Twin Sister at Bowery Ballroom in 2011 (more by Jessica Amaya)

today in NYC
* Whiplash @ UCB
* Wyatt Cenac @ Littlefield
* John Hodgman @ The Creek & Cave
* Blood Orange @ Sony Style
* Tony Scherr @ Living Room
* Jim Campilongo @ Living Room
* Ask Me Another @ The Bell House
* Ali Shaheed Muhammad @ Le Bain
* Linfinity, Free Blood, Waking Lights @ Mercury Lounge (cancelled)
* Rita Ora, Iggy Azalea, Havana Brown @ Highland Ballroom
* Lydia Lunch, Thurston Moore, John Moloney @ The Bowery Electric
* Belle Mare, Elephant Wrecking Ball, Four Visions, Wilsen @ Cameo
* Juggernut, Ken South Rock, Filthy Savage, Jah Jah of Ninasonik (DJ set) @ Pyramid Club
* Chairlift, Twin Sister, Empress Of, Slowdance, Jason McMahon, Ice Choir DJ set @ Glasslands
* Ben Taylor, Menahan Street Band, Ki:Theory, Sinkane DJ set, In Transit DJ set @ The Bowery Hotel
* Caribbean Music Festival w/ Machel Montano, Alison Hinds, Mr. Vegas, Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh @ Barclays Center

ZZZs were supposed to play Pyramid Club tonight but had to drop off the show. However, you can catch them tomorrow at Death by Audio (12/18) with Dead Til Tuesday, Negfi, and Human Crush.

The Caribbean Fever Music Festival, which was supposed to take place on November 2 but was postponed due to Hurricane Sandy, goes down at the Barclays Center tonight with Machel Montano, Alison Hinds, Mr. Vegas, Slick Rick, and Doug E. Fresh. Tickets are still available.

For more old school hip hop in NYC tonight, you can also head to The Standard at Le Bain to catch Ali Shaheed Muhammad (of A Tribe Called Quest) DJing.

T.I., who plays a sold out show at Best Buy Theater with A$AP Rocky on Tuesday, has landed in NYC ahead of that show. He'll be taping a performance in midtown this afternoon and will head to Fuse Studios after that for a performance at 9 PM, which will stream live at the Fuse YouTube channel. His new album, Trouble Man: Heavy Is The Head, drops tomorrow and since we last spoke, he revealed two more songs: "Hello" feat. Cee Lo Green and "Wildside" feat. A$AP Rocky. You can stream them both below.

And for even more hip hop, don't forget that the Duck Down Music and Javotti Media holiday party, which BrooklynVegan is co-sponsoring, is tomorrow (12/18) at Music Hall of Williamsburg with Talib Kweli, Pharoahe Monch, Buckshot, Sean Price, Smif-N-Wessun, Flatbush Zombies, Skyzoo, and Dyme-A-Duzin. Tickets for that show are still available.

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It's about that time of the year when the Christmas songs start piling. We just heard Ex Cops take on Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime", and now The xx have revealed a cover of Wham's "Last Christmas" on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge this morning. Check it out below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

photos by Amanda Hatfield, words by Andrew Sacher

Flying Lotus / Death Grips

"You New Yorkers are lucky," said Flying Lotus last night (10/17) on stage at Le Poisson Rouge pointing at Ali Shaheed Muhammad (of A Tribe Called Quest), who had been DJing between sets, "You got a legend right here... I think he lives here or something. It's an honor to be sharing a stage with him."

"Nah, it's an honor to be sharing a stage with you," Ali said in return, "Flying Lotus is a legend in the making."

Then the two producers hugged it out on stage as the crowd cheered and FlyLo got behind the boards to prove Ali's "legend-in-the-making" statement true. He had just sold out Terminal 5 last week, so this LPR show was an intimate one and as soon as he began, the packed crowd went nuts. Blown out textures and rattling bass came flowing out the speakers as FlyLo struck a priestlike pose and took the whole venue into his own warped vision of hip hop's future. He looks like he has as much fun on stage as the crowd on the floor does-- dancing, singing along to the vocal samples he uses, and grinning when crowd reactions agreed with the beat he chose to drop or the hit song he decided to throw in (like "Niggas In Paris"). The set was almost entirely seamless, blending songs from his new album, Until the Quiet Comes, with other memorable tracks from hip hop's recent past, and old favorites (like the obligatory "Do The Astral Plane") too. The best moment of the set came when he mixed Kanye's "Mercy" into his own "Putty Boy Strut," and other standouts came from portions of "Sultan's Request," "Getting There," and a sped up Frank Ocean vocal ("Thinkin Bout You").

Like I said, Flylo's crowd was wild, but not as wild as it was for Death Grips, who filled the venue with their fucked vision of rap rock before Flying Lotus' headlining set. As MC Ride barked rhymes and Zach Hill pounded away at his cymbal-less kit, the angry dude mosh pits broke out (at least in the front of the stage) and never really let up. With three great albums under their belt since 2011, Death Grips have no shortage of solid material and the crowd agreed, shouting every word and pumping their fists along as they did. If you weren't there last night and want to experience the insanity for yourself, check him out at the Pitchfork showcase at Villain on Friday (10/19) or Music Hall of Williamsburg on November 12 (tix) with Mykki Blanco, who was in attendance last night after blowing the roof off Cake Shop earlier in the day.

The always-great Buke & Gase opened the show. It was presented by NPR Music and WNYC and if you missed it, the archive will soon be posted to NPR's website. More pictures of all four artists from lat night are below.

