Not all of the songs listed below were in the movie or soundtrack, but they are representative of the mood of the era. You don’t have to know about the movie to enjoy these songs, but it would be a lot cooler if…
They’ve moved on from writing about their daddy issues and having a harder sound to settling into something that I think feels more comfortable for them and they’re not forcing anything.
for the first time, Coachella is offering a four-course $225 meal? What? It is not a joke and it blows my mind. When do you find the time for a four-course dinner when there are 100 bands on the bill?
I hardly get it but the girls are now all over the press, doing interviews with Marie Claire, embracing the fashion world, and declaring getting ‘squeamish’ when compared with the legendary Fleetwood Mac
I could sit here and whine about how no ‘good’ musical guests are ever on television but I’d be writing that to people who actually watch shows like The Voice or American Idol so my though is some of you are actually excited to see some of the acts sitting on the late night couches.
Saturday saw the grand opening of School Of Rock -quite literally what it claims to be, a music school for children under the age of 18, on Douglass Street in Brooklyn. Owned by Mike Addesso, there was literally a line to sign up when I dropped by
Sure, you know Sam Smith through Disclosure’s “Latch” but if that’s not enough? The man has soul to burn and if you don’t believe me listen to the Londoner’s Nirvana EP or ask Taylor Swift who invited him to sing at her O2 gig ir best of all, check out Monday’s gig at Webster Hall. Sold out, of course.
Franklin’s Tower – Grateful Dead – Less a Dave Mason soundalike on this version, and less a dance marathon than the Allman Brother’s superb version of Friday, but not bad at all – B+
When is an Allman Brothers performance not an Allman Brothers performance? When the last remaining original Allman Brother calls in sick and for one night only it to the Haynes-Trucks Band.
If you haven’t quoted ‘Hotel California” or ” The Long Run” you’re not being honest. These songs are simply woven into the tapestry of life and now once again you can see them performed live.
Bridgeport Connecticut is one of the sketchiest citys in the state. Boasting loads of crime and blight it also boasts a little park in which all the wannabe hippies can come once a year with their Winnebago’s and get wasted while listening to throw back music.
From its shipshape construction, to its astounding feat of historical research, through its through the rabbit hole searching out of the USA from 1985 – 1963, “11-22-63” makes us believe the unbelievable.
He is complaining that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is not rock enough: ‘They can run their organization any way they’d like, but it ain’t rock! It just isn’t! If you don’t play guitar and you don’t write your own songs, you don’t belong there’
In a music world of trending trans, Dubstep, pop I am always on the search for a modern band with that old school rock feel. I’m looking for a little jam, some sliding guitar solos, a good dose of blues, and a touch of psychedelic.
In the mid-1990s I went back to the Bob Dylan of the 1980s and revised my opinion of his work that decade. At the time I thought it was a disaster, but with five years between myself and the end of the decade, I found myself returning and reappraising
I remember a time when word of a new Conor Obert album would have filled my heart with joy, but five years is a long time between masterpieces, isn’t it? I might say the same about Damon Albarn come to think about it. Nothing here makes my heart aflutter like a little schoolgirl except maybe the new Prefab Sproat
The Miss Piggy song is very fun and very funny, but except for the Sleeper Agent this is a song per album type deal. Freddie, The Floacist, Perfect Pussy, Black Lips: not one of them has worked through an entire album.
With Billie she sends you into a free floating sort of vertiginous sinking to nowhere, like swimming in mud, but it is also a life raft, something real to cling to
‘Miley in the studio vomiting diamonds while singing Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds!! If you’re a Beatles and John Lennon freak you gonna love love love this track!! Got Andrew from MGMT too!!!
Much like KISS but of sincere less magnitude, ya gotta have a hook in this crazy business. Here is a latex one to bask in. For the past 5 years they have hosted a GWAR B Q, and this is where my story begins and ends.
Adly Syairi Ramly is an artist and music fan and apparently a lego who, in a surfeit of everything is awesome good vibes, has chosen to make lego figures of his favorite rock bands –which includes, for some obscure reason, the dreaded Foo Fighters
While I might shrug at the likes of an Adam Levine here or a Blake Shelton there sitting in chairs and trying not to sneer, isn’t Chris Martin meant to be the new Bono or something?
‘So Now You Know’ is the second track they share on YouTube and after a few listenings, I find the song quite pleasant, the beginning in particular is as promising as a new morning of spring
While the standard of living has dropped through the floor since 2009, concerts continue to price themselves through the roof. And for $70 you will get two assholes posing themselves to heroic extents. One of whom is a great rappe
To be clear: Just because I’m a vegan I’m not saying you should be a vegan. It would be ironic if I refused to force my will on animals but was all too happy forcing my will on humans.
Sleeper Agent have what early Rilo had and Paramore circled but didn’t quite nail down; melodic pop rock melodies by the bushel; they have so many they’d don’t seem to need deep album cuts, or the arty ones, or the prolonged jams.
