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May 17 Regina Spektor At United Palace Theater, Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 Reviewed
The set was so well paced but it was hard not to be. Regina has so many great songs but is really a schticky chick: she pulls out the Music Hall “Sailor Song” and is as willing to go deep into her Russian roots and pull out a gypsy folkie refrain as an glammy popness or a classical U Turn.
Posted 17 May 2012 by Iman Lababedi  Add comment
May 17 And Now, CBGB The Movie
But wow they are really re-launching this CBGB thing full time! A new location, a music festival and now a movie, it is difficult not to see an exploitation of the famous name behind all this
Posted 17 May 2012 by Alyson Camus  Add comment
May 17 Lady Gaga Flesh Dress 2
I’m not quite sure why I am even giving this the time of day, its really just a pathetic attempt at shock cuz it isn’t shocking me. Wear an outfit of human skin then maybe I’ll turn my head- this is just sad and desperate.
Posted 17 May 2012 by Helen Bach  Add comment
May 17 Conor Oberst’s “One Of My Kind” Reviewed
The movie closes with Conors scribbled lyric and him sitting and singing it, “I can’t live here but I’ll I’ll probably die here…” he moans. It is terrific. Better than anything on the last Bright Eyes
Posted 17 May 2012 by Iman Lababedi  Add comment
May 17 Jay-Z Endorsing Obama’s Statement About Gay Marriage
There was obviously some part of calculation in Obama’s decision to speak in favor of gay marriage, it was a very good thing to do, but it is a little laughable when you remember the president’s less-than-pro-gay-marriage declaration when he met with pastor Rick Warren in 2008:
Posted 17 May 2012 by Alyson Camus  Add comment
May 17 Doctor Don Henley, Berklee School of Music Gives Honorary Degrees
Should there not be some sense of musical education? Should there not be more than just a boat load of standards? Apparently not. Maybe they were available for graduation weekend so they booked them since there were slim pickin’s?
Posted 17 May 2012 by Helen Bach  Add comment
May 17 “Dark Shadows” Reviewed (More Or Less)
Musically, it is awesome. T-Rex, Curtis Mayfield, Barry White and of course, the one and only Alice Cooper in a cameo.
Posted 17 May 2012 by Iman Lababedi  Add comment
May 17 Lady Gaga Forced To Cancel Sold Out Gig In Jakarta Because of Muslim Protesters
What can I say, these people live in another century, in another geological period, they keep their women under Burkas, so Gaga in full bra may come as a shock indeed. Muslim extremists have the biggest problem in the world with sexuality, as they come just behind the American Santorum-type.
Posted 17 May 2012 by Alyson Camus  Add comment
May 17 Last Post About The Rolling Stones on SNL This Week
Mick Jaggersits on a tiny stage with the Ghost of Rock and Roll Future, upstart hipster frauds Arcade Fire, the pathetic excuse for current Ghost of Rock and Roll Present Foo Fighters, and The Ghost of Rock and Roll Past Jeff Beck.
Posted 17 May 2012 by Helen Bach  Add comment
May 17 Noel Gallagher Cried Like A Baby
I swore a lot and then I cried like a baby because I’ve never seen anything like that before. It was mindblowing.”
Posted 17 May 2012 by Iman Lababedi  Add comment
May 17 Three Years Later, Bret Michaels Settles The Score with The Tonys
There were warning strokes and a mish mosh of other maladies all screaming headlines of the rockers imminent death. The dude was being circled by vultures for months
Posted 17 May 2012 by Helen Bach  Add comment
May 17 Streaming Services To Get Own Chart In UK… Can US Be Far Behind?
who will be providing the figures and why would they open their books and, how does this effect Pandora, where the music is programed more like a radio? What;s to stop a rock band giving bucks to Pandora for additional airplay which will push them further up the charts?
Posted 17 May 2012 by Iman Lababedi  Add comment
May 17 To See Or Not To See? Bon Iver At Radio City (Plus Setlist)
Justin Vernon is a lugubrious bore but his songs can hook you if you don’t have your guard up and while his falsetto at first sounds a form of torture Obama has made illegal against Al Qaeda terrorists (or soldiers: tomatoes, tomartoes), it has grown on me after being inescapable for years
Posted 17 May 2012 by Iman Lababedi  Add comment
May 17 Listen Up: 5-17-12
Only The Horses – Scissor Sisters – A loss leader from their upcoming album, this is a disco ballad which takes advantage of Jake’s falsetto on a song that isn’t all there. There is better on the way. – Grade: B
Posted 17 May 2012 by Iman Lababedi  Add comment
May 16 Jail Weddings‘ (There’s Nothing Worse In The World Than A) Crying Girl’ Reviewed
it’s so bombastic and theatrical it could be an Arcade Fire tune sung by Nick-Cave-meets-Ziggy-Stardust, whereas its title is so long it could compete with any Fiona Apple’s song.
Posted 16 May 2012 by Alyson Camus  Add comment

