It’s about how men see women as commodities, as though they don’t need them to complete them, they need something else, the Groupies, always dating upwards, staying on their grind, leave or live with it and finally, it is about that lonely piano note always there, always a plink, always sad, always waiting to be left alone
Just the thought of that Foo Fighter breaking down in tears while telling how excited Cobain was for Dave’s first solo projects gives me a bad bad feeling. Oh, well, I guess the rich and famous are different than us, they exploit differentl.
Off season they do their own thing—still employing flags, rifles and sabers—but their routines are less about formation than about themes, emotion, concepts and visual spectacle. Over recent decades, the teams have evolved into something strange and wonderful
The Sweetest Punch – Bill Frisell, Elvis Costello – Bill Frisell’s excellent title track, companion piece, to Painted From Memory loses nothing in this glorious horn swept arrangement… the clarinet replaces the voice – A
“She is very strategic with her friends and enemies And I know lots of secrets. I can’t divulge, but I know a lot of stuff about her. And I’m scared. I’m scared for my life.”
I love Dr. John and I worship the ground Armstrong walked on, so what’s not to like, right? How about starting with this: I wasn’t crazy about Ske –Dat- De -Dat The Spirit Of Satch when it was released. “He came to me in this dream and said, ‘Do my stuff — your way,'” said the 73-year-old pianist
I absolutely plan to go and see Manic Street Preachers play their best album (but very closely followed by Everything Must Go), still how are they gonna perform it with their lead singer dead 20 years? Is The Holy bible the holy bible without Jesus?
I don’t ask for much: money, girls, tickets to D’Angelo, more money, a very long life with lots of money, but otherwise I leave you to your own devises and I don’t pray on your ass every day. But pleaaaaase, let the next round of leaks be from Sony Music
If “We Can Be Together” sounded like a good trip (man, that Grace Slick can sing, how did you lose her cool?) it wasn’t, it was based on Black Panther’s war cry, “Up against the, motherfucker”) and from there it blows blues hot (try a terrific “Wooden Ships” and folk cool. Add on top two of the best songs, the title track and “Somebody To Love” and you have a career peak.
Belly Of The Beast – Joey Bada$$ and Chronixx – Talk about strange bedfellows, Chronixx is old school Rastafarian and Bada$$ is a 20 year old new rap wunderkind, this track meets in the New York meets Kingstown world of extreme poverty and is a brilliant one of the best songs of the year deals – A
The name on the tip of your tongue is Ryan Adams though it sounds more the Cardinals to me, and as much as I like Ryan, I prefer Laura. It is like Dylan covering Donovan.
“It was a real privilege to make this album. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time but was never brave enough to approach 30-piece complicated arrangements and refine them down for a 5-piece band. That’s the key to all these performances.”
The Viet Cong goes on for 11 minutes and deserves to, Ryan is a revelation to me though possibly not to anyone else , and I am obsessed with the Ninjas and Sleater Kinney. I would say a better start to 2015 than to 2014.
The only newbie is “Sugar” and the reason is simple, because the video is a masterpiece and it pushed it all the way into the charts by brute force. It is really a pity the same thing won’t happen for Sleater-Kinney as they find a city to live in.
I said Taylor was making a mistake when she brushed Meghan off with a text at Jingle Ball, I said Z-100 were making a mistake when they only gave her four minutes, I said Title was the best album of the week, last Jan 13th, I said the major rock critics (in lockstep: again) were being thickies when they dismissed it as mediocre. And I said it would be at # 1 this week. And I was right.
Irresistible – Fall Out Boy – These guys are on a mission from god to find every possible hook they can and stick it into every crevice in a song. They do it here and it is a lot less than irresistible, risible more like – C
It’s about how men see women as commodities, as though they don’t need them to complete them, they need something else, the Groupies, always dating upwards, staying on their grind, leave or live with it and finally, it is about that lonely piano note always there, always a plink, always sad, always waiting to be left alone
Wait for Life – Emilie Hayne, Lana Del Rey – Gorgeous song, a slow burning ballad that seems to shimmer in your ear and Lana really has a haunting voice: it’s like she is constantly in a mood over something or the other and here she has a song to suit it well – A-
Let’s hope this is the first of a franchise, “Paddington” is a superb movie and I loved it. My grade is that of an old man, if you’re a seven year old child go ahead and give it an A+… you’ll be sharing it with your own kids one day!
