When about 35,000 Angelinos were roasting under the sun at Made in America festival, listening to its array of mainstream music that Jay Z calls diversity, I was in Silverlake attending the first annual end of summer party, the ‘Silverlake Meltdown’ organized by Sick City Records at Los Globos.
wW here at rock nyc know the 1970s were the greatest decade in rock and roll history topped by punk and disco at the end but if you don’t believe us check out Steve Crawford’s 997 best songs of the decade. Though we will pass on “The Cover Of The Rolling Stone”,
Outside of Amarillo is a weird roadside attraction known as Cadillac Ranch – a line of ten Cadillacs buried nose first into the ground. Visitors are encouraged to spray paint graffiti on the Detroit relics. Noting one of the cars already was tagged with “Steve,” no work was required on my behalf.
Co-editor Helen Bach has invented a new form of road rage, one where you don’t actually need the road to participate. Helen, similar to murder for hire would be consumer Morrissey, at least love animals but not me. I have blood on my hands and watch me lick it off slowly
Where Have All The Good Times Gone,” 1965. At the ripe old age of 21, poor rock star Ray is already wondering what’s happened to the worry free lifestyle of his youth. This sounds like a major hit, but was a B-side in 1965, then bombed as a single in 1973 (released after Bowie did his cover on Pin Ups). Is it just me or does the mother figure sound like a cougar?
My first draft list had 25 entries, but with feedback from experts like Bill Holdship, John Kordosh, Iman Lababedi, Michael Bennett, A.C. Rhodes, and others, the list expanded to 40 and I could have easily included many others (“Powerman,” “Two Sisters,” “God’s Children,” and “Celluloid Heroes” are among the missing)
Lazaretto is one of his worst works to date, and three hours of his metallic shredding woulda had me ready to kill him among others. below you’ll find his cover of “Manic Depression” -just what the world needed. White has worn out all the good will his radio city residency had with me and then some
Back in 2009 we did things like what is on Jesus Ipod, imaginary concerts, and something like this, “what I am Listening To Right This Minute” posted in real time as we listened. That morphed over time to my daily 10 songs post.
Conor hasn’t had the best six months of his life, going from indie misfit has been to rapist in public opinion, his worst selling record ever, and finally purged from all misgivings back to indie misfit and losing his boyish good looks somewhere along the way
There is no better rock superstar in the world today. She is the Derek Jeter of rock and roll, she is rich, she is gifted, she is lucky, beloved, born at the right time, and she does everything so gracefully most people (I mean me) don’t resent her for it. She does it the right way.
Lo these many years later though the question is, is Billboard, is album an single sales, irrelevant and the answer is, if viewed in a vacuum maybe so but as part of the streaming, youtube, etc etc Itunes, so on universe they are valuable. And I bet if you compared this list of most popular Spotify tracks and Billboard sales, they would be knocking on identical
An under rehearsed Arena rock show should be absolutely mindbendingly wonderful. Oh, and plus, the signing a contract to never tour again. Yeah, right, can’t wait for the “Contract Breaking World Tour -One Last Time”
Rolling Stone magazine has their latest Playlist in their newest issue, seven songs they’ve recommended to us jackjills for our perusal. Not as strong this time I’m afraid, and one song, Tweedy’s (a collaboration between Jeff Tweedy and his 18-year old son) “I’ll Sing It” isn’t on YouTube and the sound has been removed on other sources, so I can’t comment on it, but here be the other six :
As promised, an annotated jay Z and Beyonce setlist plus a Spotify (except for bey’s last album mostly). Impressive… to a degree and they do go deep enough, right? Here and there they trade off songs (“Hard Knock” followed by “Pretty Huts”) and sometimes they have little run of songs, but it isn’t two separate shows: they comingle freely.
It was suggested that I might want to submit an article on my favorite songs by my ten favorite bands or spend the rest of my career dissecting Peter Cetera’s contribution to the Mexican milkweed underwear industry for Granola Bong Hit magazine’s South American edition
Full disclosure: in the mid-90s I did a tropical Latin music show on WPFW-FM so I wasn’t paying attention in those years to Anglo-American music, and in the late nineties I had a kid and was too exhausted to keep up, but in the mid-00s, I did go back to fill the gaping lacunae. I’m sure I missed some major tunes, so feel free to let me know what they are.
