”A friend of mine plays with Julian and we kind of knew each other, and Julian really likes [producer] Dr. Luke so they were talking, and it kind of happened, oddly, organically, and in a strange way.”
Swimming Pools – Kendrick Lamar – I’ve been waiting for a song off the Dre protege to announce its presence and here it is. The single. It sounds are as strange as dark as you imagine and the rap is spit nasty and fast and the chorus as sad bastard a look at hard drinking as you could possible imagine – Grade: A-
I went to a show at this new DIY, or rather Do It Together place in downtown LA, called LA Fort. I had never heard of it, but it’s brand new, located in the Arts District/industrial section of Los Angeles, inside a warehouse which has been transformed into a music venue, where I saw five bands for five bucks play in front of a young crowd on Friday night
The spirit was willing but Arlo, who remained seated throughout the set, wasn’t joking, hr felt heavy and his children felt heavy. As pros, they wanted to give us what we wanted, and they didn’t, but as Seeger noted there is a time to laugh and a time to weep
Saturday Night Fever ruled the box office and the soundtrack did the same to the pop charts, creating a series of smash hits by The Bee Gees, Yvonne Elliman, and The Trammps. The Clash had replaced The Sex Pistols as the great hope of the punk rock movement and Elvis Costello was truly that year’s model. Sprinkle in a high quality albums by veterans like The Rolling Stones and Neil Young with fine debut efforts by Van Halen and The Cars and the result is a very good year.
Really, the reasoning is that I hate her lyrics so I never even gave her voice a chance. Hearing her on the radio and over stereo systems has led me to strongly disliking her as a whole. I think someone slipped something in her drink to improve her voice for this tune
Real Ant fans have seen waves of change in his work and this certainly is a tsunami but in a good way. He may have lost his live show appeal but recorded, I think he still got it
In concert is where Outernational thrives and right now you have the chance to win a pair of tickets to their show at Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory this Thursday, November 29th, 2012 at 8pm. All you have to do is leave a comment with your email address and the first person who does so will get a pair of tickets!
The van actually looked totally awesome, the design was a little damaged, so it must have been painted a while ago, but it hadn’t lost any of its powerful message
This is Jon’s smartest moments, it is the best thing he has ever said though it needs translating. What he is saying is this: being a rock star, if you don’t take it too seriously, is a good life. But even a good job can’t protect you from life itself.
Comments: It sure feels like the count down to the end of the year starts here, nothing all that big at all… well, maybe the hated Alicia Keys but otherwise a live album (first in 20 years!) appears to be the highlight
Maybe I’m being a bit hard on the bands up this week. We do have The Dirty Projectors, and Wiz Khalifa, Barbara Streisand and the neck scarved Aimee Mann..but nothing Holiday worthy nor cutting edge.
Yup. “Diamonds” assured a # 1 for Rihanna, but nothing assured a # 2 for Led Zeppelin and they rereleased the Buble Christmas album from last year and it is is in higher than Rod??
UK X Factor’s Olly Murs sure hit me as a likelier candidate than Ed Sheeran to break Stateside, but earlier this year “Heart Skips A Beat” with Chiddy Bang didn’t cause a stir, and “Troublemaker”, at # 1 in the UK, and with red hot Flo Rida won’t improve matters if and when it is released here. Still it keeps the dreaded Girls Aloud off the top spot.
One Of The Boys – John Lennon – From 1977, recorded at the Dakota, and just with acoustic guitar, Lennon takes a scalpel to the boys only rock group world. His personal life dripping into his music but what’s odd is, this song would make a very good rock group song if it had been finished – Grade: A
Not quite chronological and no big, big suprises except maybe “I Wanna Be Your Man: The Keith songs are goodies… I’ll take a closer look tomorrow…
Space will start and stop playing the song, left arrow will decrement the current play velocity by one, right arrow will increment the current play velocity by one, down arrow will set the current play velocity to zero (giving a good scratch-record effect), control will freeze on the current beat, and shift will bounce between the current beat and all the similar sounding beats (the branching points).
