photos by Chris La Putt

Danny Brown / Schoolboy Q show their best sides at Summerstage 6/25/2012

Despite the rain, Danny Brown (who ended up playing first) and Schoolboy Q opened for Childish Gambino at their first of two NYC shows together last night (6/25) at Central Park Summerstage. Both rappers played their own sets and then also joined Childish Gambino on stage for part of his, which you can watch a video of below.

Danny, Q, and Childish will do it again tonight (6/26) at Prospect Park. Tickets for tonight's show are still available and we're also giving away a pair. Details on how to enter, along with more pictures and a video from last night's show are below...

Continue reading "Danny Brown & Schoolboy Q supported Childish Gambino at Summerstage (pics); playing Prospect Park tonight (win tickets)"

photos by Chris Graham and Rae Graham

Metric/St. Vincent

7:32pm Metric wrapped up a touch early; partly because one new song ("Lost Kitten") was stopped 10 seconds into it and Emily decided to strike it from the set. Aside from that odd error, Metric played a fair set. They cited the show as their "public debut" of Synthetica and they did play mostly new material (7 out of 11 songs), most of which sounds promising. It's always hard to judge new material accurately as the audience doesn't know it so it always comes across slightly weak or stiff. Metric opened their set with newbie "Artificial Nocturne" (also the album's opener). It was one of the stronger new tracks. The other stand outs were "Youth Without Youth" (when played live it seemed to lose it's sluggishness of it's studio version) and "Nothing But Time", a synth/piano number that builds each verse until drums kick in and the song finishes with a flourish of Emily Haines' Pro-One synth. The band closed with an acoustic version "Gimme Sympathy" that had pretty much the entire amphitheater singing along. [The Province]

Continue reading "Sasquatch 2012 in pics - the rest of Day 2 (Metric, St. Vincent, Shins, Dum Dum Girls, Araabmuzik, and more)"

photos by Diana Wong

I love you but I've chosen Moog

"he Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled analog synthesizer systems. Company founder Dr. Robert Arthur Moog had begun manufacturing and selling vacuum-tube theremins in kit form while he was a student in the early 1950s and marketed his first transistorized theremin kits in 1961. Moog became interested in the design and construction of complex electronic music systems in the mid 1960s and the burgeoning interest in his designs enabled him to establish a small company (R. A. Moog Co., which became Moog Music and later, Moog Electronics) to manufacture and market the new devices." [Wikipedia]

Moogfest capped off three days of fun on 10/30 with sets from M83, James Murphy & Pat Mahoney (Special Disco Version), Ford & Lopatin, Passion Pit, The Drums, Baths, Ghostland Observatory, and many more. If you missed it, we previously posted pictures from the first and second days featuring Tangerine Dream, TV On The Radio, Asutra, Chromeo, and others on the first day, and Suicide, Amon Tobin: Isam, Toro Y Moi, Crystal Castles, Cant, and others (but no YACHT who had to cancel) on the second.

More pictures from the final day of Moogest 2011 (which you can check out after you're done playing with the Moog on Google's homepage), below...

Continue reading "Happy Birthday Robert Moog -- here's some belated pics from MoogFest 2011 (Day 3 w/ M83, Brian Eno paintings & more)"

After teasing us with lineup addictions day by day over the past few days, the full lineup of Austin City Limits 2012 is finally here. Check it out below....

Continue reading "Austin City Limits Festival -- 2012 lineup "

photos by Julie Schabel

"Always a good time at @SOBs. Schoolboy Q show was ill." - Robby Rav

"At sobs watching schoolboy q go the fuck in." - Curtis Williams

Schoolboy Q stopped by NYC for a sold out show at SOB's Wednesday night (4/11) ahead of his tour with Ab-Soul. While on stage at SOB's, he called Kendrick Lamar and put him on speakerphone. Here's what Complex had to say about it:

The night's coolest, if not most awkward, moment came when Q telephoned his Black Hippy teammate Kendrick Lamar and put him on speakerphone. A major proving ground for new talents, S.O.B.'s has a way of demanding a little extra star power. Though Lamar couldn't be present physically--he's currently bunkered down recording his debut album--he did the next best thing. Q asked him what he should perform next. Lamar suggested "A.D.H.D," a fan favorite.

