Jonah Matranga Zombie Video

Considering today is Halloween, and in tandem with our movie of the month Shaun of the Dead...I thought this video will play just as many tricks as it is a treat..its the latest from Jonah Matranga called "Not About A Girl Or Place."

Live Review - Bayside at Nokia Theater

It was a sort of homecoming for the Queens/Long Island quartet Bayside as they begin there headlining trek around the country. It was a traveling Victory Records showcase featuring Bayside, The Sleeping, June, Driverside Impact and more, the emo-showcase made its way right to Times Square Friday night. "Seven years ago if you told us we would be playing Times Square I would have never believed you," Bayside singer Anthony Raneri mentioned halfway through the bands hour long set. Bayside a band that has come and gone under the emo and/or punk radar the past few years is finally deserving much success in support of this years latest The Walking Wounded. It is an album dealing with the loss of former drummer John "Beatz" Holohan who was killed in a car accident involving the whole band in 2005. Yet Bayside have marched on and continue to make music and tour in memory of their friend and band mate. They are a band that combines metal riffs, punk rhythm's and morbid lyrics. Playing most song of their first record Sirens and Condolences and Walking Wounded, Bayside even mixed it up a bit by doing a few acoustic songs which garnered much attention after Holohan's death. The Victory records tour will be on the road through New Years and worth checking out.

Quick News

Portishead are finally days away from finishing their much anticipated third album. According to the bands website, they are about to go into the mixing phase of the record. Presumably it will be out early next year (hopefully, we waited too damn long!).

Australian rockers Jet are calling it quits...as of now the band is on hiatus with all members looking to pursue solo careers and/or other musical outlets. It is rather unfortunate because they were indeed a fun rock band and a great live band as well. Saw them open for Oasis in Summer 2005 at the Garden and Jet surprised me on how well they were live, I was hooked from then on in.

Despite rumors Robert Plant insists there will NOT be a full out Led Zeppelin Tour. Zeppelin are reuniting for the first time in a over a decade with Jason Bonham (The late John Bonham's son) filling his father's shoes on drums, for special concerts in London next month.

Indy Watch

Nothing new to report from the Indy camp..however, the first box set of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles hit shelves yesterday...check out the website with info, trailers and more at www.youngindy.com

I Am Legend New Trailer and More

This time last year I was working on the largest movie set ever to hit the streets of NYC...now its getting closer till I Am Legend, hits theaters...check out the latest trailer here

http://media.kino-govno.com/trailers/iamlegend/iamlegend_trailer_480.mov

Bruce and Arcade Fire Live Together

Two of my favorite concerts this year (if not of all time) join together when Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band welcomed the Arcade Fire on stage in Ottawa to perform "Statetrooper," and "Keep the Car Running." Check them out!

200th Post!!

This is my 200th Post!! Thanks for reading, leaving feedback and supporting the site!

Live Review-Bruce Springsteen @ MSG

"BRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCEEEE!" A sold out crowd cheered on the second night of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's stop at New York's Madison Square Garden. Sharply arriving on stage at 8:30 and playing a blistering 2 1/2 hour set, the 59 year old Springsteen and his life long friends/band mates showed no signs of age or stopping. There are no adjectives and words that can describe a Springsteen concert, and learning this first hand Thursday night, it is so true. Undoubtedly the hardest working band in music and performers that make sure the blue collar audience gets their monies worth. Opening with the latest single off of the bands latest Magic, "Radio Nowhere," a song about miscommunication and censorship, Jersey's loved ones communicated a message of love, passion and fire. Playing career spanning songs from "She's the One," to "Thundercrack," to "The Rising," Bruce and E Street took four decades worth of material and played to a crowd of 60 to 10 year olds. Springsteen is an outspoken anti-Bush supporter and is not stranger to controversy, he did speak out just a tad about the war in Iraq and our current State of the Union, but he does it with love for his country. Right before playing the title track, "Magic," Springsteen stated "this is not a song about magic, but a song about tricks." Yet he did keep it simple and to the point, but when Bruce speaks, his audience listens. It is hard to describe a certain highlight or turning point during the concert, because every song seemed to out due the last. However, how do you manage to end such a trailblazing concert, you might ask? Well bring out your other band, joining the E Street Band for the last song of the night "American Land," Bruce brought out his 2006 touring mates the Seeger Sessions Band to jam out and further display his love of all music.

