Iman Lababedi

Founding Editor of Rock NYC. Iman Lababedi was a freelance rock critic in the 1980s, took a break of 20 years, and has been writing and editing the music blog rocknyc.live since 2009. He considers this to be in many ways a golden age for pop music and hopes you are enjoying it too.

rock nyc

Direct Currents Upcoming Releases Effective 8-28-12

OK, the keeper in all this is the Pet Shop Boys, and, of course, Bob Dylan. But how about the new Amanda Palmer album, sure the single sucked but maybe she can maintain her million dollar baby. SOme other goodies palling round as well: ZZ TOP, Bob Mould, Cat Power, the xx. Apparently, except for a weak labour day tuesday, the season has begun!

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Active Viewin': Pick Concerts Week Of August 20th, 2012

There is being hot and then there is being hot. Al Green is never less than right up there in the debate for the greatest soul singer of all time. He has already won the debate for greatest soul singer of the 1970s. And then there is hot after having the President croon one of your songs and remaining one of the greatest of all time. The Reverend is playing the Beacon on Wednesday but right now it feels more than just the great singer in town, it is the great singer making a victory lap in town.

rock nyc

UK Top 10 Albums, August 25th, 2012

Please God, I am not a praying man, if praying’s the same as begging Lord, I don’t take no charity. But if you can hear, please Lord, don’t let Ryan O’Shaughnessy hit it big in the States. I don’t really dislike the Britain’s Got Talent (ugh, what a name) singer but that double “h” and double “s” is gonna kill me.

rock nyc

Listen Up: 8-20-12

Beautiful Thing – Mini bio from the Global soul man, who has been around more than you have, and here is settling down into a soul groove and self help manual. Lives in its lightest touchest, the back-up harmonies for one – Grade: B+

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rock nyc Top 10 Tracks, Week of August 13th, 2012

A new weekly column, essentially only songs released or re-released in 2012 that we (or I) really love this week. The Taylor will be up there for awhile now. PSB kinda fell off between TS and SB. Bob Mould is a grower. And PE is better than I initially claimed it was.

rock nyc

Singles Going Steady: New Album Reviews Week Of August 13th, 2012

>> – Beak – Drone rock from one of the best experimental bands around. I saw Geoff Barrow’s side project at Bowery Ballroom a coupla years ago, and they blew me away there. This is is even better than the first album: it is background grim rhythm which, at its best, on “Yatton” lets its repetitive notes build into a song before subsiding. My only complaint is that Geoff doesn’t do enough with the drums… for obvious reasons I guess – Grade: A-

rock nyc

Listen Up: 7-19-12

You Make Me Feel So Young – Steven Maglio – An astonishing interpreter of Sinatra but really, with that voice, I don’t see what this guy can’t sing. This is a gorgeous take on Ol’ Blue Eyes – Grade: A

rock nyc

Taylor Swift Sees Red

Written for Will Anderson of the terrible, terrible MOR rock band Parachutes’ lead singer, it is the sort of song he couldn’t write with a blueprint. Instead he is behind dross like “She Is Love” -that should be executed at dawn

rock nyc

Best Summer Song 2012 Is Girl In A Coma's "Heatwave"

What nags at the song, what Linda Ronstadt did, is pull up instead of down here. Nona’s plaintiveness is powerful in a subdued emotional declaration of desire. Linda’s reading was too smart. Too perfect. It gussied it up too much. Just about everybody else has no idea what to do with the song.

rock nyc

Listen Up: 7-18-12

Shape I’m In – Spider Bags – In my rock nyc interview with him, Dan McGee pinpointed the “I was never too tall and I was never too thin” line as an example of how his skills as a writer of fiction coincided with his lyrical bias. How he told a story. Personally, I think the girl who wears her shoes just a little too tight, is a better example. Here’s why: it is because the girl chooses to wear em too tight that it becomes a characteristic, a snapshot. It suggests something about the girls coolness to life, and coolness to the singer. Grade: A+

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US Top 10 Albums, August 25th, 2012

When you alive in a moment it feels specific to the NOW, but in retrospect, it is part of a larger paradigm. And what is difficult to notice is how much we are in a period of transition. The biggest transition since recorded music becausethe end result could well be the death of the recorded music business. And then albums like NOW 43 will be completely extinct.

