If you live or hang out in Williamsburg, you may have noticed that for most of July, the corner space at Driggs & Metropolitan has been taken over as the Levis Commuter Workspace, offering wifi, workspace, and lots of cyclist services: tune-ups, customization, washes, and more. (Also a look at the clothing brand's Commuter line). The space closes this weekend but not before Prodigy of veteran hip hop duo Mobb Deep performs at the free Closing Party there this Saturday (7/26) at 7 PM. All you have to do to get in is RSVP. There will be cocktails provided by Baby's All Right and Grady's Cold Brew, commuters can bring their bikes for complimentary tune-ups, and there will be a chance to win a Tokyobike. Do note RSVP does not guarantee entry, which is based on capacity.

Mobb Deep celebrated the 20th anniversary of the 1994 recording sessions for their classic LP The Infamous (released in 1995) this year by releasing The Infamous Mobb Deep, a two-disc set that includes their first new music since 2006 and unreleased material from the original Infamous sessions. They just made a video for "Low" (ft. Mack Wilds) off the newly-recorded portion, which you can watch below.

Mobb Deep have also been pretty active as a live group lately. They played their home city this past May at Irving Plaza and this past Thursday (7/17) they played their actual hometown when they put on their first-ever show in Queensbridge Park, as part of the ongoing Summerstage series. Vulture caught the show and wrote:

A few hours before their "homecoming" concert in Queensbridge Park last Thursday night, Prodigy and Havoc, the two halves who make up the whole of the rap group Mobb Deep, were philosophizing as to why "The QB," which is what the giant public-housing project adjacent to the park is often called, has produced so many hip-hoppers. It is a roster that includes the great Nas, Capone (of Capone-N-Noreaga), Marley Marl, Roxanne Shanté, and Mobb Deep itself, whose 1995 album The Infamous is considered a classic of hard-core urbanity, a formidable East Coast response to Dr. Dre's immortal Cali-based The Chronic. The QB's fecundity was a product of "time, space, and motion," said Prodigy, the erstwhile boy genius who, like his equally diminutive partner (neither tops five foot six), turns 40 this year. Much is owed to the Queens housing project's sheer size, said Prodigy; it was the biggest one not only in New York City but in the entire country. But more than that was "the location."

...when the group hit the stage, picturesquely set beneath the elegantly industrial arches of the renamed Edward I. Koch Bridge, a burst of joy came forth. "Queensbridge!," Prodigy shouted into the mike. "Queensbridge!" returned the crowd, which certainly included a large number of the QB "old-timers," some of whom have been living in the project for half a century and arrived in their wheelchairs to bop along to the beats. Never much for nonsense time-killing (no soft-ass, dreary R&B voicings for them), Mobb Deep went hard, kicking through their new stuff and bringing the old, really busting it on "Temperature's Rising," with its whoa! lines, "that snitch n***** gave the police your location/we'll chop up his body in six degrees of separation." The lines were just as foreboding as ever, but on this mid-summer evening, with the festive picnic crowd, the city gleaming in the sunset, no hint of mayhem could pierce the celebration.

Continue reading "Mobb Deep made a video, played Queensbridge Park; Prodigy playing free Levi's show this Saturday"

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Johnathan Demme's classic Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, and the film has been making the rounds at various screenings around the country and was just released on Blu-Ray. The film will screen as part of Lincoln Center's Sound + Vision Festival at the Walter Reade Theater on August 1, to be followed by a Q&A with David Byrne himself. File this one under 'not to be missed.'

Tickets are sold out, but If you'd still like to go we have two pairs of tickets to the Lincoln Center screening to give away. ALSO one of those two winners will also be getting the new Blu-Ray of the film SIGNED BY ALL FOUR MEMBERS of the Talking Heads. Details on how to enter the contest, plus a few clips from Stop Making Sense, below...

Continue reading "'Stop Making Sense' screening in NYC w/ David Byrne Q&A: win tix ++ Blu-Ray autographed by all 4 Talking Heads "

Rumblings from the land of streaming giants. Amazon says that it has added "hundreds of thousands of songs" to its Amazon Prime music streaming service, following complaints that its selection was too small. A few of the artists mentioned in their announcement are Kendrick Lamar, Neil Young, Nick Cave, A$AP Rocky and Oasis. Unfortunately, they still don't have a deal with Universal. Subscriptions were raised from $79 to $99 this past April, and they include unlimited music, movie and TV show streams, as well as free two-day shipping.

Spotify is a bigger kid on the block, with 20 million songs in its catalog to Amazon's million and change. Rumors circulated that Google was interested in purchasing Spotify, but balked at their asking price of well above $10 billion, after a Wall Street Journal article surfaced, reporting just that. However, Recode states that they reached out to "multiple sources at both companies" and claims that there have been no discussions between the companies about an acquisition. The Recode article says it was nothing more than meetings between Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek and Google execs about commercial deals at YouTube, Google Play, and Android:

"There has not been a single conversation about Google's interest between the two," said one source, reflecting many others. "There was never a price, never a negotiation, never anything."

If anyone is going to purchase Spotify, it seems unlikely to be Apple, who acquired Dr. Dre's Beats for $3 billion earlier this year.

Danny Brown at Pitchfork 2014 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

We recently mentioned that Rustie is releasing a new album, Green Language, which features Danny Brown on a track, and that track has now come out. It's called "Attak" and can be streamed below.

Rustie's tour hits NYC at Webster Hall this Friday (7/25). Tickets for that show are still available. Danny Brown played NYC's Best Buy Theater last night (7/23). Anyone go?

Video of Danny's set from last night, with the new song stream, below...

