White will be at # 1 in the States this week as well, so good, somthing we can all agree upon: White killed it. Now, where is Ed Sheeran, has he finally slipped out of the top 10 (he is at #11!!). What else? Congrats to Rufus, now all he has to do is release “Jericho” as the first single.
youth of America’s opinion notwithstanding, Carlu Rae’s single is pretty damn catchy and deserves its success. More than I can say about Train or BoB or Gotye -though, if pop music is meant to be popular, it is hard to deny gotye’s popularity…
RHCP’s best song is also their most generic: a drug drenched Kiedis self-portrait completely overwhelmed by Fleas’ stupendous bass licks, which own it completely. The lyric owes so much to rap without actually take anything from the genre and it builds to a crushing mirror and anti-American image that at first seems like a metaphor but at second glance is a self truth. This place is their mesh of DNA. Grade: A+
while I absolutely agree that the likes of Britney Spears has buried the hatchet in the back of any concept of live music, it is ridiculous and in astounding bad taste to drag poor Lisa out of her grave to suing for her supper.
was sorry to learn that effective tomorrow (Monday 4/30/2012), KISS-FM will be merging with KISS-FM to make way for ESPN-FM, thereby giving ESPN a tremendous chance of picking up Yankee games for the radio.
These Machines – the Dandy Warhols – Ten albums into their career, these glam garage abattoires of sound don’t need me picking on them. So I won’t bother. This is more of the same with a coupla experimental tracks, a lot of guitar based New York 1970s updates, and, er, “16 Tons”. I’ve heard the new Brian Jonestown and it is better than that. Do with it what you will. Grade: B+
Johnny Rotten was such an overwhelming vocalist that for the seven minutes (on the extended version) as he spits and scats his way through the Stooges classic, you can’t help ignoring the rest of the band. But this belongs to Paul Cook and Glen Matlock who find and groove and ride it into the ground. Grade: A+
Last year’s album was pretty good and their first two albums were both excellent. Plus Ian sounds like Jim Morrisson and is an opinionated guy and lead guitarist and songwriter Will Sergeant os a pretty damn good painter of the pix I’ve been scoping on line are anything to go by.
Charles is 88 years old and had cancelled a gig in Quebec on April 14th… I feared the worse. But then came the statement that started this post: “None of the clauses were respected, and there is no reason for us to take the stage with him owing us so much money already,” he said.
Grading my post? This one is pretty lousy, I couldn’t get a handle on The Men song, and it ruined the entire tone for everything that followed. . I try for at least one original thought per review, and here I haven’t managed one all combined… no wait, # 8 is pretty clever… I was gonna give myself a D+ but I am upgrading it to C-
Perhaps I could stomach these terrible, terrible, ridiculously over-rated albums, if these pinnacles of pop perfection weren’t so chuffed. What the hell are they chuffed about? Are they deaf? Can’t they read the sales figures.
Betting on rock and roll death is a suckers game, for one thing ask not for whom the bell tolls, etc. etc, and for another, life is way too random and for a third… well, for a third I would’ve bet that Robin Gibb was gone before Levon Helm.
Sure, the masses will gossip about the actions of the great and nobody is claiming that there is any reason why Bono shouldn’t be gay if he wants to. I mean, he has a dick, he is a dick so why not suck a dick. right?
“The Horse attack the song with zero reverance, as the sloppy guitars wail and Young yelps, ‘I comef rom Alabama with a b-a-n-j-o on my knee!” Together they make ‘Oh Susanna” feel as turbulent as ‘Hey Hey My My (Into The Black)'”
I can understand why people hate Maroon 5 and No Lip Levine, but the band is terrific live and they can really write a pop song. “Payphone” is gonna remain on the charts for the rest of the year.
Is there any reason why the first quarter of 2012 has been bereft of country after last years banner year? None that I can think of. And this is about as lousy a chart as I’ve seen all year. The blind leading the deaf leading the mediocre.
