On the last track of the four song EP, Jessi sings “I’ am just the subject of gravity” and the lyric hits home in a minimal acoustic setting. It’s a wonderful thing, a near perfect song among near perfect songs. I’ve heard Jessi will be off to college this year.I am sure she will do great, though with this sort of gift for songwriting I sure hope it won’t distract from her songwriting too much.
“I’m not a girl trying to be a star or trying to be anything besides a musician. I don’t think I’m gonna be at all famous. I don’t think I could handle it. I’d probably go mad.”
Some good ones here. Obviously a new Brian Wilson is always good news even if I have my doubts and Waxahatchee is a talented woman, the Mountain Goats single off this album was awesome and Drug Cabin are first rate but no…. I am going to see Young Fathers. on Friday and I can’t wait and the two new songs I’ve heard off their new album are excellent and they are the best new band of the year. A huge band.
The only time I’ve seen Rhiannon Giddens, either with or without Carolina Chocolate Drops, was at the Town Hall as part of T-Bone’s boring new folk extravaganza and she left little impression, and I wasn’t crazy about her New Basement Tapes album, but her current album Tomorrow Is My Turn is all that Gospel blues soul plus plus plus and so I am back to the Town Hall on Thursday to hear what I missed
Sunshine On My Back – The Nationals – I had written that sometimes bands move forward and sometimes they stay in place and this stays in place and then I noticed it was recorded two years ago. Still, damn good, with Sharon Van Etten on backup vocals and sunshine nowhere near anyones shoulders – B+
The Neighborhood Bullys include drummer Reijo Kauppila and Zach Jones on rhythm guitar, which means they are in the business of selling you on a groove on song after song. It is like being pushed in a crowded club, it gets your attention but you know it is the price you pay for great rock and roll.
The action sequences are pretty spectacular with cars being dropped from planes and hitting the Caucasus Mountains at full speed, a Maserati leaping from one high rise to another in Abu Dhabi, and a high speed chase in the streets of L.A. before Jason and Vin battle it out mano a mano.
I was hip hopping between Flo Rida on Fallon, just because I like the iteration of the “F” and also because I do like Flo Rida and Saint Motel, who, despite playing Kimmel a while back, don’t get enough TV time and I like em, I actually interviewed em six years ago as well, so I went with Saint Motel.
“Ballad of the Green Berets” Sgt. Barry Sadler – This sounds almost hysterical in its overwhelming and over the top jingoism for murder. Sometimes people have to kill people, and it is many things, but it ain’t a reason to celebrate. And even if we have to hear this stuff, couldn’t they write a decent hymn for us? – D
You won’t know it from the reviews, but if these three songs are anything to go by, this won’t be much of an addition to the canon, in much the same way and for many of the same reasons the last Beach Boys album wasn’t. Like Bruce and Paul, and an army of others, Brian does what he did only not half as well.
This list of songs belong to my friend Steve, who is a very nice guy and a very social guy. I like some of em, “Judas” is an inspired choice, “Faith” a great song by any standards, but is “Stairway To Heaven” really a song of faith? Indeed, how is “Both Sides Now” a song of faith. I mean faith in not knowing?
After a coupla weeks of one great song after another, this one is a fizle, though Anna and Donato are especially worth your attention, the Wale album is the first time I’ve really liked him and Sufjan is a complete revelation.
One of the saddest days in the year for me are Father’s Day, it is the one where it becomes clear that I have no children and nieces and nephew aren’t a substitute. It is a day dreamy concern (I don’t like the responsibility of a woman or a cat so it would be a form of hell…) but when you hear songs like this it triggers something. Less the urge to continue the Iman line and much more the urge to be loved
Across The Universe – David Bowie – It is worth noting how much worse this is than even the Rufus Wainwright take. Botched and a half by Phil Spector, the Lennon unplugged version is the one to go for, Bowie overdoes everything to start with and when the best thing you can do with the song is let it speak for itself, Bowie oversings it at then some – C-
I Don’t Prefer No Blues – Leo “Bud” Welch – hard electric guitar blues by an unknown master who just celebrated his 83rd birthday and 50th year in Church and hear sounds like maybe you should be locking up your daughters. Man, is this guys mojo working.
