Brandon Curtis Unveils Cosmicide At Pianos 2-25-16; last of 4 show Thursdays in February residency I caught Secret Machines at the long-shuttered Annex in, I’m reasonably sure, the fall of 07 when I had just moved to New York. It was an amazing show: loud, swirling, and to use the […]
Eric Holland
Not a lot of hip hop goes on at The Blue Note but Talib Kweli moved in for four shows over two nights last week following a similar run in February. The Brooklyn-raised MC known for his thoughtful, politically-charged rhymes, entered the game in 98 with the potent Mos Def & Talib […]
The Struts Back In NYC For Release Of Debut Album Everybody Wants The Struts were at Irving Plaza last night, March 3rd 2016, celebrating the worldwide release of their debut album Everybody Wants that comes out today. The quartet formed in Derby, England in 2012, are Luke Spiller who is from Brighton […]
The Loser’s Lounge is a phrase you may have heard of if you have been around the city since the early nineties when the concept was born. The prime mover is Joe McGinty who was coming off a five year gig playing keyboards with The Psychedelic Furs. He explained that […]
Rosanne Cash Crushes Carnegie Hall (Headlining) Debut 2-20-16 One might have thought that an artist of the stature of Rosanne Cash would have headlined Carnegie Hall before but that was not the case and it was clear that Rosanne was excited about the show. She and her husband of 21 […]
The Cult Brings Hidden City Tour To Gramercy Theatre 2-17-16 The Cult rolled into town to play a pair of intimate (for them) venues after unleashing their tenth studio album this month. Frontman Ian Astbury explained that Hidden City completes a trilogy of 21st century Cult albums that began in 2007 with Born […]
Antibalas Talks Afrobeat & Brooklyn Bowl Residency Antibalas has been an essential NYC band since they came together around the turn of the century. This year, in a monthly series of concerts, they are unveiling new material, cross-pollinating with some guests like Angelique Kidjo. and basically opening up the well-oiled, high-powered […]
Pop.1280: Intense Album Release Show At Silent Barn Pop.1280 has nothing to do with pop. They are named after the excellent Jim Thompson novel Pop.1280 which is a reference to the population of a small Texas county that a homicidal sheriff presides over. Ivan Lipp and Chris Bug, who were […]
American Masters BB King Documentary Premieres Friday – American Masters is an outstanding documentary series that has offered definitive portraits of artists like Lou Reed, Woody Guthrie, and James Brown as well as masters outside the realm of music like Clint Eastwood and Mel Brooks. BB King gets the treatment […]
Mack Avenue Superband At Birdland; Christian McBride Interview Christian McBride rolled into Birdland recently with an all-star band made up of his label mates on Mack Avenue. In addition to being an ace of bass, McBride is a great conversationalist. He tossed off some great lines. For example, when talking […]
Iggy Pop Will Spearhead Tibet House Benefit Concert; Philip Glass Interview A tremendous lineup headed by Iggy Pop has been unveiled for this year’s Tibet House benefit concert happening Monday, February 22nd at Carnegie Hall. FKA twigs, Sharon Jones, Basia Bulat and Dechen Shak-Dagsay with Helge van Dyk will all perform […]
Wild Belle Session At WFUV – Recorded 1-20-16 It’s natural for (the fabulous and pictured) Natalie Bergman to look up to her brother Elliot, who is eight years older, and who introduced her to the intoxication of performing on stage when he brought her out on tour when she was […]
Derek Trucks Reveals Special Sauce of Tedeschi Trucks Band – Epic show on Tuesday at The Apollo by the TTB! They are a twelve piece juggernaut and, as Derek explained in the interview, with trust as their foundation, they’ve never before been this locked in…this dangerous and ready to go […]
Kenny Garrett Announces New Album; At Iridium This Weekend – Kenny Garrett is a true giant. His primary tool is alto saxophone which he supplements with the soprano sax and flute. The Detroit Native who’s been based in the NYC area since the early 80s has taken his fans to […]
Joe Bonamassa Heads To Carnegie Hall – Last January it was a pleasure to spend some time with Joe Bonamassa as he conquered Radio City Music Hall. At the time, He couldn’t think of anything better than that. He came up with something! JB is heading to Carnegie Hall for shows tomorrow […]
Meet Peter Calo I first met Peter Calo in the fall of 2013. My friend John Platt, who hosts a great show on WFUV called Sunday Supper, asked to MC a show he was playing at The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock (a.k.a. the UUCSR) where they do a thing […]
Globalfest 2016 At Webster Hall The curators should be congratulated. Globalfest kicks ass every year and Sunday night – January 17th, 2016 – was no exception. Webster Hall was sold out. I shot four bands out of the dozen that performed. Globalfest 2016 At Webster Hall offered a handful of […]
Brilliant photo of David with Iggy and Lou in London in 1972 was taken by Mick Rock who has a website. 1-15-16 WWW of David Bowie 6p 1 Life On Mars […]
The first time I saw Chris Potter was in ’93 or possibly ’94 when he was blowing sax on stage with Steely Dan. The alto and tenor sax of this extraordinary musician can be heard on the Dan’s Two Against Nature that came out in 2000. One of the great things […]
David Bowie Obit: “He Was The Best There Is” I woke up, I suppose like most of us did today, to find the world was a poorer place; to find that David Bowie had died. Along with the news was a directive from my editor at NY1 requesting an obit […]
1-6-16 Producer Tony Visconti Talks David Bowie and Blackstar UPDATED 1-9 with video from last night’s Holy Holy show… I was excited for the opportunity to speak to Tony Visconti who has amassed an absolutely stunning body of work as a producer. Not only the most essential Bowie albums but […]
Deer Tick At Brooklyn Bowl 12-31-15 Last New Year’s Eve, Deer Tick celebrated their 10th anniversary with a show at Brooklyn Bowl that included guests like Stevie Nicks. This year, the venue was the same but, as John McCauley and Ian O’Neil explained, the emphasis was not on trying to […]
I guess that’s my favorite picture of the year. Walking like a zombie with Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone of The Zombies! 2015 In Review: Top 10 Albums, Songs & Concerts – Happy New Year! Before the lists, here’s 3 more of my fave pix from the past 12 months. […]
In the words of Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, and Zooey Deschanel among many others – what are you doing New Year’s Eve? And while we’re at it, how about tomorrow night (the video will show on TV tomorrow so ‘tonight’ refers to the 30th) straight through to Saturday, January 2nd. […]