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Dave Van Ronk Movie – Reznor TV Show – Best Albums of 2011, What was left out?

27 Jun

Coen Brothers and Dave Van Ronk

The Coen Brothers have embarked on a new movie project that has its roots firmly ensconced in the 1960’s Greenwich Village folk movement. And if you are familiar with the 1960’s folk movement in the lower east side (or if you simply read the words above the picture) you know that the movie has to be related to Dave Van Ronk, the Mayor of MacDougal Street, whose classic style of acoustic blues was inspirational. Van Ronk was known as the village’s friendly uncle and he provided friendship to up-and-coming artists like Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell.

The Coen Brothers are obviously into blues music. “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” featured the tradition folk/blues piece “Man of Constant Sorrow.” Van Ronk, who unfortunately passed away in 2002, was extremely respected and talented, but still remains a cult-ish figure who deserves more acclaim than he currently has. I am very much looking forward to the project, which at this time has no release date, and I hope that the movie will help raise Van Ronk’s stock and get more people listening to his great music.

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Jim Uhls to Write Reznor’s HBO “Year Zero” Script

Jim Uhls, of Fight Club fame, will write the script for Trent Reznor‘s “Year Zero” HBO mini-series that is based off of the 2007 Nine Inch Nails apocalyptic concept album of the same name.

“Year Zero” is set in 2022 and, to be frank, the sh*t has hit the fan. The album was apt criticism of the Bush Years and U.S. Government Policies that Reznor and NIN disagree with. “Year Zero” has already been morphed into a video game.

NIN promoted the album in creative ways prior to its release. At concerts, for example, the band left mysterious USB drives with exclusive material for fans to randomly find. Maybe Reznor has a few things up his sleeve for the mini-series. There is no set date for production, but with a script-writer on the case it can’t be too far away.

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SPIN Releases Their Top 25 of 2011 So Far

SPIN has released their Top 25 albums of 2011 So Far list, an annual mid-year event for numerous music sources. I will copy and paste their list below:

Foo Fighters – Wasting Light
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
Bon Iver – Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Big K.R.I.T. – Return Of 4eva
Arctic Monkeys – Suck It And See
Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
James Blake – James Blake
Adele – 21
Fucked Up – David Comes To Life
Elbow – Build A Rocket Boys!
TV On The Radio – Nine Types Of Light
DJ Quik – The Book Of David
Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo
tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l
The Strokes – Angles
Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde
Panda Bear – Tomboy
Lady Gaga – Born This Way
The Weeknd – House Of Balloons
EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints
Yuck – Yuck
Alela Diane – Alela Diane& Wild Divine
G-Side – The ONE … COHESIVE

What do you think? Seems like a pretty fair list. Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Panda Bear. It’s 25 albums, so it is difficult to narrow down. I do see at least two glaring excluded albums.

I would have added in Cut Copy’s Zonoscope and Toro Y Moi’s Underneath The Pine, two solid February releases. I feel like Cut Copy’s synth-pop and Toro Y Moi’s chillwave deserve mention. And you can probably take out some of the commercial rap and dubstep.

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Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – An English Opera

20 Jun

AC/DC Monopoly?

Park Place...is on FIRE

In what will perhaps be the most high voltage Monopoly spin-off, AC/DC has signed up to release a Collector’s Edition Monopoly game later this year.

Players will be able to play as a cannon, bundle of dynamite, lightning bolt, etc., instead of the traditional dog, car or thimble. AC/DC and Milton Bradley despoil some warped rock utopia. Players will buy and sell AC/DC records and attempt to improve their properties with gold and platinum records. Extravagance, AC/DC style.

While I think the whole novelty Monopoly shtick is a little old, the AC/DC version does not bother me. I think it’s pretty funny. I wonder if Bon Scott shouts “Jailbreak, I got to break out out of here” when you roll doubles and get out of prison.

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Damon Albarn Opera

Damon Albarn is easily bored. With Gorillaz on break, Albarn has decided to write and star in Dr Dee, an opera about 16th Century alchemist, astrologer and spy John Dee.

“Dr Dee is set to run from July 1-9 at the Manchester International Festival. It will then be staged at the home of the English National Opera as part of London’s Cultural Olympiad program,” writes Consequence of Sound.

Check out “Apple Carts” a song from the opera.

