On the third hand, Olivia Vedder must be, what 8 years old now, so I am show she has been freezing it out like crazy though at eight years old her dad is probably still a god like figure. “Daughter” was never a favorite and I see zero reason to change my mind, so there.
I love it when my taste and the zeitgeists taste coincide. It doesn’t happen nearly as much as I wish it did, at least because I am such a pop whote, sales always pricks up my ears. It killed me hating Frozen for months on end. But I love the top two on this list, written about them lots, and seeing them here at the top of the charts is just heaven!
Survivalism – Nine Inch Nails – This Deadmau5 remix works better than anything else on the album, because Deadmau5 has a real song to work with. The drums are all echo and bombast – B+
Jamie was excellent but Amber left the entire audience slack jawed, she seemed to turn every corner of the song only to find somewhere else to reach. Jamie made her debut in 2009 and Amber in 2011 but their power, passion and professionalism was a great thing
“Alison,” Elvis Costello. Declan MacManus delivered a debut album that couldn’t be ignored; pairing pub rock licks with punk rock attitude and the wordplay/songwriting skills of a learned veteran, not a rookie that had just quit his day job. On “Alison,” he stumbles across an old flame that is drowning in unsalvageable sorrow
The idea is barely new or original, and Lana Del Rey automatically adopted the concept, because it is fitting so well with her façade of depraved poster-girl for the slutwave-sadcore who flirts with death.
There is a sound that comes from the Specials that no other ‘ska’ band can produce. A more scumbag sound filled with Brit slang and cliche’ that sends out the image of working class drudge. Unlike bands like Madness or Selector who often sound up for fun
There must be a middle ground between disinheriting your children and spoiling them to the bone marrow, some celebrities have a hard time finding balance it seems.
Its VERY difficult to cast something like this- the faces so completely embedded in peoples minds that to have anyone attempt to resemble always come off campy. Of course some shows go the other way and make no effort- which is just as bad.
The distribution services are still shaking out and until Apple finds a way to cut the major labels into Beats, it feels like Spotify’s game to lose, but the result is here in a diluted form. Jay Z will not make $2M off Holy Grail but from this tour? Figure once every one is paid, $25M mininum and the same for Bey. It is obvious that the way the Beatles retired from touring to make Sgt Pepper? It could never ever happen now
The problem is Sam Smith’s version, as beautiful as can be, is too downcast, with just a piano he caresses it morbidly. It works as an adjunct to In The Lonely Hour, but that isn’t what he should be doing and that he wo’t jump on something he should be jumping on is something of a bummer.
Gimme A Feelin’ – Ace Frehley – This is so over the top it is funny in a Kiss sort of way, a lambasting rifaramadingdong with a touch of Simpson’s like parody… not intentionally of course, “gimme a feelin’ because you’re on my mind…” I see, I’d love to be in the meeting where they brainstorm the lurics – C-
Fuego – Phish – here’s a switch up, their New years Eve run at MSG in December was a disappointment but this is as good as Phish has ever gotten on record, “Devotion To A Dream” is better than “Backwards Down the Number Line”. It’s like the Grateful Dead with jazz replacing country – A-
Morris invited the audience ‘to participate with enthusiasm in a festival which would destroy the stuffy conventions of traditional classical concerts’ and asked people ‘to bring beer into a standing ‘mosh pit’ in front of the stage’ even saying ‘Clap or whoop when you like, and no shushing other people.’
Dressed in lingerie and flashing a nipple or reclining on a sofa while Thomas zips her thigh high boots in a daze of desire, the moral appears to be we are all Emmanuelle’s slaves.
There are parents who condone his bullshit and actually wait for months to sign their kids up for his summer camp. Pathetic back woods trailer trash neanderthals who sign there kids up for the ‘great outdoors’ ‘camp’ and allow their spawn learn to shoot and hunt
I have already noticed how a song can be strongly associated with a specific memory, and transport you in time better than any other time-machine (I know Proust had his Madeleine) but we honestly don’t understand why music, and apparently music better than anything else, can do that.
