I’ve been following Kevin for a couple of years and now am thrilled to have the opportunity to see him live. This being Kevin, he aint playing the late show at Mercury Lounge. Rather, small art venues and friends apartments are the order of the day with no tickets, donations only, five bucks the recommended dollar fifgure.
His “Fade To Black” retirement gig was his last great concert and it has been downhill ever since, especially the 9-11 charity gig with the ridiculous “I see You” segment . And while I appreciate everybody else raving about the “Watch The Throne” concert, it was tied to a lousy album. and I felt like a bitter old man for being so bored by huge chunks. Plus “Otis” is his worst song ever.
Sure, it is mostly about Maceo but it is also Brown’s great lyric of all time. The chorus isn’t a cliche because people don’t know it, it is a deep truth about life. Not true all the time (extreme poverty and extreme wealth will change you) but wiser than it appears: “Money won’t change you but time will take you out” is both upsetting and anodyne, because it points to the worthlessness of money and life itself as a palliative – Grade – A
I don’t see how you can not have a good side line. Arrive, not early, but just on time and head straight to one of the tiers on either side of the stage and you can see close and perfectly all the way through. Arrive as the band is going on, stand at the back of the floor, and you can still see OK!
Brian Jones remains the tragedy at the center of their history, like a warning beacon of the effects of hardcore drug use. Firstly, he was the Stones leader, second he was the most uniquely gifted of all the musicians (yes, even Watts) and finally he got all the hottest girls. If Brian wasn’t so drugged up, Keith would have never nailed Anita.
We’ve been having fun all summer long? The first two songs are songs of the summer, and now that I have to admit I overated “This Is Love”, it looks like it is going to remain that way TFN!
Amazon lowered their prices for 5 weeks to a dollar a holla for many of these albums and that explains the strange inclusion of so many oldies (well 2011). What does this mean? It means the charts are a disaster area and getting more and more irrelevant!
The penultimate song off the album (just before “The End”), is a beautiful ballad much less of meter and away from the expected melody line than the rest of the songs. A barely veiled love song that might have raised some eyebrows if Ocean hadn’t already outed himself: “you are my fine boy, running on my mind boy”? Grade: A
He could have played for another hour and nobody would have noticed it. It was like a musicial puzzle and you couldn’t stay one step ahead of him. He was modulating the tone with knobs, and bending the strings and making em wobble and vibrate and all for what? The sheer pleasure of sound
Splash need time to improve the act. Better songs, steal a coupla melodies if they have, cut the chat by half, work the tempo, remember they’re a dance band and wanna make lots of money. But the glitter, the fun, the sparkles on strangers head? The beats? They all stay.
These recitals began in 2009 and I went to the first one featuring the terrific Brazilian baritone, Paulo Szot, who was in “South Pacific” at the time. It was a fine, though not flawless, performance. Though that opinion is coming from a layman when it comes to opera. If you are like me, then this is a great way to get your high culture for low rent.
When last heard from they were cutting all album reviews to the length of a tweet. I don’t mind the arrogrance, or even entirely disagree with the concept, what I don’t dig is the writing.
n retrospect, whatever the early Run DMC were, what they weren’t was agro: rather, the youngster from Hollis, an original teenage phenom that many, many people, calling it just rhyming, didn’t get at the time, were way to sweet natured to be a threat.
“I need you and you’re always on my mind”, Longstreth croons, on this straightforward song of deep emotional attachment and love: a perfect song, with the sweetest of melodies and as straightahead devotional as anything you’ll hear this year. Grade: A
Opening and closing with straightforward folk songs, and performing 11 out of 12 tracks off their an hour away from being released follow-up to their breakthrough album, 4 off their breakthrough album and 1 from the Bjork collaboration, on the first night in the US (and fifth date) of their 2012 Summer tour.
Why the kinder gentler rock nyc? because we just claimed that their Music Festivals had the appearance of not appropriate contact been the bands and the people who write about them, and whingeing that they are the biggest buncha boring bastards you ever got stuck on an elevator with is besides the point.
