The number of paid subscriptions to on-demand music services grew by 26% and revenues from streaming services (free and paid versions of Spotify, Rhapsody, Pandora, SiriusXM, YouTube…) rose by 29% in 2014.
I’ve been listening to the Laura Marling album all week and it is excellent, if not as great as her 2013 effort, Courtney is well hyped but a little samey for my tastes… Earl Sweatshirt? He would be my choice for most anticipated of the year except… VAN MORRISON… If there are any more songs as great as “Irish Heartbeat” or “Some Peace Of Mind”, it will be immediately one of the top ten albums of 2015
“Too Many Of Us” suggests Blur are taking the oh no Hong Kong concept of smaller everything to logical extremes with this ode to over population, though, heaven knows, the West has done its parts to keep down the population over the past fifty years. So why is this brick lecturing us, on the awful song?
Julie Andrews on Kelly & Mike? That should be a love fest right? 5SoS, though q rerun so, in fact, no Brandon Flowers? The best thing you can say about his first solo album is it was better than last Killers albums, my friend Susan Whitall’s stomping ground, “Detroit Free Press editorial page editor Stephen Henderson” on Tavis Smiley. I am going with the Mavericks for Talk Show Guest of the week.
This speculative fiction is interesting without being enlightening about either the Queen or the Prime Ministers. And to make matters worse, “The Audience” is a lousy play. Oh, it is a fun two hours, for sure, it is just a bad play. It has no arc, it has no crest, it spins its wheels for two hours and then ends.
‘We’re really excited to say the file is now available to any fan who wishes to try making their own!’ They announced. ‘If you’d like to get your own 3D Paul printed off, you have two options: either find a local or online printing company who can make it for you; or, if you have access to a 3D printer, you can try printing your own!
I see a trend, a real trend of biopics about dead rock stars and I am not sure I like it because this means that a lot of musicians died very young and many of them were probably murdered…. At least according to these new movies coming up.
The EP is kinda exciting in this temperate rock and roll moment: the band seem always on the verge of total collapse, they sound ;ike you just after you’re second Xanax, third line of coke and a double expresso in a bottle of red bull: somewhere between dizzy and dead right. “Handswaps” is a waking nightmare of a song!
During the tour, Crosby will be performing selections from his latest album 2014’s Croz, and his 1971 solo debut, If I Could Only Remember My Name, as well as songs from his bands CSN, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and The Byrds.
I prefer Dylan to Nathan, I’ve seen both bands a few times and Wavves can edge Cloud Nothings live but Dylan is a great songwriter and I think the synergy here might well be remarkable. Both of these guys are young, so keep your fingers crossed
‘Kanye is a psychopathically narcissistic moron with messianic delusions that have rightfully earned him the passionate hatred of virtually everyone outside of his fanbase. He is also a sellout, an attention whore and a massive hypocrite who usually undermines his own empty messages and gestures with his own egotistical hypocrisy”
Sometimes it is credited to his grandfather, sometimes to singer Jimmie Rodgers. Regardless, Howlin’ Wolf was a big man. He made electric guitars look like mandolins in his huge hands. Wolf is one dude that you would NOT want to run into down a dark alley
“Have you ever been to Rochester Hills, Michigan?I just didn’t want to go back. I can’t be around basic, provincial-thinking people.I Just thought everyone was an idiot.”
Courtney Barnett is the talk of the blogosphere right now and personally I can’t get enough of her last single ‘Pedestrian at Best’, as this is such a badass piece which aggresses all your senses in the most euphoric way,… Never since Dylan or Nick Cave (well, I had to mention him because she is Australian too) I had absorbed so many words per second.
“‘How dare you refer to my beautiful children as “synthetic”. And shame on you for wagging your judgmental little fingers at IVF – a miracle that has allowed legions of loving people, both straight and gay, to fulfill their dream of having children. Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions.”
That’s Azealia Banks, a great rapper, maybe the best woman rapper out there, she goes where Nicki Minaj didn’t quite get, talking to Playboy Magazine, where she posed nude in the April. And where we nicked these pictures.
If Broudy was going after Taylor Swift maybe you think, wow, brave move but Bieber is the poster boy for being hated on.while feeling sorry for Justin is a bit beyond my pay level, there is a real human being underneath all that hating. In the end, Bieber is the boy it is cool to bully. And it isn’t fun any more.
