rock nyc

30% of this is a reflection of Wednesday’s gig, including the # 1, a talented girl singer songwriter whose currency is misery, 40% reflects upcoming concerts, including Alyson faves Cold War Kids (who have yet to improve on “Coffee Spoon”) “Curios” I was curious bout and Kurt Vile s a triumphant nine minutes of guitar.

There is a danger and a stupidity to what the press is doing to Justin Bieber. He doesn’t have to be a nice guy, he doesn’t have to be humble, if the worst you’ve got is Justin smoking a joint, go away and leave him alone. Go pick on someone your own size.

Distributed by Eagle Vision Entertainment the info is not even official. Instead it was discovered by Morrissey stalkers and put up on his ‘True To You” site. For the record truetoyou.com isn’t even an ‘official’ Morrissey site but for some reason he periodically will post there. So they do have legitimacy!!

Yes, folks, it is that time of the year again, the bi-annual tradition. Pitchfork post their list of Spring and Summer releases and we repost while slamming the arrogant , boring music website for being po-faced, self-important know it alls… did I mention poorly written?

In the year of Our Lord 2013, we my never agree on anything again as well as we agree upon how completely awful the Lil Wayne album is. It has taken over five years of a downward spiral of cough medicine, lousy songs and worst lyrics to reach this place. The bottomless pit of lousiness that is Weezy.

This band, Imagine Dragons, they are the death of rock and roll, this is where rock and roll is worst than the worse dance, country (except for Tim MCGraw, of course), hip hop, anything. I am certain they are lovely people, but this time of lugubrious rock is an affront to everything I believe in.

I went to see Modern Hut last night and that explains why two of their songs are here, as for Alkaline Trio -I was shocked out how good these guys are, they had never made the slightest impression. As for Rilo Kiley, this song is the exception not the rule. Plus, why are there liner notes and a cleaning out their closet?

So what’s a club owner to do to make sure he’s not going to go out of business on a violation? Enter Boulder Colorado’s Aggie Theater. You’ll be greeted by bouncers withe breathalyzers as they try the latest idea in keeping the tipsy teens off property. Oh and you’re getting a pat down as well.

”Freddie told her we were going to the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, a notorious gay bar in London. Diana said she had never heard of it and said she’d like to come. ”Now this was not a good idea. ‘It’s not for you,’ said Kenny, ‘It’s full of hairy gay men. Sometimes there are fights outside.’ This didn’t put her off in the slightest.”

USA today reports that the show (in the works) is based upon the 2010 merch line featuring the Hello Kitty motif. The show will feature “four Kiss x Hello Kitty characters living their rock ‘n’ roll dreams and bringing pink anarchy to every situation they are in.”

I remember the bar and I remember the pinball machine where I spent my life playing flippers through some of the greatest bands to ever grace the stage and a whole lot of the worst. The real question is, what will Jahn Xavier make of it?

30% of these songs reflect the BBC Radio 2 best albums of all time list, 10% is a reminder that Rilo Kiley weren’t all miniskirt and hype amd 60% are new releases of which Tyler, The Creator and Erykah Badu together should never work this well but does and 60s Soul and Gospel live up to Crawford’s high opinion.

fans were seen giving Nazi salutes at their shows, the guitarist wears a tattoo of the logo of Death in June, a band really into hate speech and white nationalism, and their band logo bears a strange resemblance with the German symbol called algiz rune, which was widely used within the Nazi Party and Nazi Germany.

Islam has spoken on the White House lawn, on talk shows such as Stephen Colbert and is well informed and well spoken on the politics of life, equality, peace and his religion. A wonderful soft spoken yet powerful man his speeches are inspiring and though provoking, and you don’t have to like “Peace Train” to appreciate it

A quarter of the year through 2013 and it is a bit of a loser. Music has been on a slow but constant trickle down ward since Black Eyed Peas failed to change EDM with The END. So many big bands have brought out bad albums over the past two years and if bad is too strong, just say whatever albums, let downs, nothing you will remember in three months from now. Some of them (Hi Justin Timberlake!) may well be on this very list.

