Give the minor acts from ten to fifteen minutes, and half an hour for the leads. There is nothing that says the Killers has to bore us for two hours. Let them make their point and get off the fucking stage
Nobody has the flow Biggie had, nobody has Biggie’s voice (Rick Ross? Don’t make me laugh), nobody could tell a story, use humor, on his very next (and final) album, he would reinvent the sample, and by the suicide that ends this album, Biggie put a stake in the heart of rap and rebuilt it in his own image. Nobody else has come close. Particularly the humor.
oldja this was the summer of blah. Really, Gaslight Anthem is the beacon of hope for rock and roll? Why??? Bruce at his worse (well, near his worse) takes em down coming. JLo is down to a greatest hits. And Passion Pit were never a fave and are taking a leave of absence.
Fine Knacks For Ladies – The King’s Singer – Elizabethan pop, al soprano lead vocalist and background bassist and a lone lute to tell a story not unfamiliar to the Beatles fans: money can’t buy me love – Grade: A
The truth is, mortality is not the same as irrelevance, and people have souls even if they are not immortal. Science can’t tell us why can we stir cream into coffee but we can’t stir it out, it sure can’t tell us why a six year old girl is dead in Colorado.
Say what you want about Billy Corgan, and to be honest he has mismanged his career to an amazing career, from firing his band and failing to replace them to making some of the lousiest music known to man… hang on, I forgot where I was going there…. Oh yeah, Billy has done it his way. And really has been there and back
Lily was seen in the recording studio lately and is returning to record a song with Pink! Needless to say, Lily is giving Pink the favor in this. At her best, Pink isn’t in the same realm as Lily: Lily is an astute songwriter and observer of women and the social scene.
Tyler and Sweatshirt, the two best rappers off the best posse in town, together at Best Buy. I’m betting it will be less Odd Fture chaos, more dark rhythms. And I wonder if Frank Ocean is gonna show on Thursday night.
Misha B is the one that broke the top ten rule because 1) i love the song and 2) she is from hometown and 3) I didn’t realize when I put up the pix! PS: she was a semi-finalist on “The X Factor” -that means something in the UK
I can’t express my admiration of the electronic duo Pnau’s remixes of songs released by Elton John , 1970 – 1976, highly enough. Don’t worry that you don’t know the track names, “Foreign Fields” samples from “High Flying Bird” for instance, and so it isn’t obvious at first. Whatever, it deserves the # 1 position
No Endz, No Skinz – Big L – From 1600 minstrels, to 1990s gang bangas, they have one thing in common: you ain’t got money, no super-honey. The video is a hoot, cinema veritie with the great rapper and his crew on the streets of Manhattan in pursuit of girls with big booties, and the song is so alive it brims over with fun and smarts. Shoulda broken pop. Grade: A
It makes me think, if there is a concert and I don’t go does it really exist. Or perhaps the other way around. What will happen when I die? Will there be no more rock shows?
As Wagnerian dramas go, it is an oedipuzt rex out for mama’s love and not getting it. It seems a little silly to at this point… ah, what the hell, Wayne’s very wealthy parents are shot to death by robbers (in front of him) when Wayne is only a little bats.
Rebirth – Jimmy Cliff – Oldies re-recorded plus a Clash and Rancid cover, Reggae giant Jimmy “The Harder They Fall” Cliff, who has been trying to straighten out his career. Cliff has a pop side to him but we sure ain’t getting that, except for “Reggae Music” this is the hard stuff so react accordingly – Grade: B+
5 Fingers Of Death (feat D.I.T.C.) – Big L – Somewhere between horrorcore and gangsta, Big L was one of the greatest rappers of raps greatest generations. The sample sounds like it came off a Bernard Hermann score and Big L As good as anything on Lifestylez Ov Da Poor And Dangerous -Grade: A
Stubhub don’t want to know how the ticket sellers got their tickets any more than Ticketmaster want to know who is buying the tickets. Everything else is halls and mirrors.
