Recorded

Lists, Recorded, Slideshow

Songs Of Faith: Happy Whatever

This list of songs belong to my friend Steve, who is a very nice guy and a very social guy. I like some of em, “Judas” is an inspired choice, “Faith” a great song by any standards, but is “Stairway To Heaven” really a song of faith? Indeed, how is “Both Sides Now” a song of faith. I mean faith in not knowing?

Recorded, Slideshow

Last Call: Week Of March 23rd, 2015

Great Expectations – Toto – The thing about prog-rock is that it is smug for no reason, it is the Bob Lefsetz of popular music, highbrow content for low brow sensibilities. This song closes out the new Toto album and the only thing we know for sure is lower your expectations right now – D

Album Reviews, Recorded

The Drifters In The UK

I saw the Drifters a coupla years ago, whoever was with them then, with the Drifters at least there was always a lot of singers coming and going ( around 60 by my reckoning) but they didn’t go within a million miles of their 70s hits. Still, more than a number in your little black book,go on Amazon to check em out, the 70s Drifters isn’t on Itunes or Spotify.

Be Here Now, Recorded, Slideshow

Be Here Now: New Album Reviews 3-24-15

I missed this 82 year old Gospel blues man from (where else) Mississippi debut album last year but this more secular take on the blues is ridiculous. Full throttle, hardcore with tons of guitar, all filthy dirty, and a man who sounds his age and that is perfect for the blues. Listen to Welch yelp on “I Don’t Know Her Name” and stand back in awe. from the Delta to your house, this is a great set and a must hear – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A

Lists, Recorded, Slideshow

The 25 Greatest Songs of 1980

“Crawford, you are a first rate goldbricker. When will you start earning your keep, you lousy bum?” “Um…hello…is this my mom?” “Funny. Do you know what it means to be a contributing writer to Rock NYC?” “Limited street cred with aging punk rock strippers?” “It means you actually write for us. Alyson Camus sends in more articles in a week than you do in six months.”

Recorded, Slideshow

Blur’s “Lonesome Street” Reviewed

“Go Out” a goodie with a very catchy chorus and a singalong attitude even if it doesn’t entirely lend itself and “There Are Too Many Of Us”a dreary somewhere in the middle of it all slog through overpopulation and now here is # 3, which exists somewhere in the middle.

Album Reviews, Recorded, Slideshow

Laura Marling’s “Short Movie” Review

If it works from the edges, if it is clearly bewildered, if it could only send her away and if true love, or at least true hope, is so difficult to cling to, these are flaws in life not song.Perhaps at her age, it is wrong to search out a new thesis, her failure here is in laying one out, in a confessional that doesn’t know where it’s at

Lists, Recorded, Slideshow

Laura Marling’s Top 10 Songs

I have been thinking hard about the new Laura Marling album, Short Movie, getting ready to review the Tuesday release, and also getting ready for the Monday concert at Warsaw. I’ve had it in heavy rotation and then began dipping into Laura’s earlier albums.

Recorded, Slideshow

Chic featuring Niles Rodgers “I’ll Be There” Reviewed

“I’ll Be There” and “Back In The Old School” are simply first rate and the reason is the same precise reason “Get Lucky” was so great, Rodgers, rhythm master guitar is sublime on both tracks, on “I’ll Be There” it is so huge it powers the entire track, on “Old School” the horns do more than merely back it up and if Bernard Edwards, through no fault of Niles, is not along, and Alfa Anderson, Luci Martin, and Norma Jean Wright., who would have been a huge addition to these songs

Recorded, Slideshow

‘Seth Avett & Jessica Lea Mayfield Sing Elliott Smith’ Reviewed

Overall, It is a beautiful listening experience, Avett and Mayfield’s voices have a real chemistry and the harmonies are delightful, however, there is a few things missing. ‘Baby Britain’ has lost some of its nervousness and energy, while ‘Somebody That I used to Know’ and ‘Let’s Get Lost’ are respectively all bright harmonies and all melancholic depression

