The True Groove All Stars begin their residency at The Classon Social Club in Brooklyn, the Max’s Kansas City Annual reunion day one at Bowery Electric, shoegaze ancestors Ride at T5, Chromeo at Apollo, Refused at MHOW, Wire At Bowery Ballroom.
Wiz is back on top, Tay is right behind and if you include “Uptown Funk” that is nearly every # 1 we’ve had this year. The songs here, I like some, I like some less, but they are all of a piece and it all starts with the drums. The drum sound here is uniform across every single song, including “Shut Up And Dance with me”. Looking at this, I am amaed by the duiversity… in 1967. This is all very similar.
There’s something so artisanal and DIY in their attitude, they arrived with a school notebook in which they write their setlists as if they were entries for their common girl dairies. During the whole set, the two girls seemed so in phase with each other, having some funny and almost intimate chatting between the singing parts, and totally connecting during the songs, looking like two perfect accomplices
Off the soundtrack to the movie “Southpaw”, this is a braggarts pleasure, nobody spits it and rhymes it for five minutes as well as Em, and this isn’t him in Ree duet pop mode, this is hot firing on all cylinders. “I am phenomenal with every ounce of my blood” he roars, as Eminem works for all its worth the boxing-rapper metaphor. Consider it “Eight Miles” by other means. DJ Khalil produced it – B+
I know I am in the minority but I prefer A$AP Rocky’s new one to Kendrick’s new one, not lyrically and not rapping, but sound and song it is a masterful piece of work. Try “Acid”, “Excuse Me” and “Jukebox Joints” and then go in deep. Otherwise, I know a “C+” doesn’t seem impressive, but in the world of CCM it is the equivalent of an “A”
If one more person comes up to me today and says “get a life Lababedi”, I’m gonna play the new Dawes album on their ass till they beg for forgiveness. I wanted a life and I got a life and heavy knows I was miserable, so instead of spending my life getting it, I shall spend my life doing completely ridiculous wastes of time like this: imagining what the days of the week would be if they were rock stars
In the late 90s and early 2000s, music videos were such a huge deal. We decided that instead of making one overly slick music video, we would nod to 15 of our favorite music videos that we grew up with. Everyone in the band threw in their ideas.’
Sepp Blatter stepped down as President of the Football Association FIFA amid allegations of huge corruption, kickbacks, bribery, you know, like Albany only for sports. Incidentally, if FIFA had given the US the next world cup instead of Qatar, I wouldn’t if the US would’ve pursued the corruption charges quite as vigorously?
it has been to rain a lot at Glastonbury and unlike our own Governors Ball, people camp out (yuck, right). Here are the performers and get ready to have you mind boggled. It is like Governors ball on steroids plus the Who!!!! And Suede and Kanye and FKA Twigs, Gregory Porter… It really is unreal, it dwarfs Coachella
“a bill in the State Legislature to name a part of state Route 107 in the Long Island town Oyster Bay after Billy Joel passed in the Senate last week. The bill, which was sponsored by state Senator Jack Martins and Assemblyman Michael Montesano, proposes that the “stretch of South Broadway from East John Street to West Old Country Road” will be called ‘Billy Joel Boulevard’.”
I only have one experience with Beirut, their set at the 2012 FYF fest, and I thought they were the apogee of an indie band, mixing Mexico-via-the-Balkans world music, using lots of instruments including accordion, old-fashioned upright bass, ukulele, and abundantly injecting horns and trumpets into a reinvented folklore
I drew this out in pencil before I attacked it on canvas. Weirdly enough, I got the hair, I got the eyes…but then a very strange thing happened when I got to the nose….from the nose down she turned into Tina Turner! I did not try to do this. I tell ya, I don’t have that much control of my painting!
Irony. Utility. Pretext – Algiers – A deep track off their very dramatic new album is, well, very dramatic, a soulful wail like Jim Morrison with a cold and thrashing swirls of dark snyths and whips, all leading to a Gospel denouement. Wild stuff from the deep South – B+
JD McPherson gave a really great show to the Amoeba crowd, playing a set full of a vibrant energy deeply rooted in American music history. Despite his young age, McPherson transports his audience in an early-Elvis era, as his 50’s-inspired music sounds like a Sun Records throwback
How Big, How Beautiful, How Blue – Florence + The Machine -Florence opens with her best song and continues through the travails of alcoholic and heartbreak, beautiful sung ballads, powerful anthemic fast ones, and always that voice, possibly the best in the business in a post-Amy Winehouse world – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
While Richard Branson saw the space age as a cheap holiday for billionaires, Elon Musk, the inventor of Pay Pal, saw it as a way to cut itself right into the industrial complex with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifted off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Excited: How about the Air Force allowing Space X to bid on Air Force launch business. The price of a launce has been $160M, Elon says he can do it for $100M. Wow.
