Here are another two chances to catch up with the sound of secret agent men all over the world, rock and roll as it was always meant to be, when the Bakersfield Breakers are playing Route 66 Smokehouse on Saturday from 9 to 12 and playing Jalopy Theater on Sunday at 7.
Now this is a biggie for Four Knots. To be dead honest, it is their biggest ever. Wales’ fave Super Furry Animals, a band I put a tier below Manic Street Preachers but that’s it, came back on active duty in 2014, and haven’t played the States since 2009. This will be their first stateside gig since then and honestly, I couldn’t be more thrilled.
The Hills – The Weeknd – The one time I saw this guy live I was impressed, less a DJ then a soul man, and this soulful come on, trying to get her out of the Friend zone, is yet another gorgeous neo-R&B track , it clicks nicely and is as good as anything he has ever done- A-
The Rolling Stones have been teasing out alternate takes from the new Sticky Fingers deluxe upcoming release for weeks now. Translation? No unreleased new songs old material on the album. Jagger has noted he wished he hadn’t given it all to Exile On Main Street. Too late now.
Things Happen – Dawes – This is meant to be the introduction to a very very big album, and it might be and it might take a coupla spins to introduce itself in any real way, but an early listen shows a well played not very good song, a touch oversung – B-
What Pete Townshend and Roger Daltry prove on this last Autumnal tour is decay is a process of the body first, the brain follows it sadly and Tuesday night, we followed the Who down, as they seemed bother eternally Mod kids (I mean the opening, better portion of the show) and elder statesmen battling forces beyond their control. They were kids in old men’s bodies.
The 385,000 units shifted of “Bad Blood” is pretty impressive though I personally am not so crazy about the Kendrick verse as the rest of the world. Plus, not my fave track on the album at the best of times though Taylor certainly keeps changing the plot on us, doesn’t she
Would I have wanted “Tulane”? Sure. “Fake Friends”? -I’d have taken “Fake friends” over “Cherry Bomb”. “Star Star”? Fuck yeah. But the diminutive spitfire looked ageless and sounded timeless and she had no problem filling an arena. Long may Joan be what she is.
I bet Twenty-One Pilots are opening up the bottles oc champers, whatever the downsize of the music biz in 2015 might be, the upside is everybody gets to have a # 1 album. This is the seventh by a new act, this year. Meanwhile, in the smaller share US, the Billboards award catapulted Taylor, Meghan and Ed. Finally, Bradley Gilbert has a song with featured singers Justin Moore and Thomas Rhett. Or as we like it to call it, a breesome.
What does it mean when you don’t hear great music because it was never written? It is like me, childless, all the wonderful kids I never had and all the wonderful songs I never heard because they weren’t written or because I couldn’t find them and that is the great sorrow of this maybe great moment in pop music. We can’t hear it.
Hours before I go to see the Who perform a Greatest Hits set, here is a 2012 viewing of Quadrophenia, and I am interested in how much difference three years makes. I enjoyed this show, but I saw it two more times before the year was over and it wore off me…
I’m going, though it is gonna be a long night (looks like till midnight), I’ve wanted to catch the band for months now and finally I don’t have to go to fucking Brooklyn. I’ve haven’t been to a club.. oh wait, I went last week. Anyway, I’m still going
Illusion – Zedd, Echosmith – Brutally bad, EDM mainstream pop, it is so annoying it seems to twee in your ear like an irritating bird. Zedd is the poster boy for lame EDM and Echosmith give twee whole new vistas of meaning – C-
I wasn’t crazy about Rocky when I caught him at MSG, and “1 Train” had worn off, but this is a huge album in the middle of a very good year. “LSD” is the best song he has recorded, and the Rod Stewart, Miguel and Mark Ronson featured “Everyday” is a pop move that may well break pop, and the darker stuff features the likes of M.I.A. and Kanye West. At the least, acid is a lot more interesting than weed – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
The Bullfighter Dies – Morrissey – Moz, defender of those who can’t defend themselves, and bullpit for causes no one has the power to approach. It is a shame that he doesn’t have a better balance or better songs, this has neither. “Hurray hurray the bullfighter dies and nobody cries…” isn’t gonna cut it – B-
The thing to keep in mind here, is this was Bruce as superstar, as popstar, as icon, as white Michael, as God, but what he gave was a performance for the ages which made a mockery of questions of sell out. Preaching to the converted, sure, but some of them were the newly converted.
