The tenderness of the Everly Brothers, a song like the gentle river flowing “Devoted To You” or the birth of romantic love “Till I Kissed You”, the eternal love song “Let It Be Me” is from a foreign country. Our music isn’t this gentle any more, melodies don’t dig so deep. It’s foreign to us.
For “Into The Woods” she is Cinderella as an ordinary girl but her singing was out of the ordinary and it was the singing that pushes her out of the cinders, away from the Prince’s provocation. Prince Charming is found in song and not in person. That is the moral of the story, it is that you are not alone through song.
With U2’s first top 30 single since, ahem, 1991, with “Every breaking Wave” –surely one of the seven signs the world has come to an end, rock nyc is taking a moratorium on being mean to Bono till his hand is fully (or as fully as it is gonna be) healed.
Controversy reigns here at New York over the rock nyc grading system, I get accosted in the streets, and at night clubs, gay bars, nude beaches, and Michelin approved restaurants and there is only one question: what the heck is with these grades? They make no sense…
I was once in the back of the family car and this motorbike went flying in front of us and then maybe five minutes later we drove by this big crash, and I looked out the window and the guy was on the ground, on his side, head crushed, blood gushing out. I couldn’t stop looking. That’s the way I feel about this Kid rock song.
Perfect Storm – Brad Paisley – A big song off a big ham, this takes classic rock umph, 60s guitar and country twang and does not much with it… except get him to the top of the country charts – B-
Michael Jackson lived and breathed excellence; he made millions because he gave to millions; world changer, people changer; one of the greatest performers of all time, a legend who left an immortal legacy and a shining example of the pinnacle of human achievement.
He’s often said he doesn’t deserve the life he has and he is forever grateful for it. I’ve seen 26 shows and EVERY SINGLE TIME he’s thanked the fans for giving the band a great life. Bono knows and admits his megalomania. Without it, there is no U2.
They got Steely Dan instead of Sleater Kinney! (Isn’t it their year?) they got Azelia Banks (or is that Iggy Azalea, I always mix them up like everybody else) instead of Laura Marling, and they got David Guetta (again) instead of Lana del Rey… yes give more girl power to that thing!
Why is everyone finding this one bizarre? I am talking about Nick Cave and the new skateboard designed by the Australian firm Fast Times, inspired by Nick Cave’s song ‘Nature Boy’ off his album ‘Abattoir Blues’, and illustrated by the artist Chuck Sperry
I am happily surprised to see “Into The Woods” in the top 10. Sure, it won’t do much compared to “Frozen” but it sure ain’t easy listening and I am just very pleased to note that enough people cared enough to listen. Sondheim is a great and every kid who could hear it and bought it, is better for it.
Two Cents – Alysha Umphrees – A nice little dis cabaret track, “I’m betting your two cents makes no sense at all” is the punchline. The piano sounds like it escaped from Diana Krall’s All For You – B+
Well, it is better than Coachella and certainly closer. It is a lot like Coachella though they do tend to miss one big name and , they tend to leave off one big name till later in the year. Even so something is left to be desired.
Hardcore is lived like a religion by many people, and you can witness a fervor, a physical participation of the audience which do not see its equivalent at any other show, and with American Nightmare last Sunday night, this had never been truer
‘This is just completely insane,’ he declared. ‘The person who is buying these has either stolen their mom’s credit card or is really into the cause as well. Someone is buying essentially garbage.’… at least he is honest!
The great thing about the Summerstage teaser in the wilds of winter in nyc is not just, or even necessarily, the performers at the City Parks Foundations annual early showcase, but the promise of a summer yet to come, as the really cold, dreary weather settles into your bones
None of them can come close. Jack White is playing MSG later this month and he couldn’t fill that, AC/DC can sell out an Arena, sure, but a stadium? I don’t think. You might expect at least one huge name. A Springsteen, or U2… McCartney, something to blast it over the top, but you won’t find it
“America induces this fear in me. It’s so vast and so complicated. I feel like I’m here as a weird voyeur, watching it in a really strange way to make sense of it. Like the landscape of the desert, then you go four hours further north and you’re in the lush mountainous forests. You feel dwarfed by the country”
“We did 45 takes of it and I just couldn’t get it, it sounded like horrible bullshit, so we went to lunch, walked down to a restaurant. Everyone was saying: ‘Dude, what’s wrong with you? You’ve gone totally white.’”
