“The funny thing is that the Dead has always used money order to sell presale tickets, and they continued to do it. ‘In 2015 it’s beyond obsolete. And yet, $90 million flowed into the Stinson Beach post office for tickets to go to these shows. It’s nuts.’
Now FOX are threatening to do to it what NBC did to “Peter Pan”, ergo not much. It is a sign of the times that they don’t think the Frank homosexuality (“it’s not all bad, it’s not even half bad…”) and indeed hereosexuality might not be questionable for prime time television.
Remember about The National’s performance at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2013? They repeatedly played the same song (‘Sorrow’) over and over for six hours…. What. a. bore. No, this is not even close to what they think, since they want to release the damn thing!
Morrissey’s last album was the iffy World Peace Is None Of Your Business, where he insulted his label Harvest, told them they don’t have a contract with him, and they pulled the album off all internet services, including ITunes. In what amounts to a first, Moz managed to make me feel sorry for a record label.
despite Wolf being a sophomore album in every meaning of the term,Tyler is with the possible exception of Kendrick, the most important rapper of the decade and this might deliver. Or it might not. So I was ready to annoint young Tyler, when I noticed Dwight Yaokum had a new album and rumors abounded that it was a return to old form… but I went with Tyler any way.
I saw Earl Sweatshirt back when he was just a name Tyler dropped, till he invited Earl on stage at Hammerstein Ballroom back in 2012, one of the best concerts of the decade and the legend became a goofy looking teen. Two albums later and Earl and Frank have emerged as the two OFs always worth the while, and the last time I saw Earl on stage, Tyler joined him on strage and they were seriously awesome. With the superb I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside under his belt, this Saturday night gig at Best Buy is a must see.
Only two things really catch my attention, Jenny Lewis on James Corden and Tyler The Creature on Tavis Smiley. Smiley is a serious culture guy and Tyler can be forced to concentrate so it should be an interesting interview
U Mad – Vic Densa – With Kanye West and a trombone hook and a sense of moment that song seems to be signify more than the self-realization and conflict of the lyric reads like a bizarre diary entry. It is yet another direction for hip hop and the gifted Mensa, consider the West verse another gift – B+
Nick Cave can fill the 600 seats of the Grauman’s Egyptian theater, and just discuss his new book while not singing a single song? The evening was priced as high as a musical performance and the performance part was limited to him reciting a few of his incredible texts, but at this point many people (me included) would pay to see him just reading the phone book
If your ears were glued to pop radio stations in 1981, you would have been enjoying “Endless Love” by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, “Lady” by Kenny Rogers, and “Theme from ‘Greatest American Hero’ (Believe It or Not)” by the handsome and multi-talented Joey Scarbury. Scarbury also recorded “Flashbeagle” for the 1984 Peanuts special It’s Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown, an animated tale about a rogue pooch who was repeatedly arrested for indecent exposure.
Record Store Day is around the corner and horror! Some of the Record Store Day deals are already sold on eBay! According to many media outlets and Reddit threads, a few releases, that should only be available ton April 18th, are already showing up on the online store.
All of this helps and while having four attractive women in a band might not be a ticket to success, well, it didn’t hurt the Bangles, who, in at least the deep melodic tangledness, if not the power pop, is an antecedent to these guys. I don’t know if they’re any good live (I missed the Mercury Lounge gig) but, geez, aren’t they adorable?
You can’t hide from life, get rich, get money, power, popularity, and it still can’t hide you from the mesmerizing wrecking ball that is lives in motion. It doesn’t matter what you think is going to happen, it doesn’t matter how hard you to try to shield yourself from absolute disaster; life is like this huge monster that hunts you and rips out your heart and leaves you and returns and kills you
If anybody has a right to ignore his wishes it is his daughter, who didn’t know, who, through his own selfishness, missed having a father. That’s pretty drastic stuff and surely Francis has every right to claim: “hey, you don’t want to be a famous rock star? Fuck you, somersault in your grave over this, chump”
“My name is very sugary, but my personality is very spicy. My mom used to call me a little ball of fire. I love hard. I hate hard. I play hard, but if you calm me down, I can be gentle. That’s what this album is. It shows the true essence of who I really am as a person, as an artist.”
I have never heard of a business enterprise whose main selling point was more money for the billionaire artists and not a thing for the consumers. What sort of business model is that? There are many things that might concern the average fan, but Beyonce not making enough money isn’t among them.
