As mentioned, Azealia Banks revealed on twitter that she will play a show at Bowery Ballroom on June 3 after playing Hot 97 Summer Jam earlier that day. Bowery Ballroom confirmed the show soon after, and now the full lineup for that show, billed as "Mermaid Ball," has been revealed. As seen in the picture above, it includes Maluca, Wckids, Tigga Calore, House of Ladosha, special guest Leiomy of Vogue Revolution, plus styling by Cuntmafia, narration by Jack Mizrahi, and host Roxy Cottontail. There will also be a $1,000 cash giveaway to the person with the best mermaid costume (should make up for those scalper prices).

Tickets go on sale today (5/24) at noon. Good luck.

As we posted this morning, Azealia Banks will play Bowery Ballroom on June 3. That show is now official and Bowery Presents has announced that tickets will go on sale Thursday, 5/24 at noon. "Two tickets per customer, will call only. No hard tickets will be sold for this event. Tickets will not be available at the Mercury Lounge or Music Hall of Williamsburg box office." Azaealia says it's going to be "a gathering of kunts, gays, queers, and weirdoes alike in which various dance contests and bizarre/epic shit goes down." But we think it's just going to be gathering of those lucky enough to get the tickets when they go on sale and those willing to pay a lot to scalpers.

Azealia Banks at Coachella 2012 (more by David Andrako)

As mentioned, Azealia Banks will play Hot 97 Summer Jam at MetLife Stadium on June 3 in East Rutherford, NJ as part of the parking lot pre-show with Pusha T, Big K.R.I.T., A$AP Rocky, Schoolboy Q, Kendrick Lamar, and Fred the Godson. The Harlem-born world traveller just revealed on twitter that before she heads overseas for a run of festivals, she'll play her own, much smaller show in NYC at Bowery Ballroom that night (6/3), which she's billing as "'MERMAID BALL' + SPECIAL GUESTS." She continued to tweet about the show, adding, "This is especially for the girls!", and for those who don't know, explaining, "Guys: a "ball" is a very traditional gathering of kunts, gays, queers, and weirdoes alike in which various dance contests and bizarre/epic shit goes down. Alot of really Kunty clothing gets worn and everyone has a good ass time." Ticket info and flyer coming next week (UPDATE: Ticket info announced).

Updated dates and a video below...

Continue reading "Azealia Banks playing Bowery Ballroom after Summer Jam"

by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: Azealia Banks - Jumanji (MP3)

Azealia Banks at Coachella 2012 (more by David Andrako)

Azealia Banks, who recently canceled a bunch of summer shows due to "recording commitments," has now added more shows to her summer schedule. Most of those are in Europe, but she was just added to the Hot 97 Summer Jam lineup which goes down in East Rutherford, NJ at MetLife Stadium on June 3. The rest of the lineup includes Nicki MInaj, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Waka Flocka Flame, Young Jeezy, J. Cole, Wale, and more. Tickets for the fest are available. The full lineup is listed below.

UPDATE: She actually plays the Summer Jam pre-show in the parking lot with the even more impressive lineup of Pusha T, Big K.R.I.T., A$AP Rocky, Schoolboy Q, Kendrick Lamar, and Fred the Godson. Your Summer Jam ticket gets you into the pre-show.

In addition to her fickle live schedule, Azealia Banks continues to move around her schedule of releases as well. As of right now, she's planning to get her delayed 1991 EP out on May 29 digitally and June 12 physically via Interscope. The cover art for that EP is below. She'll follow it with the Fantastic mixtape, which is due out on July 4, and includes her recently dropped track, "Jumanji," which was produced by Hudson Mohawke and Nick Hook. Grab that track above or stream it below. Finally, her debut full length, Broke With Expensive Taste, which is presumably the album she's been working on with Paul Epworth, is due out in September.

In other news, fresh off her feud with Iggy Azalea (who plays SOBs TONIGHT [5/17]), she's taken a stab at Lil Kim, who refused to collaborate with Azealia because Lil Kim wanted to write her own verse. Azealia had written it for her and insisted, "Everybody knows Lil Kim doesn't write her own raps." We already know that Kim's got beef with Nicki Minaj. Azealia, however, seems down with Nicki and would possibly collaborate with her, but thinks she should ditch the "ugly wigs and ugly costumes." Maybe they'll meet up when they both play Summer Jam next month. On the other hand, Azealia Banks has collaborated with Missy Elliot and Rye Rye on a remix of M.I.A.'s "Bad Girls." Look for that soon.

A list of all dates, Hot 97 Summer Jam lineup, 1991 cover art, and the "Jumanji" stream are below...

