rock nyc

A highlight at Woodstock, encapsulating the trippy, hippy, middle class world changers as well as connecting back to his father’s world, where they had more important things to worry about. Listening to the original version, what’s most impressive is the electric guitar solo. And, you know, the paranoia is fitting enough! Grade: A

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.

“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+

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

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+

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.

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

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

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’

‘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