She co-wrote the song with Grammy Award-nominated songwriter Kevin Kadish, but unfortunately for the two, there is now a big controversy: she and Kadish may have simply stolen the tune from K-pop band Koyote, who, as many people have pointed out, carries a wild similarity with another tune by the popular band Ph
Good week for heavy instruments, Bassnectectar, Clean Bandit, Phish, Eno + Hyde and Mastodon all released very strong music. Particularly Eno + Hyde, whose “Lilac” is better than anything on the album and especially the two note strum through the last three minutes. The best three minutes of the week.
One of Costello’s lowest moments, was his destructive comments about the former Transvision Vamp’s lead singer. She asked him to write a song for her and instead, with his wife, he wrote an album. Wendy gave pretty steady readings of them. Elvis hated them and recorded them himself, not half as well. Here is the best of them, a class structured Lady Chatterley’s lover of a song – A-
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-
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.
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
Perhaps I was right but the Phish effect didn’t survive a lousy concert last December where all the good will they’d accrued went out the window and I remembered exactly why I’d been born sick of them for decades on end.
As we count down to the de Blasio era, it is worth noting that while stop and frisk may well be racist and discriminatory, between 2001 and 2012 the City’s incarceration rate has now fallen by 36 percent, while at the same time, the national incarceration rate grew three percent. If that’s Bloomberg’s legacy it is a great one.
Sweet Baby James – James Taylor – Written for his nephew when his nephew was still a baby, it remains a self-portrait and a lullaby to loneliness and aloneness and late night fears put away and rocked to sleep – A+
I went to see the Knicks at Madison Square Garden a week before, the Knicks lost, and it is the exact same thing as this set. Exactly. That’s what it felt like at the Phish concert. You come in with hopes, they play lacklustre for three hours, put on a sport to get it close and then it’s over. Better luck tomorrow.
Billy Joel will be doing the working and I will be doing the dancing at his Barclay Center New Year’s Eve gig. The first song of the New Year will be going out live on ABC! I wasn’t crazy over his 12-12-12 performance, but he has been on the money way too often for me to give up the chance to spend NYE with him
The Rainbow – The Apples In Stereo – I saw em open for Television years ago and I might add they were awesome. This Beatley (check out the band name) remains a real pleasure. Gives power pop a good name – A
So Feinstein’s is so no more and Michael has moved himself to San Francisco and opened a new room and yes, folks, it is missed but here he is again back for a Christmas stand at Birdland. A little pricey but should be worth the admission fee –I’ll be there Christmas Eve and Mike will be jazzing things up through December 28 th.
