Here are the inductees for the Grammy Hall Of Fame and it is sure difficult (and a suckers game) to argue with any of them, though I’ll be happy to try but I’d have to really take a look at all the past songs inducted because, I mean, who thinks that’s Hank’s only tracK
“In 2014, we’ve seen serious growth in revenues to artists from sources like publishing and YouTube. It’s exciting for us to help artists connect with revenue that previously wasn’t easily accessible to them. In 2015, we expect that trend to continue in a big way.”
Rita X Wolf is a writer, critic, art aficionado and my facebook friend who answered the call for five songs she was listening to right the moment I requested it. “I just attended a Gene Clark (70th birthday) Byrds (50th anniversary show) so…”
The battle here isn’t internal, it is against forces outside Mike Hadreas, perhaps the social bulling for those out of step, or perceived out of steppedness with the world, the otherness of sound and vision reckoning sideways into the Low-Fi of Bowie and Eno except in 2014 it sounds commercial
Naughty – The Musical Original Soundtrack – The shoulda been a contender off the Broadway Musical, has a nice rhythm stop and start till it reaches the bridge, which is lovely indeed. Unfortunately, kids sound like kids… axiom for the ages? “Sometimes you have to make a little mischief” – B+
What do you want to give up? A mid concert “Honky Tonk Heroes” with Shaver yodeling like Slim Whitman? A last song “You Just Can’t Beat Jesus”? The story leading up to “Ragged Old Truck” which culminates in Shaver lying in bed and trying to kill himself?
If they had called it Beautiful and cut it to 40 minutes it would have hit big time, as it is it keeps on delivering the goods to people who don’t want to hear it. Take off Mariah’s name and put in Beyonce’s name. What would happen then?
A huge problem that doesn’t dwarf Sam having sold a million copies (platinum!) of In The Lonely Hour, to go along with his (gasp) six grammy nominations. One of only three albums to reach the plateau in 2014, but what can he do with it if he can’t project it on stage?
Elvis Costello opened for the Who a coupla years ago at a benefit gig, but you’d have to go as far back as the Clash to find an opening act as great as Joanie for these cats. Because, yes indeed folks, Joan Jett is the opening act at the Who’s 50 Anniversary gigs in May 2015.
What I am claiming, about all three songs, is they are death songs. It dreams of something that doesn’t exist and then ties the dream to our death. Good? More. Brilliant because it is instant nostalgia, we are missing what we are hearing, and dreaming of it happening as it happens.
Joe Steinhardt’s best song is a strange, very melodic song, sung spoke with a loner, alienated, white blues feel to it, and lyrics that seem to be in the process of discovering themselves, though the truth is they are well studied articulation of emotional inertia – A+
“Madonna’s new (and thirteenth) album, apparently called Iconic, has been leaked in full – long before it’s even officially announced. It features eleven tracks and is thought to be unfinished.
The Eye – Brandi Carlisle – A real beaut this with a great metaphor: “You can dance in a hurricane only if you’re standing in the eye” and her double tracked vocal is perfect Americana – B+
The sounds are deep, beautiful, haunting and rough, violent images and the stories are working class stories of horror and faith, “Everywhere is monsters. Tits out, wet-mouthed, heads back. Shouting and screaming just to prove they exist” is how the story of Becky opens, she meets a guy in bar, he goes off to a bad drug deal, she becomes a sex worker and the happy ending isn’t at all.
I was disappointed by the J. Cole album, it needed a little more discipline,it needed a couple of killer songs, a “Power trip” or a “Work Out” to beckon us in. The album isn’t bad, it’s good, but it needed to be great.
Wow, the last singles chart of the year is a great one one A+, four as, 5 B=s, this is the best chart since I satarted keeping track in 2009, every song here is a doozy and the top and the bottom are magnificent star turns. Both of Meghans hit home and the Ed Sheeran is his greatest moment ever. What a Christmas.
