Their joyous pop was a bit hirsute and I am not especially talking about the ZZ Top look of the banjo player, but it was a total success among the crowd. There were vocal harmonies, a lot of this classical violin, operatic croon and a desire to go bombastic at each second.
Flying Lotus may well be the best DJ out there, he gives the world beats so fresh they are almost impenetrable, so obtuse you know where he is ever heading, But to perform behind a screen for your set? That’s kinda pushing it right?
A terrific and immensely pleasurable time especially since his last album was a # 1 hit. The best shouts for the terrific “White And Nerdy” but he could have gotten away with playing polkas on his accordion all night.
If I lost interest 20 minutes in, the rest of the audience is huge, even against A-Traak and attentive as the acid test, “This can’t be a better end to our fucking tour” before unleashing a weird and glorious stomper.
As blue eyed soul guys Mayer Hawthorne has a lot going for him, my boss came back from a private gig at VH1 raving about the guy. But guess what? He never mentioned Mayer again. Why? Because Mayer can write them and he can sing them but he can’t write a memorable hook to save his life.
So what’s the difference between Americana and country? When it comes to Sturgill Simpson not a damn thing, leading his band through a sparsely attended mid afternoon set, he
I caught this masterful Rastaman last year at Summerstage, today he has his pop side on… All high octane rubadub son of Marley and as impressive as ever, maybe more so.
Here in Randall’s Island they went from an awesome “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” to less awesome more mathematically inclined beats off their upcoming album…
LA pop band Echosmith are a new wave fun machine with echoes of Katrina And The Waves without the jangle
It is difficult to say anything about a show which ends with “Hyperballad” but a show that deconstructs “Army Of One” is easier and more, it is telling the best songs were Vulnicura songs, the two songs that opened the album opened the 7om 75 minute set and the were the most stunning of them all.
The trick with Governors Ball is, if you like rock and indie, move between the Honda and Big Apple stages, and if you love dance and hip hop, the Gotham tent and GovBall Stage… more or less. Noel is at the GovBall stage today at 7pm so there are exceptions.Net year they may want to reconsider where they want to put EDM, the Gotham tent overflowed constantly. Kiesza’s set was a madhouse
Look, face it, the new Belle And Sebastian is a dog with fleas, now move on with your life and check the Los Campesinos of pop folk (please, not the Pet Shop Boys) at Radio City on Wednesday: with Real Estate and Diarrhea Planet opening, it should for one of the treats of the pop year.
if this was a better week I wouldn’t have gone with Muse, of the four songs I’ve heard only one is a killer, everything else is various degrees of whatever. But who else? Jenny Hval wrote the quietly distressed “Death Of The Author” but over an album the Oslo native is a little too much. Of Monsters And Men are one of the least thrilling bands in the world. The Guardian called Drones “an Orwellian break-up album”, so that should do it, right?
Just try holding back the tears when you see the real Brian Wilson singing “Love and Mercy” at the end of this film. Misty would have liked this and she would have made fun of me over lunch for being so emotional. God bless Brian Wilson.
All hail the true American Pharoah, The Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, his great jockey Bob Baffert, he of the identical tall blonde bombshell girlfriend and fiancee, and everybody who bet their shirt when they discovered American Pharoah would be running from his favorite lane, on the way to being the first horse to win the Triple Crown since…. 1978!!!
Their awesome vintage sound had enough of this 60’s surf-y-bluesy guitars, and frontman Vincent Davies was doing enough of that Chuck Berry walk, to make them instantaneously loveable.
The action seemed to be more in the guitars themselves than directly on stage, but they had charisma and gorgeous harmonies, plus this bipolar-bimodal style could make them totally unique, because who wants to listen to another straightforward blues band?
Rustie is a DJ from Glasgow – one of the worlds’s great cities though a little rough round the edges, not unlike this amazing guy who drops the bass sure but then heads off into aural heaven.