Sunbathing Animal – Parquet Courts – I swear I couldn’t hear these guys for the longest time and then I was listening to the Fader’s to 112 songs of the year and boom , it sounded like a modern day Pissed Jeans – A
The Planet – Young Ejecta – electronic pop singer songwriter dream stuff and really pretty, “Into Your Heart” lives up to its name and the other songs are like dreamlike states of intense beauty. The duo responsible dubbed Ejecta an “embodiment of universal longing and loss”. Sure, if they want- ALBUM OF THE WEEK B+
So now that CDs are totally useless, now that mp3s, or even better, streaming is all the rage, what are you going to do with all these CDs? Mine are in the drawer chest holding my TV, but I barely look at them anymore… every single song is on my computer of course
I have more, the ultra narcissist over-the-top one: ‘My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live’, the confessional ones, ‘Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed. I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book’s autograph. I am a proud non-reader of books’
When EDM connects to a song now, it doesn’t change it in any fundamental sense. It doesn’t change the way sound sounds in your ears the way rock and roll does. It is parasitic, not giving birth to different sounds but sucking dry every single thing it touches.
leaked from her studio, if it isn’t a new song it sounds like it could be. the wooah wooahs sound like Riri’s signature all right, and the sentiment is kinda underplayed, it doesn’t smack you, more like an observation. she doesn’t do high octane drama now does she?
It’s a tradition, seven years and counting, Pitchfork compile their upcoming album releases, we steal it and repost it taking time to insult a website as smug as smug can be, with all their taste in their mouth as they write scads of bewildering words about bands no one will ever hear
So what do I know about my buddy Mike Long? He is a funny guy from Colorado, trades in alt country and snapshots of the Cosa Nostra. His taste coincides with mine maybe one in three but he is much less pop and much more hipster
A sort of lowbrow hard rock plodding band who weathered everything from soft rock to punk to EDM with aplomb, and with their 31st album Aquostic (Stripped Bare) 11 weeks on the charts, they’ve reached 500 weeks in the UK charts.
Lifestyle – Rich Gang, Young Thug – This is the Young Money crew, including break out rapper Young Thug, with a really great rap, please an autotuned singer, plus an excellent two note piano sample, “I got sisters and brothers to feed” is the excuse, but the bottom line remains a very expensive way of living- A-
Original member Otis Williams respected the Temptations legacy more than the Four Tops did through playing smart, strong arrangement of their catalog, better, more important, with more pride, than tributing the Temptations late leaders is to make them viable even today
Today, there is certainly a lot of mediocrity, any American Idol, X Factor product is an example for me! But at the same time, there is a lot of excellent music, it is just harder to find it because of the enormous amount of bands formed every year and songs released each day!
Mario Cuomo, the three term New York Governor who for some perplexing reason didn’t take on Ronald Reagan for the Presidency though many of us thought he could take Reagan, indeed, was the only guy with a chance, died hours after his son Andrew was sworn in for a second term.
she can record her follow up to Let england Shake in a box in an art gallery so fans can watch her work. I wonder how good an idea this is, but I guess, you know, if it effects the creation well that’s all part of the experience. You can look in but she can’t see out so…
Ezra is guy who gave us “Budapest” and “Cassy O” though a full album of the suckers is pushing it a bit but otherwise i remain with the same question: why the assumption people stop buying music the last two weeks and first two weeks of a new year. It seems to me that anybody with half a brain and a big enough fanbase would ONLY RELEASE MUSIC around this time. It isn’t 1987, people don’t have to leave their couch to buy an album.
something of a holding pattern though the more I hear the Ronson-Mars collab the more it sounds like a major rip off, I guess it might be considered something like the way “Let’s Dance” ripped off “Twist And Shout” but all of it is a 70s rip off with James Brown on top. It’s OK but really, are we at the place where we need James Brown interpreted for us?
