How shocking, Sesame Street is going to a pay to view network, HBO and I realize they thing well now they can produce 36 episodes a season instead of the skimpy 18 PBS can afford to pay em. That’s the good news (to a degree, there is the question of quality control) , now here is the bad news: Sesame Street taught generation after generation, regardless of race or class, and that is now over. Congratulations, you nitwits.
Fuck Tha Police – N.W.A. – It has aged a little though the sentiment is essentially timeless, and if the stories coming out of Compton from the licks of Vince “I never run from nothing but tha police” Staples is to believed, not a damn thing has changed so with all the interest back on full beam, it sure sounds fresh enough in some ways – B+
The new Dre does not compare with the old Dre -this kitchen sink stuff, this throw every sound in the world at Compton, I dunno, it goes from fresh to stupid before you know what’s hit you. But at least it isn’t Frank Turner -the man who gives paradise postponed a bad name.
The Charlie Puth (he is the bloke who has been singing the Wiz Khalifa hook all year) song has been around for a month or so and I loved it then, a little tired of it now. Meghan Trainor sounds really good as well/ Though at the top there, it makes the entire chart a little more interesting. 1D? Yeah, when it isn’t selling it sounds a lot worse.
The return of the thin white middle aged nutcase is always reason for… well, if not rejoicing certainly awareness. As for the fat white comedian, well, in my world Corden getting Morrissey is something of a catch, while on CBS it is more like 1am in the morning. Stay up light, tell all your friends ou were there when…
Five song EP, recorded back to back with last years LP1, this bizarre and beautiful collection (along with a 17 minute video posted below) is the sound of heavy duty bass, a Massive Attack influence, with vocals that sometimes seem to be from a halfworld dreaminess and a come on “I’ll be there…. oooh” , and whose mood is of an unnerving sensuality and danger. Early Tricky maybe? Trip hop, yep. The video is the equal of the EP – RECORDING OF THE WEEK – A
White Christmas – Bing Crosby – The thing that is lost here, is this was released in the middle of 1942, the melancholia (from Jewish American Irving Berlin), makes more sense when you put it right up close to “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”: both songs suggest that they may all be white Christmases but it isn’t a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination – A+
Helen Bach called me to announce she was after Henry Rollins for another interview. Alright by me but if ever a guy seemed to have places to say whatever he wanted to say, that man is Rollins. Personally, I appreciated the first interview he did with us but if Helen wants to double down, so be it. I will say one more thing: I tend to be closer to his opinion about Barack Obama in 2015 than I am to my own in 2012. I would love to hear his take on the Nuclear T
As we pass the half way point of 2015, here comes the latest news: over trillion songs streamed so far. Last year had a total of 440 Billion over the entire 12 months which seems to me to prove that we are looking at the of the game when it comes to streaming. This means over a year streaming will have increased by 400%.
The line up is a little slack so that may explain the lack of a sell out, the rule of thumb is if you can’t get even one former member of Swedish House Mafia, you’ve got a problem.
The ceiling collapsed at Minneapolis’ legendary First Avenue Club during a performance of Canadian Hard Rock band Theory Of A Dead Man, “a 30-foot by 30-foot section of the ceiling fell in several pieces around 10 p.m. during the performance” leaving six people injured.
The Abyss – Chelsea Wolfe – Being depressed doesn’t make you, by definition, more interesting. Chelsea Wolfe is depressed and I am pretty much convinced she’s a straight drag – C-
Why bother working for hours and hours on the damn thing when I know no one will read it? Nothing would’ve been easier than to remove my caveats from the story and leave it as unstilted praise but then why bother working so hard in the first place, right?
So, to go or not to go? Well, there is only to go, of course. This is an absolute must see, especially after the fear Art wouldn’t sing again and years of rehabbing the pipes, this is a very thrilling thing.
For The Love Of Money – Dr. Dre – This is the one, a topnotch r&b-soul track with a great rap from Black-Korean Anderson. Paak, who should see his public image go through the roof after his work on Compton, and Jill Scott who does a terrific job on the hook – B+
It actually looks like fun though I bet their egotistical posturing will get as tedious on film as it does in person eventually. Still, it took me back to the last album which sounds better than I remembered it
Stand By Your Man – Tammy Wynette – Not Billy Sherrill’s greatest moment as a producer, but great enough for anybody else’s lifetime, Tammy seems to cry and hold and swear by and women can believe what they want but any woman who lives by “and if you love him, be proud of him” will be well loved in return. Love isn’t weakness jerk – A
Frank Gilford died yesterday. A utility player in every single meaning of the word, not least, his entire twelve year football career as a Giant culminating in 1956 when he lead the team to the NFL Championship. Put it this way: he went to the pro bowl eight times in THREE different positions: defensive back, running back, and wide receiver. Gifford was 84.
