On Friday night, the San Francisco quartet Sonny and the Sunsets was playing at the Echo, and, right away, I definitively liked Sonny’s funny and unassuming talk, relax attitude, constant smiling face and ‘Madness takes its toll’ t-shirt.
A funny thing about tour is how much the van starts to feel like home. It is the only constant in the ever evolving and constantly moving motion of traveling. And after all it is the most important part of your tour. So be wise – keep her running and treat her like a princess
The movie is a 3D computer-animated comedy directed by Rich Moore (The Simpsons, Futurama) and will feature the voices of John C. Reilly, Jane Lynch and Sarah Silverman. It is scheduled for a November release and tells the story of Ralph, a video game baddie who wants to be a good guy
Channel Orange is just too draggy, too difficult.. If you concentrate real hard you will find many vocal dynamics, perfect swerves and brakes of beats, they are there. But who wants to work so hard on a pop record?
This is a sign at the least to keep as hydrated as possible not only at your local Warped Tour, but during the summer. Don’t forget to refill your water bottles and stay safe. Occasionally make sure your friends are drinking water as well.
By one of those strange coincidences that occur in life, I saw the two sons play live, one day after the other. Arlo Guthrie on Sunday at Summerstage, Frank Sinatra Jr. on Monday at the Town Hall . Both of these guys are pretty good in their own right
This is a great thing, there are new things to discover rather than yet another week of Steven Tylers and fun. Seems a bit country heavy but hey, this is summer in America and for some reason that become synonymous with twang.
“I strayed from my first love, Aerosmith, and I’m back–but instead of begging on my hands and knees, I got two fists in the air and I’m kicking the door open with my band.
People sure need to have more and more imagination to come up with such creative lawsuits, but too bad for her no lawyer is involved in the story, since no lawyer seems to be that crazy. This is the exact lawsuit description about the heart-gondola phenomenon:
Best Coast suffering from the sophomore jinx,? I must quietly demure. The Only Place is as depressing as a bad cold on a summer afternoon. Awash in the Pacific ocean, it struggles to lift its head off the coach and the melodies gain extra strength from the effort I can’t wait to hear them perform it on stage this Tuesday at T5
Florence Welch hasn’t been in my good books since her iffy performance at Radio city earlier this year, and this wasn’t a fave off her last album. On the other hand, it was easy enough to miss the good stuff among the dross on Nicki’s last album. This is a goodie.. though I am still not buying her as a sex symbol.
Congrats to the Limeys, they put an album crappier than Frank Ocean’s in the # 1 position. Newton is worse than his name suggest and Frank? People of good will (unless they write for Pitchfork) might disagree, but everybody hates Newton.
Talking Dust Bowl Blues – Woody Guthrie – Poverty gets your attention, if you have ever been very poor, or even a little poor, you’ll know. This talking blues finds a famer chased by the agricultural disaster and off in search of a place to raise his family. Dylan, among many, stole the form and used it many times. – Grade: B+
It wasn’t perfect Yes, it wasn’t what we had signed up for, the first 20 minutes were a complete washout, it peaked 20 minutes before it ended, the acoustics sucked. But in the end, to hear “The Dean And I”, “Good Morning, Judge”, “Dreadlock Holiday” … many more, by the man who wrote them, I wanted more but I’ll take what I am given.
The song is very catchy and sounds like a simple foot-tapping-enthusiastic-hand-clapping tune played with fast upbeat guitar, vocal harmonies and a cool synth solo at the end that reminds their previous work, although it is not as Africanized than what they have previously done.
The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming! Steve Crawford comes over all French and surrenders at the first sight of Dave Davies!!!
Will they be able to top their previous success? It is obvious there is a lot of pressure on Arcade Fire right now, and a lot of expectation for this new album.
Our touring diary writer Donny Saraceno has become an interesting member of the rocknyc family. His daily reports often set me up on my motherly heels buncha crazy kids in a van sleeping wherever all careless. But in the midst of the bands daily adventures I neglected something that I am shocked about. I have forgotten to explain to you all how really talented this band is.
I said it is bullshit, is it the first time such a thing happens? Actually, no it isn’t. According to the Huffington Post Target is carrying Jay-Z and Kayne West’s ‘Watch The Throne’, which has also debuted on iTunes before being released for physical sales, so it was exactly the same situation
‘The three of them had dinner in the garden on Tuesday night at Chateau, and then Lindsay and Gaga ran upstairs to play dress up and came down in different outfits,’ the source revealed. Lindsay and Gaga seem to have lots of inside jokes about the night
Leaving an incredible mark on this world Marleys popularity has not waned since his passing in 1981. Science has stepped up to pay tribute to the rasta man in the most fishy way.
KR-51 – Clare And The Reason – You can be as pretentious and weird as you like as long as you keep the construction from falling apart. Fair enough? This married duo succumb to the complexity way too often. Grade: B-
Bus Stop – The Hollies – Graham Gouldman performed this song on Friday, it remains a classic lyric: “Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows…” is worthy of Nabakov in its succinctness. Nothing is wasted here. Everything is exactly right – Grade: A+
I’ve been following Kevin for a couple of years and now am thrilled to have the opportunity to see him live. This being Kevin, he aint playing the late show at Mercury Lounge. Rather, small art venues and friends apartments are the order of the day with no tickets, donations only, five bucks the recommended dollar fifgure.
Here is a Fest tip- sleep during the day . Don’t plan on getting up until noon at the earliest. You’re in a different time zone where night is most active. Drink as much water as you can once you wake and get it revved up. To try and sleep at night is useless and frustrating.
