rock nyc

Yet again Fall Out Boy think they signify more than they ever actually do. As a band, Fall Out Boy’s problem was a failure to connect song to content with the strength they seemed impelled to do so.

# 1 to # 3 are all new releases, none off Spotify, The problem with Will I Am isn’t that he is good or bad but that he sounds old and this sound needs to be brand spanking new to signify.. The Timberlake song stands head and shoulders above the rest of the album, and I actually prefereed “Step” to the excellent rockabilly VW “Diane Young”. Which suggests the new album will be a goodie.

Far below the surface of mainstream music, blues records were being made by Blind Willie McTell, Big Bill Broonzy, and a few others with scary adjectives in their names. The charts were more diverse than one might suspect – African- American performers Louis Armstrong, the Mills Brothers, and Cab Calloway were scoring hits

They did an acoustic version of “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark” and it’s a thousand times better than the original. The studio version is too over-edited and kind of obnoxious; I mean I still like it, but this is far superior.

The great thing about this consistently entertaining album is how it is forward and backward looking at the same time. The song are first and foremost modern pop but they are also long soundscapes, they are ambitious but only within the confines of their chilling esthetics

I don’t take my own music when I run a marathon, it’s simply too long, and it wears off my battery too fast. And I want to hear the entertainment, all along, especially the Randy Newman’s anthem ‘I Love LA’ at the start line, this is a tradition, and I suppose they could eventually replace it with a song with run in the title?

I’ve heard only one song off the new Billy Bragg and it is OK, not great, but I’ll take it. Love the title of the new Marnie Stern, worth getting just for that, and as for the Black Crowes? If they had kept their sense of proportion they could have been the Allman Brother’s for a different generation, much the way Phish are for the Dead. Instead? Here, take a live hits and scram.

# 6 through # 10 are reflections of the Dr. John gig last Saturday, # 1 and # 5 are because I got a tix to the BB King gig late April, and #2 and # 4 are part of the joys of editing Jon Pennington’s excellent Most Influential Posts Of The 1960s… if you aren’t reading it you should be.

Who would have thought that rock’n’roll life style was totally compatible with long distance running? I actually think there is nothing more punk rock than running a marathon! And I am such in good company when I know that Joe Strummer ran three

Bowie is on its way to being the best selling album of the year so far and Bon Jovi’s dire new album is in at # 2. Incidentally, why was Jon on Katie Couric discussing his daughters OD? To sell the new album, of course. Repulsive.

The pussycat gal is bland but poppy. Actually this entire top 10 is bland and poppy and it is still better than the US. The truth is, the single is a somewhat useless piece of product in 2013. Nobody knows what to do with it and the concept of a great single outside the realm of an album, which should be huge and was about to break huge before streaming happened, is disappearing.

40% of this is because of the Dr. John gig Saturday night. 10% of this is because I got a tix to see Sylvain Sylvain ar City Winery. 1% is the strangest Presley impressionist around. And the rest just general weirdness.

Mick Jones in that idiotic jumpsuit, Paul…being Paul and no Topper.. instead a Terry Chimes/Tory Grimes fill in of a fella…and Joe. Joe in freshly shaved Mohawk looking so fresh faced that its hard to think such power could come from mug

The Marling song is on a whole other planet. one of the biggest songs of the year. Bilal is shockingly great, a real surprise for me since I hated him at the Prince Tribute last week. Sweatshirt? I hope Tyler is this good next week. And Palma Violets live up to their best Brit rock band crown.

This is a 7pm show at Sidewalk Cafe (Avenue A) so my plan is to rush their Friday night, catch the great rocka nd roll voice Eric Contractor perform, I haven’t seen him in years, than rush over to MSG for Pink. I recommend you do the same thing but if you can only do one, this man has the voice of a young Orbison and looks like a young Clark Kent. Do your very best to represent for the big guy.

So Matlock played (even wrote) during the Sex Pistols greatest year and a half and Sylvain was an original Doll. At twenty bucks for the best seats, fifteen bucks for the cheap ones, no joke: go see em.

A Love Surreal – Bilal – This is neo-soul? The D’Angelo of post-soul 21st century soul music throws down his furst album in 9 years and it lives up to it Coltrane nod in its title -or almost. There are moments of free floating beauty, “Slipping Away” amd moments of Princely funk “The Flow”/ and jazz with the masterly pianist Robert Glasper on “Butterfly”. There isn’t a mistake in the lost ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A

“They’re soppin’ ‘n’ boppin’ ‘n’ moppin’ with Little Melvin and the Invaders” -that’s Bruce. “I have cursed, bled and sworn, jumped bail and landed up in jail. Life has often tried to stretch me but the rope always was slack.,” that’s Shane. And the moral of this story is lyric matters

So Bowie is going on tour? That was predictable since he has this new album ‘The Next Day’, but I am not talking about our Iman of course, but about Iman, Bowie’s wife! She (accidently?) told Grazia magazine:

Lets zip to Perth Australia where Axl whips the wireless microphone into the crowd knocking out a guys teeth. Nice one! One Darren Wright took it in the chops and now, it’s time for the law teams to get their groove on.

Even saying that I have a favorite song from Eyes Wide feels inaccurate considering the whole EP is really fantastic and doesn’t deserve to have favorites chosen from it. While I barely know anything about Boy, I still really love the music they left us with.

The Murphs kicked this hard at T5 and on reading up on the band I saw where they covered the Springsteen song on stage with the Boss a coupla years ago. I blew off Atoms for Peace (1am for a DJ set? I think I’ll pass) but I made up with Dr. John and Allen Toussaint at Town Hall tonight. Savages at Bowery Ballroom on Monday. The Who? I’ve reached Lifehouse in the Townshend memoir.

The cosmetic industry is one of the cruelest of all as it does repeated testings that would make you puke up a lung- notice I said repeated. Decades of the same torturous tests with the same result- just so your lips will be the perfect shade of pink.

That is pre 21st century type numbers and given neither “Suit And tie” nor “Mirrors” are not all that hot, it is clear what people love is Justin Timberlake

an exclusive look behind the scene was posted on YouTube, showing hairy producer Rick Rubin (who looks like a bit of a guru according to Ozzy) discussing the album and banging his head… lying on a bed?