rock nyc

Who?  In this whip fast world we easily forget things that happen just months ago.  Of course, you and all those t-shirt wearing celebs have forgotten about Lamb of God […]

I like the two newbies, #9 and #10 a whole lot, and congrats to Calvin for breaking US without Rihanna! Also, my niece mentioned that she never liked Justin till “Beauty And A Beat” so I guess it did its job and broke him out of teen idol category.

The top four are all newbies, well, Charlie Wilson is from last year. I can’t say I am a fan of the top two, but # 3 is a very very good one. Tegan And Sara? I am as shocked as you are….

Toast To Love – Avant – 90s soul man hasn’t lost a beat on his newest album, all old time r&b potboilers. The voice is the usual though he seldom goes up too high, and the production is new school but the song itself evoke the 1980s and the 1990s – Grade: B+

Though highly reminiscent of their old stuff (very circa ‘Infinity On High’), but also a bit more punchy and it absorbed Patrick’s Stump solo style. It’s a new and improved Fall Out Boy that I absolutely fell in love with.

tall lanky gent with movie star looks you would expect to be arrogant, his stage persona one of childlike playfulness and happy banter but face to face in a closed club he was more timid, more reserved more nervous in demeanor. It was this revelation that made Beckett a more interesting character.

They are recording it in a retreat outside Buffalo, NY and are listening to a lot of Aphex Twin and house records, they are not even using a real band but are recording it alone ‘cherry-picking the best parts of their free-form jams to construct tracks’.

The Killers are playing a Saturday night gig, may 18th, at Barclay center and I am gonna check it out. I don’t expect much but I expect something and the Killers are a band I feel as though I misunderstand on record.I think they have a secret and I will only be able to unlock it on stage

Perhaps when they get on stage in a mid( 500) summer nights dream they can transport us to a world where love does work out and happiness and even “sentimental hearts might find some peace somewhere.

Sneak Out The Back Door – Ron Sexsmith – No, it isn’t the extended sarcasm of “Get In Life” and there is no line as gasp worthy as the “spilt milk” reference. But it is the next best thing and with its hint of suicide, it is a stirring piece of songwriting – Grade: A

Brown feels persecuted when we all know his past, and his claim he is the crucified victim in the story sounds even more ironic when Ocean plays the magnanimous part, and forgives him,… a very Christ-like gesture.

A few suggestions are floating around, MV could stand for Martha’s Vineyard where the album was recorded, and Spin magazine has a few super silly suggestions beside ‘Martha’s Vineyard On The Cape’, such as ‘More Viagra Over The Counter’, or ‘My Valentine Ordered Takeout Chinese’

Be real, what sort of elitist life was she leading before this? Pussy Riot staged its punk prayer protest at Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral on February 21, 2012, appealing to the Virgin Mary to ‘throw Putin out’..

This might well be Trixie’s week but Kris’ song of imminent mortality is sure giving her youthful angst a run for its money. -or maybe because I am much closer to Kris’s age than Trixie’s. Neither the Wayne nor the Kingsbury are out yet but you can stream KB here.

she found now – My Bloody Valentine – This is the shoegaze to beat all shoegazers, a introspective self-absorbed swirl of sonic guitar wallpaper par excellence. This will launch another dozen bands trying to recreate this feeling of a space drift – Grade: A

I have seen this band live three times I believe and to see them actually return from hiatus is something I thought would never occur. The band seemed to go south the moment Pete Wentz married and became a dad.

The tune slowly builds up an atmosphere which sounds as familiar as foreign: it seems I have heard this kind of thing before, but am I really listening to an Iron and Wine’s song

I swore to Iman that rocknyc would never stoop so tabloid to discuss a legends urine. Never. We have class! But this is actually news worthy. Morrissey took to the keyboard to write to his fans in explanation of what exactly went down

On a night that finds Marissa Paternoster back from illness to lead Screaming Females once more again, I have to give the nod to David Bronson and the Long Lost at Fontana’s Saturday night at 10pm. My peers, who claim “today’s music don’t have the same soul, should try Bronson’s whose voyage of discovery (part two!) Story was the prog folk 70s modern rock opera to beat last year. And he doesn’t play live nearly enough. I’ve never seen him in person and I can’t resist it. An absolute must see.

I have only heard one song off Opposites and it is alright. unlike Andrea Bocelli’s dreaded opera lite. I’ve heard nothing off Jools Holland latest but I did interview back in the day when he was with Squeeze. Otherwise it is back to Rihanna for my pop kicks, I guess.

The Pitbull song is still hanging around? All a little 2012 isn’t it. I mean this entire chart feels moldy round the edges, after all this is 2013 and we expect Pitbull to act like it, ha ha ha. Zigga Zigga Zall…

Hurt – Johnny Cash – Cash takes Trent Reznors ode to self-immolation and turns it into a back door vision of death stranded in his quickly decaying body. Cash sounds very very old, he seems to be knocking on heavens door and heavens door is getting ready to let him in and the result is a cover that belongs more to Cash than Reznor – Grade: A+

May be you have made sense of the whole statement, may be not,… it doesn’t matter, this is typical of them, pretending to have the beginning of the answer (to the meaning of life?) and throwing obscure statements about life, love, and death… and other omnipresent Lips’ themes.

There is much to be said about the 80’s and Geldof and his dililgence was something so admirable that no matter what his rockstar persona was- he is still quite simply an upright guy.

Believe Acoustic – Justin Bieber – Partying like it’s 3020 ain’t what it used to be on this dreary six string version of the pretty crappy to start with original album plus three songs,. Those three include the completely asinine farewell to Selena the piano based “Nothing Like Us”, a pretty good reason alone for Selena to dump the cretin. Forget the terrible, generic lyric, the melody is just… actually I don’t think there is. As always, “Boyfriend” is the exception – Grade: D

At the time it seemed overlong and a little winded, and while it won on points, and it won on its best moments of which there were quite a few, there were stretches that didn’t take off. But now, it seems like a flawed masterpiece where the lenth of the show let it not build but flow in intensity.

Started From The Bottom – Drake – Ominous sample and an auto tune vocal on a loop going round and round which, in typical Drake fashion makes bragging feel like a form of deep deep depression. In other words: Awesome – Grade: A-

The melody of the song carries a dance with it and the video simply shows everyone dancing along as they should. In various situations, we see angry people who are touched in some way by The Mowgli’s and, in a burst of color and shapes, the once angry are made happy and full of love