rock nyc

Listen Up: 7-17-12

Landslide – Antony – With just an acoustic guitar to back him up, Antony steals the Fleetwood Mac tribute album from the likes of Marianne Faithful. It is not true that the song is such a great standard it is difficult to screw up. It is easy to screw up. Antony doesn’t come within a million miles. his deep, emotional croon is perfect for this song – Grade: A

rock nyc

Free Public Reading In Support Of Pussy Riot

The verdict for the Pussy Riot trial will be stated on Friday August 17 @ 3pm Moscow Time (8am EST). ALSO: There will be a march and rally on Friday. Free Pussy Riot encourages any artists / activists to join Friday in solidarity with the three detained women, Maria Alekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Samucevich of Pussy Riot.

rock nyc

Spotify Is Great But Try Finding Any New Releases

Sometimes, it is so user unfriendly, I figure they are doing it on purpose. God forbid you try and getsomeone to actually speak to you at Spotify. I dare you. I double dare you. They have THE WORST SERVICE ON THE PLANET WORST THEN THE GOVERNMENT. They have zero, none nada

rock nyc

Listen Up 7-16-12

La La La (Produced by Major Lazer) – Snoop Lion – I don’t know why Snoop didn’t dscover Reggae much earlier. Honestly, it is tailor made for his roll em up aesthetic. This doesn’t sound like the Dogg, he ain’t rapping and he has that ny the umbers dubby feel going on. But with a poppier feel to it. I mean, “la la la” right? Grade: B

rock nyc

Blur At The Olympics

Look, Blur, until you get your lazy butts to nyc who cares? Gorillaz greatest moment was at MSG, why not bring the other band over. And not at fucking Roseland. Rent out Radio City for 5 nights. Fuck Hyde Park, that’s how you say goodbye.

rock nyc

Listen Up 7-15-12

Ho Hey – The Lumineers – These are hard working kids who have been at it for more than five years and have just broken out with this album. If you can get past the lead singers voice, they are fairly original moods for moderns and here discover a very original hook – Grade: B

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Amanda Palmer's The Killing Type" Reviewed

The declaimer? “But I would kill to make you real” isn’t worth the wait: it isn’t really satisfying but Palmer isn’t that great a songwriter. She has other gifts, self promotion she is the tops at. But as a songwriter, she should be a cover artist

rock nyc

Sneak Peaks Week Of August 13th, 2012

Woke up this morning and picked up the Taylor Swift off Itunes, and then added Lupe, Rita and RHCP just because I couldn’t be bothered waiting till tomorrow to see if Spotify will have (no, they will have them, the question is WHEN). Beak is terrific.

rock nyc

Listen Up: 7-14-12

I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know – Kenny Latimore – Here the great r&b man brings down the hammer on a great blues soul conglom, he lets it build as hard as it can as keyboards swirl around him, and then throws in glissandros just to keep us honsest – Grade: A-

rock nyc

Listen Up: 7-13-12

The Descent – Bob Mould – His first release for Merge proves he hasn’t lost a step. Hasn’t added a step either. This is pretty good, maybe a little more: revved up guitars, nearly memorable melody Mould – Grade: B+

rock nyc

Jack Phillip's "Cafe Nights In New York" Reviewed

From the opening “Take Me To Manhattan” with a lovely gasping trumpet solo followed by a piano solo, all the way through to the bass walking last song finale, this is a trip through the Manhattan of both the 1940s, when jazz giants wrote the American standards, to the mid-1990s, as cabaret made one last stand.

rock nyc

Singles Going Steady: New Album Reviews For Week Of August 6th, 2012

Played bass on Miles Davis penultimate albums Tutu and Amandia, recorded in the mid 1980s and considered his last hurrah. And when Miller keeps to bass heavy funk jazz workouts here, the superb “Mr Clean” and the sanctificial “Detroit” this is pretty unassailably great. The rest of the album is too distracted from what it should be doing – Grade: B+

rock nyc

Listen Up: 7-12-12

Remember Me – Diana Ross – Having just seen Valerie Simpson live Friday night, and discovering Diana was somewhere in the audience, I went back to this masterpiece from 1970. A stirring Motown giant of a song, “Remember me as a big balloon at a carnival that ended too soon”. RIP Nick – Grade: A+

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