So how much you enjoyed it depends on how much you still get off on the Stones darkly through the past energetically songs. Me? I don’t get off on it the way I used to and the bigger the song the more tired I am. From “Jumping Jack Flash” to Satisfaction” , “Tumbling Dice”, “Brown Sugar” this was the Stones as written and a little less.
Two of these songs will end up on my very best of the year, Old Fathers “Old Rock N Roll” and Brian Wilson’s “The Last Song”. One of them is the best political song of the year and the other is a go gently into that night and a weathered and true song of aging and loss. The Death Cab track is one of the better numbers, and all the turks, Conor, Lord Huron, Metz, are on their game.
Wilson can make music that sounds like the slow yearn of conclusion. It is one of his many strengths that even as a teen surfer sensation there was something else there, there was an awareness of thought and solitude. “Somewhere Quiet” is the ghost of “Please Let Me Wonder”.
The Wolf – Mumford And Sons – I didn’t like “Believe” at all and was more than ready to hate on these guys, especially after failing to get a tix to the LPR gig. but it is hard to dislike a hard rocking passionate mover like this. Chris Martin should be so lucky – B
The final night of a three week tour, imagine Television covering Neil Young and you’ll have a sense of the intense beauty but not the immense self confidence at work here. It’s like a bequietuded loud psychedelia.It is the sound of a bloke in charge of his easel, or at least his paintbrushes, the songs are unrushed and uncluttered, it is the sinking sound of past imperfect.
I like torch songs. I guess I like most music in which pathetic desperation is a dominant theme. That’s my wheelhouse, emotionally.
I like them, I have seen this band a few times live as I have been following them since their beginnings, and they seem to continue in this same direction, according a lot of attention to adventure and details and this video is no exception.
The band features the songs and lead vocals of Colin Meloy. He has a unique point of view and a unique voice. The songs are richly textured, with little soloing. Lead guitarist Chris Funk and keyboardist Jenny Conlee play in a way that reminds of Peter Buck’s guitar in REM
The top of the list is now in its 14th week, a reign that equals “I Gotta Feeling” , and has only been bested by the execrable Mariah Carey and Boys II Men “One Fine Day” -a song so bad they could make it replace waterboarding as a torture. The death song is horrible on just about every single level and it makes “Uptown Funk” sound like a paragon of funk smartness and inspired plagiarism. Which it isn’t. Speaking of death songs -will somebody put a fork in Wiz Khallifa already?
Not a bad top 10… nice to see my fave new album here, nice to see two of my fave holdovers from 2014 still hear, Kendrick didn’t crash and burn, Death Cab deserved some success with this one… there isn’t much I actively dislike. Ah, sweet zeitgeist tis of thee…
It was 1970 and new wave ruled the world… or did it? This piece of pseudo-new wave was much loathed by the people who cared for the real thing and while pimply would be jackers blasted it, the sound of new wave was a transparent mix and match from the British Invasion. I hated it at the time, but today can’t muster the energy – B
I am not sure what is catching your eye here, but I know what I see: THE TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND FREE CONCERT. What else: Jungle, the Carole King songs, always the Summer Recital Series is a must see, Whodini… and the 30th anniversary night looks fabulous.
It starts in the orange crate-ville of Southern California, home of Capitol Records, where water, sunshine and gorgeous girls means fun, fun, fun! I did not paint these images in any particular order but one can see a Santa Monica Civic era Brian already being carried away by the twister like forces of fame and fortune
New week, new songs,…. it’s true, so many bands release songs at the beginning of a commencing week. Today we can listen to material from three bands that had temporarily disappeared from our radar, so here are one relaxing tune and two other songs that will shake you up.
As it is the case each year, there are bands I am familiar with and new ones I’ll discover. So far I would recommend a few bands I have already seen: How to dress Well, which is Tom Krell’s project and a very personal R&B re-interpretation,… be prepared for a strong Michael Jackson vibe, but the result is more intense and experimental than anything the king of pop has ever put out
I wrote a little while ago that MJ’s primary responsibility was to live through this for his three children. That was his moral imperative. But the music world, or popstars issues with fame and feeling good about themselves, are not our concerns, our only concerns are the musical manifestation of mortality.
