Perhaps, the best pure rock ‘n’ roll experience I have ever witnessed in my life. In 2015, The Sonics may look like a group of insurance agents that should have already collected their gold watches, but they rock with an intensity that few bands could ever match
The problem with “Soaked In Bleach” is Tom. Tom has a story to tell that has nothing to do with Love and Cobain and everything to do with forgiving himself. If the movie dealt with that it would have had the arc of a true dramatic tragedy, because it doesn’t it appears to be a partial truth.
‘It started out as a heavy garage rock thing and became much more of a dance — some kind of hybrid,’ he said to the radio station. He also said he had been working on it for a few years so that the material is ‘pretty diverse,’ but ‘it’s a group of songs that fit together.’
Bennett is a genius and Lady Gaga had the tools of genius without the scope, and I actively disliked their album of standards when it was first released. With the duo playing New York this week, this is nothing much, but not terrible either. In the end, it is all a little whatever because Gaga lacks a certain sweetness to her voice, it isn’t abrasive but it isn’t an instrument built for the Great American Songbook – B-
We are off to the Presidential races with Hilary Clinton out of the gate and Echosmith performing their hit single “Cool Kids” -an astoundingly irrelevant track but so what? It’s the thought that counts
Bryce portrays a number crunching park’s operations manager Claire who loses track of her nephews through rank indifference while a newly spliced all thinking super dinosaur Indominus Rex has escaped and is… killing for sport. Enter Chris Pratt as some trainer of dinoers, this year’s Bruce Willis (actually, last years…) and off we go, the pair chasing Indominus chasing the boys.
The James Taylor song, that may be really major, same with most of the others, including the not remotely easy going AraabMuzik even though he sounds like it. But when the self-loathing Patrick Stickles follows a typical piece of self immolation “Let me show you my fatal flaw” he asks but pays it off with “it’s the best thing you never saw.” While Dawes benediction saves cliches like ” I hope your brother’s El Camino runs forever” with “and may all your favorite bands stay together. A line so great it has become an instantaneous cliche.
In the Smith case like in the Cobain case (both cases have been heavily put in parallel lately because of these two recent movies), suicide is the easy way out for most people, suicide is more convenient, it is the lazy way of thinking since you could not have come up with an easier reasoning than this one: a depressed junky committed suicide, wow why would you believe anything else? And that’s the problem, at the end people pick what they believe, and believes work hand to hand with emotions, feelings, impressions and presumptions.
This Monday is a night as big as any Governors Ball, CMA or CBGB Fest you care to mention, The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series featuring Janai Brugger, Nathan Gunn, Isabel Leonard, and pianist Dan Saunders is not just for Opera fans, not even especially for Opera fans, it is for fans of singers and it has never been less than magnificent in the five years I’ve covered it. And it is free at Summerstage. Unmissable, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
The Neil Young album is his 36th, an agitprop assault on agritbusiness, and probably better than his 37th, the Willie Nelson son one, but not good enough either. I did a partial review of the Giorgio Moroder album a week ago, and I guess it is my most anticipated in any real sense, I mean it isn’t Hilary Duff or Hudson Mohawke that’s for sure, or Nate Ruess who seriously lacks consistency here, James Taylor I’ve heard and plan to review very soon, Adam Lambert? Third Eye Blind? I guess it isn’t as good a week as it looked at first. I haven’t heard Araabmuzik in ages, “Day Dreams” is a great song as well. . Let’s go with him.
‘Soaked in Bleach’ is the culmination of the fight of his career, and the movie makes the information available for everyone, in chronological order, killing the myth and exposing the facts. I don’t know if it will make the case to be reopened, but I bet that this time it is totally Buzz-Osborne-approved.
Miss Armor – Azealia Banks – A modern day “She Bop”, Azealia’s ode to break up and masturbation, is the rhythm of the diddle come to life, it jumps out in heat and desire and should’ve been the first single, a great hook filled romp and even better live – A
“That’s how bad it is. … The level of displacement would be like nothing we’ve ever seen before. It would be devastating to working people in this city, and it would be the beginning of the end of New York City as we have known it as a place for everyone.”
“When I walk up to people they’re like, ‘Wow! You’re nice.’ They’re acting like I’m walking actually turning over furniture everywhere I go…I’m in my own zone. I can’t go walk around trying to defend myself, chime in on everything.”
There is very little I don’t admire about “Love And Mercy” but this is why I love it, this insistence upon the sound in the head becoming real through work. It feels like the truth, it feels like how creation should occur.
