Hot 97 Presents: The Tip-Off starring Puff Daddy & Snoop Dogg on February 12 th. 2015. A Thursday, which isn’t a Friday but isn’t a Sunday either. And the chance to see two legends, one of whom stands as the inventor of modern hip hop and the other one of the great voices of rap.
I was so surprised to see that 71-year-old Joni Mitchell becoming the new face for Yves Saint Laurent. The 70’s folk legend was photographed by Hedi Slimane for the designer’s ongoing music project, which has previously featured Ariel Pink, Courtney Love, Kim Gordon and Marilyn Manson
At “Charlie Hebdo” the brutality of extremism went up against the freedom of political satirists and extremism lost as the world as one gasped in repugnance. How rock and roll can you get.
After the murder of twelve cartoonists and members of the editorial board of the satiric French magazine “Charlie Hebdo”, the world mostly recoiled, and then Les Flics hunted the terrorists down and it ended up in a bloody shoot out leaving four hostages and two terrorists dead. The moral here is the pen is mightier than the sword unless, of course, somebody has a sword.
What a mess the whole thing is, when you know that Mayweather has been in jail for beating up an ex-girlfriend and has been accused of multiple similar incidents with women! As for Bieber, he has been constantly in the news lately
Her pleasure is a songwriting purism if not indeed puritanism. She loves writing melodies. “I’m melody driven, that is usually the root where most of my ideas come from. I start with piano or guitar, more guitar, I’m very limited, I’m self-taught, as an instrumentalist really, but guitar will usually suffice.
I felt delight this week to see serial killer Karla de los Angeles justifiably gored in a bullring in Mexico City against her largely defenseless opponent. Make no mistake: there is no such thing as bullfighting.
if it is a new career for Love, it’s definitively a modest new beginning. Never mind, the Hole frontwoman is still a diva and makes it very clear, she can relate to the story: the opera is about two Midwestern lovers, who are pulled apart by the woman’s ambition, which takes her to New York City.
telling her story as an artist, a wife, a mother and as one of the first women of rock and roll, in the 80’s and 90’s in New York. ‘Girl in a Band examines the route from girl to woman in uncharted territory, music, art career, what partnership means—and what happens when that identity dissolves
It sounds worse than it reads. It is terrifyingly terrible. Toto are stupendously overblown. If punk rock didn’t exist it would have to be invented to blow this vloated pop off the face of the earth. It makes U2 sound like the Ramones.
Why the peanut farmer former POTUS you ask? Because he is giving Bob Dylan this year’s Musicares Award and while I had my doubt as to Jimmy as far as presidents go, I sure don’t hate him. It is hard being the president, really it is. JFK was a great President, Clinton was a great President, but Carter? Well, at least he’s a Dylan fan.
I can’t force a message. That would be posing. I write what I write. Mostly as of now it’s been personal. I’m not a role model. Sure, I have a platform but I’m not interested in preaching, per say. I want to write about what’s on my mind and on my heart at the moment.
Then, followed an avalanche of tweets criticizing the video and accusing it to promote pedophilia? Because Shia is 28 and Maddie only 12? But they hardly touch each other and when they do, it is done the way dancers do it, softly, gracefully
I programmed sound frequencies a little bit differently in left and right sides so when they are heard together they produce a third frequency which can be heard just inside of our heads,’
These artists died to defend our rights to speak against anything, to be able to criticize anything, even religion. Having the right to discuss and criticize any opinions is an essential human emancipation
The tenderness of the Everly Brothers, a song like the gentle river flowing “Devoted To You” or the birth of romantic love “Till I Kissed You”, the eternal love song “Let It Be Me” is from a foreign country. Our music isn’t this gentle any more, melodies don’t dig so deep. It’s foreign to us.
For “Into The Woods” she is Cinderella as an ordinary girl but her singing was out of the ordinary and it was the singing that pushes her out of the cinders, away from the Prince’s provocation. Prince Charming is found in song and not in person. That is the moral of the story, it is that you are not alone through song.