The wild woman of rock Urbani has had a busy week: topless in Austin, headlining at Bowery Ballroom and now marriage!! And who is the lucky guy? Opening band, disco divas Splash’s multi instrumentalist Etienne Pierre Duguay.
After watching a dodgy show at MSG where the Strokes got run outta Dodge by Elvis Costello and a coupla years down the line from their worst album and even further from Casablancas excellent solo album (and tour), only “Taken for A Fool” remains of the entire debacle.
I am going to see 10cc Friday night and if I wasn’t it would be Killer Mike and El-P , so please get to the free concert at Pier 17. I promise, next time she plays locally I am gonna try and check her out.
White (feat John Mayer) – Smooth jazz with sparkling minimal bass throbs and supper club lo-fi guitar notes; a dream world sound to the album seemingly unwilling, like the pearly gates! – Grade: A
Jan Xavier discusses the New York music scene of the 1970s and why the Nitecaps, his great rock and roll soul band of the early 1980s, didn’t break through.”I have no bone to pick. I am one of a million people who has recorded an album that wasn’t a hit .I got to do it. “
“We always wanted it to be soul music without being purist, or slavish- I’ve always had a healthy skepticism for purism in any musical form. So we really wanted to turn it on its’ ass, and filter soul through our rock and roll sensibility, which was predominant for us”
“I don’t see why these things should be illegal if the correct information is out there. Here’s the problem – you can kill yourself with two tablespoons of table salt. Are you now going to ban table salt?
This fairly obvious concept was beyond the abilities of the people who are making the Big Boi starring, atrociously named “All By My Side” movie version of Jimi Hendrix’s last day without any songs written by Henrix. No “Crosstown traffic”, “No Purple Haze”, just the covers like “All Along the Watchtower”.
DP and Ocean we were expecting but any time P.O.D. -easily the best Christian rock band this side of Devil Wears Prada, it is a good week. Otherwise, hip hop takes a holiday!!!
This was not simply Devoto’s band in 1977. Surem he was behind “ba dum ba dum” but Shelley owned that guitar riff and air lifted it to their first solo album. Grade: A+
They have taken a major calling card for Brooklyn hipsters, the jag of rhythm from disco, funk, African, and brought it to the mainstream. They have a stunningly competent leader who radiates fun and energy but not excess or danger, and they have a clutch of great pop songs.
If you ain’t got the do-re-mi boys, or even if you do, get to Summer Stage at 7pm on Sunday for a celebration by Arlo and his family for his father Woody Guthrie on the occasion of what would have been Woody’s 100th birthday. I used to go see Arlo with Pete Seeger when he’d play those Thanksgiving gigs and I expect some great things for his Dady’s birthday. And it’s free (but get there early!)
Brown gets better with every spin, and it could well be the best pop album of the year. It’s better than Maroon 5 and I love Maroon 5. Metacritic gave it a 40% approval rating and musicOHM.com gave it 0 stars. Reminds me of when “The E.N.D>” was released, rock nyc was the only place anywhere that raved from the get go.
This is about as conservative a top ten list as you will ever see in the UK, maybe because it’s the dog days of summer. Meanwhile, since I find myself, unfortunately I admit, on team Chris Brown, let me start taking bets that the newbie ends up a hit both sides of the Atlantic.
Off Hell’s excellent second album with his demons at bay, Hell delves deep and finds this axiomatic ode to wisdom and songcraft , and his nasal whine finds a state of grace hardly imaginable five years prior – Grade: A
If you can imagine the music without the stagecraft, the wall would have toppled before intermission. It simply isn’t all that great. Sure, “Brick” and “Numb”, and an incessant motif, are good to great but this is two hours worth of songs summed up in 7 minutes.The playing is great but anonymous. It reminds me of McCartney in 1989, here he had a buncha sidemen play note perfect versions of his old songs.
fter you get past Marina and Jimmy Cliff , Dirty Projectors and Nas, this is slim pickins indded. The dog days of summer are upon us, do we really want to spend the summer listening to Joss Stone covering soul songs?
