rock nyc

rock nyc

BBC's Radio 2 Top 10 Albums Of All Time (Annotated)

As part of a “Golden Age Of The Album” series, the listeners voted on the best albums of all time and what the hell Coldplay’s relentlessly mediocre second album is doing on the # 1 spot is beyond me. Not one album would’ve made my top ten (though several might have made my top 20)

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Hear Ye: What rock nyc Is Listening To 4-5-13

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.

rock nyc

Cold War Kids At Amoeba, Monday April 1st 2013

it was a large crowd for a stadium-sized sound, as the quintet did sound big and confident on the small stage, with singer Nathan Willet’s powerhouse falsetto vocals leading the game during their eight-song set. They started with two new songs off their brand new ‘Dear Miss Lonelyhearts’, first, ‘Loner Phase’, which had an interesting combination of dance-y beats and sweeping-bombastic synth wrapped by a sort of Depeche-More-meets-the Killers sound

rock nyc

Dom La Nena Interview: The Cello As Solo Instrument

When I thought about composing the songs I didn’t think it was possible to do it with only the cello, but when I stated writing I realized it was. I began to create loops and layers with only the cello, and arrived at a really layered sound and my own little orchestra

rock nyc

Stop Picking On Justin Bieber

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.

rock nyc

Morrissey's Hollywood High Show On DVD

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!!

rock nyc

US Top 10 Albums, April 13th, 2013

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.

rock nyc

US Top 10 Singles, April 13th, 2013

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.

rock nyc

Hear Ye: What rock nyc Is Listening To 4-4-13

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?

rock nyc

Texas Is The Reason At The Henry Fonda Theater, Saturday March 30th, 2013

Over the years, they sure have built a loyal follow-up, and the Henry Fonda theater seemed quite packed on Saturday night, filled with fans eager to see a band which just played one-off reunion show in 2006, but had basically turned down other offers,… until 2013. A few months ago, they headlined two shows in New York and Chicago to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their label

rock nyc

Golden Slumbers: Recent Deaths In The Music Comminuity

Phil Ramone produced Clay Aiken, Burt Bacharach, The Band, Bono, Laura Branigan, Ray Charles, Karen Carpenter, Chicago, Peter Cincotti, Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Sheena Easton, Melissa Errico, Gloria Estefan, Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, Elton John, Quincy Jones, Patricia Kaas, B. B. King, Julian Lennon, Shelby Lynne, Madonna…

rock nyc

CBGB's Movie Poster!

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?

rock nyc

Hear Ye: What rock nyc Is Listening To 4-03-13

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.

rock nyc

Milk Music At The Echoplex, Friday March 29th 2013

Their set was quite animated, there was a sort of Ariel-Pink-look going on with Alex Coxen’s bleached hair and shorts over tights, but he was producing some visceral open-throated vocals, and a nervous but triumphant feeling was coming from all that loud distortion, squalling and shredding. Dinosaur Jr.? Sure, but there was certainly more than this in their booming guitar solos

rock nyc

The Rise and Call of Muhammad, Featuring Yusuf Islam

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

rock nyc

Best Albums Through March 31st, 2013

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.

rock nyc

Sneak Peak: New Releases For The Week of April 1st, 2013

Absolutely zero doubt that Tyler The Creator is the man to beat this week, his new album Wolf is already among the best of 2013. And I am not certain Rio Kiley are the band for an odds and sods compilation, certainly “Let Me Back In” was pretty lousy and if you are waiting for a new “With Arms Outstretched” you better hurry they won’t wait, they also won’t provide it.

rock nyc

Iceage At The Echoplex, Friday March 29th 2013

You will read a lot of Joy Division comparisons in critics, and it is understandable based on the pessimistic ambiance they installed during their short set, it would certainly be difficult to top it, but I don’t know if I totally buy the whole Hamlet in hell, I-am-the-new-Ian-Curtis nihilistic approach. May be they don’t want to be compared to the 70s English band

rock nyc

"Uncle Alice Presents", Kickstarter Campaign

Cmon this guy has been around forever and has made more loot from bad eyeliner than anyone ever will. Granted this is not a musical endeavour but can he really not find an investor for his latest effort? OH, wait, guess what the project is…. A comic book series.

rock nyc

Active Viewin': Concert Picks For The Week Of April 1st, 2013

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.

rock nyc

UK Top 10 Albums, April 6th, 2013

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.

rock nyc

UK Top 10 Singles, April 6th, 2013

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.

rock nyc

Hear Ye: What rock nyc Is Listening To 4-1-13

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.

rock nyc

Hel Does SNL; Adam Ant

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.

rock nyc

Best Concerts Through March 31st, 2013

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.

rock nyc

For Those Who Thought We Were Done With Michelle Schocked's Story

She was dressed all in white, with a tape across her mouth with the words ‘Silenced by fear’ written on it, and she strummed her guitar while seated on the ground, in front of a few sentences she had written on pieces of paper pinned to a wall. She had even sent a few tweets earlier, inviting people to pick up a sharpie and write on her

rock nyc

Listen To Yeah Yeah Yeah's New Song, 'Under the Earth'

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

rock nyc

Winner And Loser Week Of March 25th, 2013: Taylor Swift And Cinderella

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.

rock nyc

Singles Going Steady: New Album Reviews Week Of March 25th, 2013

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

rock nyc

Hear Ye: What rock nyc Is Listening To 3-31-13

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.

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