Slideshow

Slideshow

10 Songs: Monday, September 1st, 2014

South Georgia Sugar Babe – Justin Townes Earle – “My baby, she’s half as crazy as me, and like I said it’s been a long time…”. The genes coming through, the flex of the writing muscle, and the long instrumental bridge, all comes together on an early minor classic – A

Medium Cool, Slideshow

Medium Cool: The Week In Talk Show Guests 9-1-14

I am not sure if he is singing, but if he is singing Mandy Patinkin is an absolute riot in full blown cabaret mode and must be seen at least once. Letterman has the New Pornographers, Fallon has Maroon 5, Anything else: oh yeah, the name of the column, people have been stopping me in the streets to inquire. James Wolcott had a Village Voice column called Media Cool, playing on the name of the 1960s fictional-documentary “Medium Cool” which I went back to here.

Slideshow, Sneak Peak

Sneak Peaks: New Album Releases week Of September 1st, 2014

Don’t get too excited over the James Taylor album, it is not just a 2004 album, it is also just a covers album, and that leaves you with the Kooks on one hand and Jeezy on the other fighting it out for most anticipated album of the week but neither of em have particularly good singles spun off and Maroon 5 have two out of three (“Animals” is too generic), plus Adam Levine is the one pop star who can bring it live. So yup, Maroon 5 by a bottled blonde.

Slideshow

Let's Active rock nyc Concert Picks week of 9-1-14

My love battery wants to charge you…I haven’t seen the Buzzcocks on stage in the better part of thirty years though I remember catching em at the Palladium on the Different Kind Of Tension tour, the Fall opened if memory serves… Man, they were great. Titus Andronicus are opening, I haven’t seen them in a couple of years after catching em around once a month at the turn of he decade. Saturday at Webster Hall

Slideshow

10 Songs: Sunday, August 31st, 2014

I’ve been consistently rough on Paisley. The first time I saw him, Brad’s first album had yet to be released and he was opening for Loretta Lynn at the Town Hall. I haunted Tower records waiting for that album to be released. This song puns prettily on the bank portion of the title – A-

Slideshow

5 Seconds Of Penis

Poor wee Calum (I haven’t seen the vid so I am assuming the wee portion of that statement) has learnt what children understand, and what all of us understand in this post-everything moment where the only privacy that remains lies somewhere in the wrinkles of you brain and are activated through thought

controversy, Slideshow

Sting Charges Visitors To Help Him Pick His Olives And Grapes

Start the day with a picnic on the expansive lawn and a briefing from the estate manager to help you understand your work as a farmer-for-a-day: learn about the soil, the vines and trees, and techniques for harvesting. At the end of the day pickers will be invited to taste the estate’s wine – including a £12.50 Sangiovese-based red called Message in a Bottle.

Slideshow

1985 – The A+ List

“Anything, Anything (I’ll Give You),” Dramarama. While there are plenty of songs about romantic infatuation, singer John Easdale conveys almost a life or death need for validation on “Anything, Anything.” Hormonal angst rock at its finest.

Slideshow

Bruce Springsteen Writes Kids Books, Just Like Huck Finn Blues

When Bruce wrote Outlaw Pete he didn’t just write a great song, he created a great character. The first time I heard the song this book played out in my head. Like Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Dorothy Gale and, for me, even Popeye, Outlaw Pete cuts deep into the folklore of our country and weaves its way into the fabric of great American literary characters.”

Slideshow

No VIPs For Savages

I won’t go to a music festival without a VIP pass and I am not the slightest bit elitist I promise you, I just can’t see any percentage in checking out a band from a million miles away. It is all downside and if you won’t or can’t pay the freight, you won’t or can’t get close, well, what you are getting is what you paid.

Slideshow

10 Songs: Friday, August 29th, 2014

The difference between Johnny and his former band The Drums (I mean the Drums of the first two albums) is swing, which Aries doesn’t do enough on this the title track of his new album. But the mood? The mood is very similar – B+

controversy, Slideshow

When A Summer Hit Is Plain Plagiarism

She co-wrote the song with Grammy Award-nominated songwriter Kevin Kadish, but unfortunately for the two, there is now a big controversy: she and Kadish may have simply stolen the tune from K-pop band Koyote, who, as many people have pointed out, carries a wild similarity with another tune by the popular band Ph

Slideshow, US Top 10 Albums

US Top 10 Albums 9-6-14

beyond lame and that is if you accept that I underestimated Wiz a little. Though how much can you underestimate a man who spends his life writing love letters to marijuana leafs? And doesn’t even have a sense of humor about it.

