rock nyc

Fuse ODG is real good EDM and everything else you should know by now. But I am not tiring of raving about “Get Lucky” and “Blurred Lines”. These two songs alone are gonna make it a great summer of pop!

In the battle for # 1, I’d choose Disclosure’s UK electronic duo over QOTSA myself. This is a strange, not especially thrilling little list, with Vampire Weekend and Laura Marling already out of the picture entirely and only Rod Stewart, somewhat strangely, holding on. PS I don’t think think Daft Punk will have the song of the summer, but the album of the summer? Who knows.

Nearly 20 sets over a long weekend and music is coming out of my ears. I am actually writing this Sunday morning, so I can’t tell you what I expect for Day 3 of nyc’s music fest to wear an old man out. But I do know, it would take a miracle to surpass Saturday’s DeLong, Icona Pop, Fucked Up triumvirate that simply has made the weekend worth while.

“It’s tight,” Bethany told us, “Go enjoy the rest of your day and stay dry and don’t take drugs, or do take drugs if you want. Do anything you want. It’s tight.” So I took her advise and went home.

What’s he been up to beside counting cash and dressing up. Well that crafty guy is soon releasing new material. September 2013 to be exact. Stoked? No, not yet.

Starting with a twelve-bar blues piano progression, Fagen incorporated jazz chords and a swing band style chorus into “Peg.” Chuck Rainey’s melodic bass playing is prominently displayed, while Jay Graydon contributed a Polynesian pedal steel influenced guitar solo

eller tours on occasion and in July is doing a very limited number of tiny venue or ‘intimate’ shows. Really not that intimate if its over 50 people but thats what they like to call it in the trades. Weller is coming to U.S. in July because, ‘I just fancied playing a few American shows.’

The only time I’ve seen Kris Kristofferson on stage before I will be catching him at The Concert Hall on Saturday, was opening for the late legend George Jones at Carnegie Hall. Kris was absolutely brilliant with just an acoustic guitar. I can’t wait to see him with a full band.

The Olms – The Olms – Vic Garbarini dubbed Peter York and J.D. King’s debut album like finding an old Gene Clark demo from the 1960s. It isn’t that good but you get the idea. Country-folk twang and strum. Catchy stuff. ALBUM OF THE WEEK – B+

All ten song reflect straight to the weekend of music, Saturday was day two of Gov’s Ball as well, and even more thrillingly Paul McCartney at Barclay’s Center. A room made for rich people, whose acoustics get steadily worse the further up you go. As for the Cure? Dinosaur Jr. covered this song and very well as well.

Robin uses his best Prince sexy soprano and T.I. and the ubiquitous Pharrell ride a very hook filled track, where every second line holds a yelp or a hey hey, and all the syncopated beats are there not to slam it shut by to make it airy and sweet

Four of these are the cream of the crop from this weeks releases, the fifth is another classic from one of our greatest songwriters and the sixth is building its way into the single of the summer. The last four, and I could add at least two to that number, makes Once I Was An Eagle the album to beat in 2013.

                              Nine Inch Nails are back and they came back haunted, at least this is the

Brooklyn former lo-fi, baritone based rock band reach the big time after 14 years of slogging through it but there is a question they need to answer: do they deserve to be there? At Barclay Center on Wednesday night, the National offered a resounding answer: yes they do, loudness does not always signify fury and simply a willingness to bring the screens, keep the lights on, and play for 18,000 fans proves the band are where they should. That they did it well was an added plus.

Most of these reflects live music today: at Gov’s Ball I plan to see most of these bands, though how can you choose between Fucked Up and Dirty Projector (who play at the same time) Then if I leave back after Alt J and should be in plenty of time for McCartney at Barclay’s Center. Last time I saw him, Macca played a killer “1985” and my only hope is he shake it but baby don’t break it one more time!

Pretty Lights and King Leon were not allowed to play because of unsafe conditions (now they figure it out?) Apparently, the Ferry’s are jammed packed and very slow, the cars are stuck in the mud and the police are trying to move them, and I guess the bridge to Manhattan is packed as people walk to 125th street

Despite the quiet stormness of his barimonotone or the bands bland benevolent malignancy, Matt is more credible then Brandon Flowers was at the same venue in May.

That was then and this is now and with the wisdom that only time can provide, let’s take anoher look at the some of this years bigger albums one mo’ gin

Hard to believe these fools have been dormant that long. What scares me is the press junkets they’ll be doing- we’re going to clobber them.

So if I understand this correctly, Blake is threatening Guerra with implied violence because Joey didn’t like Holly? Who does Blake think he is? Lou Reed?

I’ve heard from many people who’ve worked with him that Bono is a really great guy but I don’t care how nice he is, the man is the biggest egomaniac in the world not running North Korea

The Crenshaw in segments is a major pain in the ass; you have to buy the vinyl, wait two weeks for it to be delivered and it is expensive. But Crenshaw is worth $5 a song.

Joey Covington, Jefferson Airplane drummer, died in a car crash earlier this week. I will write about him at some point, for now I went back to his best album. Robin may have the single of the summer/ The two National songs are from the Barclay Center gigs, the Crenshaw I just got, and the last five is in anticipation of not getting destroyed by the weather at Randall’s Island today.

With the brain of an overactive peanut and the religious backtracking you might expect from men of a certain age, if you can get past the silliness you’ll discover Back Sabbath have done the difficult

Is there anything older than last weeks releases? Well, this week I actually missed two of these completely, the Alice In Chains which is alright but not much more and a surprise hit for Little Mix, spurred on by a hit single no less. But really does VW and JT and DP all seem a little “May 2013”?

Except for Daft Punk, I am just about sick of every single song here. I don’t know how the same damn pop can stay in the charts for months on end. No wait, a second. Where’s Bruno Mars??? Anyway, “Blurred Lines” is new, and as predicted on Monday, it has hit the charts! A coupla more listens and I bet it gets me.

The first three are re-evaluations from yesterdays new releases, the big leao being Miley which is catchier than I gave it credit for. The other Portugal is to assess whether “T-Shirt” is a fluke, jury still out on that one. The two Daft Punk tracks was after reading Rolling Stone’s interview. The Lonely Island song was to teach me how use a semicolon; difficult: I prefer a colon myself.

Hook wrote em, he has as much right to play them as the rest of the band does. what else are they for? And it is not as if the rest of the band has done so much to place themselves in a bright light of innocence. After regrouping in 2011, all they’ve released in odds and sods, no NEW MATERIAL AT ALL.

Frank Turner is genius; he’s one of the best musicians of the century. Everything that he does is so real and captivating, and I want to see him live so badly, I want the chance to tell him this in person. I now understand why my friends worship the ground he walks on- he’s otherworldly

A kind of twilight of the gods, with Liberace older now, in the last act of his life, playing residency in Las Vegas and with a succession of cute young men