The youthful indie band are just a blast, a loud, jangly, addictive and very much fun quartet, pushing their first EP, the uniformly excellent Awkward, filled to brimming with bright sunshiny rock pop filled with choruses that go “oooh ooh ohhh”
This is why you read rock nyc. We were writing about both Taylor Swift and Titus Andronicus long long long before the rest of the world caught on. And now that they are both releasing major and excellent new albums, because you read rock nyc, you can say, sure, I knew em when. Congratulations
Golden Revolver – San Cisco – Sporting the hook of the week, “Why would I try, when you’re not even remotely shy” this is the song you wish existed when you were 15 years old, a melodic singalong with cheeky lyrics and charm to spare. Indie pop gets no better, and if I can figure out why its directed to a man I’ll like it even more! – Grade: A
Still, Saturday was more than just a nostalgia trip and ever since Crosby got straight they’ve emerged from the drugs and the money. This wasn’t CSNY 2000 -but it wasn’t bad.
The Origin Of Love – Mika – He looks like a teen Caligua on the album cover and there is something of an evil genius in waiting about the simple, lovely but kinda shallow dance pop album, by the half Lebanese, half Yank boy wonder. Though he’d promised that half of this album would be French, he musta changed his mind, instead he is speaking anglaise and playing straighahead modern pop. Bet it breaks big in the EU – Grade: B+
Last time I saw Franki Valli was at Lincoln Center just after Jersey Boys hit and was, frankly speaking, not awed. But I was awwwed, and I am catching a night of the Four Seasons seven night stand at Broadway Theater on Friday night. I’m guessing I don’t need to tell you why.
Sure, “Two Fingers” is great, Helen said so a month ago, but Jake Bugg isn’t all that. Leona Lewis is like the girl who won a beauty pageant five years ago and wonders why she isn’t any happier.
The new Harris-Welch is better than the old Harris-Welch, Lawson are a new boy band from the UK and they seem harmless enough, and otherwise, the UK charts are as always, heavy dance plus pop.
. It Gets Dark – Holy Ghost! – The last disco band in the world have lost nothing with this synth and drums old fashioned house party track, an atmospheric piece of eerieness that propels it self on Halloween-y slash and redrum – Grade: B+
Dolenz has a new album out Remember, “Sugar Sugar” and a tremendous “Good Morning Good Morning” are both on it and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Dolenz was wonderful, he stepped out of his own shadow and performed the set the late great Davy Jones owed us in February
Roseland is a straight, long floor, and if you are at the back there is nothing to do but listen to people buy drinks and get hassled, jostled, bumped into and irritated by fatheaded fans.
Everything is running like clockwork. It is so digital, on the mark, smart as help, sure no problem for sooooo many people. If the country was half as well organized…
. Labrador – Aimee Mann – This song not sticking with the rest of the world, let alone with me, is an indictment of a world where an album has 15 minutes to make an impression before the next one is here to take your attention away. This is a terrific song about fidelity but you really have to give it a little time for the melody to glue itself – Grade: B
But that isn’t where Killer Mike is at ALL THE TIME. On RAP Music, he is too hard, on stage he is something else jumping off the stage and spending the last two songs dancing and rhymin’ with us, his arms around a fan, going round and round and round.
Wild Nothing have played ethereal melodies for college kids who might be stoned or might be smoking tea for three years now, and if the first album is the best, the latest, Nocturne, isn’t unconscionable.
you know how some weeks, all the new releases jumle into one big mess of sound, and there is no real difference between # 1 and # 7? This ain’t that, the new K’NAAN hijacked my spotify and held it ransom
Go – Killer Mike – On stage, he has a deeper voice and on this song, he has a spirit so playful much of the bad humor that inflicts rap disappears in a community. This song didn’t stand out on the album, but after hearing it live it is so much more than a clever tongue twister. It is loud, brash and lots of fun – Grade: A
One thing is for sure, Jigga was in great voice. Nerves might have made him less eloquent, but it didn’t effect his ability to rap, and through 8 career spanning tracks, he flips and spits with eloquence and precision
For one thing, a lot of the guys had breasts now. And they were al much younger than me, that never happened before. Inexplicable, right
remember how I bet the rent they would tour this year. well, i won the bet, plus, if Richards had been up to speed it would have been a lot more than four shows, so i win and you suck.
M&L have been hard at work for years to pull this off, and so congratulate them, but I’ll take MGK, to be perfectly honest. Otherwise, the younger generation of rock nyc writers fave All Time Low beat out Ellie, and Mumford And Sons is no fluke while Muse might be.
The Maroon 5 album this comes from has been around since June, so with this their third smash, figure mission accomplished. Which is more than you can say for Adele WHO DID NOT MAKE THE TOP TEN SINGLES!!! Amazing, right? Is it over that fast? Surely not. PS: TS’s album in slices appears to be working fine. but except for “Never Ever” it is selling to the base. Conclusion: the base is huge.
Wild Boy Remix – MGK – Yes, bitch, he is Steve-O and yes, bitch, this is about as much fun as hip hop gets with a guest list of, well, many, and a nice back track that sounds like it escaped from a Hitchcock movie, MGK seems to be be having a blast with his homies – Grade: B+
So while six year old girls die all day long, we don’t know about it. But we know about this one, we got a sense of this lively lovely girl Alanna Routh, and that youngsters loss feels terrible. It sucks.
Neither performer are what I would dub wild populists, on their Facebook page they name “Silence” as their influence and I sincerely believe them,.. And on stage Jack hardly says a word and he is the absolute life of the party! Oli stared at his keyboards for the entire , admittedly short, set.
