With the events of last week still fresh in my mind, I’ve been able to reflect on the contrasting Guns N’ Roses-related experiences the past couple of months have thrown my way.
Last Wednesday, I was treated to the most bizarre concert-going experience of my life, as Axl Rose showed up an hour late for the fourth show running, got pissy with the audience for booing him and subsequently left the stage when a water bottle was thrown limply in his general direction from the crowd. A third of the crowd had left by the time he returned, 45 minutes later, to sleepwalk through his contractually obligated set. I’m still not entirely sure what to think of it all.
Compared with my experience when Slash came to town in June… well, there is no comparison. The man took to the stage on time and blasted through a mix of cuts from his recent solo CD, old Guns and Velvet Revolver hits and even a couple of Snakepit songs for the diehards. Frontman Myles Kennedy (better known for his work with Creed offshoot Alter Bridge) was a bit of a let-down… at least, it seemed that way, until Slash belatedly revealed that Kennedy had been suffering from flu and had barely been able to speak all day.
It’s an interesting contrast: the self-absorbed rock star who can’t even bring himself to show up for a $10 million-dollar gig on time, and a true professional who will play…
Having already broken out in his native England, Frank Turner is a rising star in the US punk community as of late. As if his signing to Epitaph for all his releases stateside wasn’t enough of a sign that the British singer-songwriter has been gaining his footing in the states, successful tour spots with The Offspring and Social D on top of a number of headlining runs all across the country have exposed Frank to thousands of new fans. Last night at the Troubadour, located in the west-side of Los Angeles, a sold out crowd sang their hearts out to a venerable folk-punk smorgasbord. Even California punk legends such as NOFX’s Fat Mike and Bad Religion guitarist/Epitaph Records head honcho Brett Gurewitz could be seen roaming the grounds among the fans.
The night began with Lansing, Michigan’s Cheap Girls. The only act of the night that didn’t feature acoustic guitars, Cheap Girls took control of the gathering crowd with their upbeat Texas is the Reason by way of The Replacements brand of crunchy, no-frills rock and roll. Given the context of the rest of the night, they were a wonderful appetizer to the main course of Andrew Jackson Jihad and Frank Turner. The only downside was that given the crowd’s unfamiliarity with their material and the incredibly low placement of singer and bassist’s Ian Graham’s vocals in the overall mix killed the potential audience participation factor during their performance.
Baths‘ new album Cerulean has been blowing me away for only twenty four hours but I must share its excellence with the world. I’d write a review but the video for “Lovely Bloodflow” is memorable and haunting enough make the sell on my behalf.
After watching a number of reality television shows, specifically Survivor, the music tends to be a dead giveaway in challenges. Often, you will find a climax or crescendo for any attempt, such as shooting coconuts in a basket. Along with that, you will hear a triumphant crescendo as a team is about to win. Here is an example of the music in reality television shows, in this upcoming years The Amazing Race. I will let the video speak for itself, but listen to the music as the events unfold as this contestant tries to hurl a watermelon at a knight in shining armor.
Yes, I just wrote a blog about reality television so I could show Sputnikmusic’s readers the most incredible moment of reality television challenge.
On Sunday, the biggest clouds in the sky were those made of dirt and dust kicked up at every stage from dancing. Unlike Saturday, Sunday brought fewer early birds, likely because of the exhaustion from the day before, and a slightly weaker initial line-up. The weather was once again picturesque. When I arrived, I really had no set plan of who I would see until Laidback Luke. Therefore, I started the day the Red Bull Music Academy Riverside Stage where XXXChange was playing to a pintsize crowd of about 50 to 100 people while there had to have been over 750 people at the time and stage the day before. There simply was not much of a buzz at any tent early on, even if XXXChange was dropping mixes of DJ Kool’s “Let Me Clear My Throat.” However, D. Ramirez was slowly sucking everyone to the Hilltop Arena where all of the local house favorites were blasting while Jon Hopkins was luring a more IDM crowd with his haunting beats, something that was out of the ordinary at Electric Zoo, in a good way.
Trying to find some shade in the afternoon sun.
On a side note, the tents set up at the Red Bull Music Academy Riverside Stage and Hilltop Area were perfectly sized and positioned, especially if it had rained. Unfortunately, a few feet outside of the tent and the sound quality was unbearable. In…
Many of you will remember producer wait what‘s, mashup project the notorious xx. The album quickly gained a ridiculous amount of attention from a variety of sources including The New Yorker, New York Magazine, and Rolling Stone among others. Rather than sit back and live fat, wait what decided to ball out and follow up with a mixtape, this is real life, which features some hood tracks that gather source materials from modern indie (Sleigh Bells, Justice, LCD Soundsytem, etc.) and the annals of the late nineties rap (Black Rob, Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz).
