Q-Tip @ the Woodies (more by Tim Griffin)

Q-Tip's December 2nd show at Nokia Theater with the Cool Kids has been moved to the smaller Highline Ballroom. Tickets are still on sale.

Other hip hop shows coming up at the Highline include Ludacris's album release party this Tuesday, Slick Rick on November 28th, Jean Grae on November 30th, Wale & Kid Cudi (and DJ Mark Ronson) on December 9th, AND last but not least: Hip Hop Harry on December 27th.

Some other upcoming hip hip shows are listed HERE.

Kanye West's new album is out today.

Video of Q-Tip performing with Lykke Li at the Woodies below...

Continue reading "Q-Tip/Cool Kids moved to Highline & other hip hop shows"

Kanye West's new album 808s & HEARTBREAK is out in stores on Monday 11/24, but will be streaming at MySpace in its entirety as of midnight (pacific time) Friday night/Saturday morning. Monday is a weird release day.

In a move no doubt designed to get a jump on holiday sales (and facilitate maximum one-stop shopping), Island Def Jam announced that it has moved the release date for three of the label's biggest albums -- West's 808s & Heartbreak, Luda's Theater of the Mind and the Killers' Day & Age -- from a traditional Tuesday launch up to Monday, November 24. All three albums will be available both digitally and physically on that date.

According to a spokesperson for the label, it's a "one time only" strategy, which will jump the industry-wide release schedule "in anticipation of big Thanksgiving-weekend holiday gift shopping."

It bears mentioning that Tuesday release dates have become more and more arbitrary in recent months: Metallica's Death Magnetic was released on Friday, September 12, AC/DC's Black Ice hit Wal-Mart shelves on Sunday, October 20, and Guns N' Roses' much-anticipated Chinese Democracy is slated for a Sunday, November 23, release at Best Buy. [MTV]

Meanwhile, people are already making end of year 'Best Of' lists.

Takka Takka @ Pianos (more by Ryan Muir)

today in NYC
* DANCE (stay tuned)
* Nick Lowe @ Zankel Hall
* Baltimore Round Robin (early and late)
* Kirsten Ketsjer @ Dead Herring
* Pierced Arrows @ Maxwell's
* Ben Kweller, Whitley @ Bowery Ballroom
* Ra Ra Riot, Walter Meego, And The Moneynotes @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Skull Defekts, Talk Normal, S-S-S-Spectres, Boneless @ Cake Shop
* Suckers, Amazing Baby, Violens & Chairlift @ Danbro Studios
* Japanther, NinjaSonik, Killer Dreamer, SS Pyramid Snake @ Mercury Lounge
* Antipop Consortium, Takka Takka & more @ The Bell House
* Menahan Street Band & Phenomenal Handclap Band at Southpaw

Kanye West's official video for "Love Lockdown" is at YouTube.

Apollo Sunshine's new video for "Singing To The Earth" below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Friday?"

Antony @ the Clocktower (more by Zach Dilgard)

today in NYC
* DANCE
* Kirsten Ketsjer @ Lit
* Gwar @ Starland Ballroom
* Iced Earth & Saviours @ Nokia
* NOFX & Dillinger Four @ Irving Plaza
* Trey Anastasio @ Roseland Ballroom
* Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen @ Hammerstein
* Elephant 6 show @ Purchase
* Titan, Villians & Saviours @ The Charleston
* Antony & The Johnsons @ Apollo Theater
* Cold War Kids, AA Bondy @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* The Little Ones, Anya Marina @ Mercury Lounge
* The Dirtbombs, The Nouvellas @ Southpaw
* Fucked Up, Vivian Girls, Inepsy @ Market Hotel
* TV on the Radio, Dragons of Zynth @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple
* Diplo, Boy 8 Bit, Telepathe, Abe Vigoda @ Webster Hall
* Ra Ra Riot, Walter Meego, Morning Benders @ Bowery Ballroom
* Dave Hill, Walter Schreifels, Doug Gillard & Moby @ UCB

Bob Mould was born today in 1960.

Today is World Food Day

Video of Kanye West performing "Love Lockdown" on Jimmy Kimmel, below...

Moby's new video for "Ooh Yeah" below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Thursday?"

"Inspired by the grassroots movement created by Barack Obama's historic presidential run and his call for the change Americans need, artists supporting Barack Obama teamed up to create a new CD that taps into the campaign's universal themes of hope, unity and change. The disc, titled Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement, includes a collection of artists from across genres, including such renowned performers as Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer, Adam Levine from Maroon 5 and John Legend. Through their musical contributions, the artists seek to mobilize voters in the final stretch before the November election. Many of the artists involved will also be volunteering their time to promote voter registration."

