I have no idea what these guys thought they were doing with this, intermittently amusing, movie Amy has managed to become a big star and stop being a big star in the same breadth. Movies don’t have to be realistic but they have to keep true to their world: you can say everybody on earth has to wear weighted boots because gravity isn’t working but once you show somebody not wearing weighted boots, that’s when you become unbelievable
When it is there, it is an outburst of overwhelming feelings with a sort of Sufjan Stevens vibe – probably because of these trumpets – and the funny thing in all this? The last minute almost feels a poppy dance song. The tune is very Youth Lagoon but there are obvious changes and may be this brand new photo of his tells us a bit about this new sound?
Let me see if I get it right: the fate of Western (actually all) civilization, rest on the bony shoulders of the Senior Senator from New York, Chuck Schumer. If Chuck votes for the Iran Nuclear deal, it goes through, if he doesn’t the undecided follow Schumer and Obama can’t override with a veto. Translation: this world gets more ridiculous by the second. Let me see if I get it right: the fate of Western (actually all) civilization, rest on the bony shoulders of the Senior Senator from New York, Chuck Schumer. If Chuck votes for the Iran Nuclear deal, it goes through, if he doesn’t the undecided follow Schumer and Obama can’t override with a veto. Translation: this world gets more ridiculous by the second
Shrug – Chrissie Grimmie – “The Voice” third runner up last year got herself sign and dropped by Island Records, though this pure pop EDM track, whistle a major hook, is an annoyance, except the middle eight is an excellent deconstructed piece of weirdness. It could break her – B
“Patrick knows exactly what he wants. He’ll have a spoken word piece to be edited in down to the second and he tells me exactly what it wants it to sound like. When XL (the British indie) came around to make suggestions he completely ignored them.”
July is Sonny Boy Thorn residency at the Satellite and Los Angelinos should check them out for free before
So I guess these are the songs of the summer, Jess Glynne didn’t make it so I guess I called that wrong, also I didn’t think much of the Max Martin production (much prefer “The Hills” so I didn’t get that one right either. Oh, and please, that “FFight Song” song -no, just no
‘Wayne Coyne’s work is among the most jubilant in our Big Hope Show,’ said AVAM founder Rebecca Hoffberger, who is curating the exhibition. ‘Surviving a violent, near-death experience awakened in him a joy and a tsunami of endless creativity rarely seen in anyone. His drawings remind me of those most beloved by Saint-Exupéry, his lyrics are poetry.’
So not the longest story ever told by any stretch of the imagination and what is strange is the man is a gasbag and so you’d expect him to tell the story long and hard. I remember seeing him at the “Spectacle” gig years ago and he kept on stepping all over his guests line…
Ducktails are the Real Estate buddies and quite pleasant if you like that kind of thing, sorta dreamy psychedelia, Jill Scott is really good when she has the right song; she has the voice but not the material. Ashley Monroe started young but now at 28 is an old school country singer, and really very pleasant. I’ll go with her
I’ve Got You Babe – Sonny And Cher – has anybody not sung this to their sweetie pie at some time in their life? An ode to togetherness and sharing that has reached far past being a cliché, or camp or even funny: it is the “Happy Birthday To You” of romance…. babe – A+
Josh Greenberg. the 28 year old part owner of music streaming service Grooveshark, which closed suddenly this years with lawsuits up the ying yang on its tail, died in his sleep yesterday. Everybody is completely baffled as to how he died. Condolesnces to his family, what a shame: at its height Grooveshawk had 40 Million visitors a day.
Mj Poukkula, daughter of Tony Poukkula has chosen this moment to make public a few never-seen-before pictures of a very early Nirvana show, probably the first Nirvana show ever, according to Alternative Nation. She tweeted these pictures (above) with the comment ‘Pictures of my dad and Kurt Cobain playing together back in the day’.
It sounds great but it sounds too much, it overloads you and not in a great way (though certainly in a good way). But I may be wrong, the move between the two parts of the album, from “More Perfect Unions” extended instrumental coda to “Sun Salutations” a capella and then the classic rock thump of “(S)HE SAID/(S)HE SAID” is kinda major stuff… Nobody else can do it.
I’m On Fire – AWOL Nation – I totally missed this, off the 50 Shades of Gray soundtrack, but it is really lovely and it is also a little on the quiet side, it is like they don’t want to hard sell you with everything all around, Bruce is all edge, and here there is just a huge sense of distress – B+
I wonder, if like cars and fridges and laugh as a whole, today’s music isn’t built to disappear, if the most important thing about this volatile pop moment is that it can and will be left behind in an instant, it should be commended on not asking us for more.
The set combined a fair number of songs from the new album, Song s of Innocence, with a nice mix of hits and obscurities. Among the latter were the first live version of “October” in about 25 years, played on the small stage with only Edge on keyboards.