Continue reading "Azealia Banks added to Hot 97 Summer Jam lineup, prepping EP, mixtape, and LP"

Is there anything more confusing than two up and coming, feuding female hip hop stars, both with the name "Azalea" (like the flower), but one is a last name and one is a first name spelled "Azealia"?

The latter just played her first two shows ever at Coachella and is now on her way back to NYC (the 212) to work with Missy Elliot (and she is very proud of that). Earlier today she was tweeting at T.I. (see above) for calling her feud with his Australian Grand Hustle signee Iggy Azalea "bitch shit," or some sexist shit like that.

Iggy Azalea is playing SOB's in NYC on May 17, right before she plays Bamboozle in NJ. Tickets for the NYC show are on sale.

Continue reading "Iggy Azalea continues fued with Azealia Banks, playing SOB's"

photos by David Andrako

"Did y'all peep my Lil boob out with tha pastie today at coachella ?!? That was my Lil Kim moment !" - AZEALIA BANKS

hologram Biggie w/ Black Lips / Azealia Banks / ASAP Rocky @ Coachella Saturday

"For a certain breed of diehard Coachella fan, once is just not enough. And since 2012 is the first year that the epic desert music and arts festival is being mounted twice in Indio, California, it was inevitable that some of the most obsessed would find a way to attend both three-day weekends.

"The Monday after the first one, I was kind of licking my wounds and I said, 'Hey, let's go again! I'm down. I get paid on Friday. It can happen," 28-year-old Carlos Morales, from Fullerton, California, told Rolling Stone yesterday. "Radiohead was a big part of it. They were amazing, and I really wanted to see them again."

Tickets for a single Coachella weekend are hard enough to come by; in recent years, they've typically sold out within days of going on sale, which sparked the motivation for festival organizers Goldenvoice Productions to add an identical second weekend this year. About six percent of festivalgoers who bought tickets online directly from the promoter managed to pick up tickets for both weekends, said Coachella co-founder Paul Tollett. Resales are harder to measure, but last-minute impulse buyers for the second weekend were rewarded with some tickets being sold at below face value.

Alison Swing, 21, of Long Beach, bought her second set of tickets "from a friend of a friend of a friend" and got a $100 discount from the cover price, she said with a laugh. "It was nerve-wracking spending the money," Swing admitted, "but I wanted to go back so bad. I'll deal with it after." [Rolling Stone]

Coachella concludes today, Sunday, 4/22, Earth Day 2012.

You saw the pictures from Friday, a video of the Black Keys performing with John Fogerty, video from a Friday night party that Thom Yorke DJ'd, and Radiohead's setlist from Saturday. Here are the pictures from Saturday, 4/21/2012, Record Store Day, the 2nd day of the 2nd weekend of Coachella 2012.

As you can see in the above picture, The Black Lips paid tribute (if you want to call it that) to hologram Tupac (who should be making another appearance with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg tonight) with their own hologram (actually a cut out) of Biggie Smalls. St. Vincent joined Andrew Bird on stage to help perform "Lusitania." Azealia Banks, in a different looking outfit than last week, apparently suffered a wardrobe malfunction. A$AP Rocky was joined by Master P, Romeo, No Limit and many other friends on stage in the Gobi tent, as he and Radiohead simultaneously closed out the night once again.

More pictures from all of Saturday, and a video from ASAP's guest-filled set, below...

Continue reading "Coachella 2012 Week 2 - Day 2 pics (Radiohead, ASAP Rocky, Azealia Banks, Feist, Firehose, Grace Potter, Squeeze & more)"

"we fucked up! My DJ skipped two songs by mistake! LMFAOO so when 212 came on I just went with it. #womp" - AZEALIA BANKS

"Omg that was tooooo much fun !!!!" - AZEALIA BANKS

"One thing Azealia Banks needed to prove when she walked onstage for her Saturday afternoon set at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival -- her first official gig in the U.S. -- was how deserving she is of the massive hype that's been thrown her way.

Since her introduction into the post-Nicki Minaj world of female rap through the deliciously profane firecracker of an anthem, "212," the Harlem spitfire has become a major darling on rap and indie blogs that have grown disenchanted with Minaj's syrupy pop hits. This without a barrage of tracks, as evidenced by a set that ended 20 minutes earlier than expected." [LA Times]

Check out videos of most of her quick set, below...

