but by bestseller author Stephen King, who was actually backed up by Nixon and Reagan. To be honest, it’s not the first time I hear about a government conspiracy related to Lennon’s murder, but what does King have to do with all this?

Recorded, Slideshow

Three New Songs To Start The Week

New week, new songs,…. it’s true, so many bands release songs at the beginning of a commencing week. Today we can listen to material from three bands that had temporarily disappeared from our radar, so here are one relaxing tune and two other songs that will shake you up.

Live, Music Festivals, Slideshow

Make Music Pasadena Announces Its 2015 Lineup

As it is the case each year, there are bands I am familiar with and new ones I’ll discover. So far I would recommend a few bands I have already seen: How to dress Well, which is Tom Krell’s project and a very personal R&B re-interpretation,… be prepared for a strong Michael Jackson vibe, but the result is more intense and experimental than anything the king of pop has ever put out

Elliott Smith, News, Opinion

A Second Opinion On Elliott Smith’s Autopsy Report

Stabbing is a very painful way to kill yourself. Those who commit suicide by knife tend to have very deep personality disturbances. And it is more difficult to stab oneself through clothing, requires a lot of strength to do that to yourself (unless the clothing is a thin T-shirt). Being very depressed won’t make it any less painful. There WILL be hesitation marks.

controversy, News, Slideshow

Miley Cyrus, A Good Trouble Maker For Once

She called Indiana governor Mike Pence an asshole on Instagram, because he passed a controversial bill on March 26th, prohibiting state and local governments from hindering a person’s right to practice their religion… Although the bill doesn’t specifically mention sexual orientation, many worry it will also make it possible for employers to discriminate against gay candidates

News, Opinion, Slideshow, Streaming

Let’s Take The Tidal Sound Test

There is a very simple test you can do on Tidal, it allows you to play five songs (you don’t pick the songs, and I got the Killers, James Blake, Daft Punk, the Eagles and the Dixie Chicks) using two sound sources A and B. You can switch back and forth between A and B during the short music sample, then determine which of the two is the high fidelity sound source. I was using my Macbook connected to a Logitech speaker system. I paid around $40 for them and they sound okay for me, but I did very badly at the test, I guessed 2 out of 5 correctly!! Not bad? Are they kidding?

News, Slideshow

The Music Stars’ Dating Game

Taylor Swift was spotted in Los Angeles at a Haim concert at the Troubadour on Thursday…. And she was holding hands with Calvin Harris… the world’s highest paid DJ with the world’s highest paid pop star, what a power couple! And both highly overrated! But we already know it won’t last for very long.

Live, Slideshow, Upcoming Tours

Morrissey Announces His 2015 US Tour

We shall breast the tape at Barcelona and Murcia (Spain) in April and May, and then we square up for four nights at the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Good times for a change. Is it illegal to be this happy? Thank you, also, to everyone who has managed to download “Kiss me a lot” from iTunes. We value your interest and encouragement beyond measure.

Live, Slideshow, Tribute

Brian Fest At The Fonda Theater, Monday March 31st 2015

the Beach Boys’ iconic catalog was brushed (in not the right order) by Norah Jones and Gingger Shankar, Heart’s Ann Wilson, The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and Steve Drozd, Devendra Banhart, Monters of Folk’s M. Ward, Al Jardine, Blondie Chaplin, Boz Scaggs, Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino, Local Natives, Capital Cities’ Sebu Simonian, Wilson Philips, Karen Elson, ex Magnetic Zeros’ Jade Castrinos, Adam Busch and Danny Masterson, Lucius’ Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, Doyle Bramhall II, Punch Brothers, Civil Wars’ Joy Williams, Kesha….

News, Slideshow

Moby’s Future Vegan Eatery In Silverlake

Let’s hope Moby’s enterprise will not be among these failures, I just wonder whether he has more of a Jay Z-Bono-Timberlake business sense than a Spears-Lopez-Hynde’s. One thing is sure I would die rather than trying Keith or Queen Latifah’s greasy meat, but I may check out Moby’s vegan place this summer.

Live, Music Festivals, Slideshow

My Best Of Burgerama 4

The nice people at Burgerama gave me a photo pass so I had access to the photo pit, which is certainly a delight but also a terrible temptation to take as many pictures as possible… This is just what I did, and I ended up with hundreds of photos to sort out today! The pictures reflect the best moments of these two days

News, Slideshow

Jay Z Launches Tidal, His New Streaming Service

Jay Z recently purchased the streaming service for some $56 million and he wants to make it as a competitor to Spotify, or Rdio. Alicia called it the ‘beginning of a whole new era’,… but for whom exactly? A new era for Jay Z and Madonna to make even more money? What’s new exactly? A new sound? a better listening experience?

Live, Music Festivals

Burgerama 4, Saturday March 28th 2015, Part 2

I thought for a minute I knew all the songs of Weezer, but I realized it was because the band may have played all its greatest hits… From ‘My Name is Jonas’ to ‘Hash Pipe’, ‘El Scorcho’, ‘Go Away’, ‘Island in the Sun’, ‘Beverly Hills’, ‘Say it Ain’t so’, ‘Pork and Beans’, ‘Undone’, ‘Buddy Holly’, yes it was a real crowd pleaser

Live, Music Festivals

Burgerama 4, Saturday March 28th 2015, Part 1

The access between both stages was really a pain, I had a photo access but not an all-access pass, and I got lost a few times backstage trying to find a shortcut to avoid the dense crowd, but was stopped several times by security guards. Getting inside the Observatory through a narrow corridor was more and more ridiculous, and I heard a few photographers complain about it. And by 5 pm, I was getting tired of this maze

News

Jonathan Shaw At La Luz De Jesus, Friday March 27th 2015

Shaw read a few excerpt of his book, spoken word style, accompanied by some music by Gregg Foreman of Cat Power, and Brandon Burkart of The Saint James Society. The funny thing is that he was reading most of it from his phone (he wrote his whole book on his phone as he is allergic to computers)

Live, Slideshow

The Mavericks At The Fonda, Wednesday March 25th 2015

Sure, it’s not really country, but there were obvious Tex-Mex flavors, rockabilly, swing, honky-tonk and Latino-Cuban tempos, bringing memories of Mexican fiesta, retro country romance, with the ghosts of Jerry Lee Lewis or Roy Orbison. Orbison? Yes! Malo’s tenor voice has effectively this kind of force and effectiveness, an operatic howl

News, Slideshow

Willie Nelson’s Weed In A Store Near You Soon

There will be stores (where marijuana has become legal, states like Colorado or Washington) that will sell Willie’s weed. Furthermore, it’s not going be exclusively Nelson’s production, he obviously wants to grow his own, but there will be ‘opportunities for other growers, who meet quality standards’

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