Steel And Feathers (Don’t Ever) – Nikki Jean – I don’t know how I ever missed this, it is better than the entire New Basement Tapes Band album combined, half completed, it didn’t make it onto “Shot Of Love” and Nikki polished it off in 2011 – A+
This would be my 28th year in a row. They never told me not to, but it was an unspoken thing. They couldn’t ask me not to sing ‘Christmas (Baby)’ on another show, but after 10 years, then 15 years, of doing this one song on this one show, I felt I had an obligation to be true to them
Marla is a central presence beckoning you forward till you are in the middle of her world and yet you don’t know where you are. It could be 1974, it could be the day after tomorrow, but you are experience something, not half but a life entire
Don’t those beats sound manufactured? They’re like doubled up and then some tom toms are added, and just before that and during that a sonic boom and a lot of vocal “uhs” and a rapper who sounds an awful lot like a kiddie Snoop. Not bad at all – B+
if the Temptations still has Otis and Duke Fakir is the only name I recognize in the Four Tops, but then again after Levi Stubbs it’s a little hard to care and since Levi has left the building, here we are now with two original member between two groups who are playing a week at the Palace on Broadway
Betray My Heart – D’Angelo, The vanguard – The question here is, is he being intentionally obtuse or
is his soul ear failing him. Sounds great either way – B+
The “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” is one of the most glorious things you’ll hear this year and the entire three hour manifestation of jam meets Pink Floyd (live) is exceptionally great, channeling the late Richard Wright before the entire band and especially Haynes whose opening solo will ring on long after it’s over, blasts it to the edges. – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A
In Doncker’s hands, it is a warning and a prayer. It says, we better stop shooting and stop looting,w e better raise our kids and teach the cops, or we will discover exactly what is so unfunny about peace, love and understanding.
when you don’t have songs you make art. Hard to deny, and for sure Black Messiah is no Voodoo –the songs aren’t there, they are all multi layered vocals on top (and inside) funk grooves where another beat replaces the melody line time after time.
In 1989, during the heat and height of the Satanic Verses controversy, I was silly enough to accept appearing on . . . Hypotheticals, which posed imaginary scenarios by a well-versed (what if . . . ?) barrister, Geoffrey Robertson. . . . I foolishly made light of certain provocative questions.
Pass on Haim, pass on Best Coast, but leave yourself open to this terrific L.A. band, a weird proto feminism about railing at diminished romantic and other expectations.
Chris doesn’t believe his own concept, and definitely without the easy mix of memory, fantasy and future shock. there is something about it just almost not quite good enough, like the title riff on best five rappers, or like the hellbent on happening pseudo romance or even the entire alcoholism subtext.
Comfort Ye My People – Choir Of King’s College – Handel’s Messiah is one of the great oratorios and the soloist here, singing the words of the King James Bible, is a beautiful tenor of hope and salvation. Belief, even faith, has little to do with this, you don’t have to believe the composition, you just have to listen – A+
A tough sell and nobody bothered to sell it, so it seems to be as deep and strong and blue as a classical take on black music phenoms can be but also unheard of and hiding in plain sight of the world. released around the end of 2013, it is a lovely coda to a great career
I was actually thinking the Medium Cool Best Talk Show Guest Of The Week coveted award should have gone to Bob Seger, who I am seeing on Friday but finally decided upon Billy Joe Shaver, who I am seeing on Wednesday, performing “Hard To Be An Outlaw”on Letterman with Willie Nelson.
Great list, nothing that makes me throw up and two A’s, and lots of B’s and of the two A’s, how great is the new AC/DC? In rock we trust indeed, this sounds like the sound of going home and wait for it, I bet they play MSG by the end of the summer.