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Archive for July, 2009

FABOLOUS "LOSO'S WAY" HIP HOP AT ITS BEST

I loved the “Everything, Everyday, Everywhere” single off Fabolous’ new album “Loso’s Way” but thought it might have had a lot to do with Keri Hilson but the word is getting out and it is deafening. “Loso’s Way” is the album we never though Fabolous had in him. I just got a text from my nephew and hip hop fanatic Jeff McColl telling me I had to buy it. Appraently, so do you.

 

Itunes Too Rich And Lazy To Accurately Label Songs


A coupla months ago Marie Lynn was fuming at itunes inability to accurately categorize the songs she downloaded. I thought nothing of it at the time but as time has gone by I’ve found myself agreeing with her more and more.

Here is a list of pop-rock musical genre’s from the indie review web site delinyc.com – :
Electronic
Hip Hop
Indie Pop
Brit Pop
Lo-Fi
Orchestral Pop
Lounge Pop
Mellow Pop
Avant Indie
Post Rock
Indie Rock
Post Punk
Noise Punk
Metal
Psych Rock
Shoe Gaze
Alt Rock
Power Pop
Emo
Garage
Punk
Glam
Alt Rock
Alt Soul
Rootsy Pop
 
Now here are the genres Itunes include:
Electronic
Hip Hop
Heavy Metal
Punk
Everything else is considered Alternative or Indie.

Itunes are the single biggest distributor of mp3s -they have reached their billion songs downloaded, but a website certainly no bigger than, say, Spin Magazine, know how to categorize popular music and they are clueless.

What do Paul Simon, Oum Kalthoum, Kristy MacColl and Kaiser Chiefs have in common? According to Itunes they are all World Music. Bob Dylan’s country album “Nashville Skyline” is a folk album and worse, his rock breakthough “Highway 61 Revisited” is also a folk album. That is so pathetic. “61″ got him booted from the folk fraternity, how can they label it folk music? Nine Inch Nails is electronica along with Kid Creole and the Coconuts. Dashboard Confessional are soft rock … well, maybe that’s an itunes employee making a point.

Does it matter? At the very least it is entirely unprofessional. They have chosen to be pros in the music industry but they are clueless as to what music they are selling. They are attempting to suggest music to us in their recommendation section but they can’t classify the music correctly. At Itunes Wilco and Merle Haggard play the same genre of music. Why would they not care?

There are two reasons for a big company to be run so arrogantly 1) they are Government run like the DMV and are not answerable to anyone and 2) they have a monopoly like Itunes.
Look at the care a record label like “Verve” put into their catalogue. Itunes can’t even get the right cover. (Ps: I see the $1.29 cost for a song all over the place, I haven’t seen the 69 cents anywhere). The truth is itunes isn’t run by music people, it isn’t about music any more than it’s about movies, it is a gigantic warehouse of recorded songs and the warehouse is God like in its indifference to the product it’s shifting. In effect you are doing business with machines -just digital bytes.

I was the first to complain about the major labels butthe major labels were people distributing music they had -at the least, a financial investment in. The more I think of Itunes the more I see the omnificent Steve Jobs pushing it out and raking it in with complete indifference to the quality of his product.

 

COMING TOMORROW