Colored Spade – Lamont Washington – The President of the United States of love takes racial slurs and embraces them with more power than raps pre-empting of “nigga” some 20 years after “Hair” came out of the Public Theater – A
Yet, there is no fun in writing mean things about Rosanne. You kinda remember who she is, who her dad is, and I at least, am keenly aware of her humanity, that my zings hit someone I kinda like. Loved in the 80s before she got too serious for her own good
‘My reason for becoming a vegetarian was simple: I loved (and love) animals and I don’t want to be involved in anything that leads to or contributes to their suffering. At first this led me to give up beef and chicken.
“Pour Some Sugar On Me” will only flare up the diabetes so use caution. The tour skips New York City instead focusing on the ‘burbs and with good reason- the target market here is the kids of the 80’s your gear head greaser and prom queen of days gone by
Let’s face it the odds of something we have NEVER heard before after decades just seems unreal- unless of course its songs we know with voice over or other out take, which is possible I suppose.
So any way the “Cold As Ice” and “Mr. Roboto” bands are playing a twofer at Prudential Center on June 26 and I swear I’m thinking about going. It is like part of the Middle America experience, as much a part as, say, going to see George Strait. It is a cultural identity even if it isn’t your cultural identity.
I don’t think much of the brooding Soko’s sound, the French chanteuse has a brooding presence but not musch more. But the vdeo? A collaboration between Soko and Wren “a women’s wear brand” called “First Kiss” is awesome and sexy even if it is manufactured.
The album charts are so volatile it is like an earthquake. Yet again, six of these albums are new to the charts, it is like they just explode into outer space of sound. Whooomp. all all the charts, whooomp gone again. I have never seen the charts like this before.
The episode of “New Girl” featuring Prince was like Pixie and Dixie as they outshone each other in whimsy and twerk and the song itself is one of the worst Prince has put his name to. It is so cutesy you wanna scream and, surely Prince’s calling card, the beat is flat – D+
Started in ’99, they’ve released some killer albums, toured with big names, and really built up a massive reputation. They’re positively iconic, and their new album, “Happiness Is” just furthered my love for them and their music.
There is nothing less erotic than these two in a bed an I swear I tried to find some sort of arousal factor in their performance but instead it looked like posing for a photo shoot rather than an actual entanglement.
Art is now used as an accessory to promote music, it’s not an inspiration, it’s a promotional tool, that may or may not work. I am tempting to think that mainstream music is so weak right now that this is a need, a requirement to get all these artifices to attract attention and interest. Gaga and Jay Z take the high road dropping more famous painters in songs than the Met owns
From the over textured drums that open the EP and “She gets me high, she gets me low” level of lyrics, to the generic anemic “The Sand I Brought To The Beach” plodder which finds Luke high and dry and lonely with his pals at Panama City, and the four songs in the middle, this is painful.
So, yeah Kid Cudi has this one brooding, introspective blue note synth deep bass sound and whether he is searching for life on the moon or sex on terra firma, he plays it over and over again and the ten song sudden release newbie does what he does and he does it well but he doesn’t do it exactly memorably.
Roving Eye – James Chance – Not only does Chance blow like a dream that is emerging out of a nightmare, he sings like a white boy coked out yelping twitching basket case channeling James Brown in the best way and this is a Ze Records peak from the early years.
Coming Of Age – Foster The People – This song makes a promise the album couldn’t keep, but this heavy textured beat and strong melodic mood seemed as though the band could move forward from “Pumpked Up Kicks” into a post-modern indie hybrid sound – A-
About Last Night – Sleeper Agent – Everything you wanted Paramore to be, everything Cage The Elephant claim to be, Sleeper Agent. This sophomore effort is astoundingly catchy power pop; one sure shot after another. Imagine Gwen Stefani leading Paramore, with a remarkable hit to misses count, if this doesn’t smash em through I’d demand a recount – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A
It is an abomination and should come with a mental health warning. For your own good I ask that you mute this and slowly lift the volume, or you could well poor battery acid in your ears to deaden the pain.
I mentioned Spalding Gray, whose mother also committed suicide, earlier and this superb performance had the feel of a “Monster In A Box” played out in a comedy mode, Titus aim is deadly, his precision a laser and he has just about always on the money.
They’re calling this the Father and Son show to Wicked’s mother and daughter designation. I’m calling it yet another remake in a theater business out of ideas. Oh, and apparently there is plenty of technical wizardry so be on the look out for it.
To claim “Nonstop” beggars the imagination is to damn it with faint praise. I will go along with Hitchcock’s damning of those reviewers obsessed with plausibility but as far as flying epics are concerned “Peter Pan” is more believable.
“Right away Louis Armstrong’s voice! It’s so sweet and smooth and inviting and deep. Then a white guy starts singing and it just doesn’t compare, it’s just so normal and Louie’s voice is like and angel and a puppy and a grandpa all rolled into one. It’s pretty euphoric”
‘Rihanna and Drake are just having fun at the moment. Neither of them are relationship people really. But Drake has made it clear that if things are going to get serious with them, he doesn’t want her speaking with Chris.’ That was the point young Conor Oberst was making on “Make War”, how new lovers try to wipe out old lovers.
Rock With You – Ledesi – Hot and soulful, Ledesi may well be an everywoman making a sound we hear all day long, but she sings to the beat like nobodies business and references Dione warwick so you gotta think she ain’t afriad of comparisons – B+
