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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 November, 2009

"Stevie and Aretha I can do without" Todd Leibowitz on the Hall Of fame concerts!!!

Written by admin
Monday, 30 November 2009 22:17
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1.Loved Metallica’s set. Thought Ozzy and Ray Davies was great. Lou Reed looked a bit out of it. Looked frail.

2.The U2 set was also great. Bono sounded amazing, never saw them live – wish I did. Mick and Fergie were a great add in as well. Even The Edge got a chance to show off his vocal talent.
3.Didn’t see Springsteen’s set yet. I DVR’d the concert. Will watch it soon.
4.I thought Simon and Garfunkel sucked ass. They looked like they didn’t even want to be there.
5.CSN were great. Don’t know a lot of their stuff. Thanks for loaning me their CDs.
6. Stevie Wonder and Aretha I can live without. Not my type.
7. I think I saw my great-grandfather there, he was opening the show singing Great Balls of Fire – wait that was Jerry Lee Lewis. Where did they dig him up from?
8. I hope they release these concerts on CD or on itunes. Definitely be a purchase from me.

 

If It Aint Stiff… by Mike Nessing

Written by admin
Monday, 30 November 2009 21:29
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can the nick drake re-revival be far behind?
If you’re dead , I wanna hear your stuff.

I’ve been looking at some of my aural preferences in the pop genre, and an interesting trend is in play. I tend to gravitate towards pop artists with mental problems that died penniless and in relative obscurity. Aside from the obvious ones I’ve written about (Judee Sill, Gene Clark, Curt Boettcher) combined with some I’ve yet to write about (Nick Drake, Dennis Wilson, Syd Barrett) you could say that a serious chunk of what I listen to falls into this category.


The other category is just plain dead and there are several corkers here as well. James Brown, Steve Marriott, Marvin Gaye, Lennon, Hank Williams and many others are all freaking dead. OK, so much of this is happenstance. I am after all 47 years old and time does march on. Even though everybody in “The Wizard Of Oz” is dead there is no curse on the movie. It’s just that it was made in 1929.

Somewhere along the way I became pretty jaded towards new music. This is pretty much my problem as opposed to music’s. There is plenty of good new music being released if one has the time and/or inclination to find it. Alas, therein lies the rub. During the post punk wars of the early to mid eighties, I had plenty of free time to find these bands, and plenty of disposable income to blow on records. Most of what was out there I hated too, but thanks to college radio I found stuff like Husker Du, The Replacements, The Smiths and others that made the ‘80’s a memorable decade. However, It was still a million miles away from the mainstream.


Eventually real life got in my way. But something else happened, too. I started in on the “how did I miss out on THIS?” kick. I found that by going backwards I could find lots of things that floated my boat and then some. By gravitating towards music message boards on the internet combined with the input from my infinitely musical younger brother, I was able to unearth metric tons of music that had been around forever that somehow missed me. Some was ultra obscure, but there were good chunks that were popular and right under my nose.


For example, I could never get past the tye-dye culture and the hippie-dippie mentality of The Grateful Dead. I could not hear the music because I couldn’t bear to witness the lifestyle. Once that barricade was broken though, an entire floodgate was opened (Airplane, Love, CSNY, Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield) and I suddenly had a backlog of music to listen to just like the old days. All it took was a little de-snob-ification.


So I started to go back even further. Between Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Williams, Armstrong and others, I had lots of catching up to do. I figured that if something new came down the pike it would find me and if it didn’t, it probably was not that good to begin with. Well, this was wrong too.

One of the main reasons I started to ignore new music in general was because I was unhappy with the trend towards pop idols manufactured in board rooms for maximum consumption. To me this was a step backwards for the industry as a whole. Like living through Pat Boone and Frankie Avalon all over again. The edgier stuff was just too damn edgy with most of the lyrics I could only decipher as “kill all the white people”. It became easier and more fruitful to just go backwards and dig deep.

This year though, some newer things happily found their way towards me. These artists have bolstered my spirit and given me a glimmer of hope about the future. Did I finally come around, or is it just that newer more diverse types of music are actually finding an audience in an industry that now is taking more risks to keep itself afloat? I’d like to think the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Anyway, it’s nice to be back. I’m still more apt to go backwards than forwards, but at least I’m willing to dip my toe in the water again.

 

Besides the Pats and the Red Sox, What's Not To Like?

