This is the sound of modern pop music and it sounds like electronic dance beats plus melody, in other words, it sounds a helluva lot like trance, doesn’t it? Blonde is r&b trance, Bieber adds soul to EDM for the post-party heavy duty druggies.
you know how how in poor societies, the denizens eat every part of an animal, my dad, who was raised poverty stricken, would eat the brains, the marrow in the bones, and the eyes of sheep. Well, Leonard Cohen has been doing the same thing with his music ever since he discovered all his money was embezzled. Two live albums, and now oddball covers from his concert soundchecks Can’t Forget: A Souvenir Of The Grand Tour. I’m not complaining at all, the one thing I’ve heard is a goodie. And while the Paul Weller, Surfer Blood, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and JD Souther, all have my attention., most anticipated remains Leonard Cohen.
Sure, I had a crush on Susannah Hoffs. I actually had a good friend named Stacey Ghindi, a Syrian Jewish girl, who looked very like her. And I got in trouble by Creem Editor Dave Dimartino because they wanted me to interview Vicki and I wanted Susannah, but I got both so I won. 1985 and the band had just hit big.
Grown Up – Danny Brown – “Remember when my first meal was a school lunch, now I spit sixteen straight with no punch…” One of the best rappers to date takes on one of the great hip hop subjects, being raised in poverty. His voice his really great, it isn’t thug, there seems something just beneath the surface of it seeped in sadness whatever he is saying – A-
There is nothing I don’t like about this song,Eryn sounds great, Prince is spectacular, he plays everything here but it is voice that pulls you short, he doesn’t use his falsetto often, but “at least a little better” is so slight, but it is very lovely. This is an anthem without the browbeating. Well done, Prince, a good song does more for peace than words or gestures, or even money, ever will.
Rockwoods wasn’t a great fit earlier this year, Joe’s Pub is a better venue, with a larger stage and a better vibe for this soulful folk man, or do I mean this folkie soulman, it will give him the room he needs to perform (the Brooklyn Bowl gig was better because the stage was larger), and Joe’s Pub is for adults, it is part of the Public Theatre, it is pop as art venue.
Did you see what I see? While it is true Tom Waits did the talk show rounds back in 2012, even so, Waits on Letterman is gonna be as big as it gets. This will be Waits tenth appearance with Dave since 1983, and it will include an interview which should be as heartbreaking as everything else we’ve seen over the past month.
On Saturday night at Avenue A’s Sidewalk Cafe is an unbeatable and completely unique line up, and one I can’t imagine us getting ever again. At 8pm the high heeled new Baby Jane herself, an intense performer with a voice you must hear Cheri Dahl, at 9pm the rock and roll bad ass Susan Said whose Big Life from last year will knock you for a loop, and topping it off, with The American Dream just released, post-punk blues avatar Phil Gammage’s new band Adventures In Bluesland. It is free, it is great, and if you are planning a night out, don’t even think about it twice, go.
Ebony Eyes – The Everly Brothers – On Flight 1203, his fiancee takes a plane but never quite makes it, the spoken word portion is so painful it chokes you back, especially as he watches the ebony eyes of ebony skies until there is nothing left to see but a plane never going to arrive – B+
According to the brand they will be The Magic Whip flavour is “a dairy vanilla custard ice cream rippled with raspberry sauce.” The brand have also promised a unique Blur download with each ice cream sold.
I guess I’m a feminist in as much as I have never hit a woman once, even when she kind of deserved it, but Liz just knocked it out of the park on that album. A strong statement that just stuck a finger into the eye of every flannel clad prick in Chicago who decided he was going to start a grunge band
Some nice songs, some may even last longer than the week, but they are all no match for Jason Isbell’s masterful “24 Frames” , terrific and strange song, about: memory? the speed at which disasters occur? life as a camera in your mind:? Michael Stipes? Losing your religion? Who knows?
I have to accept that his greatness hasn’t managed to survive the decades intact. So maybe he is very much of his time, maybe he was such a cusp superstar, such a harbinger of the new century, he hasn’t quite managed to move forward. But songs as great as “All Apologies”, “Heart Shape Box” “Negative Creep” “About A Girl”… maybe they are ripe for re-discovery for the voice of a generation, beyond it all
Bang That – Disclosure – Hand the EDM duo, they got the name of the beat crazy song right, a banger that bangs with nary a Sam SMith of Emeli Sande in sight, this is an old fashioned martial beats go crazy track – B
All You Had To Do Was Stay – Taylor Swift – An electronic masterwork, all 808s and multi layered and falsetto underlining, but as catchy as hell and for a deep track, Taylor recently claimed 1989 was an album during which she had no romance, but the edges of romance are all over it – A
In 2015, when, if Prince chose to, he could write, record and release a song in an hour, we are still wauiting for his response to the civil unrest in Baltimore. And when we get it, he is releasing the song via Tidal to absolutely insure that 99.9% of the people who hear his great moment of protest HAS TO STEAL IT.