Schoolboy Q will return to NYC in June to play Central Park Summerstage on June 25 and Celebrate Brooklyn at the Prospect Park Bandshell on June 26 with Danny Brown and Childish Gambino. Tickets for the Brooklyn show are still available. Updated dates are listed below.

The SOB's show was opened by Nemo Achida, Iron Solomon, and Curtains, though Julie missed the first one because she was at the Lil B NYU lecture which was the same night.

More pics and videos from SOB's and dates below...

Continue reading "Schoolboy Q played SOB's (pics & video), playing Summerstage & Celebrate Brooklyn (with Childish Gambino & Danny Brown)"

Lollapalooza (more by Grant MacAllister)

Chicago Sun Times reports:

Lollapalooza has revealed its official 2012 list of performers -- a typically wide-ranging smorgasbord of genres and styles topped by nearly a dozen mainstage headliners: the Red Hot Chili Peppers, freshly reunited bands Black Sabbath and At the Drive-In, the Black Keys, Jack White, Florence + The Machine, the Shins and Passion Pit, plus spotlighted electronic music including Swedish house titan Avicii, French dance duo Justice and DJ-producer Bassnectar.

The annual music festival is scheduled for Aug. 3-5 in Chicago's Grant Park.

Rumored lineups have circulated widely, as they usually do, and Lollapalooza itself stoked the speculation in recent weeks via a series of CTA and online advertisements that seemed to hint at who would be playing.

The ads featured lyrics from such acts as Sigur Ros, Santigold, Jack White, Kimbra, Twin Shadow, the Weeknd, Bloc Party and more -- all bands that wound up on the bill.

Continue reading "Lollapalooza 2012 lineup (Jack White, At The Drive-In, Sigur Ros, Black Keys, RHCP, Afghan Whigs, M83, Weeknd, SBTRKT, Black Sabbath & more)"

Danny Brown @ Mohawk (SXSW) (via Matthew Hickey)

Donald Glover's broken foot

Danny Brown was supposed to play Starland Ballroom in NJ last night (3/21), but that show didn't happen because headliner Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover) recently fractured his foot. Donald wrote:

"This past Saturday I fractured my foot on stage in Tampa during a performance and was rushed to the emergency room.

The doctors say that if I stay off of my foot for a couple weeks and wear this boot, there's a good chance they can avoid surgery and start performing again soon.

I'm really upset by the timing of this. CAMP tour will go on, but dates will be postponed."

What is clear, is that depsite no NJ show last night, and being attacked with a lemon at SXSW, Danny Brown did make it to NYC for his now-SOLD OUT show at Santos Party House tonight (3/22). He'll also be back in the area in June when he plays the Roots Picnic in Philly, and when he opens for Childish Gambino at Central Park Summerstage after Bonnaroo.

Check out Danny's new video for "Radio Song" and the new CG dates below...

Continue reading "Danny Brown survived a lemon attack, but Donald Glover broke his foot (Childish Gambino tour postponed, but DB in NYC tonight)"

"danny brown being a freshman is like
bon iver winning the best new artist grammy." - dopeflow

Danny Brown at Echoplex in LA in January (more by Nathanel Turner)

Danny Brown, who is now an XXL Freshman, kicks off a tour with Childish Gambino in March which doesn't come to NYC, but as mentioned, Danny Brown will play his own show at Santos Party House (3/22) during the tour. Tickets for that headlining show are still available.

The Santos show is probably the best time to see Danny Brown while he's on that tour, but if you're disappointed that he doesn't have an NYC show with Childish Gambino, you can catch them at Central Park SummerStage on June 25, a couple of weeks after both rappers play Bonnaroo. Tickets for the SummerStage show are on AmEx presale now and go on sale to the general public on Friday (3/2) at noon.

