By eh
Here's "The Fear," an excerpt from Lily Allen's forthcoming album "It's Not Me, It's You," due Feb. 9. I like it. It's got Allen's signature pep, even though the lyrics themselves are quite dark and angry. It's more synthy than her debut album, but it works for her.
I'm glad to see her back on track and making music. For a time, it seemed she might be attending the Amy Winehouse school of how to squander your talent and opportunity, but this is an encouraging development.
By eh
Well, they're not so much anti-Christmas as delightfully antithetical to the Christmas spirit.
In "A Christmas Duel" Cyndi Lauper and The Hives trade aggressive confessions of infidelity and drunkenness.
In Low's "Santa's Coming Over," it's not quite evident that the arrival of that titular big fat man with the long white beard will be met with joy or fear. The expressions on the kids faces are a wonderful mixture of awe and terror.
If you're looking for something more traditional, this guy has a playlist on YouTube featuring a ton of your favorite old school carolers: Bing Crosby, Art Carney, Gene Autry, Dinah Shore...
By eh
I never realized that "Come Sail Away" was about sailing away on an alien ship. I'm terrible at actually listening to lyrics.
This guy has a whole bunch of covers of popular music on the uke. His "Smooth Operator" cover is pretty cool too.
By eh
Yeah. I didn't know that either. But they're having a show at Irving Plaza Saturday, Dec. 13.
By Hal Bienstock
Special to amNewYork
• Twisted Sister is at Nokia Theater Times Square Fri-Sat, 7:30pm, $40-$140.
In the 1980s, Twisted Sister was considered a threat to America’s children. Singer Dee Snider was even called before Congress to testify at hearings into sex, drugs and violence in song lyrics. Twenty-five years later, Snider has taken his place alongside people like Bing Crosby and Jim Nabors by recording Christmas music.
Snider says he originally had the idea of recording heavy metal versions of Christmas songs nearly 20 years ago, but never got around to it. While trying to figure out what to do after the band’s 2003 reunion tour, he finally decided to give it a shot.
“A lot of people said ‘You can’t do that, it’ll kill your career,’” Snider remembered. “I said, ‘What career? We’re not on the radio. We don’t make new records.’ It turned out to be the best-selling thing we’ve done since the ’80s.”
More after the jump.
By eh
A friend of mine turned me on to this Gabriel Kahane recently, and I really like it. He's a multi-genre composer/performer who switches between the classical and indie rock milieux without even blinking. (He was also featured in a New York Magazine article last month.)
Kahane achieved some small notoriety earlier this year with his "Craigslistlieder," an eight-song cycle based on posts he found on Craig's List. His latest self-titled album falls more on the pop music side of things, but the classical influence is definitely audible, as well are operatic and, dare I say, musical theater structures (in a totally awesome way, I promise).
Among other influences manifest on the new album are Sufjan Stevens and Chris Thile, both of whom contribute backing instrumentals. (There's also a Belle and Sebastian feel to the unashamed earnestness of it all, but that could just be me.) But it's how he toys with and combines these influences that make him more than just another Brooklyn post-millennial indie kid. Yes, parts of what he's doing have been done before, but they've never been done this way.
Are you getting that I love this album?
It's not perfect by any means; some parts drag or miss their mark, there are lyrics that get a little too clever, but the good songs are really good. You can hear excerpts on MySpace and Kahane's site.
Among my favorites: "North Adams" definitely wears its Sufjan influence on its sleeves (sans, thankfully, Suf's cloying preciousness), as a ballad to a the Taconic State Parkway. "Rochester" is actually where I was born, and I don't think anyone's written a song about it before. It's lovely and terribly sad as you tease out the tragic events Kahane's narrating. "7 Middagh" is just gorgeous; I can't tell you why, I just love it (it's one of the more theatrical tracks on the album).
He's playing the Living Room tomorrow night (Dec. 3), and Rockwood Music Hall Dec. 15.
By Ed Condran
Special to amNewYork
• Michael Bublé appears Friday at Madison Square Garden. $67-$120. 8pm.
Michael Bublé appears to be the epitome of cool. The successful Canadian crooner, who will perform Friday at Madison Square Garden, has the looks, the pipes and even a sense of humor.
