EDM live on stage is both interactive and almost ambient, you can dance to it or you can float by, you can pay attention or you can leave it in the background of your mind. I saw Skrillex at Governors Ball last summer and was so impressed I finally realized he wasn’t Deadmau5 and learnt to love “brostep”! I will be spending New Year’s Eve with Skrillex, Diplo and… A$AP Ferg, Rudimental and Yellowclaw!!!
The return of Mark and Mars to # 1 makes you wonder if XFactor have been spiking the ball a little. The battle for Christmas single is pretty darn vicious and you gotta think… it wouldn’t take that many downloads, certainly $50K would do it… I wonder.
Born to a full-blooded Native American mother and an African-American born to a full-blooded Native American mother and an African-American father, lead singer Delores “LA La” Brooks didn’t only sing this, she also sang “Then He Kissed Me” so down into history she goes – A+
It’s a nostalgia trip but also its a trip into what makes life worth living by one of our greatest singers. I started by saying that Darlene belts em too hard but if you could belt em too hard at 73 wouldn’t you?
Repeats, nothing but repeats, except for a Kelly And Michael visitors choice show and so what to do? How about sleep? How about read… nah, that doesn’t work does it. How about Rita and Iggy on Ellen? Hot stuff and they really perform the heck out of “Black Widow” Yeah, that’s the ticket!
The difference between FKA Twigs album and D’Angelo’s is that she has songs that announce themselves and D’Angelo simply doesn’t. The debut album of the year and the sexiness thing around., it is a deep lovely different thing.; a modern day Bjork without the whimsy
Will Laura Marling have the best or the second best album of the year, can Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper live up to its name (the first single suggests not so much) or whether Justin Towne Earle’s can threepeat and papa Steve finally offer a decent album this decade. Oh look, another Ty Seagul album, how novel
“If it’s good to ya, it’s gotta be good for ya…” Jerome Aniton was the truck driver for Steely Dan during their early 70’s tours. It is June, 1974. Steely Dan is playing at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in sunny California). Jerome, intoxicated beyond the Milky Way, steps on stage to introduce the band…” – A
Last year “This Is The end” was saved from self serving improv by a huge ensemble cast but nothing saves “The Interview”.Bereft on a sea of stupidity, Seth and Evan had a great idea and smothered it to death with a pillow.
Lee Ann, at 48 years of age, is an old fashioned country singer from a linage that includes Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton, a countrypolitan songwriter who can sell a song and a singer-songwriter who can dig down deep. A must see.
Jeff Beck once killed a man in Reno just to watch him die. No, really… well. no not really. But the big guy is a German American from Arkansas and a lover of food (I bet -his description of a Ham he cooked makes your mouth water!) and of music
In a world where not one of these fools even reviewed Big Apple Blues, we have to put up with this act of mass felatio for a decidedly “B+” album. 95% approval rating on Metacritic. A whole mess of love for a frankly pretty darn good album. This consensus stupidity is just what you expect in 2014
It seems buried in time and a barely controlled anger, ready to flip you or the rest of the world. “Something’s not right…” is a carrion call, a sort of dread continuum to the Pogues early spirit:a s though your each back and back and find nothing is where you placed it
Feelin’ Alright – Joe Cocker – This is from before the time Cocker became John Belushi, a Dave Mason cover growled with authority but not yet yet the epileptic shakes. Good? Sure. Great… maybe not – B+
There is no Ertegun or Gordy: whenever you write in support of one of them, a Daniel Ek, you need a shower immediately after. Neil Bogart may have been a scumbag but he was a MUSICAL SCUMBAG, a showman, one of the boys. These bunch of hedge fund thieves in pinstripe suits should be thrown out of the business.
‘The Interview’, Sony Pictures’ Christmas big release which wasn’t released in fear of a North Korea’s cyber attack, finally got a limited release, but history will tell if this was
So what do we learn for this years most Shazamed songs? Nobody knows who Clean Bandits is. Oh, and dance is even more anonymous than we gave it credit for.