Joan Of Arc – Madonna – An impossibly fragile madge, shows her heart is going up in flames as scumbugs like your truly put her through the ringer for being a middle aged diva well past her prime. Which she might well be, but you can’t tell from this song
Dream Lover – The Vaccines – The band behind the excellent “Post Break Up Sex” are back and the song is a thumping riff but without the prerequisite melodic buzz. It is like when your teen friend grows up and becomes a complete pain in the neck. This is a bluesy disappointment – C
I am all for “I’d rather hear a good song twice than a bad song once” but this ridiculous, the 13 week chart buster at the top is the Rutles of funk and the song at the bottom is a remix of Whitney Houston. Still, La rose is easy on the eyes, and disco is, in fact disco. Call it the Jerimih touch.
Kidz Bop Kids have had there moment and I am now here to officially tell you, it is over so please stop. A karoake strained cover of pop hits doesn’t improve because a bunch of little brats are singing it and by now any novelty at all is completely over with, so knock it off.
Drive-In Saturday – Morrissey – Changing Jagger into David Johansen is one thing, but not quite hitting the melody is a bigger problem entirely. Assume the live setting isn’t happening except, cmon, when is happening production wise for this cat? – B
A lovely light show helped and so did the whistling, though it was through the beauty of their music, whether an a cappella opening or bass guitar electrifying, heartfelt soulful and very emotional-secret weaponish singing by guitarist Joe Newman, or distracted keyboard doodlings, the set seldom slackened too much.
This includes a meet and greet with Charlie Watts and a portrait by Ron Wood. Unfortunately, Mick and Keef will not be making themselves available though Mick will dedicate a song to you at the performance and you will be considered a “Stones Benefactor”. Also, you will get four free tickets to the show of your choice. Also, the deluxe Sticky Fingers in every available format. After ticketmaster charges , the final price will be $120,000.
Laura, Alisson, Madonna and Brandi all got two songs on this list, and that is while I was making a concerted effort not to get more than one song off an album. A very strong month for songs, although not for albums. I would love to see Alisson live again, but she doesn’t appear to be playing roud are way.
Vagabond Moon Live – Willie Nile – From The Bottom Line, from 1980, and a welcvome reminder if necessary how great this guy, a Byrdsy folk rock dipped in new wave and never better than this terrific and heart felt version. This guy shoulda been a lot bigger – A
Impossibly lovely and gentle, a lost love track with Zayns lovely voice, 1D will really miss his impossibly beautiful voice and if he continues working with the truly gifted Khan, this could prove a great collaboration, while adding a touch of credence to what I was writing yesterday about Pakistan and the UK
A memento mori for the Mom he barely knew, this softly acoustic folk album conjures the ghost of Elliott Smith to show how beautifully you can sing about the saddest things. I never really liked Sufjan but I could be wrong, you know – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
Arabs aren’t the only, and not even the biggest, objects of rock racism. In ’76, mindless punks wore swastikas at English concerts (swastikas adorned the label of Vicious’s pathetic Sid Sings). Siouxsie Sioux used to sing “too many Jews for my liking.” By the time punk had passed, an English offspring called “Oi” aligned themselves with the fascist party, the National Front. The NF advocated Pakistani bashing and sending the West Indians back to where they came from
“I feel like I’ve let the fans down but I can’t do this anymore. It is crazy and wild and a bit mad but, at the same time, I’ve never felt more in control in my life. And I feel like I’m doing what’s right – right by myself and right by the boys, so I feel good.
Great Voices In Harlem, The Gloster Project – MIST Harlem – Sunday, March 9th, 2015 – Any afternoon, any time at all, you get to listen to such a great collection of musicians, especially in such an intimate space, is a great afternoon. Or evening. And in aid of such a wonderful project -did I mention Dr. Randy Weston was there?
Great Expectations – Toto – The thing about prog-rock is that it is smug for no reason, it is the Bob Lefsetz of popular music, highbrow content for low brow sensibilities. This song closes out the new Toto album and the only thing we know for sure is lower your expectations right now – D
I enjoyed it to a limited degree, despite not being a big fan of anybody in it, except for the three actors playing his daughter Murph. The punchline works, it is a clever pay off, and the script, by Christopher and his brother Jonathan Nolan, has a satisfying tick tock (apt for a movie obsessed with gravity as a type of time machine
Somebody That I Used To Know – Gotye – The Police redux and a huge winner for Gotye who couldn’t really follow it up, and Kimbra, who couldn’t follow it up either. Consider it the “Budapest” of 2012 – C+
On the eighth of a nine performance New York residency over the month of March, Bjork performed six songs from her new album of lost love and complicated feelings, took a break, and returned a brand new woman for the second set. It is called Catharsis… or art… or something.
Can’t say I am too fond of James Bay, another small town boy way more precious than anybody really needs to be, I prefer Seasick Steve, a blues guy from Cali who is big in the UK because he sounds like an English blues guy and not a US. Because he is white?
