I first experienced the healing power of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on August 14, 1985. I was fourteen, had just gotten home from sleep away camp a few days earlier, and had a couple of weeks of summer vacation left before school started. And instead of being by the pool, I was in bed, really sick. I knew what it was—I was asplenetic, the result of being in a car accident when I was six, and not having a spleen left my immune system compromised, so I had the same infection that I came down with [...]
On October 13 at 4pm, E Street Radio will be broadcasting the latest Springsteen Community Conference that I co-hosted with my good friend John Franck. Titled, "The Ties That Bind: Springsteen and the Next Generation," it's a great exploration of Springsteen's influence on a new generation of musicians. Our guests for this include Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Pete Yorn and drummer Jay Weinberg. It's a killer show, with some great, informative and often hilarious anecdotes, much like the one below. If you're a Bruce fan, you won't want to miss this!
I first heard Vampire Weekend in the summer of 2007 when they were blog buzzing. A friend sent me a link to their Myspace page and said something smarmy about them, asking me where everyone's balls went. I didn't think much of what I heard-this was obviously "smart people" music made by overeducated kids who had probably majored in semiotics, or something in that realm. But whatever, they kind of blew up. I've listened to their albums and while I can listen to them and experience a bit of pleasure, broadly speaking, they do nothing for me. [...]
John Legend with the Roots on September 7, 2010 I've never been much of a John Legend fan. To my ears, he's too damned polite; decent Sunday brunch music perhaps, but entirely middle of the road. Safe. Nice. Harmless. He's clearly in the tradition of upwardly mobile 70's soul - Donnie Hathaway, Roberta Flack, the softer pieces of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield, and while he may be working in the soul tradition, if you asked me whether the dude has any soul, my answer would have been no. [...]
20. "Wild Horses" (1971, from Sticky Fingers ) Recorded in Muscle Shoals in December of 1969 while on the triumphant U.S. tour that cemented their "greatest rock and roll band in the world" status, "Wild Horses" is a classic Jagger-Richards collaboration, with Keith providing the chorus and riff and Mick providing the verses. It's a perfect pop song, managing to drain the cliche out of a cliche and providing sentiment without ever curdling into the maudlin. The Stones may not be often thought of as making beautiful music, but [...]
I'm sorry I didn't see the Arcade Fire's shows at Madison Square Garden on August 4th and 5th. From what I've read, the shows were anywhere in the range from very good to great, and while I'm generally positive but far from super-enthusiastic about The Suburbs , live is apparently how you need to get this band. I'm not going to review the album. Rob Harvilla from the Village Voice has written a review that neatly and smartly encapsulates many of my views about both the band and the album, which for me is another [...]
Well, it only took me three months to start the second half of the countdown, but good things come to those who wait, right? 30. "Start Me Up" (1981, from Tattoo You ) It's the late fall of 1981. I'm 11 years old, in 6th grade, and I'm visiting my big sister at Syracuse University, where she's attending law school. My father has allowed me to take the bus on my own to [...]
At long last is the posting of the Springsteen Community Conference on Sirius/XM's E Street Radio from this past April. The subject was "Bruce and Politics" and I moderated a great panel featuring writer Dave Marsh, John Franck, Jovan Mrvos, Stan Goldstein and Lisa Ianucci. We covered a broad range of subjects and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Enjoy. Download: Springsteen Community Conference: Bruce and Politics (zip file)
Round three, with a disclaimer to start: I would LOVE to post streaming links to the original versions of these songs, or mp3's. But that just ain't possible right now, so if you're checking out some of these songs for the first time, make sure to find the original versions on the albums I've noted they're from. And with that said, we continue. 40. "Mercy Mercy" (1965, from O ut Of Our Heads ) In their earliest incarnation as an R&B cover band, [...]
And round two begins... 50. "Not Fade Away" (1964, from England's Newest Hitmakers ) Jovan Mrvos writes: It's April 1964 and the location is Chicago, Illinois. I'm 15 years old and a sophomore at a large all boys high school. I'm working at a fancy grocery store on the North side. Life is hell. My parents are all up inside of me. I'm stone cold girl crazy going to school with 5000 other Neanderthals. [...]
