So a good, strange, long set. Laura is a major talent so maybe next time round everything she has planted here will make more sense to us. Till, then, watch out for the patterns, that’s God or Laura or both.
Listening To Singing – Iris Dement – While I have heard mixed things about this album, dropping on Friday, this first song is absolutely lovely, with a wonderful hook, and a lovely lyric based upon the same named poem by Anna Akhmatova, comparing a woman’s voice to a ladder to heaven. Pretty excellent, actually – A
No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani and Bush’s lead singer Gavin Rossdale called it a marriage and filed for divorce in Los Angeles. They’ve been together for 20 years and married 13 of them, they have three sons Kingston Rossdale, 9, Zuma Rossdale, 6, and Apollo Rossdale, 17 months. Apparently Gwen will be providing spousal support and they will be sharing custody. That’s a real shame.
‘With the chemistry going on, that’s just a magical moment. With a DJ or the EDM thing, they don’t get it. It’s a completely different thing – the youth is always supposed to piss off the elders. The youth will always find a way to make sure that their parents don’t like their music. To me, EDM, dance music and DJ culture is just following in this path that we’ve been in forever.’
In 2015, nobody does a night of music like this better than SummerStage, this was a gift to New York City, for those of us who got in, and those of us who listened from just outside Rumsey Playfield, we will still love you tomorrow SummerStage.
Jam in the Van will feature ‘The RADD Zone,’ an interactive lounge designed to engage with artists and guests in promoting road safety & responsible drinking at Lennon Studios. Artists will support RADD’s message of responsible drinking with on-camera shout outs and via social media, and according to their Facebook page, there will be performances by The Soft White Sixties, Midnight North, Valley Queen, Love and the Zealous and more!
It is infuriating to show up at 730pm for a band hitting the stage at 9pm and still see nothing whatsoever. It is disastrous to pay $50 for a ticket for nothing but to be moved, harassed, get your sitelines blocked, have fucked up security hastle you and wander around three floors of absolutely nothing.
Rescue Me – Amy Helm – If you are wondering whether Amy is the real deal, the lead single off her debut album is the essential components of Americana -a hint of country, a hint of jam, a spiritual component, a fine piano, and soulful singing. A very good song – B+
Very little movement whatsoever, the top five are exactly the same as last week, and only “Lean On”‘s minimal movement shows any shake up on the bottom five. It is strange days we live in, the album charts erupt every week and the single charts snooze. Go figure
The Jill Scott album sucks big time, and in real sales? 58K units move so lets all agree, it’s over man. Mean, I am damned if anybody understands how Billboard crush the numbers. Nothing personal but it sure feels like BS to me. For instance, Lamb Of God have 50K equivalence unites but with pure album sales equal 47,000. Meaning… what? That there numbers were only upped by 3K due to streaming? So, metal fans don’t stream. Like I said, difficult to believe.
‘‘I’d be biased to think that the community of Geminis is the most consistently in tune with what their spirit is telling them to do or why they have breath in their lungs. But I do think that creative Geminis—Tupac, Biggie, Prince, Miles Davis, all being Geminis—have, throughout history, been really in tune with those things.’
Cecil The Lion shows just what you can do when you bother to name an animal, so here is an idea for all you animal rights activists: stand outside the slaughterhouses and name every cow before we murder it, and then guilt the rest of us over our indefensible actions. Gwan, try it.
Desire – Dej Loaf – Not only is this very sexy, and very smart, it rhymes hard, the beat is perfect, it is the best woman rap around headlining her new EP it is a self-portrait and a dream of the future. Trill chill, indeed
while I enjoyed the first three songs from the photographers pit (we were given a draconian photo release to sign, and while I could care less, I might have cared if I made a living from it), the heat and the lack of interaction on instrumental dawdles put me to sleep the further away I got from the stage
I Took A Pill In Ibiza (SeeB Remix) – Mike Posner – Why, exactly, did SeeB decide to make this brilliant bummer of a track a sped up, lively jaunt? Was the pill dexatrin? – B
The Jayhawks write giant hooks that intertwine with your memory cells forever. Take some of their most famous anthems that they played yesterday night, songs like ‘Blue’ or ‘Save It For A Rainy Day’, the vocal harmonies are to die for, and the melodies reveal a deep pop sensibility and sound as the love children of Neil Young, The Byrds and Elton John. The Jayhawks’ sound seems much older than the band really is, and this is a good thing in my book… But you have to wonder, how could they have been making this kind of music mid-90s when grunge was all the rage?
Neil Young took down his albums from streaming last week, and this is absolutely his right and I am not disagreeing with it. But what I will say is this: since Apple Play and Itunes, to the best of my knowledge, use the same audio files, how is his music still available on Itunes?
