Iman Lababedi

Founding Editor of Rock NYC. Iman Lababedi was a freelance rock critic in the 1980s, took a break of 20 years, and has been writing and editing the music blog rocknyc.live since 2009. He considers this to be in many ways a golden age for pop music and hopes you are enjoying it too.

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Hear Ye: What rock nyc Is Listening To – 3-1-13

The Costello Who is anticipation of what will be last nights benefit gig, and Steve Roth is opening but I plan to miss it (that’s he’s best song) Costello made me think of Prince (because of the Carnegie gig later this month) and that made me think of Miguel’s best song.

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Seth MacFarlane Song And Dance Man? Only In Hollywood…

Jack Phillips can’t catch a break and this useless twit is doing song and dance with two guys and only one of the three have the slightest idea what they are doing? At the Oscars??? You wanna talk about the dumbing down of America? This is the stage that once had Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, now we have this joke?

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US Top 10 Singles, March 9th, 2013

OK, Baauer is much to do about nothing but in a chart without a rock song and, yes, not even any country, he is just more of the same. This chart is total hip hop production values domination on every level. Not one song here isn’t about the beat, every single one takes its orders from programmed rhythmic patterns. Amazing, really.

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Top 10 US Albums, March 9th, 2013

Where’s you Grammy bounce now, jerks? well, next week it should show, in the meantime i find it amazing that a performance on SNL bounced the Shakes back up to the top 10. To be honest I am surprised the bounce us quite that big, though it only sold 33K. Back when I was a child, that wouldn’t have cut it.

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Hear Ye: What rock nyc Is Listening To 2-27-13

Right now I am prevaricating on the Desaparecidos show, songs like the one here, ten years old, don’t do it for me at all. And some of “Fake French” remains, the other seven are all New Release Wednesday, with Bowie at the top, Hank poorly recorded and Atoms For Peace on hold till tomorrow.

rock nyc

"Dark Skies" Reviewed (More Or Less)

The rest of the movie has some “boooo -gotcha” moments but it is really a miserable slog to a sucky and sad with just a tinge of hope ending and it could’ve been so much more. The entire thing has some irritants that only emerge as major problems towards the end: it is like being told you have a cough and discovering it is really lung cancer.

rock nyc

Sneak Peaks: New Releases Week Of February 25th, 2013

For sure, Claire’s Diary is the best of the lot but Atoms For Peace might well make it on to my top 10 albums of 2013. Johnny Marr won’t and I can’t even guess whether Emmylou and Rodney come up with the goods… well, I can guess. My guess is yes they do release a good album.

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Hear Ye: What rock nyc Is Listening To 2-26-13

Claire’s Diary, Tinvulva and Kelly Montoya are because I am still buzzed on the Fake French gig and Tomas because the song I wanna hear from his set I don’t have yet. Nick Cave song is so good I forgive him most of his sins on the new album and X was covered by Tinvulva

rock nyc

UK Top 10 Albums, March 2nd, 2013

Isn’t that Alyson Camus book signing post, the one where he signs the setlist, up today? Enough with Nick Cave already, and how about Joe Cocker for a change? In at # 7 in the UK, and about to be released tomorrow Stateside. Yeaaaaa for Joey!

rock nyc

UK Top Ten Singles, March 2nd, 2013

Blondie cover for Comedy Relief and I guess you gotta smile at the mash up with the Undertones. It really really isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever heard though that pix with Harry topless and tats? That’s the worst thing pix I’ve ever seen

rock nyc

Hear Ye: What rock nyc Is Listening To 2-25-13

Western Mass – Claire’s Diary – Still buzzing after the concert, this is the one where drummer introduces as about the only time she ever got arrested! And then the song is a really strong payoff withhim leaving her in jail while he hightails it. Boys will be boys!! Grade: A

rock nyc

Tomas Doncker Band At BB King's, Friday, February 22nd, 2013 Reviewed

It was very good stuff, relentlessly powerful with “Brooklyn To Ethiopia”‘s bass and drums ridden roughshod and Tomas telling the audience to raise their arms, clap their hands, get involved. “Rise Above” is harder and faster on stage, Tomas is like Carol Kane in the Bill Murray movie “Scrooged”, he pushes us shoves us, bends and bangs us to dance for his vision of Global Soul and Global Peace.

