There were many good songs, I would say 20 our of 32 were fine but while it is good enough for a good evening, it isn’t enough for a great evening., and I just think, right person, wrong song.
I bet in some ways the Yankees wish A-Rod had crashed and burned this year, instead of just getting his 3,000 hit with a home run in a winning effort last night. I am so not a moralist on this stuff, I don’t see why he shouldn’t get paid his millions, if only for coming back from a horrendous couple of years and still being able to play the game at a ridiculously high standard.
The five emotions Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) guide an eleven year old girl through a whirlwind of change as her parents move her from Minnesota to San Francisco. The resulting move leads Sadness and Joy on a journey back from Riley’s deep subconscious and leaves Anger, Fear and Disgust in control.
(Yeah, as I get ready for tonight’s Radio City Music Hall Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga gig, I hope and pray it is a substantial improvement on this one at New Jersey’s Prudential Center in April 2011. One thing I know for sure, we won’t be waiting till 1015pm for her to hit the stage
Jekyl And Hyde – Five Finger Death Punch – The only time I saw em live, I liked em not loved them, but this is as great as hardcore gets, with a progressive hint to the lead guitar and an addictive hook. A pleasant surprise – A-
This isn’t the dog days of summer but it feels like it, ever since David Letterman sang the night we called it a day, it has felt much like, well, the day we called it a night. Bereft of life here lies the summer of 2015, with nothing to do but stay hot and bad tempered. Meanwhile, let’s go with Ray Wylie Hubbard who knows a thing or two about hell and heat.
It was a professional without being charming performance, their rapport with the audience on a musical level was fine, and the sound grew more powerful while remaining just about constant, but they don’t really talk to the audience; there is no sense of the moment in time.
Wolf Alice were pretty good at Le Poisson Rouge last night, they are at a very exciting place in their career right now with the debut album dropping on Tuesday. But their connection with the audience left something wanting, That shouldn’t be a problem for Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga tonight at Radio City Music Hall.
Wow, it now costs more to see an IMAX movie than 1D -they aren’t big enough for Stadiums any more. What happens next? The fifth album will tell the story but days when people were paying $500 to see them at Jones Beach appear to be over. I am glad I saw them at their height.
It takes ruthlessness to own a successful magazine, and that is an absolute truth, it takes layoffs, it takes cutting expenses, but there are places where she just don’t do it. Among them is the face of Rolling Stone rock criticism who has been with you for decades. C’mon, for a coupla grand? For a coupla grand you leave one of your top writers without a weekly paycheck? I don’t get it. It makes no sense, even if you have no moral compass whatsoever, the public relations black eye is too big. It isn’t worth the hit.
the rest of the album isn’t as good but this song is a terrific track by the St. Etienne leader, otherwise in the battle for singer songwriter supremacy 2015 style, Patrick has pulled ahead of Jason Isbell, Isbell’s new song didn’t even make it in my best of list, let alone the top ten.
Hold My Hand – Jess Glynne – This must hit the US charts, it is gyramandered from a Clean Bandit (Jack Patterson is one of the writers) like beat, disco Moroder, Kanye piano discretions, and all comes together with a full force vocal as smart as it is addictive. Even the hook is a work of addition through addition. I really think it should be the song of the summer… A
My album of the week, Hudson Mohawke’s Lantern remains my favorite album of the week with Rustie’s 2014 Green Lantern, which I unfortunately missed entirely last year, also getting time. James Taylor and Wolf Alice are taking up the rest of my life.
Looks to me as though we have the song of the summer with “Cheerleader” -it has been in the UK charts for a coupla weeks now and it has just broken the top ten here, which means if it has legs, and it sure might have, this is gonna be on the charts all summer. While wiz is still at number, it is very vulnerable to a coup d’état and sooner rather than later
Can you imagine the anti-Vietnam demonstrations without music? can you imagine a war against the mass theft from the American public (all that blowback to the banks in 2009) with a soundtrack? Do you think you can argue wealth distribution to “Blank Space” or “Holy Grail” or “Believe”? Who would they influence and who would they be speaking t?
Just to gain some perspective on all this: 40% of the albums on this list have been on this list all year, and I mean that almost literally, maybe Meghan fell off for a week here and there but that is it. Everything else (where’s Willie?) kasts a week to three tops and disappears. Muse moved 79,000 units. That is anemic.
Of all the disappointments is any sadder than Adam Lambert, who came out of American Idol as first runner up in 2009 and was the epitome of out gay cool chic and sexiness. And then he couldn’t figure out what to do with it. His role as Freddie Mercury stand in with Queen was the epitome of what a waste, and three years after the disastrous Trespassing album, the one meant to save him from a bad debut album, here is the inferior The Original High. Who wants to be George Michaels in 2015?
