UK Top 10 Singles 3-28-15
An uneventful week on the singles charts, James Bay is this years Hozier, Sam Smith is this years Sam Smith, but what else? Nothing. All quiet in the UK!
10 Songs: Monday, March 23rd, 2015
Words – Skylar Gray – Just her name makes you think Skylar must be more than this piano balladeer but no, “Love The Way You Lie” and that appears to be it. This is a terrible song, an overblown bore – C-
Marshall Crenshaw, Kessler Theater, Dallas, Texas, Friday, March 20th, 2015 Reviewed
Simply put, he still sings very well. His guitar playing is sharp, concise, never unnecessarily flashy. Every note serves the song. And the writing? If he’s ever penned a bad tune, you couldn’t prove it by this performance. There were no low spots.
Laura Marling’s “Short Movie” Review
If it works from the edges, if it is clearly bewildered, if it could only send her away and if true love, or at least true hope, is so difficult to cling to, these are flaws in life not song.Perhaps at her age, it is wrong to search out a new thesis, her failure here is in laying one out, in a confessional that doesn’t know where it’s at
Streaming Services Now Earn More Money Than CDs Sales
The number of paid subscriptions to on-demand music services grew by 26% and revenues from streaming services (free and paid versions of Spotify, Rhapsody, Pandora, SiriusXM, YouTube…) rose by 29% in 2014.
Be Here Now: rock nyc Top Concert Picks Week Of March 23rd, 2015
Having seen her husband at MSG last year, I am even more excited to see the terrific crazy ex-girlfriend herself, the platinum country gal, and the personality to burn face of the modern side of country Miranda Lambert. Saturday night… it should be one of the concerts of the year.
Laura Marling’s Top 10 Songs
I have been thinking hard about the new Laura Marling album, Short Movie, getting ready to review the Tuesday release, and also getting ready for the Monday concert at Warsaw. I’ve had it in heavy rotation and then began dipping into Laura’s earlier albums.
Chic featuring Niles Rodgers “I’ll Be There” Reviewed
“I’ll Be There” and “Back In The Old School” are simply first rate and the reason is the same precise reason “Get Lucky” was so great, Rodgers, rhythm master guitar is sublime on both tracks, on “I’ll Be There” it is so huge it powers the entire track, on “Old School” the horns do more than merely back it up and if Bernard Edwards, through no fault of Niles, is not along, and Alfa Anderson, Luci Martin, and Norma Jean Wright., who would have been a huge addition to these songs
St. Vincent Allegedly Destroyed Chilean Paintings?
This story is so bizarre that I am not sure what to think, but more than the story, the lack of coverage of it is weird. Usually a story like this should have gone viral, whereas only MTV and Stereogum are reporting about it…. But may be I should start reading Spanish!
Austin Is The Most Popular City for concerts According To Eventbrite
The median age of people who live there is 30 years of age, and that explains why Austin is the # 1 market for live concerts, according to Eventbrite (the place I bought my Governors Ball tickets, I might add) as reported by Hypebot…
Direct Current’s Upcoming releases through June 7th, 2015
GIRLPOOL! GIRLPOOL! Definitely the album of choice going into Spring. Though a new Florence Welch, a new Chris Stamey produced by Mitch Easter no less, Shelby Lynn (hope it is half as good as her sisters new album), Mumford And Sons, Best Coast, Ringo, Paul Weller, Brian Wilson… should be a fun season.
Medium Cool: Talk Show Guests Week Of March 23rd, 2015
Julie Andrews on Kelly & Mike? That should be a love fest right? 5SoS, though q rerun so, in fact, no Brandon Flowers? The best thing you can say about his first solo album is it was better than last Killers albums, my friend Susan Whitall’s stomping ground, “Detroit Free Press editorial page editor Stephen Henderson” on Tavis Smiley. I am going with the Mavericks for Talk Show Guest of the week.
10 Songs: Saturday, March 21st, 2015
Black Eyed Peas – Boom Boom Pow – This is not the one, you will find the one elsewhere on this list, but this is a future for house music, just heavy beats and an addictive hook to take you out. It is all compulsory propulsion out of mind – B+
Helen Mirren In “The Audience” At Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, Wednesday, March 18th, 2015, Reviewed
This speculative fiction is interesting without being enlightening about either the Queen or the Prime Ministers. And to make matters worse, “The Audience” is a lousy play. Oh, it is a fun two hours, for sure, it is just a bad play. It has no arc, it has no crest, it spins its wheels for two hours and then ends.
Print Your Own 3D Paul McCartney At Home?
‘We’re really excited to say the file is now available to any fan who wishes to try making their own!’ They announced. ‘If you’d like to get your own 3D Paul printed off, you have two options: either find a local or online printing company who can make it for you; or, if you have access to a 3D printer, you can try printing your own!
A Few Upcoming And Controversial Biopics
I see a trend, a real trend of biopics about dead rock stars and I am not sure I like it because this means that a lot of musicians died very young and many of them were probably murdered…. At least according to these new movies coming up.