October 18, 2007
New York, New York
Madison Square Garden
Setlist:
Radio Nowhere
Night
Lonesome Day
Gypsy Biker
Magic
Reason To Believe
Candy's Room
She's The One
Livin' In The Future
The Promised Land
Tougher Than The Rest
Meeting Across The River Tour Premiere
Jungleland Tour Premiere
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last To Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
Encore:
Girls In Their Summer Clothes
Thundercrack
Born To Run
Dancing In The Dark
American Land with the Seeger Sessions Band

Support This Site

Have you gone to any concerts in the New York area in the past year?
Have you always wished you had amazing copies of some of your favorite shows?
Did you ever wish...Damn! I didn't get tickets and herd that concert was so good..
Or the show was sold out...

If you answered Yes to any of these..check out http://www.nyctaper.com/ Live recordings of some of the best shows this past year, including some I have reviewed and went to..such as Bjork @ MSG, The Hold Steady @ WTC, and Bruce Springsteen @ MSG...check it out, get the shows..then make a donation!

Indy Watch

Principle photography on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has officially ended. Be prepared for the trailer that will hit the web and theaters Thanksgiving.

Live Review-The National @ Terminal 5

It was a big night for buzz band The National and the venue that held them Thursday night. What once was hot spot and former employer of actor Vin Diesel, New York City's club Exit, after being closed for sometime, NYC monopoly promoters "The Bowery Presents.." have transformed the one time E dropping club into one of the cities premiere new music venues. It was the grand opening of Terminal 5, the place many indie acts this fall will call home, and for the Ohio born via Brooklyn musicians The National they had to welcome everyone in. With fresh paint still on the walls and floors, the three story venue packed a 3,000 sold out crowd for the rising band.
My good friend Bill Reese and I had the chance to see The National open for The Arcade Fire back in May at United Palace Theater, yet the band we saw in May, was not the same band we saw Thursday night. The opened Thursday night with older songs from their catalogue, "Start a War," and then into "Slow Show," but for a band that is as moody as the Velvet Underground and as dark as Nick Cave, their live performance brightened their own songs more than any record could do justice. The band's latest Boxer, is a dark, heavy drum and bass record with singer Tim Berninger hunting vocals and unexplainable lyrics were brought to life. The National's latest single "Fake Empire," proved this when it was played right before the end of the first set. The bands show Thursday not only surprised the audience on how amazing these guys in concert, something no one would have expected from a dreary sounding band, but also how great of musicians they actually are. Live they are a mixture of their former touring mates Aracade Fire, with a bit of The Frames and early R.E.M., thrown in.
If The National's jaw dropping concert is any indication to what the rest of Terminal 5 will hold, be prepared for hipsters and music lovers making their way to the top of Midtown for a good time.

Justice Live on Kimmel

French electro DJ's Justice give one of the more creative performances on late night TV in a while...here they are performing "D.A.N.C.E" from their album +

Indy Watch

Steven Spielberg sat down with the folks at comingsoon.net and gave a brief but rather awesome interview about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, he mentions that this is one of the first live action big budget pictures and probably the last to use actual film stock and not shoot digital...Spielberg also discussed Transformers and shed some light on his team up with Peter Jackson about Tin tin..

Check out the interview and geek out here http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=38211

BUY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are albums you should buy right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buy Now!!!!!!!!!!!!
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Bruce Springsteen - Magic
Justice - + (cross)

Current Jammers:
Kanye West - Graduation
VHS or Beta - Bring on the Comets
The National - Boxer
Silverchair - Young Modern
Hold Steady - Live at Fingerprints

Indy Watch

While Steven Spielberg is going after people leaking news about the new Indiana Jones film (and rightfully so), George Lucas is becoming obsessed with the Crystal Skull idea in which the new film focuses on. Check out fan site TheRaider.net, for some historical context about the skull and hear what Lucas has to say.

http://www.theraider.net/news/fullstory_indy4.php?id=335

Quick News

Police Guitarist Andy Summers has hinting that the legendary reunited band might be hitting the studio soon to record new material. In a statement to the Associated Press Summers proclaimed "I would see it as a challenge, to make an absolutely brilliant pop album at this stage of our career, and that would be something quite remarkable." If it does happen, it would be the bands first new record in 24 years.

In related great news, Amy Winehouse is ready to head back to the studio to work on a follow up to Back to Black. I think Pink however stole the title of what Winehouse's next opus would be called I'm Not Dead.