‘Filmed in a single nine-minute take at the Chatham Dockyard in southeast England, the video follows Mr. West through an empty warehouse as he runs, crouches, dodges, raps, rants, sweats and pants, as if being pursued by the camera or the police or in pursuit himself, until he slumps against the wall to catch his breath.’
Filmed at various motels in Wildwood Crest, NJ, there is something so displaced about the motel shots it seems to be waiting on Robert Mitchum to displace it in time. The live footage was filmed in NYC.
White Reaper’s debut album is a stealth attack, a hard hitting poppy explosion of old school rock and roll -let’s hope it gets some traction. Also, Jeff Tweedy has released the first album of half way decent music in a decade or so. It starts off a little iffy, but steadies itself to the closing bell.
I would like to congratulate Billboard in completely baffling me as to when their charts come out and what week (week? ha that’s a joke). This was published on Saturday as a post which I missed and it is definitely ending 7-25 because I check the 7-25 and it is the one I posted last week, so this must be for the one that they will put up on Tuesday… right? There is no singles alternative anywhere. What chaotic stupidity, there one true job on earth and they can’t do it… PS the Tyrese album is a complete dog: Earth to r&b: WRITE SONGS.
‘Yeah, man, fuck that. I mean, I really don’t ever want to cross the line into hating on stuff or judging other people. [But] fuck Lollapalooza. That isn’t rock and roll.
I’m not going to sit and pretend that we aren’t charging people money to get into our festival. But I don’t know, man. You can see it every year: Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo — the lineups are the fucking same. It’s about numbers, it’s about bottom lines, it’s about measuring groups and cultures of people and the numbers that they represent on a bottom-line agenda. All the lineups are becoming more and more the same, the same fucking headliners.’
Ben Ratliff in the New York Times claimed “Bono delivered speeches, interior dialogues and eventually pitches for his anti-poverty and AIDS prevention organizations, ONE and (RED). But the concert was an achievement, integrated and sure-footed”
I know Tomas won’t do any of them, and given our respective track records, I tend to think he is probably making the right decision. In the meanwhile, The Mess We Made, with its Beatles and Hendrix references, its rubabdub dubs, its Mayfield falsetto and simmering when not exploding anger, should be with us soon.
‘you dont scare me. im not scared of getting dropped or sued by u so what do u have? @wbr’, he continued and he also posted several times the cover art with: ‘they gonna try to sue me if i use the art i already had so heres my art what u gonna do with me now?? @wbr pic.twitter.com/ERNNCWRQtX’… ‘album is called ‘v’. fifth album. v. vv. vvv. a trilogy.’
When Mary Rudzis was a wee babes in arm we covered the Warped tour religiously, and before she was born, when it was at Randall’s Island on a Saturday afternoon, I’d visit it myself every year. Now, the kid is too old and it is at PNC Banks Art Center -so, you know.Plus, Kosha Dilz is the real deal for sure, the trilingual rapper rocker is a goodie but… he hasn’t released a new album in two years.
U Mad – Vic Mensa – With Kanye West, on this terrific piece of rap genius, Kanye’s verse is a good low key rhymin’ but Vic hits it out of the park: “All praise to Allah, not Ramadan but these bitches fast…” Sure, it’s the usual shit but very well done – B+
A very good week is completed with a very very good list of new songs for the week. All three hip hop songs are about sound not lyric, the samples that fuel Vic and Young Thug are exemplary (Skrillex is behind Vic, better than anything with Diplo) and the clashing swords on “Swords” is a terrific sound, as is the guitar on the Wilco track.
A new exhibition has opened at Shepard Fairey’s Subliminal Projects, and it is this time centered around rap and
The problem with Apple Play is it makes navigation a little too difficult. The service is a little counter-intuitive. But, the more I use it the easier I find it: just click “New”, use the search, double click “New to start the process again. Save to “My Music” if you want to download it and add to your music, when the merge works it will merge with your own downloaded songs.
Between novels, I am quietly circling “Go Set A Watchman” -all I’m hearing is making me undecided whether I can stomach a racist Atticus Finch or why I would want to. Reading it must be like meeting a close friend from High School on Facebook and discovering he is now the chairman of the local chapter of the NRA.
David – Laura Marling – A new one off her Director’s Cut version of Short Movie, a lovely song: completely perfect Laura territory, I’ve heard her play this live (on youtube) and she performs it in a different key here -not a great idea – B+
Another proof that speculations may be well founded is what the Beijing edition of Time Out just reported: ‘We hear musings about Maroon 5 being prevented from performing by our political friends up above. Meeting the Dalai Lama is all an artist needs to get a big X on their visa application.’
