Ed Sheeran’s fifth week at the top of the UK charts with an amazing 400K units moved and more power to him even if I don’t like the album as much as all those folks, the best moments have grown on me. By the way, quite why Dolly Paton called her new album and a greatest hits collection is well out of my pay bracket.
This is as lame as the UK charts have been all, all dance pop more or less all the time, it lacks any change of paste (ok, “Budapest” but otherwise?), when heard like this it feels like extremely manufactured and derivative pop pap, which it is. I meant without the fun.
Endless Sleeper – The Raveonettes – If I ever ran into this band I would apologize for mistaking them for a tasty movie treat and ignoring their body of work, which like this randomly chosen track off their new album, is uniformly excellent.
rock nyc has nothing to add to this story in which Susan Sarandon tells the Daily Beast she had a sexual relationship with David Bowie when they worked on “The Hunger” together 30 years ago except sexual relationship is the dirtiest of adjectives on earth
I have been disappointed in Conor Oberst for years now and the last two times I’ve seen him live I’ve not been thrilled. It is six years since I caught him at the tiny “Other Music” and longer still since his residency at the Town Hall. So Conor at Summerstage on Tuesday: why is it a pick of the week? Because it’s Conor Oberst, that’s why.
Sure, you think it is either Petty or Lewis for album of the week but I’ve heard em both and they both are, not terrible, but certainly not great. So I’m gonna put my money on Eric Clapton and his JJ Cale covers album. Is that a mistake? I will have to live with it.
Good Morning, Good Morning – Mickey Dolenz – Major bummer that I’m missing this guy at BB Kings on Wednesday, in commiseration, try this haunted cover to beat all covers, all the psychedelia melted away and the song a haunted nightmare – A-
I went back and saw Katy again because I wanted to know how it ended, how she pulled herself out of her depression and I guess I didn’t get that, like Kanye west’s recent tour it felt like it was hidden in front of me. So I sat back and enjoyed the show and I recommend you do the same.
The newly built Tonight Show has that new car smell and state of the art feel, it is all zooming cameras and wood panels and for some reason the audience was gorgeous leggy 20 something girls, who you just know are off to Happy Hour next with a change of clothes in a bag on their shoulder.
It ends with one of the worst tracks, “Shadow People” -another blues vamp with nothing much happening and another disappointment. when Petty and his band are not on their game they can be astonishingly boring. This isn’t that bad, it isn’t ;s Mojo, but it is missing a big big song to sail in on and in the end it is all a little shrugged filled.
In the mid-1920s, Colin Frith is Stanley Crawford, illusionist extraordinary who goes by the stage name, er, Wei Ling Soo, called to the South of France by a childhood friend and a fellow magician to help debunk clairvoyant Sophie Baker (Emma Stone) only to find he can’t debunk her, and all the years of cynicism and faith begin to be pass and it finds a magic in life again.
The pitch to the vast majority of people is simple: it is the difference between owning your own house and renting your own house. Which would you prefer? If you could make the price palatable people would absolutely go back to buying, and a buying music ublic is the best thing possible for musicians.
Come Get It Babe – Pharrell – The live version off the Spring Session from Webster Hall and it sounds very good indeed, saving the track from deep album obscurity plus the “heys” now sound like a Williams tic but a good tic (it is all over “Blurred Lines” as well) and the track isn’t hip hop -not even the production, it is funk – A-
t is 11pm on a Wednesday night at Best Buy and while it doesn’t say “Sold Out” for the third annual Peter Palooza, I have never seen the club busier. Peter Palooza is Hut 97’s Sunday night new rap DJ Peter Rosenberg and the birthday celebration is his, but the people want Action Bronson.
It seems like a good deal to me because it is at least one for a good cause and you don’t have to actually go to New Jersey. The last time I did it, for Maria Taylor, the PC kept freezing but I’ve invested my $50 and I will be watching.
Lazaretto is one of his worst works to date, and three hours of his metallic shredding woulda had me ready to kill him among others. below you’ll find his cover of “Manic Depression” -just what the world needed. White has worn out all the good will his radio city residency had with me and then some
the question is, what is generally considered to be one of the best albums of the year by La Roux, will it be enough to get her back on the charts? The other question is, why do so many albums only have one good song in em? The answer to this and other questions ill be explained after we stop listening to Four Years Strong.