We are Paul with new loves, John during break ups, Ringo over lunch with college pals, George when hungover, John in righteous indignation, Paul in loving sublimation, Paul when we are loving our kids, Ringo when we’re playing with them and John when we are reprimanding them.
‘Listening to classical music enhanced the activity of genes involved in dopamine secretion and transport, synaptic neurotransmission, learning and memory, and down-regulated the genes mediating neurodegeneration.’
I had heard Shane was pretty drunk on Tuesday. He wasn’t on Wednesday. He was holding onto the mic because that’s how he sings, he was immobile because decades of alcoholism and drug abuse has left him this way, but he caught every song tonight. 21 of them. Each a gem of Irish rock and roll. Each beloved.
Robin Thicke goes to court and admits to being so drunk and coked up that he had nothing to do with the song he wrote? What did you think the jury, who are given to dislike the charm bereft pop star for his entire “Paula” debacle, thought of that? One of the writers of the song admits to not writing it.
In 2012, for the MDNA, she sold out Yankee Stadium in 20 minutes and added another date and she added two nights at MSG are on the back, so consider it the equivalent of selling out MSG SIX TIMES. This time she can’t sell out two nights? What happened?
At this year’s SXSW, rescue dogs will be dispatched to save cell phones dying… yep! That’s the new idea, we now need dogs to save our dying technology… Morphie Rescue is the new initiative at this year big festival, and it will use St. Bernards to power festival goers’ cell phone
Being a founding member of either Soft Machine or Gong, flag wavers of prog rock freakdom both, Daevid Allen was a founding member of both and now he has died from cancer at the age of 77. As his son Orlando Moon wrote: “And so dada Ali, bert camembert, the dingo Virgin, divided alien and his other 12 selves prepare to pass up the oily way and back to the planet of love. And I rejoice and give thanks.”
The company was asking him if he would be willing to let them use it for a new shirt,… they even asked him for an offer. ‘I wasn’t thinking anything ridiculous,’ he wrote, ‘but he never got back to me. Instead I see they took my idea, almost exactly except for the background, and put it on a shirt.’
No matter if you agree or not with the result of the lawsuit, there is a fine line between inspiration and plagiarism and it happens all the time when I listen to new songs, they very often remind me about another song, but do I know music enough to decide if it is total plagiarism?
“The live show, presented by Claudia Winkelman at the London Palladium, finished by announcing they had raised a total of £1,047,083,706 so far – £78,082,988 of which was raised last night alone.”
I am not as big a fan as many, her lyric power is undeniable and her songs are driven exercises in alt folk rock, but she has one of those voices where everything sounds exactly the same… like Snoop Dogg. And already way too many vocal tics. Still… there is a reason people love her so much
rock nyc is ground zero for Perfume Genius, we love him so much it is sickening. Not just me, though it is me who is going to see him at Studio 58 on Thursday, but Alyson Camus as well. She wrote this (here) about his LA show last October: “Several times during the show, I discretely looked at the young guy who was standing next to me and I saw that he was crying, crying real tears, and it broke my heart a few times… But this is the incredible power of sincere music…” I don’t think I’ll be crying but, who knows?
“Gold Mountain, [Nirvana’s management company], still denies that a suicide attempt was made. A note was found, says a company spokesman, but Kurt insisted it wasn’t a suicide note. He just took all of his and Courtney’s money and was going to run away and disappear.’
Spotify are the least customer friendly outfit in the world. You gotta problem with their app? Tough luck, go deal with it yourself, they don’t give a rat’s ass. It is one reason they might go under. They just don’t give a damn about the customer, you are simply, on your own.
‘To me, ‘Drones’ are metaphorical psychopaths which enable psychopathic behavior with no recourse. The world is run by Drones utilizing Drones to turn us all into Drones. Drones explores the journey of a human, from their abandonment and loss of hope, to their indoctrination by the system to be a human drone, to their eventual defection from their oppressors.’ …
Pounding and spacey drums with deep male voices in harmony start the song, until loud rock guitars kick in and more layers are progressively added to the soundscape. Soon there is a lot going on, the drums stay thunderous but female back up vocals are added deep in the mix
Crawford’s book is not unlike the man himself, he seems unassuming but he takes you by surprise, he doesn’t shout in his writing, he lets his wide knowledge and wry humor work for him. He expects you to appreciate his writing and you? You’ll dip into it with Spotify on, and before you know it hours have passed
The question is the same as to why Taylor Swift left Spotify, the advertising generated free plan. ITune’ “IPlay” won’t have it because they don’t need it, they have 800 Million clients with credit cards already. Spotify won’t give it up because they will lose their subscriber base
Talk about a must see, the remaining Python’s all under the same roof (the roof in question being Beacon Theatre) as part of the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24th (a Friday!) and while I expect we don’t get much from them, it is like, well, to be obvious, if the Beatles reformed to play “All You Need Is Love” -just one song, but would you want to miss it? I think not.