I know they got a lot of comparisons with Fleet Foxes, and I can see why, but for me, they are working in a parallel universe, a more fierce, wild and dynamic universe, and actually richer and more fascinating
The Essential Songs of 1962 reflect the virtuosity of Ray Charles, who started the year with the boss nova based “Unchain My Heart” and ruled the rest of the year with his modern sounds in country and western music.
This is how it goes, Tina was a folk singer living in Greenwich Village in the 60s, she befriended Dylan and eventually got impregnated by him in 1963. She also was poor and a drug addict and so gave up her son for adoption
Crazy world isn’t it. We just love watching people kick ass. Blood sport. But when you take the fight to professional suddenly its not so fun anymore, we as humans enjoy the ‘spontaneous throw down’
The band, which was formed in 1967, has been on hiatus since 2009, and the Los Angeles Times also remarks that the news came as a surprise since Mick Fleetwood said last April, in an interview with Playboy magazine, that the thing was unlikely:
The song is one of the top three on ‘Blunderbus’, but really is there value to videos after the album has been out this long? There is no longer a forum (ahem..MTV) to showcase music video so I cant help but wonder why such expense is gone to for promotion
His “Fade To Black” retirement gig was his last great concert and it has been downhill ever since, especially the 9-11 charity gig with the ridiculous “I see You” segment . And while I appreciate everybody else raving about the “Watch The Throne” concert, it was tied to a lousy album. and I felt like a bitter old man for being so bored by huge chunks. Plus “Otis” is his worst song ever.
Sure, it is mostly about Maceo but it is also Brown’s great lyric of all time. The chorus isn’t a cliche because people don’t know it, it is a deep truth about life. Not true all the time (extreme poverty and extreme wealth will change you) but wiser than it appears: “Money won’t change you but time will take you out” is both upsetting and anodyne, because it points to the worthlessness of money and life itself as a palliative – Grade – A
Not only their sound was bigger than the room, but Hayes was all arms-in-the-air, mimicking the music with all kinds of dramatic and over-the-top gestures, while singing along their strong rocking numbers with a powerful voice ranging from a melodramatic tone to operatic howls
Let’s go back to an English summer 35 years(!) ago. It’s 1977 and the band is on its “Deceptive Bends” tour. During the course of three June dates at the Odeon Theatre Hammersmith in London, and two nights at the Apollo Theatre in Manchester,
They are from Venice, California, and images of the famous beach were accompanying their performance on a screen, however I had more southern-rock than beach-surf-rock visions when listening to them. From Venice, they probably had that sort of free spirit and laid back attitude
Awake and exhausted they set out to ‘figure out the compound’ as if they were now prisoners of war. Apparently no one really knew what was going on as the press tent had yet to be constructed and even event staff had no idea that where or what that would be.
By 1962, a producer named Phil Spector started working with The Crystals and a band in England solidified their line-up by putting Ringo Starr behind the drum kit. In the meantime, Ben E. King had two chart toppers after leaving the Drifters, Patsy Cline added another classic to her repertoire, and Etta James continued her string of Top 5 R&B hits.
Now you can make what you want with that scenario, the little boy could be a young Mercer finding fun and beauty everywhere he goes, incarnating childhood innocence as he goes through what is described as ‘an apocalyptic suburbia’
I don’t see how you can not have a good side line. Arrive, not early, but just on time and head straight to one of the tiers on either side of the stage and you can see close and perfectly all the way through. Arrive as the band is going on, stand at the back of the floor, and you can still see OK!
Now (and finally) comes a documentary on the late great singer from the perspective of a die hard fan. Rhys Thomas, who is described as a Queen scholar and expert has scoured back to 1976 to find footage and memorabilia of Freddie, to be used in the film ‘The Great Pretender’
Brian Jones remains the tragedy at the center of their history, like a warning beacon of the effects of hardcore drug use. Firstly, he was the Stones leader, second he was the most uniquely gifted of all the musicians (yes, even Watts) and finally he got all the hottest girls. If Brian wasn’t so drugged up, Keith would have never nailed Anita.
‘The comic is the latest expression of a music-driven feature animated film that the band and I started developing several years ago. It is the story of Mylo Xyloto, a young Silencer on the front lines of a war against sound and color in the world of Silencia
We’ve been having fun all summer long? The first two songs are songs of the summer, and now that I have to admit I overated “This Is Love”, it looks like it is going to remain that way TFN!
Amazon lowered their prices for 5 weeks to a dollar a holla for many of these albums and that explains the strange inclusion of so many oldies (well 2011). What does this mean? It means the charts are a disaster area and getting more and more irrelevant!
The penultimate song off the album (just before “The End”), is a beautiful ballad much less of meter and away from the expected melody line than the rest of the songs. A barely veiled love song that might have raised some eyebrows if Ocean hadn’t already outed himself: “you are my fine boy, running on my mind boy”? Grade: A
He could have played for another hour and nobody would have noticed it. It was like a musicial puzzle and you couldn’t stay one step ahead of him. He was modulating the tone with knobs, and bending the strings and making em wobble and vibrate and all for what? The sheer pleasure of sound
It was a good choice for a band which was opening for Blind Pilot, and the young crowd reacted with enthusiasm to their upbeat and catchy rhythms, even clapping along a few times,… what is the deal with all that clapping anyway?
Splash need time to improve the act. Better songs, steal a coupla melodies if they have, cut the chat by half, work the tempo, remember they’re a dance band and wanna make lots of money. But the glitter, the fun, the sparkles on strangers head? The beats? They all stay.
This year at WarpedTour, they are doing an acoustic “basement” stage, where lead singers can go and perform solo, or bands can do acoustic sets. I am BEYOND stoked for Anthony Raneri’s solo there, but I heard that Into It. Over It. was partaking as well…
