They looked (and partially) sounded like Mumford and Sons, as the music had this uplifting-optimistic folk-revival quality but they also had some dance moves as worked out as Justin Timberlake’s
Closing down Broadway from 47th Street to 53rd Street, the CBGB Fest put a stage at each side, and gave nyc free music, really really good music, from 11am to 2pm and then again from 430p to 8p.
The play takes place in India, a quest for the truth behind three paintings of Flora and the truth about her friendship with an Indian artist Nirad Das (Firdous Banji) in 1930, months before her death. In the present (well, in the 1980s), Eleanor is joined by biographer Eldon Pike (Neal Huff) and Nizad’s son Anish (Bhavesh Patel) in a search for the truth behind the paintings.
Their sound is distinct and familiar at the same time, a mix of disco-funk-dance rhythms, totally infectious, giving to the scene a very festive ambiance, that could even go all Brazilian carnival at times. Soon, it was a fusion of sounds, with many sing-along choruses and people were dancing, jumping as if they were still attending one of these summer night concerts
The quartet (two guys and two girls) gave a rock show with hard-hitting and infectious pop melodies, very diverse songs with bi-lingual lyrics (English and Spanish) and even covers –but not any covers, rather powerful renditions of hit-songs – all transformed by Allison Iraheta’s powerhouse vocals.
“It is hard to go a pitch in Hollywood and sit across from a guy who says ‘OK, explain Miles Davis to me,” that was Vince Wilburn Jr. , Miles’ nephew, expressing his unconcealed contempt for the movie business.,”So I stopped going to the pitches because it was personal, I took it personally.”
They formed in Los Angeles in 1992 and have sold roughly 17 million records worldwide. Hits include “Buddy Holly”, “Hash Pipe” and “Pork and Beans” and on this warm fall evening in Long Beach, none of these songs were played.
This was a retelling of the prodigal son story, the killing of the fatted calf which left Stevie with less stage time (the way it wouldn’t do for musical director Buckingham) and it was just a little uneasy. A good concert yes, how much joy can you get out of Chrissie seeing “falling, falling, falling”? A lot of course. but it didn’t have the spark of a band reinventing itself.
The song and verse goes freedom requires endless vigilance but if that’s the case, why bother? What sort of freedom is that? Freedom is the freedom to dress weird and be sexy, take Mollie and dance all night to heavily processed beats. That’s it. That’s what makes life worth living when you’ve just hit 21 and that’s what Bassnectar offer.
I was with them. I was with this girl holding tight a poster given away inside the club and commemorating the night, I was with this guy who had brought his whole vinyl collection to the show I was with this guy in a wheelchair holding a hand made Wu-Tang Clan necklace moving closer to the stage as the show was progressing.
If it is nostalgia, it is big shot big time nostalgia, it is nostalgia the way McCartney is nostalgia, but it is more life a masterclass: I think it must be like watching Maria Callas or Louis Armstrong. Who wants to give Armstrong a hard time for playing “Sleepy Time Down South”? To what end?
The Replacements – Forest Hills Stadium – September 19th, 2014 – The return of the biggest alt rock band of all time becomes a gigantic singalong as 16,000 40 somethings get to hear them at the very top of their game for 90 minutes of hits. The Replacements you always dreamt of.
This was a promising night, the final concert of the Hollywood Bowl’s season, a sold-out-18,000-people night, but a weird night too, with an eclectic line-up: Cat Power, Gogol Bordello and the Pixies! Who would ever think these three bands would fit one day on the same bill?
This was the third “Global Citizen Festival” where 60K music fans and concerned citizens win tickets by completing tasks to aid the extreme poor and if at this time you are wondering when I’m gonna get to the music, you know how I felt, standing for six hours
The performance was good and occasionally very good , her rap on “Beat Down”, though early, reminded you she was in it for the music, and the full on ballad “Rolex” was absolutely a lesson on how her future will play out.
