Iman Lababedi

Founding Editor of Rock NYC. Iman Lababedi was a freelance rock critic in the 1980s, took a break of 20 years, and has been writing and editing the music blog rocknyc.live since 2009. He considers this to be in many ways a golden age for pop music and hopes you are enjoying it too.

News, Opinion, Slideshow

The Death Of EDM As Music Genre

When EDM connects to a song now, it doesn’t change it in any fundamental sense. It doesn’t change the way sound sounds in your ears the way rock and roll does. It is parasitic, not giving birth to different sounds but sucking dry every single thing it touches.

News, Slideshow

Hear, My Friend: Mike Long

So what do I know about my buddy Mike Long? He is a funny guy from Colorado, trades in alt country and snapshots of the Cosa Nostra. His taste coincides with mine maybe one in three but he is much less pop and much more hipster

Charts, Slideshow

10 Songs: Tuesday, January 6th, 2014

Lifestyle – Rich Gang, Young Thug – This is the Young Money crew, including break out rapper Young Thug, with a really great rap, please an autotuned singer, plus an excellent two note piano sample, “I got sisters and brothers to feed” is the excuse, but the bottom line remains a very expensive way of living- A-

Charts, Slideshow, UK Top 10 Albums

UK Top 10 Albums 1-10-15

Ezra is guy who gave us “Budapest” and “Cassy O” though a full album of the suckers is pushing it a bit but otherwise i remain with the same question: why the assumption people stop buying music the last two weeks and first two weeks of a new year. It seems to me that anybody with half a brain and a big enough fanbase would ONLY RELEASE MUSIC around this time. It isn’t 1987, people don’t have to leave their couch to buy an album.

Charts, Slideshow, UK Top 10 Singles

UK Top 10 Singles 1-10-15

something of a holding pattern though the more I hear the Ronson-Mars collab the more it sounds like a major rip off, I guess it might be considered something like the way “Let’s Dance” ripped off “Twist And Shout” but all of it is a 70s rip off with James Brown on top. It’s OK but really, are we at the place where we need James Brown interpreted for us?

Charts, Slideshow

10 Songs: Monday, January 5th, 2015

Confessions Of A MILF – Viv Albertine – Off the how did I miss that The vermillion Booker, the former Slit current author of the brilliantly named “Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys” utobigraphy, this is a catchy smart little nursery rhyme with a kicker: “there’s no place like home” – B+

Charts, Slideshow

The A+ List: 1-4-15

English to its very bone, the humor is drier than drier, it bends to the inevitable with a “pathetic” chorus: “I’ll be tickled to death to go”. Ouch? Compare it to George M. Cohan’s 1917 “Over There” and the difference is the US optimism versus the UK’s fatalism.

Charts, Slideshow

10 Songs: Sunday, January 4th, 2014

Play “God Only Knows” At My Funeral – Fireworks – Another song that can’t and doesn’t live up to its name but having said that, it is about the next big thing. I was planning on calling Fireworks a band to watch for in 2015. If I forgot to mention it before… Fireworks is a band to watch for in 2015 – A

Lists, News, Slideshow

London’s New Years Eve 2014 Playlist

Here is the songlist from London’s count down to New Year 2015, punctuated by fireworks and lota other good stuff… and here is a question, why is the lead song by an American? Sure, as European an American as you can possibly get but even so… Plus I Spotified and reviewed it…

Live, Slideshow

2014 Most Popular Tours

Country is hiding in the sidelines, four artists if you include the Eagles, nostalgia buffs rule, eight if you include the Eagles, younger poptarts with seven upstarts (no, don’t include the Eagles) are well attended. Plus two wobblers, Robbie Williams and Michael Buble, just to keep us wondering

Charts, Slideshow

10 Songs: Saturday, January 3rd, 2014

1Train – A$AP Rocky – We all need a sap in our lives and this terrific ode to newfound wealth is still so close to the poverty line it has the ring of truth gangsta yarns can miss out on. Plus if you’ve ever had a ride on the train in question you might wonder if you’d stepped back to 1975 – A

Live, Slideshow

Best Concerts 2014

In retrospect, the Governors Ball was just tremendous. Three days, but home before 1am each night, of first grade, top of line modern popular music. From Skrillex to Outkasts, from the Strokes to Grimes, from Jenny Lewis to run The Jewels, this was the one.

