VULTURE: When Richie comes into the office at one point, he’s told that he’s missed calls from Lester Bangs and David Geffen. The episode doesn’t say whom he phones back first, but as Vinyl plays out, that choice will be key to the future of American Century. Who’s more important: A critic advocating for the raw poetry of primitive rock ‘n’ roll, or a music executive stoking the star-maker machinery behind popular songs? ___ The Zeppelin-poaching storyline piggybacks on a real piece of rock history. The band’s original Atlantic contract expired in 1973, and other labels scrambled to sign […]
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We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
The xx, Music Hall @ Snug Harbor Cultural Center, last night by JONATHAN VALANIA
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
Guided By Voices, Troc, 10:34 PM last night BY AMY SALIT
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
M. Ward, Union Transfer, Saturday night by PETE TROSHAK Mysterious troubadour M. Ward brought his dark and dreamy music to Union Transfer in Philadelphia on Saturday night, in support of his excellent new solo album A Wasteland Companion. In contrast to the sunny throwback Cali pop of his She & Him duo with Zooey Deschanel, Ward’s solo work is more rural, more dust and dirt, less sandcastles in the sky, more Leonard Cohen than Brian Wilson. Ward and his band, dressed like old school club musicians in suits and hats, effortlessly shifted through genres: spectral folk, rollicking country, otherworldly pop […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, The Hives, NYC last night by GENE SMIRNOV
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
Diamond David Lee Roth, Wells Fargo Center, last night by ROBIN ODLAND INQUIRER: Dropped lines, variable-pitch delivery, and all, there’s still no better ringleader for an arena rock circus than Roth… arguably the best front man in rock history. MISSION CREEP: To his credit, Mr. Roth seemed aware of his shortcomings. He knows that the only way he can make money performing this utter horseshit and keep the audience from hurling beer bottles at his cranium is to provide a distraction. Which is exactly what he did. Incredibly, the distraction—his dick—became the focus of the entire show. (It’s sad, really, […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
The Sadies, North Star Bar, last night by PETE MARSHALL
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
Stephen Malkmus, TLA 9:21 PM, last night by JONATHAN VALANIA BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Generation X has always seemed the embodiment of Groucho Marx’s dictum about not wanting to be a member of any club that would have you. That goes double for Stephen Malkmus, Gen X’s aging slacker princeling. As leader of Pavement, Malkmus spent the better part of the ’90s zigging whenever his fan base zagged, and the better part of the last decade cranking out the kind of wanky, Aspergerian solo records that scare off women and try men’s souls. While the pretty, wryly observed […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
U2, Lincoln Financial Field, 9:34 PM BY JONATHAN VALANIA DAN DELUCA: The band took the stage to the strains of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” And in the night’s most-winning gambit, the foursome brought off a gleaming, life-affirming “Beautiful Day,” dedicated to recovering Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, with the aid of her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, in a video clip recorded in outer space. “Tell my wife I love her very much, she knows,” Kelly said, speaking a Bowie line that Bono then sang as U2’s song segued into Bowie. It might sound corny, but it made my hair stand on […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
Willie Nelson, Mann Music Center, 10:09 PM by JONATHAN VALANIA
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
Raphael Saadiq, Electric Factory, last night by JONATHAN VALANIA BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER If there is anything that Raphael Saadiq can’t do, it is only a slight exaggeration to say that scientists have yet to discover it. Sing? Check. Pipes of gold. Write songs? Check. Everything from classic old-school soul readymades to new-school R&B bump-and-grind. Play guitar? Check. He shreds like Ike Turner minus the coke and violence. Produce? Check. In addition to giving his own records a vintage Motown flavor, he’s twiddled the knobs for everyone from D’Angelo and Joss Stone to Macy Gray and Mary J. […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
Misstallica, Johnny Brendas, 10:32 PM last night BY JONATHAN VALANIA
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
HIGH BEAM: Iron & Wine, Electric Factory, last night by JONATHAN VALANIA