by Andrew Sacher

Action Bronson demonstrates the size of his testicles (more by Brook Bobbins)

Action Bronson, who can you can vote for as one of the XXL freshmen of 2012, and who played at the Hip Hop Hanukah show at S.O.B.'s last Thursday, will play another show in his home city before the year ends at Highline Ballroom on December 27. The show is with Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire (who recently played a BV-presented show at Glasslands with G-Side), DyMe-A-DuZiN and The Doppelgangaz. Tickets are still available. He doesn't appear to have any other scheduled shows at the moment.

Action Bronson recently released the new collaborative LP Well Done with Statik Selektah. Get your copy at iTunes. You can also watch the video for album track "Not Enough Words," and stream another one, "Coca Butter," below.

In other news, Action Bronson recently remixed Justin Beiber's holiday jam, "Mistletoe," not long after dropping a track with Asher Roth called "Choices," both of which you can stream below. Not sure if he's joking with these collaborations, but I kinda hope he is. Plus, collabing with the Biebs is way more of a Drake thing to do, which we know Bronson's mentor Ghostface Killah would NEVER approve of, and in Ghostface's book of dont's, an Asher Roth collaboration isn't far behind.

songs and videos below...

Continue reading "Action Bronson's recent release w/ Statik Selektah, a Justin Bieber remix (???), an upcoming show w/ Exquire & stuff"

The Cool Kids & giant fish man @ LP listening party (via Green Label Sound

Alternative hip hop duo The Cool Kids (aka Chuck Inglish and Mikey Rocks) released their first official full length album When Fish Ride Bicycles yesterday (7/12) on Mountain Dew's Green Label Sound. The majority of the album was produced in-house by Cool Kids member Chuck Inglish, and also features some production by The Neptunes and Travis Barker. Guest spots include Bun B, Ghostface Killah, Mayer Hawthorne, Pharrell, and a few others. The album is streaming at AOL and is available for download exclusively on iTunes. BBGun directed the video for the album's lead track "Bundle Up." Check that out below, along with the making-of video, and grab the track at Green Label Sound. Also check out the Mayer Hawthorne-featured "Swimsuits." below.

Green Label Sound hosted a listening party for the album in NYC on July 7 at Sweet and Vicious. The giant fish man (pictured above) made multiple appearances at the party, as did album guests Asher Roth, Maxine Ashley, and Tennille.

The Cool Kids will tour in support of the album this summer. The tour includes a stop at Lollapalooza and a NYC show on August 10 at Brooklyn Bowl. TIckets go on sale Thursday (7/14) at noon.

All tour dates, videos, album art and tracklist below...

Continue reading "The Cool Kids released an LP, touring (dates)"

Passion Pit @ Terminal 5 in January (more by Samantha Marble)

Passion Pit, The Black Keys and Ting Tings will all be playing free shows in NYC sometime soon. There's a Facebook event page for the shows, but very little information otherwise. They're being sponsored by Kin, which is a new Windows-based phone. Kin is also putting on two free shows in San Francisco - one with Yeasayer and one with NERD & Asher Roth - on May 8th.

Two of the bands playing NYC have other shows coming up in the city and world: check out our latest posts on Passion Pit and Black Keys.

Yeasayer headlined Webster Hall in NYC on Tuesday night.

photos by Chris La Putt

Indie darlings Matt & Kim kicked off the show -- which celebrates the year's best music as determined by MTVu's college-centric audience -- with an energetic performance of their breakout single "Lessons Learned." Later, the duo returned to accept their Best Video Woodie award.

"We've had one heck of a year," said Matt Johnson, before counterpart Kim Schifino leapt into the crowd.

Additional performers included veteran alt-rockers Death Cab for Cutie, who rocked the audience with its "New Moon" soundtrack single "Meet Me on the Equinox," as well as Passion Pit, the Dead Weather and Clipse, who were joined onstage by fellow rappers Cam'ron and Rick Ross.

