Frank Ocean at Angel Orensanz in 2012 (more by Fred Pessaro)

Frank Ocean just posted the music video for "Lost," one of the many standout moments on his excellent Channel Orange. Check it out below.

He was also just recently named one of the most influential LGBTQ people in the world by Out Magazine (via Daily Swarm). Hopefully he uses that power to help change rap music homophobia, though Snoop Dogg might say he shouldn't bother.

Video below...

Continue reading "watch Frank Ocean's new video for "Lost""

Amid all the noise that is SXSW, Yahoo! announced that Kendrick Lamar, fun., the Lumineers, J. Cole, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Imagine Dragons and more would be a part of a travelling festival called "Yahoo! on the Road" that kicks with a show in NYC on May 3. No word on exact line-up or venue just yet but the new media conglomerate promises details soon.

The tour concludes the three-day Wireless Festival in London (July 12 - 14) that will also feature Jay-Z & Justin Timberlake (who just added a second Yankee Stadium show), Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, Miguel, Ke$ha, Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, A$AP Rocky and more. All Yahoo on the Road dates are listed below.

Continue reading "Kendrick Lamar, The Lumineers and more participating in "Yahoo on the Road" travelling festival (dates)"

Frank Ocean performing at 2013 Grammys

The 2013 Grammys went down last night (2/10), and here's a quick recap of some of the winners and videos of performances.

The big ones: Gotye took home Record of the Year for "Somebody That I Used To Know" (beating The Black Keys, Kelly Clarkson, fun., Frank Ocean, and Taylor Swift), Mumford & Sons won Album of the Year (beating The Black Keys, fun., Frank Ocean, and Jack White), and fun. took Song of the Year and Best New Artist (totally robbing Miguel's "Adorn" and "Call Me Maybe," and Frank Ocean (!), respectively). Other wins included Skrillex for Best Dance Recording (sorry Al Walser), The Black Keys for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song and Best Rock Album, Gotye for Best Alternative Music Album (beating Fiona Apple, Bjork, M83, and Tom Waits), Usher's "Climax" for Best R&B Performance, Beyonce's "Love On Top" for Best Traditional R&B Performance, Miguel's "Adorn" for Best R&B Song, Frank Ocean for Best Urban Contemporary Album, Robert Glasper Experiment for Best R&B Album, Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Niggas In Paris" for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song and their song, "No Church In The Wild" (feat. Frank Ocean and The-Dream) for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, Drake's Take Care for Best Rap Album, Dr. John's Dan Auerbach-produced Locked Down for Best Blues Album, Jimmy Cliff's Tim Armstrong-produced Rebirth for Best Reggae Album, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross' The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo score for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, Bjork's Biophilia for Best Recording Package, The Beach Boys' long-awaited The Smile Sessions for Best Historical Album, Black Keys singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, and Mumford and Sons' "Big Easy Express" for Best Long Form Music Video. There were many other categories too and you can check out the full list of winners HERE.

And of course, during the Awards Ceremony a number of artists gave performances, which you can watch videos of below. You can see Miguel and Wiz Khalifa doing "Adorn," Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z doing "Suit and Tie" and then JT doing "Pusher Love Girl," The Black Keys, Dr. John, and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band doing "Lonely Boy," Jack White doing "Freedom At 21" with his all-guy band (he also played "Love Interruption" with his all-girl band but no video of that at the moment), Frank Ocean doing "Forrest Gump" with a thematically appropriate visual backdrop, a big tribute to Levon Helm with Elton John, Mavis Staples, members of Mumford and Sons, Alabama Shakes, and others, and finally, LL Cool J, Chuck D, Z-Trip, Tom Morello, and Travis Barker doing "Whaddup" with a small piece of Beastie Boys' "No Sleep Til Brooklyn."

Continue reading "Frank Ocean, Miguel, Bjork, Mumford, Black Keys, Jack White & more win & perform at Grammys (videos)"

Alex Collier

Charleston, South Carolina musician Alex Collier records modern classical/church organ renditions of pop songs with The Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra and they released their album, King of Instruments, this past October which featured covers of Bon Iver, Frank Ocean, Kanye West, Vampire Weekend, Usher, Coldplay, and others. The album was recorded in a church with Alex on organ anmd we've got two videos of them performing Frank Ocean's "Bad Religion," and Bon Iver's "Perth," which are making their premieres in this post. You can watch them below.