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Active Viewin': Concert Picks Week Of February 25th, 2013

Sure, I saw the eleven minute youtube clip of Steve Angello button pushing his set. Really? Pre-recording pre-recorded music? Lucky Swedish House Mafia are this good, the standard bearer EDM supergroup, and lucky this is their last tour, which reaches MSG on Friday and was so good last time, it will definitely be worth a fond adieu.

rock nyc

Hear Ye: What rock nyc Is Listening To 2-24-13

Catcall – Tinvulva – Sarah Soller-Mihlek, singing lead on this vicious assault on sexual harassment on the streets of New York, a subject a good friend of mine often complains about though I don’t take nearly seriously enough. Sarah represents for so many women: “I am not your sugar baby” she howls in indignation though the guitar makes it much much angrier – Grade: A-

rock nyc

Marissa Patermoster Of Screaming Females In Constant Pain

Not being able to play has been one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to deal with,” she says. “It’s so, so hard to step back from it all, and it was especially difficult to give in to the pain. I felt like a failure. Every night I’d go to sleep and just hope that the next morning I’d wake up pain-free

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Winner And Loser Week Of February 18th, 2013: Belle And Sebastian And Mindy McCready

Winner – Belle And Sebastian – The only time I saw em live was at the tiny Supper Club and it felt like there was more people on stage then there wasin the audience. They don’t tour nearly as often as a band that informs every melody shoegaze has ever thought up, should. So the news that they are back on tour (Playing Celebrate Brooklyn at Prospect Park) is tidings of great joy. Yo La Tengo are opening.

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rock nyc's Top 10 Songs Week Of February 18th, 2013

It took years but I finally got over my Rick Ross problems, his inspired yse to “pussy” did it. The Nick Cave is great but wearing off a little. And I am still holding off on writing about the Modern Hut debut album but with increasing impatience. Right this second “History” is my favorite song of 2013.

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Hear Ye: What rock nyc Is Listening To 2-23-13

Eamond Andrews – Soft Machine – With the death earlier this week of the other Machiner, Kevin Ayers, I’ve been thinking about writing something on the band. I tend to focus on Robert Wyatt. This is an eery 12 minute march into sound modulation and noise tinkering – Grade: B+

rock nyc

Must See: Robyn Hitchcock In April 2013

So what does he sound like in 2013? Out of tune folk music, to be a little brutal about it! But maybe I am wrong. Maybe I’m not listening hard enough. Let’s wait till April, 26th and Webster Hall -with Peter Buck opening!, and decide then!!

rock nyc

Hear Ye: What Rock nyc Is Listening To 2-22-13

. Flashbacks, Memories And Dreams – The Virgins – To note that these nyc Strokes meets Stones with a disco beat haven’t made the follow up to “Rich Girl” of your dreams goes without saying. But it might also be worth noting that they have managed a superior slice of dance rock with a killer bass lick. Unfortunately, it took five years so who knows where the audience is? – Grade: B+

rock nyc

Rilo Kiley Reunion?

In 2011, Sennett, Rilo Kiley’s guitarist, told Spinner, “I just felt like there was a lot of deception, disloyalty, greed and things I don’t really want to submit myself to.”

rock nyc

US Top 10 Singles, March 2nd, 2013

Bauuer? That’s solely because Billboard have started adding youtube views to their collating of the most popular songs in the country. After hearing the song it is obviously not the song. The song is ordinary electronic dance, but weirdly enough, people all over the country have started making :30 second video clips to it, where folks in masks started dancing wildly once the beats and joined by the music.

rock nyc

US Top 10 Albums, March 2nd, 2013

What do Josh, Andrea and the hits comp have in common? They weren’t affected by the Grammy’s, everybody else got a great big bounce and bump upwards. I don’t know if this reflects the power of the Grammy or the weakness of the charts.

rock nyc

Four Years Of Marches!

In April 2009, I started 2009 rock nyc and by March 2010 I had lost track of what concerts I was going to, so I started keeping a calender of concerts and I am now going to share it with you!

rock nyc

Albums That Measure Our Lifetimes

My dad had died the night before. That night, around 3 in the morning, I was listening to Tapestry by Carole King and ever since that this important in its own right album meant more to me than it ever might have.

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Mindy McCready And Killing Yourself

Nobody knows if McCready’s life would have turned around if she had lived but we do know for sure, it wouldn’t if she didn’t. So called animals in the jungle take care of their children, what is left if we won’t simply exist another coupla decades for them. Life is fast and then it’s gone.

rock nyc

Must See: Aaron Neville In May 2013

I did like it. It is a collection of late 1950s rock and roll covers, and it is quite good, I am really looking forward to seeing it live, but it is a little bland. A solid but unexceptional effort with some real highlights, “Money Honey” for one. Aaron namechecks the original not Presley in his commentary.

rock nyc

Hear Ye: What rock nyc Is Listening To 2-20-13

Domo23 – Tyler The Creator – AT 21, Tyler’s latest release puts his earlier work in perspective: they were straight autobiography and so is it. The reason it isn’t as interesting as “Bastard” is because rich rappers nailing European models isn’t as interesting as teenage kids dealing with life with no father – Grade: B

rock nyc

The Post Offered 10 New York Musicians To Listen To… So I Listened

If this is the state of New York rock in 2013, it is pretty weak gruel. Really? DIIV? I mean, honestly, that’s what you wanna tell me. Sky? She looks like a poster child for methadone clinics. Still, who am I to argue with Hardeep Phull, right? I don’t disagree with Phul the way I did with Aquilante, and I disagree in different ways, but still, his tastes and I don’t coincide very often. PS: I hadn’t heard Angel Haze but I will now.

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