None of it makes the slightest bit of sense, all of it is Disney pretty nonsense, the acting is bad, really really bad, three people wrote the script and if any of them can make sense of the story they chose not to share it. Why is the world gonna blow up in 58 days? Something to do with people not caring but why would that mean the… ah screw it, it isn’t worth the effort.
When Bruce Springsteen performs a three hour set we get 30 songs, when Paul McCartney does the same length set we get 25% more as last nights truly epic 41 song set at London’s 02 proves unhesitatingly. Paul is the Ramones of 60s rockers!
There is a Las Vegas bidding war between the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, The Venetian and Caesars Palace, and is in line to ink a $40 million deal.Look, if Adele was willing to do an Arena tour the chances are excellent you could gross in the $150M level. But if she isn’t willing to play Arenas, where is the money?
All endings is my ending, time is so inexorable, so relentless, so infinite but not for me, every change, every wedding, every death, every hope… I haven’t much watched David Letterman in many many years but if ever anyone seemed to be sick of having a Late Night TV show by the end of it, Letterman seemed sick of it. He was ready to leave. But his left is our left and the least sentimental television personality brings out the sentimental in me!
Love 3 X – ZZ Ward – I saw Ward a coupla years ago at Beacon Theatre opening for Gary Clark t Beacon Theatre and wasn’t thrilled, indeed so unthrilled arrived late at another gig she was opening, but this is a major breakthrough. Bubblegum blues as catchy as you could hope for, saucy, sexy cool, crazy shit – A
There is so much music out there that I feel if you could find all the good stuff the 2010s would be the equal of the 00s… but how do you find it? Overhere at rock nyc we try and save you time by telling you what to listen to (that’s also why we use grades so liberally, so you don’t even have to bother reading it). The next decade should be interesting at the very least…
That leaves only Three Day GA and some superduper expensive tickets which, when my ship comes in, and let’s be honest, unless more of you cats read this music website might not be in this lifetime, I would buy in a heartbeat
With Ed off on his stadium tour, which reaches New York this week, I thought it might be worth remembering his set at Mercury Lounge three and a half years ago. Already a star in the UK, he hadn’t broken the US yet, hadn’t become best friends forever with Taylor Swift and hadn’t recorded the double album X. Though he was still thinking out loud… at the 200 capacity Mercury Lounge!!
LSD – A$AP Rocky – Here is where, well, actually, what the hell? This is rap? It sounds like indie rock on a 60s psyckick, the rap is minimal, just a verse, but the rest of it sounds like a dream of sex and power runs, this is a song of the year – A
The pitch is never really great and its total lack of believability means that the pleasures of the first movie, of real life, it felt real and possible, are blown to smithereens. I’d have had everybody grow up a year and let new recruits in and see what helps in the second year.
“Maybe we’ll never do another one. Futurology was such a brilliant summation of who we are, who knows? Everything Must Go is 20 years old next year as well, so we might even just do a couple of gigs doing that. I think we need to replenish our inspiration, you know?”
“If this album hadn’t been so impactful to the fans, if they hadn’t gone out and broken so many records and made sure that I knew that this album was the most important one to them and the one they liked the most, I probably would have had to pull more old hits into the set.”
The Who never really recovered from Keith Moon’s death, and that’s true: it was a bigger disaster than you can even begin to imagine, despite Moon falling apart in the last few years. And the complaints about the 2013 tour? Not exactly unwarranted. But I end up with my Beethoven comparison… would you say “yeah, I don’t wanna see Ludwig, he’s too old and he’s deaf”? Neither would I. I’m going to Tuesday a Barclay Center. They’re also playing Saturday at Forest Hills.
Is Memorial Day any excuse for the music world to take the day off? A good question and my reply is simple enough…. apparently. This is it, more or less, for new releases? Where is everyone? June 2nd has a Tsunami of new sounds but getting there? I guess I’ll go with the Vaccines.
King Kunta – Kendrick Lamar – This is as playful as Kendrick ever gets, for a full fledged rap superstars he isn’t a particularly cheerful fellow though you think he would be on this Roots sage – B+
I like the kid a lot, but don’t love him, still he has a handful of cracker songs. Two of his best songs are here, one of them “Even My Dad Does Sometimes” is MIA. Plus a little skimpy? I figure he is giving 90 minutes.
Back three years to opening night at the Barclay Center and the vibe around Jay Z’s performance is mammoth. I wish I was writing back in the “Fade To Black” reunion days… mow that was a concert. This one? It didn’t live up to the hype but what does, right? 2012, Hov was still a minority stock holder and Barclay Center was opening..