Continue reading "watch Alex Collier & the Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra perform classical covers of Frank Ocean & Bon Iver in a church"

by Bill Pearis

The Village Voice's annual "Pazz n' Jop" critics poll is up and, as with anything like this with averaged votes, the winners are probably not that surprising. Frank Ocean's Channel Orange takes the top album slot (Kendrick Lamar is #2), and Carly Rae Jepsen's inescapable "Call Me Maybe" comes in at the top of the singles list. (Miguel, who is on the cover of the Voice this week, comes in at #2 with "Adorn.")You can also view individual ballots and read pithy quips about the year as a whole.

The top 10s for Pazz & Jop albums and singles are below and full lists are over at the Voice.

Continue reading "Village Voice still does Pazz & Jop; Frank Ocean and "Call Me Maybe" win 2012"

Alt-J at Mercury Lounge in May (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Big day for award nominations. The Oscars announced theirs this morning and the Brit Awards just wrapped up their ceremony for 2013 nominations, with Emeli Sandé grabbing four and Mumford & Sons and Alt-J each getting three. All three of those artists were nominated for British Album of the Year, a list that also included Paloma Faith and Plan B. If you don't know, The Brits are basically the UK's equivalent of the Grammys, though nominees are all British apart from a few "International" awards.

Jessie Ware, Muse, and Adele each got two nominations, and single-digit noms went to Bat for Lashes, The xx, Richard Hawley and The Vaccines.

Mumford & Sons have two nights at Barclays Center in February and Alt-J will swing though town in March.

The entire 2013 Brit Awards nominees list is below.

Continue reading "2013 Brit Award nominees announced (Emeli Sandé, Mumford and Alt-J lead the pack)"

Local Natives at Bowery Ballroom in October (more by Tracy Allison)

Local Natives, who we hadn't heard from in a while until they were revealed as the secret headliner at a Bowery Ballroom show during CMJ, soon after announced that they'll release their new album, Hummingbird, on January 29 via Frenchkiss, the followup to their 2009/2010 debut, Gorilla Manor. The new album will be supported by a tour which includes three sold out NYC shows in February.

But while we wait for new material from Local Natives, we're still wrapping up our 2012 coverage so we asked Local Natives for a list of their top 10 albums of 2012, which singer/guitarist/bassist Taylor Rice and singer/keyboardist/percussionist/guitarist Kelcey Ayer compiled and sent our way. You can check out their list below.

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Hard to believe, but our BrooklynVegan "Blog Radio" show has been airing weekly on satellite radio for over 6.5 years. It started on Sirius which then merged with XM and became SiriusXM. The station, which was originally "Left of Center" on Sirius, is now called SiriusXMU (on SiriusXM). You can currently hear the two hour show on the "indie/college" station every Wednesday at noon EST and again at midnight that night (which is technically Thursday morning in Eastern Standard Time).

At some point years ago I brought on like-minded music lover Dominic (Nick) Masi to be my co-host, and to cover when I couldn't make it. Now, though I still may pop in occasionally (my New Year's resolution!), Nick has taken over completely, hosting the show week to week with a selection of music you'll find on BrooklynVegan.com and on his own iPod. Recently Nick also started hosting a show called "Cover Me" (all cover songs) on Bruce Springsteen's E Street Radio, and other programs on the network too.

In his spare time, Nick now tour manages members of Odd Future - a job which was an offshoot of his huge passion for hip hop (and traveling around the continent in a van).

What were Nick's favorite records and songs in 2012? We asked him and he gave us a list of his top 10 albums and "top 15 hip hop songs of the year that don't feature 2Chainz, Kanye, Drake, Rick Ross or (fill in the blank with your favorite rapper you've seen on every remix this year)."

You can check out both of Nick's lists, along with videos or streams for each song on his hip hop list (Odd Future songs included), below...

Continue reading "BrooklynVegan SiriusXMU host Nick Masi's Top 10 Albums and Top 15 Hip Hop Songs of 2012"

by Andrew Sacher

Today, we finally get the much anticipated list of Pitchfork's Top 20 Albums of 2012. They revealed Nos. 30-50 yesterday and spent the rest of this week posting Honorable Mentions and tracks. None of the albums that made the top 20 are surprising to see there (which doesn't mean they aren't deserving), but the surprises come from the albums that missed the list all together. Passion Pit got ROBBED! Twin Shadow too! And Wild Nothing! If you're looking for Converge or Baroness, you'll have to redirect yourself to Pitchfork's Metal list (though Pallbearer was in the main top 50). And we could've guessed that Nos. 1 and 2 would be Frank Ocean and Kendrick Lamar... but who took the No. 1 spot? Head below to find out and you can check out individual writer's votes too...