Stop – Shinobi Ninja – A D.A. masterpiece is like a gangsta fantasy, all aggression and spit out agro working. I am listening to a lot of my old friends right now in anticipation of interviewing them later this week. The last time I interviewed them was FIVE YEARS AGO! – A
A beautiful sprawl of an album filled with on point raps, minimal sermonizing, and moments and sharp, flowing raps with ideas that may take weeks to get to the bottom of. Till then, try get past the second song, the eight minute “Mural” and find yourself at the funky “Blur My Hands” – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A
Lisa Ramey has unbelievable pipes, she doesn’t sound like the UK soul singers working the EDM side of pop soul all over the UK, she sounds old fashioned, and funky and the horns are blasting like a mutated Maceo. The title track is masterful and “Teacher” sounds like the Small Faces with a female Steve Marriott soundalike.
Some ideas are so great, you can’t help but want to share them EVEN IF YOU KNOW EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO WANTS TO SEE IT HAS ALREADY SEEN IT. That’s the case with Maroon 5’s fabulous “Sugar” video (I know, I’ve never written about videos before and now in two days…).
I mentioned Bruce and while I don’t know Matt’s story, this is blue collar songs by a guy who went to college, there is an intellectual intelligence about it, a sense of the tick tock intelligence of a thinker, and while Penny Park was the nostalgia album, Underwater also seems to be looking a little behind its back.
In which the Dogg holds back on the hi jinx to perform a horn blasted down on the Delta proto-classic, with the usual quota of smart lyric and smart ass, at the age of 72 years Little Jimmy just keeps on going and here his raspy vocal is a splendid thing- A
I am sure Kevin is a very nice person but maybe his beef is with Berry Gordy who actually moved Hitsville out as soon as he could then Eminem who remained faithful. And even if they have, so what? It’s a big city and if the automobile industry isn’t gonna save it, Jack white sure won’t.
Hot off an excellent set at Webster Hall Saturday night, this song is better live but let’s stop beating em up for that and admit it is one of the most original love songs? Self immolations? The Glen Campbell reference just adds to the overwhelming confusion as the drifter becomes a pyromaniac – A
With synthesizers and strings, with sounds that are not like anything else and lyrics that touch the heart like Post happened yesterday, there is an clarity to her compassion, a stirring “in my heart is in my breast like love” goes one lyric and it is a gorgeous sentiment. “I did it all for love” Bjork claims
The week belongs to David Bronson’s eagerly anticipated Questions, an album so good it makes albums a palatable art form and forum with songs so strong they should last the whole year through. Otherwise: Meghan Trainor, The 1978ers, Kat Dahlia, and Panda Bear all released excellent albums.
Another hit off Smith’s debut album, so good because it is one of the best of a great bunch and I can’t wait for the new Olly to get released here, it is much better than the other picker Upper. But it is hard to write about these songs again. Really, will seem be hit refresh, how many times can we discuss starbucks lovers? Let’s move on till August…
As a rule of thumb the UK charts are much more volatile than the US charts, though when it comes to albums both arrive and leave with great speed. But this chart hasn’t changed much in six week. everything is where it has been: Ed, Tay, Ezra at the top forever, and down below Olly and below him 1D and Ella. A strangely boring list.
This thing has legs, it will go on and on and though, like Robert Christgau, “I don’t like its affected offhandedness”, it is the standard that standards adhere to the 1960s – 1970s heyday of rock and roll. Brought low by disco of course, and buried by rap and its bride Hop Hop, a couple of years later but here it shines through, piano and strings intact – A+
I love looking at Walker play guitar and I love Chuck’s shlubby intensity, he is really great. terrific emotional voice which can take any position Walker wants him to, and on stage they are such equals, they’re like Mates Of State of something, or the Civil Wars maybe. Like an Alt Rock Civil Wars.
Since I am going to Governors Ball, and since I saw Bjork last time she played, an excellent gig at Roseland, I was gonna pass on the City Centre – Carnegie Hall gigs until…. TWO PM SATURDAY AFTERNOON CONCERTS!!!