I’m Not A Player – Big Pun – After catching his son at Peter Palooza the other day, I went back to this long anything but cuddly guys first smash with its awesome O’Jays sample and sexy strokes from 97. RIP Mr. Punisher. – A
No messing: the end of the first act, when Spiderman battles Green Lantern, every promise Julie Taymor has made as a savant of the theatre is potentially answered. To say it is eye popping is to understate: Lantern and Spidey literally swing from the rafters and while the wire are visible, it is beautiful in ways Cirque De Soleil never ever is.
The whole thing about Motorhead is they are the most perfect, almost like Ramones perfect, of products: loud fast electric riffs; it is metal stripped bare of all pretension. And because of that Motorhead remain one of the most beloved bands of all times, welcome back Lemmy.
This is a good summer on the charts, I ca see three songs here which will end up high on my best 2014 and any year when you get Adele done right, which is one of Sam Smith’s many achievements this year, the most prominent one is, of course, making an album which compares favorably to In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning. Makes you happy to be writing about music in the 21st Century.
So what’s with Blake? The album was on sale at ITunes for $5.99 and and the moral of this story is: if Itunes and/or the record business wanted to really battle streaming they should drop their prices in half…
Free Your Mind – Cut Copy – The beat pattern is quite clever and the howling at the “moooon shines brighter than the sun” is a good hook, but the vocal isn’t there and the rest of the track doesn’t pay it off – B-
Keith was unhappy with the first take on “Till Summer Comes Round” (off Defying Gravity) and played it again, killing the momentum further, though the second version had a much much better ending and it took until that end, 20 minutes into the 80 minute second set, for Keith to get the set back on track.
Through it all they were a fountain of, even costing me a couple of friendships with mutual acquaintances along the way, and I need them and am beyond excited they will be back. So Bono the answer is: we want another U2 album if only because it is much more fun picking on you than on Chris Martin
The comedy has a very funny ending credits with short coming attractions of supposed sequels they go to “cooking school, flight school, fireman school, as foreign exchange students and at dance school ” according to Mashable here. It is funny, the movie is pretty funny in a harmless sort of way
o To 100/The Catch Up – Drake – Drake sucks on stage and can drag over an album but when he drops a single and when it is out of the blue like “Started From The Bottom” and this very well rhymed state of the Drake (he is sick of apologizing to girls) he is in a whole other league – A
Go Down In History – Four Year Strong – This emocore masterpiece is the bands greatest achievement, with only a handful of tracks they maintain a heavy standard throughout the 16 minutes, and the more you listen the more there is to hear – ALBUM (EP) OF THE WEEK – A-
Underlying whatever you might think Tom Clark is doing at the Treehouse every Sunday, with free concert at a lovely loft like space with windows looking down on the East Village like it is Lincoln Center’s Allen Room gone downtown what he is doing is managing the flux of time
The two songs that open Jungle “The Heat” and “Accelerate” are serious keepers, and if by “Platoon” you’ve kinda gotten the point, better repeating this album when necessary, the sound is samey, the horns, synths, falsettos, and strings, all a touch manufactured, but that doesn’t make them any less perfect.
I’d love to see Page bring out the Zep catalog on stage one more time but he has a huge problem, who do you get to play Page? Adam Lambert? Eddie Vedder (right attitude, wrong key). Anyway, buy tickets for the November 3rd conversation at the 92nd Street Y here.
Back in 2009 we did things like what is on Jesus Ipod, imaginary concerts, and something like this, “what I am Listening To Right This Minute” posted in real time as we listened. That morphed over time to my daily 10 songs post.