Tthe band is a trio, who showed up at Amoeba on Tuesday night to deliver a killer set of loud and big rock ‘n’ roller songs. Of course they had a new album, ‘Black Moon Spell’, released the same day and the rest was the usual celebration in the famous store
Odesza attracted a young crowd, and many of these kids were not even familiar with the Amoeba store, meaning it wasn’t the usual crowd… I could tell from their conversations that some of them were there for the first time… me? I know every cd bin of that place.
I can’t even begin to express how much I admire four men, getting on stage and playing a high octane rock and roll set where everything was left for the audience. The spaces were ours to fill. Nobody does that. Nobody respects us enough to trust in our ability to not have our feelings manipulated.
Sometimes you come to bitter conclusions with lost loves. The 2014 version of the Drive-By Truckers can no longer compete with their own past either in the studio or on stage. They are almost trapped by their former greatness, because they can neither effectively replicate the band they were on Southern Rock Opera and Decoration Day.
Sam seemed to have no command of the stage as he wandered back and forth, no idea how to speak to the audience, he couldn’t tell a story and he couldn’t seem to make it a personal experience.and while his life trajectory has been resolutely towards show business, he doesn’t have a feel for the stage.
Avi is a young guy but he has now reached the drinking age (he is 23 but was only 19 when he wrote his fist album) and the music has taken many interesting directions with fast-driven guitars, emotional ballads, plenty of hooks sung with a large range of falsettos and beyond, detailed guitar play and harmonies
Karen O appeared on stage wearing a summery, white and black outfit, and she was radiant… ‘it’s about fucking time’ she said meaning it took her forever to have her show at Amoeba. She was backed up by only two musicians and I was pleasantly surprised to recognize Moses Sumney on electric guitar — I have seen him several times and truly enjoyed his solo shows
It is very sad and no wonder she deals with contempt for the writers and interviews, the David Lettermans of the world, she can’t reject her family so she rejects the entire community of entertainment leeches that do what she least wants.
If you can’t use close circuit TV and you have no band, no nothing, with you, you better find some way to pull the audience forward and teaching us how to clap isn’t it, it is too amateur, it is too dowdy for what should be a sparkling rave up. A good light show can’t begin to substitute for a great presence.
From far away Petty seems to be phoning in but up close it isn’t like that at all: he is almost physically aversed to the largest gestures, he keeps the band and himself in check and it simply doesn’t project. However, I am sure Margaret disagreed so hang loose for her full review
Patrick Stickles of Titus Andronicus paid his respect as well, “a great honor and privilege to be here in support of the Buzzcocks” he claimed, and Patrick doesn’t say what he doesn’t mean, then he launched into “Upon Viewing Brueghel’s ‘Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus'”.
They have everything to accomplish such thing, songs as catchy as hell, earworm anthems (just listen to ‘Say Yes’), a symphonic feeling mixed with a pop-bombast embedded in multi-voice harmonies, which even include that of an operatic singer
the place looked and sounded like a beehive, and I could hardly count how many instruments there were , sax, cello, trumpet, violin, keyboard, accordion, upright bass, guitars, drums…
This isn’t feckless rock writing, nothing on fun. Is either, this is what Antonoff called songs you can dance to and cry to. On stage , Jack is both working his way towards and also has reached where he needs to go as a front man. With a limited set of songs he gave a fine performance, a little slow start but once he got where he wanted to get he maintained the highest of quality through to the end.
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.
Caroline Kole – The Bitter End – August 13th, 2014 – An almost perfect hour of modern country pop by the finest young singer to mine the much ignored genre since, well, since Taylor Swift. who she resembles in attitude and who she could could replace for a certain section of the audience, her peers and a little younger, who Taylor is slowly leaving behind or never quite had.
Her performance at Made in America let me totally uninterested though, she did everything you can expect from a rapper in this surrounding, she almost kissed Rita Ora on stage – but hasn’t this be done a million times before?
The show at Louis Family Restaurant was the culmination of Nightmom’s first national tour. On the road for 30 days, the band traveled some 9000 miles to promote Glider Heaven, their second full-length, the photo for the cover of which Travis found in an old copy of National Geographic. Long live Glider Love.