At Hearst Plaza, it is the Familial that comes closest. The reason it worked better for me here than at City Winery was because the environment was conducive for songs about home and family and nature, -whether or not the songs were specifically happy, they were of a place and a way and time, compassionate and sharing.
Nothing here thrills me much, it feels like one of the worst summers in immediate memory for singles, albums are OK, as always all over the place but not a terrible year. Still, the singles have had too many weeks like this. Still, congrats to One Direction, who seem cpable of rebounding from anything that is thrown at them.
I realize The Descendants is a piece of crap but as far as pieces of crap goes it is solid enough, really. The songs are catchy and silly and compared to, say High School Musical, it is genius. PS # 1 with 42,000 EAUs? Come in music business, your time is up.
, Prince is a fool comparing recording recording contracts to slavery. Indentured servants, maybe, it is a little extreme in 2015 but OK, but SLAVES??? This is offensive to me and my ancestors weren’t slaves. The comment doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny whatsoever and if it was taken seriously by people who think more than ‘oh, it’s just Prince being Prince’, I think the world would listen to him more seriously if he managed a “Baltimore” more than once every 20 years.
(I had been a huge Brad Paisley fan since seeing him open for Loretta Lynn at the Town Hall in 1999, that was a couple of months before his debut album was released. I clearly remember going to the Tower Records on West 4th Street to buy it the day it was released. But here I am, ten years later, and things have changed.
The Presidential Race: Forget Donald Trump for a moment, the man is a clown and a danger to any chances the GOP may have had to get a Republican Presidency, but whatever. This hatred of women, this anti-choice rhetoric, this build a big wall anti-immigration, all this stuff: it is too much, why are they forcing Americans to hold their nose and vote for Hillary. Can’t they find one candidate who isn’t out of their mind?
Mr. Harris – Aimee Mann – Aimee takes on ageism and beats it, spelling out the joys of romance with a man older than her father and Aimee handles it with so much dignity it makes you ache: “and you’ve waited so long and I’ve waited long enough for you” she claims, and a beautiful flute takes you on an instrumental. She can’t do this any more, you know – A
How such essentially lighthearted stuff can be played like Eugene O’Neill is easy to answer, it can’t be done. Why they tried? That’s a bafflement indeed. Certainly Kate Mara looks as though she has spent her entire life smelling the Things farts and not enjoying it. Oh and Miles, who lives and dies by his smirk, is fanstatically miscast as Reed. The only Fantastic thing about this disaster.
It must be extremely difficult to write for dance while remaining true to yourself, Wainwright does it. The entire evening was a tribute to people working together and how the low brow rock culture and high brow world of a ballet share a common ground in the art of empathy.
Body On Me -Rita Ora and Chris Brown – Rita seemed to have the promise of a little more than a cookie cutter EDM gal singing faux-soul disco over beats, whereas Chris Brown was always one of the crowd. Together they took a relatively smart beat and did nothing much with it. Works on the dancefloor, no doubt – C
A strange week, that seems stronger on paper, Iris and Dre new releases, surprising and should be year making, are neither quite where we want them to be and though Worriers are better than expected and Danny Brown, Lil B and Chance The Rapper, and Melanie Martinez are pleasant surprises, they don’t quite make up for it.
The defense said Holmes would plead guilty two years ago in return for life imprisonment, so in effect the prosecution wasted two years, not to mention money and most importantly, heartbreak. A terrible verdict however it has been a week for people decisions based upon conscious.
Come See About Me – The Supremes -The drum roll into this track snaps you awake and the handclaps are all there and the phrase is… who says “come see about me”? It sounds wrong and not vernacular but ageless and cool as hell and Diana sounds sort of vulnerable and in control at the same time – A+
Following in the footsteps of contemporaries and friends Morrissey and Elvis Costello, this should be a very big deal in the world of rock and, how you say?, roll. If it is half as good as Moz’s memoir (I consider it genius but I realize I am in a minority) it will be great but it won’t be anything like it: I am assuming a lot of acerbic putdowns and exceedingly little we don’t know about Ray Davies
Yes, it is a rerun, you’re right. But it is a rerun of a show I missed featuring one of my favorite rappers, Vince Staples, so I am going with Fallon on Monday. I just got a ticket for what hits me as the top new rappers show of the year, at Theatre At Madison Square Garden, and it will be a good setup for the show. PS: Beirut on Seth Myers?
Yesterday, the two most important albums were not on Spotify, Iris DeMent wasn’t streaming anywhere and Dre was on Apple Play. I am still getting a real handle on both of them but while DeMent deepens but the new Dre? -the first day, just the thrill of the new made it sound awesome, today? eh… it is like getting drunk, sleeping with a cute guy, and waking up next to Steve Tyler.
