an elegant solution to question of money and design. It was a beautiful thing, with close circuit screens on the walls and at the edge of the stage, gorgeous light shows, and by some wizardry sleight of hand, more depth than the Black Keys got out of MSG.
all I can do is add my voice to rock nyc’s writer Cathy Dupuis and say I’m sorry I said his trousers were too tight. Meanwhile on Tuesday, BB Kings is holding a Davy Jones memorial with former band members past and present plus special guests. I doubt we’ll get any Monkees but for $15 I’m gonna go any way.
So whas it the completeness or the hit single that brought Perry back up the charts two years later? But one way or other, it has lasted her longerthan any romance…
wasn’t thrilled when I first head the Chis Brown a coupla weeks back, but giving it another listen just now, this os as straighforward a dance sure short as you’re likely to hear
Am I That Lonely Tonight – Justin Townes Earle – I did by a tix to see him at Webster Hall in May. Justin’s new album is so good I’d good I’d be surprised if it doesn’t make my top top if 2012. Grade: A
Madonna has two later compilations, not including Bedtime Stories, and none of them come close to TIC, the 1990 death by disco steamrolling hit single album
The US is at war and “Part Of Me” is a truly lousy song and deserves all the indifference that comes it way. But as for romanticising war…
Am I That Lonely Tonight? – Justin Townes Earle – Not sure about the rest of the album, but this is one of his great ones: a deep searing slice of melancholy and loss in a closed off car miles from nyc. Grade: A
that doesn’t explain the self-lacerating genius that was the Stone Roses. Charter members of “Madchester”, they were the missing link between booze and Molly in aural form. An old time rock and roll band with one foot in dance.
Both are such angry albums, they are brittle, unbending, and self-righteous. Both snap at you all the way through. Neither are much fun for all their efforts. One whines, the other shouts, one accuses You, the other accueses “you”, neither has the lightest self awareness.
Back in my early teens I was the King Of Wuss when it came to music. A steady diet of Motown and soft rock. Paul Simon. Neil Diamond. Paul McCartney. How I loved them all.
Suddenly all these dance kids have a hero of their own, like the living breathing embodiment of Glee kids daydreams and really good as well: fun.!!! Story of the year so far. Gotye is too old and boring to matter much.
fun. firmly ensconced on top, Jely has been on the chart all year and is now firmly in second place. My bet is it will make its moves next week. Otherwise , just the usual suspects and Gotye who will always remember the time he ruled the world one deag mother at a time.
The Only Place – Best Coast – The lyric so simple it is addled and the melody so sweet you are humming it before you heard it. Zevon is rolling over in his grave. Grade: A-
Halliday was a rockabilly take on Francaise pop who grew into a major French balladeer and a legend in his homeland.
As we eagerly await the release of What We Saw From The Cheapseats, the new Regina Spektor album, here is the question of the moment: can she sustain the sheer brilliance of “All The Rowboats”.
“has more the flip zip of a disc by Katy Perry or Ke$ha than something by a woman who may be older than both their mothers. Then again, we are talking about Madonna, a woman who, at this point, seems just as hellbent on giving the finger to expectations about.”
Actually, that’s kinda funny but if Carney’s idea of carrying the torch of rock and roll was his lacklustre performance at MSG, all I have to say, it is, he is right, but only if the competition is the dreadful Nickelback.
Watered down Bull because it is at service to something bigger than itself: THE MEN IN BLACK FRANCHISE. Where, from its pricey sample to its subdued laugh, Mr. 305 appears to phone it in. Actually, he is doing something tougher. He is playing to another persons audience. Grade: A-
It is released on April 10th and streaming on NPR as we speak and, yeah, it is kinda draggy. The writer at NPR called it music for transistor radios and exactly. Like his song “One Life Away”, everything seems a little old out of time, out of synch and somewhere out their in the distaance.
Notice anything? No “Please Please Please”. Really. If you are gonna play for less than an hour at least through in one of your best songs
Even if you weren’t aware of Womack in the 1960s, you knew the Stones cover of “It’s All Over Now”, and even if youw eren’t paying that keen an eye to 1970s soul men no named Green, you knew “Across 110th Street”.
I guess middle aged movie reviewers considered gratuitous female breasts and hot bodies, male and female grinding, misogynistic. Why? I dunno why. I think it is fun.
If Genghis Khan listening to Iron Maiden and Adolph Hitler listening to U2 is a cheap shot, I am only suggesting that both villains would be attracted to sounds as big as their egos.
Really excellent rap and pop mix with a bluesdy backbone. The little girls who dig him should dig this, the little girls who are dropping him for One Direction will have a harder time. And the rest of us? Grade: A-
I guess I am happy to get anything at all on the big screen. Maybe, as a framing reference, maybe as a cultural check and balance, But it still feels like there simply isn’t enough room to tell the story right. It’s like ODB isn’t big enough.
