The difference between Richie’s “Dancing On The Ceiling” or “Hello” or “Easy” is they haven’t been overplayed in the past decade. They haven’t disappeared but they aren’t like the MJ hits where you can’t throw a brick without hitting one
Brooklyn former lo-fi, baritone based rock band reach the big time after 14 years of slogging through it but there is a question they need to answer: do they deserve to be there? At Barclay Center on Wednesday night, the National offered a resounding answer: yes they do, loudness does not always signify fury and simply a willingness to bring the screens, keep the lights on, and play for 18,000 fans proves the band are where they should. That they did it well was an added plus.
Pretty Lights and King Leon were not allowed to play because of unsafe conditions (now they figure it out?) Apparently, the Ferry’s are jammed packed and very slow, the cars are stuck in the mud and the police are trying to move them, and I guess the bridge to Manhattan is packed as people walk to 125th street
Despite the quiet stormness of his barimonotone or the bands bland benevolent malignancy, Matt is more credible then Brandon Flowers was at the same venue in May.
That was then and this is now and with the wisdom that only time can provide, let’s take anoher look at the some of this years bigger albums one mo’ gin
I’ve heard from many people who’ve worked with him that Bono is a really great guy but I don’t care how nice he is, the man is the biggest egomaniac in the world not running North Korea
The Crenshaw in segments is a major pain in the ass; you have to buy the vinyl, wait two weeks for it to be delivered and it is expensive. But Crenshaw is worth $5 a song.
Joey Covington, Jefferson Airplane drummer, died in a car crash earlier this week. I will write about him at some point, for now I went back to his best album. Robin may have the single of the summer/ The two National songs are from the Barclay Center gigs, the Crenshaw I just got, and the last five is in anticipation of not getting destroyed by the weather at Randall’s Island today.
Why not give us, I dunno “Dead Flowers” –something with a little grit to it, instead of this manifesto. Or if they wanted the Marianne comparison, why not “Sister Morphin”? Stretch her out a little. It has been a long time since “wha’ wha’ I love knitting y’all…”
With the brain of an overactive peanut and the religious backtracking you might expect from men of a certain age, if you can get past the silliness you’ll discover Back Sabbath have done the difficult
Is there anything older than last weeks releases? Well, this week I actually missed two of these completely, the Alice In Chains which is alright but not much more and a surprise hit for Little Mix, spurred on by a hit single no less. But really does VW and JT and DP all seem a little “May 2013”?
Except for Daft Punk, I am just about sick of every single song here. I don’t know how the same damn pop can stay in the charts for months on end. No wait, a second. Where’s Bruno Mars??? Anyway, “Blurred Lines” is new, and as predicted on Monday, it has hit the charts! A coupla more listens and I bet it gets me.
The first three are re-evaluations from yesterdays new releases, the big leao being Miley which is catchier than I gave it credit for. The other Portugal is to assess whether “T-Shirt” is a fluke, jury still out on that one. The two Daft Punk tracks was after reading Rolling Stone’s interview. The Lonely Island song was to teach me how use a semicolon; difficult: I prefer a colon myself.
A kind of twilight of the gods, with Liberace older now, in the last act of his life, playing residency in Las Vegas and with a succession of cute young men
I figured I would write a random series of Costello single reviews. You know, just a couple of words and a grade, like the old days, before rock nyc took itself so seriously.
Steven Paul Perry was a Boston legend and a popular guitarist who played with everybody from Robert Cray to John Hiatt as well as his own band the Human Condition. It was one of those lives seeped in rock guitar, the sort people don’t have any more. But he died of lung cancer despite several attempts to fund care for his battle with lung cancer. Along with sorrow for his passing, how about health care for musicians. Before you continue to blast Obamacare, please consider what the alternative can be.
