photos by Ryan Muir

Atlanta rapper Waka Flocka Flame played a private show at the Bowery Hotel on Wednesday, April 25th. The appearance celebrated his appearance on the cover of Spin's "Loud" issue. Before the set, Flocka walked through the room chatting with attendees and posing for photos. The performance itself, which included a few cuts from his forthcoming second LP Triple F Life: Friends, Fans and Family, featured lots of dreadlocked head-banging, crowd-surfing, etc. See Flocka on tour with Drake this summer. Pictures are below...

Continue reading "Waka Flocka Flame recently played Bowery Hotel (pics)"

Ralf, who also showed up as the surprise special guest on Sunday at PS1, hasn't tweeted yet today, but if and when he does, it will probably say "Tonight, Tour de France." And when that's over, so is the entire 8-night MoMA run, but then there's an afterparty. Flyer below...

Continue reading "Tonight, Tour de France @ MoMA; afterparty @ Bowery Hotel"

"Wake n baked up, on route to NYC for the weekend." - Lunice

You may know Lunice from the remix he did with Diplo for Deerhunter's "Helicopter", his insane dance moves, or from his instructional cooking videos (watch/listen to all of it below). We just posted a track he did with ST 2 Lettaz of G-Side (you can also listen to it below). Over a year ago Dazed Digital wrote:

Lunice Fermin Pierre II is many things. The prolific Canadian young gun first found net celebrity with his cult YouTube dance videos, his intergalactic B-Boy stance scored by the beat pack - the discordant wave of club banging hip hop producers that include San Francisco's Lazer Sword, LuckyMe's Mike Slott and LA's Nosaj Thing. Lunice's own 80's inspired, glitchy soul thizzes across official remixes for Big Dada whilst the blog platinum bootlegs of MOP, Lil Mama and Aaliyah keep his ManyBrain.blogspot.com family in check.

He's got some upcoming dates including two this weekend in NYC: July 22 at Bowery Hotel with Pictureplane (DJ), Teengirl Fantasy (DJ), and Cool Places Soundsystem (in case you were wondering where that TBD NYC show on July 22 was going to be). Check out the flyer below, and note that RSVP may be required for the free party. Pictureplane & Teengirl Fantasy play live on July 23 at 285 Kent.

Lunice also plays Warm Up on Saturday, July 23 at PS1 with Gang Gang Dance (DJ), Syd tha Kyd, Miracles Club, and Laurel Halo.

He's also on the bill of Mad Decent Block Parties in Chicago and LA. He's not on the NYC party at South Street Seaport but Gang Gang Dance, who he shares a bill with at PS1 are. More Lunice dates below.

Speaking of Mad Decent Block Parties, Claude VonStroke was added to the NYC show and as hinted at, Curren$y was added to the Chicago date (now that he's done playing Pitchfork). Updated lineups and dates below.

All Lunice dates, videos, stream & updated Mad Decent lineups below...

Continue reading "Lunice is coming (2 NYC dates, 1 w/ Pictureplane), Mad Decent Block Parties update linueps (Lunice included)"

photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

G-Side @ Pitchfork Fest

"...The Alabama hip-hop duo bobs and weaves across the stage. Live rap is often knocked as being lesser than rock & roll, but the MCs at Pitchfork have always been a highlight. Even when they suck up to the crowd, as G-Side does, with a call and response of "Ain't no party like a Pitchfork party, cuz a Pitchfork party don't stop." I've been to those parties. People go off in corners and debate Animal Collective too much at the Pitchfork parties.

But G-Side provokes an array of synchronized arm activity in the audience--fist raising, finger pointing, palm pumping. I don't see Woods doing that. Even if they're a touch awkward coming from a horde of white kids, the chants of "We get money!" and "Lean to tha left!" raise the energy to at least four levels above chillwave.

ST 2 Lettaz, in a black muscle shirt, jumps off stage and leans into the crowd. He flows a little more poetically than his gruffer partner, Yung Clova. Lettaz begins one song a cappella, breathtakingly, and it connects better than anything else in the set, divorced of the towel-waving and slogan shouting. Overall, the tracks mix of early Outkast and early T.I. Definitely Southern, with slow-roll soul samples and tumbling synthetic snares. "I've got a jones in my bones for the street," goes one refrain. It's kinda cheesy, kinda dated, but charming in a throwback way I haven't really heard since Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. An underused female backup singer, with shaved temples and a feather earthing, pumps up the emotional level, belting a bit operatically at the smokedout opening, and slipping into Kayne's "Power" refrain later. If it wasn't for that inevitable "swag" blurting, and the Yeezy reference, this could be 1997, Piedmont Park, Atlanta. And I'm nostalgic." [Time Out Chicago]

G-Side are now on a short tour and play NYC at Tammany Hall this weekend (7/23). The Tammany Hall show is either free or $3 before 11pm (depending on where you look) and $6 after. White Ring are one of the many DJs also on the bill (G-Side is the only live act of the night). Flyer below. G-side also play "Mad Decent Mondays" in Philly (on Monday).

ST 2 Lettaz of G-Side recently contributed vocals to Montreal producer Lunice's track "Get Her High." Listen to that, with the flyer, all dates, and more pics from P4KFest, below...

Continue reading "G-Side played Pitchfork, on tour now (pics & updated dates) "

Union Hall photos by Kyle Dean Reinford, Bowery Hotel photos by Chris La Putt

Ra Ra Riot @ Union Hall

In town to play an Ann Taylor "Loft" party at Bowery Hotel last night (4/14), Ra Ra Riot also threw in a more public show at Union Hall one night earlier with Montreal's Plants & Animals also on the bill. Paper was at the more stylish one:

"Mena Suvari, Alexis Bledel, Amanda Hearst, and Alexa Chung stopped by the Bowery Hotel last night for the launch of Ann Taylor's new offshoot LOFT Style Studio... Chung started the evening off with a DJ set featuring lots of '60s pop and some Pulp thrown in for good measure, and was surrounded by a coterie, including friend and designer Henry Holland, who shooed away reporters and photographers from the DJ booth. Maggie Gyllenhaal, however, was up for a chat. Gyllenhaal, dressed in a flowy ACNE top and a striped cardigan by LOFT, says, like most New Yorkers, she's determined to dress for spring despite our yo-yoing temperatures. She's also looking to stock up on "some practical dresses that you don't have to wear a bra with and can get dirty" for summer. (But she'll probably just end up getting something from American Apparel, she supposes). Meanwhile a coterie of tweed-coated young men lingered near the stage, waiting for Ra Ra Riot to begin their set..."

Continue reading "Ra Ra Riot played Union Hall (with Plants & Animals) & Bowery Hotel (a "Loft" party) - pics from both (setlist from one)"