The Floridians earliest album mixed the sublime with the political. But he has learnt his lesson over the years, and, as the Redfoo track proves, he is in it for the pop. No problem. Not a song here isn’t a blast in the right club. But none of it will last the summer – Grade: B
When people ask me about my music bucket list, I always forget to mention Solange Knowles. Among other things, she performed the greatest cover ever when she took on DP’s greatest song ever. Unfortunately, I lost it. But am happy to take on the original instead in perpetuity or at least till I see em Monday night at MHOW – Grade: A
I am more excited to see Friends tonight than I was to see Roger Waters on Friday. To put it simply, Manifest is the indie album of the year
“We want to thank every single one of you that came with us on this journey,” they wrote on their website today. “We came, we raved, we loved”.
Pitchfork is making direct financial profit off bands they are writing about. And have a vested interest in the bands that play. In 2010, rapper Freddie Gibbs became Pitchfork’s rapper de jour after he agreed to play the Fest. Freddie was never mentioned before.
1 prefer the tremendous lyrical Soprano when de Niese is singing Handel, even if that’s nitpicking., this Dowland piece from the mid-1500s is like a trip back to Shakespearean (though it is much earlier), wandering minstrels stuff. It makes you nostalgic for a past that happened 100s of years before you – Grade: A-.
Alice ends the set with his greatest song, “School’s Out” and segues into “Another Brick In The Wall” safe in the knowledge, his song is better. But it is just all a little depressing. It’s like dreaming about somebody you love who has died: there is something wrong though they look right: they shouldn’t be there
The band drops out a little and Nina has a scary botherness on the best verse in the song, “Sometimes I stare in space, tears all over my face…” She changes a rush of desire into an expression of sexual confusion.
This is a streamlined re-telling of the Spidey myth. They tell the same story on Broadway as well. Nerd gets beaten by radioactive Spider, develops superpowers, doesn’t help somebody being robbed and the robber kills his beloved Uncle Ben. Blah blah blah, stops Superfoe and gets girl.
So these are our songs of summer and I am happy to see carly at the top because I am sick of it being Perry plus both Perry and Gotye’s songs are depressive stuff, while Carly is so damn catchy it has become part of the vernacular and frankly I love it.
Surprised that Linkin Park beat out Maroon 5? I’m not, but I will be shocked if they do next week. A popular rock band can hit the charts when the fanbase buy a new album, but what they can’t do is sustain it without hit singles.
Til lKingdom Come – Coldplay – A lugubrious over cooked piece of crap that thinks its an important folk rock almost acoustic drag. This is everything the world hates about Coldplay. It can’t help herself, it thinks it is major and it isn’t. The drummer drumming line is the giveaway – Grade:D
You might not like HM, I don’t all that much,and still enjoy their feral, raw, organic rock and roll. there is no background tapes, no moogs or loops or tapes, this is four men and four instruments, with only the most succinct of guitar solos to get in the way
It is actually a real shame that Ocean had to keep his sexual preference quiet for so long. As you may note below, friends were keeping it a secret for him. Finally, Ocean wrote about it coming in which he writes about his first love, a man he met at the beach in 2008. This is a beautiful story, well done Frank.
so a lot of individual achievements, the first four best of the year are solo artists. # 5 is a shocker, out of left field has blown me away. ANd if you double the amount of best albums we are at 80… down a bit but the tracks should be larger. Why? Musicians are having trouble sustaining albums since they don’t have to.
“Barry is hurting badly but he knows the boys would expect him to carry on. Next year looks more likely in terms of a return to the stage. He will do his brothers proud
It is a crying shame they aren’t performing nyc even once before releasing this box set, playing the Olympics in London, and calling it a career
