Who leaked these stories? Who leaked the pix of Taylor Swift Swift reading to Ethel Kennedy? Anyone? Yep, after three years at the very top of the food chain, Swift has turned her life, her deepest feelings, hell, her virginity into a press release.
Embry may be making music very distant from the exuberance of his last band, but in this electronica era his music sounds humble and genuine, with no superfluous arrangements, just as cozy as a warm wood cabin during a cold fall evening
The myth of Bruce was bigger than party politics. The son of a blue collar worker who took his Daddy issues and placed it on the biggest stage of all, who spoke not just for him and his people but for all of us, everyone born to, as Chuck D recently put it, run till its dark
“Lights” hit the US Charts and Ellie was dating, ta dag Skrillex of all people. Then came a sold out gig at T6 last July and finally an excellent single, “Anything Can Help” which didn’t break here and an album, Halycon
I passed on the Paul McCartney featuring “Concert For Heroes” celebrating and raising money for victims of 9-11 in 10-01 at MSG. Why? I could have afforded it if I had to, so why pass? Because I don’t like benefit concerts, I don’t like having a civics lesson added to my lunch pail.
Marr didn’t run home to make jam after The Smiths. On the contrary he has spent decades collaborating with a an array of bands, including Talking Heads, Pet Shop Boys, The The, Electronic and others
Listening to her today there is an overwhelming fragility about her. She is like China porcelain, so close to the breaking point and I believe that in the end that is what we see in her of ourselves. We may think we’re tough and important but we are very very fragile things, ephemeral, and soon gone. Judy reflects and surpasses our limited mortality.
Harry also said he was thrilled to hear of 1D’s new album getting a “C+” from rock nyc. “Look, Lababedi is a right bastard and so jealous it’s revolting. Him giving 1D a C+ is like a normal human being giving it an A.”
So on a very very busy week (Neil Young will be the Tuesday, Justin Bieber the Wednesday) I had to fit one more show in before they carry me home in a bodybag.
The Boxer – Mumford And Sons – Not a bad version, the back up harmonies are an original idea and the banjo break very pretty but still, fundamentally redundant – Grade: B
All My Friends Are Enemies: The Early Rarities, it’ll be out on January 22nd. “This release is over ten years in the making and something I’ve been dying to share with kids,” Bemis says.
Neil has gotten the boys together for two head scratching releases this year (perhaps Cortez told Neil to race the Mayan calendar) and there is one undeniable conclusion – the man needs an editor.
If you have ever seen the Monty Python film "The Meaning of Life", you should be familiar with the "Galaxy Song". The fantastic Eric Idle gives you a nice science
If you look at the current pop princesses, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Adele, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Shakira, Beyonce and current pop heartthrobs, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, Chris Brown, the One Direction kids… how many really deserve the title of artists? Probably none.
So I hit the play button all ready to hate these guys and really use this as a sounding board for just bitching in general. Then something awkward happened, once the song opened up I couldn’t help but be completely engaged
if you didn’t catch Van Halen on tour this year, you might question why they are so high on my list. Same goes for Paul Weller and Ian Hunter. As for the Beach Boys, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen, if you did catch them live you may understand one reason they aren’t here. The Dylan was 60% great, but “Duquesne Whistle” does not a great album make… Lambchop is that old!!
“Rhino will release a Joni Mitchell box set on 29 October 2012. The Studio Albums 1968-1979 gathers together Joni’s ten albums from that period, including all the classics such as 1971′s Blue and the acclaimed The Hissing Of Summer Lawns from 1975”
KoL have spent their time plotting (I guess!) and right now they are in the studio working on album # 6, their first since 2010 and already have some concert dates set for the UK in the summer of 2013, can the US be far behind???
In 1957 Rolf wrote “Tie Me Kangaroo Down”, the story of a dying man in the Australian outback, telling his friends how to take care of the animals he leaves behind. The rhymes are really clever and for a depressing concept, the rhymes come at you with a smile that lessons the bite. In 1963 he covered “Stairway To Heaven” and it became a hit in the UK!
Tame Impala may be insisting too much on their psychedelic tendency by producing such a mind control designed clip, with bright colors and movements of heads inside heads coming straight from an acid dream, but it is nevertheless fascinating and hypnotic.
ZZ has been doing this awhile, her dad is a blues guitarist, and she takes the packed out nightclub completely in stride, chatting carelessly, pushing her album Till The Casket Drops and pushing her voice only when it makes sense. The songs are bruised break up songs, all written for the same guy and all played with an intense smartness back by a very good band.
The first single “I Will Wait” of the current smash hit album Babel, was inauthentic in a good way, it was pop-folk but pop-folk that sounded like an English equivalent of Paul Simon. The cover of “The Boxer” cemented to the concept. And Marcus Mumford’s barely concealed contempt for bedwetters Coldplay was a Bruce Springsteen hugging Chris Christi moment between us.
The story is the Brian Eno ambient album, I have heard it and repays close attention with nothing much but as background music it is a lovely thing. The new One Direction will be very very big. And that is a true prediction! Soundgarden might be good, or it might be old, and just what the world needed, another Stones Greatest hits.
Kiss Me Honey – Shirley Bassey – Ah yes, the early 1960s, before Shirley Bassey was a Dame, and before she was the voice to beat all Bond voices, here she took an earlier generations Rami Yacoub, Michael Julien, too the top of the UK charts. Bassey doesn’t belt it, she is all clear eyed seduction – Grade: A
Anyway, a sell out goes with the territory, and while I am pretty sure I’m gonna keep with Govt Mule, I might try and get a tix and see what happens… to put it another way, I won’t go to a ticketbroker.