Something More Free – Jason Isbell – Here is where Isbell begins to wear thin, this is exactly the sort of polemic he has been known to bypass and the sort of tropes you expect from Springsteen. The most average thing he has put his name to in three years feels like second guessing to these ears and for once he earns his Americana moniker by being steadfastly disinteresting and stodgy in his mainstream countryisms. Let’s hope there is better further in, though there is a saving grace: Amanda’s lovely violin playing, all underlying emphasis – B
Sure, Gorrillaz have performed here (I saw em, not as impressed as the rest of the world), and solo (I saw him, nowhere near as impressed as the rest of the world) but Blur have always been a great live band, the proof is in the performance, and if he cared about cracking the States he might tour the States, but Blur don’t care at all, so they leave the middle of America to wallow in their own bad taste.
Wolf Alice are slightly missing the name you think they’d have by now in New York, you know, the selling out MHOW, nearly selling out Bowery ballroom and finally playing Rough Trade on the Sunday tour, instead they haven’t sold out Le Poisson Rouge for Thursday nights gig, so here is the opportunity for a quick spin up close before the rest of new York catches.
Yeah, I blew off the Met recital -it was freezing? But now I have just one thought in my mind, Bennett and Gaga at Radio City on Friday. Will it be good? I loathed the album but I can’t help feeling that this will be a really great show, it will be a magic evening of American Standards by a pro and a protégée. Meanwhile, Active Child’s new album is very good: sort of ambient indie pop and he is performing at MHOW (sold out but it should be easy enough to buy one)
Lantern – Hudson Mohawke – The third best Scottish DJ, after Rustie and the one that is dating Taylor Swift, this is a surprisingly excellent collection of electronic sounds, which seems to balance between mainstream EDM and the stronger stuff. The title track is a doozy and wait around for Anthony’s appearance and Miguel adding a pop opprtunity late – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
Crazy Weather – Kevin Jenkins – If Kevin’s sophomore album is all quiet fury, this closer is loud anger, a ransacked guitar based quasi-Hendrix blues soul out, it sounds like everything is going out of control – B+
Dreams – Beck – This is OK when you concentrate on it, it isn’t Midnight Vultures but the beat is sure steady enough, and it is lively, But it irritates as background and then you realize he needs to find the middle ground he wasn’t had – B
Taylor has a large catalog, from covers like “You’ve Got A friend” and “How Sweet It Is (To be Loved By You)” to original songs like the lullaby “Sweet Baby James” and anthem “Shower The People”, all fine stuff, though over an album he could get a bit much, but his last three albums are something more, they honor the aging, they honor this time of life.
Paul Weller is playing the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto today, Monday, June 15th and Yahoo will be live streaming the full concert. Watch LIVE at 9pm EST / 6pm PST exclusively on yahoo.com/live. The stream will be available to view for 24 hrs.
If Belle And Sebastian were just about what you assumed they would be, then Graham Parker and the Rumor were better than they had any right to be and the Sonics, in Texas, were better than both.
– Rendezvous – The db’s – Have you ever dreamt about a song? I dreamt about this ode to Elvis Presley last night, in a wild one where a young Peter Holsapple was married to a close friend of mine, and we were at a clothing store and he was trying on suits… Perhaps I should get a life – A
I have this theory about the entertainment business, things should be exactly what they are. The proof is “Jurassic World”, the spliced up dinosaur meets the 21st century reboot, which has taken in $204.kM, beaten out only the The first Avengers. Congratulations to all and please lend me a million of it.
Not to be a reactionary, but this week has been the least reactionary chart of all time. The only new song here is the less than earth shattering “Shut Up And Dance” and everything else is mediocre jockeying for position. This is like a very warm Sunday afternoon -time for a snooze.
Nobody is surprised at the first two, what I’m surprised at is the Brand New Heavies leaders great EDM band Leftfield having a new album I don’t know and I am surprised how it is the best sounding album around and I completely missed it. Their first in 16 years and it is mindblowing. Don’t let this happen to you.
In a spirited and energetic 90 minutes with Graham dancing and jiving, and giving the spotlight to Martin for a sliver of a solo and Schwartz for a coupla bars before stealing it back again, a cranked up Hammond Organ by Bob Andrews all over the damn place, and a standard of song selection that has you spoiling for a favorite
The problem with “Soaked In Bleach” is Tom. Tom has a story to tell that has nothing to do with Love and Cobain and everything to do with forgiving himself. If the movie dealt with that it would have had the arc of a true dramatic tragedy, because it doesn’t it appears to be a partial truth.