All released yesterday, and only Megadeth and Portugal portend the possibility of something special. PTM is a real surprise to me: a band I’ve never held in all that high an estimation have released an ice cool indie rocker, produced by Dangermouse no less
So how good was Phillips at Don’t Tell Me Mama? You can decide for yourself on July 5th, but he was great and when he wasn’t great he was very good. The band were pros and played like it and Phillips was a charming, easeful presence with charm to spare
Mariah Carey come out to perform “#beautiful” but more amazingly given last years debacle where she refused to play, Nicki Minaj performed two songs with 2 Chainz. And finally, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne came out to perform “Pop It” with French Montana
Talk about streamline. Each song would be better than the one before it for the entire length of the album. Yes, you would lose the Imperial Bedroom sense of a major statement but you would gain one of the greatest albums of all tim
Not much of a Queens Of The Stone Age fan myself so them being the pick of the litter has more to do with the many runts. Otherwise: Dave Davies, Kelly Rowland, Megadeth though I’m not sold on em. Haven’t heard from Rogue Wave in a long while… Nothing really going on.
“I look forward to my first visit to Israel. Music is a universal language that is meant to unify audiences in peace and love, and that is the spirit of our show.”
“i hope the day will be a lotta highways…” so sang Elton on the title song of this weird 1970s movie about two teens who run away, she gets preganant and he goes to work in the wheat fields of France. At the time it was a pretty cool daydream but I have no idea how I would feel about it now. The live version of the Phillips track? he has to release it.
I wonder how Ellie found herself back in the charts. The UK isn’t like the US, an appearance on a talk show could pop her back in. London girl group Stooshe, who I like lots for their soul pop, rode a hit single to the top five of the charts.
The new Robin Thicke is a sweet beat lovers rocker that should be real big Stateside as well once it hits, and Jessie J is enormously average. Jessie J is a talented woman, no doubt. But I am hard pressed to prove it on product like this… still, Dizzee’s rap is rap is really good.
Vin gets them out of retirement to foil a master criminals plan to make a techno weapon which can blind a country to oncoming attacks for 24 hours. And that’s much more back story than I should have had to write.
Five of these songs come from the same Tuesday night, Phillips own “Paris” plus NKG and Short cover and the two Laura Marling songs. The Italian band at # 4 sound like psycehdelic Beatles meets Big Star (if that isn’t a redundancy). The Peaches remix is first rate and the Nationals? I am going to see em on Wednesday.
“From Sid Vicious to Syd Barrett in three years,” cracks Geordie
Laura and VW are both pretty new albums and both are taking up more of my time than I can spare. Three strong women, Fantasia (well, she comes across strong) Laura and Natalie have been taking up more time than I can manage, and two country excursions , one real (Darius) and one imaginary (Natalie) have been taking up more time than I can spare.
The surprise here is how not one band on this list compiled from 2012 listening habits, am I listening to in 2013. Regina had a disappointing year, Maps & Atlases still haven’t broken pop. Best Coast had a sales slump, Against Me went from controversy to norm. And Ceu should’ve been the next Shakira.
Last year I promised not to go back to Governor’s Ball ever again, so what did I do? I spent $500 on VIP tickets this year and I will at Randall’s Island June 7th – June 9th and ESPECIALLY June 9th for the Kanye West gig. West killed me dead at 12-12-12 last year and I couldn’t be more excited to see him. Now will I dump Saturday altogether? I am seriously considering it and I am definitely leaving early! So no GNR for me, but plenty of KoL and Kweezy
Stelling is a victim of geography, always jumping trains on the way to Brooklyn. The result is a certain incongruity between what he is, a blue collar worker pushing hard and what he sounds like, an ancestor of Richie Havens with a chip on his shoulder. But then, like Dylan before him, he steamrolls right through it. So while he may never go quite as deep as last years “Mourning Train To Memphis”, a song like “Every Last Extremist” doesn’t need a backstory. ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
The Tricky and Stelling are real keepers, best songs on their respective albums but also better in a bigger pop moment. The Superchunk demo is one of the great songs of their career. They should try an acoustic album soon. As for Gary, Tomas Doncker thinks he is overrated but Tomas hasn’t seen him live.
