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.

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Kevin Greenspon Of Bridgetown Records To Tour The Northeast!

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.

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Must See Concert: Jay-Z At Barclay's Center (Setlist Included)

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.

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Listen Up 7-14-12

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

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Music Hall Of Williamsburg, New York's Best Rock Club

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!

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US Top 10 Albums, July 21st, 2012

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!

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Listen Up: 6-13-12

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

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Run DMC To Reform

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.

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Listen Up: 7-12-12

“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

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Dirty Projectors At MHOW, Monday, July 9th, 2012 Reviewed

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.

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The Strokes Sober Up

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.

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Listen Up: 7-11-12

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

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Johnny Rotten on Drugs

“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?

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Hendrix Movie Will Have No Hendrix Songs

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”.

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Listen Up: 7-10-12

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+

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Active Viewin': Pick Concerts Week Of July 9th, 2012

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!)

rock nyc

UK Top 10 Albums, July 14th, 2012

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.

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UK Top 10 Singles, July 14th, 2012

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.

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Listen Up: 7-9-12

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

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Roger Waters "The Wall" At Yankee Stadium, Friday, July 6th, 2012 Reviewed

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.

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Listen Up: 7-8-12

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

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Listen Up: 7-7-12

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-.

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"The Amazing Spiderman" Reviewed (More Or Less)

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.

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US Top 10 Single, July 14th, 2012

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.

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US Top 10 Albums, July 14th, 2012

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.

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Listen Up: 7-06-12

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

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Best Albums of the Year Through June 30th, 2012

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.

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Barry Gibb To Tour Solo

“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

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