Morrissey can do no wrong in books -I mean musically, needless to add. In a remarkable career, he has never released a song, let alone an album, I’ve found easy to dismiss. But here is a hint: Listen to “Year Of Refusal”
I’ll have six weeks to listen to Local Business and then have the joy of watching Titus Andronicus play it live. Titus in NJ is like Bruce in NJ -ground zero
That’s what William achieved in his career. A kid from Iowa, who made a career by being sincere, self-effacing, in himself and in his songs. Williams died last month at the age of 84
Yes folks, it is that time of year: “Tradition, tradition, tradition…” as they would say in Fiddler On The Roof. Ever since we were conceived many many years ago, rock nyc has only ever considered a season begun proper till we have cut and pasted Pitchforks Upcoming releases
Loaded Out Of Heaven – Bruno Mars – Mars is a talented fellow, no doubt. But you would be hard pressed to prove it on this all important introduction to post stardom Mars. This is modern r&b which misses by a mile, despite its enormous business – Grade:C
The remix of “One Day/Reckoning” by Asaf Avidan and the Mojos blew up on him and the next thing Jacob knew, the old four on the floor had done its magic again. The song is awesome, extremely catchy and easy to, well, easy to clap along to
Why does James equate smoking weed with promiscuity I mean, even this guy can’t believe Lady Gaga is “habitually careless in personal appearance at work?” Though it would make more sense really, right? Too stoned to shower?
Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra caused the sort of controversy they should keep to, are they better than the Dresden Dolls? AT Webster Hall September 11th, 2012.
Winding it down. I look at it like a faucet. I have to turn it off and walk away from it because so much of how that music comes together is subconscious or discovering
Red – Taylor Swift When Swift writes a better song, style doesn’t matter. When she misses, style doesn’t help. This is a very, very busy song for such a small metaphor, and though the bridge lifts it up pretty high, the soaring synths are too manipulative. You wanna beg it to calm itself down. But if it fails as Paramore like big rock and roll song, it isn’t the worst thing in the world. The repeat of the first line at the end? Pure Taylor – Grade: B
If Jack White at Radio City Music Hall, either night, isn’t enough, then don’t fool yourself, you don’t love rock and roll
Charmer – Aimee Mann – This is more than a return to form, it is a return to old form. One great, moving, pained and beautiful song after another with ultimate professionalism and consistency. It is hard to imagine anywhere it might be improved upon.
228 tracks, 14 hours of great 2012 music. Only the top 20 are in any order. So what kind of year is it? It is a year so highly distracted it doesn’t know where to stop
Tired ? Got work tomorrow? It is 113opm, sit own and take it. Cold? Hungry? Drunk? Meet the Bruce Sprinsgteen endurance test. Your eyes are shutting but shut up while somewhere near the third hour mark HE IS TELLING A STORY ABOUT HIS GRANDPARENTS.
OK, agreed, Van is the biggie and the first single has me interested in both the Vaccines and Muse, but Monica had an excellent album earlier this year and I am way hungry for some more great r&b…
Bang A Gong (Get It On) – T-Rex – If you really wanted to, I think you could make a case for Marc Bolan as the single most influential rock star since the birth of glam. To this day, glam gives the tude to modern pop, and since this song, the bass has taken over the forefront and lead the bass as hook charge of the 21st century dance sensation – Grade: A+
“I don’t care how good it is, life is too short to support the filth.”
– An 8 night run at an arena puts you in U2 and Bruce areas. It means you’re playing Metlife next tour. An 8 night run at an arena you part own makes you a mogul in U2 and Bruce areas. It’s like Derek Jeter being part owner of the Yankees or something. And while I was less than thrilled by the concert, though I didn’t dislike it, and while it wasn’t the Black Man Elected President of Hip Hop, people seem to think it is. It sure is something else.
As far as legendary French singers goes, Johnny Halliday plays Jerry Lee Lewis to Serge Gainsbourg’s Johnny Lennon. At least at first. Then he became a chaunteuse Francais a la Aznavor and a cast of thousands. The chance to see the great man is very rare indeed. Worth giving up your Sunday to visit beacon theater for.
I would flip the top two, but I ain’t gonna shout about it if you wouldn’t. Lucy Rose is a folkie a la Laura Marling but with a more soulful voice and Jonathan and Charlotte are a Britian Has Talent winners circle duo who put operatic big bang boom to everything they touch.
PSY, indeed K-Pop as a whole, proves exactly what you can gain and lose when you translate Western culture to Asian. You gain a gleeful innocence, you lose subtext. Not a bad trade off. The rest of the chart is really lame.
Polly – Amanda Palmer And The Grand Theft Orchestra – Initially recorded for Spin’s tribute album, this is an alarming a version of Cobain’s masterpiece of the sustained sinister and horrorshow banality of evil in all its shapes. Forced violence is right in Palmer’s tree and she murmurs and articulates: “she caught me off my guide…?”, “the will of instinct…”. Grade: A
Lupe Fiasco – Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1 – Hardcore agitpropping by the last revolutionary rapper without an initial in his name, works the mainstream of the rap landscape to make a point. After LASER, this was here to break mainstream big time and maintain its authority by a man who called the President (yes, THIS ONE) a terrorist. It has its moments, the singles we already know are pretty good, and “How Dare You” is a potential smash. But the album is too bland and obvious, and while Lupe can ure rhyme, his voice will never have authority. Grade: B
Ain’t No Half Stepping – Big Daddy Kane – This stuff, late 1980s, sounds dated in a good way, in the sorta way that had Barclay Center singing the hook back to the big time Brooklyn man boss. Spin it now and you wonder about the sample, but not for long – Grade: A
The FILM I saw of Jay-Z performing “99 Problems” with Pearl jam was better than anything I heard last night. Despite a mid-section blast from “”99 Problems” to “Big Pimpin'” the set was too deep, too fanboy oriented. I enjoyed it, when I am not hatin’ on Hova, I am his fanboy. But he never got up to speed.