It looked to me, her larynx, like a vagina, and I am guessing either I have a dirty mind, or it was intentional, or both. The song is a beauty but you know that, a before the fall love song: “maybe he will come out of this loving me, maybe he won’t…”
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of ‘Bo Diddley’ and ‘I’m a Man’, Hollis Brown, an edgy, roots-rock band, has partnered with the Bo Diddley Estate to release ‘Rain Dance’, a collaboration between the indie band and the rock legend, built around a previously unreleased Diddley guitar track
‘Hits Of The Year’ had iffy music, made worse by a terrible lyric. Difford: “It was an abortion, actually. It was a song from Difford/Tilbrook which hadn’t come out right and we decided to record it again. I decided I didn’t like the lyric, Glenn said the lyric wasn’t strong enough, the producer didn’t like the lyric
Honestly there is so much to choose from it’s overwhelming and as expected everything is on vinyl now, does it mean we are really sticking with nostalgia? I wonder how many of these will end up on eBay. Record Store Day 2015 happens on April 18th
There have been riots (Run DMC and the Beastie Boys) near riots (Public Enemy), concerts with a single white person (New Edition, Black Street -I sat behind Whitney Houston), people dying mid-set (Patti Lupone), standing in line for entire days (David Bowie at Roseland -actually my friend did most of the standing), hostile audiences (Liz Phair got booed off stage at Town Hall
Mainman Sinjin Wheatley says: “Lately we have been receiving a lot of hate mail because people have been confusing us with Nuclear Hellfrost. We just want to clarify that we are not associated with them or the recent vandalism to Dimebag’s grave.”
The book is supposed to crack the case of one of the most tragic mysteries in music history,… if you read his Wikipedia page, it tells you that Bobby was found dead in a car, asphyxiated by gasoline vapors, and that his death was declared an ‘accident’ and a ‘suicide’ by the LAPD, but conspiracy theories, as we like to call them, have never ceased since that time
To the painting, this is for Denny Tedesco and is his property (sorry, not for sale), and I just took off on his “The Wrecking Crew” film logo and added my own colors and bits and pieces and highlights, all in acrylic. That is Denny’s father, Tommy Tedesco, in the corner,
I feel I have a special connection with John Dwyer, not because I know him but because I regularly see him running around the lake in Silverlake! He is a runner and I once tried to scream at him ‘I love your music’, he gave me a thumb up although I am not sure he heard what I said
Working her way through her ninth and one of her best albums, the recently released Vulnicara, what I know about the show is what I read in the tabs: the Post, NYT and USA Today all raved, though, reading between the lines a little, Bjork and her 15 member orchestra may have been a little snoozy at times.
it demonstrates two things: that a lot of stupid people are really buying the Kanye hype and that that this bag may be the symbol of Kanye West’s greatest accomplishment… when you can sell air to people, you may have reached the apotheosis of success?
White told his employees at Third Man Records in Nashville that the label will issue this on vinyl on Record Store Day… This piece is totally historic and unique, it’s the King’s first ever record, which was recorded on July 18th 1953 by a 18-year-old Presley at Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service for only $4.
If you were in London, you coulda seen Kanye West meet up with the stars of Grime (stars? No Dizzee Rascal, no Tinie Tempah) after inviting them up on stage at the Brit Awards. Of course, you Brits shoulda absolutely included in their own homegrown rap scene -one we’ve covered for five years or something.
It appears to be a sort of political derring do self-help book and it is a pleasure to hear even if it sounds like, well, it sounds a lot like M.I.A. She wrote this when posting the song on Soundcloud: “DEMOCRACY CONVERSATIONS ! TAMILS ARE STILL WAITING! AND NO MY BEATS ARE NOT BETTER WITHOUT MY POLITICX”
