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Mike Rimbaud

Rank #211 New York, NY Rock / Indie Pop / Alternative Rock

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About

Members: Mike Rimbaud

Sounds Like: Joe Strummer, Jonathan Richman, Bruce Springsteen, Steve Forbert, Bob Marley

Bio: Mike Rimbaud is an American singer-songwriter and painter who lives in New York City. He has recorded 10 albums, the first, “Mutiny in the Subway” was recorded in a minimalist style with guitar, bass and percussion. His latest is "Night Rainbow," 11 new tracks recorded in New York City's Water Dr... See Full Bio

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Posted a new comment "Mother's day is this Sunday, Here's "Mamma Say Something Nice" from "Coney..." http://www.reverbnation.com/mikerimbaud

Press

"When I first heard Rimbaud’s gritty voice delivering the lyrics on his fascinating songs, I felt like his music could be classified as country, but then I settled on everyman’s acoustic rock. This NYC musician treats subjects that range from Hurricane Sandy (4) to the woes of today’s economy (8) to the overscheduled nature of life (3, 10) to Beatles covers (11) to how underappreciated teachers are (5) (definitely #6 came to mind on this one). The first song is a treasure with its rainbow references. You’ll either enjoy this or wonder about it, either one of which is a good thing." -KFJC Radio, California.

— Humana , KFJC Music reviews, California

"NIGHT RAINBOW" Back to New York City retrouver le poète rocker Mike Rimbaud qui nous revient avec son nouvel album sous le bras. Pour en savoir plus sur lui je vous invite à relire le passionnant entretien qu'il nous avait accordé l'an dernier. En effet Mike fait partie de ces songwriters qui ont des choses à dire, et sans détours. Et il le prouve encore dans ce 11ème album "Rainbow tonight" dans lequel il dresse un portrait de sa ville meurtrie aussi bien par les éléments naturels (l'ouragan Sandy) que par de années de politique aboutissant à un écart de plus en plus grand entre le luxe dans lequel se vautrent les élites et la pauvreté qui règne à l'autre bout de l'échelle, d'où le vent de révolte qui a soufflé avec le mouvement "Occupy Wall Street", puisse t-il aussi se transformer un jour en ouragan et balayer la finance toute puissante. Mike s'inscrit dans la lignée des Woodie Guthrie, Phil Ochs, Dylan, Springsteen et lance un vrai cri d'appel à la révolte

— ROCKIN-JL, LE DEBLOCNOT

“Mike Rimbaud Captures the State of the City: No other songwriter has captured the current climate in New York better than Mike Rimbaud. One powerful influence on Rimbaud’s work, lyrically speaking, is Phil Ochs, (check out the absolutely vindictive version of The Ringing of Revolution from Rimbaud’s 2012 album You Can’t Judge a Song by Its Cover). Rimbaud’s latest album Midnight Rainbow – streaming at his site – is an eclectic, characteristically tuneful, savagely lyrical, cleverly amusing mix of songs that span from straight-up four-on-the-floor rock, to new wave, garage rock, psychedelia and reggae. Rimbaud has listened deeply and widely; his thinly veiled references to other songs, especially from the Rolling Stones, are cruelly spot-on. Rimbaud plays all the guitars as well as banjo, backed by tersely tuneful bassist C.Fletcher and excellent drummer Kevin Tooley, with occasional keyboards from Marc Billon. Britain in 1977 had the Clash: New York in 2013 has Mike Rimbau”

— delarue, New York Music Daily

“Judging Mike Rimbaud’s Covers Album" After seven albums of original material – and his excellent, most recent release, Coney Island Wave (chronicled here yesterday), literate rocker Mike Rimbaud decided to do an album of covers. Which can be tricky. In order to cover a song that’s worth covering to begin with, you either have to do it better than the original – no easy task – or completely reinvent it. Which is exactly what Rimbaud did with Can’t Judge a Song By Its Cover. To call this record ambitious is something of an understatement: tackling mostly well-known, iconic songs, Rimbaud makes it seem easy as he nails them, one by one. If you’re willing to buy the argument that there’s such thing as a classic album of covers, this is it.”

