1975 are a Manchester band four EPs into their synth rock pop career, they hadn’t left much of an impression earlier this year but seem to have started clicking now. “Not Coming Down” was the best moment of an excellent set on Saturday.
On stage, Modern Hut has a sort of surly self-deprecating sense of self. As if Joseph is somewhere between please and irritated to be on stage. I love it, it plays with the fourth wall very effectively and the songs? The songs are fabulous plain and simple.
It gets draggy fast, and she didn’t bother with my fave, “Ask”, but it isn’t the disastrous pokiness of her albums and she did herself no harm. And there is the voice, a beautiful instrument and a devastating calm in a sea of emotional visions.
New World Punx were excellent at proving the tools for swift, loud, LED inspired release. The duo are very, very busy, there will be no Youtube of them having a cigarette while prerecorded tapes air, this was two master DJ working at a feverish pitch while being listened to by a huge following , 6.5 million people, worldwide.
Has it been four years since I called Leonard Cohen boring at Radio City Music Hall and got savaged by his many, many fans. Yes, it sure has. I was savaged not least because I wrote that he was a tenor when he is, of course, a bass. I saw Cohen again later in 2009 at MSG and still wasn’t convince. And though I quite like Old Ideas, and I am thoroughly enjoying Sylvie Simmons biography “I’m Your Man”, I wonder how I will like him this time around? Saturday, April 6th at Radio City Music Hall.
So here is the big boys of 2013 battling it out, Depeche Mode, Justin, Bowie, the Strokes -wow, it could be 1994, all rock modernists all the time but is the world at large any better for it? I’d just as soon listen to BPMs as most of this stuff.
So nothing of much interest right? We’ve been watching these songs flip about the top ten all year except… what the hell is a 1994 pop rap track doing at #1?? Well, apparently the rapping duo are now MCs of a TV variety show and were convinced to roll out the track after all these years, only to instantly sell 70,000 copies. Only in the UK, pop pickers.
Is there a more international music than dance? It cuts right across from Miami to Ibiza and beyond and in the case of Zedd, a 23 year old DJ, Russia, and Mark Schultz and Ferry Cortsen (aka New World Punx) Germany. Zedd wasn’t their but NWP were extremely impressive at a sold out Madison Square Garden Trance show Saturday night. Better than Moving Sidewalks at BB Kings earlier that very same evening.
On a tour that Alyson Camus called ” the sort of rare performance that gives you chills along the spine for close to 2 hours” when she reviewed it in L.A. earlier this year, Nick was an agitated rock and roller who failed to signify.
Where Can I Go – Laura Marling – This magnificent song puts Laura on the trjectory for a Joni Mitchell type career, a career that defines the apex of singer-songwriter artistry.
Taylor Swift – Prudential Center – March 27th, 2013 – Her third tour, fourth album and post-High School if not College, Red finds the woman in complete control of everything but her heart and more than able to present it in a devastating rock concert.
Winner – Taylor Swift – The tabs raved uncontrollably over Taylor’s performance at the Prudential center last week, so did I. But my review was significantly better than the big boys, especially the Times who followed the worst hook in the world with the simply wrong comment that the Red tour had bigger production values than Speak Now. Speak Now was a bigger show though not better. Still, Swift shut all detractors up and rock nyc was there first and better.
United Tenors – Fred Hammond – The Gospel stars singing Tenor here include Dave Hollister and Fred Hammond, the latter’s secular God, Love, Romance from last year was chock filled with great songs. Which can’t be said for this album floundering, not on singing or production, both of which are very good, but on lousy songs of worship – B
As a long term fan of the Stones cover of the Reverends original take on story of the Prodigal Son, and with no fatted calf on any side of the story, though my sense of fairplay suggest the Good Son got screwed over big time, I appreciate and how that at its heart Wilkins original is as much Gospel and Blues as either and beats down to Jesus original concept: a social pact and how to mend the rip.
Sheeran’s songs still go on to long and he still is the weariest and unsexists of teenage hearthrobs but opening for Swift he is exactly what you want, a very enjoyable preparation for the main event performed with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of skill and pleasure
Britney is tired. lethargic, not into it. She looks drugged to the eyeballs but perhaps it is more a mental shadowing, a closing down to a public that want a piece of her but only in the worst way.
2013 is turning into a disappointing year. Alan Jackson and the Strokes both released new albums but you wouldn’t know it from this list. Shelton is a surprise and Pep is a new find, but everybody from Vampire Weekend to Justin Timberlake are not coming up with the goods and Lil Wayne needs to get off the Nyquil.