Paul Westerberg may have a lyric that says he never goes far without a little Big Star, but I don't go anywhere without having the Rolling Stones nearby. More than any artist - and yes, that includes Bruce, Aretha and Al - I've lived the full range of my life to the Stones - I've listened and conjured with them; fallen in love to them; discussed, advocated and argued for and about them; danced, fucked and partied my ass off to them; and, most importantly, formed many, if not most of the seminal relationships in my [...]
It would be easy to dismiss Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings as an exercise in nostalgia, but that would be a mistake. Sure, there's an obsessive dedication to capturing the sonic elements of classic soul records; the horn arrangements, microphone placements, drum sounds, vintage gear, etc., but it's clear that Jones and producer and Daptone Records head Gabriel Roth are committed to classic soul as an ongoing concern as opposed to being mere preservationists. Whether it's simply a matter of aesthetic preference or a greater desire to return to a musical Eden, in their [...]
Last week, Sirius/XM's E Street Radio broadcast another roundtable discussion that I participated in. This time, the topic was Bruce Springsteen in the 1990's, a decade that many fans, myself included, view with varying degrees of ambivalence. I hesitate to say that it was a "lost" decade, as Springsteen wrote and released some wonderful music, but looking back, it's clear that things didn't work with the same consistency as they had in the 1970's and 80's. And as a new generation of great rock bands emerged in the early part of the decade, Springsteen's place in the rock [...]
I don't like Abba. I've never liked them; not when I was a kid, nor when I was in my early 20's and they came in vogue amongst the alternative/indie/hipster set (ironically or not). I was at a party this past Christmas season, and when the guests started dancing and singing loudly along to "Dancing Queen," "The Winner Takes It All" and the like, I did all I could not to groan in their faces. Listening to them is like eating Sweet N' Low straight out of the packet; an experience that causes much retching. Actually, I'm being [...]
I'm not going to SXSW this week, which is unfortunate. There are a lot of bands I'd love to be hearing, a lot of people I'd like to be seeing and a lot of barbecue I'd like to be eating. One of the artists I'd be seeing in Austin this week is Fyfe Dangerfield , better known as the lead singer of the British avant-pop band, Guillemots . I haven't spent much time listening to Guillemots, but last week I came across "She Needs Me," a track from Dangerfield's new solo album, Fly Yellow Moon [...]
So at long last, here is the mp3 version of the panel discussion I co-moderated on Sirius/XM's E Street Radio on the 25th Anniversary of the Born In The U.S.A. tour. We had a great panel and I couldn't be more pleased with how the discussion turned out. If you're a Bruce fan or a student of rock history, this is for you. Download: Panel Discussion on the Born In The U.S.A. tour
Today at 4pm E Street Radio on Sirius/XM radio will be broadcasting the show I co-moderated last Thursday, on the 25th Anniversary of the Born In The U.S.A. album, tour and phenomenon. The show has turned out wonderfully - our panel is fantastic and the conversation is illuminating, funny and in parts, beyond geeky. If you're a Springsteen fan, or someone who's interested in a seminal moment in rock history, definitely tune in.
Sometimes the stories of the artists who didn't quite make it are far more interesting than the ones that did. A case in point would be 60's & 70's soul singer Laura Lee . Hailing from Detroit, Lee sang gospel with Aretha Franklin's sister Erma; recorded for Chess Records; was pursued for signing by Frank Sinatra; recorded for Hot Wax, Holland-Dozier-Holland's post-Motown label; was Al Green's girlfriend before he broke and was the inspiration for songs like "Tired Of Being Alone." You can hear a fascinating five-part history of her life at Laura's website [...]
"You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it." -Duke Ellington
Tonight I co-moderated a panel discussion on E Street Radio on Sirius/XM about the Born In The U.S.A. album/tour/explosion/phenomeno n. To say it was fun would be an understatement of epic proportion. We had a great panel: My dear friend John Franck co-moderated with me, and as panelists we had Jovan Mrvos, a former A&R man for Columbia Records who I worked with at CMJ; Lewis Largent, a former MTV VJ and a former co-worker of mine in A&R at Island Def Jam; Backstreets columnist Flynn McClean; and record store owner Stu Wexelbaum. John has been one of my [...]
A Deeper Shade Of Soul
Miike Snow – Paddling Out (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
Lana Del Rey covers Lovecat magazine!
