Jay Z recently purchased the streaming service for some $56 million and he wants to make it as a competitor to Spotify, or Rdio. Alicia called it the ‘beginning of a whole new era’,… but for whom exactly? A new era for Jay Z and Madonna to make even more money? What’s new exactly? A new sound? a better listening experience?
I was disappointed by the J. Cole album, it needed a little more discipline,it needed a couple of killer songs, a “Power trip” or a “Work Out” to beckon us in. The album isn’t bad, it’s good, but it needed to be great.
I like Royce but anticipating? I am sick of Ghostface and never liked Angels & Airiwaves. So it is between the Smashing Pumpkins and J. Cole. The songs off the SP album already released are uniformly excellent but J. Cole was so great on stage this year, I’m going with him.
If “Black Rage” is an accidental commentary, J. Cole’s “Born Free” is an “Ohio” for a different generation and another outrage. “That there is no justice kills my soul” Cole sings (not raps) on the Michael Brown tribute, where Cole sobs somewhere between a rap and a song. It is a powerful piano ballad, and it went viral, directly hitting the mark and answering the concerns of many black people.
Dance trumps rock, no two ways about it. Skrillex and two thirds of Swedish House Mafia siphoned off 75% of the audience, leaving 25% for Jack White and Vampire Weekend. The sheer numbers were incredible. Broken Bells was free and easy, you couldn’t move at Disclosures set which was occurring on a different stage at the same time.
Girls and girls and drugs and girls. Paarty songs. “That’s why the shows so cranky because I’m high on crills right now,” Earl said during Tyler’s show and Tyler agreed. “Awesssssome” he said like he just stepped out of one of his Adult Swim TV episodes. J. Cole said he’d been drinking all day.
Last week a couple of dozen huge and fully grown men graduated from college to the NFL, where they will make millions for a couple of years and let’s hope they save up for a rainy day. If they don’t they will always have the NFL Draft where Mr. Johnny Football got drafted 22nd and Jadeveon Clowney got drafter first and Ha Ha Clinton Dix 21st , thereby giving Jimmy Fallon jokes for years to come.
With January’s best album under his belt, the Phil Gammage Trio are playing a record release part on Wednesday January 29th at No Malice Palace on 197 East 3rd Street in the village on Wednesday, January 29. Expect harp, bass and blues and Phil’s beautiful baritone.