Milan artist AleXsandro Palombois the man befhind the illustrations and personally? I love. Oh, by the way, I blew off Dave Chappelle Sunday night but if I had gone on Friday night, I’d have seen Kanye West perform “New Slaves,” “Jesus Walks” and “Gold Digger
Consider this, Alice Cooper is 66 years old. He has been squeezing into the leather to chop off heads and sing creepy songs for so many decades its unreal. He is actually about to tour on the Motley Crue farewell tour- only he isnt even going to say farewell- the dude is unstoppable
At Forest Hills Tennis Center on September 19th, the Replacements will be joined by the Hold Steady and Deer Tick on what might be the best night of rock and roll this year, I’ve seen the Hold Steady many times and they are terrific live, Deer Tick playing for their heroes should kill it. A must see for sure.
A 14 year old boy killed the boy who had bullied him for months while New York fiddled mindlessly. This is such a horrible story it is hard to find the good guys. But the murderers Mom who threw away the cellphone because she sells drugs and thought the cell might have a GPS tracking device is a damn good place to start. Or the Principal who wouldn’t do anything. Or the Police who refused to intervene. You know, there’s enough blame to go round.
I Could Easily (Fall In Love With You) – Cliff Richard And The Shadows – On Saturday, Cliff mentioned recording in Nashville and you might wonder how he would do with country, this is a modified country (not even rockabilly lick) drenched in melodic goodness – A
‘We are not at a funeral, please!’ said Angelique Kidjo during her free concert at Grand Performances, It made me laugh and she was right, people had to get up! She was ‘commanding’ people to stand up and dance, whereas most of them had been sitting since the beginning of the performance.
Caryn Ganz’s (for editor at Spin) excellent Rolling Stone review of Lana Del Rey’s sophomore effort Ultraviolence does exactly that. “the epic schmaltz of Ennio Morricone, reflected through the haze of a thousand dramatic selfies” is a pretty damn good description of the album. It isn’t a put down, Lana is what she is and what she is is the teenage girl locked in her bedroom, imagining her mom and dad crying at her grave with a sort of grim satisfaction.
No need for wheelchair access with Sir Cliff, at age 73 he is as youthful as he was at 23. Dressed very stylish and in his Skinny jeans he danced and sang as if he were still a teenybopper, I felt like I was in the audience of a taping of “Top of the Pop”. Cliff was soft spoken and polite and his fans just loved him.
Despite R Kelly playing a weird sex-predator doctor and a naked Gaga masturbating in newspapers while being shot by Richardson, there’s nothing there really more shocking than in your usual shitty sexually-charged video. So may be the rest of the clip got wilder
Look every now and then its a good idea to throw out a post title that will stop you in your tracks. The word penis is funny enough, ‘burning penis’ conjures up the image of odd bacterias and clinic trips. Blythe, the man who just beat the insane Manslaughter charges in the Czech Republic proves he is not only in good spirits but a pretty open guy
I am most excited for Marsha Ambrosius because I loved her last one so much (and she was fabulous live) so that’s my top pick, though A Sunny Day In Glasgow, Ed Sheeran, Move To Pain (just because Telefon Tel Aviv are such a great band), Phish because they record in the studio so rarely (though I bet it’s not on Spotify) and, ahem, Ed Sheeran.
I guess the return of Ed has a lot to do with the upcoming sophomore effort which just might do the difficult: be the same and different at the same time. Lana at # 1, though the real question is what will the US make of it? My gut is it will break pop but if West Coast couldn’t make it on the Singles chart what can here? Well, at least should insure a career touring if she has finally learnt how to play live.
The question is, are 5 Seconds Of Summer the next One Direction or the next the Wanted. The Australian boy band was not the world beater we expected, the EP didn’t stiff but you don’t hear much about it either and while a # 1 song in Ground Zero for 1D matters, 5SOS are not getting where they want to go.
A&E – Clean Bandit – After the success of “Rather Be”, I figured this classical plus EDM band were gonna be great but the New Eyes was a disappointed except the more you listen the less it is and the violins on this song are so great the track grows into a monster – A
We know that band mates Jessie Tobias and Boz Borer have piped in their words on the whole scandal.. but “OI! Wheres Morrissey?” Not a peep. Not a soy sausage, and if you’re like me you’re worried.
The teenage Cliff of the late 1950’s, had a tender lushness about him, girls adored him, he wasn’t threatening but rather Mickey Rooney meets Elvis meets Dion . Any thoughts of juvenile delinquency disappeared as hit after hit after hit turned him pop.
