# 2 and # 3 are both true indies and what has become clear in 2013 is that bands can break without major label distribution though it isn’t remotely easy. Indeed, it is the equivalent of winning the lottery. Despite all the hard work behind, there is a huge element of dumb luck.
Sweet Tooth – Teena Marie – From the best album of 2013 (so far), an old fashioned metaphor with a sexy Lil Kim sounding rap, a great back beat and organic orchestration… and a little French for taste. Touche Ole – Grade: A
Buried inside the layers of reverb and psych-fuzz, the songs certainly had hooks and even 60s harmonies, à la Brian Jonestown Massacre (this is actually the first name I wrote when I heard the first song) or could it have been The Jesus and Mary Chain?
This latest announcement shows, I think, the great thing about Warped Tour: little known groups like For The Foxes play alongside well established bands like Goldfinger. It’s this aspect of the whole “discovering new music at Warped”
“I am going to tell you about my experience on the road with one of the most downright ungrateful and selfish person I have ever met. You can take it or leave it, but this is my story.”
In the name of vanity animals have dyes and chemicals injected into their eyeballs to see if they’ll have a reaction.
A sort of quixotic quest to bring the African American working class into the (musical) theater. I mean, August Wilson this ain’t. Personally, I think Tomas Docker’s “The Power Of The Trilogy” is a better attempt but then again, Tomas doesn’t have the name recognition, just the songs.
‘when I saw you wear a dress made out of raw meat, I was sickened. When I see you wearing fur and you use it as a fashion statement, that defenseless animals have been killed so you can get your picture in the press is abhorrent to me’
We missed the February 2009 New Line On The Horizon (rock nyc started in April 2009) and I feel terrible about all the sneering, snotty posts I didn’t write. Cmon guys, release the album now this minute!!!
Nothing really blew me away and part of the reason is that new R&B’s prime attribute appears to be to take the thought process of hip hop self-love and give it a hangover.
We live in a society where boys can’t play cowboys and indians without getting sanctioned, a society where are natural violent feelings are given NOWHERE TO BE USED AS PLAY, and therefore are not subsumed into our Super Ego, the way they are meant to be.
The Greatest Albums of all time don’t change all that much in my book, one gets in, one goes out, but Presley and the Beatles tend to battle for second place and Hendrix always wins first place. In the end, there is no rock music as we know it without Hendrix and if that didn’t make the album important enough, it was a pop music move at the time and remains a slice of history and a stab of pop.
The problem is , just as in watching The Munsters or other ‘old’ campy stuff- its dated. What was cool in 1988 isn’t so cool now
Slide – Jake Bugg – What Jake can do it, which isn’t at first visible, is nail a metaphor. Here he compares a bad romance with sliding on a frozen sea. Not a bad concept. On stage, this was the highlight of his show. A powerful encore with the sort of vocal, rich and full of feeling, he didn’t seem to bother with the rest of the night – Grade: B+
Bowery Ballroom was sold out but if anybody thought they were gonna be seeing the next big think might have to wait a little while, the kid has to grow into his role. Bland not bad. Talented lyricist, OK songwriter and singer, a miss on stage.
It is in this sheer explosion of song and dance that make me love the video, song, and artist even more. There is very little that is poetic about the song, obviously, but it needn’t be – considering the song itself is fantastic enough that I blast it any and every time I party.
The Traveling Wilburys were the rare supergroup that deserved that designation and Public Enemy pushed rap music into a more stringent and confrontational direction. And if you haven’t heard Gary Stewart’s “An Empty Glass,” you’re missing out on one of country music’s most eloquently heart wrenching drinking songs
Fol Chen is a mysterious, eccentric and experimental indie band from Los Angeles, led by producers Samuel Bing and Julian Wass, and they had disappeared from my radar for a little while since their residency at the Echo two years ago.
The band thesemlves are playing Bowery Ballroom on April 13th, and if you give a damn about hrdcore or humor it is the concert of the season. Miss it at your peril.
The song is really a skewed and odd mystical journey. In this live version below its a bit more trippy than the studio version. “It makes me wonder”.. ‘if theres a bustle in your hedgerow- don’t be alarmed now”, what the fuck is he on about? Intruders?
OK, Karen O is cool enough and I wanna see em live which I never have because last time they played I had a tix to see Costello filming that talk show of his and blew off KO for EC. A mistake sincethe filming went on for bloody years and Costello was about as boring a bastard as you’d ever wish to listen to and nearly as lousy an interviewer as I was with poor ol’ People Get Ready.
I tried to listen to them, and it was painful. The Norah Jones’ track is a classic old-fashioned jazzy Hollywood-feel-good one, some extremely groundbreaking stuff that old white people love to death, whereas the Scarlett Johansson-sung track is one slow icy-bore
From Phoenix Arizona these guys are offering a big sound with some dynamic layers. Vocalist Zac Erfort has the swoon factor that will send the teenage girls woozy and thankfully the strength of guitarist Justin Grubb offer something for the boys in the crowd to relate to
Mazur gives some history, Felline, 8 ½ Weeks, you know the drill, than shows some car accidents, shows a Papparazzi’s case for the defense, builds up on the terror the celebrities go through in the big cities, Miami, Hollywood, New York, blames the tabs who buys em, gets into the history of gossip and bails out 90 minutes later, none the wiser
“I think at some time I kept pushing myself to a success or glory and it didn’t really exist. I just knew that it was over, I would never get any bIgger than this and… I am nearly 30, I am not sure I felt it was ALL RIGHT… I CAN LIVE WITH IT. But can I?”