Justin Townes Earle might not be the greatest songwriter in the world but he is certainly the most consistently excellent songwriter in 2014. From 2012 to 2014, Earle has written, recorded and released 20 perfect songs. Absolutely flawless jewels.
Welcome to the silicone valley flow (to quote YG), another year over and another list written. Only one of the Madonna songs? I could have included “Unapologetic Bitch” I guess… but didn’t. I’m going to post two best songs, one with everything and one with just the cream of the crop and I plan to include “Seeds” high up on the latter.
White Water – Angel Olsen – Another haunting masterwork by the solemn sodded big time indie wench of 2014, with natty little one liners like “she wants to be naked and elegant”, and a hefty rhymic hook to take it home and haunted Siren vocals. Nifty – B+
A modern In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning by a guy with an immaculate voice, a sweet falsetto that hits every note with the ease of youth and lingers on it, to further the heartbreak. And the difference between Sam and Adele? Sam has much better songs
Yes, folks it’s a tradition and not a particularly inspired one either but here is the rock nyc 12 days of Christmas. The gone but not forgotten person is Donna McElroy who died of cancer January 23, 2014. The launch of a new improved rock nyc isn’t a joke, we figure January 16, 2015…
With one week left before the end of the year, 1989 is now 100,000 units away from beating Frozen for biggest selling album of the year. This is pretty damn impressive and I don’t see how it can fail -she must win. Hell, I’d buy em myself if I could afford it!
I’ve always felt “Love Story” was the one, the song where Taylor became a superstar, back in 2008. I remember hearing it early and turning to my friend and saying “this is it”, it’s over. But even as I was saying that she was remaining a teen girl phenomenon -she was huge but huge within genre. With the release of “Blank Space” she belonged to the world. People who I’d argued about Swift with for years gave up. The song is simply undeniable. With “Blank Space” Taylor became as big as you can be.
Santa Bring My Baby (Back To Me) – Elvis Presley – One of the all time greatest, this is Presley as popstar, it is like “You’re Right, I’m Left, She’s Gone” or “Teddy Bear” –a delirious hook filled hubba which channels Bing Crosby’s “bababba” going away – A+
The entire show revolves around the great song “Naughty” and I asked my companion, my twelve year old Great Niece Juliet, who seemed to find the proceedings as bland as I did (her Mom took a nap), what she could hear of the song, replied “Something about being little”
It isn’t bad, obviously the Replacements left the tape running while they noodled, and equally obviously if it is going somewhere I can’t see where, but still there are moments where the guitar seems to have escaped from “Telstar” and other times where it rings like the bells of Rhymney
The thing is, Womack uses the background singers as though they re an instrumental and he is singing over them, around them, in the holes they leave: instead of singing directly to the beat (rap was still in its nascent state), he is singing on the room left by back up singers.
Making Love – Kevin Gates – This is off an album easy to underestimate but this has the sharp flow and speedy dexterity of the best in the business. It feels like make believe even though the rapping is sure real – B+
On their fifth album, songs as good as “Quartz”, “Careful You”, “Cound You” and the title track “Seeds” should have been enough, I mean, one of them should have, propelled the band up the charts. It would be a real pity if this ecellent soul album is considered a flop and not a return to power.
Chimes Of Freedom – Bob Dylan – Speaking of secular hymns, this was is as inclusive as a hymn can get, more so, every hung-up person in the whole wide universe even includes ETs!!! – A+
Silent Type EP – Hannah Lou Clark – UK singer songwriter who plays it straight on this flawless three song EP, just voice and guitar at first with every addition, back up wooohs here, acoustic bass there like putting sugar on a fire cracker. There’s a feeling of barely concealed dread, of a worried out emotional discord being put to rest – RELEASE OF THE WEEK – A-
A big hit in the UK, it is an almost perfect album within its own secret world, a haunting and beautify and, yes, big sound that can move you to tears of joy or boredom with equal ease. But it gets you here and as Guy notes on “My Sad Captain”, what a perfect waste of time.