Meanwhile Danny Brown will also be at SXSW. Updated dates are listed below...

Continue reading "Danny Brown playing SXSW, adds Central Park Summerstage show w/ Childish Gambino (updated 2012 Tour Dates)"

"Superfly Presents and A.C. Entertainment are excited to announce the initial lineup for the 2012 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The 11th annual four-day camping and music festival will be held on June 7 - 10 on the same beautiful 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville. A full list of confirmed acts follows, and more will be announced in the coming weeks. The final Bonnaroo 2012 lineup will total over 125 bands and over 20 comedians performing on 13 stages over four days.Tickets for the event will go on sale on this Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 12 noon EST exclusively at bonnaroo.com."

Continue reading "Bonnaroo 2012 lineup announced"

"Following last year's 10th anniversary, which crushed previous attendance records and set a new mark for the speed with which tickets sold out, the Sasquatch! Music Festival unveils its 2012 lineup which once again features 4 days of music. The festival, hailed as "a model of well-paced programming...in a four-day schedule as efficient and natural feeling as an expertly built algorithm" by NPR Music while Wired notes, "leave the landscape out of it and Sasquatch! has a lineup to kill for," runs May 25-28 (Memorial Day Weekend) at The Gorge, the internationally acclaimed concert venue carved in the basalt cliffs high above the Columbia River Gorge in Quincy, WA."

Continue reading "Sasquatch! 2012 lineup announced (Bon Iver, Jack White, Beck, Tenacious D, Shins, Portlandia, Spiritualized & more) "

Danny Brown, who recently contributed to mixtapes by Main Attrakionz and Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire (who Danny called "the new Biggie Smalls"), will kick off a tour in March supporting Childish Gambino. The closest that tour comes to NYC is when it hits Starland Ballroom on March 21 in Sayreville, NJ (sold out) but Danny Brown will play his own show one day later in NYC at Santos Party House (3/22). Tickets for the Santos show go on sale Friday (1/27) at 10 AM.

Meanwhile, LA peeps can catch Danny at Echoplex with Kid Sister and Main Attrakionz this Tuesday (1/24). Tickets are still on sale.

All DB dates and a recent video for "Blunt After Blunt" below...

Continue reading "Danny Brown playing NYC (while on tour w/ Childish Gambino) --- 2012 Tour Dates"

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)"

DOWNLOAD: SBTRKT - "Wildfire" (Drumma Boy remix ft. Shabazz Palaces) (MP3)

Back in June, we announced the killer initial lineup for Moogfest 2011 (October 28, 29, 30). That lineup just got even better with additions including TV on the Radio, Special Disco Version featuring James Murphy and Pat Mahoney, St. Vincent, SBTRKT, Flying Lotus, YACHT, John Maus, Araabmuzik Baths, Zomby, Active Child and more. It was also announced that Brian Eno, part of the initial lineup, will be presenting Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings and "Illustrated Talks" as part of this year's fest.

The initial announcement also included Suicide, Tangerine Dream, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Austra, M83, Little Dragon, Passion Pit, Toro y Moi, Moby (full band), The Flaming Lips, Battles, CANT, Brandt Brauer Frick (who will be on a US tour that hits Glasslands), and more.

Speaking of CANT (aka Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear), he revealed the song "Believe" from his upcoming debut LP yesterday. Stream the track below. The album comes out September 13 on Chris' own Terrible Records. He's also got an upcoming tour surrounding Moogfest which includes a show on October 25 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are still on sale.

Speaking of SBTRKT and Little Dragon, Drumma Boy remixed the SBTRKT song with Little Dragon's Yukimi Nagano on lead vocals. Shabazz Palaces is also featured on the remix (compare that to Drake's version). Grab the track above via Gorilla vs Bear. Shabazz wrote on Facebook today, "Besides the release of Black Up, I don't think I've seen one article on here create such a surge of activity as this Wildfire Remix has. Amazing."

