rock nyc

Dexys Midnight Runners are now Dexys. They lost half their name and half their fun. The oddest offering for free download on their soundcloud page is “Nowhere Is Home”.

Ah yes, editing a music blog. 5 years I knew two of the songs on the February and except for Justin, not all that well. 2012, I know all of them and the albums they came off as well!

Why the hell is an Irish boy band getting a big push from ITunes? Because their record company is paying for it, that’s why. Otherwise, wow, nothing major going on here. Miike Snow, I guess.

Girls Like You – The Naked And The Famous – An infectious rethinking of glam rock for the post-electronic age but a couple out of Auckland, New Zealand, many miles from home, and dealing with a harsh reality. Beauty is skin deep. Grade: B+

Bruce could write, “My business manager is investing in gold and Euro Dollars but I don’t wanna know…” that would be brutally honest. Or get to the bottom of the rift between him and his audience, how “he walks this world in wealth” and yet feels pain and empathy for people he must be wondering about. I mean, do they even exist? They sure can’t afford tickets to his shows

There is something just dangerous and creepy about him. From the humble Ybor drag days to the fame to the.. what is he now? He isn’t popular or famous, not a star not a fixture and not yet a parody.

Scientists say it takes five days for the human body to ‘catch up’ with that lost hour. What better way to wait it out then sitting on your butt and watching some quality music on TV?

On Tuesday at Carnegie Hall there is a Rolling Stone tribute with everybody from Carolina Chocolate Drops to Rosanne Cash playing hits from the bands golden age 1964 – 1971. If Steve Earle does “Dead Flowers” I will personally flip out.

Forget # 1, but # 2? It is like a reality TV show about army wives singing. Since The UK is not at war and doesn’t have conscription, so quite what they’re winging about Hey, wait a second, Lionel Richie has a new album? And Springsteen in at number one.

Every time I see Gotye at the top of the charts, I wonder if I got it wrong and listen to him again. And every time I wish I hadn’t bothered with the boring bastard.

Elitist, wiseacres, rhythmically jumpy, ontense, insulated, New York centric, it’s a big country and you can kep it, David Byrne claims. And the band slithers through the snideness like a beacon for funk still to come.

It is funny how blogs and magazines have posted quite old pictures of her, probably because that’s all they had. I stumbled on this curious and recent interview, and she looks so luminous and fragile

I don’t know what Mercer’s problem is. With his Kevin Spacey blankness and unmoveable action figure pose, his tidy beard and tidier songs, there is something so dreary about the man and it is reflected in his music. It is sort a long Mid-West tall glass of water thing.

Four years after “American Boy”, the English r&b star is back with an album about relationships replete with sketches between some of the tracks. Romance is fine and while I find the constant a little obvious, this is a well sustained and detailed series of provocations on the art of love. Grade: B+

Knocking on a century later, what did we learn from WW1? That men in their millions were expendable. That Europe could kill off a generation of their youth and 20 years later do it again. When I hear English war songs, I am moved to new heights of cynicism, and, since my Gradfather died in a nameless faceless war for no reason, I have a right. This English sister act from the 1950s jollyfy an already jolly act. The question isn’t whether there are things worth dying for. The question is what they are and who is making the decision. Grade: B

‘I’m only human and I am full of mistakes’ is ironically the first line of the song that invites us to follow the sad fate of one of these crash test dummies they use in car commercials.

After dismissing the album out of hand as gloomy soundscapes, I noticed the album was in at an astounding # 3 on the Hot 100. It still sounds like doomy soundscapes but doomy sounscapes off a hit album are always going to be more interesting. Grade: B

The video, directed by Sam Zimman, is as fluid as the song, an ecstasy-like, hypnotic journey driving through kaleidoscopic cities and landscapes just before sunset, superposed with Sharon’s barely visible face.

Beach House will supposedly release their new album ‘Bloom’ on May 15th, but the band’s label, Sub Pop, hasn’t confirmed the details yet.

I’ve been worrying on the new Bruce Springsteen album and how despite the best intentions, the stench of hypocrisy is overwhelming.hich lead me to Pulp’s “Common People” from the 1990s.

This is a great singles list, best of the year. Only Adele and the Wanted are out and out dogs and how often is a pop overnight success an exciting, not to mention fun., story!!