It’s excellent. Albarn’s voice is tender and the acoustic guitar meshes perfectly with his accomplice’s medieval instruments. The intention was certainly to give off that medieval flare and the song does so with proficiency.

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Paul McCartney will play Yankee Stadium – Aerosmith Recording – “Best 2011 Band” Dry The River profile

9 Jun

Busy day for Music News. There are numerous items to discuss. But before I get to any of them, I want to wish a very happy birthday to Les Paul, one of the foremost innovators of rock guitar. To celebrate his birthday, Google’s homepage doodle is a strummable guitar with a recording feature. Yes, I’m not kidding. It is perhaps the coolest doodle Google has ever had. Lets move on to the big news of the day.

Paul McCartney Will Rock The Yankees

Paul McCartney is coming to Yankee Stadium. You can read all about it here. (Yes I just plugged myself and apparently have no shame). McCartney has already rocked Queens twice, once with the Beatles in 1965 at the New York Mets’ old home Shea Stadium and then again with three shows at the Mets’ new home Citi Field in 2009, but he has never graced the Bronx with his talents. Tickets for the one-night July 15 concert will go on sale at 11 a.m. on Monday, June 13 and will most likely sell out in five minutes. Yes, that is my guess. So if you want tickets, it may be a good idea to start refreshing the Livenation.com page (where they are on sale) a good five minutes in advance in hope that you can be one of the first on the server. You can also call Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000.

Ticket prices will range from $34-$280. $34! Those tickets probably allow you to sit on a roof across from Yankee Stadium with hopes of catching some audio from the show. Just kidding. It is still a very low price to see an absolute legend. I went to one of McCartney’s Citi Field concerts and it was epic. I urge you to get tickets if you have never seen him live.

The concert will kick off his 2011 “On The Run” tour. No other dates have been released. There has also been no word from McCartney if he will extend his stay in the Bronx for a few more nights (like he did with his concert at Citi Field in 2009), but the Yankees are on the road from July 11-21. I am going to predict a few more Yankee Stadium shows before he departs on his tour.

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Aerosmith Recording A New Album (All of Them)

You read that right. Joe Perry, Aerosmith guitarist, wrote on his twitter account yesterday that, “Whole band has plans to go into the studio with Jack Douglas second week of July to work on new Aero CD.” I am sure Steven Tyler is thrilled. This band argues more than a couple in an unsuccessful marriage. Perry has been angry at Tyler more times than the Mets have disappointed me. Okay, I’ll stop with these horrendous metaphors.

Aerosmith has not released an album since Just Push Play in 2001. They have toured, though, a lot, up until Tyler’s stage accident in 2009 where he broke his shoulder and then entered rehab and then after patching up problems with Aersomith apparently blindsided the band in 2010 when he announced his plans to become a judge on Fox’s American Idol.

Aerosmith is not stupid. Tyler has propelled his level of fame to new heights with his American Idol appearance. Aerosmith has also seen an increase in record sales. It is a good time to release an album, while the Aerosmith stock is still high.

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Best 2011 Bands – Dry The River

NME released its “50 Best New Bands of 2011” recently and after sifting through its contents I found a band that I rather like.

Dry The River, of East London, have propelled onto the emerging progressive folk scene and their Mumford and Sons style may help them jump into popularity.

Here is a great profile on the band: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/nov/09/new-band-dry-river

Check out “New Ceremony” which melds together a deep folk guitar, delicate harmonies, oddly dark instrumentation and Pete Liddle’s theatrical voice. The chorus has serious pop sentiments and the song is rather advanced.

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The Voice Prediction – Buffalo Springfield Tour Review – Liam Gallagher is Miserable

2 Jun

The Voice: Battle Rounds Are Over

NBC’s new singing show has been quietly successful in its inchoate format. It is not an American Idol spin-off and has put an interesting twist on the singing competition genre of television shows. The Voice features Maroon 5 lead vocalist Adam Levine, vocal superstar Christina Aguilera, eccentric pop musician Cee Lo Green and country singer Blake Shelton. In past episodes, each artist picked eight emerging musicians for their teams and then pinned team members against each other in a vocal battle format, narrowing the teams down to four artists each. The 16 artists will now perform for the privilege to stay on the show with voting now up to viewers. They will fight for the grand prize of a recording contract and their team leaders will look to become the artist who found “The Voice.”