Opening with “Real Love” and including the blondie (I know, no internet access) adds a oboe and someone else on a sax and the sound is a terrific mindfuck. VIP is still quiet but GA stretches and stretches as the band plays mainstream electronic dance pop.
The beats are so heavy I can feel em in my feet. Not to mention my eardrums,rushing like the devil was on my tail, I made it in time for half an hour.
‘It immediately rang true for me as that location has a beautiful 360 panoramic view which matches the cyclical fugue like movement in the song. If the song has a shape it is sort of like a circle that just goes on forever.’
Yes, it rained at the start but it stopped but that wasn’t the big news, the big news was they finally tiled the Gotham Tent so the VIP section wasn’t a horrible swamp. Oh, and the other news is the autograph pavilion! Structurally, it was a good first day, it is hardly the promoters fault if the performers had their ups and down!
I caught the first six songs, and Jim James vocal on “Evil Urges” was ridiculous, a Curtis Mayfield inspired complete triumph but the night (or what I saw of it) belonged to lead guitarist Carl Broemel, who was beyond awesome on “Circuital. How a band who have been at it so long can be so clueless as to how to record themselves is beyond.
Florence Welch has a big voice and a great attitude, arms open wide she lets everybody in with a dreamy, exciting, banging attitude and a full band and a full voice. “There’s a big sign here that says “STEPS” she told us, to remind Florence, who broke her foot earlier this year at Coachella, not to jump. She jumped any way.
In a first, the Canadian master had a sign language interpreter on stage with him as he made a dash through the heart of the set, “Worst Behavior: through “Hell Ya Fucking Right” with “Tuesday” on one end and “Started From The Bottom” on the other and right in the middle his masterpiece “Hold On, We’re Coming On” and right here Governors Ball came into its own
Kesis dedicates a song to his five year old son and it is a great moment in a show with plenty of them, the unflagging energy and excellence has the audience -by the way, later last night Drake claimed it was the best audience he ever had, and while I don’t know about that, in set after set the audience were the fifth Beatle.
On stage she is a dynamic if minor player for now, moving well, singing very well, and keeping the audience interested with her soul inflected vices and pixieish good looks and good humor. “Lean On” got the biggest roar of her afternoon I’m guessing
After calling its audience bricks in the wall watching black kewpie dolls, Conor takes the money and runs tonight where he spends his day on Randalls Island and evening in Brooklyn. Hypocrisy? Sure, but money talks. The real problem here is the song -which is not very good despite the bass blasts – C
At this moment, I am sure everybody was thinking at unison, ‘I wish he was still with Girls’? This will probably be always in the back of our minds, but with his blonde hair hiding his face, fragile vocals and his vulnerable appearance, Chris Owens looks so frail at time, you just wonder if he can put on a show, but after a few minutes, you are convinced he certainly can!
I wish I’d left Charli earlier and caught more of his excellent set.
Starting with an electrified with “Sucker” this is hot pop punk.
Gorgon City perform first rate House Music and soulful and extremely fun disco via London and they are much better live with a chick singer who can roar and an energetic kick ass attitude
Rae Sremmurd are the two lively young brats who look like Will Smith’s brats but with you know real talent
Right now New Yorks DIIV have stopped acting out your dreams (you remember Alysons story the other day) and are playing some buzzed out fuzzed out guitar indie gear.
Good guys by definition this is all turntable and all really really awesome with a word to the good fold: let the weed take over your soul they advise. And the raps. They end with an Animals sample, and turns us into hippies.
It’s raining but not too much and the waft of marijuana is already in the air as Austin,Texas Black Pistol Fire take the stage with some filthy garage blues
‘This is not at all a stepping back — this is a reevaluation of the model of going from one location to two to three,’ told Budweiser VP of marketing Brian Perkins to Billboard. ‘We’re a very ambitious brand, and we have a very ambitious partner in Jay Z, who also dreams big. And we always want to do big, bold things with music under the moniker of Budweiser Made In America.’