As I leave Mercury Lounge, Corin Tucker is back behind the table hawking her tee-shirts. How many stars of Corin’s stature, and my admiration for her body of work (not to mention haircut) is just about boundless, would be doing that? Ha, que pasa? Everything is good.
The Green Day album? Except for the first single, just about perfect and I could have chosen any of the first five tracks. Otherwise, people have been claiming I love everything (me???), well, not quite. I hate the new Killers, except for this song…
Atomic – Blondie – The Ice Queen of pop brings all the white cool heat to desire and explodes it with one word. Meanwhile, the “is a group” portion take their cues from Moroder and between the lot reinvent dance for the 1980s – Grade: A-
The odd couple at the center, artist errant Byrne, and Polyphonic art rock Annie Clark (who goes by the name of St. Vincent, though not when David is announcing her), would seem to share only a certain obtuseness.
The song is about as country as Taylor is gonna get, it is country without the twang, though it doesn’t sound like her, it is an ancestor of Patsy Cline. A modern countrypolitan (I bet Taylor wishes Owen Bradley was still around)
By the end, a miracle (yes, MIRACLE) saves father and daughter from total disaster in this two hour rebuttal to “Moneyball” in much the same way “Rio Bravo” was a rebuttal to “High Noon”. But just because it doesn’t do much on the realism scale doesn’t mean it isn’t fun in its own sweet sour.
Actually, the complete title of this post is “The Old Rock Stars Don’t Die They Just Releases Lousy Albums That Get Five Stars From Syncophantic Rock Critics Test” but I didn’t have the room. It is really easy to play and fun for all the family. So let’s start…
I really love PSY’s one time only hit single, just for the intense otherness of it all. I don’t know if K-Pop is gonna take over the world (the Prudential Center sold out before I could get my hands on a tix) but if it does, it will be its cultural strangeness. Like France’s new wave, it takes American idioms at makes it their own.
Pink’s album? If she gets lucky it might still be on the charts next summer, which makes it the only album on this chart that can make that claim. None of this stuff will be still here by the end of November. Hell, by the begining
His Lamest Flame – Mary Lou Lord – rock nyc received a very nice message from the great folkie Mary Lou Lord the other day.Hhas there ever been a worse case of not being where you need to be when you need to be? This classic jingle jangles on a terific hook, “nananananaa, his lamest flame”, Was it a hit? You gotta think so, right. – Grade: A
Neither songs are exceptions, track after track, 11 between the two, are ear candy. They should be huge in college…. maybe even bigger in High School.
if you are gonna be there I’d love to know what you thought! Their latest album is a killer, if they do half of what they can on stage Friends are gonna become a band of lovers
There is no money, and certainly nothing vaguely amusing in the “Shitehouse” comment. It isn’t a pun, it doesn’t sound similar and it doesn’t rise above playground name calling. of a woman who died at 27 years.
The Beatles! Live! Direct To Radio! WITH LOVE FROM ROCK NYC TO YOU!!!!!!!!!
The only album that has a chance of being worth the price of admission is Tracy and then again… there is a built in catch. If you aren’t being faithful to the original why bother and if you are being faithful to the original, why bother?
One For The Money – Royce da 5’9″, Skillz, Diamond D – Eminem made him a star and Slaughterhouse give him some serious competition, but Diamond D is less thrilling here. This is the state of the art in rap, but it lacks something and I don’t mean heart, I mean conviction – Grade: B
It sounded great, but except for the light show, it was all a little boring. Like listening to classical music, opera is fun, classical, all people do is stand around and play and essentially that’s all the Brooklyn based experimental indie rock band does.
1. Rock stars date beautiful people. 2. Models are beautiful 3. Therefore rock stars date models. And sometimes marry em!
”I feel like we’ve been doing this for so long, five or six years. And we’re kind of like saying, well, let’s just do what’s natural and just kind of explore that, instead of like forcing it all the time.”
If you have tix to the Monday October 22nd show at the Beacon, well, you will definitely gonna hear “Judy” as they will playing their entire first album. Tempting but I went for Saturday’s show because, well because it’s a Saturday.
Green Day are pretty good when it comes to opening bands, I saw Kaiser Chiefs open for em one time, Velvet Revolver another. But Best Coast I’m really thrilled about.
Walk Like A Giant – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Neil’s best new song in decades, maybe since stuff off El Dorado, is an expansive 16 minute hot diggety proto- Sergio Leone theme replete with whistles and deep guitar struts. By the end it is just a marshal shrapnel plummeting, and in between Young worries about getting old. The reason I am so happy I’ve failed to like anything Young has produced till this year, is so when I say this is a return to form, you can believe- Grade: A
“So it is a lot of stuff that has been kept under the radar, meaning a lot of us are not too accessible or don’t know what we are doing to get known and we are kinda content with that.”
What Pete got to see was two renditions of “Happy Birthday” and Bruce’s 87 year old mom Adele, along with his sister and wife, present him with a cake. Pretty amazing right. This was the first time Bruce has played on his birthday since cells were invented!
There may be no money in writing about music, but many a musician has used it as a stepping stone to a career as a pop star!