The Voice is an appealing singing competition that brings a fresh look to singing competitions. The talent, though, has been somewhat sub-par, besides a few artists. Listening to the performers on each team, I believe that Adam Levine’s four are the most talented. I also think that the winner of the competition is on his team. Javier Colon’s haunting performance of “Time After Time” during the blind auditions propelled him into the early favorite spot. Check it out:

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Buffalo Springfield Launch Reunion Tour

Rolling Stone ‘s David Fricke has been providing excellent music reviews for the better part of 20 years and his review of Buffalo Springfield’s reunion tour is no different. The Springfield tour is exciting and the combination of original members Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay provides a true nostalgic folk/rock punch.

Read here: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/blogs/alternate-take/buffalo-springfield-launch-first-tour-in-43-years-20110602

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Liam Gallagher Is An Idiot

That speck of snot is worth more than your comments

Liam Gallagher what are we going to do with you? You just cannot keep yourself from making insipid comments, can you? Plus, it gets even more embarrassing when your doltish comments are completely contradictory. Let’s take a peek at your recent statements.

When asked about performers from the 1960s and 70s still making comebacks today he said, “All those f*ckers playing their greatest hits are sh*tbags.” First off, why are you so angry? Why do old-school rockers performing better music than you can ever play piss you off? Well, I may have just answered my own question, but do such feelings really warrant a contentious response. No, especially since they are utterly contradictory. Paul McCartney has been playing his greatest hits for over the past 20 years. McCartney, the former Beatle, was (and still is) Gallagher’s muse. Gallagher’s band Oasis were practically the Beatles of the 90s. Seriously, Gallagher flat-out copied McCartney’s material. So him saying that musicians who play their greatest hits are sh*tbags is basically saying that McCartney is a sh*tbag which would then (if you follow my logic) would be saying that Gallagher himself is a sh*tbag, which he is.

Also, he called Bob Dylan a miserable c*nt. I’m not kidding.

Review of the American Idol Finale

26 May

17-year-old Scotty McCreery became the 10th winner of Fox’s American Idol last night, marking a creative season of new judges and exciting talent that boiled down to two country singers in the finals. At the end, 16-year-old Lauren Alaina could not lasso the strong country vote away from the unmistakable croon of Scotty. The win was unsurprising and pretty unexciting. Scotty was practically tagged as the winner when the viewer voting began. He does fit the perfect parameters of a winner. He is a baby-faced, good-mannered individual whose dark voice fits effortlessly into country music. He also looks like a frightening hybrid of Alfred E. Newman and a young George W. Bush. It’s striking, right?

While Scotty winning Idol was rather pablum and seemingly pre-planned, the finale last night was a concert. I have to think that’s why most people tuned in. The night featured guest performances by Lady Gaga, Marc Anthony, Tony Bennett, Tom Jones, Beyonce, Bono and The Edge (from Spiderman: The Musical), and even Jack Black. Yes, Jack Black, who was his normal hyperbolic and awkward self. Lady Gaga and Bono/Edge performed theatrical sets by themselves, but singers like Tom Jones and Beyonce joined season 10 Idol contestants. Jack Black performed with bearded odd-ball Casey Abrams and Tony Bennett joined the grunty, jazz singer Hailey Reinhardt. Oddly enough, the two most vapid, uninteresting performances of the night belonged to the finalists, but maybe that’s just because I am not a big country music fan. If I had to give the grade of A+ to one performance during last night’s variety act, the title would have to go to the poppy/gospel rendition of “I Smile” with Kirk Franklin, Gladys Kight and season 10 contestant Jacob Lusk.

Jacob Lusk sings gospel. That is just what he does. Idol, though, forces singers out of their “comfort zones” so they can grow comfortable with all musical climates. The result is generally unproductive. Let the contestants sing what they sing well. Unless you are a contestant like Casey Abrams or season seven winner David Cook that demonstrates strong musical ingenuity, it is difficult turning a Carole King song into heavy metal (season 10 contestant James Durbin‘s plight throughout the season). Lusk is comfortable in gospel as displayed above. The performance was powerful. It was jam-packed with vocal runs, a stentorian chorus and, of course, the aura of Gladys Knight. Well done bringing this choir together, American Idol. It made the show.

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