Continue reading "watch most of Azealia Banks' 20+ minute Coachella set"

Radiohead @ Roseland Ballroom in 2011 (more by Bao Nguyen)

Coachella which is taking place over the course of two weekends this year (April 13-15 and 20-22) revealed their 2012 lineup. Last week, Azealia Banks was the first artist confirmed, and earlier today they confirmed The Weeknd (maybe he found a band?), and before that, Jimmy Cliff, Breakbot, and Housse De Racket. The reunited Pulp then announced itself. The full lineup also includes headliners The Black Keys, Radiohead, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, not to mention, as predicted, the reunited At the Drive In and the reunited Mazzy Star (!), and Madness and Refused (!) and Jeff Mangum and many, many more that you can see below...

Continue reading "Coachella 2012 lineup announced (two weekends worth)"

by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: Grimes - "Genesis" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Grimes - "Oblivion" (MP3)

Grimes at FFF Fest 2011 (more by Tim Griffin

Avant popper Grimes (aka Claire Boucher) has revealed that she's signed to 4AD, who will release her upcoming album, Visions, which was originally set to be released on January 31 via Arbutus. 4AD will release the record on February 21 in North America and March 12 everywhere else. As she points out on twitter, the album will still be released on Arbutus in Canada, "which is a label [her friends and her] run out of Montreal." She also mentioned that she's honoured to work with 4AD, who she said is "a record label I have admired since I was 13 and first heard the cocteau twins and realized girls can make music, and goth is sick."

So far, two tracks have been revealed off of Visions, which is shaping up to be one of the most promising albums of 2012 so far. Those tracks, "Genesis" and "Oblivion" can be downloaded above and streamed below. They both show Claire Boucher refusing to decide between pop radio stardom and weirdo synth labs, and the result is something that's pretty hard to stay away from.

Grimes will be heading out on a tour in the upcoming months, most of which is with fellow pop destroyers Born Gold. That tour brings them to NYC on March 23 at Mercury Lounge and March 24 at Glasslands. Tickets for the Mercury show and the Glasslands show are still available. Updated dates are listed below.

Azealia Banks

Speaking of daring female artists and Beggars Group labels, Azealia Banks, who if you haven't heard yet, placed #3 on BBC's 'Sound of 2012', is NME's coolest person of 2011, is getting tons of love from Pitchfork, and also has two of the most last-minute killer 2011 tracks with "212" and "Liquorice" (in addition to some other solid cuts floating around like 2012's Scissor Sisters collaboration "Shady Love"), spoke to Self-Titled about her feelings on her former label, XL Recordings. The Daily Swarm points us in the direction of the following quote:

"As soon as I started putting out tracks I was getting attention. Diplo kept talking about me, and that's when XL hit me up. They flew me out to London, and the original idea was to have me work with Richard Russell, and I got signed to this development deal. Richard was cool, but as soon as I didn't want to use his beats, it got real sour. He wound up calling me "amateur" and shit, and the XL interns started talking shit about me. It just got real fucking funny. I was like, "I didn't come here for a date. I came here to cut some fucking records." I got turned off on the music industry and disappeared for a bit. I went into a bit of a depression."

Meanwhile, she's currently working on her debut with Paul Epworth, who has also worked with Florence and the Machine and Adele. She also revealed via Twitter that she's the first confirmed artist to play Coachella, which as mentioned is taking place over the course of two weekends this year (Apr. 13-15 and Apr. 20-22). So much for that fake lineup. Check out the video for "212" and the video for "Liquorice" below.

All dates, videos, and streams below...

Continue reading "Grimes happy to be on 4AD (MP3s); Azealia Banks happy to done with XL (videos & streams)"

Occupy Wall Street: New Year's Eve in Zuccotti Park (Scoboco)

today in NYC
* Questlove (DJ) @ SOBs
* Little Feat @ City Winery
* Gato Loco de Bajo @ The Stone
* Amy Correia @ Rockwood Music Hall
* Johnny Winter @ B.B. King Blues Club
* Lelia Broussard @ Rockwood Music Hall
* Uri Caine, Jim Black, Ralph Alessi @ The Stone
* The Jack Lords Orchestra, AM Low, Doe Paoro, Jareaux Jareaux @ Pianos
* Full Vinyl performs the Cars Greatest Hits w/ Greg Mayo, Patrick Firth, Zach Jones, Tony Maceli, Casey Shea, Martin Rivas, Emily Long, Ryan Vaughn, Chris Kuffner @ Rockwood Music Hall

Check out the new video for "Shady Love" by Scissor Sisters & Krystal Pepsy (aka Azealia Banks), below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday?"

Friends (more by Amanda Hatfield)

The BBC's list of 15 bands who will make up the "Sound of 2012" is below...

Continue reading "BBC lists the 'Sound of 2012' (Friends included)"