Drag Me Down – One Direction – I’d like to drag em down, what the hell is this? 1D should know better than to start album # 5 with this ordinary soul rock piece of product when we want is a nice piece of sugary power pop like “Steal My Girl”. I mean, this is not acceptable – C
When I saw Morrissey at Radio City, he included her in the videos he used to open the show. If you want to give Cilla a listen, a sort of Dionne Warwick in a UK 60s scene singer for David-Bacharach type songs, try “You’re My World” and “Anyone Who Had a Heart.” She died yesterday at the age of 72.
Contrarily to common belief, if you read informed reports about Cobain, the shotgun blast had resulted in very little visible damage, there was no blood or tissue splatter which are typical in most shotgun blasts to the head, there was curiously no exit wound, and if you have seen Cobain’s death scene pictures circulating on the internet in the past, they were false. Cobain was fingerprinted for identification as a matter of procedure, not for necessity, as it was falsely reported in the press. People who saw the body recognized him immediately and the lack of damage is one of the numerous aberrations of the case
Still, it is”Tell Her No” that knocked me for a loop, it is obscure enough to be a hit all over again in the sort of world where the Czar beat back the White Russians and the Commies and took his people from the brink of destruction to a bright white and light future world where The Romanovs rule the world.
I rarely go to these Pershing Square concerts and now I remember why, they have a 5-feet sign at the entrance with all the ‘no’ rules… No camera no video, no food, no drink… no fun!
With one of the best albums of the year to his name, Before This World, you might be hoping for hits plus the newbie from Taylor, who sure knows how to shower the people with love and singalongs. But the setlist has been going deeper than usual with lost gems from Gorilla, Walking Man, October Road and That’s Why I’m Here, alongside “How Sweet It Is” and “You’ve Got A Friend”. I know what you’re thinking but you missed the word “gems”. The restroom break will be “Angels Of Fenway” at Forest Hills Stadium on Tuesday.
Young Fathers – Central Park SummerStage – July 25th – They were sweating from the heat and seemed disappointed in the size of the audience, and daylight doesn’t appear to three piece rap and alt’s natural habitat: and they were still magnificent. That version of “Shame”? That was worth it.
passed on a taping of Ice T and Coco which expresses more than words ever can my feelings about reality shows. So that leaves me with Laura Marling, whom it looks like I am gonna miss for the second time because I’m going to the “Beautiful” in concert at SummerStage on Monday, Milky Chance on James Corden and Christopher Cross on Fallon. I’m going with Fallon because, you know, maybe he’ll do a medley of all his hits: “Sailing” and “Arthur’s Theme”.
A better month for songs than I thought when you consider two of the weeks were more or less wash outs. Two absolute revelations, Alice Glass and Dej Loaf, who have nothing in common except extreme originality. I have heard nothing quite like them and I like Dej now the way I liked Nicki Minaj circa “Monster ergo very very much. One more name: Daniel Romanov: he sounds like other people, but in a very good way.
The Most Lamentable Tragedy Of – Titus Andronicus – Whatever doubts you may have about this 29 song rock opera song cycle detailing the ebb and flow of manic depression, if only for its sheer audacity you will hear nothing more important this year. Plus, cmon, what price “Dimed Out”? It dimes out and then some.
Warren Beatty was a better actor and a better director and had more famous skirt but Leo DiCaprio owns the swimsuit model field, apparently getting on the cover of SI includes a date with Leo. Also: Leo is 40 years old, so in theory he could keep on nailing supermodels, this year’s model is the ridiculously attractive 25 year Kelly Rohrbach, for another ten years and still spend half his life a married man (like Warren).
The Hook (All My Love) (Rough Mix) – Led Zeppelin – From the Zep’s last, pussy, album, this is all very Robert Plant’s Americana version of Zep, and very pretty, the brass solo is especially lovely and Jimmy is much more than brute force here, almost, dare we say it, delicate – B+
Little Richard’s influence is certainly there during ‘It Shook Me Up’ or ‘Everybody’s Talking ‘Bout The All-American’ for example, with some excited pounding keys, a droning bass and McPherson’s bright howl, but there is much more than influences, he sees his brand of rockabilly as a new punk form, it’s aggressive and fast, he jumps all over the place as he jumps all over decades of music history and this new-old sound becomes truly his.
And she reminded us that she wrote, released, and produced her album ‘because I am an independent artist’ she announced, with a don’t-mess-with-Texas attitude, although she is a Nashville girl! And in a few seconds, she gave us the essence of any good western country song, which is always about heartbreaks, taking too many pills, and cheating… ‘all the good things in life!’ she added.
Another nothing special week crashes to a close, Ella has a great voice and she is fabulous live, she is the go to gal for modern EDM soulfulness -not very significant here, but I guess she is just a gun for hire. That whole scene is as good as its best songs. Whether it is Emile, Sam, Ella, Jesse or anyone else.
‘I get threats constantly—all female musicians do. People want to, like, rape and kill you. It’s, like, part of the job. One time I was backstage at a show, and there was this random guy in my dressing room, and he just grabbed me and started making out with me, and I was like, Ah!, and pushed him off. Then he went, ‘Ha! I kiss-raped you’ and left.’
