Perseverance pays off for Ellie, who is playing MSG at some point this summer and was pretty good the only time I’ve seen her to date -opening for Katy Perry! The rest of this list is up to nothing much but it could be worse.
I’ve got few problems with this chart, I mean it is what it is, right? Nice to see the excellent “Timber” at the top of the charts and while there are a coupla dogs here, mostly it isn’t that bad. Not the worst way to jump start 20140
It is so difficult to ‘shock’ anymore in entertainment that we consider chicks like Miley Cyrus controversial. Gimme a break and better yet give her one. When bands used to spit or puke on you, or better yet piss and defecate on you (thanks GG Alin!) sticking your tongue out and rubbing your ass on Robin Thick is child’s play.
On the stage of the Echoplex, Lo-Fang, real name Matthew Hemerlein, had hardly started his set of romantic, breezy, and emotional songs. The stage was very dark and I could barely see the two other musicians, a girl on keyboard and a drummer, but Hemerlein was himself switching between guitar and violin
Her mother is performance artist Marla Mase and the Tomas Doncker Band plays back up and if that wasn’t reason enough to check her out Wednesday night at the Cutting Room, then how about this? This is the release party for her excellent Burden To Bear debut album.
Yes folks, money attracts money and rock stars have money and the GOP will tax em less so that leaves rock stars between wanting to look like Bob Dylan but be taxed like General Electric.
When you don’t have a car in Los Angeles, you are almost like a handicapped person, right? No way! As long as I have legs I will use them and I decided to go to this free show at the Echo during this very-slow-show-week (it’s always like this between Christmas and NYE in Los Angeles) despite my lack of motor vehicle.
I say its 2 Warped Tour runs and out. You shouldn’t be able to bank on this tour every year and you would expect that bands wouldn’t want to do it over and over. Of course, caravaning is much less expensive and the ‘vibe’ is cool but c’mon, move over and let the new kids in.
“As if all the emotion and gorgeous lyricism wasn’t enough, then comes a bit of humor. “This is for the lake that me and my friends swim in, naked and dumb on a drunken night and it should’ve felt good but I can hear the Jaws theme song on repeat in the back of my mind.””
I’m sure I’ll discover more songs from 2013 that would displace some of these entries, but this is a solid list. If you haven’t heard “City Swan” by Neko Case or “Turn the Radio On” by the Suburbs, I highly recommend you check them out. Also, the entire Christianity meets old school funk album by the Relatives is a wah-wah pedal, fuzztone gas.
All their Cadence material is a must but more than that, so many songs: “Cathy’s Clown”, “Till I Kissed You”, “Wake Up Little Suzy”… on and on, they are the lexicon of rock love songs.
Their set had a 80s-dance music revival flavor, no doubt about it, but at the same time it was complex, full of disco loops, funky bass, and even a bit tropical. It was at time so layered and buoyant than I had the impression they were playing several tracks at the same time
Martin trusts us enough not to make us choke on the moral, he assumes we realize that people’s lives have been destroyed by this repulsive monster and his cohorts greed, just as Wall Street is destroying the US. But he glamorizes what he despises and in the end it is just, well, a decadent bore.
I know you think it should be Neil Young but my feeling is John Newman is gonna be brilliant on Thursday at Bowery Ballroom. Completely sold out of course, but that’s because everybody is ready for the new soul rebel who has fronted a couple of Rudimental’s best song and whose own album is about to release Stateside.
I mean, c’mon, he was half naked for 3 straight minutes in that “Girls/Girls/Boys” video. It’s like the same concept of Miley Cyrus, just a bit let scandalous. He knows how he sings a note will determine how many people download the song or the odds of it getting on the radio. He’s a manipulative genius.
. Last year, the Summerstage preview consisted of Shuggie Otis, who went on to enjoy a first rate year, Joshua Nelson who was all over the Mahalia Jackson tribute and DJ Kool Herc, and, as I am sure we all remember, 2013 was the 40th anniversary of the birth of hip hop; the theme of 2013. So now it is 2014 and the theme? Glad you asked because my bet is the theme will be the 75th Anniversary of Blue Notes records.