JD McPherson gave a really great show to the Amoeba crowd, playing a set full of a vibrant energy deeply rooted in American music history. Despite his young age, McPherson transports his audience in an early-Elvis era, as his 50’s-inspired music sounds like a Sun Records throwback
L$D – A$AP Rocky – As in love, sex and drugs, this is a hallucination of a mood song, though well tinged by weed as well, so everything drags behind the beat and the sex is wet and exciting but slow and druggy.
The Grateful dead started it but as it gets harder and harder to make money off studio recordings, everybody from the Allman Brothers (RIP) to Phish to Bruce Springsteen have started hawking their concerts to the faithful.
Senator Rand Paul filibustered a delay on the revised Patriots act vote, thereby delaying it till Tuesday or Wednesday. I may not agree with much that either the Tea Party or the Kentuckian does, but institutionalized spying should be illegal without a warrant. Paul is running for President.
Azealia Banks – May 11th – Irving Plaza – This is it folks, in the battle of the women rappers (not to mention men rappers) we have a winner. Banks does everything she said she would, dances, raps, boogies down, takes us on. Pump-parrrrump-pa-rrum-pump
And after much more stage action and ‘Lance Jr’ (a song which certainly has a strong Nirvana vibe), I got this revelation, Courtney Barnett was totally channeling Kurt Cobain! She commanded the scene like a guy, sweeping the room with an impressive force, while being all over the place, unpredictable, creative and destructive
Live: A heavy concert week, with Joan Jett and the Who, Ed Sheeran, and Christines, Sayak and the awesome The Gotobeds leading a jam packed week of gigs. No major disappointments and the Gotobeds was exactly what you hoped they were.
this is the blandest of bland charts, there is nothing, not even the Tay remix, that isn’t product and not great product either. Maybe, MAYBE Lunchbox Lewis is the real thing, MAYBE Omi, but everything else here is way too manufactured even for a manufactured cult.
A$AP Rocky has been on heavy rotation all week and I see no reason to stop now, Will Young on the other hand is a painfully wimpy MOR singer who I have whole other levels of meh for. This is the fourth # 1, who won the very first season of the franchise that would be know as American Idol, the UK’s Pop Idol.
the 30 minute set was a brimming with smarts, fast loud with prog rock influences and a smirk on their face joy, and way too friendly not to make friends and way too funny not to be adored and way way way too exciting not be loved.
Bangles have always stayed on the cute side of power-pop and never really ventured to punk energy. But they got into more action with bluesier guitars later on, especially when Kathy Valentine from the GoGo’s joined them on stage for their famous hit ‘Manic Monday’ and a few other gems
Tom’s Diner – Giorgio Moroder with Britney Spears – The Suzanne Vega track with a hook to die for is given a full blown disco work over, including a Moroder spoken interlude and a Britney heavily vocoded vocal. Terrific but the song was always a goodie – A-
There are at least four songs here that sound major to me, Jason Isbell and Titus Andronicus at the top of the list and A$AP Rocky and ZZ Ward not far behind, so if this doesn’t feel like big time pop moment month, it isn’t because of the best, it is because of everything else. Two of my favorite songs this year, by Daytripper and Charlie Funk, aint even out yet. For Daytripper, God knows when she’ll get around to it
Sajak’s penultimate song last night was a cover of The Stranglers epic self portrait “(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)”, one of the tastiest licks you’ll hear. Meanwhile, Dawes fans are upset I gave their new album a “B”…. they don’t seem to understand how I can like the playing and the lyric but think the songs didn’t make it.
California Nights – Best Coast – My favorite of their three albums is a collection of LA inky blue mood music which merges with Bethany’s weed inspired drowsiness and builds into symphonic OKness.
As I grew older, the Who’s music seemed to grow with me. The sexual frustration, the politics, identity. These things coursed through my veins with every concurring Who album. I always found myself there somewhere in their music. “The Seeker”; the seeker is the guy in “Born to Run.”
Talk about changing your mind!! Or maybe that’s the wrong way of putting it. What I wrote about Conor and Dylan was true then but six years later can’t withstand a reread but it is getting one any way. Both albums were disappointments by the way, big disappointments. But that was then…
I suppose they wanted to be considered, well, real musicians, but these times are over and Jenny has decided to have a little fun with her past of child-actor. She directed herself this cute parody and has invited Fred Armisen (Portlandia), Zosia Mamet (Girls), Leo Fitzpatrick (another child-actor), Feist, and Vanessa Bayer (SNL) to play along.