I Remember You – Frank Ifield – Love the harmonica which works a hook, underlining the words, and Ifield, who could yodel like nobody’s business on this apotheosis of easy listening, and a hit in both the US and the UK in 1962. It remains a clearly beneficent idea perfectly executed – A
Kenny Chesney has in the past and Jason Aldean might get me be to Madison Square Garden separately, but both together will get me to Metlife, which they’ve come close to selling out so you gotta think mainstream country fans embrace the wacko and the wannabe, and hard. I am not sure Jason is ready for Arena rock but Kenny? Yeah, Kenny is ready for his close up and on a Saturday… ps doubles as a concept act for male strippers everywhere.
After all the action last week (er, I mean yesterday), this seems a little on the “when nothing happened” side of life, unless you’re in the market for play the sleeve (er, picture on the cover) and throw away the album Grace Potter side of life. Maybe , for no really good reason though “Sippy Cup” is a different type of pop song.
I really read this one wrong, I’ve had a pretty bad year reading the charts (I thought Demi would be the song of the summer) and I predicted 1D disaster last week and instead they have one of their biggest hits ever, I’d be surprised if it isn’t at the top of the US Charts next week. Plus the fans are as maniacal as ever (hits me as though Zayn was not a fan favorite).
Those Led Zep boys must be regretting streaming as we very speak, with these two decades old albums, and not even fan favorites,and with a deluxe version that isn’t so ‘luxe at all -especially Presence, which has nothing much going on, still entering the Top 10, Also, not crazy about the Maccabees but I’ve seen a lot worse at # 1
With all the will in the world, I find it impossible to take the Republican candidates for the Presidency very seriously. They are all like the supervillains in Marvel Comics. And I would really like to, I would like an alternative, a fiscal conservative libertarian. If they could find one, people might actually listen. Instead they have Ted Cruz…
Half Odd Future and half Fool’s Gold, and really very very strong stuff, this is what I love to listen to when I listen to rap. It is a pretty good time for hip hop overall, the only problem I see is the constant gragging, at a certain point it sounds a little desperate to me.
Genocide – Dr. Dre -“[He] wanted to hang out, eat nachos, watch ‘King Ralph,'” Stewart said. If Kendrick phoned it “Bad Blood”, this is the real deal: a heads down full frontal attack on the Compton pecking order, and the best song about Compton since, well, in the past coupla months if you don’t include Vince Staples – B+
The late Russian poet Anna Akhmatova’s words are translated, put to music, and then made to rhyme, leaving you twice removed from the originals. Though with an adopted Russian daughter, Dement has more reason than most to change though respecting Anna’s words -she could hardly do a crib sheet. Which she does, on an album that while a relative disappointment, and slow, thoughtful, and did I mention slow?, has enough songs with the brilliance of a “Broad Gold” and “Listening Is Singing”, to make it more than rewarding enough. Or would you rather listen to Luke Bryan? – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – B+
If you are not watching the Republican Debates hie thee to Apple Play where Dr. Dre’s insanely anticipated third album will be dropping early, 9pm tonight. It might be more fun you, it has been a long long time between albums, hasn’t it?
Thursday is death day for recorded music, unless you are in the market for Macklemore’s lachrymose “Growing Up” -a stomach churning little pop smarm for his poor baby girl. The only way this song matters to the kid is if Macklemore dies in a plane crash before she’s six months old. Yeah, I am listening to Street Hassle for no good reason except somebody mentioned Lou the other day and I thought, you know, his name doesn’t show up in conversation as much as it use to.
Growing Up (Sloane’s Song) – Macklemore – With Ryan Lewis and Ed Sheeran – It is hard to be so cynical about this song for his newborn daughter, the sadly named Sloane Ava Simone Haggerty, as he takes the poor wee thing through all the moments of her life. It is pleasant enough, absolutely, but really it is also creepy and overdone. I bet she spends a lot of her life squirming over this stuff – C
Lil Dicky ended an average album so strongly that if I ever get the chance I will listen more closely, and both Romano and the Mynabirds are revelations for me. Didn’t know one and not crazy about the other, they both came through.
Walk With Me -Bugzy Malone – This is where 2Pac meets grime, the dramatic violin track is the setting while a first rate spit out very focused rap takes on urban overdose from Foot Locker to Mac computers, and is completely overwhelmed by the end – B+
If the Tao of 1D is indeed the fans, the fans were simply rapturous. The screams are still rinigng in my ears and the sight of young girls and their friends forging friendships that will last a life to songs that, well, probably won’t, is good enough a reason to applaud all concerned.
Ok, we’re all patiently waiting for guitarist alumni Larry Carlton’s solo on “Kid Charlemagne” and since this is “The Royal Scam” night where Steely Dan are to play one of their classic albums from beginning to end before a second act of greatest hits and it is as remorselessly perfect as on the album