Sampha, who sings live with SBTRKT and on his album, also recently released his own song, "Indecision." Stream the track below. Moogfest is one of the stops on SBTRKT's recently announced US tour that also hits Bowery Ballroom on October 31 (with Araabmuzik) and Music Hall of Williamsburg on November 1. Tickets for both shows are still on sale.

Little Dragon plays a BV-presented Record Release show at Music Hall of WIlliamsburg TONIGHT (8/16). The show is sold out, but if you don't have tickets you can catch them in NYC again on their headlining tour which hits Terminal 5 on October 14. Tickets are still on sale.

Song streams and full Moogfest lineup below...

Continue reading "updated Moogfest lineup, new CANT & a Shabazz Palaces/Drumma Boy SBTRKT/Little Dragon remix (MP3s)"

Slayer at Izod Center (photos by Samantha Marble)

Slayer, Thee Oh Sees, Public Enemy, Girls, Danzig Legacy, (Danzig + Doyle von Frankenstein playing Misfits, Samhain & Danzig), Hot Snakes, Diplo, Major Lazer, Henry Rollins, Ted Leo & The Phramacists, Spank Rock, Murder City Devils, Hum, Lykke Li, Passion Pit, Four Tet, Rakim, The Damned, Austra, Purity Ring, and Flynt Flossy are just a few of the acts announced today as part of the Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 lineup. Another amazing year! Check out the full lineup below and stay tuned for more announcements coming in August and September.

The new additions to the Austin, Texas festival, which takes place from 11/4 - 11/6, are in addition to the the previous "lineup leaks" that included Brian Posehn, Odd Future, Okkervil River, M83, X (performing "Los Angeles"), Reggie Watts, Flying Lotus, Tune-Yards, Ra Ra Riot, Kid Dynamite and others

2011 is the festival's sixth year, but first at its new home Auditorium Shores (no more Waterloo Park). Tickets are on sale now.

Slayer also has a NYC performance coming up with Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth as part of the "Big Four" show at Yankee Stadium on 9/14. Tickets are still available.

Fun Fun Fun 2011 flyer and almost-full lineup is below.

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 lineup (Danzig Legazy, Passion Pit, Slayer, Lykke Li, The Damned, Henry Rollins & much more)"

photos by Dana (Distortion) Yavin & Graeme Flegenheimer

Henry Rollins (spoken word) / Bradford Cox (Deerhunter)

"Atlanta's own Deerhunter was the main draw on Thursday night, a low-key alternative to Friday's star-studded lineup. In fact, two people approached me during their set to ask who we were hearing. But no matter: The indie-rock prodigies went pleasantly cerebral on a crowd too tired to do more than sprawl on the grass and nod." [Creative Loafing]

The rest of our pictures from day one (not counting Karen Elson which was posted separately), which are all by Dana unless otherwise noted, continue below...

Continue reading "Bonnaroo Day 1 in pics (Deerhunter, Wavves, Henry Rollins, The Drums, Dam-Funk & more)"

by BBG

Havoc of Mobb Deep @ the kick-off in LA (more by Graeme Flegenheimer)

In addition to initially announced Rock The Bells lineup (Nas playing Illmatic? Mobb Deep on The Infamous detail? wow), the festival has made some interesting additions like Erykah Badu performing all of Baduism (on select dates), Common performing all of Be (on select dates), Killah Priest performing all of Heavy Mental, Slaughterhouse, and DOOM. More lineup details are below.

The NYC show on 9/3 at Governor's Island gets the Erykah Badu appearance, and tickets are on presale, password is "ILLMATIC". General sale begins Saturday, 6/11, at 10:00 AM.

LA and San Francisco are on sale now, and the only other date, Boston, still doesn't even have a venue announced yet.

DOOM of course is not to be confused with the crust band who just played MDF and Chaos in Tejas.

