Manhattan is an island of unclean hands. We all hustle. Rationalization is the great leveler between rich and poor-the small ethical compromises we make to partake in the glittering sufficiency of New York City.
As a long-time B-list critic and junketeer, my conscience has long been inured to the petty scams of the Golden Read More
Rock ‘n’ roll legend Dion DiMucci has long sent the message that he’s a New York badass, either via the pompadour of his early years, his pimp hat or testimony from other soi-disant badasses (Lou Reed) and just plain asses (Billy Joel). But half a disc on the new three-CD retrospective, Dion: King of the Read More
The flip side of a rapper boasting about himself is him bitching about the rest of the world. And over the course of hip-hop’s cranky lifetime, no two acts have mouthed off more bitterly than De La Soul and Kool Keith Thornton.
For the trio De La Soul, griping was not always the order of Read More
Matt Suggs’ Golden Ache
If the Kinks’ Ray Davies sired a son with a dusky Mexican sorceress and raised him in a house filled with Day of the Dead icons and Ennio Morricone soundtracks, that boy would probably sound a lot like Matt Suggs does on his fine debut solo album, Golden Days Before They Read More
Peter Case Coulda, Shoulda …
The Bottom Line was maybe half full when Peter Case walked onstage for the late show on April 29. Just as things got under way around 11 p.m., a guy yelled out a request. Everybody could hear him. Mr. Case, who has played steadily for 25 years, first on street Read More
Listen to any album by the Apples in Stereo, and you’ll know why the group’s main man, Robert Schneider, calls his Denver recording studio Pet Sounds. The Apples peddle power pop rooted in the light 60′s psychedelia that sprouted from Brian Wilson’s sandbox.
There are several moments on The Discovery of a World Inside the Read More
Rumors have been orbiting the Internet (and burgers have been frying up at McDonald’s!) that Pavement is about to split. Now, I ain’t no Kreskin, but doesn’t that sound about right to you? Everyone at Matador assures this critic that no break-up is imminent (label head Gerard Cosloy didn’t name his own band the Air Read More
Well, hip-hop isn’t dead. It hasn’t gone the way of rockabilly or prog-rock. Yet. Despite an ecstatic engagement with a culture industry that shows off Puffy Combs on the New York Post ‘s Page Six while disregarding esthetic responsibility, the genre has been on life support for the last couple of years–just like rock back Read More
A trustworthy rule of thumb: Critics should never write critically about other critics. Not only does this make a certain career sense, but one falls into the Pauline Kael-esque trap of assigning straw-man motivations to one’s nemeses in order to score points with larger issues that may or may not apply to the work being Read More
Why can’t more musicians take pleasure in the anonymity that their art could potentially grant them? Think about it: Not only does music have the ability to distend time and reorder history (groovy!), but the pleasure of the playing allows us to disappear from ourselves. Look at Phil Spector. He was and is a pretty Read More