1975 are a Manchester band four EPs into their synth rock pop career, they hadn’t left much of an impression earlier this year but seem to have started clicking now. “Not Coming Down” was the best moment of an excellent set on Saturday.

On stage, Modern Hut has a sort of surly self-deprecating sense of self. As if Joseph is somewhere between please and irritated to be on stage. I love it, it plays with the fourth wall very effectively and the songs? The songs are fabulous plain and simple.

The song starts with guitars in full-assault, Josh Homme’s commanding and blasting vocals, and some terrific drumming by their new drummer Jon Theodore from The Mars Volta. It’s as badass and empowering as anything they have done before, with an interesting mood change toward the end of the song.

Has it been four years since I called Leonard Cohen boring at Radio City Music Hall and got savaged by his many, many fans. Yes, it sure has. I was savaged not least because I wrote that he was a tenor when he is, of course, a bass. I saw Cohen again later in 2009 at MSG and still wasn’t convince. And though I quite like Old Ideas, and I am thoroughly enjoying Sylvie Simmons biography “I’m Your Man”, I wonder how I will like him this time around? Saturday, April 6th at Radio City Music Hall.

So here is the big boys of 2013 battling it out, Depeche Mode, Justin, Bowie, the Strokes -wow, it could be 1994, all rock modernists all the time but is the world at large any better for it? I’d just as soon listen to BPMs as most of this stuff.

So nothing of much interest right? We’ve been watching these songs flip about the top ten all year except… what the hell is a 1994 pop rap track doing at #1?? Well, apparently the rapping duo are now MCs of a TV variety show and were convinced to roll out the track after all these years, only to instantly sell 70,000 copies. Only in the UK, pop pickers.

Is there a more international music than dance? It cuts right across from Miami to Ibiza and beyond and in the case of Zedd, a 23 year old DJ, Russia, and Mark Schultz and Ferry Cortsen (aka New World Punx) Germany. Zedd wasn’t their but NWP were extremely impressive at a sold out Madison Square Garden Trance show Saturday night. Better than Moving Sidewalks at BB Kings earlier that very same evening.

The coolest thing about Adam Ant was that it was the first musician that my mom and I agreed on. That poor woman saw more shaved and booted rockers come through her home and woke to many a floor full of unconscious punks.

Where Can I Go – Laura Marling – This magnificent song puts Laura on the trjectory for a Joni Mitchell type career, a career that defines the apex of singer-songwriter artistry.

Taylor Swift – Prudential Center – March 27th, 2013 – Her third tour, fourth album and post-High School if not College, Red finds the woman in complete control of everything but her heart and more than able to present it in a devastating rock concert.

The track is a seductive piece of action, mixing Karen O’s unique sexy-animal vocals emerging from a tunnel of weird echoing synths and groovy bass. It’s a bit funky, dance-y, super catchy and intriguing at the same time. ‘No fun for a night on the town’, she meows while you see her walking around the stage with her long legs

Winner – Taylor Swift – The tabs raved uncontrollably over Taylor’s performance at the Prudential center last week, so did I. But my review was significantly better than the big boys, especially the Times who followed the worst hook in the world with the simply wrong comment that the Red tour had bigger production values than Speak Now. Speak Now was a bigger show though not better. Still, Swift shut all detractors up and rock nyc was there first and better.

United Tenors – Fred Hammond – The Gospel stars singing Tenor here include Dave Hollister and Fred Hammond, the latter’s secular God, Love, Romance from last year was chock filled with great songs. Which can’t be said for this album floundering, not on singing or production, both of which are very good, but on lousy songs of worship – B

As a long term fan of the Stones cover of the Reverends original take on story of the Prodigal Son, and with no fatted calf on any side of the story, though my sense of fairplay suggest the Good Son got screwed over big time, I appreciate and how that at its heart Wilkins original is as much Gospel and Blues as either and beats down to Jesus original concept: a social pact and how to mend the rip.