Iman Lababedi

Christian rock beats horrorcore! What a disappointed, Slaughterhouse were saying we are thisclose to # 1, help us. I guess we didn’t heed their words and instead we get Jason Mraz of Godheads…

.Jejune Stars – Bright Eyes – I guess you’d have to be naive to tackle the fresh and earnestness of universal life and romance from the other side of 30. It finds Conor, getting deeper into his inner tick tock and sharing his otherness. Or maybe about the naming of pomegranates – Grade: A-

Ocean wants to bring it up, don’t be so damn nebulous. He is either:
1) Gay 2) Bi 3) Straight. Cmon Frank, pick a number

Most Of My Heroes Still Don’t Appear On No Stamps – Public Enemy – Musically they are stuck in neutral, politically they are color biased, and Chucky Baby, you ain’t as smart as you think you are. “surveeeeey says” This creams all comers.

Put Your Hands Up – Matchbox 20 – Look, I can’t stomach this band either but I did like one song off Rob Thomas’ solo album, and except for the outro break, nicked off “Smooth”, I don’t dislike this: the chorus is catchy as all get out and when they keep it bright and sparkly and ride a lovely little synth lick, it does the job – Grade: B

Salt N Peppa at Summerstage, were easily the best thing at the WBLS Fest, and there were a lot of great things there. They look hotter, act smarter, flow stronger, I loved them more than I did in their prime on August 12th, 2012. Plus? Peppa is hot.

Both Cat Power and Animal Collective sound very good on the first spin, and while this list seems a little on the shrimpy side, it is the first salvo in the Autumn wars. Still, I’ve got this odd feeling I am going to spend the next week streaming Dylan on ITunes.

Feelin’ Alright -Traffic -What Joe Cocker gave the song was muscle, sinews and sweat. It already had funk and swing, courtesy Stevie Winwood who wasn’t that far away from the Spencer Davis Group – Grade: A

The Old Gray Hat – Jack Phillips – Astounding song, a 1920s style jazz genre number with melody and heart to spare that does double duty as a self-portrait.

Clint Eastwood – Gorillaz – If Eastwood does for the Republicans what he did for Damon Albarn, Obama is in serious trouble. But maybe this was just as much Deltron 3030, who were the best thing about “Rock The Bells” as the Rawhide Kid – Grade: A

I have serious doubts about the setlist, Madonna is in her 50s, and I myself would appreciate a retrospective of her sparkling career when she takes the field at Yankee Stadium on Thursday. What I am gonna get is the newbie plus. Will it be enough? Worth finding out.

I bet Ora breaks big Stateside, Jigga will know what to do with the woman. Elbow are about as compleat contradistinction withRita, though not the surprise arrival Of Monsters And Men, and hey, give Alanis credit where due.

X Factor’s follow up to “Cannonball” is an overproduced blues burner with a highly highly annopying beat. Taylor is still hanging in there, but for how much longer? Maybe the video will get it a push back up to the top. Rita Ora is gonna crossover big time Stateside.

Nas Is Like – Nas – His undeniable classic of a song, beat everything leading towards and away because Nas suffers from anhedonia and everything he does denies its own job. Except this, which is tremendous fun – Grade: A

The new Dylan is awesome and will end up in my top 20 2012 almost for sure, Mr. Vegas channels the late lamented Gregory Isaacs, it is hard to imagine a sweet sounding man. Spider Bags (still the album of the year), is on its way off the chart and Taylor will probably hang another week.

Havoc And Bright Lights – Alanis Morissette – Not quite as bad as the name implies, but pretty terrible. The first two songs are mediocre Alanis, but after that it is a dreary mess, proving how band love and marriage can be for your artistic juices. This slow, draggy, album is in serious need of an editor and while it is not always her worse, it is her worse often enough. Ten years after Under Rug Swept, this is what is left Grade C-

A Little Love (That’s All I Want From You) – Mr. Vegas – Off his absolutely terrific Sweet Jamaica album, this song didn’t come within a million miles of making an appearance at da Reggae,. More the pity, because this absolutely lovely melody would have saved the night. Who needs Mr. Energy when you have Mr. Melody? – Grade: A

A Little Love (That’s All I Want From You) – Mr. Vegas – Sweet Jamaica, is the name of this Lover’s Rock artist, and these rhythms swing so sweet and mellow it is hard to deny him. I wouldn’t why mainstream USA don’t cover him. Grade: B+

Listen to the Owl City once and you love it, twice and it is oddly irritating, five times and you are ready to shoot yourself. Oh well, at least we know Carly is at worst a two hit wonder

If Trey had to get a number one, this is the album to get it with and three of the top four albums are heavy hip hop affiliates. Tenth Avenue Noth is CCM (Christian rock band) and not the worst one, though still unpleasant.

Kiss On My List – Hall And Oates – Back in the day I trashed Private Eyes in the Village Voice. What was I thinking of? This is as great as blue eyed soul ever gets and gave the boys a whole new world. And I know for sure Daryl was checking out Prince around this time because I saw him at the 1999 gig – Grade: A

The world just dies on us, it disappears and there is nothing that can bring it back. I remember when the Ramones played the Village a coupla days a week for years on end, and that ended. And now the Colony, a New York institution for decade after decade is going as well. Oh well, I am sure we will get a wonderful Chase Bank vestibule in its place.

Bob Dylan claimed that he original planned to make Tempest an album more religious, but found the single theme concept album too constricting. But the ghost of the idea lies in “Duquesne Whistle”, another traveling song with a twist

. Long time readers may remember I was infamously expelled from the Boy Scouts for taking the train when I shouldda been hiking. Something of an overreaction if you ask me. Still, the pain lingers and my ideaof hell is being at the back of a crowd of 100,000 people seeing “Daughter”.

I’ve thought of catching Das Racist a couple of times but the timing wasn’t right and when I heard they were playing Irving Plaza on September 29th, the timing wasn’t right either. I am seeing Corin Tucker at Mercury Lounge that night. But, catch this, Corin is a 730p early showm and with two opening acts, Das Racist will probably hit the stage at tenish..

”Looking back on it, I know exactly what was going on. When I look back on that whole combination of people, I can only imagine how freaky it was”

Guardian – Alanis Morrisette – It’s been a long long time since Alanis blew us all away with “Hands Clean”, and this, while standard issue good as opposed to painful Alanis (though the chorus gets kinda close to please stop now level), isn’t gonna change the perception. Still, it is nice to heard such devotion from the girl, and it should play well on stage – Grade: B

Simplicity is a gift, and Claire’s Diary is simple but in a complicated way. Adding a guy to the mix ups the sexual complexity clearly mooted in the proto-teen CBOH, and channeling Kathleen Hanna raises the specter of girl power all the way to feminism

A Rickie Lee Jones cover album? I had hoped it’d be filled with jazz covers, Charlie Mingus preferably, but instead it is standard issue 1960s classic rock for the most part. Jamey Johnson’s hank Cochran trib looks like a better concept. And as long as we are in cover land, I don’t see how another Nick Lowe covers album to top the last one. I mean, Graham Parker’s version of “Rose Of England” is better than Lowe’s original