Girls Band Are Irish Post-Punk Boys
The EP is kinda exciting in this temperate rock and roll moment: the band seem always on the verge of total collapse, they sound ;ike you just after you’re second Xanax, third line of coke and a double expresso in a bottle of red bull: somewhere between dizzy and dead right. “Handswaps” is a waking nightmare of a song!
Must See: David Crosby At the Town Hall, June 25th
During the tour, Crosby will be performing selections from his latest album 2014’s Croz, and his 1971 solo debut, If I Could Only Remember My Name, as well as songs from his bands CSN, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and The Byrds.
rock nyc Top 10 Songs Week Of March 16th, 2015
The Weeklings go back to the very beginning with this Beatle cover, and Allison Moorer makes her point and then some, “u” is the best song on the newbie and Evans The Death survives another day. One thing: it is the rare week where you can’t find ten really great songs.
Cloud Nothings – Wavves Album
I prefer Dylan to Nathan, I’ve seen both bands a few times and Wavves can edge Cloud Nothings live but Dylan is a great songwriter and I think the synergy here might well be remarkable. Both of these guys are young, so keep your fingers crossed
‘Seth Avett & Jessica Lea Mayfield Sing Elliott Smith’ Reviewed
Overall, It is a beautiful listening experience, Avett and Mayfield’s voices have a real chemistry and the harmonies are delightful, however, there is a few things missing. ‘Baby Britain’ has lost some of its nervousness and energy, while ‘Somebody That I used to Know’ and ‘Let’s Get Lost’ are respectively all bright harmonies and all melancholic depression
A Petition To Cancel Kanye West’s Glastonbury Performance?
‘Kanye is a psychopathically narcissistic moron with messianic delusions that have rightfully earned him the passionate hatred of virtually everyone outside of his fanbase. He is also a sellout, an attention whore and a massive hypocrite who usually undermines his own empty messages and gestures with his own egotistical hypocrisy”
The Big Huerta Cries Wolf
Sometimes it is credited to his grandfather, sometimes to singer Jimmie Rodgers. Regardless, Howlin’ Wolf was a big man. He made electric guitars look like mandolins in his huge hands. Wolf is one dude that you would NOT want to run into down a dark alley
Mayor Of Rochester Hills Hills, Bryan Barnett’s Responds To Madonna Insulting Her Hometown
“Have you ever been to Rochester Hills, Michigan?I just didn’t want to go back. I can’t be around basic, provincial-thinking people.I Just thought everyone was an idiot.”
Singles Going Steady: Week Of March 16th, 2015
Entropy – Grimes And Bleachers – This is where Grimes makes her move back on the charts as a mainstream popstar with help from Jack Antonoff, making both popsters better on this bubblegum downer of immense proportions – A-
US Top 10 Albums 3-27-15
If you add up the top three albums in unit sales you get around 350K, which means none of these albums are coming close to putting the charts on fire. Also, where is Kelly Clarkson and Brandi Carlile? Really? One week and out? Finally, “Empire”? Reaches 15 million viewers per episode, which means 1% of their audience bought (not bought, “equivalent album units”) the album. Terrif.
US Top 10 Singles 3-28-14
Congrats to New Jersey rapper Fetty Wap, his “Trap Queen” more songs and money and, also, his gal, which is kinda new! Also, the man only has one eye… here is the story: “I tell everybody it’s nothing, because it’s really nothing to me. What happened is, when I was little I had gotten into a little accident and it gave me congenital glaucoma in both of my eyes. The doctor saved one, I was blessed to still have my vision. That’s it. That’s the story.”
10 Songs: Thursday, March 19th, 2015
Cry – Johnny Ray – if ever a man sounded like his voice, a heart wrenching, tear stained throb for the proto-teen idol early precursor to Elvis and rock and roll. This song had the bobby soxers in an uproar like Roy Orbison would never exist – A
Azealia Banks Takes Off Her Clothes
That’s Azealia Banks, a great rapper, maybe the best woman rapper out there, she goes where Nicki Minaj didn’t quite get, talking to Playboy Magazine, where she posed nude in the April. And where we nicked these pictures.
Justin Bieber Has Not Invaded Poland (Yet)
If Broudy was going after Taylor Swift maybe you think, wow, brave move but Bieber is the poster boy for being hated on.while feeling sorry for Justin is a bit beyond my pay level, there is a real human being underneath all that hating. In the end, Bieber is the boy it is cool to bully. And it isn’t fun any more.
We Are All The Beatles
We are Paul with new loves, John during break ups, Ringo over lunch with college pals, George when hungover, John in righteous indignation, Paul in loving sublimation, Paul when we are loving our kids, Ringo when we’re playing with them and John when we are reprimanding them.
Eric Contractor’s “Mad For The Light” Reviewed
Not that I wish him dead of course, he is a really nice guy, but because his haunting vocals and song constructions, his beautiful damaged persona, his ghost of Jeff Buckley (not to mention Roy Orbison) personality would be so very much more popular if he was indeed a ghost.