Robin Williams – Cee Lo – The angry little man who could, can’t on this so bad it’s good sort of you kinda stop and watch it in a state of suspended horror Why would he recommend a suicide comic to tell us to laugh the pain away? Isn’t Robin the poster boy for NOT laughing the pain away. -what on earth was he thinking of? “Robin, can you hear me?” he asks at the end -don’t, just don’t. Has to be heard to be believed. The worst song since “Beer With Jesus” – F
The most anticipated concert of the year, even if, like me, you haven’t enjoyed much of anything they’ve recorded since 2000, even if that, seeing them in the relatively small confines of MSG is an honor. The last time I saw them at this venue,October 2001, the encore. “One” was accompanied by “a backdrop that scrolled the names of all the victims of the Sept 11 attacks, including lists of NYPD and NYFD casualties” (as Ben Walden put it). I’m going on Sunday and I can’t wait.
How on Earth can you listen to a band like X and sit that still as if you’re listening to a financial planner giving you tips on how to save for retirement. THIS WAS A ROCK SHOW.
For his heavy metal/hard rock outfit, the very prolific Ty was on drums, in central position between Charles Moothart on guitar and Roland Cosio on bass. And as soon as they started it was a hell of a ride with more head banging above heavy metal or sludgy riffs, a myriad of garage rock chunks, wrapped in a punk fury and of course fuzzy distortion.
YES!!! A new week and after the disastrous previous week, it is good to have a new set of downs and lots and lots of good ones -White Reaper, Sly And The Family Stone, Miles Davis, Future, Wilco…. as Tame Impala would say: let it be happy.
Make Me Wanna Die – White Reaper – A stormer and it is because of that organ on the bridge which is like pouring fudge on a sundae -a wurlitzer of a rock roller coaster, loud, bash, rocking out greatness. This band is gonna enjoy the next year – A
Now that’s something you don’t see every day, two Ed Sheeran album, his only two albums, one from 2014 and one from (astoundingly) 2011, in the charts. Why? Because of his residency at Wembley Stadium. Between the two maybe six great songs.
I know, Walking The Moon is rock but cmon, listen to those drums,and Tinie is a rapper but the song ain’t. Folks, every song on the UK’s charts is middle of the road EDM. According to Spotify, hip hop is the most popular form of music, but I wonder how much of what they call Hip Hop is really dance?
what wasn’t a problem was when the band picked up steam, they were really good: a classic metal medley of “Detroit City Limits”, “Jailbreak” and “Schools Out” was a pleasure and while the Foos songs weren’t in the same league, the energy and determination they brought to their songs was excellent, the “Under Pressure” followed by “All Of My Life” was superbly placed glam meets metal rock
‘What is this c**t doing on the cover of Rolling Stone? Music has officially died. Who knew it would be Rolling Stone that murdered it? Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh can no longer be expected to take all the blame. Bob Dylan must be fucking horrified.
#BoycottRollingStone’
Dale – Pitbull – After so much time spent with gigantic pop samples for the masses this is perhaps Mr. 305’s finest moment, salsa fresh beats, sup rb raps, captivating samples and that iconic cackle. PS if you think it hurts not knowing what the lyrics are, you don’t listen to much Pitbull -ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A
I have learnt about the album on Twitter but Jeff Tweedy announced it via Facebook and Instagram: ‘Why release an album this way and why make it free? Well, the biggest reason, and I’m not sure we even need any others, is that it felt like it would be fun. What’s more fun than a surprise?’
A mix of up and comers and big stars, often highlighting her lousy taste in music, but also her prescience: note Sam Smith before In The Lonely Hours. By the way in the four years here, I saw her seven times…
‘Round Midnight – Live, 1955 – Miles Davis – This is the third composition from the Live At Newport album, and it is swoonily beautiful. Who is playing, you ask? Miles Davis, trumpet; Zoot Sims, tenor saxophone; Gerry Mulligan, baritone saxophone; Thelonious Monk, piano; Percy Heath, bass; Connie Kay, drums… pretty sick right? Three years later he would add John Coltrane – A
Her Mom shared with me that she received a text from Richa explaining how Taylor said, “even though things are hard they will get better” and mentioned her Dad. It was a comforting moment for both. Of course, adults can see a light at the end of the tunnel but kids need more experience, growth to know things will improve and maybe they need to hear it from a super star to believe it.
The first one was painted on a Remo 14” snare drum head using acrylics and metallic paints (This is Art in action; the second one is an EP cover that I dreamed up in the style of influential artist David Stone Martin, picture this as some sort of Jazz Messengers Live in Italy sort of thang.
She is GLAMAZING (glamorous, and amazing). When I was younger, and just started to know her, she had the most beautiful voice and still does!! She inspired me to dance and sing, and I’m not just saying this, it’s true! I can’t wait another two years to see her concert because, yeah, I’ll be there without a doubt!! I love her so much!!!!!!!!!