The suave entertainer, however, recently admitted that he was terrified while making “Call Me Irresponsible,” his follow up to his mega-platinum breakthrough disc, 2005’s “It’s Time.”
amNewYork spoke to the candid Bublé about his music career.
By eh
I saw this commercial several times this weekend, and was very struck by the jingle (we'll leave aside the fact that this product is a Polly Pocket rip; this isn't a toy blog). It's obviously an original jingle, with a heavy Latin influence. But it actually reminded me a lot of Manu Chao's "Me gustas tu" (below). I thought it was really interesting. And I don't think that jingle is ever going to leave my head.
By eh
Recently on Stereogum, the music blog has started running a twice-a-week feature called Progress Report where they catch up on bands we used to love.
Some of them are a little more obscure than others; Andrew Bird has been releasing albums pretty steadily for the past few years, so its not shocking (but not unwelcome!) to hear that his next album, "Noble Beasts," is out in Jan. Whereas The Boy Least Likely To ... made a big splash in 2005 and then all but disappeared after their tour (their new album is due in March).
But it's a pretty cool feature. I only wish that I had thought of it first.
By Hal Bienstock
Special to amNewYork
• Gang Gang Dance is at Music Hall of Williamsburg Friday, 9 p.m., $15
• They play Santos Party House Saturday, 11 p.m., $15 adv/$18 day of show
Like many seemingly overnight sensations, Gang Gang Dance have spent the better part of a decade creating their unique soundscapes that encompass techno, hip-hop, punk, dance, world music and more. Yet it wasn’t until this year that the Manhattan-based band began to get the attention afforded to fellow musicians living across the river in Williamsburg.
The fact that Gang Gang’s latest album, "Saint Dymphna," is its poppiest to date is a big reason why. But rather than a new direction, the band members see it as a culmination of a process that began in 2002 when their friend and collaborator Nathan Maddox was struck by lightning and killed while watching a storm on the roof of his apartment building.
“We first got serious when Nathan passed away,” said singer Lizzie Bougatsos. “We felt like everything we were doing was a homage to him and that spreading his message was an important job of ours.”
More after the jump.
By eh
Recently, the Rough Guides book "The Best Music You've Never Heard" came across my desk. To a music geek, that sure sounds like a challenge.
I wondered how obscure these treasures really were. On a quick flip through the book, there were definitely bands I recognize, some of whom were already my favorites. But there were also bands, that true to the title, I had never heard of.
But music is part of my job, and I'd been kind of a geek for free before that. I wondered what the average person would make of this book. So I rounded up a few of my friends and tested them on 20 bands chosen at random. The results, in spreadsheet form, here.
Everyone, from casual listeners to music journalists, had heard of someone. No one had heard of all of them.
Some more analysis after the jump.
(Also, apologies to Scott R., Adam U.; I had your answers, and then my email ate them. Groupwise!)
By Scott A. Rosenberg
• “The Pitchfork 500” release party is at The Gutter Bar Wednesday. 9pm.
Forget Rolling Stone, Spin and any other music publication. When it comes to music writing these days, it’s the Web site PitchforkMedia.com that sets the standard today.
The site, which has been known to jump-start a music career with a 9.2 rating out of 10.0 (Broken Social Scene’s “You Forget It In People”) and slaughter musicians hopes with a 0.0 stab (Travis Morrison’s “Travistan”), has taken its online dominance to the printed page with its new book, “The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs From Punk to the Present” edited by current Pitchfork editor Scott Plagenhoef and the site’s creator, Ryan Schreiber.
Continue reading "Pitchfork picks it's top 500 singles since 1977" »
Shuffle down a little bit on the blog here and you'll find an interview with Miles Zuniga of Fastball, who's performing at Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday night.
I jumped on to YouTube to grab a video of the band's infectious single "The Way," and the related videos section was like a cross section of my high school years where, I loathe to admit, I was a slave to the radio.
After the jump, you can experience what I was going through in the mid- to late-'90s with a video retrospective I call "Songs I can Sing in Karaoke Without Looking at the Words That I Don't Want Anyone to Know About."
OK, in all fairness, I actually still like some of these songs, but do people really need to know that I'm very familiar with Verve Pipe's "The Freshman"?
Continue reading "I unfortunately have been reminded of the nineties" »
By Charles Devilbiss
Special to amNewYork