It looks like a trend now in the music industry, rather than a great idea. Like Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails Trent Reznor has cut his ties with Interscope records after 18 years. He had this to say via the bands website:
"Hello everyone. I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.

Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008.

Exciting times, indeed."

Arcade Fire Live at Randalls Island

What can I say about the Arcade Fire that I have not said already aside from just filling their ego's up some more--and they do deserve it. This is not a live review (if you are looking for one, check out my May 2007 post), this is more praise to a band that is the best live show I have seen all year and the best live act I have seen since U2. The big news that I do need to report is front man Win Butler stated that this will be the last of the bands performances state side in a few years, after they travel to Europe to finish out the year, they will be taking a very long hiatus. They are truly a traveling circus and more of something out of a Fellini film rather than the record industry. The Canadian outfit took their show to the last spot on their US tour at New York's Randall's Island for a Indie rock fest that featured LCD Sound system, Blond Redhead and more. I have to say I am not an LCD Sound system fan AT ALL, but their live performance changed that and truly impressed me.

Check out photos of the show via Pitchfork:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/46202-photos-arcade-fire-lcd-soundsystem-les-savy-fav-blonde-redhead-new-york-ny-100607

New Oasis Video

Here is the new Oasis video "Lord Don't Slow Me Down," taken from their forthcoming DVD of the same name....the DVD hits shelves later this month.

Live Review-Bloc Party at Theater @ MSG

"We are going to bring our A game tonight" proclaimed Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke last night just three songs into the band's thunderous set. The road dogs of international rock made their final US stop last night at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, an intimate, yet large enough venue to hold the alt-rockers. Making sure everyones heart beat was up and dancing shoes were on, Bloc Party proved why they have been on the international circuit since the bands formation in 2003. Banging through tracks from the bands latest A Weekend in the City and their debut Silent Alarm, they were also able to play a few new songs, including the bands latest B-side single "Flux." The bands style a cross between Joy Division meets Bjork meets Depeche Mode meets Gang of Four, shows that their hybrid of rock, electro and punk is not only inspiring, but just plain brilliant. The highlight of the performance was when they rocked through the band played their biggest singles to date "Banquet," and then "The Prayer." The biggest surprise was that "I Still Remember," a song that did very well on the US charts was not played, but was certainly not missed. What also made Bloc Party's show last night was not just how electrifying the four men on stage are together, but how endearing and sincere Kele is to his audience. He reminds me of Chris Martin with dreadlocks and soul power, his band mates are rather shy, but Kele's extroverted personality makes up for them ten-fold. Calling his New York crowd "Cool Cats," and making sure they were entertained, you see why every time they come to the city that never sleeps, they don't either. Bloc Party brought more than their "A" game last night, they brought something that can only be summed up in one word and that is "wow."

Indy Watch

It should be called "Indiana Jones and the Thieves of Secrets" instead of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull...in the past couple weeks leaked info and huge robbery was occurred on the set of the forthcoming film. As mentioned in the last "Indy Watch" post, a extra squealed (as I called it career suicide), to his local paper and disclosed all of the secrets he had witness while on set of the film as a Russian Dancer. Since then not only has Spielberg come out an pretty much made it clear that person will never work in Hollywood again. Plus to make matters worse or just plain getting even, Spielberg and Paramount have filed a lawsuit against the actor.

In related news, a robbery on the L.A. set of the film occurred earlier this week when, according to the L.A. Times "Over 2000 production stills, plenty of sensitive paperwork including a complete production budget breakdown, possibly the script from Indiana Jones 4 and multiple computers were stolen from Spielberg’s Universal Studio office." Well, the moral of the story is don't fuck with Steven Spielberg...FBI and LAPD conducted a sting operation and caught the thief. West Hollywood sheriff Steven Whitemore stated "officers posing as potential buyers arrested the man on suspicion of receiving stolen property. The goods had been advertised for sale through emails sent out to entertainment-gossip Web sites." Add another name to the Hollywood blacklist.

Kanye West on SNL

Above: Kanye West performs "Stronger" and "The Good Life" on SNL.

Below: Kanye performs "Champion" and "Everything I Am," with freestyle.