We take a break from our usual all rock shows all the time, to check out Louis C.K. at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. $25 a tix including ALL TICKETMASTER CHARGES! For most bands $25 is the ticketmaster charges alone. I’d seen Louis C.K. at City Center (here) and thought he was hysterically funny and see no reason to expect less on this his third and final date at MSG and of his tour.
I’ve seen Fall Out Boy a number of times live and listened to everything because that’s what I do not because I like them… till now. “Uma Thurman”, with its hysterical “The Munsters” quote (Thurman slash Herman Munster is my bet) and it is one of the most fun songs of the year, that’s all. In honor of their achievement, rock nyc awards them with Best Guest Of The Week.
Spoiled for choice this first week (but third week) of 2015. I’ve heard Sleater Kinney (A-), Belle And Sebastian (B) and Viet Cong (A-) and a handful of tracks off fall Out Boy (B) and three of Marilyn Manson wand while I am not COMPLETELY convinced of Manson, it could be Lupe, very close, but I am going with Marilyn as most anticipated of the week.
Howard Devoto always seemed to be spiral scratching away from the Buzzcocks but really, when he left the band he took a lot of stuff they never got back and one of which was an experimental edge. Here it sounds like modified soul weirdness and while I am not clear what it means, Devoto sure comes through as completely dominant in his own paranoid, edgy way – A+
So I emailed Ticketmaster to ask them, a hail Mary and they came through and so does your everloving rock nyc who DOES NOT CHARGE FOR PRESALE CODES, when we can get em.
Marcus is an ill mannered, bad tempered, arrogant man, who is nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is and who has spent the last 40 years staring in a mirror and saying “I wrote the liner notes to The Basement Tapes once and I can do it again.
A friend of mine does business with WBLS but they go on sale at 10am on Monday (MLK day) and I doubt I will hear back on time, Apollo A List is a $75 charge so screw that and Ticketmaster presale…? What’s that about? I tried everything. I even tried phoning em, got throught to an automated system who advised me everybody was busy and disconnected me.
Apparently “Blank Space” isn’t just a great song, it is open to inerpretation. The last time I did this was with “Bridge Over troubled Water” though let’s be honest, there isn’t a name I recognize here. Where’s Johnny Cash when you need him. Now, shut up and drink your gin…
Hearing all these voices sing the hook hooked me, it taught me to hear it and as videos go it was a real blast. The song, about what we love in environments is not the environments offers a joke before a as a rebuke to David Byrne’s “Cities” -“it’s the loving we love” the band concludes.
Nobody’s Empire – Belle And Sebastian – This is what the band does, very very pretty indie pop, here with a memorable piano motif, and a smart shifting beat, with a wordy story about another failed romance (I think -I drifted off mid lyric) – A-
A female friend on Facebook had dubbed Tomas “hot” the other day and he certainly exudes a rough hewn sexuality, tall and strong , in a pork pie hat, he commands the stage, expecting and insisting upon and audience reaction
Hot 97 Presents: The Tip-Off starring Puff Daddy & Snoop Dogg on February 12 th. 2015. A Thursday, which isn’t a Friday but isn’t a Sunday either. And the chance to see two legends, one of whom stands as the inventor of modern hip hop and the other one of the great voices of rap.
A good week all round, Bronson on top, Shinobi next, two good rap song, a Kweezy ballad, JTW back, some real cool ska and roll. Let’s hope this is the start of a great year and if we get another ten songs as great as “Song Of Life”and “Honey Trap” it may well be
The opening acts, Real Estate and Diarrhea Planet. Real Estate are boring live but a half hour set might handle that problem and really, they’re a band I always feel I kinda miss out on for some reason. I once saw one of the members smoking pot which has nothing to do with anything of course but I thought I’d share
“I don’t think I can live in a world where that’s even possible. When you hear that kind of polished pop and then there’s a ginger guy with a fucking guitar it seems subversive, but it’s fucking not.”
This sounds so much like Rocky it should be patented and he rhymes and vernacular are so wild you absolutely need an annotated website to figure out what the hell they’re talking about, “Auntie sayin’ turn it down, or she finna call the cops, ee be plottin’ on the ops, she the one who got the drop, just a free, quick fix, to the A and it’s okay, they gon’ take me back to my old ways…”