Five an stage, their sonic wall was dense and sidereal with dreamy or echoing pop vocals, but as I thought that there was this idea of space and ‘being out there’ in all this, I looked at their set list and saw that the first song was conveniently titled ‘Space Rock it’.
The album is filled with potential hits and minimal filler, all electro pop, ballads and tween bopping faux-rock. But 1D is not the star of the album, Rami Yacoub is. He produces half of the album and is now officially the name to drop.
Justin Beiber? Hold up. How did it go from The Clash to Beib in 15 years? Cash. They needed money and the you give the people what they want. Oh you can still go in and buy a $50. pair of zebra Tripps but you can also get a Taylor Swift t-shir
Watching the terrifyingly morbid coming attractions for “Iron Man 3”, I couldn’t help but wonder, when did action movies stop being fun? There are more thrills in the Switzerland scenes with Blofeld in “Majesty” then in “Quantum Of Solace” and the latest Bond movie “Skyfall” combined.
Amy Klein of Hilly Eye has been a fave of mine since her Titus Andronicus days and this, Amy andthe other half of Hilly Eye, Catherine Tung’s first album, is very very exciting stuff. For one thing, it is on our favorite record label, Don Giovanni, and for another, last year’s EP was one of our faves of 2011
And to finish with that, there will be listening parties all over the country, the same evening,… All right, I understand that these are remastered albums but people will really meet to listen to … the Beatles?
In the spirit of PETA2 Kizz and Cazz bring a fun and positive spin to the teenaged set. Informing them while entertaining them.
Rockers, Ron Wood, go on stage and between the music and the audiences reaction, are transmitted on to another level, away from the lives of quiet desperation that inflicts most people. The problem, once he gets off the stage, he is Ron Wood again
That nano second could well have ruined intimate relations for me for the rest of my life. I was never really a fan but for some reason just seeing him on AHS has ruined any chance of me ever taking him seriously,
The last two here aren’t released yet and the first, well it is its first first time on an album, and the rest suggests it as a quiet week for good new releases.
Oh, now I get it. 18 Months is a warehouse for a lot of the stuff Harris has been putting out with other people. Not bad,… I guess. Matt Cardle is another X Factor guy and Emeli is this years Adele but not in the States.
I have only one question here folks, why is “Candy” not released in the States yet? What the hell is Robbie waiting for. Wait, another question, why didn’t he hang loose and try and release it fin time to be their 2012 Christmas single?
Boom Boom – John Lee Hooker – How big is the song? That riff has fueled so many songs, if all the people who used it paid Hooker he would have been buried in a gold casket on a gold mountain.- Grade: A+
Iman has run off to see this tart live numerous times and has enjoyed it. I would rather stick forks in my gums than endure any more than is absolutely necessary for the life of this column
A young and cute girl with a pink dress came on stage to sing Iggy Pop’s part during ‘Nothing But Time’, and despite the fact that Chan didn’t introduce her, there is a rumor it was her ex-boyfriend’s daughter, Lucia Ribisi, and looking at the hug they gave to each other at the end of the song, I would say that the rumor is true.
We used to have a word for folks like Rollins when I was a tot: secular humanists. in talking about two strangers who both lost a brother in Iraq, he just about brought me to tears. I like Rollins a whole lot, and if he ever stuck his hand out and said :Hi” to me, I’d be proud to shake it.
At one point there is a horse running through a desert and then it’s rearing back on its hind legs, then it’s laying on the ground, then it finds it’s horse soul mate I guess and they run off into the sun set
Starting rather lazily and erupting into a straight up rock tune. A fist pumping sing along is accompanied here by sausage eating, girl on girl flashes and some really beautiful drag queens.
Christopher Owens at Le Poisson Rouge, Wednesday night. Alyson Camus, eat your heart out! Alyson is a Girls fanatic, though I am pretty sure even she would consider leader Christopher Owens decision to break up the band is a little bit stupid. How do you break up a one man band?
she has no problem with releasing a four-minute video clip of herself turning in slow-motion in the smoke, giving the sultry sight,… but despite all her efforts, she is looking as sexy as a somnambulistic zombie.
Sure, Chuck D got it wrong and the US reelected Obama, but otherwise Most Of My Heroes Still Don’t Appear On No Stamps is write on. I wil write up my best albums by musicians over 50 in 2012 one of these days, till then here is a list rock’s backpages suggested I crib from to make my choice and it should come as no shocker to anybody who reads rock nyc that Public Enemy will be number one in that chart.
History Mob Music And Function – E-40 and Too Short – The Versed called these West Coasts journeymen “upbeat but laid back” and that explains the dynamic pretty damn well. Too $horts been a semi-underground rapper since 1988, E-40 since the 1990s, including years on Lil Jon’s Atlanta label . Together they are prolific, the tracks are really interesting, and they rap together very well. Stuff like “One Foot” is funny and pretty well done. But lyrically, neither of these guys have much to say – Grade: B-
Stupid Liar – BIGBANG – Their best if not their biggest song, is a plain out love pop song gussied up with a rap and internal movements and conflicting voices, one of who howls, and always returning to an undeniable hook, “I’m so stupid liar liar liar”. A highlight on Thursday night sounds pretty good days later – Grade: B+
BIGBAND never bored, but they never enchanted either. They were a generic genre that never jumped to a place where what it means to be Korean informed what it means to be in a boy band. They were not overawed by playing for an American audience. But they lacked heart.
Alex Edkins, Hayden Menzies and Chris Slorach were only three on stage but they built a brutally furious sound, as if they were an army, they were a force playing at unison with heavy bass and super loud drumming, building a tremendous sonic furnace