Here is an idea I’ve been dwelling on, rating the rock deaths (or pop -I am an equal opportunity low life) because I want you to know at a glance what we think of those who died, their age, their abilities, the way they died – all of it in one big gulp of information. I feel bad about this, not unlike the way I used to feel after reading “Celebrity Skin”.
. Meanwhile, for want of anything else, American Idol fell apart the second they lost Paula Abdul, the initial judges were clearly the best, dawg. So take the chance to watch her on Kelly And Michael.
Serenade – Franz Schubert – No less than Franz Liszt dubbed Schubert our most poetic composer and really this melody echoes effortlessly through time, it is beyond gorgeous, and dating from 1826 he wasn’t yet 30 (and wouldn’t make it to 31), pop learnt how to compose melodies from this guy, hell Gershwin learnt off this guy – A+
The songs don’t quite interlock, but still they connect to the myth and then back away from it, it is Lennon as careerist and perhaps this is the one album you can really compare to mid-period McCartney. Say McCartney’s Pipes Of Peace and, yes I know I’m biased, but Lennon’s genius shines through: it is important stuff despite its intentions in ways Macca isn’t.
How can you go into another business when the business you have is not under control. Where is the full tilt power rush to get new customers? Why are the messing around with new ideas when the old ones aren’t firmed up?
If Saturday was all about leaving early, Sunday is all about arriving late/. The show doesn’t start proper till Sturgill Simpson at 3pm, and, if you wanna be difficult, skip him and arrive really late for A-TRAK, but once you reach there is a whole lotta tough choices. War On Drugs or weird Al? Noel Gallagher is a gimme, but Hot Chip or Flying Lotus or Lana Del Rey or the Black Keys?
Moonlight Mile” is the one that has caught my eye,”Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”? The sequence of song is different from the album, probably because they wanted to hold on to “Brown Sugar” till late. Plus BB King and Otis Redding for the encore.
“Music writing isn’t sports writing, you don’t need to report on the ramifications of a manager being dropped or speculate on the next album. You can’t critique art that hasn’t happened.”
This is an odd day, Saturday starts off awesome, Kate Tempest, the English rapper, Clean Bandit, who I’ve been trying to see for a year now, J Roddy is always a blast, Marina, Sharon, Bjork and Conor at the same time (sorry Conor, I want more Bjork) and then… Ryan Adams headlining? Against Deadmau5? –fuck that shit, I’m going home.
The Kids Are Alright – The Who – There is a plaintiveness about this song, maybe more so now than 50 years ago, but the word kid reverberates and the sense of a scene in movement is also partly a scene closing down forever. “I don’t mind…” is suh a loaded line – A+
this doesn’t hit me like the chart of summer yet, OMI and Jess Glynne haven’t hit (they have both been # 1’s in the UK) and I think once they do, the two will battle it out… and I have a feeling OMI might win.
Which leads me to Christgau the rock critic, who once wrote of Costello “all wordplay as swordplay” –a phrase I still use. As is this one, which only I own since he said it in reference to a pan of Visage (more or less –I think I was a little ambivalent) I’d written for the Voice: “They aren’t invading Poland”…. A phrase I’ve used ever since whenever somebody is over reacting. And… MICK JAGGER SHOULD WRAP UP HIS PENIS AND GO HOME.
Three albums in the top five are soundtracks and I bet more to come as the days roll by: ever since “Twilight” realized it could connect with the youngsters via indie bands, mainstream poppers have been circling the soundtrack compilation and now the eagle has landed. The result? While you might enjoy EDM pop moves on a single, or on a dance floor, one after another for 40 minutes? Not so much. Incubus? I’m a pass.
So here we go, sixteen days and the nyc festival of the year hits and I will take a closer look at each day. It sure seems to me, the big draw closers on Friday should be a repeat of Skrillex versus Jack White last year, Drake is going to have 75% of the attendants. Me? I haven’t seen MMJ since New Year’s Eve 2008 and I saw Drake twice last year…
His portrait is based in blue streaks and I gave Joe the spiritual fire that seems to be a constant aspect in a lot of my stuff. I reckon it signifies soul and life and a certain forever, eternal, greatness. I also picked the Kansas City era Joe because I like to think of him singing without a microphone coming out from behind the bar
Born In The USA – Bruce Springsteen – This is off his new August 5th, 1985, romp in the swamps of a Jersey Arena. You can hear his ambivalence here, the way you couldn’t there – A
But more exciting still there is a new album and it includes Bobby Womack’s last vocal performance. This is off Gigwise: “Rudimental have revealed details of their second album entitled We The Generation due to be released on 18 September.