Slideshow, UK Top 10 Singles

US Top 10 Singles 9-6-14

Nearly 600K units moved in the first week, tops in streaming without any streaming services having it, and the fourth most popular first week if akk time AND Taylor already owns another one of them (“Never Ever, etc…”) and, her 60th (yes you read that right, right. It looks like a typo!) Top 100 song. Man, our girl can bring it.

Live, Slideshow

FYF Fest Day 2 Part 1, Sunday August 24th 2014

His music is nice and laid back but I still don’t get the overwhelming love for this Canadian who seems to have been born on some lazy island. I had to run away from my spot where I was starting to feel packed like a sardine, smelling a bit too much weed that people were smoking… that’s beach music, it’s almost Hawaiian pop

Slideshow

Prince All Over The Websites

So, Helen Bach, our editor cum PR maven, sent me a link from Warner Brothers announcing the release of two new albums. I thought about writing about it, but it hardly seemed worth interrupting the days flow to rush it out. I mean, so what? Nothing personal but it is hardly the most exciting story I’ve ever heard

Slideshow

Aphex Twins Plays The Blame Game With Kanye West

The major labels steal lesser luminaries material as a rule of thumb. The artists don’t pay em, don’t give em props, the labels screw em over, and they never break through and never get credit for their music. It has always been a rough business but right now it is rougher than rough. Man it is a deadly business.

Slideshow

10 Songs: Wednesday, August 27th, 2014

Guts Over Fear – Eminem And Sia – Sia was born to sing the hook on hip hop songs, she drags royal over her own stuff, “Chandelier” eas a true bore, but her voice adds gravity, here she has more power then Rihanna ever does, to rap songs – B+

Be Here Now, Slideshow

Be Here Now: Snapshot Reviews Of New Album Releases 8-26-14

They missed it by this much when indie rock hit it big at the turn of the decade, but they are really pretty smart and pretty sound indie rockers who like, actually, rock hard enough. Early on “XR” sounds like Dropkick Murphys, impressive at any time, more so when you realize how deadly earnest John D’Agostino’s story songs are – ALBUM OF THE WEEK- – B+

Lists, Slideshow

997 Essential Songs from the 1970s

wW here at rock nyc know the 1970s were the greatest decade in rock and roll history topped by punk and disco at the end but if you don’t believe us check out Steve Crawford’s 997 best songs of the decade. Though we will pass on “The Cover Of The Rolling Stone”,

Slideshow, Track Review

James Taylor's "September Grass" Reviewed

In “September Grass”, Taylor is lying in the grass with a woman, and he feels secure and so small, so far away, like tiny, he compares him and his girl to ants on a leaf of grass and the huge world is surrounding them but they are ignoring it. Their smallness and their togetherness protecting them from the world, their insignificance is their freedom and that is exactly how I felt

Live, Slideshow, Television

Dr. Who's "Deep Breath" Reviewed

For all the daring do of switching the young Smith with the 26 years older Capaldi, the problem isn’t age, the problem is charm offensive and weirdness -when you don’t like the Doctor or his companion, maybe it is time to take a break from the series? Next week is a Daleks story, so the week after that should tell the story.

Slideshow

10 Songs: August 26th, 2014

Carolina – Kimbra – A kitchen sink approach to indie pop with sounds layered upon sounds, a funky back beat, shimmering stuff shimmering and is that birds chirping at the end? A fun ride but not her best song – B-

Live, Slideshow

X At City Winery, Saturday, August 23rd, 2014, Reviewed

One fist pumping diner at a center stage however was so moved by the rendition Dancing with Tears in My Eyes to yell “Fuck Yes” directly at Exene who stood a merely dozen or so feet away and elicit her sarcastic response “Thank You Mr. Anarchy personified”. A good time had by all!

Scroll to Top