Continue reading "Danny Brown played Best Buy Theater, made a song w/ Rustie who plays NYC on Friday (listen)"

Guitar Center will be opening a new location in Times Square on Thursday, August 7 at 7 PM. That'll give NYC's tourist mecca 28,000 square feet of new axes to choose from and to show off those new licks you learned when you try 'em out (remember, no Stairway). In celebration of that, The Roots will play next door at the free show at Best Buy Theater that day. Even though it's free, you still need a ticket to go, and there's a few places to pick one up on August 5 (details HERE). We also have two pairs to giveaway. One of those pairs also COMES WITH A LUDWIG DRUMSET (Questlove's signature 'Breakbeats' line), courtesy of Guitar Center. Here's what it looks like when Questlove plays it:

Details on how to enter the contest, below...

Continue reading "The Roots playing a free show to celebrate Guitar Center's new Times Square location (win tix and/or a drumset!)"

(photo via @m_del)

More vanishing New York. This time iconic, unironic midtown NYC dive bar Subway Inn. Via their Facebook:

Subway Inn Patrons,

As you might know, Subway Inn was established in 1937, and has been proudly serving customers since.

We are sad to inform you that Subway Inn will be closed for business on or about the 15th of August. That's not to say we aren't opening another location. Subway Inn WILL relocate.

Follow Us for further details.

-SUBWAY INN

PornHub has already become a hot (some might say very hot) spot to premiere music videos -- just ask Xiu Xiu and FaltyDL -- and the next person to (sort of) follow suit will be a man of great hair, a misspelled Juggalo tattoo, and a standout on the Space Jam soundtrack, Coolio.

Earlier this week, TMZ reported that Coolio had actually signed to PornHub and would be releasing music there, but Coolio since clarified to Rolling Stone that's not actually the case. The video will just be a new PornHub ad that features Coolio in it. Here's what he said when Rolling Stone asked about TMZ's story:

Hold up. They made that shit up completely. I didn't talk to them about shit and they didn't ask me any questions. That shit was a fuckin' promo song for the website. That's it! I met some executive from Pornhub while he was out [in Las Vegas] for the AVNs. We hung out; he was cool. He asked me to do a song for Pornhub and that was it. It's not even my song that I'm putting out. I'm never doing a new album. I'll probably do nothing but singles. I'm as good as anybody out there lyrically and conceptually and can go toe to toe with the best of them throughout history. But I don't know how much longer I'll be doing it. It's not really fun anymore.

I don't even watch porn, bro. You know why?

Why?

Because I am fuckin' porn. Why should I watch somebody do something that I could be doing? That doesn't make sense to me. If I want to see porn, I'll fuckin' put a mirror next to my bed. There's 7 billion people on the planet, right? If that's so, then I'm one of the world's 1 million greatest lovers. I'm totally unselfish. I don't give a shit about myself. I'm all about my partner. I'm a pleaser. You can ask any woman I've ever been with and they'll tell you, "He's the motherfucker."

In other news, there's now Weird Al-themed porn.

PREVIOUSLY:
Perfect Pussy and Pity Sex opening for New Pornographers.

Continue reading "Coolio made a new ad for PornHub, but isn't signing a deal with them ++ there's Weird Al-themed porn now"

Riot Fest Chicago 2014 is set to take place from September 12-14 throughout Humboldt Park. The 10th anniversary of the festival features Jane's Addiction, Slayer, The Offspring, Pussy Riot (Nadya Tolokonnikova & Masha Alekhina), Mastodon, The Murder City Devils, Failure, Title Fight, The National, The Flaming Lips, Wu-Tang Clan, Descendents, The Cure, Weezer, Social Distortion, Primus, Patti Smith, and many more across seven-stages. The fest has now shared daily lineups, which you can scope out at the bottom of this post. Three-day and two-day passes are still available, and single-day tickets are on sale now.

Denver single day tickets are on sale too. Day-by-day lineups HERE.

Toronto single day tickets are also on sale. Day-by-day lineups HERE.

RFC 2014 daily lineups lie after the jump...

Continue reading "Riot Fest Chicago announces daily lineups, single-day tix on sale"

Mexico City's Rey Pila have been tapped to open for Interpol on the West Coast leg of their upcoming tour. (Hundred Waters open the NYC shows, tickets for the 11/26 date are still available.) In conjunction, the band have released a new song, "Blast," via Julian Casablancas' Cult Records which you can stream and download below.

Before their run with Interpol, Rey Pila will have an August residency at Pianos in NYC, playing four consecutive Tuesdays (8/5, 8/12, 8/19, 8/26). Here are the lineups:

AUGUST 5 w/ Lovers & Reflections, Dreamers

AUGUST 12 w/ Chloe Sunshine, Wild Ones, Dark Rift, Johnnie Lewis

AUGSUT 19 w/ Modern Rivals, Folding Legs, Matthew Meade, Challenger

AUGUST 26 w/ Boytoy, The Fluids, Shark Week, Wand, Johnny Aries

All Rey Pila tour dates are listed, along with the new track stream, below...

Continue reading "Rey Pila released a new song (stream it), doing NYC residency in August before West Coast dates with Interpol"

Lydia Loveless in Chicago in April (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Swaggering alt-country singer Lydia Loveless just wrapped up an acoustic tour with Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven which hit NYC at BB King's this past weekend (7/18), and she's since scheduled her own headlining tour. The new tour brings her back to NYC for a show on September 27 at The Studio at Webster Hall. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday (7/25) at 10 AM.

All dates are listed, with a recent video session she did, below...

Continue reading "Lydia Loveless touring, playing Studio at Webster Hall (dates)"