40% of this, including # 1, which Ed Sheeran covered, is the residual effect of Taylor swift’s Wednesday concert. 30% of this list reflects upcoming concerts. 10% was mentioned in the David Geffen American Masters PBS documentary. And I need no excuse for listening to the Blasters.
Taylor gave her fans a superbly crafted set. A just about perfect two hours of pop rock with a good band and a minimum of acoustic hi-jinx. She treated her young fans with all the love and respect while, impossible to overstate this, streamlining the Speak Now aesthetics to a fine point, a study in simple design well executed and the least indulgent, most creative arena rock show anywhere
On the same stage, these guys will play very well off each other. Buble is sincere, Robbie plays sincerity like a roulette wheel. And they both seem to walk a line between old and new, hip and straight laced. I guess I mean they crossover.
Fran Warren auditioned to sing for the Duke ellington Band when she was just sixteen years on. She didn’t get the gig but she spent the next decades singing for some of the biggest swing bands in the country. And nailing down a handful of hits singles, including her signature tune “A Sunday Kind Of Love”. She died recently at the age of 87
We know we will never have to learn how to spell Baauer’s name again but Macklemore? Unfortunately, I don’t see how they can follow up this fluke but hopefully they can use it to stretch themselves into a long and lustrous career rapping it along with whatever else they’ve released recently. Back at # 1 in case you missed the obvious.
The second tier releases from Tuesday and this is pretty dreadfuls tuff. M83? I lost intereste after they sucked live but even by those standards this is terrible. American Idol? wasn’t he selling tickets to the Book Of Mormon or something. Even Fred Hammond is off his game and Jim Carey? If it’s a joke I don’t get it and if it is staright, there’s got to be better cowboy songs out there. Man, this is shaping into a pretty drastic year.
The Sixties was such a powerful decade that it overwhelms modern times. I mean, we don’t even know what to call 2000 – 2009. The naughts? What sort of a name is that? And really, what we we have to show for it? File sharing and long lines at airports. Maybe women and gays became mainstream, the PC took over, and rap, pop and dance formed an unholy alliance. Rock and roll continued on a respirator
Lil Wayne put together a huge tour and yet again ignored the media center of the Universe. What’s that about? Incidentally, the rule of thumb is you announce five borough dates late because people hold out for them. But there aren’t enough off dates, he is giving us the miss
Those shit kicking white trash Dixie whistling gay hating race baiting country god fearing truck driving fuck faces from way down South sure have their moments music wise
I know, you thought just because Timberlake had moved nearly a million units he would be the picture up front. but no, I am going with Kacey Musgraves because I said so. Not to make light of Timberlake’s achievement, hell he worked hard enough for it, didn’t he?
The first five of these songs are the lasting effects of Jon Pennington’s “Most Influential Singles” series. # 1 and # 3 is King Crimson plus Crimson cover, #5 and # 2 are blues variants and #4 is Americana. The two Modern Hut songs await release and Sigur Ros I went to see yesterday.
Every time we check in on True Groove Record Label they are doing something else, whether is is Doncker opening for Ethiopian pop stars or trips to China or Mase’s extended version of her album Speak or anthem single “Piece Of Peace”, they are relentless in their pursuit of musical excellence.
As the Yippies and Black Power were kicking out the jams, Geffen championed soft rock. Punk rock completely blew past him and while kudos for signing GNR, nobody thinks Geffen had a damn thing to do with Nirvana’s success because, well, because he didn’t. He never sullied his hands with rap at all and he wouldn’t know art if it bit him in the ass. The guy sued Neil Young for fucks sake.
Jann Wenner and his henchmen don’t give a damn, they are like the folks who sell flowers at graveyards. Nevermind breaking pop was no surprise, the buzz on the album was pretty deafening at the time. Only an insulated bunch of know it alls who fire any one who disagrees with them could get it wrong.
If Vampire Weekend was at the Beacon or Radio City or something. But Roseland? really, I wanna drag myself out ona Sunday night after spending the weekend at gigs any wy to see the back of college kids heads for two hours?
Over here at rock nyc HQ we are always fighting and shouting and worrying about the same thing: “what do the kids want, what do the kids want?” and once we’ve convinced Steve Crawford the kids don’t want all wrestling all the time and Mary Magpie no, we are not going to turn into an all theater blog, we are left with the same question: what do the kids want?
