Lou Reed at Tibet House benefit 2012 (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Lou Reed will be on tour in Europe this month doing photo exhibits and book readings/signings, and upon returning to the US he'll play a NJ show at Englewood's Bergen Performing Arts Center on December 7. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

Right after that show, he'll head to Miami for UR1 Festival, which goes down in Bayfront Park on December 8 and 9. In addition to Lou Reed, performers include Kanye West, Jane's Addiction, Dead Can Dance, Animal Collective, Peter Murphy, Flying Lotus, Slash, Zola Jesus, Wild Nothing, and many more listed below, plus more TBA. Tickets for the festival are on sale now.

The UR1 Festival is timed to happen simultaneously with Art Basel, which happens from December 6 - 9 in Miami Beach with "more than 260 leading galleries from North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa showcasing works by more than 2,000 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries."

A list of all Lou Reed dates and the UR1 Festival lineup below.

Continue reading "Lou Reed playing NJ show before UR1 Festival (dates, lineup)"

Diplo released the "Express Yourself" 7" this month, the single for that track from his EP of the same name. You've already seen the video for that song, which features bounce artist Nicky Da B, and below we're offering a stream of the single's b-side, "Move Around" (featuring Elephant Man and GTA). That's the cover art for the 7" above. Pick up a copy on green vinyl.

Diplo, Grimes, Skrillex (one of the greatest guitarists of all time), Tokimonsta, Pretty Lights, and others are set to head out on the Full Flex Express Tour, a tour of Canada on a train modeled after The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and The Band's 1970 Festival Express tour.

Although the Full Flex Express tour doesn't come to the US, Diplo, Skrillex, and Pretty Lights will all be in NYC later this summer for Electric Zoo, which returns to Randall's Island from August 31-September 1. Tickets are on sale now. The full lineup is listed below. Skrillex will also be in the NYC area for Bamboozle this weekend.

Speaking of electronic dance festivals in New York, the Electric Daisy Carnival will occur at MetLife Stadium this weekend from May 18-20. The lineup includes MSTRKRFT, Richie Hawtin, Fatboy Slim, Bassnectar, and others. Tickets are available. Full lineup below.

In more related news, the touring Identity Festival, whose lineup was a bit better last year but certainly bigger this year since it sold out in less than 24 hours, returns to NY on July 28 at Jones Beach. Artists playing include Datsik, Eric Prydz, Nero, and more. Full lineup below.

Festival lineups and stream below...

Continue reading "Grimes taking a train ride with Skrillex & Diplo; Electric Daisy Carnival, Electric Zoo, Identity Fest & other EDM news too"

photos by Zach Dilgard

Frankie Knuckles / actual members of the crowd

"This past labor day weekend in NYC, thousands of dance and electronica music fans gathered together for the first, and hopefully annual Electric Zoo Festival on Randall's Island to celebrate Electronic Music. The festival lineup featured over 50 acts which included Steve Aoki, Busy P, Danny Tenaglia, Benny Benassi, Deadmau5, David Guetta, Markus Schulz, Tom Middleton, Kaskade, and Armin Van Burren over the course of two days....

...On the second day of the festival, house music icon DJ Frankie Knuckles alongside Andy Butler (Hercules & Love Affair) blessed the turntables with a raw and authentic classic house music set that made you feel nothing short of spiritual...

..."Music belongs to everybody," Frankie says after stepping off stage from his Electric Zoo DJ set. "Believe me, If I had the ability I would really just make it possible so that any and everybody could just show up (on the dancefloor)...a lot of times that's all you got to hold onto." To that end, it seems rather fitting that his biggest commercial hit was the ethereal and optimistic Whistle Song, which just might make him the pied piper of dance music who tries to leads the masses to a state of bliss.

Dropping next month is Frankie's Motivation Too album, which is his first compilation in six years. When asked about his own personal tactics for motivation, Frankie notes: "I normally get up early in the morning, like seven or eight o'clock. Musically I'm listening to things that are very spiritual and classical while I'm moving through the morning and getting myself together. I pretty much block out a lot of things that could possibly feed me any kind of negative energy, because my day has to be right...I figure why not get up on the right side of the bed and focus and maybe I'll get through the day and it will be alright."" [MC2D Magazine]

You saw Ryan's pictures from Sunday. More of Zach's pictures from both days of the fest (where he unfortunately missed Lindstrom, James Murphy, Al Doyle, Pat Mahoney, Busy P, DJ Medhi, Junior Boys, Holy Ghost, JDH, Dave P, Andy Butler, and others) (but did capture lots of scariness), below...

Continue reading "Electric Zoo Festival 2009 @ Randalls Island, NYC (more pics)"

words by Showtrotta, live photos by Gabi Porter, portraits by Leia Jospe

Late of the Pier (by Leia Jospe)

Soulwax (by Gabi Porter)

Aside from catching a lot of great new acts during this year's CMJ, the highlight for me had to be Insiders at the Fillmore last Friday (10/24).

Insiders was a "micro-festival" put together by Pete Tong and Live Nation whose goal was:

...to highlight and celebrate a cross pollination of genres, all somewhat considered left-of-center but each possessing the potential to gain mass appeal in the mainstream arena - Insiders is destined to provide a jam packed, quality festivalé of fun and music, redefining the future of electronic music

While I'm not sure if attaching a $55 price tag (though I felt it was easily worth that) to an eight act, one evening, bill was the ideal way of gaining "mass appeal in the mainstream arena", Insiders did provide a lot of fun for everyone present that evening, laying the ground work, and highlighting the future of electronic music. In a time when deejay sets are frequently delivered from behind laptops (which can still be art depending on who's doing it), Insiders brought many electro acts who do more than that to the forefront. Yes, the evening did have its share of deejays. Rob Da Bank, Luciano, James Lavalle, and Pete Tong all managed to get the crowd adequately moving during the time allotted, but anyone there will tell you the true excitement and electricity of the evening came when the live bands joined with electronics during the Whip, Late of the Pier, and Soulwax's performances.

continued below...

Continue reading "Soulwax, Late of the Pier, The Whip & others @ Irving Plaza (CMJ), NYC - pics "