Continue reading "Pitchfork's Top 20 Albums of 2012"

by Bill Pearis

Hospitality @ Brooklyn Bowl, 8/31/2012 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

While I haven't revealed by Favorite Albums of 2012 list yet, I'll let it slip that Hospitality's eponymous debut album is pretty high up there. If you've yet to hear it's many guitar pop pleasures, you can stream it below. Wondering what the band have listened to the most in 2012? They've offered up their Top 10 of 2012 which you can peruse below. It's actually nine new albums and then the last slot goes to Led Zeppelin which singer Amber Papini admits she's been gorging on ever since Hurricane Sandy.

Sandy caused the band's headlining show at Bowery Ballroom to be postponed and the make-up date is right around the corner on January 10 with TEEN and Household. Tickets are still available and we're also giving away a pair.

Meanwhile, Hospitality next show after that will be as part of the Kidrockers series at Brooklyn Bowl, happening Sunday, February 10 at 11 AM. Tickets are $8 and on sale now -- kids 2 and under get in free. It's all ages on Sundays at Brooklyn Bowl till 6PM when it becomes 21+ like the rest of the week.

Kidrockers have announced a few other 2013 shows as well: Caveman (who just announced a big tour, including Webster Hall on 4/10) play on January 27 (tix); and Hooray for Earth play on February 3 (tix, they also play Knitting Factory next month). There is also the previously-announced DIIV show on January 13 (they play an "adult" show at BB that same night).

Hospitality's list of Top 10 LPs of 2012 is below.

Continue reading "Hospitality list their Top 10 LPs of 2012, playing Brooklyn Bowl for Kidrockers (as are Caveman and Hooray for Earth)"

Nite Jewel at LPR in August (more by Toby Tenenbaum)

Nite Jewel (aka Ramona Gonazalez) is a bit of a musical shapeshifter, having previously recorded lo-fi experimental pieces, performed with Linda Perhacs (along with Julia Holter), and performed a Kraftwerk album in its entirety, among other things. Just recently, she recorded a piano cover of Stevie Wonder's "Visions," which you can watch a video of below.

But on this year's One Second of Love, Ramona went for more of an overtly pop approach than her earlier work, and that interest comes across pretty strongly in her top ten songs of 2012 list, which you can check out below. Half of the list is made up of this year's big rap/R&B faves, and it also includes collaborator Julia Holter, Zebra Katz (whose video we just posted), and more.

Check out her full list and the "Visions" video below...

Continue reading "Nite Jewel covered Stevie Wonder, picked her top 10 songs of 2012"

by Bill Pearis

Pitchfork just posted their much anticipated list of the top 100 tracks of 2012. The #1 slot went to... Grimes! Whether you thought the whole of her album Visions was good or not, it was hard to deny the charms of "Oblivion." (Having that great video didn't hurt either.) Do you think it deserved to top the list? If not then what song should've?

You can check out P4K's entire hot 100 of 2012 below.

Continue reading "Pitchfork's Top 100 Tracks of 2012 (Grimes' "Oblivion" is #1)"

"My Morning Jacket was formed in 1998 in Louisville, Kentucky by singer, songwriter and guitarist Jim James (real name: James Olliges Jr). The original line-up also included three members of the Shelbyville emo-punk band Winter Death Club; namely John McQuade (later known as Johnny Quaid - guitar and vocals), Tom Blankenship (later known as Two Tone Tommy - bass) and J. Roberts (later known as J. Glenn - drums)." [Wikipedia]

MMJ bassist Tom Blankenship (who also recently helped out with Brooklyn Rock Lottery) gave us his list of Top 10 LPs of 2012. While it includes year-end list mainstays Frank Ocean and Alt-J, there are some surprises as well. You can check out his year-end picks below.

Continue reading "My Morning Jacket's Tom Blankenship lists his Top 10 albums of 2012"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Ex Cops - Wonderful Christmas Time (MP3)

photo by Nanci Sarrouf

Admission. Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time" is easily my most-hated holiday pop song. Repetive, grating, plodding, and seemingly recorded by accident, the song makes me want to suck a candycane into a point and gouge out my eardrums. (Unlike, say, The Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping" which I can listen to ad infinitum.) So it's a Christmas miracle that Ex Cops have taken this unfortunate Macca yuletide perennial and sped it up, turned it up and transformed it into a rough-hewn little indiepop charmer. We've got the premiere of the song right here in the post to download above or stream below. Merry Ex-mas.