You know Jess Glynn, right? She was the voice on Clean Bandits humongous “Rather Be”, as well as their less exalted but pretty great “Real Love”. This solo shot is almost the equal as well, with a gorgeous choppy intro and a typically tasty disco beat
Coolio Gangsta’s Paradise – One hit wonder and a type of harbinger of modern r&b meets pop music in the world of EDM with that crossover violin haunted sample and a superb bg time hook, plus a deadly serious storyline – B+
The band, four guitars including Miranda’s, were pretty good country-rockers, and Miranda in an “I Love NY” tee shirt looked the part, the 20 song set wasn’t entirely ungenerous though the 80 minute performance was awful skimpy for a major arena performance. She has more material, Miranda didn’t even pull out one of her best songs, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” -a hit that gave her a unique personality she managed to squander on stage.
If you have heard and loved Vulnicura as much as I do (I consider it her best album since Post), you must see this performance. It completes the journey to a bright future. It is magic realism, where through art one is made whole. A masterpiece of a performance.
I am very good friends with True Groove Records owner Tomas Doncker, so when he asked me to write the Press Release for True Groove Records Fully Re-Covered, I was happy to comply. Particularly since I loved it so much. The alvbum will be released Tuesday and here is my PR!
The rule of thumb is, if you at a standing room only gig and you are near the stage shut up, if you’re in the back, well, ok, we can live with it. This is no longer the case. This is reaching epidemic proportions, silence please. A concert is not the time or place to discuss Daddy’s operation or Mary’s divorce so shut up and let me watch the show in peace.
The one time I saw alt j I thought the UK Radioheads brother in arms were the worst live band I’d ever seen BUT it was crowded, it was a festival, and their pretty good second album hadn’t seen the light of day yet. This is MSG and the new album, with great songs like “Every Other Freckle” waiting to be nailed on stage, well, maybe time for another look. PS: A Monday but at least it’s not T5.
This looks like an okay week but I don’t think it really is. I have heard songs off The Prodigy, Sufjan Stevens, and Death Cab For Cuties, and was not impressed with a single one. Ringo Starr hasn’t done much worth getting excited since the late 1970s, Godspeed! were pretty well hyped with their last album but it sucked anyway, and calling your new release The Album About Nothing is looking for trouble. Which leads me with Darius Rucker who is seldom great but always good for a “Comeback Song” here and there, as my most anticipated of the week.
Loud Places – Jamie xx and Rony – I prefer this to “All Under One Roof Raving” not because it is better but because I am old fashioned and it is a clearer delineated song… a soulful song as well, with a great vocal and a memorable melody, where “Rave” is a weird contraption that works despite itself – B+
Here is a story I wrote after watching Costello go on and on and on at a taping of his actually excellent when you see the finished product “Spectacle” talk show way back in 2009. Needless to add, Costello fans didn’t like it.
When it did become cooler to be a hard on, not everything is everybody’s business, some stuff is nobodies business at all. Some stuff doesn’t matter in the slightest and the making of petitions seems like puerile petty mindedness for one good reason: it is so.
Van Halen are an immaculate conception: the bastard child of Jimmy Page and Groucho Marx. And they were immaculate on stage, they did no more and no less than every single thing they had to do.” They are back on tour this summer but I ain’t going Jone’s Beach on a Tuesday night so this great expectation at Jimmy Kimmel will have to do.
Easy Rider – Action Bronson – Drug pushing, pushing Keri Hilson lookalikes in the Hilton, riding easy on Harleys and riding into the sunset or the apocalypse or both , this terrific ending to a pretty good sophomore album justifies a lot of the hype surrounding this guy – A-
What Diamond is is a songwriter who through a fluke of timing and chops and chance became a master singer-songwriter, but there is a laziness to a craft that has managed to sell over 125 million songs worldwide in 50 years. For every well crafted, “I am I cried, I am said I” there is a million “Pour me a drink, and I’ll tell you some lies”.
My problem with the Who in 2015 (well, 2013) is they are too bombastic, I love the psychedelic pop group Who vastly more than the heavy duty hard rock band. Much better “I’m A Boy” than “Behind Blue Eyes”. Still, this is a great setlist, it is a careerist setlist. I can’t wait to see em at Barclay Center. “I Can See For Miles” was the fourth song I ever learnt to play…
I read an article about a 100 year old man explaining how the world looks in extreme old age, how you forget how love feels, how love felt, how life in youth was, except in dreams, and I would if except in music and movies where the extremeness of returning precisely to the past might not trigger something in you.
