I recently traveled to the home of Columbia Records in the Sony Building on Madison avenue to visit with Patti Smith. The hallways there are filled with beautiful framed photographs of legendary Columbia artists like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Adjacent to the door of the room where we met […]
Rock
402 posts
I don’t remember ever having heard the 1979 classic Cruel to be Kind in concert before last month but I heard it twice in the span of a couple of weeks. The first was at the Nick Lowe show at Town Hall on April 25th. The 63 year old Lowe […]
I’m all about Dr. John and enjoyed him wildly recently in New Orleans and at Prospect Park so I was relishing the chance to see him in a venue with acoustics as opposed to outside. The circumstances were special – a three week residency (consecutive Thursday through Saturday engagements) at […]
In a seven day stretch that started with Van Halen at Mohegan Sun and included They Might Be Giants at Terminal 5, (not to mention Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall) Soulive at Brooklyn Bowl was not only my favorite show of the week but is the show to beat […]
Jonathan Meiburg is a fascinating guy and a wildly talented singer. He and the touring lineup of Shearwater favored me with four songs from their latest Animal Joy in WFUV’s Studio A this past Friday (2/24/12) before a show with Sharon Van Etten who, JM explained to me after the […]
As I told Dan Zanes, Warren Zanes, and Woody Giessmann in Studio A on February 9, 2012 – Boston, Mass was a…nay THE defining album in my high school experience so to have them roll into the Bronx after not playing for 20 years was astonishing and a little surreal. […]
Recently I had the chance to interview Umphrey’s McGee – the Chicago stalwarts and ballsy newcomers Howler. It was the same day – Friday, January 20, 2012 and UM turned up in the late morning before the first of their two gigs at Best Buy Theater. Unlike the usual sessions, these guys […]
Steve Earle and the Dukes (and the Duchesses) shined during a generous 2 and a half hour, 2-set evening at the Music Hall of Williamsburg this past Wednesday, September 14th which was also simulcast on SiriusXM’s Outlaw Country. The eclectic set borrowed heavily from his latest album, I’ll Never Get […]
After seeing the first ever Horrible Crowes show at the Bowery Ballroom on Thursday evening, I was fortunate enough to host a session with them Friday. They were fantastic on both occasions and a bunch of good eggs. Brian Fallon (in the plain white T-shirt), whose established himself as a […]
Video Review of Geils/Aerosmith Show Last Summer Print Review of Terrence Blanchard & Dr. John from last year’s Jazzfest
One of my favorite songwriters, John Hiatt, gave me one of my favorite interviews on the occasion of the release of his 20th solo album, Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns. He talked with me about the process of making the album and how a new producer helped usher in some […]
Providence’s Deer Tick led but John McCauley played a phenomenal Nirvana tribute show at the Brooklyn Bowl …
This show was brilliant but Josh Homme’s stage patter was just as lame on this night as it was during the TCV show last year – he looks like a frat boy, dresses like Garth Brooks, and everything out of his mouth when he is not singing is either banal […]
The Vaccines – Justin Young (vocals, guitar), Árni Árnason (bass), Freddie Cowan (guitar), Pete Robinson (drums) – just released their debut album, What Did You Expect From The Vaccines, and back in January the London-based 4-piece did their first ever interview in the USA with me (representing WFUV and The […]
On Monday, March 7, 2011 – I caught a tasty double bill at the Rockwood Music Hall with Middle Brother & Lissie. Middle Brother, whose debut self titled album came out earlier this month, served up a rootsy, spirited set rooted in but not chained to a folk aesthetic. As […]
In early 1991 while I was in my last semester at Ithaca College and a jock on IC’s radio station WICB, Living Colour was enjoying a high point of commercial success. The album they released the previous summer, Time’s Up – their second – was on its way to gold […]
