Digital music has evolved, but album art hasn’t,” says Pitchfork founder/CEO Ryan Schreiber. “In the vinyl and CD eras, album packaging was considered an extension of the music. The artwork, lyric inserts, and credits added another dimension that mp3s haven’t replicated. Our hope is to bring that experience online, and perhaps even help it to evolve
Fan sites have roughly ‘estimated’ that the singer has sold a billion records, but it seems they are drawing these numbers out of their ass, or out of the estate, which is bout the same thing!
ITunes are having banner years every year, so why would they kill themselves by starting a subscription service?
Along with the Roots, Booker T, Blind Boys of Alabama, DeVotchka, Madeleine Peyroux, The Waterboys, Talib Kweli and Living Color are set to perform and, really, is it Carnegie Hall or Highline Ballroom?
Midday – Yusef – From the mid-noughts, it survives as his finest post- Islam conversion moment from the former First Cut guy. Roundly disliked in the States, last time he tried to play here he coldn’t get in the country, his religion neother helps nor hinders him on this fabulous slice of Cat Stevens style pop rock replete with horns blowing through the chorus – Grade: A
“Where Are We Now” is a mid-tempo piece of melancholy becrying (maybe that’s not the word, remembering?) East Berlin with references to Potsdamer Platz, an area destroyed in WW2 and a no man’s land during the cold war years. Bowie is in fine voice, his voice deeper but still the usual intense emotional boomer
He isn’t a nostalgia act, sure there is “Race With The Devil” but there is also a song about 9-11 and another one about missing nostalgia. Finely crafted folk songs that need no excuse and which he executes in front of an excellent band.
Even at its worse I Got A Boy is never ordinary, Ten tracks, no real dogs but too much filler, and the heights of “I Got A Boy”, “Express 999” and “Dancing Queen” leading the way.
‘I’ve gone to fashion shows in New York and because I couldn’t bring myself to say, ‘My name is Marianne Faithfull and I have an invitation.’ I’ve actually turned around at the door and left.
Music has a power, a communicative power that goes beyond language even though there are obvious parallels between music and language, but the meaning of music – if music has a meaning – goes beyond that of a simple sentence. It’s deeper, more abstract, ambiguous and mysterious
A simple pop tune with a really horrible keyboard. If they would just pull the cord on the Casio it would sound so much more legit. Right now it takes on a semi retro 60s pop sound. Yeah yeah, most of their stuff does but after 10 years can you at least try a new angle?
“Success is a very hideous thing. Its false resemblance to merit deceives man.” I am all for Crenshaw having integrity to burn but not when he makes it impossible for people to buy his music.
Personally, I couldn’t care less if Target doesn’t carry CDs anymore, but I would be so sorry to see little and big independent stores disappear! I love my Amoeba as anyone else, and their survival only depends on vinyl sales right now.
The Allman Brothers are a reliably great Southern boogie band. Were they better with Duane? Of course they were. Were they better with Dickey Betts? They miss him most from the days when he played with Duane but solo… I am a big big Warren Haynes fan myself and. I dunno. I wish they were both in the band.
Part two of David Bronson’s “Story” was released last year and the prog rock album of the year even if it wasn’t really that at all. Part one will have its work cut out for it, but, as it is a prequel, it will foreshadow what we already know, persuade its musical motifs and played whole give us the whole of the long lost story.
Let Her Dance – The Bobby Fuller Four – Murdered because he didn’t pay back a loan from a Mafia type to build a studio, Bobby Fuller is remembered by Marshall Crenshaw and remembered because of the Clash’s cover of a Fuller song. And this song, we remember this repetitive, addictive old time electro pop beat hook par excellence – Grade: A+
Whenever a band plays a new song not everyone has heard, it is sort of an awkward experience between musicians and the crowd. Brown wasted no time to break the tension and interacted with them between breaks in verses
Charlene McPherson seems to be the kind of tough girl not to mess with, her powerhouse vocals are all about strong (and borderline dirty) attitude and the music is all about hard rock, gritty guitar riffs and bluesy roots in the veins of the greatest rock tradition.
Look, I’ve got nothing against Lauryn Hill as such but one great solo album does not a career make and making an audience wait four hours to see you and then putting on a terrible show ain’t gonna make you money or fans. Pay your damn taxes, you’re married to a Marley, you can afford it.
Lets face it, Cheri wouldn’t be stranded anywhere so this must be a tale of someone she knew or someone she was. If anything shes the girl who would snag the car keys and leave everyone else stranded AND take their high heels. Which is why I like her.
Without rock nyc sneering at one of Time Magazines Top websites of 2012, Pitchfork while posting their upcoming indie releases every season, what would we be? We would be like fiddlers on the roof. TRADITION TRADION… TRADITION—
For having seen them twice, I can tell that the young girls were very convincing, played with a great enthusiasm on stage, and they sure seemed to take their songstresses’ roles with a lot of professionalism and a natural feelgood attitude.
The opportunity to see Parker lead his band, he has been playing funk and soul classics for years and released an album of Ray Charles covers in 2011, should be taken full advantage. So make sure you do.
In the UK, DJ Calvin Harris has had 20 hit singles in the past 18 months and over here, it was him who remixed “We Found Love” to such great effect. That doesn’t explain what 18 Months is doing back at the the top of the charts.
Britney is working with Will I Am (among others) on her next album, Brit never lost her touch (it was her marbles she lost) and the success of “S&S” (it is bubbling in the US as well), suggests Will I Am has finally broken thru as a solo artist. It is a fine piece of electropop even if its no “I Gotta Feeling”.
