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RockNYC

RockNYC

Launched in 2009, RockNYC is an online publication whose joint editor is writer Imam Labadebi, concentrating on contemporary rock and pop in New York. (http://rocknycliveandrecorded.com/)

26 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Adele: 21

Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 16 August 2011

I HAVE HELD off writing about this hugely successful slice of AOR for months and months because it didn't seem worth the effort. ...

Avicii: True: Avicii By Avicii

Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 29 March 2014

TRUE, WHEN it comes to EDM you have to be a little conservative and reactionary at the same time because if dance ain't dance, well, ...

The Beatles, Marshall Crenshaw: Marshall Crenshaw's Incredible Simulators: B.B. Kings, New York

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 6 January 2013

IN 1978, Marshall Crenshaw played John Lennon to Glen Burtnik's Paul McCartney in the touring company of Beatlemania. 35 years later the two men were ...

Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Kanye West: The Greatest Pop Star by Decade!

Comment by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 18 May 2023

PLEASE NOTE THAT I said popstar and not musician, so no Irving Berlin or George Gershwin… ...

Bright Eyes: Radio City Music Hall, NYC

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 10 March 2011

THE LAST word we heard as we left Radio City Music Hall last night, was "Mercy", repeated twice – once by Conor Oberst and once ...

Bright Eyes: Oh, Mercy: Bright Eyes at Radio City Music Hall, NYC

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 10 March 2011

THE LAST word we heard as we left Radio City Music Hall last night, was "Mercy", repeated twice – once by Conor Oberst and once ...

James Brown: Think!

Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 7 June 2023

IT IS 1960 and we are along the lined streets of early James Brown, having steadily moved from Little Richard inspired tonal rock to Ray ...

Glen Campbell: Town Hall, New York

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 9 January 2012

IT WAS 64 DEGREES in Manhattan Saturday afternoon, the world had taken a turn for the milder and, though it was the dead of winter, spring ...

David Guetta: Nothing But the Beat

Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 13 September 2011

IT IS NOT THAT Nothing But the Beat is substantially worse than One Love; it is worse but not substantially. It is that it is a stylistic dead ...

Jay-Z, Kanye West: Kanye West and Jay-Z: Watch The Throne

Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 10 August 2011

THIS ISN'T AS crappy as I expected, not the disaster 'H.A.M.' and 'Otis' promised us. Better than Jay-Z's BP3, not as good as Fantasy or, ...

Jay-Z, Kanye West: The Fall of Jay-Z and Ye

Retrospective by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 20 April 2023

BETWEEN THE TRAGIC murder of Biggie Smalls in 1997 and Jay-Z's temporary retirement in 2003, he and his producer Kanye West dominated the rap scene. ...

LCD Soundsystem: Madison Square Garden

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 3 April 2011

JAMES MURPHY is Irish, so why not a wake? Following his decision to kill off the LCD Soundsystem franchise, lead singer Murphy announced a last hurrah ...

Madonna: Yankee Stadium, Bronx NY

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 7 September 2012

AT THE MIDWAY point of Madonna's lousy Yankee Stadium set Thursday night, she hectors the exhausted audience like a shrewish old maid, on the use ...

Megadeth: Theater at Madison Square Garden, NYC

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 31 January 2012

DAVE MUSTAINE made a fan out of me with two actions. Neither musical. ...

One Direction: Midnight Memories

Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 29 November 2013

IF NIALL HORAN, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, referred to as One Direction, had thought it through, they would have cut at ...

Katy Perry: Madison Square Garden, New York

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 16 November 2011

IT WAS THE 118th date on Katy Perry's California Dreaming Tour. I know that for certain because, standing on a pink cloud, held up by ...

Lana Del Rey: Ultraviolence (Interscope)

Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 23 June 2014

SOMETIMES OTHER writers do your work for you and Caryn Ganz's  (former editor at Spin) excellent Rolling Stone review of Lana Del Rey's sophomore effort ...

Rihanna: Talk That Talk

Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 21 November 2011

RATED R FOUND THE Barbadian well pissed at Chris Brown and out for revenge to disappointing results. Loud seemed to find the middle ground behind the bucolic Rated ...

Olivia Rodrigo: Radio City Music Hall, New York City

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 28 April 2022

LAST NIGHT at Radio City Music Hall, Olivia Rodrigo provided a whole lotta deja-vu as she performed her hugely successful debut album, Sour, as well ...

Ed Sheeran: Mercury Lounge, NYC

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 2 February 2012

WHAT'S WITH Ed Sheeran and homelessness? The subject provides two short stories and three songs during his second set ever in the US at Mercury ...

Sufjan Stevens: Beacon Theatre, New York NY

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 12 April 2015

THE DIFFERENCE between Rufus Wainwright's full length lament for his late mother, All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu, and Sufjan Stevens, Carrie And Lowell, is ...

Swedish House Mafia: Madison Square Garden, New York NY

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 18 December 2011

THE DIFFERENCE between House as the prevailing form of dance and house as a texture in modern pop is the difference between foreground and background. ...

Swet Shop Boys: Webster Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 14 April 2017

SWET SHOP BOYS performed a very neat trick at Webster Hall on Wednesday night: they made Pakistan cool again and brought the 90 million odd ...

Taylor Swift: Madison Square Garden, November 22nd, 2011

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 24 November 2011

STANDING ON A PLATFORM in the middle of the Arena, Taylor Swift looked genuinely amazed. A young girl in the cheap seats randomly began to ...

TV On The Radio: Radio City Music Hall

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 15 April 2011

THE DAY AFTER the release of their somewhere between very good and great new album, TV On The Radio took over Radio City Music hall ...

Tyler, The Creator: Goblin

Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 26 May 2011

FORGET THE controversy. No, wait, we can't. The controversy is a breath of fresh air. If you listen to the album you might be confused ...

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