Presenter highlights came from Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz and pop prankserts 3OH!3. Wentz rolled onto the stage holding a red Solo cup, while 3OH!3 gave a nod to Lady Gaga by dressing in her various VMA outfits. Asher Roth, will.i.am, and surprise guest Cyndi Lauper also presented awards. [Billboard]

Cyndi presented an award with Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester who also recently made an appearance at the Weezer (and Matt & Kim) show on Halloween that was sponsored by RXP aka the Matt Pinfield station. Matt was also at the Woodies as was Diplo who was DJing and David Cross, Zooey Deschanel, Janelle Monae, Dave 1 from Chromeo, and Mary Louise Parker. Matt and Kim didn't get naked like they do in their winning video (their second MTV win for that video), but their backup singers did strip down to their underwear.

The Dead Weather also played a show one day before the Woodies in Brooklyn. The Woodies air December 4th at 10pm. More pictures from the event (11/18 at Roseland Ballroom in NYC), below...

Continue reading "2009 mtvU Woodie Awards @ Roseland - pics (Passion Pit, Dead Weather, Matt & Kim, Clipse, Death Cab, more) "

photos by Tim Griffin

DOWNLOAD: Kid Cudi - Dat New New (Viking remix) (MP3)

Kid Cudi @ Highline Ballroom in Dec (more by Leia Jospe)

New York's iconic Paper magazine celebrates the release of its summer music issue by hosting the biggest music event in its history -- a free concert featuring hipster-hip-hopper Kid Cudi, with prep-pop duo Chester French, and DJ sets by Brooklyn noise-rock legends Les Savy Fav.

The concert, Sounds Like Paper 2009 -- presented by Ray-Ban -- is slated to kick off at 5:30 p.m. this Friday, June 26, on the Pier 17 stage at The Seaport.

The flyer for that show is below, and Kid Cudi will be back his NYC on July 15th as part of his summer tour with Asher Roth. Tickets to that show at the Nokia Theater appear to be sold out. The tour runs up to Lollapalooza on August 7th, where both acts will perform. All dates below.

Viking's remix of Cudi's "Dat New New" is posted above. Cudi's debut, Man on the Moon: The End of Day, is scheduled to come out August 25th on Kanye's G.O.O.D. Music/Universal Motown.

Asher Roth, like Public Enemy, was among the artists who played the Roots Picnic in Philly earlier this month. A not-yet-published set of pictures from that show below.

Friday's free show is the second unofficial start to this year's free concert series at the South Street Seaport. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion played a Bike Fest show there last week. Here We Go Magic and Bachelorette (who is also now playing a show on July 4th) kick off the River to River shows (the regular season) there on July 3rd.

Friday's flyer, "Five things you didn't know about Kid Cudi," the above-mentioned pics, and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Chester French & Kid Cudi, who is touring (dates) w/ Asher Roth (pics), play a free show @ South Street Seaport Friday"

"Though promoters around the country report strong early ticket sales for festivals and summer tours, the recession is causing jitters. This year Coachella, which has the most glamorous reputation of all American festivals, began selling tickets on layaway, and 18 percent of its customers took that option, Mr. Tollett said.

The proliferation of big festivals, like Bonnaroo near Nashville and Lollapalooza in Chicago, has not been without casualties. This year Langerado in Miami shut down, citing the economy. The Pemberton Festival in British Columbia is on hiatus after only one year, although its promoter, Live Nation, said the problem was permit delays." [NY Times]

With all the leaks of bands playing Lollapalooza this year, there are almost no surprises in the official lineup announcement, except maybe the Animal Collective DJ set... The whole thing below...

Continue reading "Lollapalooza 2009 - the official & complete lineup"

Like Yo La Tengo, Matisyahu is playing eight NYC-area Hanukkah shows this year. This is not the first time Matisyahu did this, but I think Yo La Tengo has been doing it longer. Also, Yo La Tengo has more indie cred. Yo La Tengo tickets are on sale. Matisyahu tickets are on sale (presale code = SHINEBRIGHT). All Matisyahu dates below...

Continue reading "Matisyahu vs. Yo La Tengo - Hanukkah show tickets on sale"