Genius is evident, in that the vocals sound like the sleepily processed thoughts of one depressed in bed deciding whether or not to face the world, yet the other instruments embody total rhythmic tonal conviction, crushing any uncertainty
This is Connecticut not New York, and this crowd hired babysitters. Lets hope the kids are at grandmas house cuz its a late night- the sad bit? X gets an hour- and nothing more with a 12:05 posted start time. And theyre running half an hour late to boot.
His music is nice and laid back but I still don’t get the overwhelming love for this Canadian who seems to have been born on some lazy island. I had to run away from my spot where I was starting to feel packed like a sardine, smelling a bit too much weed that people were smoking… that’s beach music, it’s almost Hawaiian pop
I continue to go to music festivals despite my hate and love relationship with them, it’s probably the worst place to see a band, as it’s gonna be hot and very crowded, and you are gonna be tired and thirsty… My first day at the FYF fest this year was a perfect example of all this, I struggled the whole day and it was (almost) no fun
For all the daring do of switching the young Smith with the 26 years older Capaldi, the problem isn’t age, the problem is charm offensive and weirdness -when you don’t like the Doctor or his companion, maybe it is time to take a break from the series? Next week is a Daleks story, so the week after that should tell the story.
I stayed at the main stage to see Future Islands, with its very theatrical frontman Samuel T. Herring doing grand
To cut to the chase, The Bottle Rockets in 2014 are as superb as they’ve ever been. Perhaps they are even better now than they were in the ‘90s, they are more disciplined and have four members that really understand how to play as a unit.
As I was walking (and I did a LOT of walking that day) I could not see the end of the line, they made us walk and walk around some structure and a parking lot and it took me forever just to reach the end of the line. Then it took me again forever to reach the entrance gate, more than an hour to be exact!
One fist pumping diner at a center stage however was so moved by the rendition Dancing with Tears in My Eyes to yell “Fuck Yes” directly at Exene who stood a merely dozen or so feet away and elicit her sarcastic response “Thank You Mr. Anarchy personified”. A good time had by all!
I caught three DJ sets, eleven year old wunderkind Ju5tin, who played mostly house, La Mega superstar DJ Alex who mixed Reggaeton with hip hop and dance, and DJ Lobo who was hardcore Latin American beats. None of them were bad but watching DJs has very limited appeal and the sparse turnout didn’t help with the atmosphere.
AF couldn’t quite cash in on the good vibrations, how can so many people fail to cease the moment and imprint themselves on our DNA? There were short sharp dance sounds and a sense of restraint that didn’t build into a singular vision, a singular event. Seldom did they manage to sustain it, they were like the 2014 Yankees, they couldn’t put three wins together in a row
I am willing to accept that I underestimated Lil Wayne, who was personable, smart and had tons of great songs and as for Drake? I have no idea what woke him up but he was wide awake and indeed he won the battle of the rappers
It is difficult to exactly pinpoint Bahamas’ music, the set was quite eclectic with a few of these quiet songs (he said he was really into these quiet ones for his new album), and other songs more classic-rock-inspired, but overall, the music was distilling breezy and exotic soundscapes with soothing harmonies. Exotic
Day three (and last day) at Echo Park Rising was concentrated inside the Echo /Echoplex. There was still a lot going on about everywhere, but there was already so much to see inside the two-level club, and the twelve or so bands that I saw there kept me very busy.
There was a grrrl riot in the making with Sex Stains, a provocative moniker for two bold women, Allison Wolfe (Bratmobile, Partyline) and choreographer Mecca Vazie Andrews (artistic director of The MOVEMENT). Allison with her shark-week dress and ocean-blue lipstick and Mecca
I am the furthest thing from a prude (nor was I innocent when I was younger) but I can be somewhat conservative as I ahem mature or maybe it has more to do with having little girls. Troubled me seeing young woman drunk or on drugs walking by themselves or throwing themselves at men (boys)
Tthe festival is happening over 20 locations, stretching along Sunset Boulevard and beyond, and it has become a real challenge to run from one place to another, going indoors then outdoors then indoors again, inside the Taix restaurant, inside the Echo, down to the Echoplex, back to the outdoor main stage, I am already exhausted
