I suppose they wanted to be considered, well, real musicians, but these times are over and Jenny has decided to have a little fun with her past of child-actor. She directed herself this cute parody and has invited Fred Armisen (Portlandia), Zosia Mamet (Girls), Leo Fitzpatrick (another child-actor), Feist, and Vanessa Bayer (SNL) to play along.
I have more, the ultra narcissist over-the-top one: ‘My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live’, the confessional ones, ‘Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed. I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book’s autograph. I am a proud non-reader of books’
I realized at that moment that the girl duo was a real phenomenon, despite having only released an EP. And I totally got it, there was plenty of personality (nice and feisty) and attitude (feminism) there, served by a very efficient minimalism of evocative guitar-bass combo and sweet-harmonies galore
Late Bloomer – Jenny Lewis – The verses are magnificent, as great s anything Jenny has written in years, and the bridge is lovely, but ugh that chorus sucks. what the hell, is that what it means to have Ryan Adams help out? – B
‘I’m tired of men who aren’t professional or even accomplished musicians continually offering to ‘help me out’ (without being asked), as if i did this by accident and i’m gonna flounder without them. or as if the fact that I’m a woman makes me incapable of using technology.”
The problem with this iteration of Kidz Bop Kids is the covers are a little more muddled than usual, both “Happy” and “Dark Horse” should have had the arrangements much cleaner, smaller if you will. Surely Kidz Bop isn’t just about taking out the dirty words? Tom Petty? 133K units sold, Clapton? 65K.
Kisses For Breakfast – Melissa Steel – Already a hit in the UK, this is a huge summersmash in some alternative world, in this world it is a pop reggae move, a sort of warm Caribbean caress of a track that missed its window of opportunity, with dance Hall great Popcaan toasting – A
It is not every day a live performance changes instantaneously from a non believer to a fan, and it is not that I think Hurray For The Riff Raff were actually that great, they weren’t bad but not that great, but the songs revealed their stickiness and suddenly you could hear just how strong the riffs in the riff raff were. Blake Shelton was a blast
It encompasses a grueling period during which Lewis’ father passed away, her band of more than a decade broke up, and she conquered two years of chronic insomnia. “All these things pushed me over the edge. In your mid-30s, you have to take inventory, or you’ll stumble.”
Stop Your Stobbing – the Kinks – Those background harmonies, Ray’s wife at the time, right, the “oooh ooohs” under “stop it stop it”? I could listen to it forever. It is like Torre giving the ball to Cone for one out in game six of the world series in 2000: Ray wasn’t doing her a favor, he used her for what the song needed – A
Eric Clapton And Friends – The Breeze (An Appreciation Of JJ Cale) After the dire Old Socks, this coulda have been a disaster, but it isn’t, what it does is place Cale out of the “Cocaine” one hit wonder category and into the basic blues canon with some of Clapton’s greatest acoustic warm glow performances since Ocean boulevard rising to the occasion – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A
Sure, you think it is either Petty or Lewis for album of the week but I’ve heard em both and they both are, not terrible, but certainly not great. So I’m gonna put my money on Eric Clapton and his JJ Cale covers album. Is that a mistake? I will have to live with it.
Here comes summer, school is out on happy days and the wild world of music is coming your ways so… what are we looking forward to here? I didn’t care less about Jenny Lewis but after her terrific turn at Governors Ball, I am wondering if this will be a biggie for her. Sinead O’Connor –because, well, because she is an enormously consistent recording artist, and Spider Bags who released the best album of 2012
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.
You should go to Festivals the same way you listen to music in 2014, sample all the goods and then research further. Even bands you really wanna see, headliners Outkast for instance, this might not be the best way to check em out. You’d have to give up too much and wait too long (I figure 90 minutes) to get really great sitelines. That would be, wow, at least four sets.
Just One of the Guys’ was produced by Beck – although I can’t really recognize anything Beck-like in this song, it is a true Jenny Lewis tune – and it is also the first single of her upcoming album ‘The Voyager’, on which she collaborates with many different artists such as Ryan Adams and her boyfriend Jonathan Rice
Just One Of The Guys – Jenny Lewis – This mid-tempo indie pop snoozer doesn’t offer much hope for a return to Jenny’s strengths on the new one? And what are her strengths in 2014? She is like Aimee Mann without the golden age. Produced by Beck, which proves you can fool all the people all the time – C+
The Decemberists came on when it was starting to absolutely downpour, and some people left and others toughed it out. I was amongst those who bailed; it was cold and rainy and a long day. From what I heard in my attempt to get out and not be soaking wet, The Decemberists definitely still have their niche and a huge fan base