It comes with the fan who goes to concerts a lot job description, get an AMEX Card. Look at it this way, 5% of the possible audience may have Amex cards getting a crack at 35% of the tickets.
Laura Marling – Roulette – May 28th, 2013 – Laura didn’t bring along a guitar technician, “I don’t mind,” she explained as she tuned two guitars in six keys, “but I didn’t pay for a ticket”.
When I was An Eagle – Laura Marla – Jungian archetypes meet boy-gods and all are punished to a melody you can sing in the shower
Finger Back – Vampire Weekend – My favorite song off the current album is also the most VW off the new album and the bit in UWS fallafel shop with a poster of jerusalem is worthy of Paul Simon.
After last years first rate exercise in modern Cabaret sounds Cafe Nights In New York, Phillips got to work on a blues record which should be out later this year and also formed a band to perform his exquisite standards and the great American songbook at Don’t Tell Mama’s last Tuesday.
I was just working on my best of 2013 through the end of May, which explains the top six . I am so ambivalent over Vampire Weekend that it might take the live concert for me to reach a final conclusion. Perhaps the proof of how important the live show is it changed the Paramore album from good to great.
“Georgy Girl”, “The Carnival Is Over”, ” There will Never Be Another You”, show me another band with this sort of pedigree, indeed, show me another folk band so effortless great in distilling pop to folk and vice versa and i will show you Peter, Paul And Mary
Amy Grant, who is performing at Irving Plaza August 23rd, and whose new album How Mercy Looks From Here is somewhat on the unspeakable side. And David Crowder, who isn’t playing locally but whose The Essential Collection lives up to its name.
“There’s a huge market for any enterprising men out there. Especially of 40 and over. This fucking country is an embarrassment when it comes to catering for the desires of ladies who don’t want to be girlfriends or wives”
So why go and see him at Music Hall Of Williamsburg, Tuesday, October 29th. Because he is like Bowie with all ambivalence and subtext removed: al that’s left is a profound alienation.
Unlike Adele, where familiarity bred contempt, the album grew on me and as UK records sold like honey and UK RECORDS dropped like flies, I went from really not getting the appeal of the lovely voiced but essentially boring Hallmark card to a grudging admiration.
#1 and # 2 are where Moroder sampled himself on the new Daft Punk track, QOTSA is a dumb joke, but funny, and the new single is pretty food. The Dream has been better, but he has also been worse. And Tricky? That’s a Patti Smith cover!
It has shed its Englishness for a Western world music universal. The songs are not simple but they are played simply and the overall effect is of a returning over and over like waves on the shore that crest and subside.
Wrote a Song For Everyone is like one of those tribute albums that are never ever as good as they would look to be, even when McCartney is covering Buddy Holly they suck, and even when Fogerty is covering Fogerty this is a terrible money grubbing little exercise
Go to heaven and have a hit song apparently. “Clouds” is a pretty good song, enough promise to assume that he would’ve gone on to bigger things. At fourteen he got diagnosed with cancer and 10 major surgeries and 20 rounds chemo later he was told he had a year to live. Zach died this month of cancer at the age of 18. There must be an easier way to get a a hit single
This is about as thrilling an album chart as you are going to get. 5 of the top 6 are new and 9 of the top 10 is first rate. Indeed if you get rid of 30 Seconds To Mars I could’ve written this up myself. Special shout out to the National who I am going to see next week , for providing us with a very good album that maintained its doom and gloom while widing their sound.
A real mish mash but two surprises, Tiesto’s best track in a long while is EDM one oh one witht hat steamrolled bet pattern all over it as written a hundredtimes but stillf resh and Buju Banton who ws still in prison the last I looked so either this was recorded behind bars or it is an outtakeand either it is a very good song, dancehall one oh one true, but there is no escaping the voice.