OK, we all know where this is going so why fight it, right? Three days of love, peace and music in the Bronx, it is GOVERNORS BALL WEEK!!! fave: Kate Tempest, Noel Gallagher, Drake, Florence And The Machine, Bjork, Flying Lotus, Weird Al… and more. The only real disaster is Saturday evening, everything else, even Lana Del rey at the end of Sunday, should be fun on Randall’s Island.
‘Then dig your shorty out cuz I geeked her up on molly/Have her eating dick, no need for seasoning/If seven dudes are in the room then she’s pleasing them/Like a trooper. Hit her in the pooper. Throw her in the shower/Then I take her out to Lupa I’m kinky, I’ll hit it even if it’s stinky/Put em in the shower, make the pussy brand new Ran through/Give ’em money what I can’t do Stuff her lunchbox & burn her with the candle.’
Something About You – Hayden James – Aussie producer is the purest of house, tinkering with tempo, slowing it down to a crawl on the bridge before readying a steady pounding mid-tempo sound. It goes deeper and deeper before free falling out -as far from dropping the bass as you can get – B
A busy week we got going on here, I’ve heard Dawes and I’ve heard Willie and Merle, and maybe five song off Jamie xx. The Florence And The Machine will definitely be good, definitely… but great? I really like Jamie xx but I think I am mot anticipating Girlpool: a first album from a terrific new band
The dream is over, the Rangers lost in seven and all we can do now is wipe away our tears and thank the Lord we didn’t pony up $650 for a ticket to the game at MSG. Henrik Lundqvist is the Patrick Ewing of New York Hockey… time to go home. Just wait till next year.
The album is a break up special, and it is good and if it had a few more songs it might venture into great land, but the first single “Right On Time” is all that’s wrong here: it is well played but mushy, a tasteful drag and that’s Dawes problem: they are a tasteful drag. And three songs does not an album make
The two top songs are both among the best of the year, I can see “Acid” ending up in the top ten, and “Love 3X” in the top 20 for 2015. “Handcuffs” was better than I gave it credit for and at least Muse have one sure shot song on their newbie.
The stage was a beauty, the lighting dramatic and the screens like a Greek chorus of Ed’s one moment, and then individual (during “Thinking Out Loud” the music video played on one screen right behind him). The result was a world of Ed’s or only two Ed’s, but always a flux of concepts echoing the songs, which can’t really withstand too much
I saw Will at the Troubadour last night, and it was a very pleasant show, laid back and filled with humor and energy, a very intimate one too, as I was standing as close as you can get, still mad at the strict policy of the Troubadour not allowing decent cameras inside (I never have this problem when I go to a show on the eastside) and imagining all the good shots I could have made of Will’s funny poses and comic moves.
Game Seven of Rangers Vs Lightning Hockey at MSG and the cheapest seat is $750. You would be a fool to bet against the Rangers, they’ve won their past four game sevens. Another step closer to the Stanley Cup if they win.
Superstition – Stevie Wonder – Stevie on things you don’t understand but all these years later, what the hell? “… ain’t the way”? Is that what you wanna tell me. Still, it sounds awful good – A
Through the past three years, Tomas and his True Groove family have been releasing songs at a ridiculous clip, song after album after song and about to enter its third residency next week in less than year. Before things got completely out of hand, I though I’d work my way through the catalog and tell you what’s out there
Here are another two chances to catch up with the sound of secret agent men all over the world, rock and roll as it was always meant to be, when the Bakersfield Breakers are playing Route 66 Smokehouse on Saturday from 9 to 12 and playing Jalopy Theater on Sunday at 7.
It’s my first listening, it’s pretty music, often upbeat and decorated, but I keep hearing Johann Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D Major’, through these songs! However, Chris Owens compares himself to a painter: ‘For me it felt like being a painter. You do a little work and then you have a glass of wine and listen to some Brahms or something on the stereo
Now this is a biggie for Four Knots. To be dead honest, it is their biggest ever. Wales’ fave Super Furry Animals, a band I put a tier below Manic Street Preachers but that’s it, came back on active duty in 2014, and haven’t played the States since 2009. This will be their first stateside gig since then and honestly, I couldn’t be more thrilled.
The Hills – The Weeknd – The one time I saw this guy live I was impressed, less a DJ then a soul man, and this soulful come on, trying to get her out of the Friend zone, is yet another gorgeous neo-R&B track , it clicks nicely and is as good as anything he has ever done- A-