Close Chorus – A Sunny Day In Glasgow – The revolving harmonies on the top of this songs are so lovely, the melody starts large and keeps growing till the song is getting engulfed and the two voices go into counterpoint, as they sing solo then join together there is a disquiet very feminine sense of anthem – Grade: A-
I was ready for depression and a drug-induced coma, but all this was making the songs really difficult to differentiate from each other. Then, they let a little bit of light enter their darkness, oh I am not talking about light and upbeat, but at least ‘Zombies like Lovers’ had a faster tempo
The daughter of Will Smith who ‘whipped her hair back and forth’ is now hipster cool with lyrics like ‘I try to be sugar and spice, but I’m melancholy and can’t do anything right.” Oh, Jesus is this rich girl pre-teenaged self loathing
There was no whistles to announce the video, it unexpectedly appeared one morning as if it was a natural thing, and Bowie said he didn’t want to give any interviews, didn’t want to tour…
Considering at the time of writing this Visconti had only three thousand followers that wasn’t a huge news blast. Well, that just shows you how powerful the ‘retweet’ is. Considering this was only retweeted 270 times
Neither of the songs are all that but neither are disasters either. But were helped tremendously by a campaign of silence, the new meme: Say Nothing.
Some small pop up place with Mercury Lounge size bands performing three sets a day, Saturday and Sunday 10a, 12p, 2p, separate admission. I can’t think of a better idea than getting out of bed Sunday morning and rushing to a concert I really wanna see.
I like Dropkick Murphys fine but when I go to T5 on Wednesday March 13th (they are also playing the night before) it will be the first time I’ve seen em live and I am actually a little excited. T5 is a hell hole but I have a feeling these Irish Americans can fill the voice. I just wish it was six days later.
I grew to love Cohen over the past four years and am ready to try it again and admit my sins. At the scene of the crime, Radio City Music Hall, on April 6th.
No doubt at all the A$AP Rocky, Chris Owens, Yo La Tengo and Free Energy albums are all biggies, the biggest of them all is the release of the late and truly lamented Teena Marie, who died at 54 years old and whose 14th album, which was working on it at the time of her death, will be released.
What Goes Round/…Comes Around -Interlude – Justin Timberlake – Sure I was at MSG when they filmed the HBO Special, with my niece Hyam, and we were both stunned by Timberlake’s performance. Especially his dancing… nah, especially this terrific song performed at the piano – Grade: A+
This is an OK slice of disco, the horns are lovely, vocals on point, rap non offensive, and the entire enterprise is smart enough AOP -adult oriented pop. Timberlake is in great voice, he has lost nothing at all from his top end. And while the song goes nowhere it glitters in place
“You have us moving around and we’re also singing and their making noises and they’re swinging stuff around and that’s making noise and so all these things are part of a real sonic landscape that is made up of both movement and music.”
Bruce Springsteen contemplated married life and The Replacements saluted a Memphis legend and worked with The Memphis Horns. R.E.M. released their most muscular album while the Grateful Dead had a Top Ten pop hit.
Hildegard von Bingen was a 12th century German Catholic saint, who was also a writer and composer and philosopher! I wonder how Banhart got into this mystic character, but this is what happens when you have a wild imagination
From small things, baby, Bowie took three albums to get his bearings but once he did, with album # 4. it was a great ride of pop music changing sound for a decade where Bowie was the greatest rock and roll star of all time. Then two things happened, punk and a pop star superstar lull from which he never got back his bearings. In 2003 Bowie retired and early last week he released a new song. Buckle down Bowie fans, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride
The concert was broadcast live to 40 countries, including Australia, but in the USA the show was delayed until April 4 so as not to conflict with MGM’s Elvis On Tour movie that was in movie theaters at the time.
Honestly this soft empty platitude for a comeback? How are they going to energize the crowds with this? Oh I know they will probably compensate with golden high heels, cleavages the depth of a canyon and bootylicious galore but still
Spider Bags Dan McGee promised me a concert last September at MHOW… never happened. Then Songkick announced a gig at Union 251, but their basement got flooded. And then the band switched this gig from Saturday to Friday though luckily I don’t care so here, FINALLY, the makes of Shake My Head -2012’s best album, live on stage on Friday at Cameo Galley in Brooklyn.: IT’S SPIDER BAG
Sure “Next To Me” is a great song, but it aint that great but let’s forget about that and point to our buddies in Black Veil Brides, interviewed here some three years ago now, and now firmly ensconced in the Brit Top 10! Makes us feel (self) important… or at least prescient.
The Rihanna piano based ballad off the latest album “Stay”, simulates longing with the best of them and the Calvin Harris track won’t be released as a single Stateside because Tinie Tempeh can’t seem to crossover the Atlantic.
Shower The People – James Taylor – Though a hit in 1976, it’s second life as an anthem is precisely what Taylor does best: he allows time to catch up with his songs and change in a song from a mid tempo guitar based pop song to a feel good singalong – Grade: B
Look at it this way: if Mitt had won I prolly wouldn’t have just been killed in taxes, on the other hand, it is worth a coupla grand a year to have a Prez who has not only heard of Biggie Smalls but can quote him… if you don’t know now you know
The gossip mongers have stated that Beiber agreed to have ‘nothing off limits’ for his skits. That includes his recent pot smoking adventures. My question is will it also include the cut4beiber campaign?
Who would have thought that there was so much deep philosophical reasoning behind this simple alteration of an old picture? Yeah, it’s pretty deep and I needed his input. And what about the choice of ‘Heroes’?
