The indies need to organize themselves into one voice and pull their music off all streaming services till their music can be renegotiated. They need to drop their major label distribution deals and start together as one voice.
Meanwhile, opening act Tony’s daughter Antoinette, rehearsing for her “Memories Of My Father” concert at Cafe Carlyle in a decade or so, might have been sucked or not. I heard some chuckling here and there
The West 52nd room began its life as a dance club and it retains the same floor because think about it, how can you have a dance floor on a slope? And this means the 3500 SRO capacity club is a nightmare for the height impaired such as yours truly.
Every Single Night – Fiona Apple – This is the other half of Fiona. Fiona as nursery rhyme singer, skipping merrily down the path of weirdness before losing it again – A
Playing songs off their current Sincerely Sorry EP, where the sound they’ve been going for since Anaaiah was 12 years old back in 2009 is absolutely perfected, the first two songs of the set are brilliant sound strangulation
The show takes two performances at London’s Hyde Park from July 6 and 13, at what was a major event this summer and gives it a sense of moment. The Stones seem to claim a bigness for the evenings
Not just because of punk rock but mostly because of punk rock. I know it’s a cliché but punk rock changed my life as much as ,say, the Lebanese Civil War or my father’s death changed my life. I went from being a music fan to a music fanatic. I have lived and breathed music ever since 1977
The Walt Disney Dumbo song “Baby Of Mine” is sung by Betty Noyes and is a rarity of sorts, Thom Yorke’s song for his son “Sail to The Moon” (“maybe you’ll be President but know right from wrong”) though I’m sure if my dad had sung it to me I would have been terrified all night.
Pusha T and Danny Brown are held over from list week, Pearl Jam and McCartney are new to this week and except for acquired taste new r&b guy Black Milk, this is just about a holding action
Goodbye Don’t Mean I’m Gone – Carole King – Off her Tapestry album follow up, Carole took to the mountains in California and tended to her daughter. But she was still a round – A
The band aesthetic opens it up and playing songs off their superb EP2, in a live setting the band evolve into a masterclass in tempo and dashed expectations.
With a pianist accompanying her and a loop feeding back vocal hooks as she sings it, Margot harmonizes with herself on what is simply one of the prettiest songs of the year and she sings it very well
Mree is a sort of disquietingly soft but deep hushed folkie and in the one song I saw she taped herself tearing up a piece of paper and used it along with a drum beat in a loop.
If Byrne wants more money off Spotify than Byrne should renegotiate his deal with major record labels who are part owners of Spotify. If the major indie labels (all distributed by the big three by the way) want more money off Spotify, they should pull their clients and re-negotiate the terms of their contracts
Heartbreaker – Justin Bieber – Man, this guy got sucky. I was never a huge fan but he was always good for a coupla good tracks a year; how could this be any more generic – C-
Every single song in the set was a gem, Richard, back in black with a Gibson strapped to him at all time, looked slim and handsome, every inch a rock star and the band were excellent musical foil
This November 1st and 2nd Theresa is coming to the East Coast, Pittsburgh to be precise, where she is showing her “Exhibit of seminal punk rock images ” which should be worth looking at if only for the pictures with her late boyfriend, Stiv Bators
Ho hum, the charts are such a bore in 2013, Miley, Katy and Lorde oh my. There has to be more to modern pop than this. This is really kinda sad, it is not that it is terrible, the way the album charts were a couple of weeks ago
If Miley can get one more hit song off this album it is gonna break her right through and the album will be a monster and she has it as well. Otherwise, no surprises here except maybe Panic!, it was no Pretty.Odd and I am surprised it moved over 75K units.
I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten – Tracey Ullman – Of course her singing can’t compare to dusty, but this 1983 cover compares very well in a very joyful 1960s girl group UK style way – A
By the time you reach Thursday. Duff gave the keynote speech and the highlight of the five days occurred, the Bowery Electric class reunion and of course Roscoe’s excellent curated evening at Sullivan Hall.
There is nowhere for Mary Lee to run so the words come thundering down and perhaps its good because the primary question mark, the sexual confusion having a woman sing these songs, gets lost in the forward throttle of the track.
Of course it can get to you! But I don’t complain. It’s part of the job… But at some point you say, well, enough! I’ve been in stocks this week, I don’t want to be in them next week.”
Early Days – Paul McCartney – The strange thing about this terrific song is how old Paul sounds, he sounds every inch his 70 plus years and the effect, as he reaches for a note out of his range, is less elegiac and more wearied – A
It is Tuesday afternoon and a quick trip to Washington Square South’s Judson Memorial Church has netted me press credentials and I am good to go. This is fun, high tech stuff.