In other Hip Hop festival news, Brooklyn Hip Hop Fest's lineup has expanded too adding MOP (!), Torae, Random Axe (Sean Price + Black Milk + Guilty Simpson), eLZhi, Marley Marl, Roli Rho (5th Platoon), Grand Wizzard Theodore and Twilite Tone. Tickets are on sale for all Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival events, including an after-party at Southpaw on July 16th which proclaims to have "special guests invited including the entire BHF '11 lineup".

Full Rock The Bells details, alongside some videos, below...

Continue reading "Rock the Bells expands lineup, NYC tix on presale now"

photos by Graeme Flegenheimer

Cypress Hill @ House of Blues - Sunset Strip - 5/24/2011

The line-up for the ROCK THE BELLS 2011 FESTIVAL SERIES--presented by Boost Mobile in association with GUERILLA UNION and powered by BlackBerry--will feature an array of seminal and up-and-coming hip-hop artists on three stages. Headliners include Ms. Lauryn Hill, Nas,Erykah Baduand Cypress Hill. See the current line-up below and look for more performers to be announced soon.

This year's festival will head to four major North American markets. Kicking off in the Los Angeles-area on August 20 at the San Manuel Amphitheater, ROCK THE BELLS will then head to San Francisco on August 27 at Shoreline Amphitheatre. The festival moves to the east coast for a show in New York on September 3 at Governor's Island (co-promoted with Bowery Presents, Highline, Mad Dog Presents) before wrapping in [a TBA venue in] Boston on September 10.

ROCK THE BELLS featured a number of headliners performing their most influential albums in their entirety for the first time in the history of hip-hop entertainment last summer. The tradition continues this year with Ms. Lauryn Hill performing her landmark, multi-platinum selling, multi-GRAMMY winning album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill and Nas performing his breakthrough debut album Illmatic with special guests AZ, Pete Rock and DJ Premier. Nas says about performing Illmatic this summer, "For years people have been asking me to do Illmatic in so many ways, from stage plays to movies to books, but the time wasn't right. Where music is going now, the time is right. This will be my biggest production and it only makes sense to do it on the best rap tour which also happens to be a brand I've built and am a partner in. Can't wait to kill it with my comrades AZ, Premo & Pete Rock!"

Full album sets can also be expected from: Cypress Hill performing their 1993 multi-platinum album Black Sunday, featuring modern rock radio mainstay "Insane In The Membrane"; Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star performing their 1998 self-titled debut album; Raekwon & Ghostface teaming up for critically acclaimed, platinum selling Only Built 4 Cuban Linx and more.

"I am excited that this year's Rock The Bells will continue its rich history and tradition by presenting the best and most ambitious festival programming in Hip Hop," says festival co-founder and Guerilla Union head Chang Weisberg. "The bar has been set high and this year's line-up will certainly stake its claim. With ten of the biggest records in the history of the genre and the freshest new talent bubbling from the underground, this summer's Rock The Bells is another dream come true."

ROCK THE BELLS will feature three main stages this year. The two returning stages are the ROCK THE BELLS STAGE and the PAID DUES STAGE, which will feature independent hip-hop acts that performed at the Paid Dues Festival this past April in San Bernardino and new artists-on-the-rise. Paid Dues Festival creator Murs says, "I am excited that I once again have the privilege of hosting the Paid Dues Stage. We will have the honor of showcasing some of the best talent in independent hip hop as part of the worlds largest and longest running hip hop festival... the Paid Dues stage is gonna be the one to watch this year."

The 36 CHAMBERS STAGE is a new addition to the festival and will primarily feature members of the Wu-Tang Clan as well as artists selected by stage curator and Wu-Tang Clan mainstay RZA. A fourth stage that will also be added to most markets is the GRINDTIME NOW STAGE, which will feature battle-style performances.

The lineup was announced last night at a show at House of Blues in LA. Mobb Deep, Souls of Mischief and Cypress Hill all played and pictures to prove it are in this post. More of them below.

The full lineup is also below...

Continue reading "Rock the Bells 2011 dates & lineups announced, Mobb Deep & Souls of Mischief & Cypress Hills played the kickoff (pics)"