A Lovely Night – Julie Andrews – Off the Rodgers And Hammerstein TV musical from 1957 so, yeah, minor league R&H but how bad can that be? This is a terrific romantic night of the ball song and Julie sounds so young and frivolous and well 22 going on 32 but stills he gets all of this Princess in witing – Grade: B+
They played nothing off the White Album, one track off Sgt Pepper, two tracks off Abbey Road, one track off Revolver, nothing from Let It Be. As I said at the start, the Incredible Simulators are the Beatles as country rockers, the Beatles as the Byrds. The early to mid-period Beatles.
No one rises above such allegations- ever. His band is out of a job. Can you be ‘Lost Prophets’ new singer? No, you’d be forever called the singer who replaced baby rapist Ian Watkins.
The guy has already put out enough EPs, LPs and singles, alone and under different acts (The Traditional Fools, Epsilons, Party Fowl, Sic Alps, The Perverts, The Ty Segall Band, White Fence) to make anyone dizzy just by reading the list
Since all cool rock stars need a cause Vedder chose the infamous West Memphis Three. The boys accused of a murder and sentenced under much scandal
My problem with City Winery is that it isn’t the Bottom Line,, which is hardly their fault, that dinner can get pricey, which is more like that fault, and I don’t like their no man’s land setting -which is entirely their fault
Bieber is looking for legislation to stop these guys from at least driving like maniacs. So far, the tough part is centering a piece of law based on a profession. I guess Bieber is thinking of something like the hate crimes law where the penalties are bigger for Paparazzi driving dangerously than for civilians but I doubt it will happen.
Lambert thought the singing sucked. Iman’s review was saying about the same thing a week ago. Personally, I hate musicals with a passion, so you would have to drag me to sit through a 3-hour-long musical
Summer is almost here so this Summerstage Showcase is a must see to get you in the mood. Big names abound: Shuggie Otis and People Get Ready at the top of the list but the biggest thrill will be UK DJ-Soul Singer Ofie at Highline Ballroom on Thursday.
Yeah, these are still circa 2012, except for Olly whose new album isn’t released till April. BUT both Free Energy and Black Veil Brides are tasters from their 2013 releases and I promised I’d be sifting through The-Dream the first couple of weeks in the year. Of course, the lack of new releases help.
Bring Out The Bottles – Redfoo – Back to the clubs for one half of LMFAO who uses his click track and bangs out the BPMs with the best out of them and, yeah, throws out a new war cry for the old VIP rooms. However, the child like fun is completely non-existent – Grade: B
She struts, she sticks out her chin, she wails, it’s like she jumped 30 years from the Blackhearts to Spanking Charlene and now we are getting another woman ready to go ballistic on us. It is all mini skirt and heels and pithy putdowns
Keep in mind this is the guy who pretty much made a monopoly out of entertainment ticketing by merging Live Nation with Ticket Master. Brilliant move and well deserved accolade and compensation are warranted
During the early 1980s, R.E.M. had established Athens, Georgia as the alternative center of the universe, but by 1985, Husker Du and the Replacements shifted the eyes of the indie world to Minneapolis/St. Paul,
OK stick with me here, because this is kinda complicated and I am not sure I understand it myself but Youtube has removed two billion views from Universal and Sony videos.
What makes this new year event great is that there is some pretty awesome stuff coming out this month. It would be nice if every month had such a plethora of fun but let’s face it that’s not gonna happen.
In other words, less then buying a tix to a movie on line you can see what sounds like a really terrific set with the sublime saxophonist (bound to be bringing out his Soprano Sax) who began his career REHEARSING WITH JOHN COLTRANE!!!
There was no excuse for missing Beth Orton except I had tix for Jerry Seinfeld at the Beacon. He was OK but mean English girl (per Ryan Adams, no less) was promoting a terrific album That Sugaring Season, which I should have given more love to than I did.
Noel also declared at last year’s NME awards: ‘I accept I am a genius, just like God’, a sentence that could be a sort of bid over John Lennon’s famous comparison between the Beatles and Jesus, but honestly, who is taking this stuff seriously?
Winner – Kanye West – Soon after blowing up 12-12-12 and weirding out Atlantic City, West topped off what at first seemed like a disastrous 2012 by announcing his girlfriend, reality star Kim Kardashian, was pregnant. As an inveterate Mama’s boy, West must be regretting his Mom’s untimely passing while being beyond thrilled at a return to a family life.
.One Mo’ Gin – D’Angelo – I wasn’t always scratching my head over new r&b heroes. In 2000, D’Angelo was systematically blowing me away with his album and his subsequent if you weren’t there for fuck’s sake say you were, Radio City Music Hall 150 minute blow out. I was thisclose to going to Jones Beach last year to see the great man opening for Mary J. but assumed wrongly he would be heading somewhere to town. And the new album is nowhere in sight. This song? Grade: A+
Best Buy wins again, and Gramercy is first runner up, and for similar reasons, a mix of General Admission seating and standing. However, Best Buy has too many late endings. Midnight for Odd Future and 1am for Disco Biscuits this year alone!
instead of accepting gifts from the company as it is often the case in these situations, the LA band cleverly ‘sneaked a 20-minute collage film of sweatshop workers, Black Friday consumer mayhem and weeping children into their live show’.
Less than 50% of those sold off in 2012 were genuine. That’s astounding considering how much some of these things cost. Number three on the list was Neil Armstrong.
Taylor is not in great voice -she sounded much better a coupla weeks earlier at MSG during her six song Jingle Ball Christmas wonder, but despite a ragged “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and a pretty good (though I still think it is TS in a minor key) “I Knew You Were Trouble”, man does she look good.