Sparks – Hilary Duff – Whistling is the new 808 drum intro, it signifies both playfulness and serious pop chops. And Hilary needs them on this dreadful pop monstrosity. She should go back to acting – C-
Heavy Horses, Farm On The Freeway, Songs From The Wood sit alongside Aqualung, Living In The Past, Wind-Up, A New Day Yesterday, The Witch’s Promise, Locomotive Breath and other favourites – often with slightly re-written lyrics to better tell the tale.
Satellite – All Time Low – The best song on an ordinary album, has the thump of anthem and a “lalalalala” hook, but it isn’t good enough to seriously signify as song or anthem, though maybe it signifies as emo as it reworks a Billy Bragg metaphor for no good reason – B-
The first single off the second album was Huge, the second less so, but the second was the weakest link on this very beautiful folk rock -though not folk like Roger McGuinn, it is an indie folk with rural sweep and uplift and some of the strongest songs of the year – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
The average age of death of this list is 56.6 without the last two, and 58.3 when they are included, and despite the fact that this quick survey is far from being an extensive study, this shows that, this year too, musicians died very young and the numbers verify the studies.
So it goes on, the wound never heals entirely, yet when life can be a reign of tragedies, you reach for happiness wherever you can find it.
So as illness takes me down yet I can’t, I don’t have the time, to be taken down, so somewhere I am in both places, three places , somewhere I am ill, somewhere I am working and somewhere I have drifted back to a late sunny afternoon. And all three are listening to “The Only Living Boy In New York”.
Sunday night rock nyc just about exclusively reported that Mumford And Sons were playing a secret concert today at le Poisson Rouge and twelve hours after we broke it everybody else realized and the result was somewhat predictable. Le Poisson Rouge’s website crashed.
That is a question that goes to the heart of our insecurities, it is the unanswerable, unequivicable question between adults and children. Do you love me? Really? Do you love me enough? How much? How often? Why? Why not? Carrie And Lowell has no answers for Sufjan or us, but it has the right questions, and the right concerns and that is so rare, so important. It illuminates who we are.
The Body – Wale – Jeremih makes Miguel look like Marvin Gaye and this song makes Wale look like Wale and my point is that after pretty good hour of music, this is too ordinary to close it out with – C
Can’t Say No – The Tomas Doncker Band – The first time I heard this song was way after midnight at the Blue Note, and Joe Jackson was sitting behind me. It was, instantaneously, the best Rolling Stones song where the writer didn’t know it was a Rolling Stones but it was any way, I’ve ever heard –
She called Indiana governor Mike Pence an asshole on Instagram, because he passed a controversial bill on March 26th, prohibiting state and local governments from hindering a person’s right to practice their religion… Although the bill doesn’t specifically mention sexual orientation, many worry it will also make it possible for employers to discriminate against gay candidates
“They’ve been tweeting some pretty rude stuff at me, so I think there’s a sect of America out there that doesn’t like certain opinions and can really take their claws out when they don’t like what you’re saying.” though you voted
The problem with Saints is there aren’t too many of them around and god knows John Lennon was more human than most so his sainthood is a little, how you say, disillusioning. When people speak of Lennon, they miss something: he was a serial philanderer, a wife beater, he neglected his son Julian, and he had a violent streak. But here is the kicker: he changed. The wife being beaten was Cynthia Lennon (and it was their child Julian being ignored). Cynthia died last week from cancer at the age of 75.
In other Coachella-related news, say goodbye to porta-potties, and there are pictures to prove it! Curbed LA has posted a few pictures, and these have real and permanent bathrooms!! They will be located in the “terrace” section of the venue, and the concrete block building will hold 324 stalls
What is bizarre and strange about the Prodigy is that they were so unique and cutting edge on The Fat Of The Land and nearly 20 years later they are exactly the same. We call this a Status Quo complex, psychiatrists are fascinated by it, the Prodigy grow older without ever changing in the slightest. In 2035 they will be sound exactly the same.
Wow, Sam Smith is out of the top ten! I didn’t think it would ever happen! As for Sia, after years of saying all she had in her was “Titanium”, her vocal on “Wolves” thrilled me and left my defenses down for this track off her last album.
Fourth Of July – Sufjan Stevens – From a contender for album of the year, Stevens mourns his recently dead Mom and all he can say to comfort himself is “we’re all gonna die”. Cold comfort, right? But I know where he is coming from – A