Anything with a self-referential “poor boy” in its title is half way there, evem if the rest of the name is crap, and any song with a calliope backing track to open can’t be all bad. This piece of torn from the pages of his diary, jinhle is the best on the album because it is the least assuming while nailing a bracing sneer – Grade: A
Rufus’ latest, Out Of The Game, is as good as anything else in his career, better than whole chunks of it. “Jericho” alone reminds you what a terrrific melodist this man. he is like a Morrissey cum Jeff Buckley vocal mish mash with even greater operatic undertones, writing songs that Elton John could’ve imagined
Browne was in a great mood but his insecurities shined through from time to time. “This isn’t just vindication for me, it’s vindication for you as well. It proves you were right for sticking with me all these years.” No, actually, it vindicated nothing more than that he was buddies with Jann Wenner
For historic value, The Legendary Demos is an “A+”, a must own. But as music, it is a complete irrelevance. Tracking song after tracking song. This is not a collection of some Carole King’s solo and some of Goffin And Kings works in progress, it is not the deams show, how we constructed, what was added or removed, or moved or developed or without the hook: there isn’t a lightbulb moment
… Yelawolf is OK, nothing great. But he is a better rapper than Sheeran. Sheeran is a better singer-songwriter than Yelawolf is a rapper, so altogether, they are coming together for one of the least memorable collaborations in recent memories.
When last seen, Eliza was singing at a Coca Cola sponsored Olympic torch relay campaign to find young people to carry the torch… which I do for one of the best of the chick Brit pop stars out there. Grade: A
Give credit where due, against tremendous odds, Lisa Marie Presley appears to have made herself a model lifestyle. An occassional marriage to Michael Jackson sure, but most, a Scientology flirtation alright. But mostly, she has kept her end of the bargain and taken thefinancial, and fame gifts her father left her and is living a good life. Except musically.
Now comes news that a movie of the recording of the album is in the works from Virgin Films (aka Richard Branson) and if they get it even close to write it should be a great great thing! I say Guy Pierce for Keith, Johnny Depp for Mick.
Here is a piece of rock legend for you: folk icon walks into a bar, stieals Ronnie Hawkins back-up band for himself, and walks out. The year was 1965, the band were the Hawks, later the Band, Bob Dylan was the star, Levon Helms the drummer. 46 years later, Levon is dead from lung ca
”For me, the David Guetta stuff just doesn’t work. I don’t really wanna go there. There’s other artists, that’s their sound.’They feel in order to thrive interrnationally that they gotta do straightforward, four on the flour, David Guetta, Pitbull music.
Layna Cloud got these hardcore boys quite right in her live review leading todays posts. Don’t let the asinine animal masks concept put you off, this is astounding kitchen sink post-hardcore attack, retreat modern pop. This is gonna break at some point.-and four years on, now wouldn’t be a bad time – Grade: A
Helen, who has all the ins with the PR departments, got the list and there is something attached, apparent 50 odd pages, and I can’topen it from work, but I’ll try it when I get home… Still, here is my big exclusive. Unmourned, Pah!
None of it rings true to him, none of it is satisfying. The lies he has been telling himself, his innocence over the pain he has caused, his childishness,crashes around him. “Goddam make me cry”, Conor moans and it is the end of his childhood. he has changed from a boy seeking to revenge, to a man who has to work out what he wants from women. He has been humbled by the confrontation with the girls pain.
If there is a Cobain solo album I will write the sucker into the ground, until then shut up about Cobain and let him do what he so badly wanted to do. So badly he left Francis to her Godforsaken Mom, who at least lived through it for her. Be left alone. It is the least he deserves. And the most he deserves.
Over a decade later, III has fulfilled his contract with Curb who have gone to the well of outtakes for an eigth time on a six album deal, and culled odds and sods from the outtakes off his first two albums.
About time Beyonce released some remixes off 4, a shame she decided not to shell the bucks and get in a heavy hitter. no Red One here. And for Carole, the legendary seems like a come on. These demos appear culled from all parts of her career. Certainly as a Tin Pan Alley songwriter, there should be at least some stuff of great interest.