Bennett is a genius and Lady Gaga had the tools of genius without the scope, and I actively disliked their album of standards when it was first released. With the duo playing New York this week, this is nothing much, but not terrible either. In the end, it is all a little whatever because Gaga lacks a certain sweetness to her voice, it isn’t abrasive but it isn’t an instrument built for the Great American Songbook – B-
We are off to the Presidential races with Hilary Clinton out of the gate and Echosmith performing their hit single “Cool Kids” -an astoundingly irrelevant track but so what? It’s the thought that counts
Bryce portrays a number crunching park’s operations manager Claire who loses track of her nephews through rank indifference while a newly spliced all thinking super dinosaur Indominus Rex has escaped and is… killing for sport. Enter Chris Pratt as some trainer of dinoers, this year’s Bruce Willis (actually, last years…) and off we go, the pair chasing Indominus chasing the boys.
The James Taylor song, that may be really major, same with most of the others, including the not remotely easy going AraabMuzik even though he sounds like it. But when the self-loathing Patrick Stickles follows a typical piece of self immolation “Let me show you my fatal flaw” he asks but pays it off with “it’s the best thing you never saw.” While Dawes benediction saves cliches like ” I hope your brother’s El Camino runs forever” with “and may all your favorite bands stay together. A line so great it has become an instantaneous cliche.
This Monday is a night as big as any Governors Ball, CMA or CBGB Fest you care to mention, The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series featuring Janai Brugger, Nathan Gunn, Isabel Leonard, and pianist Dan Saunders is not just for Opera fans, not even especially for Opera fans, it is for fans of singers and it has never been less than magnificent in the five years I’ve covered it. And it is free at Summerstage. Unmissable, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
The Neil Young album is his 36th, an agitprop assault on agritbusiness, and probably better than his 37th, the Willie Nelson son one, but not good enough either. I did a partial review of the Giorgio Moroder album a week ago, and I guess it is my most anticipated in any real sense, I mean it isn’t Hilary Duff or Hudson Mohawke that’s for sure, or Nate Ruess who seriously lacks consistency here, James Taylor I’ve heard and plan to review very soon, Adam Lambert? Third Eye Blind? I guess it isn’t as good a week as it looked at first. I haven’t heard Araabmuzik in ages, “Day Dreams” is a great song as well. . Let’s go with him.
Miss Armor – Azealia Banks – A modern day “She Bop”, Azealia’s ode to break up and masturbation, is the rhythm of the diddle come to life, it jumps out in heat and desire and should’ve been the first single, a great hook filled romp and even better live – A
“That’s how bad it is. … The level of displacement would be like nothing we’ve ever seen before. It would be devastating to working people in this city, and it would be the beginning of the end of New York City as we have known it as a place for everyone.”
“When I walk up to people they’re like, ‘Wow! You’re nice.’ They’re acting like I’m walking actually turning over furniture everywhere I go…I’m in my own zone. I can’t go walk around trying to defend myself, chime in on everything.”
There is very little I don’t admire about “Love And Mercy” but this is why I love it, this insistence upon the sound in the head becoming real through work. It feels like the truth, it feels like how creation should occur.
I read somewhere that with Letterman gone and Jon Stewart going, and the Two Jimmys and a James full of fluff and stuff, Seth Meyers has a small window before Stephen Colbert tries to swallow up the political late night arena. I went to a taping a while back and Seth was awful BUT, he had hardly been on stage two weeks at the time. Perhaps now is the time to give him another chance, especially with Jamie xx appearing on Monday.
20th Century Boy – T-Rex – You believe in God? Why is Marc Bolan dead and Rupert Murdoch is retiring at a ripe old age if this God is somewhere around? Surely that makes no cosmic sense whatsoever? – A
That was after Ronald Reagan sold out the free airwaves and gave Rupert both citizenship ahead of millions and an equally slimy handshake. 20th Century Fox Chairman Rupert is stepping down to be replaced by his son James. The biggest changing of the guard by a major despot since Hafez handed over the reigns of Syria to Bashar.Al Assad.
Lonely Woman – Ornette Coleman – The best bits on this iconic piece are when Coleman on sax and Don Cherry on trumpet plays this heartbreaking melody together, unbelievably sad and yet abrasive, like a nightmare that you wake up crying over – A
Before the halfway mark I was wondering if maybe Belle And Sebastian were the musical equivalent of a girl you broke up with years and years ago, and still obsessed about, then you run into her in the streets and realize, you know, you really weren’t that crazy about to start with.
The Replacements story is the latest in a long least of bad journalism by know nothings, a goodbye at their final show, an opinion that the Replacements won’t record some songs they’ve recorded and not a quote in the world. I guess they don’t know Paul, do they?
This is beyond anything we can consider decency. In a cleavage bearing mini black dress, while kids around her smile at the camera, while her teenage kid is being buried, is just incomprehensible. At least hide your indifference. The smug inhuman waste of space should be ostracized from society.