Confessions Of A MILF – Viv Albertine – Off the how did I miss that The vermillion Booker, the former Slit current author of the brilliantly named “Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys” utobigraphy, this is a catchy smart little nursery rhyme with a kicker: “there’s no place like home” – B+
I honestly thought I would get a bit melancholy in watching it or bored but just the opposite happened . The mixing of history and music worked so incredibly well that I was actually able to sit still through the entire program- and that is a rarity for someone with the extreme ADD I seem to posses.
Using good old airwaves seems to be going backwards at this internet-YouTube-Spotify age, but who knows? I bet musicians are trying very hard to find new ways to make people buy new music, videos and interviews are not enough anymore
English to its very bone, the humor is drier than drier, it bends to the inevitable with a “pathetic” chorus: “I’ll be tickled to death to go”. Ouch? Compare it to George M. Cohan’s 1917 “Over There” and the difference is the US optimism versus the UK’s fatalism.
Perhaps by the time we reach January 6th some new music will be ready for release but right now? There is nothing out there except the NYE dropped West and McCartney “Only One” with West autotuned for some weird reason and McCartney singing back up and playing piano.
“The year he died, Elliott came to see me play. He was excited about his studio and he hadn’t been doing drugs. He wanted to show me his studio. I was going to go after the show, but [then girlfriend] Jennifer Chiba threw a fit and made him leave. That was a bummer”
I read Michael Somerville’s name wrong and thought it was Jimmy Somerville on Letterman, the difference between a US comedian and the not out but gay, and back when it cost something to be gay, lead singer of the awesome Bronski Beat
While David Cassidy might be a 64 year old chips and scampi circuit nostalgia merchant with one too many DUIs on his record, at BB King’s on Saturday night he will be KEITH PARTRIDGE and a lot of middle aged women (and one middle aged man who should know better) will think we love him!
Play “God Only Knows” At My Funeral – Fireworks – Another song that can’t and doesn’t live up to its name but having said that, it is about the next big thing. I was planning on calling Fireworks a band to watch for in 2015. If I forgot to mention it before… Fireworks is a band to watch for in 2015 – A
Since the place has been tested by Jay Z’ Made in America festival this summer, the organizers seem to push the limits and despite the frigid temperatures – we had the coldest night of the year – there were a lot of people out there, waiting for midnight
The two have been recording last year ‘with McCartney improvising on keyboard and West improvising on vocals’, and ‘Kanye sat there with his family, holding his daughter North on his lap, and listened to his vocals, singing, ‘Hello, my only one
Here is the songlist from London’s count down to New Year 2015, punctuated by fireworks and lota other good stuff… and here is a question, why is the lead song by an American? Sure, as European an American as you can possibly get but even so… Plus I Spotified and reviewed it…
The post-Saville Witch trial from the 1970s would find just about everybody ready for a stint in jail: What Saville did was allow two different parts to his story to become one and the result is much like putting Phillip II of Macedonia on trial for war crimes in 200 BC.
Country is hiding in the sidelines, four artists if you include the Eagles, nostalgia buffs rule, eight if you include the Eagles, younger poptarts with seven upstarts (no, don’t include the Eagles) are well attended. Plus two wobblers, Robbie Williams and Michael Buble, just to keep us wondering
Like the Red Sox and the Yanks, great rock bands won’t die, they will go on forever. Sure, they’ll have their ups and downs, like the SNL players, it can’t all be John Belushi, sometimes it’ Bobby Monihan, but it will even out, the format can remain constant, the greatest rock bands will never ever leave us.