Another present you're going to have to wait a bit for is Ex Cops terrific debut album, True Hallucinations, which hits January 22 via Other Music Recording Company. The band are playing a record release show at Glasslands that same day with Hunters also on the bill (tickets). After that, Ex Cops play Mercury Lounge on February 15 and tickets to that show are on sale at noon. You can see them sooner than that, though, as they were just added to tonight's Paul Banks show at Webster Hall (12/14) and tickets are still available.

Meanwhile Ex Cops' Brian Harding and Amalie Bruun have each submitted lists of their favorite songs from 2012. In a bit of daring, they both include their own single "You Are a Lion, I Am a Lamb" on their respective lists. Check them out below.

Continue reading "Ex Cops cover Paul McCartney, list Top 10 Songs of 2012, opening for Paul Banks + more NYC shows (dates, streams)"

by Bill Pearis

Frank Ocean at Angel Orensanz Center, 9/24/2012 (more by Fred Pessaro // BBG)

One of the saddest losses of 2012 for me was the NYC print edition of The Onion which I always looked forward to picking up on Wednesdays and browsing while on the subway or getting some food on the neighborhood. (I still have my copy of the "CHINA STRONG" issue, easily one of the funniest they've ever done.) I lament of it for the AV Club half as well, as I've long found it to be amongst the best pop culture criticism/journalism out there. While NYC can no longer get physical copies, you can still read it online where the AV Club has really flourished.

It's Year-End season there too and have just published their Top 25 LPs of 2012 list, which was tallied by a complicated system that led to a lot of ties, including three albums claiming the #18 spot. There was no doubt who was getting the top slot, though, as Frank Ocean's Channel Orange got the most votes by a wide margin. There's no stopping that album on year end polls. Elsewhere on the list, you'll find more than a few records that cater to the late-'30s indie rock fan crowd (The Walkmen, Bob Mould, Field Music) and even Rush's Clockwork of Angels. You can look at individual writers' ballots as well. Check out the whole list below.

Continue reading "Frank Ocean tops the AV Club's Top 25 LPs of 2012 list"

Frank Ocean at ATP NYC 2012 (more by Erik Erikson)

Frank Ocean stopped by a Spotify press conference in NYC this past Thursday (12/6) to play a mini set, during which he prefaced his track "Voodoo" with a portion of Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees." You can watch a video of Frank singing the track below (via NME).

It was the same event that Glassnote CEO Daniel Glass announced Phoenix's new album at, and Rolling Stone also reports that the event featured a Q&A between old enemies Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich and Napster founder Sean Parker:

Ulrich and Parker represented a reunion of the two most public figures in the Metallica-Napster copyright battle in the late 1990s. The two play nice these days - Metallica announced today they are putting their music on Spotify - but it wasn't always that way.

"We just wanted to control what was going on with our music, because that's what we'd always done," said Ulrich, explaining his band's position at the time. "It became Metallica against its fans, which was never the fucking point."

Frank Ocean video is below.

Continue reading "watch Frank Ocean cover Radiohead at the event where Metallica made nice with Napster founder Sean Parker"

Grimes @ Music Hall of Williamsburg (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Josh Moore, talent buyer at Bowery Presents, is in charge of booking shows at Music Hall of Williamsburg, but you'll also find gigs he booked at places like Brooklyn Bowl, Webster Hall and Terminal 5. You can also blame him for both Jam Cruise and Holy Ship. Like his his associate Johnny Beach and ex-Bell House/Union Hall/Rock Shop booker Jack "Skippy" McFadden before him, Josh gave us a list of his favorite albums of 2012. Check it out, along with some related videos, below...

Continue reading "Josh Moore from Bowery Presents: Best Albums of 2012"

"Here's a riddle: Grimes + LDR = the #1 and #2 most-blogged artists of 2012. Grimes LP on tons of year-end blogger lists. Why not LDR?" - Dev Sherlock

Hype Machine, which compiles data from countless music blogs, posted the Top 50 Most Blogged About Artists, complete with pretty pictures (like the one of the #1 artist above), and ways to listen to those artists. Head to their site for the full list, but you can check out the top 10 below...

Continue reading "The Most Blogged About Artists of 2012"

by Andrew Sacher

FACT is still one of the best sources for cutting edge electronic music, and I always look forward to their top 50 albums of the year list, which they've just published for 2012. As usual, it doesn't only contain electronic albums.

This year's list has a good deal of indie rap (Haleek Maul, Schoolboy Q, Le1f, Main Attrakionz, Spaceghostpurrp) and it's the only non-metal list I've seen so far with Black Breath's Sentenced to Life (!). And of course, to compliment the dancefloor records, it's got its fair share of electronic-tinged indie pop, forward thinking R&B, and outsider experimental music.

Check out the full list below.