She looks great, gorgeous, and she doesn’t need the publicity so she is doing it because she looks so beautiful. Sexy but more than that, a sort of depth of sensuality and a grown up facade after years of being something of a child
Previously unheard songs recorded by late rocker Ian Dury are to be released alongside a book filled with the singer/songwriter’s scrawled notes and photographs.
it isn’t as though you just plug in and play, you actually have to be screened and approved. I read where they received around 10,000 requests this year!
”They have some new music that’s going to be added to the film…Some pretty huge artists have approached Baz and are writing songs for the film, and I don’t think Warner Bros. are going to turn down Prince and Lady Gaga knocking down your door.”
Bulletproof Pride – K’Naan – It is really a wonder that since U2 refused to perform those big beautiful ballads that made them famous, nobody has really stepped up to fill the gap. Coldplay from time to time but otherwise, not unlike Bruce Springsteen, any pretenders have been sort of useless. But this year, we’ve had “Magic” from muse and now this Somalian bore nails the door shut with Bono taking lead vocals. Makes you miss the old Irish bastard – Grade: A
He has a record label distributed by SONY, he has a family of musicians who play upon each others records for True Groove Records, he gets to play whatever he likes for whoever he likes whenever he likes, release the music, tour, and grow his Label and concept larger and larger
My bet is millions of people saw that pix of Ben Affleck with a beard and thought, “not with my $14, you don’t”. There is something smug about the entire enterprise. And while movie critics probably got too caught up in the hype, it is difficult to convince people what they know not to be true
In communion lies hope and this is as addictive a singalong as you will ever ever hear. It is a melodic pounding with lots gorgeous gorgeous and a great piano break and you can’t help but singalong even if maybe it is meant to be magnified solo
It is hard to understand where this all comes from, how does Rod Stewart at 65 (which he was when I saw him at MSG and 68 (which he will be when he tours) has simply the energy to get on stage and sing and dance for hours on end.
Can You Believe It – Martha Wainwright – It’s been years since we’ve gotten new material off the other other Wainwright, but this sure ain’t “Bleeding All over You”. Instead, despite a funny opening line about loving make-up sex because it is the only kind she get, this is all marital. I wouldn’t mind so much if the song was a little more brittle. PS: her pipes are in fine shape – Grade: B
I am really exciting about it, now, that I can see how to deal with it. Not to worry about the names that are about to break but maintain my love for those bands that may get big,
But put em together on on one bill, they are playing Gramercy Theater on November 17th (a Saturday) and you may just have an awesome show indeed.
So now we know, Taylor didn’t lend her song to streaming services and lost out for that reason. Money doesn’t matter, sales doesn’t matter. It is just a mess. It is a joke. The Billboard charts are like throwing darts at a dartboard. Who knows what is selling the most?
Fagen, Wainwright and Maynard are all biggies. Wainwright in particular has gotten married and had a child since her last album of new materiial. As For Lewis, this either breaks her big time here or leaves her a matter of irrelevance…
Apathy – Trash Talk – The loudest song off their new album is also the best off their new album, a brash hardcore piece of thrash rock exploding loudly and then subsiding – Grade: A
He was 100% on, bopping up and down, arms to the heaven, dancing to the powerful deep bass beats, and triggering his disco charges as he lead a fine band. A terrific performance by the man who changed the face of modern music.
Today, I spend my weekends writing and sleeping! I guess that’s what happens when you grow old! But still, I do steal time for some reading over and above newspapers and rock mags. I just finished off Chuck Palahaniuk’s very funny and smart “Damned” and am in the midst of three rock books.
CMJ Music Marathon 2012, October 16th to October 20th, 2012 all over the city, and I will be attending as a member of the press after my co-editor Helen Bach decided I wasn’t busy enough and requested a Press Pass and somebody at CMJ baffingly, though appreciatedly, approved.
The Ellie Goulding album I wish I liked more than I do. Which is not much. It is really blah, not unlike its name. As for ELO, ten years ago I would have assumed the first rate covers album by Jeff Lynne had heralded them in, today I assume they were on sale.
Wow, Swedish House Martin beat out Adele! How the hell did that happen? I am, frankly, shocked and pleased by this turn of events but I wonder what Adele is making of it? Certainly, the song, which is crap, though the singing isn’t, deserves to tank. Still, this should have been a slamdunk if only from the millions of nosey!
She – Jeff Lynne – Remember Elvis Costello’s cover? Neither does Jeff, this harks directly to Charles Aznavour’s original, and of course it isn’t as good. Except during the break, which seems to have escaped from an ELO album – Grade: A-
Suzanne Real is the star of her second album Kiss Me Like A Man, and from the producer Ed Stassium’s prophetic opening direction: “Whatever happens, don’t stop”, Real catapults herself into the big time
Numbers – MellowHype – I thought their name was ironic, but on their second record MellowHype live up to its name. All very Wiz Khalifa but without the pop sensibility. The best tracks owe debts to Odd Future team mates Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatshirt, in other places it is too down beat and dreary. And while I love the horn on “Brain”, and quite like the rap, exceptions don’t make rules – Grade: B-
You Don’t Know How It Feels – Tom Petty – Maybe a decade past his prime, Petty was still hovering between Southern boogie and Florida’s Springsteen. Pr, if you prefer, the Wallflowers. And here, he gets it all in a rock star confidential that spells out the quandary he faces: “you don’t know how it feels to be me”. Or is that “I’m too alone to be proud”? – Grade: A
When compared to her 2000 retirement concert at MSG (something else she has in common with Jay-Z) , it lacks the unerring sense of song to moment,. 2000 was easier because it was a career retrospective (no guests, no opening act) so the form was built in and all she had to do was follow all those great songs
