Darlene Love sounds great 12 months out of the year but when it’s Christmastime, Love is a must! Here’s the interview and performance I shot last year. She spoke about being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, her amazing run on the Letterman show (because of David’s retirement […]
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The Kooks fourth album Listen surprised me – not because I like it so much which I expected to because I was on board with the first three – but why I did, which I couldn’t have seen coming. The songs that made me a fan of these guys like Always Where […]
2014 holiday season gift ideas include plenty of memoirs & biographies to read and documentaries & performances to watch…
I first heard Eric Johnson’s guitar playing when his debut album Tones came out in the mid 1980s. I had never heard anything like it. Nobody had heard anything like it! Since then whenever the Austin native put out something new, I felt I owed it to myself to hear […]
Follow the link to hear songs from Spoon’s eighth studio album played live and a conversation with the fab Alisa Ali and enjoy a flashback to the fellas at Governors Ball (as well as The Strokes) in this video…
Here’s a peek back to Robert Plant’s killer show at BAM in September. The mighty re-arranger never fails to satisfy. Zeppelin? We don’t need no stinkin’ Zeppelin!
No Jamaican performer, hell really no performer whatsoever, has been so embraced by NYC’s Hip-Hop community as Mavado. He’s an easy fit as you can see – in recent videos with LL Cool J and Nicki Minaj, and hear – in his remarks. Here he talks where he is from […]
Jack White is the 21st century riff-meister! Here’s a flashback to his Governors Ball performance in June – About 100 seconds of the instrumental track High Ball Stepper from Lazaretto.
Ho Ho Ho! Here’s some suggestions if you’d like to give (or receive) the gift of music this holiday season whether it is boxed or unboxed.
British rocker Nick Lowe put out an appealing Christmas album last year called Quality Street and he’s bringing his Quality Holiday Revue back to the Bowery Ballroom tonight (Sunday the 14th of December 2014) and the Music Hall of Williamsburg next Saturday 20th of December 2014. Here’s a look back […]
The Hold Steady have become an essential New York band since coming together in Brooklyn about eleven years ago. Three of the guys live in Greenpoint within a few blocks of each other with the remaining members in Manhattan and Memphis. I spoke with Craig Finn and Tad Kubler (pronounced […]
Cool event last night at the intimate Marlin Room (capacity 500) at Webster Hall with Thurston Moore. It was a free show presented by Norton Antivirus and Pandora that you had to RSVP for and it featured an open bar – really! The former Sonic Youth guitarist/singer is now living in […]
The Orwells’ frontman Mario Cuomo told me he really didn’t like the process of recording albums very much. What he loves is playing live. Despite that being the case, the young quintet from outside of Chicago copped a spot in my top ten album list for 2014. They’re in a TV […]
The countdown of the top albums of 2014 begins! We start off with an album of instrumental music that has found its way into my player repeatedly this year – Golden Age – by Nir Felder, the outstanding guitarist from Katonah, New York, who celebrated the release of his debut […]
Holiday Cheer for WFUV is a brilliant annual event – the last 5 years of its 10 year life at The Beacon Theatre – that raises dough for non-commercial New York City rock radio station WFUV, as well as her sister The Alternate Side. The last few years have featured […]
The Super Soul Revue last Thursday through Saturday at The Apollo was an excellent reminder at the tremendous talent found on Daptone Records. As I’ve been spending some time recently with the outstanding Burnt Offering by The Budos Band, I was keen to capture a taste of their performance and […]
The Figgs have been doing it right for 27 years. Here’s a peak at their recent CMJ Music Marathon show at The Rock Shop. They will be back in NYC Friday 12/12/2014 at Bowery Electric.
In October, Yusuf released his third album under that name, Tell ‘Em I’m Gone, which followed 11 albums released between 1967 and 1978 as Cat Stevens. The new record was produced by Rick Rubin and features appearances by Richard Thompson, Charlie Musselwhite, and Tinariwen. That same month, his first concert dates […]
When the new album from The Decemberists, What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World comes out in January – it will have been just over four years since their last release so there was a lot to talk about with Colin Meloy. The singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist has hardly been idle. He wrote […]
It was a good take at The Apollo on Saturday with not only The Wailers and Lauryn Hill but Maxi Priest and Third World as well on hand for a star-studded Bob Marley tribute show. I spoke with Dwayne Anglin about his unlikely journey from Jamaica to New Jersey to […]
The Wailers’ Dwayne Anglin spoke eloquently before a show at The Apollo Theater about reggae’s message and its meaning when faced with the Ferguson reality; mentioning Marcus Garvey and Dr. Martin Luther King in context of protests on 125th Street in Harlem.
I asked Itzhak Perlman about all the awards he has – including but hardly limited to a Kennedy Center Honor celebrating his distinguished achievements and contributions to the cultural and educational life of our nation, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in the recording arts, a Medal of Liberty […]
Robert Randolph & The Family Band were back at it last night at the Brooklyn Bowl. Their annual residency is up there with turkey and pumpkin pie in the delights of late November. Here’s a look at Randolph wailing on pedal steel and a flashback to our conversation from last […]
Ace Frehley, who is touring behind his new disc Space Invader showed off his old tricks – and a few new ones – to the delight of a packed house at BB Kings.