Movie of the Month - Shaun of the Dead

In the month we celebrate Halloween, I would like to look at something somewhat scary (maybe in theory) and constantly hysterical. The theory behind a romantic comedy with zombies probably sounds like the most ridiculous thing you have ever herd...well it is. If you are a film fan, you are probably asking, how did a studio back this and expect to make money? Well leave it up to the Brits to do it right. What could be one of the funniest and most cleaver movies in ages Shaun of the Dead directed by Edgar Wright and starring the comedy team of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the role that would be all three's claim to fame. The film is about a man, you guessed it Shaun, whose girlfriend has left him and he is trying all he can to get her back. On the day he tries the hardest, in a 28 Days Later fashion, London gets hit with a virus turning the whole city into Zombies. Shaun does all he can to win her back and save her from turning into a zombie herself. The comedy doesn't stop from beginning to end, and the script was so well respected that classic British actor Bill Nighy has a small role and even features a great cameo by Coldplay's Chris Martin and Guy Berryman. So this Halloween season, ditch the usual bad B-list horror film and take a stab at Shaun of the Dead.

Underated Classic-The Roots Phrenology

A few years ago I was sitting in the back of a Journalism class I was taking in College, mind you I was not a Journalism major. The day after the 2003 Grammy awards my Professor (who looks like Uncle Phil from "Fresh Prince") comes storming into class, throws his briefcase on his desk and screams "WHO THE FUCK IS NORA JONES!" Myself, like the rest of the class didn't know whether to laugh or run out of the room. My Professor proceeded by saying "how does an unknown like her, get ruled out over known boys like The Roots?!" Everyone in class just seemed really perplexed and I just sat there as if I just stepped into the right place. My Professor asked around the class if anyone had herd Phrenology by The Roots? Everyone shook their heads and I raised mine proudly. He and I spent the rest of the class talking about how this is the definitive hip-hop record of that time and completely overlooked. So now, I am taking that conversation to text with this months underrated classic. The Roots have been the most incredible, most vivacious, most unstoppable force in music (in any genre) since 1987. But in 2002 they released what could go down as one of the best records of this decade, one of the best hip-hop albums of all time and certainly one of the best records of that year and their career. Before Kanye West, while Jay-Z was ruling the charts and while 50 was just coming into his own, The Roots were the band that held hip-hop together and garnished nothing but respect from fans, peers and critics alike. Never before had anyone ever herd anything so eclectic, that it made you stop and think "are these guys real?" Phrenology was the record that not only put them to the top of their game, but started to make them a household name as well. "The Seed 2.0" featuring Cody ChestnuTT would be one of the most played singles of that year and song that got the underground sensation to the mainstream. Phrenology combines everything from jazz, neo-soul, reggae, rock, R&B and rap into a full on record of epic proportions. The Roots known for NOT having a DJ, and being an actual band, that play actual instruments are not your conventional hip-hop group. Never afraid to express themselves such as on the raunchy "Pussy Galore" or present social issues to their audience with "Rolling with Heat," a collaboration with Talib Kweli. The Roots became much more than a band, or musical group, on Phrenology they became instant legends. And now I ask you, who the fuck is Nora Jones!, and why didn't these boys win or become a greater success than one could dream.

RADIOHEAD!RADIOHEAD!RADIOHEAD!

You could not escape the biggest news to hit the music industry since Pink Floyd decided to reunite for Live 8 two years ago...Radiohead, the biggest unsigned band in the world is releasing their next record In Rainbows, next week...yeah, follow me on this now..
-Originally slated for an early 2008 release the boys decided to secretly release the record for next Tuesday
- The record comes in three formats to choose from:

• Format A) a Digital NON DRM Mp3 (meaning you can burn a million copies of the disc or put it on a million Ipods) of 10 of the 18 tracks, best part is you pick the price..so you wanna just pay the $.90 service charge or give the band $5,000 go right ahead, you decide.
• Format B) is a special box set (not shipping until December 3 from the UK) that features everything a fan could ask for from soup to nuts of a two disc vinyl, a CD featuring all 18 tracks, a CD of B-Sides and photo books an much more..this will run you $80..
• Format C) is a hard copy CD NOT being released till 08 featuring all 18 tracks.

This is pretty much a big middle finger to the record industry now and possibly the most brilliant thing I have heard in a very long time...for more info head on over to Pitchfork to read more in detail http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/46015-new-radiohead-album-aaaaaaahhh

Or to just get right to it head over to www.inrainbows.com to pre-order the disc.