Stream Obama clips HERE. See the mostly-uninteresting tracklist below...

Continue reading "Obama's new CD could've used Meghan McCain's help "

Kanye West @ Knitting Factory, NYC - Sept 9, 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Rapper Kanye West was arrested this morning at Los Angeles International Airport on suspicion of vandalism and his road manager was arrested on suspicion of vandalism and battery after the two men reportedly confronted a photographer and smashed the man's camera, authorities said. [LA Times]

photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

As you would expect him to do at a showcase of rappers signed to his own GOOD Music label, Kanye West made an appearance at Knitting Factory in NYC last night (Sept 9). The whole show went: 88 Keys, Termanology, Big Sean, Mickey Factz, Kid Cudi, and then Consequence. Wale did some deejaying between sets. Kanye West came out during Consequence's set. They did "Gone" and "Flashing Lights" and a few of Consequence's songs. Then, as he's done before with his cousin Consequence, Q-Tip joined them on stage. Then Kid Cudi came back out and eventually pretty much everyone from the night was on stage by the end. As expected, people went nuts for Kanye.

In related news,

The release date and title for Kanye West's upcoming fourth solo album has been revealed.

According to a posting on Target's website, Kanye's album is titled 808's & Heartbreak and will be hitting stores on December 16th.

West performed a single from the album titled "Love Lockdown" at the MTV Video Music Awards this past weekend.

Continue reading "Kanye West & Q-Tip joined Consequence & Kid Cudi @ the GOOD Music showcase @ Knitting Factory - pics & video"

"Kid Cudi and Hollywood Holt, two of the nation's noted up and coming MCs, will be combining their respective skills for a tour of North America that kicks off in Baltimore on Sept. 23 and wraps on Oct. 1st in San Francisco. Brooklyn based (by way of Cleveland) Kid Cudi stunned denizens of the underground with his Fool's Gold debut track "Day 'N' Nite" which became a club staple worldwide in 2008, leading to a slot performing on NYC's SummerStage Concert series alongside Fool's Gold label head A-Trak, Santogold, and Diplo. Hollywood Holt seems poised to take the mantle of hardest hustling man in the rap business. In under a year Holt has gone from playing at a local bowling alley to performing at Lollapalooza, sharing stages with such heavy hitters as Dizzee Rascal and Lupe Fiasco and having his Chocolate Industries debut video "Hollywood" premiered on Kanye West's blog."

GOOD Music (Kanye West's label) will clear the bench on Sept 9th when Consequence (the super duper guest star from A Tribe Called Quest's Beats Rhymes & Life), GLC (who first appeared on "Spaceship" from Kanye's College Dropout), Kid Cudi & Big Sean hit up the Knitting Factory. Tickets are still available.

Continue reading "Kid Cudi - a GOOD showcase tonight & Hollywood Holt tour "

photos by Bao Nguyen

Kanye West took a bit of a jab at the festival's schedule, specifically the choice concertgoers had to make between his performance and one from Nine Inch Nails happening at the same time at the other end of the park (a dilemma faced by fans at Chicago's Lollapalooza a week earlier). "It's not a black-or-white thing, it's not a rap-or-rock-and-roll thing," he exclaimed. "It's a good-music thing. We jam about good things from the heart. How can you pick between me and Trent Reznor?" [MTV]

Continue reading "NIN @ the 2008 Baltimore Virgin Festival - pics"

Kanye West @ Lollapalooza 2008 (more by Bao Nguyen)

tonight in NYC & NJ
* FREE
* nothing @ Studo B
* Kanye West @ MSG
* Bob Log III @ Southpaw
* Eddie Vedder @ United Palace
* Brazilian Girls @ The Apple Store
* Keith Caputo (LOA) @ the Stone Pony
* Jungle Brothers in Bush Clinton Park
* 28 Days Later (movie) @ McCarren Pool
* Black Rebel Motorcyle Club @ Irving Plaza
* The Police & Elvis Costello @ Jones Beach
* Earth Wind and Fire @ Radio City Music Hall
* Fiasco, Ninja Sonik & The Homosexuals @ Market Hotel
* Flobots, People Under The Stairs, and Busdriver @ Bowery Ballroom
* Apollo Sunshine, Drug Rug and Sam Champion on a Rocks Off Cruise

Tonight was the night Sam Sparro was supposed to play Santos Party House.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club play Irving tonight, and then open for Stone Temple Pilots at Jones Beach tomorrow.

Spiritualized will be on Letterman tonight. They recently played a couple of NYC shows. Fleet Foxes played Letterman last night.

Help get Iggy Pop's gear back.

Sigur Ros' MoMA performance will be on Current TV tonight.