The problem with Ian is while his songs are great, they are too weird, and for every time he gets it write there is another song where he doesn’t quite pull it off. Strumming an acoustic guitar, Ian is a calming influence playing a sort of gentle country folk American
It is missing a “We Found Love” but otherwise is the equal of any electro-pop that doesn’t have G-Dragons name on it. I mean, going to Rihanna for sincerity is like going to a hooker for true love. It isn’t what they are selling.
If Neil Young wanted to really surprise the world and rebuild himself, he would play a 20 song two hour set of concise, clean, sexy rock and roll and send people away with a smile on their face saying wow, I can’t believe he played “Harvest” and “Helpless”. Expect 8 songs in a 150 minutes so be sure to bring your pillow. If Neil goes on at ten I can give him an hour and be home asleep by midnight…
I didn’t say I didn’t enjoy Half Moon Run’s set at First Unitarian Church on Wednesday night, where they were opening for Patrick Watson. On the contrary, they were quite interesting to listen to – and to look at by the way,… some good looking young Canadians! However, it was a little distracting and I had a hard time to concentrate on their own music as I was constantly drawing parallels. These obsessive, hypnotic and ethereal guitar melodies, these soaring harmonies or moaning plaintive voice, their sound sounded right away extremely familiar, although I had never heard of them before.
It sounds dated. It sounds as if Prince hasn’t done squat in 30 years or ran back to the familiarity of his big ticket days. There comes the moral debate. Is it OK to go back to the original sound and will it still pay if you do?
To Anyone – 2NE1 – This all girl group comes from the same stable that brought you PSY and BIGBANG, four part harmonies over synth and beats and sometimes ballad and more often dance tracks. At its best, “Can’t Nobody” and the rickety “Clap Your Hands” it is pretty good. More often, it is a little obvious – Grade: B
I am more than wary of this concert, I can imagine it being two hours plus of twenty minute jams that fail to catch fire by a self indulgent giant far, far, far past this prime. But I can also imagine rust never sleeping for two hours of thunderous hard rock. Either way, Neil Young And Crazy Horse at Madison Square Garden is a huge gig on Tuesday, even if it sucks.
Reflections Of My Life – Marmalade – The poor man’s Badfinger had a good cover of a Paul McCartney tune and this deeply felt piece of depression backed by an orchestra – Grade: A-
After enduring a terribly annoying set by The Summer Set, and a less annoying set by Hit the Lights, I was ridiculously excited for All Time Low to come on and they did not disappoint. As lights suddenly lit the dark stage, All Time Low tore into “The Reckless and the Brave”
The music was ethereal, a little mysterious and Patrick Watson, who sang most of the time with a very high falsetto, was an interesting boyish character, producing very varied and surprising soundscapes, part spiritual, part indie folk, while giggling or goofing around between the songs
The tune incorporates the lines “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,” and “You make me happy, oh when skies are grey”. That’s a song that my grandmother used to sing to me all the time, and hearing it has always stayed resonant.
Look at it this way: 6 million years have gone by without your consciousness, and 6 million more will go by without your consciousness. For fuck’s sake tough it out for the 100 years you are conscious
“I think Ian was hoping to encourage Elliott to make a simpler, more stripped down, organic (Ian’s words, not mine) record than Figure 8, which was his previous recording. Figure 8 (which I love) had a very far-reaching, ornate, psychedelic presentation.”
Cheri’s band is playing at the Delancey on Friday November 30th, 2012, and I am gonna try very very hard to see her. Not only because I like her and I love her sound but also because this is the life blood of rock and roll in nyc. When the Cheris don’t bother playing for us, it is over folks.
Seeger isn’t a winner because he is 93 years old and I am going to see him tonight at Carnegie Hall, he is a winner because he has spent those 93 years as a peak folk singer and keeper of American justice.
The entire Iris Dement album is a masterpiece but this song for her father, piano based country folk, is even better than that. The G-Dragon is the best electro-pop track of the year.
