Otis Redding - Live in London & Paris

Artist:
Otis Redding
Review:
Otis Redding didn’t simply “play concerts.” The soul giant was a
human Mount Vesuvius: He erupted. Redding was at the height of his
fame in March 1967, when he played these two brief shows in London
and Paris. (He would die in a plane crash in December that year.)
And the audience’s reaction is ecstatic — it’s a fair bet
that few of these Europeans had ever witnessed a spectacle quite
like Redding and the all-star Stax house band, Booker T. and the
MG’s and the Mar-Key horns, tearing into…

Rating:
4 Stars

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Lou Reed - Berlin: Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse

Artist:
Lou Reed
Review:
Upon the 1973 release of Berlin, a Rolling Stone critic
deemed the record “patently offensive.” Thirty years later, Lou
Reed’s concept album about speed freaks on a downward spiral of
infidelity, spousal abuse, parental neglect and death ranked 344 on
this magazine’s 500 all-time-greatest-albums list. Reed has always
fed upon this kind of irony, and in 2006 he staged a concert
adaptation of his rock musical in Brooklyn. (Painter-filmmaker
Julian Schnabel shot the performances.) Where Reed once…

Rating:
4 Stars

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The Delta Spirit

So I caught Delta Spirit on Conan Wednesday night, and they played like true pros, so I had to wonder: can they do it again that well live?  I went to see them at Mercury last night and the answer is: definitely.  They delivered a truly captivating set of melodic, impassioned rock.  Delta Spirit are the real deal: they’re good looking, fun to watch, and really talented.  Their songs are rootsy without being country, radio-friendly without being bubblegum, and heartfelt without being cheesy.  Singer Matthew Vasquez looks like a dangerous Shia LaBeouf and really knows how to hold an audience captive.   These guys are too good to not be famous, and soon.

Openers Action Painters turned in yet another tight, powerful set.  Their show was bottled lightning, sweaty and high-energy, and their new wave/old soul hybrid is infectious — I’m looking for them to break big in the coming year.  Also performing was Salt and Samovar, a five-piece band that played theatrical rock, like the Decemberists on drugs.  They played a strong set too, despite some unfortunate sound issues.  Overall, a solid night, top to bottom.

Nelly - Brass Knuckles

Artist:
Nelly
Review:
Combining Will Smith’s friendliness with St. Louis slang and a
down-home drawl, Nelly has mastered his own brand of crossover
appeal. On his fifth album, he mostly sticks to that pop-rap
formula, cranking his distinctly melodic flow to hyper-speeds and
playing the good-natured hedonist on cuts like “Party People.” But
when he tries to come off hard on a handful of Dirty South
brawlers, he ends up sounding generic: “U Ain’t Him” finds him
rhyming about gunplay and warning no one in particular abo…

Rating:
3 Stars

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The Verve - Forth

Artist:
The Verve
Review:
Two of the best psychedelic rock shows I’ve ever seen were by
this British band, in London and New York, in the summer of 1993,
and most of the Verve’s fourth record — their first after a
decade apart — is a return to that whirlpool-guitar,
shaman-song form. “Sit and Wonder” is what they meant by their 1993
album title A Storm in Heaven: the trancelike gallop of
bassist Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury; guitarist Nick
McCabe’s creamy distortion and ascending rings of tremolo…

Rating:
4 Stars

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Various Artists - Nobody Knows Anything - DFA presents Supersoul Recordings

Artist:
Various Artists
Review:
Having built the most reliable brand in freakably fusion-minded
dance music with artists like LCD Soundsystem and the Rapture, DFA
Records has decided to globalize. The debut release on its
international Death From Abroad imprint collects tracks from
Supersoul, a two-year-old Berlin label whose bastardized beats
flaunt the same formal disregard that makes DFA so great. Because
the material is from a German operation, there are minimalist 4/4
techno rhythms (Mogg and Naudascher’s “Moon Unit Pt….

Rating:
3 Stars

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Shwayze - Shwayze

Artist:
Shwayze
Review:
Cisco Adler, leader of Los Angeles sleaze rockers Whitestarr, is
famous for his well-connected dad (producer Lou Adler),
ex-girlfriends (like Mischa Barton) and his ballsy nude photo,
which leaked online last year. His newest hobby is producing tracks
(and an MTV reality show) for 22-year-old Malibu chill-hop rapper
Shwayze, whose breezy flow is a hybrid of Young MC and Digable
Planets’ Butterfly. Adler’s no beat master, and the tracks on
Shwayze all sound like variations on thumb-strummed
Jack…

Rating:
2.5 Stars

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Lloyd - Lessons In Love

Artist:
Lloyd
Review:
Lloyd Harlin Polite Jr. isn’t your average R&B smoothie —
he’s much hornier. On his third album, the 22-year-old New Orleans
native trains his high croon on titles like “Have My Baby” and “Sex
Education,” coming off like a pop-wise lothario or a slightly
less-weird version of R. Kelly. With help from producers like Eric
Hudson and Polow Da Don, Lloyd keeps it brightly tuneful over an
Eric B. and Rakim sample and other pricey beats outfitted with
electro squiggles. Between its love for inte…

Rating:
3 Stars

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U2 - War

Artist:
U2
Review:
From the beginning, U2 aspired to profound ecstasy. But it took
Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. a while to get
there. Two of U2’s first three albums are undeniable classics:
1980’s precociously magnificent Boy for its proudly
spiritual optimism in the thick of post-punk nihilism and for the
Edge’s reveille-treble guitar; 1983’s War for its
arena-rock muscle tone (honed over three years of touring) and the
matured blend of soldier’s ardor and pop wile in the singles
“Sunday…

Rating:
4.5 Stars

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At The Deli with the Action Painters

Remember a few months ago I wrote about this band I saw called Action Painters?  Well it seems like their talent and general sexitude are catching some eyes: they just won the Deli Magazine’s Band of the Month.  You heard it here first.

They have a gig this Saturday night, July 19,  at Bowery Ballroom — they’re opening for Tigercity, who always put on a good show.  The word on the street is that Action Painters have a new single on the way, too.  I’m so there.