‘Before we even got to watch it though, a man entered the theater and told us that Courtney had put out a Cease and Desist order in and her lawyer had been in touch with the theater. They played the film anyway! Many of the people in the theater walked out looking stunned’
I read somewhere that with Letterman gone and Jon Stewart going, and the Two Jimmys and a James full of fluff and stuff, Seth Meyers has a small window before Stephen Colbert tries to swallow up the political late night arena. I went to a taping a while back and Seth was awful BUT, he had hardly been on stage two weeks at the time. Perhaps now is the time to give him another chance, especially with Jamie xx appearing on Monday.
“I first saw the Stones in 1981 and I’ve seen them maybe fifteen times since then. From Bruce Springsteen to Elton John to Billy Joel, I’ve grown disenchanted with the all time rockers, but the Stones still put on a great show. They know what we want and they know how to deliver it. People travelled from around the States and the world to be there on Tuesday night.”
20th Century Boy – T-Rex – You believe in God? Why is Marc Bolan dead and Rupert Murdoch is retiring at a ripe old age if this God is somewhere around? Surely that makes no cosmic sense whatsoever? – A
That was after Ronald Reagan sold out the free airwaves and gave Rupert both citizenship ahead of millions and an equally slimy handshake. 20th Century Fox Chairman Rupert is stepping down to be replaced by his son James. The biggest changing of the guard by a major despot since Hafez handed over the reigns of Syria to Bashar.Al Assad.
Their sound is pop explosive, bouncy and hard hitting, yes all these drums are not just there to look pretty, but at the end, everyone will only look at frontgirl Liz Nistico who sings with these sweet child-like vocals while doing her restless sexy dance. Dressed in black and glittering gold, which seem to be the official Holychild colors, she was undulating her body, jumping in the crowd, interacting with people with a large smile, looking like a new Katy Perry bouncing on joyous electro-pop or rather like an optimistic Lykke Li on ecstasy.
The Replacements story is the latest in a long least of bad journalism by know nothings, a goodbye at their final show, an opinion that the Replacements won’t record some songs they’ve recorded and not a quote in the world. I guess they don’t know Paul, do they?
I don’t think we are ready to colonize the red planet anytime soon, it will take a while until we solve all the technical problems, but this is the ultimate dream of humanity. In the video, like in reality, the journey is slow and long but you have to be patient, and once we are flying over the red planet’s surface, it’s breathtaking
‘I was a very, very weird child. I had a port-wine stain birthmark on my face that I got lasered off when I was very young; one day, they forgot to put the anesthetic on, and ever since then, I had a stutter. I also had very big, blue NHS glasses — NHS is the National Health Service, one day I hope you’ll have the same! And I lacked an eardrum on one side of my ear, so stuttering was actually the least of my problems!’
Giving fidelity a really really bad name, please meet Andy Grammer, one of the more annoying pop stars in the world who gives jauntiness whole new levels of irritation on a truly dreadful song. This past year has been a drag for the world of pop, as conservative and sedentary as music can get.
We wanted to move to LA for inspiration and influence more than anything. It helped us to experiment and find our own sound. If you look at a lot of the alternative electronica and dance music coming out of LA, it definitely has a feel – we love the weirdness and sunshine. It has been a strong influence on many of our favorite records from the ’60s-’80s’
When is a hit album not a hit album? When it is by two of countries biggest stars and still only moves 30K units. To put it another way, including Grandkids and Great Grandkids, cousins, seconds cousin, and former bandmate’s next of kin, nobody else actually bought the damn thing. Talk about going to pot.
Live With Me Live At Leeds 1971 – The Rolling Stones – I am less than convinced by the third album, but this version is dynamic and the lick rings so nice, that let’s consider it the exception, as Jagger makes a declaration a desire – A
From the better never than late department, Governors Ball took up so much of last week, three days, and something like 30 miles of walking between stages, 37 sets viewed, etc, etc, etc, this recap is well late. What can I say about Governors Ball that I haven’t said? See you next year, that’s what I can say.
Belle And Sebastian’s recorded work is so large at this time in their career that, with the exception of a handful of tracks circa Sinister to Arab Strap, and the dreaded newbie, the rest could go anywhere they choose. The opening acts, Diarrhea Planet and Real Estate, look pretty terrific as well. Radio City Music Hall is a pretty excellent venue as well.
