Buck 65

Looking for last minute plans? Alternative rappers Buck 65 and Beans play Bowery Ballroom tonight (7/22). The show is part of Buck 65's US tour. Tickets are still available and we're also giving away three pairs. Contest details and more dates below.

Beans will also play the free Charles Bradley show in Brooklyn's Fort Greene Park on Tuesday (7/26). He'll also play Hopscotch Fest in Raleigh, NC in September.

All dates and contest details below...

Continue reading "Buck 65 & Beans play Bowery tonight (WIN TIX) & other dates"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Sloan - Follow the Leader (MP3)

Sloan are on tour and in town this week, playing Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday (6/29) and Knitting Factory on Thursday (6/30). It's a big year for the veteran Canadian group, their 20th Anniversary and their new album The Double Cross is their 10th studio album. Despite the nostalgia that goes along with an anniversary like this, Sloan have delivered another solid bunch of powerpop with The Double Cross, garnering a Polaris Music Prize nomination (their first) and an 8.1 from Pitchfork.

It's business as usual for Sloan, though, who have a remarkably consistent catalog despite having all four members write and sing their own material. (Though it is perhaps a key to their success.) One of them, guitarist Jay Ferguson, took time out before the first of two hometown Toronto shows for Sloan to talk about the new record, the Polaris nomination, the difference between American and Canadian audiences and record shopping while on tour.

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BrooklynVegan: So it's a hometown shows tonight and tomorrow.

Jay Ferguson: It's a little nerve-wrecking because you have family, friends, stuff like that have to be corralled and attended to. Then you're also like, "Do I really know how to play that song that I played a week ago?" There's a lot of that.

BV: But it must be nice to be able just to go back to your home instead of some hotel room.

JF: That's true. I live literally around the corner from the venue so it's easygoing for me. I mean it's always nice to play in Toronto for family and friends. Sometimes it's just stressful for some of the folks in the band who have large families coming down. You want to make sure everybody's comfortable and having a good time. But sometimes on tour it's a little easier, you can just space out and concentrate on the show. We've played The Mod Club many times before so it should be easy and fun -- fingers crossed.

BV: How long have you been touring the new record?

continued below...

Continue reading "an interview with Sloan (who are on tour now)"

tonight in NYC
* Bamboozle
* Peter Gabriel @ Radio City Music Hall
* John Doe, Exene Cervenka @ City Winery
* Truck America @ Full Moon in Big Indian, NY
* Echo & The Bunnymen, Apollo Heights @ Irving Plaza
* Caw! Caw!, Daughters of the Sun, Vampire Hands @ Pianos
* Truman Peyote, Trouble Books, Weekends, Zeroes @ Glasslands
* Royal Bangs, Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers @ Mercury Lounge
* Disappearer, The Austerity Program, Phantom Glue @ Union Pool
* Murder By Death, Ha Ha Tonka, Linfinity @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Henry Kaiser, Alan Licht, Charles K. Noyes, Weasel Walter @ The Stone
* Themselves, Buck 65, Jel & Odd Nosdam, Stabbing Eastwood @ Bowery Ballroom
* Hoboken Arts & Music Festival w/ Fountains of Wayne, Freedy Johnston & more
* The Beatards, Chaz Kangas, Loki da Trixta, WeStoleTheShow, Kinki Notti @ Southpaw
* Ralph Covert, Bill Harley, Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, Recess Monkey, The Royal Order of Chords and Keys @ Littlefield
* Rites of Spring w/ DJs Bjork, Alex Ross, Brandon Stosuy, Dave Longstreth, Tyondai Braxton @ Above The Auto Parts Store

Tonight's show at Bowery Ballroomis a one-off featuring Themselves, Buck 65, Jel & Odd Nosdam (live), and Stabbing Eastwood (Tunde Adebimpe / Ryan Swayer Duo). Flyer above.

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge's tag sale concludes today. Get anything good?

