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

Active Viewin': rock nyc Concert Picks w-o 1-13-14

Any time Aretha Franklin is in town is a must see date for all concerned, and when she is playing Radio City Music Hall as she is on this Friday, there is no reason at all not to go and spent some time for this greatest of singers and excellent on stage performer.

News

10 Songs: What rock nyc is listening to 1-12-14

Bonnie Portmore – The Rails – aka Richard and Linda Thompson’s kid Kami and her husband James Walbourne singing an old Irish folk song about saving the forest or something. Their voices mesh very nicely on this oldie which dates back to 1976… so yeah even older than papa – A-

rock nyc

Loser And Winner Week Of January 3rd, 2014: Governor's Ball And Neil Young

Loser – Governor’s Ball – What are these guys thinking of? After the disastrous early June Randall’s Island festival last year, with Friday a complete disaster (Best Coast best quote: “This fucking sucks”), and a doubling up on the headliner on Saturday which lead to overcrowding plus a nightmare of mud and ruined shoes, they have the audacity to try it again in 2014

Album Reviews

Phil Och's "Gunfight At Carnegie Hall" Revisited

We are dealing with the album we want, 1974’s Gunfight At Carnegie Hall and if there is anything other than irony on “I Ain’t Marching Any More” being followed by “Okie From Muskogee” I can’t hear it. I don’t dislike Och’s version but I don’t really care one way or the other

Lists

Like A Bridge Over Troubled Water… 21 Times

I am about as miserable as you’d expect and suffering from a terrible cold, all in all my I would be hard pressed to be much further down. The frigid temperature suits my mood (not to mention my writing abilities the past couple of days).

rock nyc

Governors Ball Don't Learn, Dates Are June 6th – 8th, 2014

Gov’s Ball line up was something else last year, from GNR and KoL to, yes folks, the first appearance of Kanye and his Yeezus. Along with the best of many genres (ecept country) including folk, indie and EDM . Alt-J, the xx and Icona Pop, garcy Clarke Jn, Fucked Up and Best Coast… outrageously excellent line up. So, yeah, sight unseen I’d go again.

rock nyc

US Top 10 Singles 1-18-14

So OK, I went 50-50 on Perry and Gaga, I didn’t think PRISM was dead a duck and it isn’t and I didn’t thing Artpop was dead as a duck and it is dead a duck. I don’t see why Gag doesn’t pull out “Gypsy” it has hit single written all over it

rock nyc

US Top 10 Albums 1-18-14

It is January 9th and nothing has happened in the world except “Frozen” is the fourth animated soundtrack to reach the top of the Billboard 200. It follows Jack Johnson’s “Curious George” (2006), and Disney’s “Pocahontas” (1995) and “The Lion King” (1994). One of which is actually good.

News

10 Songs: What rock nyc Is Listening To 1-9-14

Wow, this has aged well… actually this has improved, The Steve Stills sample is superb and PE’s target, the corrupt and corrupting world of basketball (Biggie connected it to selling crack some 20 years ago) is a dangerous target… great movie as well – A

Opinion

The Repeat Concert That Goes Wrong

Perhaps I was right but the Phish effect didn’t survive a lousy concert last December where all the good will they’d accrued went out the window and I remembered exactly why I’d been born sick of them for decades on end.

Streaming

Beats Music is Real

The problem with a Superbowl buy is however memorable it is, nobody will remember a week from now. They are much better off spending their money judicially. But, of course, this is about impressing their backers, though why wasting money would embrace anybody is beyond me.

Album Reviews

Marla Mase's "Half-Life" Reviewed

Half-Life exists in a place similar to Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy, it is where spoken word and experimentation meets the discipline of song writing and recording. Co-written with Doncker, these tracks play with genre’s to exercise Marla in pursuit of a vision one half self involved and one half global

rock nyc

UK Top 10 Albums 1-18-14

Perseverance pays off for Ellie, who is playing MSG at some point this summer and was pretty good the only time I’ve seen her to date -opening for Katy Perry! The rest of this list is up to nothing much but it could be worse.

rock nyc

UK Top 10 Singles 1-18-13

I’ve got few problems with this chart, I mean it is what it is, right? Nice to see the excellent “Timber” at the top of the charts and while there are a coupla dogs here, mostly it isn’t that bad. Not the worst way to jump start 20140

Opinion

Can Music Help Us Grieve?

It seems as though for once and perhaps the only time, music can’t seem to help. I go back to Aretha Franklin and I wish I had a copy of that February 17th, 2012 concert at Radio City where Aretha mourned her Goddaughter Whitney Houston.

Sneak Peak

Sneak Peaks: New Album Releases Week Of 12-6-13

This is so slow that Stephen Malkmus, who I haven’t much cared for since Wowee Zowee and whose Pavement reunion a couple of years ago was a huge disappointment, is my pick of the week. I’ve streamed it and apparently moving to Berlin hasn’t changed a damn thing.

News

10 Songs: What rock nyc Is Listening To 1-6-13

Bridge Over Troubled Water – Aretha Franklin – I saw Franklin perform this the day after Whitney Houston died, February 17th, 2012 at Radio City Music Hall and it was superior to this take but not by much. Both are Gospel, but the pain that night is something only real grieving can match – A

rock nyc

Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf Of Wall Street" Reviewed

Martin trusts us enough not to make us choke on the moral, he assumes we realize that people’s lives have been destroyed by this repulsive monster and his cohorts greed, just as Wall Street is destroying the US. But he glamorizes what he despises and in the end it is just, well, a decadent bore.

rock nyc

Active Viewin': rock nyc's Top Concert Picks

I know you think it should be Neil Young but my feeling is John Newman is gonna be brilliant on Thursday at Bowery Ballroom. Completely sold out of course, but that’s because everybody is ready for the new soul rebel who has fronted a couple of Rudimental’s best song and whose own album is about to release Stateside.

rock nyc

In The Dead Of Winter, Here Is City Parks Foundation's Summerstage 2014 Preview!!! January 9th At LPR

. Last year, the Summerstage preview consisted of Shuggie Otis, who went on to enjoy a first rate year, Joshua Nelson who was all over the Mahalia Jackson tribute and DJ Kool Herc, and, as I am sure we all remember, 2013 was the 40th anniversary of the birth of hip hop; the theme of 2013. So now it is 2014 and the theme? Glad you asked because my bet is the theme will be the 75th Anniversary of Blue Notes records.

rock nyc top 10 songs

rock nyc's Top 10 Songs w-o 12-30-13

John Newman I am very ecited to be seeing on Thursday (and the album is dropping Stateside this month), and Bernie Worrell was new to me but not the rest of the world. But new to everybody is Angel Haze’s excellent new album, a pop triumph that might actually break pop.

rock nyc

Best of… 2012????

New Year’s Eve At The Gates Of Hell – Ray Wylie Hubbard – Back in the day, young Steve Crawford bonded over this instantaneous classic as Ray wonders what he did to deserve this before noting that God outsources to the devil -Amen, I say – A

Books

Stephen King's "Doctor Sleep" Reviewed

He may well be a great storyteller but he isn’t a great stylist and his metaphors are banal and obvious and therefore he isn’t a great novelist and this is so far from being a great novel as to be, indeed, a very ordinary one.

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