I prefer new Mariah to new U2, so what do I know. I may be the only person in the world to adore last years Me. I Am Mariah, a fine album marred by a crap name and way way way too many songs. But I loved it any way and regret blowing off the Beacon Theatre Christmas run (the bad taste from a lousy New Year’s Eve 2010 gig lingered), if it had been the show that just opened at the Coliseum in Ceasar’s Palace, I’d have found a way to catch it
“This event celebrates the world’s longest running science fiction TV series, features award-winning music written by Murray Gold and features well over 100 musicians, singers, and monsters live on stage”
Whipkey’s strong lyrical command and virtuoso guitar work is equally mesmerizing. He’s currently touring his much- anticipated follow up “Underwater”, a collection Rock NYC raved as a, “Purists dream of electrified awesomeness.”
Feeling Good – Avicii – The DJ-Producer continues on his electronic way into the middle of the road with this big brassy record reworking of Nina Simone’s epic track. Produced in league with Volvo, and I bet the commercial is a killer. Still, the entire enterprise is a little heartless, a brassy but minimalist. That’s Audra Mae from “Addicted To You” taking you out – B-
T Wayne is a sticky mo fu from the Lone Star State, “Money Freestyle’ was a pretty good earlier song, but ‘Nasty Freestyle is even better: a Texan accent and a slur weed voca with a sing songy braggard deluxe. The first line, “First lemme hop out the motherfuckin’ Porsche, I dont want her if that ass don’t sit like a horse” was so good, Vine users had a competition as to who could lip synch to it best.
Hot Chocolate had the distinction of performing truly soulful UK disco, they sounded like nobody else as they stretched their way through 15 hits in the 1970s and while I never saw them live on stage, Hot Chocolate exuded a more knowing egotism then either the white disco of the Bee Gees, or the more universal black disco of Tavares. They were like the last line of defense before Chic changed the landscape
I hope there never comes a time I my life, even if I am no longer writing about music, but merely a civilian buying tickets to Taylor Swift concerts like all you plebs (actually, I am a civilian buying Taylor tickets like all you plebs), when I can look at the names Zac Brown and Josh Groban at the top of the charts and not throw up in my mouth.
This year looks pretty damn good as well. Another West Coast superstar, Mikal Cronin, headlining among the first list of names, and undoubtedly we will be getting some names as we get closer. July 11th, right after Independence Day, so there is an added plus.
Heartbreak Hotel – Elvis Presley – # 1 in the charts the year I was born, this stark, grown up blues, is stunted in despair and stark as a threadbare transient hotel, everything about this is nightmare and horrifying, including the solo – A+
I am happy to hear New York represented upfront, “New Romantics” is a little odd for the second song, and “Blank Space maybe a touch early? Since Taylor isn’t given to encores, I guess there was no reason to leave it for a late sock in the jaw. “Love Story” didn’t get a bigger than anything else reception, as much to do with the mammoth success of the newbie no doubt. All five from Jingle Ball 2014 are represented…
Jame’s lyrics are very sweet,an ode to his Nana who was a diehard Sox fan, and died with a smile on her face after watching her team come back from 0 – 3 Yankee lead in the playoffs in 2004, to win the World Series for the first time since the year Nana was born: 1918
Hollis Brown are really local local kids, they are from Queens, my ‘hood, and like Bayside, another local team, I don’t give em nearly enough love and listening to their more than solid new album 3 Shots. Which I haven’t even written about yet, though I sure do plan to
Why We Live Here – Tyler Farr – Not as bad as you thought it was, I find it hard to agree with a man who has a gun and a bible near his bed -neither of which I would touch with a ten foot pole but some stuff works conceptually and this does. Plus it sounds good… ps I knew he’d get to the beer eventually – B+
Cold Stares (feat Chance The Rapper And Maceo Haymes ) – Nosaj Thing – Knockout modern blues song full of trepidation and moment, it stifles its own power in a throbbing discretion of sound; the vocal is lovely and the concerns are threatening: it is like Chance nervous and upset – A
Traveller – Chris Stapleton – Country songwriter Chris sure can write em, this is the real deal country balladeering that needs no excuse at all and no time no annouce itself. Two drinking song, a devil song, travelling tracks and lots and lots of heartache, superb playing (the best harp since David Barnes) and songs, songs and songs. George Strait should cover every song – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
I am not claiming she had to perform if she wasn’t well enough to perform, I am claiming she needed to give an account of herself. I wish Prass a long and healthy career, but if she ever isn’t healthy, I wish her the good manners to explain herself properly.