The video ‘Why Country Music Was Awful in 2013’ basically compiles a bunch of country songs (released this year I guess), and gathers samples by themes: ‘trucks’ (yeah a lot of trucks) driving ‘old dirt roads’, and loaded with ‘girls’ ‘wearing tight blue jeans’, to go to the nearest ‘river bank’, when ‘the sun goes down’, while drinking the ‘good stuff’ (meaning a good old beer),
My bet: everything else notwithstanding, I bet they’ll settle their difference and tour. … two miserable old men doing it for the money, perhaps. But it is a lot of money and if they perform “Harry Rag” I will personally flip out.
On March 31st (a Monday) Black Sabbath are performing at Barclay Center and I must admit, the years have mellowed me. Not only did I appreciate “Is God Dead?”, I also loved oldies like “Ironman” -possibly heavy metals most heavily metal song of them all.
it is true that, for some reasons, people are desperately looking for this sort of communal moment on NYE, this togetherness and falling-in-the-arms-of-a-stranger feeling and so far we didn’t have it. Then, the fact that the city had offered free rides by train or bus from 9 pm to 2 am was definitively a plus
Sha lah lah la mu’lady”, its hilarious in its smarm but in it’s day I am sure it fired up some backseat passion. The wailing guitars are second only to the intense backing vocals. C’mon whens the last time you fell down laughing in the wet grass?
“but this man is truly, in more than one way, a hero. He’s an individual who is not exploiting mental illness, but empowering and helping those who deal with it. It’s beautiful and he does it simply through music in a way that so few can really accomplish.”
New Year’s Eve At The Gates Of Hell – Ray Wylie Hubbard – Back in the day, young Steve Crawford bonded over this instantaneous classic as Ray wonders what he did to deserve this before noting that God outsources to the devil -Amen, I say – A
1.3M and counting for Beyonce and except for the tenacious Ms. Clarkson who keeps it wrapped in red even after Santa has been and gone, everybody else is moldy left overs.
Not much to think about here, right? The bloody charts haven’t moved in a month and here is a question, where the heck is young Beyonce? Surely XO should have hit the charts by now? I hope they don’t think “Drunk In Love” is gonna put it just because her husband is on the track.
I don’t know what is floating your boat in 2014, but I am eagerly awaiting the new Marla Mase and Kevin Jenkins. I’ve heard some of the new Marla Half Life dropping February and would be surprised if it doesn’t emerge as one of the best albums of 2014. Meanwhile, I’ve been busy cutting and pasting for you in 2014
In the world of websites I hate most in the music world, Pitchfork reign supreme if only because they are such insufferably pompous jerks (nothing personal, guys) , which is why it is an especially pleasure to cut and paste their hard work and hand it of to you.
To me, the shocker is how great the extra songs on The Next Day are; if you save two songs from the initial release and add it to the newer songs you have a serious contender for the album of the year. Something the original release certainly wasn’t.
people trust him. He does the right thing by them. Before last night you could never imagine him portraying the hubris Springsteen so often does, Joel is too smart, too professional. Yet here he is and there is another track from Songs In The Attic.
We here at rocknyc are steady and reliable. We have been coming at you for almost 5 years now and you can take comfort in the fact that we’re going to keep coming at you. Better? Improved? I don’t know, maybe but if is its not a conscious effort.
While I’ve claimed 2013 wasn’t much of a year, I did find 137 albums to love and really managed to spend every waking moment listening to music I loved so what I guess I mean is that it was a directionless year, there was no sense of a future within its grasp or a music scene that could unite us. In other words: 2013 was a year floating in space.
472 songs, over 30 hours of music, and all of this is good stuff, worth your interest and admiration. Some of it is more than that, my top song and Modern Hut’s “History” are important exposes of the world and its sins. Angry, pained, shaken, and walking through the mirror, they are as great as protest gets.
