The band is tight without being slick, the rhythm section a good one and the sound as memorable as the songs they sing. Imagine if Ronnie Spector covered “She’s The One” -there’s the vibe. That good? I have to admit it, the Normal Living is that good.
While sounding like the quintessential MCR song, it lacks I think something remarkable to make it go from being a good song to being fan-fuckin-tastic. That isn’t to say “Surrender the Night” is bad, just uninteresting
Why would ANYONE auction the priceless tangibles of a punk rock icons life? Money. Its a great idea the guy will make a mint but the thought of Joey being a commodity really clocked me in the gut.
I am beyond proud of Mumford and Sons for winning Album of the Year for their release “Babel”. I already named it the Album of the Year in my “Best of 2012” post; I couldn’t have called it any better. I teared up when I saw the tweets and texts from my friends about it;
He was already the king of TV a day before when hosting SNL but he also wanted this Grammy night to be his? This sounded like a terrible desperate-for-attention moment for the Bieb which turned to be a total flop
she has always been an attractive woman and of course this participates into the making of a more Caucasian look of her. Blame it on our racist and conformist society, but it’s a sad ascertainment a mixed race woman, who has reached the alpha female status, feels the need to do that.
Rock music is not movies and a Grammy is not an Oscar. It is an irrelevance when your job is changing lives a generation at a time (at least in theory). If I was a teenager in 2013 I would consider rock and roll to almost beyond redemption
Who could it be? fun. are too big, Shinobi Ninja too small. And neither represent a movement…
Your Painted Smile – Bryan Ferry – I was really surprised to discover Ferry’s 1996 masterpiece Mamouna is not available on digital. Indeed, a chunk of his best albums are not around on digital. I saw Ferry in concert pushing this album and I have never seen him better and I have seen him a great deal. This is a glamorous thing of haunted beauty (and it is digitalized on the More Than This hits album) – Grade: A
Fitz and the Tantrums are back with a new track off their upcoming record ‘More Than Just a Dream’, and honestly I didn’t expect this tamed sound from this R&B-bluesy band so wild on stage
Its the week of love…unless you’re looking for music on television. My theory that Tuesday was the best night for bands on late night got shot out of this water this week
Lovesick Blues – Chris Stamey – Eleven slices of Stamey stamped power pop, from the at the very least difficult dB. Three of them, including the title track with a near perfect strings drenched coda and one with Andy Partridge arranging the strings, are as good as it gets when it comes to still Big Star still influenced pop music. And the rest? A little boring – Grade: B
Back in full glory the bands tour sold out in seconds. Stub Hub became the saving grace for many but not all. There were ‘car crash hearts’ broken fans who sobbed openly knowing they wouldn’t be part of Mays shows.
The new song ‘Family’ is very much in the same vein than his previous material, it works in-the-urgency with a devilish but sweet rhythm which is revisiting some old-school rock ‘n’ roll, engaging into some serious body-shaking thanks to crashing cymbals and tearing guitar, repainting the whole thing with a rawer and bluesier color.
I know you probably think the Courteeners are the sort of English rock band who pun on an obscure English car, and you are right of course, but they are probable the best band from Manchester around right this minute and Manchester being Manchester, that actually means something. I’ve streamed the album and on First listen Anna is the real thing, at least till the two thirds mark.
The week belongs to Grime King Dizzee Rascal, and I gotta tell you, “Bassline Junkie” is absolutely great. It is about as funky and as bass heavy and as flat out funny as you thought it might be if you really thought about it. The video is fun as well. Hmm, Fall Out Boy and Tinie Tempah are here as well…
Kelly Willis is always excellent so I am thrilled she has a newbie, and Bryan Ferry? Still recycling his catalog but why not? But I am not the only one who has been waiting since November for the release of the new Pissed Jeans albums. I’ve only heard two tracks, one is a masterpiece and the other one isn’t.
Apple Scruffs – George Harrison – Imagine this, Harrison was THE WEAK LINK IN THE BEATLES. A wonderful ode to the Beatle super fans, who waited outside the Apple HQ, day after day, year after year. The harp just rules this track – Grade: A+
On stage Bronson is a complete pro. He manages his band and and his audience with a gentle smartness. Despite the makeshift nature of the set, after Superstorm Nemo stranded a couple of members of the band despite the lack of rehearsal time or God knows a soundcheck, and despite the shortness of the set, Bronson triumphed
Personally I like Jimmy Fallons impersonation of Bieber better than Bieber but I’m just that way. The limping Saturday Night Live has grabbed this kid as host and musical guest in hopes of…….anything
Why am I being conned into doing business with Jann Wenner? Why should I have to cancell anyuthing? This is horrible and disrespectful to LiveNation’s clients, doesn’t the company make enough money without hoodwinking customers iinto subscribing to a magazine they have expressed ZERO interest in?
I remember having this weird vision of this odd Elliott statue in front of the wall,…Elliott, the last person on earth who would have wanted to have a statue erected for him…Today, I have the feeling we will never see this sculpture.
Jesse Lacey is a lyrical god, it’s angsty and brilliant musically. It’s a gorgeous album that tells a beautiful story. “Jude Law and a Semester Abroad” is one of those songs that as soon as the chorus hits, you feel the urge to scream it at the top of your lungs
In the latest rock band to play the suspense -surprise axis, the popular in the 2000s emo band Fall Out Boy reformed after a four year hiatus. released a, frankly, lousy single and sold out a huge US tour, just about instantaneously
MBV have one of the great songs of the year here, as does Gary Wilson and Scott Krokoff (Krokoff late 2012) and while I don’t much care for what Fall Out Boys I never really did and I don’t hear much rust on em. Absolutepunk loved them in L.A. a coupla days ago.
