rock nyc

Olly Murs did himself nothing but favors at Jingle Ball with a lively, pleasant, dance oriented two song set. In the UK this is his second week at the top of the charts! PS, the Robbie Williams album was released Stateside and it is instantaneously one of the best of the year.

The UK is another country, they do things differently. For instant, this weeks # 1 is a cover of an old Frankie Goes To Hollywood song, the sort of bathetic overblown ballad I bet Celine Dion is eyeballing as I write) most right thinking people (and dogs with acute hearing) hide under tables to get away from) but stick it on a sickly sweet advert selling you crap for the holidays (John Lewis Department stores) and whomp there it is.

Border Crossing – Trail And Ways – Berkeley grads sound like Ennio Morricone as played by a run of the mill indie band only even better than that sounds like. Dig the whistle!! – Grade: B+

The 1970s had given the music world all female bands Fanny and The Runaways, but the Go-Gos were the first female band writing and performing their own music to top the Billboard album chart.

“The mission was to make the kind of Rock ‘n’ Roll record I would want to listen to myself, which sounds simple but is, in fact, incredibly difficult.’…’I felt challenged and inspired by the idea of making a modern psychedelic folk-rock album, a Tom Rothrock production like XO, but then the Velvet Underground and the Stones kept entering in.”

o.n.i.f.c – Wiz Khalifa – Who says marijuana doesn’t effect your brain. On the Weeknd featured track “Remember You” the beats are so bubdued its like they are covered in linoleum, and the sound has the hazy lazy weed-y drag that appears to be taking trip hop and dubbing it downwards. It doesn’t suck quite, it just bores. Like this rest of this album – Grade: C

Last year Fitz And The Tantrums, the great neo-soul and r&b,band brought in the New Year at Gramercy Theater, this december this will be opening for Jason Mraz at MSG this Monday. So go erly and leave only. You won’t regret it.. And when they ask you to get down, then mean get dooooown.

Kiss You – One Direction – This is the pop flame off the newbie, a r completely hot drum pattern and ear candy chorus (and ear candy verse) with the boys comfortably in their midrange except here and when Harry is in the mood, he goes up an octave at the end of a verse – Grade: A

The 3D “Life Of Pi” is a stunningly beautiful movie about a young Indian boys search for God. After leaving his native India for Canada on a steamer, the ship is sunk in a storm and Pi’s entire family drowns . Only Pi and the tiger survive.

Presented by the highly respected Robin Hood Foundation and produced by Harvey weinstein, this isn’t like the disastous Haiti benefits, this should get where it is going…

I thought both Ree Ree and Mars were gonna dog with these songs so what do I Know. I alsi thought the Lumineers weren’t gonna do squat with this catchy rock song. And finally, I thought the name of the Ne-Yo song was so irritaing people would ignore it en masese.

The Keys album is a crime against nature, and the three Christms albums are awful, especially the two country one. And while I get that I’m the only person who likes 2012 pop, all three here (Ree Ree, Swift and 1D) are keepers

Different Sides – Leonard Cohen – No idea why, fter months of being completely indifferent to it, this song hit my musical sweet spot but I think it is the way he sings (croaks?) “frankly” on the “frankly I don’t like your tone” line and the butter gleam in Cohen’s eyes as he he tells her wants to leave the way they have sex alone – Grade: A

The first two singles off Warrior were “Die Young” and “C’mon”, released on September 25th and November 16thof 2012 respectively and, while both were big hits, they were essentially the same Ke$ha the world has always heard.

Uncut is to Mojo what Sounds was to NME, a sort of stroppier kid brother encrusted in the old ways. Kinda reaction to the 21st century by pretending it never happened. And this is certainly borne out by this bizarre list of weirdness.

This idiotic rant is courtesy of Esquire who really needs readers cuz they’re a glossy. White starts with Lady Gaga and fizzles his blabber to Clint Eastwood. If ever ‘shut up and play the hits’ applied, it’s with this guy.

According to Adams, ‘Shining Thorough the Dark’ was ‘the first track I wrote after my retirement’, and was written ‘post-meltdown, while laying in bed with the flu’.

My Friend – Disco Biscuits – This is a strangely creative art rocker using a bizarre spoken word samples and a buzzing beat in the background. It is like disco if she only ever heard disco on someone elses car radio s you went roaring down the highway – Grade: B+

Issues is they attempt to combine metal and hip-hop elements into their style. Although a daring move for the band, they do an okay job fusing the elements together. I use the word “okay”, because there is definitely room for improvement in this area

Classic rock was in fine form in 1980 with Pink Floyd, AC/DC, and Queen having major success on the album charts. London Calling by the Clash and Bruce Springsteen’s The River topped the critic polls. John Lennon released his first album in over five years, while punk rock/new wave energy was still spitting out fantastic songs

I have one pearl of advise for LOG singer Randy Blythe- don’t go to the Czech Republic ever again. Screw your fans have them fly over to see you, you will never be found innocent.

it was really a secret show as nobody knew they were invited to attend an Arcade Fire concert when entering the Breakglass studio. The band started the show in disguise, wearing Pussy-Riot-style masks and apparently people weren’t recognizing the true identity of ‘les Identiks’

Then to end it all there is this rush of sets taking me from December 7th thru December 31st with a break in the middle for an 8 day trip to Scotland. And with this I plan to cut back to no more than two shows a week, maybe less! Here is a list of the musicians I am seeing, with an assumed grade and a one liner…

‘HBO has a history of pushing every boundary with class and authenticity. Some of my favorite shows are on HBO, so I am excited that my film will be part of its bold programming. This film was so personal to me, it had to have the right home.

Chris Owens I have dismissed live twice ina row with his band Girls, but at Le Poisson Rouge on November 14th, 2012, he performed his unreleased album from one end to another and made believers of everyone lucky enough to see him do it.

Know Till Now – Jim James – The last time I was duly impressed by Jim James was My Morning Jacket’s 2008 New Year’s Eve at MSG, but perhaps the difference is that James is at his best when he is working out his soul jones, even if he is making it above a psychedelic electronic dream track. Off next years Regions of Light and Sound of God – Grade: A-