Controversy reigns here at New York over the rock nyc grading system, I get accosted in the streets, and at night clubs, gay bars, nude beaches, and Michelin approved restaurants and there is only one question: what the heck is with these grades? They make no sense…
Michael Jackson lived and breathed excellence; he made millions because he gave to millions; world changer, people changer; one of the greatest performers of all time, a legend who left an immortal legacy and a shining example of the pinnacle of human achievement.
He’s often said he doesn’t deserve the life he has and he is forever grateful for it. I’ve seen 26 shows and EVERY SINGLE TIME he’s thanked the fans for giving the band a great life. Bono knows and admits his megalomania. Without it, there is no U2.
They got Steely Dan instead of Sleater Kinney! (Isn’t it their year?) they got Azelia Banks (or is that Iggy Azalea, I always mix them up like everybody else) instead of Laura Marling, and they got David Guetta (again) instead of Lana del Rey… yes give more girl power to that thing!
Why is everyone finding this one bizarre? I am talking about Nick Cave and the new skateboard designed by the Australian firm Fast Times, inspired by Nick Cave’s song ‘Nature Boy’ off his album ‘Abattoir Blues’, and illustrated by the artist Chuck Sperry
‘This is just completely insane,’ he declared. ‘The person who is buying these has either stolen their mom’s credit card or is really into the cause as well. Someone is buying essentially garbage.’… at least he is honest!
“America induces this fear in me. It’s so vast and so complicated. I feel like I’m here as a weird voyeur, watching it in a really strange way to make sense of it. Like the landscape of the desert, then you go four hours further north and you’re in the lush mountainous forests. You feel dwarfed by the country”
“We did 45 takes of it and I just couldn’t get it, it sounded like horrible bullshit, so we went to lunch, walked down to a restaurant. Everyone was saying: ‘Dude, what’s wrong with you? You’ve gone totally white.’”
So now that CDs are totally useless, now that mp3s, or even better, streaming is all the rage, what are you going to do with all these CDs? Mine are in the drawer chest holding my TV, but I barely look at them anymore… every single song is on my computer of course
I have more, the ultra narcissist over-the-top one: ‘My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live’, the confessional ones, ‘Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed. I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book’s autograph. I am a proud non-reader of books’
When EDM connects to a song now, it doesn’t change it in any fundamental sense. It doesn’t change the way sound sounds in your ears the way rock and roll does. It is parasitic, not giving birth to different sounds but sucking dry every single thing it touches.
So what do I know about my buddy Mike Long? He is a funny guy from Colorado, trades in alt country and snapshots of the Cosa Nostra. His taste coincides with mine maybe one in three but he is much less pop and much more hipster
A sort of lowbrow hard rock plodding band who weathered everything from soft rock to punk to EDM with aplomb, and with their 31st album Aquostic (Stripped Bare) 11 weeks on the charts, they’ve reached 500 weeks in the UK charts.
Today, there is certainly a lot of mediocrity, any American Idol, X Factor product is an example for me! But at the same time, there is a lot of excellent music, it is just harder to find it because of the enormous amount of bands formed every year and songs released each day!
On Friday night, Madonna released a statement saying ‘she was not comparing herself to King and Mandela but acknowledging that they were rebels’. She also said the images were fan-generated and defended herself against claims of racism, as she also posted other famous faces who were not black.
Mario Cuomo, the three term New York Governor who for some perplexing reason didn’t take on Ronald Reagan for the Presidency though many of us thought he could take Reagan, indeed, was the only guy with a chance, died hours after his son Andrew was sworn in for a second term.
I honestly thought I would get a bit melancholy in watching it or bored but just the opposite happened . The mixing of history and music worked so incredibly well that I was actually able to sit still through the entire program- and that is a rarity for someone with the extreme ADD I seem to posses.