Apparently, it has just been made available but I don’t know since there has been no official annoucement. You would have thought Spotify would’ve been all over that announcement and the reason I’m guessing they weren’t isbecause Columbia wouldn’t pay for advertising space and so it snuck in the back door
Cheeseburger In Paradise – Jimmy Buffett – No, he isn’t a a vegetarian though he has a veggie burger on the menu on the menu plus, how can you hear this damn song without wanting one? A big hunk of meat!! – A
James Garner was one of my favorite actors, both “Support Your Local Sheriff” and “Support Your Local Gunfighter” were major charm filled westerns and both “Maverick” and “The Rockford Files” are among the great TV shows. Garner had the toughness of a western hero, an Eastwood or a Wayne, with the self-deprecation of a Woody Allen. A completely winning combination for a great great movie star.
Four boy R&B band Rixton are, well, more Boys II Men than 1D and therefore much better than you probably think, also, they come from my home town Manchester, England, plus, well let the Manchester Evening News tell you: “They will each get an inking of a broken heart tonight, after learning their pop song Me And My Broken Heart reached number one.”
What is Halycon doing back on the charts? Those English are crazy. Also, Morrissey deserves to be number one, and I ashamed, yes shame on the English for letting Ed win the battle. Ed is a nice bloke but Moz is an institution.
While I was a little disappointed by La Roux’s performance at Governors Ball, I never believed for an instant she was no bigger than “Bulletproof” and the songs I’ve heard off Trouble In Paradise have remained uniformly excellent. Plus, what? You expected Yes to be my pick of the week?
She Wolf – Shakira – Around about here, Shakira seemed seeped in the possibility of being a major pop artists as well as a pop star, but it all became too much and she imploded. This song is a pop art stroke she couldn’t ever follow up – A
Conor hasn’t had the best six months of his life, going from indie misfit has been to rapist in public opinion, his worst selling record ever, and finally purged from all misgivings back to indie misfit and losing his boyish good looks somewhere along the way
the long nights journey into day is filled with terrifying images and lots of blood and gore and while its moral might be weak (something to do with economic inequality), it takes you through the night with singleminded power.
the rest of the album doesn’t make it at all. Perhaps the problem is that if you don’t like what weird Al is making fun of how can you like the song he is playing? This goes doubly for the painful “With My Own Eyes” and while “Mission Statement” with its “Carry On” opening and CSN harmonies, should work very well, but the song isn’t good enoug
Who ever thought Danny Brown would be the greatest growing up? Two terrific albums later, Danny sure is one of the best, Joined by Black Hippy Schoolboy Q and hero in his hometown Action Bronson for this years PeterPalooza # 3 at Best Buy on Wednesday. Should be the rap show of the year.
we patiently await the inevitable passing of time so we can get our hands on, er, the Beck Song Reader? well, certainly Van Dyke Parks who we can assume will not be streaming his next album on Spotify, Spider Bags out August 5th (can’t wait for that one, their last was my fave album of 2012), Jenny Lewis and Blake Mills (though not together) and Jerry Lee Lewis
Here Comes Trouble – Chronixx – with both NPR and Jimmy Fallon hailing the young Jamaican as the second coming of Bob Marley I gave him a listen and he is nothing close to it, though this is a tasty piece of Rastaman vibes stuff – B+
Never before have so few done so much with so little. Queen are simply not a very good band saved from obscurity by the ashtrays of emotion that was Freddie Mercury and a firm grasp on maybe half a dozen indelible songs. Queen was what you got when Mercury added Liberace to Elvis Presley.
The Drums are playing Bowery Ballroom on Saturday September 20th (and MHOW Tuesday, September 16th) and if they are half as good as they were last time, which they may well be because Jonathan is such a centerpiece to the entire scene, they should be well worth the while.
The first four songs on this list are a very clear reflection of what I am listening to for kicks when I find the time to listen to songs for no other reason than kicks. “Salad Days” and Rollercoaster” are in that magic place where it is on constant repeat in the back of my head.
When it comes to ands like electronic duo Purity Rings I really show my age Dark Horse – Kidz Bop because they bore me to tears even though they have a gorgeous moodiness to them and if you want to hear them, the company of Danny Brown is where to do it – B+
If Mary and I couldn’t believe it, how could Moore? How could other people? How could this have happened? It is such a terrible, sad story, and that’s what hurts. I know his wife, his label, father, friends, Maria, everybody knew it was complete bullshit but how can those people who so deeply feel his music misread the situation so entirely.