Where’s nyc? Where’s somewhere not on the tail end of Jersey? The Live Nation presale is on Wednesday. If I get the code I will share it.
My point in self-evident, it is arrogant, self-righteous stupidity to NOT take context in mind in the use of offensive words. If hip hop is going to remove the whip sting of racism in the word “nigger”, by respelling and redefining it, from a euphemism for sub-human slave, to “brother” than why don’t they want it used that way.
Small bands were playing 12 sets in three days and were entirely overshadowed by Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple, Lil Wayne and Jay-Z. So not only is everybody exhausted, nobody got what they came from.
The Madonna is way, way, way better than I thought it would be, the new Justin and Pitbull songs are excellent, Macy, Lionel, Justin all on their game… at first listen!
The Zenith Beast reissues have been systematically rocking my world for a couple of days and over and above that I’ve been readying myself for the Of Montreal gig on Friday night.
thought maybe you would play a quick gig in nyc as long as you were in town. Maybe Roseland, wishful thinking Beacon Theater. And along with an AMEX presale I would have been so there. Well, six months later and still you are elsewhere.
If you do nothing else, buy Larry’s stupendous Feeding Lions To The Christians and the Fussbudgets where has it been all my life? Hog Wash! Both of these albums are lost gem pop rock gems of the first orde
it is like a mix of “The Truman Show” and “Survivor” with the lamest heroes and villains on earth. With nobody to much give a shit about it drags for a coupla hours and then stops and even the ending isn’t such a rush. Lawrence is lousy in the lead, and her love interest is beyond cipheric. He isn’t there at all and has all the passion of, I dunno, somebody with no passion.
Kevin Barnes newbie, Paralytic Stalks, is a downer, but a cool downer. Just hope Solange shows up on Friday as Of Nontreal turn Webstar Hall into a raucous party.
Sometimes I forget how big Weller is in the UK -too much of the time he is just the Godfather of Punk, a younger Pete Townsend or something. In the UK he has a vibrant, conitnuing career. Actually, he does in nyc as well.
Here is a question for you pop pickers: if “Part Of Me” was Katy’s first single, how would it be doing? Yeah, I agree. It is really lousy and it sails in on the video, the beat, the divorce, the Grammys and jer fan base
Violence – Cam’ron – Off his masterpiece D.D.E., he is a staccato death threat featuring ODB at his most threatening. The album itself is a long responde to Biggie. Grade: A-
”We need another musical revolution, which has got to come from the roots upwards. I’m waiting for that to happen, for the younger generation to shake it up again because it fucking needs it.”
RUN DMC’s kid 17 year old Diggy is thorough on this soul hop album of intense beauty, smarts and prettiness. I am not crazy about Diggy’s voice, but the songs are all the bomb, especially “88” and “Unforgiveable Blackness” and thematic he worries about the devolution of the Black American dream. Grade: A-
Working up to my week in albums column, I tripped over two new excellent rappers. Both Digy and Baze are serious stuff. Diggy the better rapper, Baze with the better pop instincts.
Two guys and three back up musicians playing blues and rock but mainly blues, one of them moves the other one sits behind his drumkit center stage and bangs em hard. And they performed for three quarters of an hour, then the three musicians left the stage, and they played a s duo and then all five played together.
An overlong hour song set was more than a taste but even from a distance the band had an excellent dynamic, seldom jamming, always at service to the songs, and with a pretty good leader in Turner, they had problems making an impression.
Sealed With A Kiss – Brian Hyland – 50 years ago: it was all about how his voice jumped an octave between “let’s make a pledge to” and “meet in September”. Today: it’s all about the harp at the beginning. Grade: A
I’ve seen Kiss a coupla times and they always deliver the goods whether you want them to or not! Blood spewing, stadium flying, ear cruching gum smacking pop metal and why the hell not? Really, there is nothing wrong with giving people
Really, they were one of the biggest rock bands of all time, how do you ignore them. Really, this was Wenners way of saying this is my bat and my ball and if you don’t like it go fuck yourself.
In two charts, for the first time ever, 10 Irish boys like you lots and lots and lots. How does this happen? No idea, but the tween girls npw have 10 potential replacements for Bieber. Davy was irreplaceable.
was shocked to see One Direction -Simon Cowell’s suggestion that X Factor contestants make a boy band, at # 1. This is an Irish band, and I am not certain how the US heard of them at all. Then again, as the daily Telegraph noted, “clean cut, wholesome, middle class parent friendly pop: cute boys advocating puppy love. And what could be better than one cute boy, if not five?”.
So it looks like the Hunger Games Soundtrack won’t be the dog I was hoping… er, expecting! Sometimes Burnett gets it right. Remember his work with Costello in the 1990s. No gueeses on how Arctic Monkeys were last night?
Though I didn’t like them nearly as much at T5, I can see how I might have preferred them if I was a teenager myself. As an adult, between the new album and the performances, Wolf Gang are the best pack around.
