Peter Gabriel and a 46-piece orchestra – what a way to visit The Late Show at the legendary Ed Sullivan Theater for the first time! Pic: CBS The New Blood Orchestra re-imagined arrangements of many of Peter’s songs – without guitars or drum-kit – for Gabriel’s latest album New Blood, and a selection of this was played out live for the taping. Gabriel opened his set with Red Rain, before heading into the solemn hymn of Wallflower, a song he wrote in the years after Biko, as a beacon of strength for “those who have the courage to stand up for what they believe in.” In tribute to the Arab Spring, he performed Signal to Noise,…
-
-
5 Awesome Music Finds from A CMJ First-Timer
It’s a good sign of a band’s impact when five days after CMJ began, you’re still humming along to a tune first heard on Day One. 2011’s CMJ, aka College Music Journal’s Music Marathon, has come to an end. As one of New York’s most trusted music events – exposing artists to fans and the music industry alike, it’s a great place to go hunting for great new music. As it turns out, the hunt didn’t require too much effort on this newbie’s part – just a willingness to trek across the city to various music hotspots and an ability to consume one too many whiskeys, all in the name…
-
The Creators Project in Dumbo
Art, music, film. The only thing that’s better than these three things on their own, is these three things combined. Add in a set by Florence & the Machine under the Manhattan Bridge and I was sold on a visit to The Creators Project event in Dumbo, held this past weekend. It’s a global arts initiative, created by Vice Magazine and Intel, as a way to support artists, musicians, and filmmakers who are using technology to push the bounds of creative expression. The project comes to New York after mixing with cultural institutions in Beijing, Brazil and France, including Bienal in Sao Paulo, Nuits Sonores in Lyon and La Gaité…
-
Pearl Jam Twenty
If a band’s story lied only within their songs – their music and lyrics – there would be little need for the job of a music journalist to flesh out the parts that would, in most cases, be left uncovered. Those bits and pieces that together make up the sum of a band’s whole. There would be little need for the likes of Charlie Cross, Lester Bangs, or his prodigy Cameron Crowe. And bands like Pearl Jam would be all the less for it. It is thanks, in part, to Crowe that the anniversary of Pearl Jam’s twentieth year of making music won’t be overlooked. Together with a retrospective album…
-
Dry The River with Ambassadors
Don’t you just love it when you instantly fall in love with a song and the band that sings it? I randomly came across Dry The River on the net and gave them listen because I liked the sound of their name (sometimes it’s really just as simple as that!) A quick Twitter search showed that they had a gig in New York coming up too – how is that for a bit of musical serendipity.