Actually, I have tix for Lulu at BB Kings and Maroon 5 at MSG, so I plan to stay with Lulu till around 915 and then dash like hell to MSG and miss the first half hour or so of Maroon 5. M5 are awesome live and Lulu is a legend and I just have to see the Shout-er whose personal life alone reads like a who-whos of 70s rock. Being married to Maurice Gibb is one thing, dating David Bowie something else entirely. And managing both in one life time… Any way, Saturday night. M5 is sold out so if you don’t have a tix choose Lulu.
The Right Chemistry – Goldenboy – Alyson Camus faves bury the vocals so low they are like shoegaze meets lo-fi so-cal and a bridge that goes from brown to blue and a pretty good back up singer adding ooohs and ahhhs. All it needs is a synth and darker lighting! – Grade: A-
The picture, which was taken by Linder Sterling at a private party in 1992, shows both men acting quite friendly at the time but things have really changed and, according to a Morrissey fan site, ‘Bowie has ordered EMI UK not to run the proposal artwork’,
In the sense, is it too obviously political? ‘The Left is Right’… Can you be more direct than this? Desaparecidos sure doesn’t use any nuances for these new ones and I wonder whether art is really efficient when the meaning jumps at your face so vividly, when there is no mystery left… but, I know, that’s the point of Desaparecido, I should go listen to Bright Eyes for the cryptic meanings.
“Don’t” is what popular rock and roll used to be, easy to sing along, a contracted guitar break, and a feel good (and self referring) message, “don’t ever quit or you’ll never know”.
Inspired by exciting yet technically challenged groups like the Buzzcocks, Undertones, and The Damned, the Adverts were non-musicians ready for stardom. In 1977, the group released their first single on Stiff Records, “One Chord Wonders”
Manslaughter cuz your fan fell off the stage smacked his head and died… years ago.
[O’Neil is a ] fucking hood rat who is suing me for money that she didn’t earn. She thinks she’s just, like, the queen of the universe… And, you know what, she didn’t want to be a slave to one, because in my work and what I do, I’m the queen of the universe every day.’
Video Star is a sign of a future arriving where technology is dirt cheap and everybody is a star if they have the ability and creativity of Miriam and Rosie. The future is here.
News arrived Thursday that a German company is planning a biopic based on the time Iggy Pop and David Bowie (and one assumes Brian Eno!) spent living and recording in West Berlin in the mid-70s, which brought the world such masterpieces as Low and Lust For Life. Two albums which seem to exist in opposite universes from each other and ourselves
Jim James has had one of the above for the past through years, good for moving a couple 100K of albums (half of that for the solo stuff) but no way to run a recording career.
Wide Lovely Eyes – Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – We’ve been waiting for Push The Sky Away for year and upon year and to be honest, gaving streamed it maybe twice, I would dub it midseason Cave. Not bad, sure, but a little dowdy maybe. Except for this full bloodied piano ballad which is so beautiful it kinda stops your breathe. Prettiest song I’ve heard since Regina’s “How” – Grade: A
Go here right this second and get a ticket to Atoms For Peace 11pm show March 14th, 2013. They went on sale at 1030am so HURRY!
Yesterday, on BBC radio, the song “Retrograde” debuted. And it’s fantastic. It’s rich with the thick, subtly shifting chords that Blake is known for, but it’s easier to listen to than anything he’s done before. It’s not dumbed down, it’s just honest-to-goodness pop. Dark, complex pop
Marr has spent an awful lot of time being a bridesmaid. Shame on him. He should have fronted up a solo group long ago. But we’re going to let that slide now because he has finally gone and done it.
Ah but there is transcendence at the end, there is a luminescent light at the end of this dark alley, and you have no idea how far a nipple in your mouth can bring you
Gloria’s life includes a bus crash and infertility and a truck load of ‘oh I’m a Latin woman in ‘the biz’ type crap- oh and her husband is in on it too. There should be a Broadway board of directors who just rubber stamp “GTFO” on ideas like this.
And this was enough to start the rumor that RATM may have something coming up, a tour? An album? So far, nothing of this sort is scheduled
Make It With You – Bread – David Gates could sure write a terrific melody and this mainstream beauty of wimp rock stands as a seduction so sweet, he means both make it thru life and make out, it remains a memory of a kindre gentler world – Grade: A+
Mastercard only and the presalecode is Masterbey
I saw GNR around 8 years ago at Hammerstein Ballroom and take it from me pop pickers, Axl is the real deal. Plus, I might well be in the minority here but I thought Chinese Democracy was a great, great album.
The singing is tedious and professional and so is the orchestra, this is a passionless drag and though both my niece (who is 40 years old) and my Great Niece (who is 10 years old) liked it, I bet they can’t name one song.
All this overflow of super-positive emotions, all these uplifting oo-ooos, all these power choruses on ecstasy, all this jumping around could have either turned me nauseous or totally happy,…
Why should the age people died be so interesting… Presley was 42. Now I don’t know how old you are but 42 years old is at least an interesting age to die..
The chances of you getting tickets by clicking on the Live Nation site on Friday at 10am are pretty slim- sorry kids it will sell out and it will happen fast and well aren’t you supposed to be in school?