For one thing, as The Monitor producer Kevin McMahon, once told me, Stickles makes every decision about the sound: it will be his new testament. For another thing, the new single, “Dimed Out” is great, a melodic anthem, a myth of Patrick specialty, as Alyson noted a couple of days. It doesn’t feel like a move forward, but if it is treading water, it is standing on the shoulders of giant songs and maintaining its balance
The Waterfall – My Morning jacket – When they say it is MMJ’s best work in years, what they mean is it is better than Circuital… which it is, but so are more things. A lovely, low key, very melodic break up album that will come to life on stage – B
Naturally, the reason for “After The Dance” is money. But also, and I say this without benefit of reading the book, maybe something else: “That I lost myself in someone else — someone as remarkable as Marvin Gaye — is no longer cause for self-condemnation.” Can’t we all claim the same?
The album barely peaks and never dips, unlike the first two albums weed isn’t an essential character in the stories; she seems a little less dependent on artificial paranoia. Instead, there’s a snapshot of a woman nearing her thirties and running in place in the California days and California nights as her youth slips by and that is as close to be precisely what Best Coast want it to be.
If this doesn’t end the world of boxing, at least as football type supersport for the masses, nothing will. Not only was the Floyd Mayweather Manny Pacquiao over hyped, over priced on Pay Per View, but Time Warner crashed and burned, and the fight itself was a drag. A really really big job poorly done.
Two Of A Crime – Miranda Lambert – I kinda liked this without going bonkers over it, but the horns are wonderful and the ending is psychedelic, and Miranda’s country tinge just makes it bigger. Great song – A-
The first hour is lousy, till they get to Hawkeye’s (Jeremy Renner) hideout where his wife claims Hawkeye is the only Avenger without a superpower (apparently she hasn’t met Tony Stark), is a boring whirl, the rest of the movie is better but I can’t stand the witticism. Everybody sounds like they didn’t make the cut in “Pulp Fiction”.
How did Tay get back to # 2 five months after 1989 dropped? No new song on the charts, sure she has three dates in June but that is three dates and it is in June. No surprise to see Blur at # 1… every album since Parklife has done the exact same thing. Ps: remember how they didn’t put “Popscene” on the UK version of Modern Life Is Rubbish because they were pissed it didn’t chart? They are doing the exact same thing with the US.
The only excuse for “I Really Like You” is if it is a hit, then you forgive it for being irritating before you finish it once. Really, really, really… The Iggy is a goodie that improved off the other, and Alesso? A talented fellow going nowhere with this one.
If the $400 Million profits for HBO and SHO prove anything, it is they will have a hard time repeating. Floyd kept Manny at arms length and clinching when he couldn’t for the evening, while taking solid pot shots from time to time, to mass up the rounds in the dreary, boring, scientific, defensive masterpiece of meh.
(If Paradise Is) Half As Nice – Amen Corner – Based on an Italian hoit and turned down by the Tremeloes, it was a huge hit in this Shel Talmy arrangement. The calling card was Andy Fairweather Low’s raspy vocals which seemed to belong to another form of sound than teen pop – A-
“24 Frames” is a think of extreme beauty, it is a gorgeous clicked in jigsaw puzzle about how one relationship is mirrored in a later one, both major, both central for the man Jason is singing to, watching the girl is like watching his father in a movie: they are doing the same destructive things.Isbell (last writer, mostly because the story has ended) is William Faulkner as a pop star
Natalie Prass may be just another Twenty Feet from Stardom overeaching back up singer, her debut album hasn’t stuck and her voice is a little light and a little strange. but the uniqueness works to her favor, and the reason why she hasn’t stuck is because her songs are lush and quirky and lush at the same. The verdict is out till Monday at the Bowery Ballroom.
My buddy Phil Tanner, a great musician in his own right, was at yesterday’s Blur concert, the one I couldn’t get a ticket too for love nor money, and claims they murdered it. I believe him though by reckoning only three songs are oldies and I am not a big enough fan of the new one to be certain they can pull it off a Thirteen.
Trotting out the same set he was been playing for the past year, last night at Madison Square Garden, in celebration of his 70th birthday, when playing God Clapton still had godlike tendencies, but when going rural on our ass he sure wasn’t
This looks difficult but it is a no brainer. Everything I’ve heard off the new Mumford And Sons and My Morning Jacket albums has been pretty damn second rate and both look like disasters. Sure I like Palma Violets, youngsters and with talent, and I like Todd, an olderster with talent. The Metz album will be a goodie, basically definitely and Boney James… wait a second BONEY JAMES??? The most anticipated is Best Coast
If it was just me, well, fine. But Blur’s heyday was in the 1990s, so really anybody with a job was gonna find it ifficult and to add insult to injury, if they could get a ticket and then could risk it, they still couldn’t get in. If you work in the City, you might not get there till 4pm by which time you’ll be at the end of a line starring 4000 college kids.
Drop That Kitty – Ty Dolla $ign (feat Charli XCX and Tinashe) – Now there is a line up, master popstress Charli XCX with her hookiest contribution og not “I Love It”, surely “Boom Clap” is joined by a model r&b singer and an LA rapper for this ear candy nursery rhyme – A-
