That’s the same price as this year’s presale but they get to hold your money for a year. If they had any sense they’d do it in monthly installments of $100 If they did that many people would sign up, and they’d still have their bucks six months before Governors Ball 2016 begins
So why am I so excited to hear that Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks are joining Super Furry Animals, oh and also the greatest guitar rock band in the world today, Screaming Females, at the Village Voice’s 4 Knots gig on Saturday, July 11, at Pier 48, Hudson River park? To put it simply, that is three great acts in a row, plus? Mikal Cronin, and for just the $25 admission ($50 for VIP).
Giving fidelity a really really bad name, please meet Andy Grammer, one of the more annoying pop stars in the world who gives jauntiness whole new levels of irritation on a truly dreadful song. This past year has been a drag for the world of pop, as conservative and sedentary as music can get.
When is a hit album not a hit album? When it is by two of countries biggest stars and still only moves 30K units. To put it another way, including Grandkids and Great Grandkids, cousins, seconds cousin, and former bandmate’s next of kin, nobody else actually bought the damn thing. Talk about going to pot.
Live With Me Live At Leeds 1971 – The Rolling Stones – I am less than convinced by the third album, but this version is dynamic and the lick rings so nice, that let’s consider it the exception, as Jagger makes a declaration a desire – A
From the better never than late department, Governors Ball took up so much of last week, three days, and something like 30 miles of walking between stages, 37 sets viewed, etc, etc, etc, this recap is well late. What can I say about Governors Ball that I haven’t said? See you next year, that’s what I can say.
Belle And Sebastian’s recorded work is so large at this time in their career that, with the exception of a handful of tracks circa Sinister to Arab Strap, and the dreaded newbie, the rest could go anywhere they choose. The opening acts, Diarrhea Planet and Real Estate, look pretty terrific as well. Radio City Music Hall is a pretty excellent venue as well.
Sweet Love Of Mine – Joy Williams – The third song off her ready to drop newbie, the first two split between winner and loser but this? Wait for it…The best of the three, a simply piece of Americana that gets it quite right, especially the bridge where she uses her falsetto to powerful effect – A-
Steady with Maestro – The Roches – off one of the best albums of the early 1980s, the sisters perform three piece harmonies on a gently song about sleeping with your boss. The album, Keep On Doing, made them superstars round our way and this is maybe the fourth best song on the album – A
Last week’s debut album by Algiers was the album of the week, a place where Gospel and hard rock cross pollinated with the blues and tonight at Mercury Lounge, 630 doors, they will be greeted as stars. A huge gig for them, but if you wanna be difficult the UK rockers the Vaccines at Warsaw.
Conquerors – The Darkness – In which the Glam Goth bore boys of rock go out in a hail of heavy duty overdone bullets over London, all Queen like “We Are The Champions” but they still can’t sell it to the masses – C
Playing catch up after three days of music and music and music, this is very late but it is nevertoolte for a song as great as “Fatal Flaw” -it is the sort of song that makes some of Titus fanatics. nd as for “All Of Your favorite bands”? Reminds you how crappy their other songs are.
Suffolk County – Cousin Stizz – “Ain’t nothing much to do around here” Boston rapper Cousin Stizz notes in a cool flow on the first track, “shout out to the money, love the drugs” he raps on the very next track (his breakthrough hit) and claims “I am the Fresh Prince” on the third track on this working hustlers stories of life and business. Then he gets down to business – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
I would rank the 2015 Governors Ball below 2014 but above 2013 and 2012, when you read about the rioting at Summer Jam Sunday night, if nothing else you have to admire their security. I saw no fights, hell I didn’t see a disagreement, there was a lot of security but it wasn’t the obstructive sort.
Definitely the biggest difference was the lousiness of EDM on Sunday, it ruled on Friday and Saturday. And the real mistake, like my biggest mistake, was missing most of Chronixx. After an iffy show last year, I was pleasantly surprised at his performance.
Live is where he comes into his own as a no nonsense UK rocker who has a better feel for harmolodics then you might imagine, everything here is about arranging a sound where nothing sticks out and nothing goes under, it is like a mountain that is all peak. Liam will always be missed but not half as much as Liam misses Noel
After not much caring for the Miike Snow offshoot Galantis last week, this week it sounds much better. But it is Natalie La Rosa’s cover of Whitney Houston’s huge single that makes me less than surprised at the chance of it being a song of summer 2015.
One of the strangest things about life is the UK’s penchant for high brow, low talent classical pop pap, here represented by Will Young and Collabro -both brought to us by Simon Cowell, a man who knows the value of everything and the worth of nothing.
Living The Dream – Sturgill SImpson – The break out song during the set yesterday, on stage it is blow up and blow away jam track that saved his set, on record a mid-tempo swinger with a jammy middle eight, right after “she thinks mercy is overrated” — B+
Hot 97’s Summer Jam is always a chaos filled evening of fun and games, I once saw 50 Cent throw chairs at the audience who were booing him in the middle of a lousy set. Yesterday it erupted into chaos as folks without tickets tried to storm Metlife and the cops tear gassed them. Meanwhile, people with tickets were being denied admission.
Flying Lotus may well be the best DJ out there, he gives the world beats so fresh they are almost impenetrable, so obtuse you know where he is ever heading, But to perform behind a screen for your set? That’s kinda pushing it right?
A terrific and immensely pleasurable time especially since his last album was a # 1 hit. The best shouts for the terrific “White And Nerdy” but he could have gotten away with playing polkas on his accordion all night.
If I lost interest 20 minutes in, the rest of the audience is huge, even against A-Traak and attentive as the acid test, “This can’t be a better end to our fucking tour” before unleashing a weird and glorious stomper.
