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!
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.
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.
Another boring chart. Rita is like Nicki Minaj if Nicki couldn’t rap and was a little knockout. Elbow and Kate are the only remnants of the Olympics bounce.
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+
There is such a thing as karma in this world. And if you want some bad karma fast, be mean to Dino’s kid and you will get it in the ear. The truth is, Deana can sing well, her phrasing is fine, she is a showwoman and she put on a fine show. And, that, my friends, is amore.
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.
>> – 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-
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
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
Apparently Beady Eye at the Olympics wasn’t a coup d’etat by Liam Gallagher but an abdication by Noel Gallagher. And trust it to Noel to come off like a self-righteous dick while doing a fun and funny and right thing
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.
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+
Poor Pussy Riot and stupid, stupid Putin. The last thing he needed was to jail three 20 something women, two who have children. It is like putting a huge Billboard outside the country reading: “No Freedom Here”.
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.
I love Flo Rida but I hate whistling unless it is John Lennon at the end of “Two Of Us”. Definitely, this is my worst fave hit by Flo Rida since… forever!
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
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.
So, stupid (but not bad) politics, same old same old lyric which fails to make its point about the Black population being hurt more than the majority. AND everything else various degrees of very good.
Fay Fife will be at Bowery Electric November 10th!!! And that is the embodiment of a must see. If the vids I’ve seen are anything to go by, expect a thrill a minute pop punk fast loud and gorgeously melodic rave up.
if you don’t have your dance card filled, this is a must must must see… Put it this way, from a Grade of MS1 being the lowest must see to M being the abslute kill if you have tom Regina is a M4…
Lead singer Damon Albarn is an excitable lad on stage and he is nearly jumping out of his skin here, and the audience is singing at the top of its lungs, but what do you and I care?
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
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
There is a lightness of touch to the rocker, “He calls me up saying ‘I still love you'” Taylor says funning the guys needy response, before adding “I’m just, I’m like this is exhausting…” It is really hysterical.
rock nyc is Obama Boomers. The Prez was inaugurated in January 2009, we began posting in April 2009, so, yeah, he is the only President we’ve known. As the election season heats up, some opinion
“a xylophone-dotted instrumental played by a half-dozen guitarists, but its almost post-rock surge and otherwise playful countenance make it feel less like a departure or deviation than a great if wordless Spider Bags tune”
Lupe sounds so much like Kanye with a conscious on “Lamborghini Angels”, it is like he took PE’s “Catch The Throne” seriously and wrote it for them himself. Lupe doesn’t get much poppier than this.
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.
I am going to either the April or the May concert. I think maybe the May 4th (a Saturday concert), which is the performing of a new work, so you gotta think. The April 26th show is a Friday, so I could definitely live with that.
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
WBLS is the home of Old School, 1970s and 1980s and even 1990s charttoppers. Sunday afternoon, they wore their age with equal parts grace and fervor.
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
Freedom is the freedom to abdicate responsibility for society. For a powerful black man to REFUSE to participate is really quite important. The great American secret is that it is such a great society that it gives people the power not to pay attention.
Even at face value, it is a romantic daydream for a post Great Depression world. It is not only hard for us to believe in their world, it was difficult for their audience themselves. It is a vicarious romantic thrill.
Both VV and NYP have terrible music sections. And the paper of record is not the paper of record when it comes to reviewing local concerts any more. On the web, Brooklynvegan do what they do, but really what they do is listings for indie bands. It is fine, and I love it, but it isn’t a recording of live local concerts.
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.
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-
a blue collar worker who reads Chekhov, a punk rocker who worships Captain Beefheart, a rock star who mends wheelchairs, a workingclass hero pondering his significance in the greater scheme of things, a man who goes everywhere and the jerk who stays at home. And the man behind the best album of the year raising a family and singing Bread songs.
I see, now here is a question, maybe you noticed it, why has he cancelled his tour exactly? The rumor is Frank’s voice is acting up (that’s the reason why he pulled out of an earlier gig) but if that is the case, why the secretive nature?
Saturday Night is modern metal music night at the Prudential Center, and the headliners is one of my favorite modern metal bands, Five Finger Death Punch!! They are such hard metal they sound like hardcore, and this looks like an evening of awesome handbanging.
How did Rihanna get back to my # 1? Is she on tour? And, and this weird, where is the Olympics bounce? Underworld and Arctic Monkeys? Hey, even McCartney? Why are they not anywhere to be seen???
Redlight (geddit) an are all girl English band with a house beat and a disco hear, Lawson a boy band though the US might have reach overload on this particular vibe.
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+
It is a wrangling, subordinating scene stealer of a voice and, at center stage, it takes over from both Lael’s nervousness and the bands overwhelming thereness. It takes care of Lael’s early reticence, it takes over the packed out theater. Her voice is her calling card, it is why we are here.
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.
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+
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+
By subverting the expectations of beauty and ordinariness, it awakes the pre-teen girl, it asks for her to embrace her own and other peoples differences. The wicked ugly girl got the guy and the beautiful Glinda is not the hero of the story. No wonder it is so popular. It’s the right fantasy for a whole lotta people.
I heard three of these tracks earlier this year when TA opened for Fucked Up at Le Poisson Rouge and thought Stickles and band hadn’t missed a step, but listening to the video you will find at the bottom of this post, the two new songs sound a little ordinary