I don’t think I’ll ever go to this many concerts again in a year! I’m exhausted and by the time I reached December I was getting dimishing returns. I guess that’s age for you, right? Still, despite a terrible Jingle, a good year for concerts, and a surprise finish with a spectacular set by Bobby Womack.
To call it less than nihilism is to misunderstanding what it means to believe in nothingness, in an end where even time has no meaning, where everything has ceased to exist. We like to call this an existential bummer.
It is the sine qua non of rock, it is the post-rock and roll foundation vastly sturdier than psychedelia or any form of prog rock: the Ramones used it, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Titus Andronicus -worlds, universe of sound got their first lesson in how to do it through the Velvet Underground.
Klein doesn’t take a brush to his pictures, he manipulates their shadings online, deepening with sepia colorings on this one of a Springsteen rehearsal before the 2009 Superbowl, by making the sight heavenly, otherworldly and thick as the cream at the top of a bottle of milk.
Tomas always sees a better tomorrow, he always sees a world where everything gets better through love and community and while he bristles in anger which his eleven piece band feeds off, in the end his answer is one voice, one love.
Jamaican reggae songwriter, sprang to prominence when Luke “Scratch” Perry agreed to produced “Police And Thieves” back in 1976. Which Junior only a minor hit but the Clash covered just a year later and it became the theme song for the Notting Hill riots back in 1977.
Spirit Of The Mountain – Bob Dylan – No chorus but who needs one with a bridge this smart, it flows like a river and it shimmers on your consciousness as an adult, maybe even senior, love song, “You think I’m past my prime?” Dylan asks, “let me see what you got….” Sublime way to end the year- A
Watching Mat, you could notice his focus and his voice was fantastic and the lyrics really resonated. For me, Elvis Depressedly always felt like a persona, not a person. Seeing it right in front of me made it feel so incredibly real and solidified my love for them.
The two revelations here are Cody Chestnutt’s superb r&b album from late 2012 and Bernie Worrell’s brilliant new album which opens with Miles Davis and closes with Bob Marley and in between is a subtle and beautiful jazz masterwork for piano.
“I grew proud to be a part of my local scene. This band has a ridiculous amount of potential and I know that they’re going to just continue growing- to be able to have just seen them in their living room before they get massively popular is really freakin’ cool.”
This mix of harangued fury, industrial strength beats and wildly brilliant samples have lived alone with mostly rock critics and rap geeks flipping out and the rest of the world.
Christmas albums past 12-26 are like fireworks Past November 5th (English reference folks, you can use July 4th if you like), useless, embarrassing, you kinda wonder how you got suck into the entire mess and you don’t wanna even think it till after Thanksgiving.
Maybe I underestimated the Avicii track, the instrumental bridge is pretty good. I wonder why “Happy” got a second life? That one take video of a woman dancing to it? Maybe??? Otherwise, everything is still place and we wait for the rest of our lives to begin!!
Sweet Baby James – James Taylor – Written for his nephew when his nephew was still a baby, it remains a self-portrait and a lullaby to loneliness and aloneness and late night fears put away and rocked to sleep – A+
I went to see the Knicks at Madison Square Garden a week before, the Knicks lost, and it is the exact same thing as this set. Exactly. That’s what it felt like at the Phish concert. You come in with hopes, they play lacklustre for three hours, put on a sport to get it close and then it’s over. Better luck tomorrow.
This sounds like a downer and it is, but remember, great music restores truth with art and in song after song this is what Jahn and his terrific band do, songs are lovely as “Black Water Blues”, “Walk The Other Way”, full on romantic loss “Under The Moon”, “Hang Together” spotted among the biggest moments and held together by Xavier’s astounding vocal tour de force.
There is something about Laura which is less naiveté repressed and more privilege expressed; it comes across as a form of feminism: a sort of proto-rock star unwillingness to be signed up for anything approaching a long term commitment : she lies back, she stands up, next verse.
Billy Joel will be doing the working and I will be doing the dancing at his Barclay Center New Year’s Eve gig. The first song of the New Year will be going out live on ABC! I wasn’t crazy over his 12-12-12 performance, but he has been on the money way too often for me to give up the chance to spend NYE with him