As blue eyed soul guys Mayer Hawthorne has a lot going for him, my boss came back from a private gig at VH1 raving about the guy. But guess what? He never mentioned Mayer again. Why? Because Mayer can write them and he can sing them but he can’t write a memorable hook to save his life.
So what’s the difference between Americana and country? When it comes to Sturgill Simpson not a damn thing, leading
I caught this masterful Rastaman last year at Summerstage, today he has his pop side on… All high octane rubadub son of Marley and as impressive as ever, maybe more so.
Here in Randall’s Island they went from an awesome “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” to less awesome more mathematically inclined beats off their upcoming album…
LA pop band Echosmith are a new wave fun machine with echoes of Katrina And The Waves without the jangle
It is difficult to say anything about a show which ends with “Hyperballad” but a show that deconstructs “Army Of One” is easier and more, it is telling the best songs were Vulnicura songs, the two songs that opened the album opened the 7om 75 minute set and the were the most stunning of them all.
The trick with Governors Ball is, if you like rock and indie, move between the Honda and Big Apple stages, and if you love dance and hip hop, the Gotham tent and GovBall Stage… more or less. Noel is at the GovBall stage today at 7pm so there are exceptions.Net year they may want to reconsider where they want to put EDM, the Gotham tent overflowed constantly. Kiesza’s set was a madhouse
Look, face it, the new Belle And Sebastian is a dog with fleas, now move on with your life and check the Los Campesinos of pop folk (please, not the Pet Shop Boys) at Radio City on Wednesday: with Real Estate and Diarrhea Planet opening, it should for one of the treats of the pop year.
if this was a better week I wouldn’t have gone with Muse, of the four songs I’ve heard only one is a killer, everything else is various degrees of whatever. But who else? Jenny Hval wrote the quietly distressed “Death Of The Author” but over an album the Oslo native is a little too much. Of Monsters And Men are one of the least thrilling bands in the world. The Guardian called Drones “an Orwellian break-up album”, so that should do it, right?
Never Catch Me – Flying Lotus featuring Kendrick Lamar – If you wanna know why Lamar is considered one of the biggest rappers around, listen to him rap to one of Flying Lotus’ more disjointed jazz beats – A-
All hail the true American Pharoah, The Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, his great jockey Bob Baffert, he of the identical tall blonde bombshell girlfriend and fiancee, and everybody who bet their shirt when they discovered American Pharoah would be running from his favorite lane, on the way to being the first horse to win the Triple Crown since…. 1978!!!
Rustie is a DJ from Glasgow – one of the worlds’s great cities though a little rough round the edges, not unlike this amazing guy who drops the bass sure but then heads off into aural heaven.
Opening with “Real Love” and including the blondie (I know, no internet access) adds a oboe and someone else on a sax and the sound is a terrific mindfuck. VIP is still quiet but GA stretches and stretches as the band plays mainstream electronic dance pop.
The beats are so heavy I can feel em in my feet. Not to mention my eardrums,rushing like the devil was on my tail, I made it in time for half an hour.
Yes, it rained at the start but it stopped but that wasn’t the big news, the big news was they finally tiled the Gotham Tent so the VIP section wasn’t a horrible swamp. Oh, and the other news is the autograph pavilion! Structurally, it was a good first day, it is hardly the promoters fault if the performers had their ups and down!
I caught the first six songs, and Jim James vocal on “Evil Urges” was ridiculous, a Curtis Mayfield inspired complete triumph but the night (or what I saw of it) belonged to lead guitarist Carl Broemel, who was beyond awesome on “Circuital. How a band who have been at it so long can be so clueless as to how to record themselves is beyond.
Florence Welch has a big voice and a great attitude, arms open wide she lets everybody in with a dreamy, exciting, banging attitude and a full band and a full voice. “There’s a big sign here that says “STEPS” she told us, to remind Florence, who broke her foot earlier this year at Coachella, not to jump. She jumped any way.
In a first, the Canadian master had a sign language interpreter on stage with him as he made a dash through the heart of the set, “Worst Behavior: through “Hell Ya Fucking Right” with “Tuesday” on one end and “Started From The Bottom” on the other and right in the middle his masterpiece “Hold On, We’re Coming On” and right here Governors Ball came into its own
Kesis dedicates a song to his five year old son and it is a great moment in a show with plenty of them, the unflagging energy and excellence has the audience -by the way, later last night Drake claimed it was the best audience he ever had, and while I don’t know about that, in set after set the audience were the fifth Beatle.
On stage she is a dynamic if minor player for now, moving well, singing very well, and keeping the audience interested with her soul inflected vices and pixieish good looks and good humor. “Lean On” got the biggest roar of her afternoon I’m guessing
After calling its audience bricks in the wall watching black kewpie dolls, Conor takes the money and runs tonight where he spends his day on Randalls Island and evening in Brooklyn. Hypocrisy? Sure, but money talks. The real problem here is the song -which is not very good despite the bass blasts – C
Bill de Blasio will lose his job if he doesn’t get the quality of life under control. Homelessness is rampant with aggressive scary folks on the streets, the MTA is a crap shoot, people are being mugged in Central Park everyday, murders are up 20% over last year which were up 11% over the year before. All of this without the 1970s added plus of being cheap.
I wish I’d left Charli earlier and caught more of his excellent set.
Starting with an electrified with “Sucker” this is hot pop punk.
Gorgon City perform first rate House Music and soulful and extremely fun disco via London and they are much better live with a chick singer who can roar and an energetic kick ass attitude
Rae Sremmurd are the two lively young brats who look like Will Smith’s brats but with you know real talent
Right now New Yorks DIIV have stopped acting out your dreams (you remember Alysons story the other day) and are playing some buzzed out fuzzed out guitar indie gear.