It’s nearing the witching hour and a topless girl wearing a horses head, tights, men’s underwear and sneakers and drenched with beer is frugging near the stage to Shit Horse, while Odessa Records owner Paul Finn dances with wild abandon and Shit Horses’s lead singer Danny Mason is twirling center stage before settling back into a semi-improvissed rant about love and death “Twelve Horses”
I would love to see the band on stage and will be doing so at Barclay Center, September 27th, 2013, A Friday no less. I am wondering if the levels of beat sophistication will implode on a stage that big, can they connect?
Wavves is the keeper of this lot not least because the Strokes sounds like a major disaster on first listen and Depeche Mode sound like, well, Depeche Mode sound like Depeche Mode and I am simply not a fan at all/ The other album that might be better than you think is Harper Simon’s. Alyson sent me a couple of sonds off the Harper and I was impressed with his more sinewy approach.
The Kathleen song is a sad face piano based loser, so I listened to “Sidecar” to cheer me up. I wonder if Iver is over. # 7 and # 8 are the best two songs of the year, in that order. The Modern Hut song is one of the smartest pieces of metaphysics you will ever hear if they ever get around to releasing it.
The EP isn’t gonna be released till June 1st but all four songs are just wonderful. It is kinda hard to pick a fave. It is all handclaps and back up harmonies and sweet melodies and a retro vibe so completely retro it is wild. It is like those 1950s diners. It is like songs on the American Graffiti double album soundtrack
I wonder why Pink is back in the top ten, I guess the fun. single gave it a push. Justin # 1, Bowie # 2, Suede in at # 7, Bragg, who made no impact Stateside, in at #9. Pretty good mix this week.
The Saturdays have no real reason for being a UK phenom, this is a faint reggae beat meets dance as written yet again. Otherwise, this could pretty much be the US Charts, right? The usual suspects.
You don’t know Pep? Neither do I but she is a brilliant 50s inspired pop singer whose new EP I will write about in more depth shortly. The Chairlift cover is a coupla years old but it is very good and I still haven’t invested in the Marnie Stern album, though I should if only for its name: The Chronicles Of Marnia! And Kacey Musgrave wrote the Miranda song, which is more proof that Kacey is something special.
The pop singer with the powerful voice hasn’t changed much in the proceeding years, she has just gotten bigger and better and in one of the remarkable Arena shows you will ever see, she was both a bigger than life cut out character, and a personable, friendly singer, with many hit songs to choose from
Strumming his electric guitar for the most part, Eric is a confusing figure on stage, there is something so obtuse and uncool about him yet the songs are performed with assurance and really, it reflects well of his songs that these stories of so often thwarted desires, deep running through his veins, thrive so well.
Well, really was there ever any doubt? If the kid is in town she’s the one to beat and she is in town so she is the one to beat. Taylor Swift will be bringing Red to the Prudential on Wednesday and you will be getting glam, legs, the entire album, four classics and a cover all in two hours. You miss this? Don’t come blaming me.
She – Alice Smith – I would rather wait six years for a good album than two years for a bad album and Alice Smith, the R&B diva wannabe’s long awaited follow up to her 2007 album is nothing if not good. She has a good voice with a husky tow to it and can write a good song. Sometimes a great song. Here she writes three great songs, “Cabaret” “The One” and “Loyalty” and a lot of stuff not quite as good. A bit of a missed opportunity but the equal of Solange’s latest – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – B+
# 1 – # 3 is the hangover from Friday night, # 4 because I just bought a tix to see em at Barclays, Taylor and Sigur I am seeing live next week and Taylor has been playing “Cold As You” off her first album a coupla times this tour! Laura? I am building to upping it to a very rare “A+” and the Marnie Stern album is not available on Spotify and I am debating whether I can pull off an entire album review on it.
We need to be that person whether they are heroes or villains, normal or abnormal. whatever we are is whatw e must be. And we can’t be that if we stifle thoughts we disagree with.
So since a Kinks reunion seems somewhat doubtful, Dave Davies at City Winery on Tuesday, May 28th, 2013 is an absolute positively no doubt must see. Dave is 66 years old and, despite claims that he is constantly touring, who knows when he passes this way again.
A quiet week with only three new songs making the list, though I expect (indeed I’ve heard “Step” so I know) Vampire Weekend have better waiting for us. I am entrhalled by the new Alice Smith and am only waiting in case it wears off me.
Two rock stars headed down different roads the other week. Ken Casey of Dropkick Murphys attacked with a bass an innocent fan he had invited on stage and Michelle Schoked bravely stood at the center of the gay rights capital of the world and said”I disagree”. Or something like that.