. He needs Liam to sing his classics because, like I said, he can’t really do it himself. I saw Noel perform a solo acoustic gig at the Beastie Boys Tibetan charity gig at Randall’s Island and he sucked at it.
If – Frank Sinatra – Yes, that “If”, the Bread soft rock special is given the ol blue eyes treatment except init was 1974, Frank was nearly 60, and his voice was not the instrument it once was. Still he would always have the pphrasing and this is a pretty good (and quite amusingly oversincere) take – Grade: B
The opening lick is nicked from “All Of My Love” and the first couplet quotes from Quadrophenia, as the songs idles in neutral till a killer instrumental break at the three quarter. If Billie Joe had made the break the chorus and cut the length from 5 to two and a half minutes, he might have had something.
I am not overwhelmed by the handful of songs I have heard but not because of the Scottish singer’s fulsome bellow, which has both a sweet undertow and a superb voice I hope they don’t refine out of existence. She better listen to Elton. But rather, I am not sure about the production, which sounds a little mainstream for a unique talent.
Pink has her way with another bad sexual inuendo and the song is OK modern pop but not much more. It’s gonna be in the chartts forever. Otherwise, bring in the usual suspects and there they are. And still no Will I Am, so so much for my powers of suggestion.
Ocean almost sold more than Chris Brown, did sell more than Usher. Zac Brown is the third best selling country album of the year/ Why? You got me, neither of them are very good. Ocean is gerrybuilt for gullible rock critics, Zac is for Dave Matthews fans who want to widen their horizons. Go figure.
Live Alone (Brennan Green Remix) – Franz Ferdinand – This is the one with LCD Soundsystem and Debbie Harry. Debbie sounds like a disinfected sexbot and LCD use their typical synthesizer bleats. As For Franz Ferdinand? They have become a 21st Century Depeche Mode – Grade: B+
We are not discussing the Plastic People Of The Universe here, folks. And my guess is stuff is happening behind the scenes. Look at it this way: LOG are not Pissed Jeans. They are signed to Sony Music, they have supported Metallica on tour, they are a successful band and they have powerful people who are working, I guess, to get Randy out.
Since then, I can’t read the guys name without rolling my eyes. If Reyes was half as good a director he is a self-publicist, if he had actually done some work (need I remind you: it was Alyson Camus who interviewed the doctor who performed the Smith autopsy), he might have a useful product to push.
Dulli is certainly getting enough out of his second coming and more power to him, but I personally don’t see anything here that would get me to a festival. Even Phillip Glass: who wants to see him play intricate symphonies from 50 million miles away?
Steve Albini is one of the producers of the Stranglers leaderz upcoming album, Totem And Taboo, and you can be sure that Steve will give Cornwell as much crackle and electricity as humanly possible!
We lost a honky tonk angel, a bassist in the shadow of motown and the man who powered heavy metal -not on guitar but on an organ. Not cool, right?
May These Noises Unsettle You In Your Sleep – Pierce The Veil – This isn’t post-hardcore, it is post-art rock. Opens with a Theme Of the Godfather orchestration, it is joined by a bat out of hell vocal, before a rock and roll riffarama takes over. In under two minutes.
Blythe also spoke about his lack of understanding of the Czech legal system. He said that he had expected to have been released after paying a $125,000 for bail.
He said: “In terms of justice, I honestly do not know what to expect because it is different than the U.S. I thought that if I made bail, I would be released.”
A FOURTEEN MINUTE EPIC ABOUT THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC??? I wonder if it will be like “Desolation Road” or “Changing Of The Guard”? Are we talking the old flashing images? Plus, “The Tempest” was Shakespeare’s last play…
“I’m probably going to work with my husband on this album… We’ve been writing a little bit together. He has a studio, so I definitely want to make my record there…”
At Sunday’s Summerstage gig, Arlo mentioned that he had spoken to Pete recently about performing again at the annual gig. Pete replied, “I need two canes to walk and I can hardly hear”. to which Arlo retorted retorted, “Have you looked at our audience? They can hardly hear either!”