What is it with Dance Hall stars? When they are not killing each other and smuggling drugs and beating their women before getting assassinated in Kingston for some internal feud, they are releasing handclapping, hard bouncing songs of praise, like this masterpiece by one of Jamaica’s finest – Grade: A
The 90 minute set might have been special to him, it was Carnegie Hall and the acoustics were tremendous, the sound the best I’ve ever heard and his rasping voice a thing of beauty, but he didn’t act that way at all. .
Christmas songs can be cliché’ and so help me God when Mariah Carey gets a hold of one its ear torture.
Rarely do we get a song that is rather funny and irreverent that isn’t annoying. This is it.
Faber Social in association with Heavenly Music Services and Rough Trade East are proud to bring you the UK premiere album playback of selected titles from Song Reader. Ed Harcourt will lead a specially put together band of musicians, including Liverpool’s Stealing Sheep, Steve Mason (of The Beta Band), Liela Moss (of Duke Spirit) Megan Washington, ex-Libertine Carl Barat and special guests to be confirmed for an evening of music, dj-ing and conversation dedicated to this unique project.’
Sing The Delta is her first album in 8 years but it is 8 years that has found her reputation widen and deeper, in the Alt Country stakes I put nobody above her in 2012. Neither of the Earles, nor Rosanne nor Hiatt, not even John Prine. That voice has an ache that Lucinda WIlliams also has but Iris has better songs.
First Courtney Love declared there was a musical in the making, then it was denied and Frances Bean Cobain had a good laugh about it. Now there is a (confirmed) rumor about a documentary and Brett Morgen, director of the new Rolling Stones documentary, ‘Crossfire Hurricane’, is involved.
The app is interactive allowing you to preview tracks for free; listen to and buy any song from Stones catalog on iTunes; buy exclusive merchandise; follow tweets from the Stones; check out tour dates and there is even an “I Was There!” function for social networking and Stones stalking.
“We wanted to do something a bit special and innovative,” said Jagger. “An App that really connects with the user, lots of exclusive content, integration
In 2012, K-Pop is the most exciting new big thing and while PSY might cause it to be misunderstood, the moor I listen the more in awe I am of this hobbled together scraps and parts of Western pop culture put through the grinder and arriving somewhere else.
Good for 1D, it is a superior piece of product and a wise attempt to create a Frankenstein monster of a pop album which still has some remnants of a soul. Surprised that the Weeknd is so big and that people are already sick of Green Day, which isn’t substantial different than Uno!
“Diamonds” is the one of only two songs I actively dislike on Ree Ree’s new album and I don’t know what that promises for the newbie at all! Meanwhile, the Lumineers must be wondering if they are the next fun!
Merry-Go-Round – Kacey Musgraves – Break through song for Texan country singer, punning on “merry” right through the chorus on a slab of suburban dystopia – Grade: A-
People feel guilty for being unable to have the discipline to shun this barbaric lifestyle. How come? Cuz it tastes good? I hear anti freeze tastes good too but I don’t chug it like a margarita
During their opulent set at Amoeba, there was passion, there were vocal harmonies eager to get lost in large open spaces of layered folk guitars, there were intense rhythms and guitar solos producing from time to time these pulsating and vibrant African tones
It is not Steve Tyler’s fault he grew old. and at MSG Wednesday night the boy was game as well as gamey, it is Steve Tyler’s’s fault he dresses like Stevie Nicks. And it isn’t Joe Perry’s fault he is the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” of Keith Richards wannabes but that mustache? That’s Joe’s fault.
VIC.ism is a short series of events put together by the Creeping Bent Organisation to celebrate the music of Vic Godard and Subway Sect. The shows feature Vic collaborating with The Sexual Objects, the wonderful group led by Davy Henderson, one of a generation irredeemably inspired by the Sect’s stark strangeness and charm
A huge disappointment, these are the guys Lennon chose to play with him on Double Fantasy, these cats are the real deal. I plan to see em next time they headline.
Special thanks to: Joseph and Donna McElroy, who I seldom get to see but who are family to me, and my co-editor Helen Bach who I admire greatly and tease mercilessly.