Continue reading "Flying Lotus, Death Grips, Buke & Gase, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad played Le Poisson Rouge (pics, review)"

Death Grips at Coachella 2012 (more by David Andrako)

As mentioned, Death Grips are also playing a NPR-presented CMJ show with Flying Lotus at Le Poisson Rouge on October 17. That bill also includes Ali Shaheed Muhammad (of A Tribe Called Quest) and since we last spoke Buke & Gase were added as well. The show is free with "confirmed RSVP", which opens TODAY (10/9) at 10:45 AM (aka really soon). Act quick.

We already mentioned that Death Grips and LE1F are playing Pitchfork's CMJ showcase at new Brooklyn warehouse venue Villain on October 19 (50 N 3rd St). Now the full lineup is out and it also includes DIIV, Joey Bada$$, Holy Other, METZ, Merchandise, Daughn Gibson, Hundred Waters, and Angel Haze. The show goes from 8PM to 3 AM and is totally free to the public, but there will also be 200 priority tickets being given away at the Topman store (478 Broadway in SoHo) "on Wednesday and Thursday between 10 AM and 9 PM."

Pitchfork is also teaming up with MoMA PS1 to present a show in the VW Performance Dome on October 20 (22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City) with Andy Stott, Chairlift, and Doldrums, which runs from 3-6 PM. That show is free with museum admission.

Pitchfork's metal column, Show No Mercy, is also presenting an unofficial showcase during CMJ.

The fliers for both Pitchfork shows are below...

Continue reading "Pitchfork announces full CMJ showcase lineup; RSVP opening for Death Grips/Flying Lotus show at LPR"

photos by Brook Bobbins

Ali-Shaheed Mohammed will return to the tables this weekend at Dekalb Market after spinning at Brooklyn Hip Hop Fest last weekend, along with (former?) bandmate Q-Tip and tons of suprise guests (like Busta Rhymes & Kanye West). You saw the videos. Here are the pics. More of them below...

Continue reading "Brooklyn Hip Hop Fest pics"

Ali Shaheed Muhammad @ Brooklyn Hip Hop Fest 2011

The Dekalb Market is opening on the old site of the Albee Square Mall and will have stores made out of salvaged shipping containers boasting a variety of pop-up shops in a town square like setting. A joint venture of Urban Space and Youngwoo & Associates, this new community destination will be open seven days a week and is located at the intersection of Flatbush and Willoughby in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Bodega is proud to not only have a vendor space at the market but also operation of the beer garden "The Cooler" that will be open on weekends. This Saturday (7/23) and Sunday (7/24), the Bodega will be hosting the Opening Weekend Celebration with crowd-pleasers DJ Spinna (6-9PM Sat) and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (6-9PM Sun) who will be performing at this free admission event...

Bringing together new and old partners, Brooklyn Bodega presents the return of the Fat Beats record store (who closed their seminal Hip-Hop Manhattan location in 2010). In collaboration with Fat Beats owner Joseph Abajian, Brooklyn Bodega is opening "Bbeats" this Saturday (7/23), which will specialize in new and rare Hip-Hop, Funk, Soul and Jazz vinyl, domestic and international CD's and other merchandise including limited edition apparel, books, and magazines.

De La DMC @ Nokia Theatre, NYC - 8/13/09 (by Tim Griffin)

As Del La Soul told the crowd when they took the stage at Nokia Theatre in NYC last night (8/13), their show was not going to be all music from 3 Feet High & Rising. Why would anyone think it would be? Probably because the show was billed as "20 Years High and Rising" (and everyone and their mother is playing full albums these days) (including Buckshot who opened the show, but didn't play a full album at this one either). I was more than okay with them not playing the full thing, though it would have been nice to hear a few more songs from that album. Specifically, I wished they played "The Magic Number" and "Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin's Revenge)".

I loved every second of the packed show, and the 10-piece backing band was an especially nice touch. That said, I was selfishly hoping for a few more special guests, not that there weren't any. I thought for sure that Q-Tip would show up, and the Jungle Brothers and Black Sheep, and maybe even Doom, and who knows who else. Ends up they sort of kept the guests to a minimum. Bumpy Knuckles performed a short unannounced opening set. Prince Paul was brought out for a second to say hello. Dres from Black Sheep and Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest were watching from the side of the stage and were brought forward to dance for a minute during "Buddy". And then, the big, and maybe only real special guest moment came during a cover of Run DMC's "Rock Box" which was completed with DMC himself on stage as part of the group. They covered Rakim too, but he wasn't there, maybe because he was downtown playing his own show at Highline Ballroom the same evening.

This Sunday (8/16) indie rock leaves the Williamsburg Waterfront for one week (Central Park Summerstage stole it for the day), and another big (mostly) hip hop show happens in NYC, courtesy of JellyNYC, and it's free (and/or $50). The Sunday Pool Party lineup includes Gravy Train!!!, DD/MM/YYYY, Kenan Bell (who also opened for De La Soul on Thursday), a DJ set by Prince Paul (Plug Four), and a headlining set by DEL the Funky Homosapien.

We have a full set of pictures coming from De La Soul (more tour dates HERE), and we'll have some from Sunday too. In the meantime, here's a few videos from the show...

Continue reading "De La Soul (& DMC) played Nokia, Prince Paul DJing Pool Party Sunday (w/ Del da Funky Homosapien, Kenan Bell, others) "