Bugzy Malone is new to me but I love rap with an English accent, Tinie Tempeh, Wiley, all those guys and add this one. First rate rapper and quite different to the Drake sample dark stuff that rules here.
Come And Get It – Badfinger – If we can please get past the backstory, this is the best song the Beatles never bothered with, a McCartney smash and also the theme of the Ringo Starr-Peter Sellers piece of weirdness “The Magic Christian”, sooonny – A
Rolling Stone: So, while I haven’t seen his books, I would sure guess that Jann Wenner is in some trouble at Rolling Stone. Sure the Will Dana quitting had to do with a serious editing lapse of judgment, that wasn’t true of David Fricke (has he written anything recently? I don’t think so) and absolutely the downsizing of movie critic Peter Travers from Senior Editor to contributing writer. Apparently this one got nasty with Travers furious at Jann pinching his pocket. Of course, it’s a buyers market in the writing world and apparently somebody has awaken the sleeping skinflint.
It is a real achievement, an artistic highlight of the 2010s. It repays close attention with strange insights. Really, it is the musical “Pale Fire” -an extended mind game but with a steely and real purpose behind it. +@ are playing with you but for a real reason. I mean, I love it. It’s fun.
Two sexual adjectives and a vicious verb, invites you into Samuel’s bitter brittle state of the USA , intro-ing with a song that would have been a hit for Nine Inch Nails 20 years ago, and a body blow to the American dream, and continuing with “The Lion And The Lamb”, an acoustic Neil Young in protest mode and about a gay kid thrown out by his parents but without the whining vocal, “Hurt” you know and it is here to stake Samuel’s claim to experimental hard rocks disappeared high ground, and by the final track, a trip hop meets Marilyn Manson meets Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry (or at least Adrian Sherwood) mash up, Claiborne’s debut stakes its claim to be the most original agitprop of the year if not the decade – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
‘He didn’t sail across the Atlantic in an ocean liner or a yellow submarine. He didn’t come in on a third-class ticket looking for a job in Hell’s Kitchen. He didn’t climb up out of steerage with all his potatoes in a single suitcase. But John Lennon was an immigrant all the same.’
Still, Drake’s response to Meek’s claim that Drake didn’t write his own raps seems a little overdone. Meek really isn’t in Drake’s league so the sneer seems a little stuck on Drake’s face, like his smiling but very very stiffly, not at all amused, you know. Why so glum, kid? You know the first rule of fight club, never punch down, why are you punching down??
It is incredible that anybody has written so much gorgeous, smart, decent, moral, exciting, rock and roll over this length of time. Nobody else comes close. Not Dylan, Bruce… maybe James Brown. MAYBE Van Morrison. But that’s it.
Nightmare Seeker (The Little Red House) – Lamb Of God – This close the album just about exactly where it begun except you are there, love the drums, they have a 50s rock and roll, roll em up to them, and the rest of the song sounds a whole lot like the first one… though that goes without saying, right? – B
The track is an electronic ride through geology with a female whisper… it could be a dance number performed at festivals — although it is quite smooth and dreamy and too abstract to be totally dance oriented — but the DJ had another idea. He teamed up with Christopher Thockler for ‘Solid Gold’ a video featuring 60 rocks from 15 different countries around the world.
So, about this lion deal. Here are a coupla thoughts. I agree with the vegans that an omnivore has some nerve taking the moral umbrage when it comes to mass murderer the dentist -the lion may look worse but many many many many more animals are slaughtered to feed us. However, that notwithstanding, surely any animal rights activism is better than none if you care so much about animals? Who do the morally outraged vegans think they are helping? I mean, besides their smug love of self, of course?
Rescue Me – Amy Helm – Rock royalty, Amy is Levon Helm’s daughter, and opening for Dr. John at SummerStage on Saturday AND, a new album just released, plus this is a fine and soulful piece of country rock aka Americana – B+
He may be a New York transplant, but his great sensibility fits very well with Los Angeles landscapes. With songs such as ‘Encino’, ‘Miracle Mile’, his work is obviously imbued with the city of angels, that he described in an interview as ‘a garden surrounded by mountains on one side and ocean on the other’… ‘a mind-numbing, flat suburban wasteland where the weather never changes and time stands still’.
The question for a die hard fan like me is.. is this the English Beat? Dave Wakeling the only original member and there is still the UK Beat with Ranking Roger, we’re the children of this sad divorce. Wakeling gets custody of us Americans…or do we get custody of him?
‘We asked Edie Parker to designed a duo of hip-hop-themed clutches, just for us,’ says the description and of course they are sold for the modest sum of $1,695 each.
The world doesn’t need much from the brothers, it doesn’t even much care if Liam pays for his daughter’s upbringing, but the world needs the band to reform Oasis and for Liam to stop being so damn sad.
The Heart Is A Bomb – Samuel Claiborne – With Bill Laswell producing , the beats are a drummy pulse like a trip hopnightmare and Samuel has a gritty spoken word edge to it, like he is escaping from New York or something… then there is the guitar solo of course – B+