Using good old airwaves seems to be going backwards at this internet-YouTube-Spotify age, but who knows? I bet musicians are trying very hard to find new ways to make people buy new music, videos and interviews are not enough anymore
Perhaps by the time we reach January 6th some new music will be ready for release but right now? There is nothing out there except the NYE dropped West and McCartney “Only One” with West autotuned for some weird reason and McCartney singing back up and playing piano.
I read Michael Somerville’s name wrong and thought it was Jimmy Somerville on Letterman, the difference between a US comedian and the not out but gay, and back when it cost something to be gay, lead singer of the awesome Bronski Beat
Here is the songlist from London’s count down to New Year 2015, punctuated by fireworks and lota other good stuff… and here is a question, why is the lead song by an American? Sure, as European an American as you can possibly get but even so… Plus I Spotified and reviewed it…
The post-Saville Witch trial from the 1970s would find just about everybody ready for a stint in jail: What Saville did was allow two different parts to his story to become one and the result is much like putting Phillip II of Macedonia on trial for war crimes in 200 BC.
Like the Red Sox and the Yanks, great rock bands won’t die, they will go on forever. Sure, they’ll have their ups and downs, like the SNL players, it can’t all be John Belushi, sometimes it’ Bobby Monihan, but it will even out, the format can remain constant, the greatest rock bands will never ever leave us.
If I have one wish for 2015 musically, it is that David Bronson’s excellent January release Questions finds the audience it deserves. This sublime art folk rock soul album should break him, must break him. It is what I want, it is what he deserves, I wanna say I knew him before he stopped taking my phone calls.
2014 was the year of pop, the entire world, hip hop, rap, country, r&b, rock and roll was a no show, were the hand servants of pop music meets everything under the sun. Artistry will get you so far and no furthe, money talks in a consumer society and money wanted beats and bops. And got it. Not a good year, a little unexciting.
In an odd and somewhat disturbing twist I would like to serious it up a bit and thank you for your readership. In a world filled with 40 million blogs and flash its nice to know our followers not only increase but seem to be quite the smarty’s offering positive insight in a troll filled ‘net.
Pussy Riot, or rather their two most famous members, Masha Alekhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova, have released a video for a new song called ‘The Witches of Pussy Riot Are Cleaning Manezhka’, Manezhka being the name of the square outside the Kremlin where protesters gathered this week
Mathew Knowles, was selling Beyoncé’s old belongings at a garage sale. Apparently there were ‘dozens of boxes T-shirts for $10 — some dating back to Destiny’s Child’s performances at the Houston Rodeo in 2007 – as well as CDs and office furniture’.
a sumptuous symphonic band with layers of instrumentation and a cinematic approach to music. Their album is a lush orchestral affair, with poignant strings and Kristianne Bautista’s amazing and soulful voice. A must have. Essential tracks: ‘Forever Found’
‘It’s an ugly look/Did you study me hard enough?/You’re never gonna be/You’re just a wannabe me/Like a sister all messed-up/who’s gonna help you out?/In your fantasy, you can try it all/But you can’t be me/You can walk the walk/Even talk the talk/But you’ll always be/Two steps behind me’
Kimberly – Patti Smith – In the maelstrom of horrors detailed on Horses, Patti Smith finds all existence in the birth of her little sister in the most beautiful song on the album just like some misplaced Joan Of Arc. Singalong: “palmtrees fall into the sea, doesn’t matter much to me…” – A+
Here are the inductees for the Grammy Hall Of Fame and it is sure difficult (and a suckers game) to argue with any of them, though I’ll be happy to try but I’d have to really take a look at all the past songs inducted because, I mean, who thinks that’s Hank’s only tracK
Naughty – The Musical Original Soundtrack – The shoulda been a contender off the Broadway Musical, has a nice rhythm stop and start till it reaches the bridge, which is lovely indeed. Unfortunately, kids sound like kids… axiom for the ages? “Sometimes you have to make a little mischief” – B+
