Consensus opinion is Spoon delivered the goods and for sure this is their best song to date, so good their Summerstage gig on September 10th is looking better and better except, given the type of venue and the type of band, I am not sure I can take the audience again. The new Al Jarreau is terrific.
Right As Rain – Adele – Who was it who called Adelle a psychotic moldy old cow? well, yes, I admit it but I was discussing 21 not 19, and I even liked “Someone Like You” and I really love this gorgeously sung MOR soul song, from 19, which I didn’t hate – A
Six Degrees – Ghostface Killah And badbadnotgood – Featuring a verse by one Danny Brown whose voice flows well within a Ghostface track, better than you’d thing, and the Canadian jazz outfit have a clicky Oriental beat which works like magic on this terrific track – A
I didn’t hear any earworm among the new ones but it was my first listening… and even though there would be no big hit – Spoon never really got one anyway – they have already sold out the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on August 8th and have filled up the large Amoeba store on Wednesday night like true rock stars.
Bad Habit – The Kooks – When did these guys become the Arctic Monkeys? This is the sort of garage blues AM have been doing for years and I thought the Kooks had more going on, more like Squeeze, but they are one Alyson Camus review from hooking up with Josh Homme and visiting Burning Man – C
Inside Out – Spoon – This is about as different as indie rock can get, the 4 on the floor beat is used for a strange deconstruction of an indie song which hums along like an wall of sound power point presentation – B+
I am hopeful that things improve in the fall but that’s so far off. So until then, grab a blanket and a picnic basket and go out to your local park for a free concert- screw the TV its not worth your time.
A little on the dog days of summer, right? Spider bags was a disappointment, not a disaster but not their best work, Peter and Mike are dilettantes, The Murder City Devils a little too fussy for my taste. I guess spoon by default.
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
Do You – Spoon – Here is a song even Spoon agnostics but unequivocally approve of, a sticky, handclapping, nonsense syllabicating masterstroke, which I noticed when I caught em at Governors Ball and am now insane about – A
Live It Up – Spoon – A heavy blues from the semi-popular indie band; not my scene, it is neither beaty nor meaty enough but it has a uniqueness to it: it sounds like nothing else only not quite as good – B
Saturday was incredibly busy at Randall’s Island, a complete sell out from one end of the Island to the other with young kids, mostly college sophomores by the looks of it, planting themselves on every available inch of green. But the lineup wasn’t as good as Friday’s line up
In 2009, guaranteed entry because the three consecutive years I did not get a number through the lottery. Trained with music and ran the last six miles (typically the hardest for me) with music which definitely brought me to the finish line.
