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+
‘Florida Key’ is one of these tracks, and it seems to me that the project is part too-ambitious, part already-doomed … how can you possibly adapt a lost, abandoned Dylan song? isn’t Dylan totally untouchable? absolutely iconic?
A not untypically lachrymose Jackson sounding tearjerker ballad recorded during the Queen sessions for The Work in 1984. Freddie takes the first verse and it is a jolt when MJ takes the second, but there really isn’t enough of it.
William Murrell, the most famous limo driver of the planet, the guy who drove James Brown, Michael Jackson, Prince Mary J Blige, Chris Rock, Don King, Reverend Al Sharpton,…has confided that the godfather of funk has not been buried yet!
‘I am on the side of streaming music, and I think the right streaming service could solve everybody’s problems. Ownership is waning.’
Glitchy, super layered as anything Panda Bear has ever done, with Lennox’s echoing distant vocals more hypnotic than ever, the song gave me vertigo after a few seconds and it didn’t only come from this weird video that goes with it!
Beyonce Lil Wayne, Jay Z and most hip hop score badly while music I listen to, like Radiohead, The Shins, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Beck score pretty high – this is a very sad graph, so flawed I don’t even know how to start with this thing!
Tenuous musical connection, true but try this from the MBL: “On Friday, two stations in the Bay Area, KFOG and KOIT, removed the song from their playlists for the duration of the World Series.”
Mary is a pretty plump red hair, who sings about her ‘secrets’: she is overweigh, gay out of the closet and may be a bit crazy with a dysfunctional family, but you can’t have a more positive attitude that this girl has!
‘I first read about hypnotism at school and I used to do tricks like getting a really skinny guy to arm wrestle the local bully. Much later, when we were in Joy Division, I read a book on hypnotic regression and how it could be used for therapy. I first hypnotized Ian at our rehearsal room.”
We have seen many graphs before but playing with music consumption data is fun and probably endless. This new graph sums up almost 60 years of music sales classified by
‘Higher’ is an electronic experimental pop affair, a very sunny chillwave with layered guitars, keyboards, beats and Ices’ youthful voice very high in the mix, packed into an exotic vibe, she even picked a Jamaica location for the video.
They are wordy, very wordy and I often can’t keep up with the speed of the delivery,… I have no idea how many words are in an average rap song or how many times you will hear ‘bitch’ in current rap hits, but Rap Genius has now the answer with Rap Stats, a feature dedicated to break down the words in rap lyrics over tim
Alan Freeman Days – Robin Gibb – Fluff!!! The great BBC DJ, who died back in 2006, remembered from way back when, from his radio Luxembourg days, and Robin, who listened to him before the Bee Gees hit, is touched by the past. really, the entire album is about the past, and here Robin even samples Freeman. Man, there is something so depressing about this – A-
I have no real excuse for posting a movie trailer on a music blog, except that we review movies sometimes, and that music is always like a central character in Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies: this new one has the voice of indie harpist Joanna Newsom, who is serving as the film’s narrator in the movie
An iteration after the birth of rock, they should have come from Liverpool but were actually from Texas and a rock group in the same way the Beatles were a rock group and a pop group the same way the Beatles were a pop, “Julie”, a sweet and sexy and youthful and yearning pop song I first met when Marshall Crenshaw covered it, though I’m happy to have followed full to the original. It sounds like innocence lost in every sense.
I got this from New York so if the info kinda sucks blame them not me, I’d just adding the rude comment because if somebody is worth $500M it is almost are constitutional right to sneer at em. Anyway here is the USAs best paid singers. Ssomebody once said, adversity makes the man, prosperity makes the monster and so, with no further ado, the Mistress of the Little Monsters
Compare Quentin to John Fowles Simon Urfe. Indeed, compare “The Magus” to “The Magician” and Lew’s oh so 21st century weaknesses are abundantly clear. It lacks stickiness, it is so busy but it doesn’t drag you to Fillory for all its gifts.
Prog Rock progressive rock whatever you may call it- could never come back. These ‘epic’ albums just don’t fit in with our ADD gimme now world. Then again I cant help but think Jethro Tull wouldn’t make it in today’s world and that’s just sad to consider.
There was a new digital currency similar to Bitcoin called Coinye, a play on his name, and the logo was a cartoon Kanye wearing his signature shutter shades. I figured Kanye would be a fan, cos he’s in love with himself, but the man was not happy.
Come Get It Babe – Pharrell – The live version off the Spring Session from Webster Hall and it sounds very good indeed, saving the track from deep album obscurity plus the “heys” now sound like a Williams tic but a good tic (it is all over “Blurred Lines” as well) and the track isn’t hip hop -not even the production, it is funk – A-
“Ballroom Blitz,” Sweet. Mixing bubblegum pop with Townshend power chords, songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman wrote a series of U.K. hits for Sweet, including “Little Willie,” “Wig-Wam Bam,” and the excitingly punctuated “Block Buster!” “Ballroom Blitz” is Sweet at their irresistible best and was a major international hit – it went to #2 in the U.K. in 1973 and #3 in the U.S. in 1975.
Apple needed a streaming service but couldn’t start their own Apple Streaming without losing ITunes , so they bought Beats. That’s it folks… everything else is bullshit. Nothing else matters Iovine Schmovine. You think Jimmy is gonna effect Apple? How???
Del Rey was supposedly paid an astonishing $2.8 million to sing like four songs? Not a bad deal. However, the Born to Die singer denied the whole thing to TMZ while she was doing some signing of her album. ‘I would never let a friend pay me to sing at a wedding’, she declared
Sebastian Bach has hundreds of thousands of fans on the blue social media site yet his latest solo release Give ‘Em Hell’ only sold 4,000 copies in the States during the first week of release. How can that be?
Street artist Jay Shells has taken over the streets of the city, posting these red signs displaying the quotes of famous rap songs, at strategic places. He apparently did the same thing in New York City – but needed a car to accomplish the same thing in LA
If you go on eBay, you will find tons of items already on sale! The Cake 12” vinyl box set for $499.99 (original price $124.99), R.E.M. Unplugged RSD vinyl box set $499.99 (original price $89.98), Crosley Peanuts Cruiser turntable $299.99 (original price $119), LCD Soundsystem ‘The Long Goodbye’ 5LP Box set $235.24 (original price $129.98),
Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam to Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos, Les Savy Fav’s Tim Harrington, Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham, Ray LaMontagne, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros’ Alex Ebert, Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell, The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach
The songs I am working on with Burt Bacharach are not being prepared for recording. Initially they are being prepared for performance on stage and for a musical.