“the couple sang the rousing “Young Forever” before turning their backs to the audience to sing at the screen, which showed images of family life centering on the newest addition, daughter “Blue Ivy,” who they serenaded with “Halo.”
So I go into the July 9 show at Madison Square Garden without that many caveats. I don’t particularly like Katie Perry’s music but I like her as a pop performer. She puts on a good show, she does the job. Don’t let all the C minuses bother you here, I expect big things
He truly displayed the versatility of the Texas Playboys during a stretch from 1935 to 1938, when the band recorded material influenced by blues, jazz, jug band, big band, pop, and country sources to make his uniquely rhythmic and upbeat brand of dance music
With the eagerly awaited big time rock concert for young Ringo and his All Stars at the Beacon Tuesday and Wednesday nights, I thought it might be worthwhile to take a closer at the setlist, a lot of Ringo (including two newbies), plus Rundgren and, ahem, Toto songs
Youtube is a good way to take a peek at the numbers but too time consuming so in our ongoing attempts to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, here is the chart that dares to ask the musical question…How many streams did you get buddy?
The problem with Jack White is that, now Lou Reed is dead, he must be the hands down biggest asshole in pop music. I am not guessing here, I have a very good friend who worked for him a couple of years back and can’t mention his name without spitting.
Somewhere Else changed Lydia country gal with a name too close to Lydia Lunch to country girl with the mostest, who can rhyme anything with the c word and doesn’t mind her bodily secretions at all, not to mention can rock like a somabitch.
TA’s problem is they needed to follow up Local Business in a hurry and they didn’t and that took them from having the best live set in the business to, well, not the best live set in the city. Local Business isn’t a bad album, I called it the second best album of 2012 and while I overestimated for sure, it had moments as great as you will ever hear. Just not enough of them
My niece loves “Upside Down” by Paloma Faith, “Candy” ‘ by Robbie Williams, “C ’Est La Vie” by B*witched and when she was not yet three she sang, as best as she was able, on the top of her lungs to “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” by Shaina Twain! Hahah, it was funny
In the True Groove world, Lael is what passes for mainstream: she sounds like a pop star and she looks like a pop star with both the charm and the chops to break AOR, and though her songs are the usual self help and sex, Lael is all convinced power singing and smarts.
The lack of hits left Outkast to dole out the hits like gruel in a Dickens orphanage. One at the top, one in the middle, one in the end. Which means that the problem isn’t this is a problem for fanatics, it is that they don’t have the catalog to keep the attention of the casual fan. Lucky for me, I’m a fanatic.
After years in the wilderness of pop maelstrom, overreaching, eclecticism, and middle age blahs, Old 97s have roared back with their current, best album of the year contender. And as we ready ourselves for the June 3rd gig at Webster Hall with more anticipation than certainly any time this decade, let’s take a look at the setlist…
With threat of rain for Friday evening, a threat I take seriously given Barry Gibb is playing the outdoor shed Jones Beach and I have intention whatsoever of sitting around getting soaked for hours on end, and therefore may miss a gig I’ve been zooming on for months now, it seemed like a good time to check out the set list
1971 was a great year for what we now call classic rock – Rod Stewart, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and The Who all released indispensable albums. Boiling down 1971 to 20 A+ tracks was no easy feat – my apologies to the Chi-Lites and the Stylistics, among others.
Helen was was complaining that the Morrissey setlist for North America 2014 seemed a little on the iffy side and she may well have a point there. This is a strangely obtuse bunch of songs. What is more worrying is his actual performance may have finally descended into schtick. Really, enough with all the hugging already, it no longer signifies affection or love or interest or respect, it just disrupts the performance.
Last week a couple of dozen huge and fully grown men graduated from college to the NFL, where they will make millions for a couple of years and let’s hope they save up for a rainy day. If they don’t they will always have the NFL Draft where Mr. Johnny Football got drafted 22nd and Jadeveon Clowney got drafter first and Ha Ha Clinton Dix 21st , thereby giving Jimmy Fallon jokes for years to come.