The Duke Spirit play the Apple Store on Thursday.

Video of Gnarls Barkley covering Radiohead @ Lollapalooza below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday?"

photos by Bao Nguyen, words by Chase Turner

Kanye West closed out the 2008 Lollapalooza Festival on Sunday (Augst 3, 2008) to a sold out crowd on the south end of Grant Park in his hometown of Chicago. West started just a few minutes after the billed start time of 8:30 PM and performed for the noticeably young crowd until 10 PM on the dot.

The act consisted of West with full backing band, a number of drummers and back-up singers, and a Daft Punk-helmeted guitarist. The musical arrangements were well put together, with a good balance of orchestral elements and electro flourishes (vocoder effects on the back-up singers were a nice touch). We had high hopes for the visuals, but unfortunately the light presentation left a bit to be desired.

The most bizarre yet not unexpected moment came when West waxed philosophical about progress, comparing his own success in music to that of the evolution of the computer from the 1970s to today's computers the size of phones. This was after we were instructed to tell our unborn children about this particular concert experience. One can be a pop icon without resorting to talking about it constantly or comparing oneself to past legends (Jimi Hendrix, James Brown) as West did tonight.

For all of West's vanity, he still puts on a decent show, and you really recognize the extent of his reach when you know the words to every song he plays. The setlist, and more pictures, below....

Continue reading "Kanye West @ Lollapalooza - pics & setlist"

DOWNLOAD: Ben Sollee - Dear Kanye (MP3) (lyrics)

Ben Kweller announced a bunch of tour dates including October 17th at Bowery Ballroom in NYC. Tickets for that show go on sale at noon. Ben Sollee penned a song about Kanye West (MP3 above). Ben Folds announced a new album...

Epic Records is proud to announce the release of the much-anticipated new album from Ben Folds, WAY TO NORMAL, on September 30, 2008. The album, Folds' third as a solo artist since the break up of the Ben Folds Five in 2000, was mostly recorded at his studio in Nashville and produced by Dennis Herring (Elvis Costello, Modest Mouse, The Hives). Featuring Folds on vocals and piano, Way to Normal also features long-time bassist Jared Reynolds and drummer Sam Smith as well as a guest vocal from indie pop heroine Regina Spektor on the album's first single, "You Don't Know Me."

Continue reading "Ben Kweller tour dates, Ben Folds new album - Regina Spektor, Ben Lee ++ Kanye West dissed by Ben Sollee"

Continue reading "Kanye West's ego in ABSOLUT viral marketing campaign"

"Kanye Sux" - Bonnaroo 2008 (cred)

The Grammy winner walked onto the festival stage nearly two hours past his scheduled 2:45 a.m. performance time Sunday morning and was greated by bleary-eyed fans' chorus of boos and chants of "Kanye sucks." [E Online]

Ken Weinstein, a spokesman for the annual festival held on a 700-acre site south of Nashville, said the delay was simply a matter of unloading the Pearl Jam stage (the band went an hour past its scheduled end time, playing until about 1:15 a.m.) and loading the West stage. [AP]

People were mad about the set time. Now Kanye West has reacted to the controversy with an angry blog posting. More pictures, and his ENTIRE ANGRY MESSAGE, BELOW....

Continue reading "Kanye West offended over "Bonnaroo thing", says sorry (pics)"

photos by Ryan Muir

Kid Sister opened the free and rainy Vampire Weekend show at Summerstage on Saturday. Her friend A-Trak was her DJ. A-Trak (his own show this time), Santogold (not to be confused with SANTO GOLD), Diplo and Kid Cudi play the free one on July 20th. More pictures from the Kid Sister show below

Continue reading "Kid Sister & A-Trak played Summerstage, A-Trak again soon "

May 13 - he played already
Aug 5 - sold out instantly
Aug 6 - ON SALE NOW

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for Kanye West's next MSG show.

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the show The Stooges are playing @ Terminal 5.

Tickets are now on presale for the recently added Kanye West show at MSG. Nokia password = concert. Inernet presale password = HEKANYE

M.I.A. & Kanye & friends (via Kanye's blog)

Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and N.E.R.D. are playing Madison Square Garden again on August 5th. Tickets go on sale Friday June 13 @ 10am. I didn't forget about Rihanna - her name doesn't seem to be on the bill this time around.

Kanye has a new video for "Flashing Lights". N.E.R.D. has a new video. Their last show at MSG was in May. Kanye then played another NYC show the next night and surrounded himself with half-naked girls dressed as astronauts. Video from that below....