I know it says Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson but let’s be clear here, what it is is James Brown being ripped off yet again, this time by the Little Richard of pop. In other news, I believe they finally decided where to bury the man though the fight over his estate is going on and on. Somebody should slip em a copy of Dicken’s “Bleak House”
Sound Of Da Police – KRS One – Born again KRS, here handles a problem that has gone spiralling out of control but with a chorus so strong it sounds like a threat coming home to roar: “woot woot that’s the sound of the beat” – A+
The top five of the title is a game in which the characters name the best five rappers of all time. Ridiculously, they only sneak Biggie in when obviously he is the greatest of all time. Still, I am happy they remebered KRS One even if I didn’t include him
Chief Keef, Charlie XCX (I’ve had this one in heavy rotation and it is absolutely among the best of the year) and Nicki Minaj are all possibilities but… D’ANGELO!!! his first album of new material since 2000 (is this the one Questlove was working on?) and anticipation doesn’t quite do my feelings justice
Bob Seger? Yes, because hey how bad can it be? Plu I’ve dissed him for decades and yet never seen hi perform on stage and he might be all that even if the new album is the pits. Also? J. Geils Band is opening and also also? A Friday. And also also also? MSG. See you there.
Bleed Me Dry – Laura Marling – Jesus, that is a magnificent lick. Laura bases the not untypical self-portrait round it on this yet to be released song and she finger picks it and her fingers seem to dance along the strings. Brilliance – A
They’ve done better with less. It was like radio but since the medium wasn’t radio and since they pushed the concept of a live radio show well past the point of no return, it didn’t happen the way it should have.
This wasn’t just Taylor sharing her birthday, but also her first post-“Blank Space” performance in her adopted city, and more? It was indeed the first concert she has performed in New York City since moving to the city and at the biggest pop music show of the year.
“Entertainment Weekly” premiered the video on Thursday December 11th, featuring Bronson and the Alomar family plus two members of the Bronson band in a sun swept SUV and enveloped in the moment
If I download a CD, I can only hear it on the PC I downloaded it on with Spotify, but I can hear it anywhere with ITunes. Specifically, when I am listening to concerts I’ve recorded, demos I’ve been sent, like that, I can’t use Spotify.
Diddy and Drake crossed paths at Fontainebleau Hotel’s Liv club and in the parking lot, Diddy punched him, damaging Drake’s shoulder, and left him with a cool as fuck “Take care of your business”. And as long as guns aren’t being drawn a non-story right, rap star? Dog bites man
Spank Rock are really excellent and completely different even in a world where different things are a dime a dozen. That “Stepchild” Dylan track was the highlight of the Jerry Lee concert and if it cost drake a punch to steal that sick beat, it was worth it
On the day after Marvin Gaye was murdered I was inconsolable, and LIVE AID did nothing at all to change it till prince presented the video of a new song, this song, and stopped the show -a masterpiece of beat and tempo, a herky jerk bass throbbing work the likes of which he never came close to again: this did what it should have, it matched his funk and pop sensibilities – A+
There is no getting around this and I’m not his attorney and see no reason to try. I see no proof he gave money to terrorist groups but I certainly wouldn’t be the slightest surprised that if Cat wanted Rushdie dead for writing a novel, Cat is also capable of being an Islamic Extremist and sponsoring Extremist groups like Hamas
Spotify, in their infinite wisdom, compiled a year in music for me based upon the 149,043 minutes I spent on the music streaming service, or 248 hours, or ten days non stop. It didn’t particularly surprise, though it did make me wonder if they interpreted hip hop under the spot genre.
If United States is a minor work, it is minor in the same way all aging is minor, in the same way Jerry Lee’s current Rock And Roll Time is minor, it is minor because we older people are minor.
The setlist isn’t bad either, more than half from the past two albums and I am a big Platinum fan so I don’t mind that. Plus a ZZ Top and a Merle Haggard cover to take you home. I coulda done with a couple more from from Ex-Girlfriend but it’ll do if it has to.
You Know You Like It – DJ Snake And Alunageorge – This is a fabulous song and completely different to Snake’s Lil Jon hit… this is what EDM should do, not the stuff we are getting force fed though it is more of a remix than a follow up- A-