Cochran’s wasn’t interested in clever wordplay or innovative song structures. His specialty was traditional country heartbreak, served up in a simple ballad format. Listed below in chronological order are some of his most enduring contributions to country music.
Like all of us, rock stars go through highs and lows, peaks and valley, just when you have the world you lose it all and just when things can’t go get any worse, everything clicks into place… for awhile. Here are some career peaks!
As attentive readers know, the theme of this piece is great songs by different artists that share the same title. In the first article on this subject, we learned to “Walk Like a Man” with The Four Season and Bruce Springsteen (but forgot Grand Funk), we observed “Love Is All Around” from the Troggs and Joan Jett, and we were infatuated with “Starry Eyes” by The Records and Roky Erickson.
It almost seemed as if the organizers were engaged in some kind of contest to see how many genres they could jam into one night. The songs bounced from opera (Ms. Fleming on “O Mio Babbino Caro” and “La Ci Darem La Mano,” aided by Sting) to jazz (Chris Botti on Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain”) to township jive (Paul Simon on “Graceland”).
Inspiration can come at odd times. On one of my recent trips to Rock NYC Headquarters, Helen Bach and I got into a wee bit of legal trouble. It’s a long story that started with us…um…borrowing all of the money in the petty cash fund
Speaking of money, AC/DC’s Black Ice tour that started in 2008 and ended in 2010 grossed over $440 MILLION DOLLARS. This is, of course, the same amount of money that the United States military recently spent on inflatable balloon antennas.
Rachael Price, the great granddaughter of Seventh Day Adventist leader George McCready Price, is a superb vocalist and this song has a ‘70s classic pop structure. This is a band that displays retro influences without smelling like a pet rock.
There were some major setbacks for the music industry in the 1940s. Shellac, the material used for 78 RPMs before vinyl, was needed for World War II military purposes. Also, there were two strikes by the musician’s union during the ‘40s that halted the production of new records.
Bing Crosby, the Ink Spots, and the Andrew Sisters provided the safe pop fare, while Duke Ellington and Count Basie played sophisticated jazz pop for white and black audiences.
Over half of the, er, songs will be repeats from the 2005 concerts, and five will be off 2009 Radio-Activity album. Ergo, however much the 3D Kraftwerk might or might not be cutting edge, they are working from the same template as everybody
Not all of the songs listed below were in the movie or soundtrack, but they are representative of the mood of the era. You don’t have to know about the movie to enjoy these songs, but it would be a lot cooler if…
With a minimum of guest stars, basically just the Juke Horns and Robert Randolph and a catalog of blues magic, they seem to be rifling through their collective consciousness. Far blusier than boogier
For those of you who read young Steve Crawford’s number crunching and provocative analysis of Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Bruce Springsteen songs that no song on my Top 10 is later than 1992 should come as no big shock. But that two of em came off his solo albums? That’s a shocker right.
I get tired of Craig Finn’s shout along singing after awhile. I prefer him when he is, you know, actually singing his songs. Plus, looking at this setlist, no “Our Whole Lives” which, really they should play on occasion.
The Ramones boiled down everything they loved about rock ‘n’ roll to its essence – this is a band that had major fights about whether they could put a guitar solo on a song. The basic punk rock chord structures are now ubiquitous in modern rock, but this was music that was deemed both offensive and dangerous
This was the first time I’d heard of the music starting before the patient (meaning me) was knocked out. “The playlist today is courtesy of the doctor,” one of the nurses told me cheerfully.
Tthe list clearly shows that the quality of Springsteen’s work has declined since the 1990s. Maybe he established a standard that was impossible to maintain over time, but here are the stats: 72% of the list is from the ‘70s and ‘80s; 80% of the Top 50 are pre-90s; and a whopping 88% of the Top 25 precede the Clinton era
I took a look at the setlist and I liked what I saw on the hitmakers no nonsense down to business hit song after hit song setlist. If you don’t see what you want from Strait here, check yes and no elsewhere because I sure do.