Continue reading "Kanye West finally adds that 2nd NYC show at MSG "

Continue reading "Kanye West - 'Flashing Lights' (new video, same song)"

photos by Abbey Braden

Whoah. Abbey Braden managed to make her way in to that private Kanye West show last night and it looks like Kanye took the ego-boosting-spage-age stage show one step further for the exclusive (and over 18) crowd at Guastavino's. NSFW pictures below........

Continue reading "Kanye West & topless female astronauts in NYC (NSFW pics)"

DOWNLOAD: N.E.R.D. - 'Everyone Nose' (MP3)

N.E.R.D. @ M.S.G., N.Y.C. - May 13, 2008 (malusbrutus)

N.E.R.D.'s new album Seeing Sounds will be out June 10, 2008. "Everyone Nose" is the first single. You can download the MP3 above. The video was (at least partially) shot here at Gypsy Tea in NYC in April, and it features a bunch of cameos including Lindsay Lohan and Kanye West (who N.E.R.D. played with last night at Madison Square Garden). You can watch that below...

Continue reading "N.E.R.D. - new album & 'Everyone Nose' MP3 & video"

tonight in NYC & NJ
* The Heavy @ Union Pool
* Los Campesinos! @ Maxwell's
* Jim White @ Knitting Factory
* Negative Approach @ Southpaw
* Lupe Fiasco is playing SOB's
* CB6 Community Meeting @ Borough Hall
* Bonde do Role, The Death Set & Holy Hail
* Dave Hill & Demetri Martin & others @ Rififi
* Loudon wainwright III @ The Bayou in Mt Vernon
* Emmylou Harris @ The Museum of Natural History
* Cut Copy, Mobius Band, and T & T @ Bowery Ballroom
* Joan As Policewoman & Alberta Cross @ Mercury Lounge
* Nicole Atkins & The Sea for Medical Marijuana @ Highline Ballroom

Nicole Atkins is also playing the Delancey.

Kanye West played MSG last night. According to BlackBook, he (or someone else named "Kanye") also played played 1Oak. And according to a flyer someone just forwarded me, he's also playing a fancy G-Shock party at Guastavino's tonight at 9pm (which I guess lessens the chances that he'll make an appearance at Lupe's SOB's show again).

As last-minute-posted yesterday, the downstairs part of the new club Santos' Party House is now open for dancing and drinking and hanging out and whatever else you feel like doing there. I stopped by last night to check it out. The cover charge was $5.00. Part-owner Andrew WK and two other deejays were in the booth and the sound was really loud and good. I didn't drink, so I don't know how that part is. It (the downstairs part) is not huge - kind of like the downstairs at Tribeca Grand and I bet it will be packed and hard to get into when there is something good. They have signs saying 'no photography', but I couldn't resist taking at least one picture (see above).

What else?

Some photos of last night's show at MSG courtesy of ATHLETE Director Dave...

At Tuesday night's Madison Square Garden stop on his national "Glow in the Dark" tour, West rapped and roamed around an otherwise empty stage, assuring that all focus would land entirely on himself.

The vast staging mimicked a lunar landscape in a world far away, underscoring "Glow's" intergalactic theme, which served the star's ego as well. At one point in the night's "Lost in Space" scenario, West met a female space alien who, naturally, recognized him.

"You're the biggest star in the universe," she exclaimed.
[Jim Farber - Daily News]

tonight in NYC & NJ
* Golem is playing Joe's Pub
* Duffy is playing the Virgin store
* Van Halen is at the Izod Center in Jersey
* The Heavy & The Gay Blades are playing Rehab
* R. Stevie Moore & Double Wonderful @ Cake Shop
* Black Kids, Cut Copy & the Mobius Band are at Studio B
* Kanye West, N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco & Rihanna are playing MSG
* Joey Belladona of Anthrax is singing Anthrax songs at Europa
* These Are Powers, Indian Jewelry, Rings, & Power Douglas @ DBA

N.E.R.D. played Letterman last night.

The 100 Lafayette logo was removed and it looks like santospartyhouse.com is in full effect (relatively speaking). Maybe Andrew WK wasn't kidding. PAPER says,

After abandoning the child-cuddly name Santa's for the fear of lawsuit a la Joe Camel, the men at 100 Lafayette (Ron Castellano, Larry Golden, Spencer Sweeney and Andrew WK) came up with an ingenious solution that makes calling a nightclub Santa's Party House seem so passé. OK. Are you ready to party your ass off at Santos' Party House? This past Saturday night Santos' hosted a very hush-hush first private party but tonight it's gonna be a pay-to-play dance-a-thon from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Go and be part of the new New York nightlife history in the making.

p.s. As of now, the club is only partially open -- in the basement, for dance parties. The upper half, which will be a live music venue, is still locked away. The Santos' boys, we hear, are confident that they got the best sound system in all of New York City. It's about time.