This past Labor Day weekend brought magnificent weather to the New York City area, as Hurricane Earl bypassed the area completely, allowing the second edition of the Electric Zoo festival to thrive. For a total of 24 hours split between Saturday and Sunday, Randall’s Island was New York City’s hottest club, and potentially a newfound earthquake hotspot. Booming beats resonating from four precisely placed stages likely sent the rest of the island humming.
Festival goers dressed in green latex suits, deer costumes, and tiger body paint, among other bizarre outfits littered the grounds, provided a unique flavor of diversity. While the average stereotype of dance music and the New York area would assume that it would be thousands of juicehead guidos with blowouts, it was hardly the case, in fact quite the opposite. The mix of concert goers among the 25,000 plus each day was welcoming to all sorts of characters geared with pacifiers and surgical masks.
Starting off on Saturday, LA Riots brought early excitement, mixing Estelle’s “Freak” with distorted beats while catching onto the infectious “Pon de Floor” by Major Lazer in what proved to be a house filled weekend. Forty minutes felt like five minutes during LA Riots set as climaxes and crescendos came at perfectly timed moments. After a glorious start, I quickly made the rash and hasty decision of watching Boris (not to be confused with Japanese noise-rockers Boris) at the Main Stage, whose set was slightly disappointing and underwhelming. Coupled with…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of September 07 , 2010. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
The Acorn – No Ghost (Bella Union) Anberlin – Dark Is The Way, Light Is A Place(Republic)— Adam Thomas Sara Bareilles – Kaleidoscope Heart (Epic)
The Beatles – The 4 Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Beatles [DVD] (Universal Music)
Blue Sky Black Death – Third Party (Fake Four Inc.)
Gasoline Silver – Gasoline Silver (+1 Records)
Helmet – Seeing Eye Dog (+1 Records ) In Lingua Mortua – Salon Des Refuses(Termo Records) Interpol – Interpol (Matador Records)
Brendan James – Brendan James (Decca) Kamelot – Poetry for the Poisoned {EU} (Kamelot Media Group) Megadeth – Rust In Peace Live [DVD/CD] (Shout Factory!) Oceansize – Self Preserved while the Bodies Float Up {EU} (SUPERBALL MUSIC)— Sobhi Abdul-Rakhman
Q-Unique – Between Heaven and Hell (Capital Q Music)
Robyn – Body Talk Pt. 2 (Cherrytree/Interscope)
Rock (Heltah Skeltah) – Rockin Out West (Duck Down Music)
Stone Sour – Audio Secrecy (Roadrunner Records)
Tera Melos – Patagonian Rats (Sargent House) The Thermals – Personal Life(Kill Rock Stars) — Adam Thomas
Andreya Triana – Lost Where I Belong (Ninja Tune)
Unicycle – Mirror, Mirror (Highwheel Records)
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Album Streams (please inform us of any broken links/removed streams):
Besides having really great album art and a frustratingly hip name, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. have talent. They can write a damn good pop song. “Vocal Chords” is one of three examples off their Horse Power EP, which also includes a cover of the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows”.
Have a listen:
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As part of my ongoing efforts to educate the masses about an archaic musical genre that nobody really liked in the first place, I’ll be highlighting some of the forgotten classics (i.e. all of them) of the hair metal era. Anybody who had harboured any lingering respect for me up to this point will soon see the error of his ways.
George Lynch formed Lynch Mob after the original line-up of Dokken disintegrated in 1989.
Their one and only hit album, Wicked Sensation, was released in 1990. Singer Oni Logan left soon afterward, and the band flagged badly as grunge trounced hair metal in everything but the style stakes. The band endured a volatile ’90s, breaking up and reforming regularly, though 1998 proved a particular low point as they attempted to capitalise upon the popularity of rap-rock with Smoke This – think Tommy Lee’s Methods of Mayhem but way, way shitter.
‘Wicked Sensation’ is the opening track, the title track and the best track on their debut album. Vocalist Oni Logan isn’t particularly distinctive a singer, but Lynch found him nigh-on-impossible to replace, and it’s not hard to work out why on this impossibly catchy pop-metal number.
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‘We Used To Wait’ is one of the more interesting tracks on Arcade Fire’s third album, the Suburbs, both from a musical and lyrical perspective.
Here, Brooklyn indie rockers the Drums take the song on a completely different course. The cover, recorded for BBC’s Live Lounge with Huw Stephens, resembles more closely a less jangly version of the Cure, in stark contrast to the original’s glossy barrelhouse piano-led arrangement.
MP3: The Drums – ‘We Used To Wait’ (Arcade Fire cover)
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