New – Paul McCartney – His best album since Run Devil Run is also his oldest sounding to date, he almost croaks “Early Days”, and with a new generation of modern producers behind him, it sounds pretty good as well – A
The new Danny Brown album was the keeper and, man, did that take me by surprise, with Pusha T coming up second, less of a surprise, and a handful of indie bands bringing up the rear. Even Miley didn’t suck as bad as predicted.
The thrill here is Linda Thompson’s new album, except for that song earlier this year “Never A Bride” and it was a killer, we haven’t heard anything new in years. Maybe we will get a tour out of it!!!
Haunting Me – Mary Lee’s Corvette – There is still blood on the tracks on this masterpiece, a beauty of rare emotional depth starts ling singer songwriter confessional becomes country and morphs into a Jimmy Webb song on the chorus – A
Meanwhile, who exactly did play? Just about every living star from the era… no Verlaine, no Hell, no Patti (though yes to Lenny Kaye), otherwise a clean sweep!!! I wanted to see Jahn, Lenny, Bebe, Richard Lloyd, Tuff Darts… really everybody!
The entire CMJ Festival, from October 15th – Octoebr 19th, is gonna be fun as always and the line up is dishy with even rumors of a secret Arcade Fire gig in Brooklyn. But for me, the afternoon KEXP radio shows are the keepers. Tell me a betetr way to spend your afternoon than with Au Revoir, Simone or Eleanor Friedberger?
Yeah, I know early Miley is the pix, but she has topped both the UK singles and albums chart for the week, so what do you do? But Lucy Spraggan deserves it.
Two excellent songs here haven’t been released in the States yet, Rudimental pal John Newman and last years model Conor “Las Vegas Girl” Maynard, have both dropped first rate tracks in the UK as good as their very best
Nobody Wants You When You’re Down And on – Bobby Womack – aaaah, yeah, Bobby really nails it on this one. They don’t make soul like this any more though Womack is at City Winery in December so he should be playing it like this – A
I would mention the Gospels as another influence on the play, the way in which the time between the death of Christ and the writing of the Gospels changed the story into myth.
The writer above is Ryan Leas and with all due respect, and who wants to pick on some scribe trying to get paid by word and running em up, but damn, could he be a bigger blowhard?
A pretty good week, nothing killed but two very good rap albums and five very good indie bands plus Miley was better than expected and Sleigh Bells worse than hoped but not bad even so
Danny’s second strong release in a row is a companion piece to an album it has nothing to do with: Tyler, The Creator, Wolf, and like Wolf it is about life after fame and like Wolf, it is all drugs and rap, but this is a consistently well rapped album, smart as hell rhymes
Pop’s Love Suicide – Stone Temple Pikots – If it was easy to write glam grunge pop masterpieces like this, why has nobody, definitely including STP, been able to replicate it – A
A cheerful attractive vision of female power, she leads us on singalongs with “Where Are The Freaks” and “Dismissed With A Kiss” and then, in a new song, “Liar Liar”, she wails along to the sax and it is invigorating and awesome
The band sounded real good but they didn’t quite ignite, the closest they got was “Poor Man” but even with Ambel playing the harp for the first time ever they never quite got us there.
When I get the chance (or if I can’t hand it off to someone else) to call New York clubs and figure out exactly what the booking practice is. Aren’t there rules about this stuff? Where’s the Unions?
So the news that he is playing the Theater at MSG on November 25th, 2013, couldn’t be bigger for us Vanheads. His daughter Shana is opening but let’s not hold that against her and wonder just want he will be bringing to the table
Winner – CBGB Fest – The leap forward from 2013 to 2013 has been huge and the Thursday night gig at Bowery Electric, 30 bands between 7pm and 4am, is already legendary (Jahn Xavier is documenting who played and we will share it once it’s finished).
Good Morning Good Morning – Mickey Dolenz – Off the Remember album if you think a flute has no place on the Lennon classic, think again ; Dolenz is in superb voice and it captures some of the timed weirdness of Lennon’s take on the straight life – B+
Pearl Jam have been well loved and have certainly had their moments, and as far as mainstream rock bands are concerned you can out every Linkin Park on the planet on one side, and they wouldn’t be as good as Pearl Jam, but still, they’re dodgy and half hearted, on record any way
As Jahn’s words pinpoint, there is a sense of a time and place long gone but also returning in all its splendor and helped in no little part by the CBGB’s Festival
However, to add to the buzz, Strait has announced that this is his farewell tour, a terrifying though that he would leave us to the tender mercies of Luke Bryan.
Substitute – The Who – Before all the heaviness of Tommy or even A Quick One, or even “My Generation”, there was the distilled fury of this teenage misogy and displacement. Freud would have a lot to say.
Something’s Gotta Give – Frank Sinatra – Sings Jimmy Mercer, and this one swings hard and it is one of those arrogant songs that Sinatra excelled, it swings from a chandelier and is all seduction and smart cracks and finger snaps – A