Be Here Now, Recorded, Slideshow

Be Here Now: New Album Releases, March 17th, 2015

There is Beatle cover bands and then there is anything former Styx Glen Burtnick adds his name to. Last time I saw Glen he was playing McCartney to Marshall Crenshaw’s Lennon at BB Kings, here he is the Neil Innes of contemprary power pop. Maybe more than that, these are less satiric copies and more stand alones which make their own case – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-

Recorded, Slideshow

Bruce Springsteen, Live at Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA, 12/31/75, Reviewed

The sound of this CD is high quality but the only deterrent is that on a few songs you truly get to hear every note that the late “Phantom” Dan Federici plays. This is not the best live show that I have heard them play but between you and me, I would gladly give up a couple years of my life to have been there in person. Ladies and gentlemen, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band…

Charts, Recorded, Slideshow

10 Songs: Saturday, March 14th, 2015

With news that JB is playing this middle of Brooklyn King’s Theatre in September, it is as good as any excuse to give the man a spin. This late period, romantic dream is everything Browne does best, reminds me of an ex, and the “solitary nature notwithstanding” line still hits home – A

Recorded, Slideshow

Golden Oldies: Van Morrison’s Complete Works Review ANd Graded

I’ve written before about the impermanence of what feels like it will last forever. The way the Ramones were always playing around town in the late 1970s, early 1980s, we just assumed it and now it felts like a dream. In the 1990s, Morrison recorded album after album in the 1990s -TWELVE! We thought it would never end but in the 2010s he has recorded exactly one album of new material

Be Here Now, Recorded, Slideshow

Be Here Now: New Album Reviews, March 10th, 2015

This is their first new album in decades and while Jo Callis is missed, Fay Fife is here and though these have moments of maturity (sadly) and though there is nothing as great as “(My Baby) Does Good Sculpture” -what do you care if you’re listening to “Spike Heel Assassin”? Terrific, fun, a little older, not much wise… and FAY FIFE – ALBUM OF THE WEEK A-

Recorded, Slideshow

The A+ List: “Martha” By Rufus Wainwright

This is the truest song you will hear about how death effects the living, it is so mournful it hurts to listen to it. When I saw him perform the album at Carnegie Hall, it sounded like words left unsaid. Today it feels like the deepest recesses of untimely grief. His greatest and most human song.

Recorded, Slideshow

Last Call: Week Of February 23rd, 2015

So Close – Keath Mead – Check out the way he spells his first name and make a decision: is he too precious or too young? My guy is the latter because he can sure write a song, this is a beauty, power folk filtered through a folkie singer songwriterly aesthetic – B+

Best Of 2015, Recorded, Slideshow

The Best Of 2015: Songs Through February 28th, 2015

February was a come down afre a terrific January, the difference between the two wasn’t quantity (even though the first two weeks of January were dead so really, January had a lot more good songs, but quality. I’m not certain where to put D’Angelo in the great scheme of things but even if “really Love” was released 2014, for me it is a February song. So not a great February…

Be Here Now, Live, Recorded, Slideshow

Be Here Now: New Album Reviews 2-24-15

Ricky Warwick sounds enough like Phil Lynott to tug your memory and not enough to sound a copy, and this band, first a very late Thin Lizzy band and now a foil for Scott Gorham’s lead guitar, made the right choice in changing the band name. without the baggage, or at least without too much of the baggage, you can appreciate it as very good, old time hard rock – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – B+

Recorded, Slideshow

Elvis Presley’s “Just Tell Her Jim Says Hello” And My Mom

“I’d like to tell her what, I’m really feeling but…” when I made my peace with my Mom, I did it without really mentioning the past. She was 80 years old and I didn’t have the stomach for it. What difference does it make? But I wish I could have told her about watching her sleeping, sitting quietly by, watching over her. How much I had loved her. I guess it wouldn’t really matter, would it?

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