The rush release of D’Angelo’s long awaited album Black Messiah and the leak of the 2015 Madonna album Rebel Heart, both good neither great, are the stories of week 51. I am not precisely disappointed in either of them, and Madonna peaks sky high with “Living For Love”
I am continually humbled by such determination, and I scarcely know what to say by way of appreciation. Julia attended her 625th show at Istanbul, and I wonder if any living human has been to so many shows by the same artist or band?
What do you get if you put together walls of banjos and one of the great figures in left wing pseudo proto-Yippie, pseudo-Beatnik, psychedelic weirdo brilliant figures in modern pop? You get Better Than Expected, a brilliant mix of improv and song as community singalong… with the promise of giving us the same thing in 2015 for fiddles.
The Crying Game – Nicki Minaj – I get it, I get it, Nicki has a soul, she feels, she hurts, she abuses in the relationship but she is trying really she is trying… A good song no doubt. But it is like Alfafa doing a stripogram, off center somehow. Still such a good song – B+
I haven’t listened to it in months and so for this review the album was fresh again and it sounds better than I remember it, Gammages voice? A gorgeous Isaak blues and rockabilly thing, the tempo putting the laid into laid back, and the playing a concise evocation of punk discipline (not sound) and Chicago blues (not Southern) momentum.
Everybody is on Christmas break except Ellen is working on the 22nd and Fallon is working on the 22nd and the 23rd and on the 23rd? The greatest boy band in the world joins Jimmy to bring in Christmas Eve, 2014.
Ed Sheeran is the poster boy for over achievement. I saw him three years ago at the Peppermint Lounge, now he owns the world. He sold over 200K albums last week alone which means (one, carry the one) every person in England now owns a copy
“The Wealdstone Raider, real name Gordon Hill, has found a cult following since a video emerged of him mocking a rival football team. He’s since had six million views on Youtube.”
So try and be nice and to do what’s right cuz there will come a day when you’re faced with your maker and no one here can save you no matter what they say, and be glad that you were good cuz some don’t do so well and
when their lives are over and they’ve done what they’ve done… They’re the people that are going to hell
The X Factor winner Ben Haenow may have never hurt any one and since he is a former truck driver may be you can go further and say it is a better daydream than Billy, but I just wish the song was better. It is truly terrible, not the verses, but the chorus, which is like being lifted up by a crane against your will
Six songs from Madonna and to be honest I approached reviewing them with a little bit of nervousness. In 2012 I seriously overestimated MDNA. Still, this sounds better; less poppy more adult dance for mainstream Madonna fans. A solid “B+” of an effort
There is a lot going on here, one sweet natured song after another and on top? “Money To Me” shares the “heeeeey” hook with “Blank Space” except Caroline wrote hers a year before Taylor. And Caroline has those kind of songs, songs you want to hear over and over again
Here is the new Darlene Love album, It’s Christmas, Of Course… kinda interesting, there’s a “2000 Miles” and there’s a “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” and who can complain about that? There is nothing at all wrong with the album and I’ve all but decided to go on the Saturday… Grade? B
Hey wait a second, the Rigor Mortis was released in October and the Daft Punk was released in 2007 and so there is nothing. You heard of Seinfeld’s show about nothing, well, this is a post about nothing
Kimberly – Patti Smith – In the maelstrom of horrors detailed on Horses, Patti Smith finds all existence in the birth of her little sister in the most beautiful song on the album just like some misplaced Joan Of Arc. Singalong: “palmtrees fall into the sea, doesn’t matter much to me…” – A+
At his most complex he is in the working place where, as Jarvis Cocker once noted, common people watch their lives slip out of view. You don’t have to guess with Seger, you don’t have to interpret, he is the poet of desperation and he is the poet laureate of the simple need to be someone
At nearly an hour the album has a few cliffs and sometimes it falls off but it always land somewhere cool, it is like a computer game with the sound different levels and the tracks seem to repeat till they are right on the edge and then fall. But we told you that years ago.