Sure, it is a rerun from June 1st but now Bernie Sanders, the wild man of the Democrats who makes so much sense it is scary and it is so honest Hillary Clinton must be have conniptions, is now officially running for President so let’s se how he is on the fluff and stuff of mainstream America? Cmon, talk shows could sell Hitler as warm and cuddly but remember, he is a fascist not a socialist.
Christopher Owens is like a girl you fell out of love with. Why? No reason, no reason not to love her anymore, she looks the same and smells the same, still as sweet and cute and other people are still envious but you just don’t love her any more.
‘I do feel that where we are now, certainly with rock & roll music, is that so much of it is variations on themes. But I think that it’s one’s particular creativity and individuality that comes out within that variation on a particular theme that makes a song great.’
Two years ago today -more or less, I took my VIP ticket and stuck it in my ear at Governors Ball as torrential rain poured down for the entire day, eventually cancelling the activities. Man, was I upset and swore I’d never go back again and might have kept to it except, the weather improved for the next two days and then I was thisclose for West’s great performance on the Sunday and so whomp -there I was
I remember when I hated Governors Ball the way I hated all music festivals, good if you’re a boy scout who didn’t mind camping out all night and good if you enjoyed seeing concerts from a stage further away than the last row at Metlife. BUT VIP tickets get you close and Governors Ball is an urban gig, reachable via subway. So here we go… today: Rudimental, Florence + The Machine and Drake are the highlights.
loved the first single “Dimed Out” and this could actually be better, the organ solo is riveting and thrilling at the punch line a real beauty, “let me show you my fatal flaw, it’s the best thing you ever saw” Patrick Stickles sings on the sort of messed up come on that greats seem to drop effortlessly, “waiting on some drug deal all day…” he claims.
The band appears briefly at the beginning and at the end, dressed up as the avatars of their fake video game, Damon Albarn as the ice cream cone, Mr. Cream, Grahan Coxon as the cockroach, Mr. Brown, Alex James as the blob, Mr. Red, and Dave Rowntree as the fly, Mr. Black… and it didn’t even make me smile a second… do they really find that remotely funny?
Far be it for me to just cut and paste some Press Release… ah screw it, who am I kidding? I’ve never met a press release I couldn’t cut and paste if the mood took me! I was never a big Sheik fan till “Spring Awakening” and “Spring Awakening” was the epitome of a modern Broadway musical
As for “The Most Unforgettable Night of Forever” -” while the October 17th finale features the theme “The Most Unforgettable Night of Whatever – Featuring Spectacular Musical Guests, Glorious Tunes and Riffage, and Whatever the Party Calls for! Parking Validated for First Dozen Diehard Fans.”
I’ve heard the five songs already released, Britney Spear’s Suzanne Vega cover, and a mega mix (see below) with snippets of the entire 12 song album. So half plus. Enough for a half informed opinion and here it is: I like it. If Daft Punk are Moroder inspired EDM monsters, Moroder has become a Daft Punk inspired update of himself
(This is less than two weeks into rock nyc and I was still trying to simplify my writing to the very bare bones, and not finding it easy. Reading this review is a reminder as to how great Lily was, and how meh she became. I happened to be listening to Martha Wainwright earlier today and the same thing happened to her… they couldn’t sustain it
When you arrive on the website, you have to ‘use your keyboard to escape the loops’ as they say, meaning clicking randomly on the page? At least this is what I did first. I could not find many of these looping clips, then they suddenly appeared, one by one, and I played a loop till I couldn’t stand it anymore… so I wanted to see another one but didn’t know how to get back!
Family Bible – Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard – One of Willie’s earliest songs, written in 1957 and sold to the highest bidder, it sure sounds like a standard now. This is a pleasant take on it, especially the way he sings “i can hear my mother softly singing….” – B
