Dropkick Murphys Celebrate 20 Years At Webster Hall 3-9 (and 3-10) 2016 Twenty years; not bad for a band that was started on a bet! The man who took that bet was Dropkick Murphys founder as well as bassman and vocalist Ken Casey. The band formed in Quincy (part of […]
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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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
Jerry Lee Lewis Rocks 80th Birthday In Times Square The immortal artist rolled into BB Kings Blues Club & Grill last Wednesday, December 18th, 2015, about ten weeks after his 80th birthday and played a show that surpassed my very high expectations. He killed! What a thrill to be able to […]
Sting Symphonicities At Carnegie Hall Longtime New York resident Sting is no stranger to the “hallowed sacred venue” (his words) that is Carnegie Hall. However the former Police frontman‘s performance last week marked a first in that it was the first time he had headlined there by himself as […]
Musical Holiday Gift Ideas for 2015 So you need some musical holiday gift ideas for 2015 – no problemo! I have donned Santa’s hat and sprawled many tasties on a table for your amusement and to make suggestions on what to buy for yourself or the music lover on your […]
Glen Hansard Interview NYC Shows The man is an astonishing performer. Absolutely thrilling performance turned in at The Beacon Theatre last Tuesday – December 2nd, 2015 – featuring songs from the new record Didn’t He Ramble not to mention a genius cover of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks. This is the second […]
Dinosaur Jr. have had a brilliant run. It’s mind boggling to consider they are now marking 30 years since the release of their debut album, but that’s exactly what they’re doing with seven (count ’em, 7!) consecutive nights at Bowery Ballroom beginning tomorrow night – Thursday, December 3rd, 2015. As […]
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and WhyHunger have been building their reputations for 40 years and the former sang on behalf of the latter as part of this year’s annual Thanksgiving time tradition to raise awareness and funds for people, including millions right here in New York City and […]
A confession: I typically do not enjoy either memoirs by or biographies about musicians. I read a lot of them – and man, there are a lot of ’em – but it’s generally a chore. I would must rather listen to the music that’s being parsed. I generally don’t care […]
Son Little said it was definitely a hometown show last week at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn. The artist has been associated with Philly artists like The Roots and RJD2 whom he has worked with – and he has spent significant time in that city – but it turns out he […]
The Charlatans (officially Charlatans UK here in the U.S. to differentiate from Dan Hicks’ old band) – Underrated, underrated, underrated. The lads from Manchester have had an eventful career and they’ve overcome hurdles that would have tripped a hundred other groups. No American band sounds like them. Britpop bands owe them […]
It was a real pleasure to get to know Black Violin in Austin at SXSW. The hip Florida based outfit just released a tasty new album called Stereo Types and tomorrow night November 14, 2015 they’ll do their thing at Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts. I’ve never checked the classical, hip […]
Greg Holden isn’t too keen to write typical love songs. He told me as a singer/songwriter he’s already got that cliche to contend with, and he’s not about to sing: I love you…fill in a girl’s name… type songs. They don’t interest him. What does interest the British ex-pat is writing […]
Josh Ritter is Getting Ready To Get Down! His rapid-fire vocal on that lead track from his new album, Sermon On The Rocks, sets the tone for a spirited record that is sure to end up on many a top ten list for 2015. The son of neuroscientists in Idaho recorded […]