Sweet Love Of Mine – Joy Williams – The third song off her ready to drop newbie, the first two split between winner and loser but this? Wait for it…The best of the three, a simply piece of Americana that gets it quite right, especially the bridge where she uses her falsetto to powerful effect – A-
‘In launching these cards, we wanted to celebrate Virgin’s heritage and difference. The Sex Pistols challenged convention and the established ways of thinking – just as we are doing today in our quest to shake up UK banking.’… it was ‘time for consumers to put a little bit of rebellion in their pocket,’
Steady with Maestro – The Roches – off one of the best albums of the early 1980s, the sisters perform three piece harmonies on a gently song about sleeping with your boss. The album, Keep On Doing, made them superstars round our way and this is maybe the fourth best song on the album – A
I had told him this before and I basically reiterated, “I think that what you should do is give her everything, and run as if your very life depends on it. Sign everything over to her from this moment and just be gone. And if you need money, just go out and do a fucking solo tour, play acoustic guitar, you’ll be fine.” He felt like he was trapped. He was embarrassed by her. He wanted to divorce her. He wanted to get out of it. But he was too much of a mess to get out of it.’
Last week’s debut album by Algiers was the album of the week, a place where Gospel and hard rock cross pollinated with the blues and tonight at Mercury Lounge, 630 doors, they will be greeted as stars. A huge gig for them, but if you wanna be difficult the UK rockers the Vaccines at Warsaw.
Conquerors – The Darkness – In which the Glam Goth bore boys of rock go out in a hail of heavy duty overdone bullets over London, all Queen like “We Are The Champions” but they still can’t sell it to the masses – C
I have never travelled too deeply into the Mountain Goats catalogue, but that wasn’t necessary to understand and appreciate what this show was really about. Fundamentally, it was about John Darnielle’s love of performing and an audience that loved him for his unique artistic vision. It was a young crowd filled with hipsters and nerds and perhaps people that fall comfortably into both categories
Playing catch up after three days of music and music and music, this is very late but it is nevertoolte for a song as great as “Fatal Flaw” -it is the sort of song that makes some of Titus fanatics. nd as for “All Of Your favorite bands”? Reminds you how crappy their other songs are.
Suffolk County – Cousin Stizz – “Ain’t nothing much to do around here” Boston rapper Cousin Stizz notes in a cool flow on the first track, “shout out to the money, love the drugs” he raps on the very next track (his breakthrough hit) and claims “I am the Fresh Prince” on the third track on this working hustlers stories of life and business. Then he gets down to business – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
He is certainly pre Beatles, and pre everything that would fit his age – he is not even 30 – but he makes you swing in his well-oiled time travelling machine as if it was 1964.
I would rank the 2015 Governors Ball below 2014 but above 2013 and 2012, when you read about the rioting at Summer Jam Sunday night, if nothing else you have to admire their security. I saw no fights, hell I didn’t see a disagreement, there was a lot of security but it wasn’t the obstructive sort.
Yeah, they were really hard to pigeonhole, and they get all sort of comparisons, but they probably don’t want to be pigeonhole as Summers is famous for saying he draws his influences from all over the place, and quite unintentionally, since he was raised in a strict Christian household and was forbidden to listen to any secular music until his late teens!
Definitely the biggest difference was the lousiness of EDM on Sunday, it ruled on Friday and Saturday. And the real mistake, like my biggest mistake, was missing most of Chronixx. After an iffy show last year, I was pleasantly surprised at his performance.
Krell’s vocals are so eerie, so high falsetto and so emotional and violent at the same time, that he seems to bring all his guts in action.
Live is where he comes into his own as a no nonsense UK rocker who has a better feel for harmolodics then you might imagine, everything here is about arranging a sound where nothing sticks out and nothing goes under, it is like a mountain that is all peak. Liam will always be missed but not half as much as Liam misses Noel
After not much caring for the Miike Snow offshoot Galantis last week, this week it sounds much better. But it is Natalie La Rosa’s cover of Whitney Houston’s huge single that makes me less than surprised at the chance of it being a song of summer 2015.
One of the strangest things about life is the UK’s penchant for high brow, low talent classical pop pap, here represented by Will Young and Collabro -both brought to us by Simon Cowell, a man who knows the value of everything and the worth of nothing.
Living The Dream – Sturgill SImpson – The break out song during the set yesterday, on stage it is blow up and blow away jam track that saved his set, on record a mid-tempo swinger with a jammy middle eight, right after “she thinks mercy is overrated” — B+
Hot 97’s Summer Jam is always a chaos filled evening of fun and games, I once saw 50 Cent throw chairs at the audience who were booing him in the middle of a lousy set. Yesterday it erupted into chaos as folks without tickets tried to storm Metlife and the cops tear gassed them. Meanwhile, people with tickets were being denied admission.
Their performance was very dreamy, very slow at first, installing a very ethereal and aching ambiance, sometimes going to more beats, but staying on the dark side of an electronic dance.