Settle Down – No Doubt – At six minutes it is too long,a nd the Middle Eastern instruments on the back track are a distraction. But at its heart, this is No Doubt 101 and as a fan of No Doubt, I admire its skaville rhythms and hooks aplenty – Grade: A-
Forget that the music was singularly beautiful, and forget that Woody Guthrie is a great American hero and a friend to the working class, forget that we are given to celebrate such a pioneer of the American spirit, Arlo Guthrie, in refusing to give into the emotion of the evening, made it all so much better.
And this feels like a tidal wave, a time and a place gone forever. It is sad and it tugs at you, it tugs like those old Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, increasingly difficult to find on TV with an almost limitless amount of networks available, a world that thinks “When Harry Met Sally” is a forgotten classic.
Impregnable Question – If one night this summer you are at the beach around a giant bonfire with a young woman you have only recently met, and they are passing round the beer and the bong and the guitar, play her this (I know: rearrange it) and for that one night only she will love you forever.
atched the first two seasons of American Idol (just guess why) but have only caught bits and pieces since then… and nothing at all with JLo and Tyler. Now that they have left, here are some suggestions for a replacement.
On the lean side, but a new Nas is always exciting and a CSN 2012 might be more than an oxymoron. ITunes is becoming a place to drop early singles and not much more. PE should do better than this.
A highlight at Woodstock, encapsulating the trippy, hippy, middle class world changers as well as connecting back to his father’s world, where they had more important things to worry about. Listening to the original version, what’s most impressive is the electric guitar solo. And, you know, the paranoia is fitting enough! Grade: A
How did Graham learn to write like that? His Daddy taught him. His Dad gave Graham the concept behind “No Milk Today” -a letter on the doorstep of a friends house back in the day when milk was delivered, Graham couldn’t see it until his Dad told him it was a metaphor for a love that had left.
Channel Orange is just too draggy, too difficult.. If you concentrate real hard you will find many vocal dynamics, perfect swerves and brakes of beats, they are there. But who wants to work so hard on a pop record?
By one of those strange coincidences that occur in life, I saw the two sons play live, one day after the other. Arlo Guthrie on Sunday at Summerstage, Frank Sinatra Jr. on Monday at the Town Hall . Both of these guys are pretty good in their own right
Best Coast suffering from the sophomore jinx,? I must quietly demure. The Only Place is as depressing as a bad cold on a summer afternoon. Awash in the Pacific ocean, it struggles to lift its head off the coach and the melodies gain extra strength from the effort I can’t wait to hear them perform it on stage this Tuesday at T5
Florence Welch hasn’t been in my good books since her iffy performance at Radio city earlier this year, and this wasn’t a fave off her last album. On the other hand, it was easy enough to miss the good stuff among the dross on Nicki’s last album. This is a goodie.. though I am still not buying her as a sex symbol.
Congrats to the Limeys, they put an album crappier than Frank Ocean’s in the # 1 position. Newton is worse than his name suggest and Frank? People of good will (unless they write for Pitchfork) might disagree, but everybody hates Newton.
Talking Dust Bowl Blues – Woody Guthrie – Poverty gets your attention, if you have ever been very poor, or even a little poor, you’ll know. This talking blues finds a famer chased by the agricultural disaster and off in search of a place to raise his family. Dylan, among many, stole the form and used it many times. – Grade: B+
It wasn’t perfect Yes, it wasn’t what we had signed up for, the first 20 minutes were a complete washout, it peaked 20 minutes before it ended, the acoustics sucked. But in the end, to hear “The Dean And I”, “Good Morning, Judge”, “Dreadlock Holiday” … many more, by the man who wrote them, I wanted more but I’ll take what I am given.
KR-51 – Clare And The Reason – You can be as pretentious and weird as you like as long as you keep the construction from falling apart. Fair enough? This married duo succumb to the complexity way too often. Grade: B-
Bus Stop – The Hollies – Graham Gouldman performed this song on Friday, it remains a classic lyric: “Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows…” is worthy of Nabakov in its succinctness. Nothing is wasted here. Everything is exactly right – Grade: A+