10 Songs: Wednesday, March 18th, 2015
Happy – Marina And the Diamonds – If you’re so happy, why do you sound so sad? The vocals are arty pitchiness something like Florence Welch but less so and the song is a piano based slog – C+
Be Here Now: New Album Releases, March 17th, 2015
There is Beatle cover bands and then there is anything former Styx Glen Burtnick adds his name to. Last time I saw Glen he was playing McCartney to Marshall Crenshaw’s Lennon at BB Kings, here he is the Neil Innes of contemprary power pop. Maybe more than that, these are less satiric copies and more stand alones which make their own case – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
Not With The Band: Music May Be More Important For Your Brain Than You May Think
‘Listening to classical music enhanced the activity of genes involved in dopamine secretion and transport, synaptic neurotransmission, learning and memory, and down-regulated the genes mediating neurodegeneration.’
Oldies But Goldies St Patty’s Special: The Pogues Farewell Concert 2011
I had heard Shane was pretty drunk on Tuesday. He wasn’t on Wednesday. He was holding onto the mic because that’s how he sings, he was immobile because decades of alcoholism and drug abuse has left him this way, but he caught every song tonight. 21 of them. Each a gem of Irish rock and roll. Each beloved.
A Request To Forensic Pathologist Dr. Michael Baden
As everyone knows, we are in a dead end regarding Elliott Smith’s death, we may never know how he died, so I decided to contact Dr. Baden,… why not? He may answer? This is the message I left on his website.
Trial By Jury: The Moral Of The “Blurred Lines” Verdict
Robin Thicke goes to court and admits to being so drunk and coked up that he had nothing to do with the song he wrote? What did you think the jury, who are given to dislike the charm bereft pop star for his entire “Paula” debacle, thought of that? One of the writers of the song admits to not writing it.
Last Call: Week Of March 9th, 2015
Wrong Crowd – Young Guv – There is nothing not surprising about Ben Cook, whose Fucked Up third guitarist is more an offshoot of his other work. Like this disco mood piece with a very steady beat and bass motif – B+
Taylor Swift’s Top 10 Songs OF ALL TIME
Our Song – Despite the fiddle and the plunking guitar and the hee haw, this was a pure pop stroke that stands as a highway sign to the next three years and an instantly romantic song, thanking god for another great day.
Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp A Butterfly” Reviewed
Between money, success, the black man’s plught and the wages of sin, this is not untypical hip hop land thematically and while Kenrick can rhyme like a motherfucker, that ability hides his shallowness to a certain extent. Sometimes he is worth listening to, sometimes he is too self-obsorbed.
Gooch Palms, Death Valley Girls, Walter TV And Wand At The Echo, Friday March 13th 2015
I concentrated on the Echo where I got to see the entire sets of The Gooch Palms, Death Valley Girls, Walter TV and Wand, and ventured downstairs between the sets to catch a few songs from Pearl Charles – I had already seen her opening for Harper Simon
10 Reasons Madonna Ticket Sales Are Soft
In 2012, for the MDNA, she sold out Yankee Stadium in 20 minutes and added another date and she added two nights at MSG are on the back, so consider it the equivalent of selling out MSG SIX TIMES. This time she can’t sell out two nights? What happened?
Let A Rescue Dog Save Your Dying Cell Phone Battery At SXSW
At this year’s SXSW, rescue dogs will be dispatched to save cell phones dying… yep! That’s the new idea, we now need dogs to save our dying technology… Morphie Rescue is the new initiative at this year big festival, and it will use St. Bernards to power festival goers’ cell phone
Kenneth Brannagh’s “Cinderella” Reviewed
Even Lily James, whose father died when she was eleven years old (she uses his first name as her last name for the stage), has dreams and daydreams. Enjoy yours, you are much better off revelling in your imagination than castigating the world for having daydreams you disagree with.
That Was The Week That Was: March 9th, 2015
Being a founding member of either Soft Machine or Gong, flag wavers of prog rock freakdom both, Daevid Allen was a founding member of both and now he has died from cancer at the age of 77. As his son Orlando Moon wrote: “And so dada Ali, bert camembert, the dingo Virgin, divided alien and his other 12 selves prepare to pass up the oily way and back to the planet of love. And I rejoice and give thanks.”
UK Top 10 Albums 3-21-15
Nothing personal, but the thing about pop music is it has to be popular and Madonna better start selling some more copies. Meanwhile, the X Factor winning Rebecca Ferguson and the five piece harmony band take on black music, with varying degrees of success and not a lot of it.
UK Top 10 Singles 3-21-15
A mediocre snooze of a chart with Sam Smith ascendency AGAIN, with a snooze of a remix I might add. If they took it any slower it could never have reached the top of the charts. Truly, a well known drag
10 Songs: Monday, March 16th, 2015
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo -Verna Felton – If the live action doesn’t have this? To hell with em, I’m not going – A
Is Morrissey Stealing Shirt Ideas From Fans?
The company was asking him if he would be willing to let them use it for a new shirt,… they even asked him for an offer. ‘I wasn’t thinking anything ridiculous,’ he wrote, ‘but he never got back to me. Instead I see they took my idea, almost exactly except for the background, and put it on a shirt.’