Chapterhouse is not playing shows Monday and Tuesday.

We posted pictures of the CSC Funk Band show at Issue Project Room. Now check out a PunkCast video from that show below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Sunday?"

"What a fitting day to announce the complete list of artists involved with our upcoming album DARK WAS THE NIGHT - the February 17th 4AD release that will benefit the Red Hot Organization. It's World AIDS Day, and in honor of that, we bring you the exciting news."

More info on the previously mentioned comp below...

Continue reading "Dark Was the Night - full 4AD comp artist list, cover art, etc"

by Black Bubblegum

DOWNLOAD: Zach Hill - "Dark Art" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Odd Nosdam - CIRCUS faux PREZ beats! (Sendspace Link)
DOWNLOAD: Odd Nosdam - MIXTAPE SUPER DELUX (Sendspace Link)

Zach Hill, Performance Attire May Vary...

Spazzy drummer Zach Hill (Hella/Marnie Stern/Team Sleep/The Ladies) will be in town over the next two days performing "Necromancer" with Peer Pressure or, the second disc of the 2CD extravaganza known as Astrological Straits (out now on Ipecac). So what's "Necromancer" all about, and who the hell is Peer Pressure?

HELLO ! TO THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN INQUIRING ABOUT WHAT AND WHO "PEER PRESSURE" MAY BE IT'S ACTUALLY MY DRUM SET! HAHA THATS STRAIGHT TALK! IN THE FUTURE THIS MONIKER WILL MOST LIKELY DEFINE A COLLECTIVE OF HUMAN BEINGS PLAYING SONGS AND MY DRUM SET, BUT FOR THIS TOUR ITS A METAPHOR FOR THE DRUMS AND THATS ABOUT ALL I'M BRINGING AND ALL IM PLAYING. TO MAKE IT CLEAR SO THERES NO CONFUSION ABOUT MY UPCOMING PERFORMANCES I AM PERFORMING A 45 MINUTE NON STOP HEAVILY IMPROVISED RENDITION OF THE TRACK "NECROMANCER" OFF OF MY NEWEST SOLO RELEASE. THIS WILL BE ME ON DRUMS AND THE LAPTOP ON LAPTOP OR THE IPOD ON IPOD. I PLAN ON PERFORMING THE MORE SONG ORIENTED MATERIAL OFF THE ALBUM WITH A FULL BAND IN THE THE FUTURE BUT FOR MANY REASONS IT WAS UNREALISTIC AT THIS JUNCTURE. SO THIS IS HOW I WILL BE EXPRESSING MYSELF IN THE NOW ASIDE FROM THE SHOWS WERE ITS NOTED THAT I'LL HAVE SOMEONE AWESOME SITTING IN WITH ME! [Zach Hill]

Zach Hill WILL have "someone awesome sitting in" with him at the Knitting Factory in NYC on 11/18, namely Marco Benevento. Also on the bill: Pattern Is Movement and Subtle (their last tour "for some time", they are going on hiatus). Tickets are still on sale.

Hill also plays Death By Audio in Brooklyn with Fiasco the next day (11/19). Hill is also opening for the mighty Fantomas when they ring in the New Year, in San Francisco.

Speaking of Subtle, doseone and jel of Subtle (aka Themselves) will headline the "Anticon 3rd Annual 10-Year Anniversary" at NYC's Knitting Factory on December 18th with Yoni Wolf (of WHY?), Buck 65, Sole, Alias, Odd Nosdam + Jel, pedestrian + DJ Thanksgiving Brown. Tickets are on sale.

Odd Nosdam recently posted a free download of beats from 2002 - 2003 entitled CIRCUS faux PREZ beats! and a mixtape... Mixtape Super Delux. Download 'em and other MP3's above.

The Anticon flyer and all Zach Hill dates below...

Continue reading "Zach Hill tour dates, Subtle's hiatus, Anticon's anniversary"