Protomartyr, the Detroit quartet who just put out their outstanding third album The Agent Intellect, are in NYC for the 35th annual CMJ Music Marathon. Here’s a look at the performance at Santos Party House and a little backstage conversation about the festival.
Rock
The Steely Dan Rockabye Gollie Angel Tour 2015 is ending on a NYC note with no less than 8 shows at The Beacon Theatre. The musicianship, the humor, the dubious characters inhabiting the songs; all alive and well as Walter Becker and Donald Fagen’s immortal outfit is again playing whole albums, greatest […]
The Modern Sky Festival NYC happened in Central Park last Sunday (10-4-15) headlined by Yoko Ono and The Plastic Ono Band. The 82 year old widow of John Lennon launched the group along with John in ’69 as a concept; a kind of umbrella that would encompass whoever got involved, even […]
The Zombies are experiencing an amazing phase in their career that began in 1961. The brilliant rock and pop outfit from St. Albans, Hertfordshire in England unleashes their new album, Still Got That Hunger, this week and they’re on tour playing their 1968 masterpiece Odessey and Oracle (sic!) in its entirety for […]
Joan Armatrading has had an amazing career… and it ain’t over yet! The UK based singer/songwriter/mean guitarist/bass player (etc) has, however, decided to stop doing the punishing kind of 18 month treks around the world that’s she currently on and limit herself to a month on the road maximum at […]
Buster Poindexter (alias for David Johansen, frontman for The New York Dolls) has rolled into Cafe Carlyle for a run of shows ending next Saturday October 10, 2015. I spoke to the Staten Island native not too long ago at a gig he did at The Cutting Room.
Quintessential New Yorkers Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel played to a half million in Central Park 34 years ago, September 19, 1981. The previously out-of-print recording of the event is back, as are vinyl versions of all their studio albums. Both have their own gigs in town next month… the […]
Photo Credit: Nick D’Agostino It was a brilliant week at WFUV radio where a pair of Juniors – both amazing guitar players – stopped by for conversations with me and to lay down live versions of songs found on recently released albums. Follow the links to hear the chats and […]
Robert Plant is at The Capital Theatre tomorrow night Thursday 9-17-2015 and the Hammerstein Ballroom on Friday. The former Led Zeppelin frontman is enjoying playing relatively intimate venues while Jimmy Page recently wrapped up his top to bottom remastering of the Led Zeppelin catalog.
The new James Maddock album is called The Green. The British-born singer-songwriter who has called the Lower East Side of Manhattan home for the past 12 years has penned another appealing collection of songs. He treated the fortunate group who squeezed into Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3 to a good handful […]
Those who have seen The J. Geils Band perform in concert know the kind of energy, power, and passion that they bring every time they congregate. With Magic Dick blowing sublime harp, DK (Dr Funk) Daniel Klein rumbling and tumbling on bass, Seth Justman barrelhousing on keys, and the incomparable […]
Yesterday I participated in the final broadcast of The Alternate Side radio station. It was emotional! After Russ Boris, Alisa Ali and I played New Order and Joy Division back to back, I recalled the once in a lifetime pairing of Iggy Pop and New Order performing a couple of […]
We are lucky to have Warren Haynes as local talent. The Asheville, NC bred artist moved to the East Village decades ago and is now ‘burbing it up in Westchester. He tapped New Jersey’s Railroad Earth to flesh out a group of songs that he had written over many years including one penned […]
Australian rockers DMA’s, who recently released their self-titled EP in the States, are regulafellas. The guys in this exciting rock band still have day jobs back in Sydney and are tormented tenants too; they told me how they plan to trash their house above a hairdresser’s salon before they move […]
Before their show in Brooklyn at Barclays Arena, TOTO were given commemorative plaques to recognize an eyebrow-raising 40 million albums sold. The achievement is another feather in the cap of the veteran rock ensemble best known for their three top 5 hits Africa, Rosanna, and Hold The Line. Fans of […]
Amazing night Outdoors At Lincoln Center on Saturday 8/8/2015 as an all-star band (Smokey Hormel, David Garza, Benmont Tench, Al Kooper, etc) played Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited for the second annual AmericanaFest NYC. Watkins Family Hour, the long running side band of Nickel Creek’s siblings Sean and Sara Watkins […]
Moving to Los Angeles would be an intense experience for almost anyone but for Laura Marling, who grew up on the English countryside, it precipitated what the folk-rock singer-songwriter – half jokingly – called an existential crisis. Here she talks about that city which was an inspiration for her latest release […]
After the backlash of the Songs of Innocence giveaway and Bono’s harrowing Central Park bicycle accident last fall, U2 may have felt somewhat beleaguered. Whether or not that history had any bearing on their attitude for this tour is nothing that can be known. What is clear, however, after seeing […]
The Loveless brothers Eoin (pronounced Owen, pictured above) and Rory, better known as the hard-rocking English band Drenge, have a name that sparks associations with grunge. That parallel isn’t necessarily incorrect since fans of Soundgarden’s sonics might appreciate the sludgy goodness that this duo have crafted on their second album, […]
Long time Allman Brothers guitarist Warren Haynes has released an album unlike any in his tremendous career. Ashes & Dust was made with Railroad Earth at The Barber Shop Studios in Hopatcong, New Jersey. Haynesy explained that he’d been collecting songs for years that were the kind of thing that […]
Welsh rockers Super Furry Animals were a tasty take and Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks didn’t disappoint as the 5th annual Village Voice 4 Knots Festival made the transition to a ticketed event and enjoyed its new digs on Pier 84 on Hudson River Park after 4 years at South Street Seaport, […]
Micky Dolenz recorded an album to be released in September 2015 over three shows at Manhattan supper club 54 Below last week. The Monkee and childhood television actor, who has a brilliant run on stage as well, draws upon all of it in his show A Little Bit Broadway, A Little Bit Rock […]
Before his recent gig at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, I had a rare chance to sit down with an artist who has given us decades of innovative and engaging work: Paul Weller. The Modfather discussed his accomplished new album Saturns Pattern, among other things, and you can listen […]
Early 1970’s Leon Russell is certainly worthy of a documentary and this one, A Poem Is a Naked Person, has style. Filmmaker Les Blank was a character in his own right and somewhere along the filming fell out of favor with the artist. The film ended up on the shelf […]
I’m mad about hanging out at the Jazzfest – this year’s Montreal Jazz Festival 2015 being no exception. I ran amok with my video camera and got a taste of groups as far afield as Novalima, The Barr Brothers and Cibo Matto. Catching the Wayne Shorter Quartet was a highlight […]