He is most famously known for his songwriting partnership with Carole King (the couple were married from 1959 to 1968). As a lyricist, Goffin was known for his acute writing from a female perspective and as King has noted, his ability to put “big ideas into simple words.”
It’s really weird because I found the CD booklet of the soundtrack of ‘Garden State’ on the ground when I was running outside this week. It was there, probably dropped by someone and lying open on concrete,… I picked it up, and I remembered how good this soundtrack was
He threw it down last week with a no fuss statement on his desire to be inducted into the HOF, “I don’t want to get in there when I’m 85-years old. I’ll tell them to drop dead, so you better do it quick while I’m still smiling,” Checker said
“Record shoppers are very acutely aware of whether a store cares or not. Our L.A. store alone has a staff of 250, and they’re all musicians, writers, and interesting people. It always feels like a place to be.”
Summer is in full swing and you should be outside around a bonfire or something. Instead you’re munching Cheetos from a bag in your underwear with the air conditioner on full blast suffering from insomnia as you worry about your job or some other nonsense.
Far be it for me to mock the afflicted, but this line up is painful just to read , let alone see. My Morning Jacket peaked in 2008 and Dawes, War On Drugs, and, oh god no, Dr. Dog, might peak one of these days, we don’t really know. The only name that excites me here is Biz Markie, and really I think I’ve heard “Just A Friend” live once or twice before.
I can’t predict this one though Elvis Costello, one man show, Carnegie Hall, you have to assume he is gonna bring out the heavy arsenal, though when I saw him a coupla years ago doing a coupla songs solo I thought he wasn’t happening. And that entire the Roots deal was a major bummer. So I dunno, Helen bach liked him so… I guess we will see Wednesday!
Six of these artists are rockers. The Front Bottoms, Cerebral Ballzy and White Lung are relatively (WL dates from 2006) young bands, Wussy has been around since 2001, when Ian was, ahem, a spritely 56 year old. David Gray is a singer songwriter (I mean essentially, right?). So, yeah, for one week only rock makes a comeback.
Tokyo Storm Warning – Elvis Costello And The Attractions – An astounding achievement, the words pull on and out and on and on till he has a dream of that revolver in her pure and but what dow e care of the world is just a joke? Now they’re hanging protest singers – A+
I knew a bit about hydrothermal vents, these weird deep-sea openings which allow chemically rich hot water to erupt to be the beginning of the food chain for mysterious life. Contrarily to any other place on earth, the energy sustaining the biological communities which live there does not come from the sun but from dissolved materials coming from hydrothermal vents.
So I say this. Everyone shut up. No one cares, the tour is cancelled the fire is smoldering and life goes on. Buy the new album when it comes out next month and sit the hell down.
This is an Eastwood problem, “Bird” was a miserable movie and this movie is just terrible with Francine Valli, the unfortunately daughter. Why is there no breakthrough here, why is there no revelation? Valli is a drag who doesn’t learn his lesson. In one scene, Eastwood goes from the other three members of the band at a Christmas part-orgy and Valli with his family and Grandparents. Valli looks completely miserable. Was that the intention?
But let’s imagine for a minute all the possibilities for other bands. If it would be very easy to imagine any entrée inspired by the Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Meat Loaf, Salt-N-Pepa, Spice Girls, the Black Eyed Peas, Korn
Tacky? Hell yes it is mostly because they “need to be sold”. The good news is it isn’t his teeth or other absurd artifacts as we have seen with other artists- this is guitars, racks and assorted stage gear.
“’I think people should have time to grow up and figure out who they are. I think people need to sit and think of the times in their lives they were not proud of who they were. Imagine if that was completely exploited and everyone had their opinions.”
The problem with VV is it is such a pale facsimile of what it once was, it just… it is like when somebody has been really sick and while they are better they haven’t bounced back. The Village Voice haunts itself; it looks at itself in the mirror and it is gaunt and tired and shaky and a terrible read
One thing I promise: Patrick won’t have to give the Buzzcocks the dressing down he gave the Pogues at the infamous St, Patrick’s day gig. I interviewed Pete around the time of Homosapien and he was a great guy and Steve Diggle has a great reputation.