Off what many (not me, I loved it) consider Dylan’s worst album, Bobby first Dylanize it, then he slows it down and turns the minor country classic into a dirge, as though it has already hit the wall – Grade: A-
that mix of vulnerability and ego, ecstatic foul mouthed exuberance and self-aware been there done that in your face honesty, is a full on look into one of the greatest artists, and celebrities, ever. It is a disaster play, and also not really a play
Coachella is for Cubscouts who like camping and pretending its Woodstock and looking at tiny dots that make the bleachers at Metlife feel like the best seats in the house, while bands they would have been a million times better off seeing while they toured their town, lecture you about war and charity and deem to play from a mile away before leaving the 99% to their woes and getting fucked up with Rihanna and Thom Yorke in the VIP area.
M&A’s new album the lead singer Dave Davison songs a lot like Dave Longstreth and the weird meetings of art beats and twinkling vibrations with catchy rock hooks puts the band somewhere in their own terrain.
This is not the complete “Pearl” sessions -Janis last album and released just before her death, but it is the best we have and the minutiae of inflection and attack are more important here than elsewhere.
I don’t Mraz, but he is sure catchy enough that if one song clicks there will be no getting away from the damn thing. Same goes for Train. Otherwise, this is hanging steady and going nowhere… not bad, though. Not bad.
really wanted to hate Conor, he looks like Ed Sheeran’s KID BROTHER!!! But it is a really good song, that new beats hip hop plus boy band singer songwriter groove. Alsom, why the hell is “Ordinary People” on the UK charts. I have no clue
Only in 1978 UK, could the cruffy, poppy post-punk Rich Kids be considered a sell out. This is their greatest memoment, a flavorful burst of excitement and melody that charted well and though we were upset at the same, the keyboards on the middle 9 and the chanted, handclapped bridge, give it a contemporary feel even today – Grade: A
about the malfeasance of using the deads image and persona without their approval. If 2Pac had said: “when I am dead, make a hologram of me and singalong to it…” OK. Do it. If he hasn’t I think it is a terrible idea. The dead person, TPac, can’t control how he is being used, it is a scary, nasty thing. In my story, it is taken to an extreme.
If you can get over Kathleen Edwards dating castrato Justin Vernon for a moment, or that he produced her excellent 2012 album Voyageur, you might agree with me that as indie folkies go, Kathleen is the one to beat. That is, if she nails it on Saturday at Webster Hall.
This is Train’s sixth album and I haven’t liked one song so far. Before I realized their new single “Drive By” was them, I didn’t HATE IT. I hate it now. Worse songs? “This’ll Be My Year” and “50 Ways To Say Goodbye”. Grade:C-
Rumor has it the Gordy boys are about done -they haven’t performed together this year. So this may well be the last chance to see them. Apparently they are arguing over money (of course)
Dizzy Spells – Wesley Wolfe – Wesley has a new seven inch and pne side of a Schooner album, and I’ll get to it. But this obscurity off some comipiliation abum is new to me and it proves again how Wesley nreaths music like living. Highlight: the synth on the break. Grade: A
The American Bandstand show was a thrill for me, but while what I remembered was Johnny not bothering to lipsynch but wandering around the audience, it is worth noting what a perfect host Dave Clark was. Johnny was used to the likes of Bill Grundy sassing him, Dave’s charming host, allowing his entire audience on stage for “Careering” as good a way to remember the man as any.
Imagine for one mioment that instead of buying tickets from Ticketmasterm they were stealing tickets from Ticketmaster. TM would close down shop until they found a solution. The truth is, what does TM? Indeed, they have their own broker company Ticketsnow.
a nightmare deal that got the previous management of Live Nation booted and for damn good reason. As rock nyc wrote over a month ago. Madonna bundled the new album with ticket sales (built into the price of the ticket, hahahahaaaaaaa)
A Woman Left Lonely – Janis Joplin – When it came to recording Pearl, Janis was attempting to go back to the way she sang at the begining. On stuff life the verses in “Bobby McGee” and the verses here, which for all their immesaurable power, are relatively subdued. Grade: A
An oddly anonymous coffee table book which includes an excellent introduction by one Jimmy Page as well comments by the likes of Pete Townsend and many others.