— by delarue, New York Music Daily

“Mike Rimbaud’s Coney Island Wave Is a Riptide. Any conversation about great lyrical songwriters since the punk era needs to include Elvis Costello and Graham Parker…and Mike Rimbaud. Rimbaud is younger than they are; stylistically, he’s closer to Parker, both in terms of surreal, aphoristic, dark lyrics and excellent guitarslinging. In fact, Rimbaud’s the best guitarist of all three, equally interesting whether he’s working an oldschool soul vamp, playing twangy noir surf licks, angry punk rock or glimmering, nocturnal Stonesy lines. His most recent album of originals, Coney Island Wave is one of the great New York rock records. It’s both a celebration of this city as well as an often savagely spot-on look at the state of the world, 2012, set to catchy, usually upbeat tunes that run the gamut from vintage new wave, to creepy garage rock, to oldschool soul. It’s the rare album where the melodies are as good as the lyrics...”

— Delarue, Lucid Culture New York Music Daily

“The Return of An Underground Hero: Mike Rimbaud's guitars don't look down on either electricity or percussion and even less on organ and crawling synthesizers. All that to draw, with a charcoal pencil or oil, whole vignettes of urban American life like a roof troubadour, an image that first burst out with his first album, in the 90's, "Mutiny In the Subway" on which you could see him walk by the water tanks that top the buildings of the Big Apple. His art is anchored in a reality that recalls Bruce Springsteen, the storyteller of everyday life ("Losing is a Victory"), as much as the Marc Bolan of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, ("Searching for Yourself"). Rimbaud who navigates between painting and music, slays you with all this in a slightly broken voice, the voice of asphalt, the voice of cobble stones and if he wins it all, it is because of his authenticity. Rare and valuable, Mike is the man-on -the-street of New York. ROLLING STONE (French Edition)February, 2011 ”

— Jean-Pierre Simard, ROLLING STONE

“Lower East Side vet Mike Rimbaud took the name of his new band from a set of cute cartoon signs that reminded ’50s commuters not to smoke or spit. But it’s that dingy, subterranean, through-the-grate kind of glow that informs his scruffy-voiced rock songs, invoking ’70s Costello and Springsteen along with an improbable hint of Brazil—the Baiana guitar (a surfy-sounding electrified acoustic).”

— Kamenetz, The Village Voice

“Mike Rimbaud, in basic black, wielded an electric guitar in songs that were terse, telegraphic and propelled by urgent strumming. Mr. Rimbaud has a rocker's rasp in his voice, and he knows how to get the most power out of verses with few words. His songs would be even more effective with a little editing; even at their current length, they crackle with New York's nervy paranoia.”

— -JON PARELES , The New York Times

“Mike Rimbaud was ill-fated to be coming up right when Graham Parker and Elvis Costello were at the peak of their popularity. Twenty years later, just like those songwriting icons, Rimbaud remains an equally vital force. Throughout his 45-minute set, Rimbaud particularly evoked Parker with his catchy, soul-influenced tunes, sardonically aware, pun-laden, aphoristic lyrics and rakish delivery. “Stimulate me, baby,” he railed, sarcastically referencing Obama’s trickle-down economics while the percussionist behind him rattled a museum’s worth of bangable objects from around the globe. His guitar running through a dense fog of reverb, Rimbaud shuffled his way through a couple of catchy new wave soul numbers possibly titled Dirty Little Bomb and Pretty Green Baby, the latter a sendup of “fashion fascists.” Diva in a Dive Bar was pretty self-explanatory; Mother Was a Punk was bracing, to say the least.”

— Lucid Culture

"Rock and Poetique" an interview in French

— Claude Frelich, X-Roads magazine

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Recent Blogs

Happy Mother's Day, "Mamma ...
May 7, 2013
Mother's day is this Sunday, Here's "Mamma Say Something Nice" from "Coney Islan... [more]

New music video premiere: "...
May 1, 2013
New music video: "Teacher's Got a Bad Mouth." High school from a teacher's poin... [more]

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Play "Big Bad Bully"

Big Bad Bully

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Play "Rainbow Tonight"

Rainbow Tonight

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Play "Robin Hood in Reverse"

Robin Hood in Rever…

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Play "Dark Money Can't Buy Her Kisses"

Dark Money Can't Bu…

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Jackhammer Jones

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Lady Zombie
So happy to be a guest vocalist on "Sandy Must Be Crazy!" Kick ass working with you, Mike. :)
Rod Rock
nice and great new track "Jackhammer Jones"! keep on!
ABOI DOYLE
brilliant stuff here
The Fabulous Del Counts
+++++++++++++ "BIG BAD BULLY " +++++++++++