Continue reading "FACT's Top 50 Albums of 2012"

Jack White @ Roseland Ballroom 5/22/12

So far we've seen Dominick Mastrangelo, Dana (distortion) Yavin, Amanda Hatfield and Fred Pessaro // BBG's favorite photos that they took in 2012, and now comes a set from the great David Andrako.

The photos are not in any particular order. Jack White above. More below...

Continue reading "David Andrako's favorite Live Music Photos of 2012 -------------- (that he took) "

The Grammy Nominations were just announced. At this point it should be no surprise that this year's list contains names like Jack White, The Black Keys, Gotye, Adele, Foster the People, Florence and the Machine, M.I.A. (she got nominated for a video), and "fun" alongside all the major pop stars. And I guess Bjork is a given in the "Alternative Music Album" category any time she comes out with an album (this is like her 12th or 13th nomination).

Mumford and Sons are naturally on there along with fellow rising pop folk band The Lumineers. Indie Grammy pioneers Arcade Fire also snuck in there again for "Best Song Written For Visual Media."

EDM is huger than ever so of course hot EDM artists like Skrillex, Deadmau5, Diplo, AVICII, Swedish House Mafia, and Steve Aoki are well represented. UPDATE: As is AL WALSER.

Classics and current stadium artists that were busy in 2012 all got their nods too: Paul McCartney, Coldplay, Bruce Springsteen, Jay-Z, Kanye West, etc. (though Bieber and Nicki Minaj got snubbed).

Most funny is probably the metal category which is as out of touch as ever with Anthrax competing against Iron Maiden, Megadeth and Marilyn Manson (what year is it again?).

Personally, real opinions of the Grammys overall, I'm excited to see Frank Ocean SIX TIMES, Miguel FIVE TIMES, Alabama Shakes THREE TIMES, and I'm glad they didn't forget about Fiona Apple who is up for "Best Alternative Music Album" against Bjork, Gotye (one of three nominations), M83, and Tom Waits (who has won in the past).

The Grammys air February 10, 2013 on CBS. Check out the full list of nominations, which also includes Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals, Hugh Masekela, Tenacious D, Jim Gaffigan, Jimmy Fallon, and Tegan and Sara, HERE.

Check out the entire list of 2013 Grammy Nominations below...

Continue reading "2013 Grammy Nominations announced (full list)"

Polica @ Webster Hall, 10/6/2012 (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Polica's debut album, Give You the Ghost, has shown up on a few Best Of lists this year (like NME and The Fly) but what records did they like in 2012? Well we've got their Top 10 LPs list right here and is topped by Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city.

They also give props to Minneapolis pal P.O.S. (with whom they collaborate in Gayngs and Marijuana Deathsquads who have sometimes also played as backing band) whose We Don't Even Live Here makes the list. So does their neighbor Now Now's Threads which was released on Chris Walla's Trans label. Check out their whole list below.

Continue reading "Polica's Top Ten LPs of 2012"

by Andrew Sacher

More of the big 2012 year-end lists have been rolling in, with NPR and SPIN recently revealing theirs, and now Rolling Stone have unleashed theirs. Similarly to Uncut, the expected albums from older artists are there, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Dr. John, and the number one slot going to Bruuuuuuuuuuuce. It's got huge albums like Mumford and Sons, Taylor Swift, and fun., as well as the token high ranking indie album (Japandroids at #9), the token washed up band who was once classic (Green Day), things you knew you'd see on Rolling Stone's list like Jack White and Alabama Shakes, and... Grimes!

You can read the whole list below...

Continue reading "Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums of 2012"

Bear in Heaven @ MHOW, May 2012 (more by Amanda Hatfield)

As mentioned, Bear in Heaven are playing Music Hall of Williamsburg tonight (12/5) and tickets are still available for that show. One dollar from each ticket sold is going towards Hurricane Sandy relief, and 10% of the bar at the band's afterparty at Public Assembly will go to relief as well.

Meanwhile, frontman Jon Philpot was kind enough to send us his Top 10 LPs of 2012 which includes some of his Brooklyn neighbors (Grizzly Bear, Yeasayer) and a few other familiar names to these lists this year (Frank Ocean, Scott Walker) but his number one is new compilation of Italian '70s progressive/spacerock artist Sensations' Fix titled Music Is Painting in the Air. There's some pretty cool synth work on it that you could see being an influence on Bear in Heaven. You can stream the entire Sensations' Fix (all 30 tracks) LP below and check out Philpot's list in full.

Continue reading "Bear in Heaven list their Top 10 LPs of 2012, play NYC tonight"