Written by admin
Monday, 30 November 2009 21:23
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Hey college girls up the ying yang, lovely parks and hotels with swimming pools. And Jonathan Richman. And Passion Pit who I bet win Best Act in the Boston Music Awards.  here are the nominees…

Act of the Year

Will Dailey & The Rivals
Doomriders
Dropkick Murphy’s
Drug Rug
Esoteric
The Low Anthem
Amanda Palmer
Passion Pit

New Act of the Year
The New Collisions
Mean Creek
Jenny Dee & the Deelinquents
Bad Rabbits
Will C
Gozu
Mystery Roar

Album of the Year
Passion Pit, “Manners”
The Everyday Visuals, “The Everyday Visuals”
Esoteric, “Saving Seamus Ryan”
Session Americana, “Diving For Gold”
Converge, “Axe to Fall”
Will Dailey & The Rivals, “Torrent”
The Low Anthem, “Oh My God, Charlie Darwin”

Best Song of the Year
Passion Pit, “The Reeling”
Bodega Girls, “She’s Into Black Guys”
Lisa Bello, “Leave Me Alone”
The Low Anthem, “The Horizon is a Beltway”
Taxpayer, “We Have Arrived”
Televandals, “Good For Nothing”
Mean Creek, “Face of the Earth”
Magic Magic, “Sleepy Lion”

Female Vocalist of the Year
Lisa Bello
Sarah Borges
Ayla Brown
Ellen Jewell
Erin McKeown
Amanda Palmer
Sarah Cronin (Drug Rug)

Male Vocalist of the Year
Michael Angelakos (Passion Pit)
Al Barr (Dropkick Murphy’s)
Louie Bello
Chris Cote (Giant Kings)
Chris Pappas (Everyday Visuals)
John Powhida
Eli “Paperboy” Reed

Hip Hop Act of the Year
Big Shug
Dramatik
Omega Red
Slaine
Termanology
Big Digits
Esoteric

Pop Act of the Year
Chester French
The Everyday Visuals
Ad Frank & The Fast Easy Women
MEandJOANCOLLINS
The New Collisions
Passion Pit
Yes Giantess

R&B Act of the Year
Lisa Bello
Louie Bello
Jesse Dee
Dwight and Nicole
Masspike Miles
Eli “Paperboy” Reed
Lee Wilson

International Music Act of the Year
Zili Misik
Debo
Alex Alvear
Bloco Afro Brazil
Eguie Castrillo

Metal Act of the Year
Cave In
Converge
Doomriders
Gozu
Motherboar
PanzerBastard
Shadows Fall
Phantom Glue

Folk Act of the Year
Ellis Paul
Kris Delmhorst
Amy Fairchild
Audrey Ryan
Anne Heaton
Rose Polenzani
Deer Tick

Americana Act of the Year
Sarah Borges & the Broken Singles
Dennis Brennan
Ellen Jewell
Girls Guns and Glory
Mean Creek
Jimmy Ryan & Hayride
Session Americana
Sea Monsters

Blues Act of the Year
David Maxwell
Darrell Nulisch
Paul Rishell and Annie Raines
Troy Gonyea & the Howl
The Racky Thomas Band
Luke Mulholland
Matthew Stubbs

DJ/Electronic Act of the Year
Bodega Girls
DJ Die Young
DJ Knife
Frank White
Gucci Vuitton
Clinton Sparks

Jazz Act of the Year
Annie & the Beekeepers
Club D’Elf
Grace Kelly
Miss Tess
Esperanza Spalding
Elan Trotman


Live Act of the Year
Louie Bello
Bang Camaro
State Radio
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Pretty & Nice
Rubblebucket
Hooray For Earth
The Upper Crust

Punk Act of the Year
Big D and the Kids Table
Dropkick Murphy’s
Have Nots
Mission of Burma
VAGIANT Boston

Rock Act of the Year
The Luxury
Dear Leader
Drug Rug
The Upper Crust
VIVA VIVA
Wild Light

Singer/Songwriter of the Year
Steve Brodsky
Will Dailey
Antje Duvekot
Mike Fiore (Faces on Film)
Lori McKenna
Erin McKeown

Gospel/Choir of the Year
Berklee Reverence Gospel Choir
Boston Pops Gospel Choir
Ayana McDonald
Rashad McPherson & Divine Purpose
Thando 4 Thanda
Troy Durden & Judah
Bobby Perry & R.A.I.N.

Producer of the Year — Pop/R&B
Dow Brain & Brad Young
Jared Hancock
John Johnson
Clinton Sparks
Malik Williams

Producer of the Year — Rock
Paul Kolderie/Adam Taylor
Andy Hong
Ed Valauskas
Mike Denneen
Matthew Ellard
Ducky Carlisle

Producer of the Year — Hip Hop
J. Cardim
D—Tension
Nelly Protoolz
Dickie Skinz
Matty Trump