If “We Can Be Together” sounded like a good trip (man, that Grace Slick can sing, how did you lose her cool?) it wasn’t, it was based on Black Panther’s war cry, “Up against the, motherfucker”) and from there it blows blues hot (try a terrific “Wooden Ships” and folk cool. Add on top two of the best songs, the title track and “Somebody To Love” and you have a career peak.
‘If I was literally responsible for something I would take credit or accept the responsibility, if I did a crime I would take the punishment, but I’m not going to accept any blame for things that I make
“It was a real privilege to make this album. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time but was never brave enough to approach 30-piece complicated arrangements and refine them down for a 5-piece band. That’s the key to all these performances.”
Dig, Richman wrote a song called “Ice Cream Man” and Brian posed as a Good Humor ice cream man on the Sunflower LP cover. Pet Sounds is one of the most tender, soul baring LP’s ever made and Jonathan often bared his soul onstage (crawling on all fours) and on entire LP’s and songs like “Affection”, “Back in Your Life”, “That Summer Feeling” etc..
rock-pop stars have always wanted to wear stuff for shock value, decades ago many rockers found it was really cool to wear Nazi propaganda, from Sid Vicious to Scott Weiland, Lemmy, Jimmy Page,… while in the 90’s Axl Rose went on stage every night wearing a Charles Manson shirt and that was really stupid
There is nothing I would want more than for Mr. Rock and Mr. Nugent to have a bullet placed squarely between the eyes and to be photographed flopped over someone’s arm. What a fantastic photo that would be! Lots of blood, maybe some grey matter smeared on the ground
My car is so old that it doesn’t even have a CD player but a cassette player! I kid you not! But I may be a winner at this level because cassettes are making a come back in hipsters’ world – I see more and more cassettes at the merchandize table of local bands in Silver Lake
A beautiful sprawl of an album filled with on point raps, minimal sermonizing, and moments and sharp, flowing raps with ideas that may take weeks to get to the bottom of. Till then, try get past the second song, the eight minute “Mural” and find yourself at the funky “Blur My Hands” – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A
‘I got drunk with them, I saw them with Bob Dylan when they smoke marijuana’, talking about the night the Beatles got stoned after Dylan introduced them to a particularly strong grade of marijuana in their New York hotel, ‘Bob Dylan gave a fat joint to Ringo, and he smoked the whole thing himself, he came back on his knees laughing!’
I was four months old and my dad was attending art school at the time, and his friends would often ask for help with their projects. So his friend the photographer Kirk Weddle called him and said, “Do you want to make some money today and throw your kid in the pool?”
In which the Dogg holds back on the hi jinx to perform a horn blasted down on the Delta proto-classic, with the usual quota of smart lyric and smart ass, at the age of 72 years Little Jimmy just keeps on going and here his raspy vocal is a splendid thing- A
The week belongs to David Bronson’s eagerly anticipated Questions, an album so good it makes albums a palatable art form and forum with songs so strong they should last the whole year through. Otherwise: Meghan Trainor, The 1978ers, Kat Dahlia, and Panda Bear all released excellent albums.
Kim Fowley died earlier this week but rock nyc enjoyed one last viewing of the legendary LA rock and roll mastermind at a 2013 book signing. Our own legendary LA rock and roll mastermind Alyson Camus was confused by the whole thing, and we post the story here -rnyc
So Brucie restaurant, located in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn NY, will be serving a 5-course Kimye-themed menu advertised as:’ KIM REJOICES AS BROOKLYN RESTAURANT DEDICATES VALENTINE’S DAY MENU TO THE SEXY STAR AND HER BAD BOY RAPPER HUBBY!!!!’
I’ve seen Fall Out Boy a number of times live and listened to everything because that’s what I do not because I like them… till now. “Uma Thurman”, with its hysterical “The Munsters” quote (Thurman slash Herman Munster is my bet) and it is one of the most fun songs of the year, that’s all. In honor of their achievement, rock nyc awards them with Best Guest Of The Week.
Hollywood impresario, producer, self-promoter, talent scout for the crass just-for-the-sake-of-it, third or fourth-tier glam rock artist, all of it over the span of half a century. In the obituaries everyone’s come out with praise and fond memories of a life goodly lived.
Marcus is an ill mannered, bad tempered, arrogant man, who is nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is and who has spent the last 40 years staring in a mirror and saying “I wrote the liner notes to The Basement Tapes once and I can do it again.
I picked Professor Longhair for my first offering because the man exudes joy, humor, and an incredible, notable style and is instantly recognized like no other, all the while playing and singing the blues! The blues is not supposed to be happy but this man pulls off a sort of ‘what the hell, don’t take it too seriously
Oh but they were saying, ‘what if you meet Frances Cobain while wearing this shirt and she gets upset’? Yeah, because you meet her at Trader Joe’s every Saturday morning! Plus the girl has Courtney Love for mother, she has seen the most tacky, bad taste, brutal things that can exist
I may have never gone easy rider on everybody, but I don’t follow any crowd, never belonged to any group and every time I hear the words team-spirit or team-work, I cringe, it’s a problem, a curse and a strength, I am deeply individualist so I totally relate…
“She is a terrific dancer – without the explicit moves best left for the privacy of her bedroom. Jay Z is a very shrewd businessman, but I wonder: Does it occur to him that he is arguably crossing the line from husband to pimp by exploiting his wife as a sex object”
Rappers are still going strong even those I haven’t heard anything from for a long time, like Diddy ($60 million and $1.90 per second)! Beside this you have Calvin Harris ($66 million and $2.09 per second), Jay Z ($60 million and $1.90 per second), and Drake ($33 million and $1.05 per second)
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.