News, rock nyc, Slideshow

rock nyc’s Best Of 2015

If I have one wish for 2015 musically, it is that David Bronson’s excellent January release Questions finds the audience it deserves. This sublime art folk rock soul album should break him, must break him. It is what I want, it is what he deserves, I wanna say I knew him before he stopped taking my phone calls.

News, rock nyc, Slideshow

rock nyc’s Best Of 2014

2014 was the year of pop, the entire world, hip hop, rap, country, r&b, rock and roll was a no show, were the hand servants of pop music meets everything under the sun. Artistry will get you so far and no furthe, money talks in a consumer society and money wanted beats and bops. And got it. Not a good year, a little unexciting.

Charts, Slideshow

10 Songs: Thursday, January 2nd, 2014

“People would always ask, “Hey play that song about the wishing well or whatever it’s called!”… I vaguely recall my wonderful aunt mentioning that we finally had written a song she liked. So if you’re in the market for a family-friendly Screaming Females song, this is your chance”

Charts, Slideshow, Track Review

Best Songs Of 2014

752 songs I like enough, say “B+” and better, to include on this list though only the top 40 is in order of preference. I know it looks like a lot but think of it this way, with an average of 12 songs on album that is the equivalent of 62 albums so not incredible.

Charts, Slideshow, US Top 10 Singles

US Top 10 Singles 1-10-15

If it wasn’t for the desperate sexism of it all, the singles charts might be dubbed the year of the woman. But really, why should we single em out? Would that then make 2015 the year of the man? So on and so forth? But let’s be honest, that’s the way society judges it. Being female has its perks, and one is they get kudos for doing stuff men take for granted

rock nyc, Slideshow

2014 Artist Of The Year: Bob Dylan

He is a dynamic, charismatic presence, singing his recent songs, sometimes re-writing them already, with a passion that comes from knowing you aren’t finished, you aren’t a relic of the 60s, or 70s, or 80s, that in 2014 your work is better than it was in 1984

Slideshow

2014 Biggest Disappointment: Hip Hop

But there wasn’t anything close to a new Lamar, nothing really shook the world of rap at all, it was very lethargic, very underground rumblings of art and over head circling big records for 2014. A hugel disappointing year for rap.

Slideshow

Last Call: Week Of 12-22-14

2015 Flow – YG – In the weakest year for rap in immediate memory, YG found his bearings on the final song of his current album, an oriental track under a kenrick complex rape, which speeds up suddenly and blows up dramatically – B+

Slideshow

10 Songs: Wednesday, December 31st, 2014

Back to Living Again – Curtis Mayfield – This is it folks, the single greatest secular hymn ever, even if with Curtis, Go is always in the details. His last greatest moments off his last great album, which Eric Clapton, taking the award for best album, said “This belongs to Curtis”.

Slideshow

Best Newcomer Of 2014: Meghan Trainor

Everything Meghan is touching nowadays is awesome, she has a terrific voice and a her modern day doo wop sound on stage she is Bette Midler meets Ariana Grande, with that big lovely voice and a brassy energetic presence. every time I see Meghan on stage I have to smile

Slideshow

Personal Bests… Musicians At Their Peak

So do popstars and at the end of their careers, maybe before, you can take a look and see them. You see something they can never reach again. It is possible 1989 is taylor’s… and it is possible I’ll expand on the concept… For now, the obvious.

Slideshow

That Was The Week That Was: December 22nd, 2014

A quiet week with Christmas right smack in the middle but let’s hand it to Darlene Love who completed a 28 year run on Letterman with three performances at Bb King. I caught the middle one and it isn’t enough to say well done good performances by a 73 year old woman, a 24 year old woman would have been equally impressive. The best? The Marvin Gaye medley

Slideshow, UK Top 10 Albums

UK Top 10 Albums 1-3-15

I really like Ella despite being an X Factor contestant, and a losing X Factor contestant to boot, she has an excellent voice, soulful, moving, mainstream but good enough for EDM any time. And “Ghost” and “Yours” were fine singles. and she has a whole lotta presence on stage. wonder why she stiffed on Factor.

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