PORTISHEAD confirm "I'LL BE YOUR MIRROR" Curated by PORTISHEAD & ATP
23rd & 24th July - Alexandra Palace, London

On the weekend of 23rd and 24th July 2011 at Alexandra Palace, London, All Tomorrow's Parties will present the first UK I'll Be Your Mirror event, which will be curated by Portishead and ATP.

Acting as sister event to ATP Festivals and named after the b-side to The Velvet Underground's original All Tomorrow's Parties 7" single, I'll Be Your Mirror will be a new series of artist curated music, film and art events taking place in cities worldwide.

Portishead will headline both nights, with a different supporting line-up joining them each day. Tickets will cost £59 per day with weekend tickets priced at £100. At this point these are the only UK shows Portishead plan to play in 2011, and you can get early bird tickets at reduced prices here

Today we can announce some of the first additions to the line-up:

Saturday 23rd July
PORTISHEAD
MF DOOM
COMPANY FLOW (original line-up - first UK show in 10 years)
THE BOOKS
BEAK>
FACTORY FLOOR

Sunday 24th July
PORTISHEAD
SWANS
BEACH HOUSE
ANIKA
LIARS
THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC

.....with more artists, DJs and other activities to be confirmed for both days in the coming months! Tickets will go on sale Friday 26th November at 9am from www.atpfestival.com

And.......... Portishead plan to play in Europe in June/July and the US during September/October - as plans are confirmed news will be posted here first so keep checking the news page.

ATP NY happens in September...

DOOM @ Pitchfork Fest in July (more by Joseph Xu)

"[In response to why he wears a mask]...A visual always brings a first impression. But if there's going to be a first impression I might as well use it to control the story. So why not do something like throw a mask on?"

Or throw the mask on someone else Dumile routinely sends out one of his comrades in the DOOM costume and has him lip-sync the entire show. He sees this as a logical extension of the DOOM idea. Fans who have paid for tickets tend to disagree.

If Dumile had his way, he would take it further. He jokes that he'd like to dart backstage after a performance, take off the mask, and then wade into the crowd - beer in hand - and applaud his own work in conversations with strangers, if the subject of DOOM comes up, Dumile will simply play along, like Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne.

"I'm the writer, I'm the director," Dumile said. "If I was to go out there without the mask on, they'd be like, 'Who the fuck is this?' I might send a white dude next ... I'll send a Chinese nigger. I'll send ten Chinese niggers. I might send the Blue Man Group." [New Yorker]

DOOM (or one of his stand-ins...) will be on hand for a headlining show at NYC's Nokia Theatre Times Square on Saturday, January 30th. Tickets go on AmEx presale Wednesday, Nov. 4th at 10am. General sale starts Friday, Nov. 6th at noon.

The show will also feature a performance by Mos Def, a rumored guest on the forthcoming follow-up to 2004's Madvillainy, which will come out (date unknown) on Stones Throw Records. The NYC gig one of two currently on the schedule for DOOM. The other is a Madvillain set at L.A.'s We the People Festival.

Tracks allegedly from the new Madvillain record were recently leaked on East Village Radio's Fat Beats Live. A YouTubed clip of those are below.

DOOM is also set to release a new disc of "rare non-album tracks and guest appearances" called Unexpected Guests, which comes out November 10th on Gold Dust. A preview trailer for that mix is below, and its first 15 minutes are streaming at Doom-UnexpectedGuests.com.

DOOM's Madvillain collaborator Madlib is busy, as always, with plenty of other projects. DOOM played Pitchfork Festival earlier this year in July.

Previews and tour dates are below...

Continue reading "DOOM playing NY w/ Mos Def, releasing b-sides, Madvillain 2"

words by Black Bubblegum, photos by Joseph Xu

DOWNLOAD: Pharoah Monch vs the Black Lips - "Drop I Mayor" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Black Lips - Drop I Hold featuring GZA (MP3)

Pharoahe Monch @ the 2009 Pitchfork Fest

Though APW's addition of Jay-Z is rather notable (just a tad), it's the reunion of Organized Konfusion that sets the stage for a big hip hop weekend at APW. Organized Konfusion originally stepped away from the mic in 1997, flirting with a return as recently as 2004, but APW marks their first show back.

Since 1997, both Prince Po and Pharoahe Monch of Organized Konfusion have been busy as solo artists, with Monch recently logging time at the 2009 Brooklyn Hip Hop Fest (pics here) and Pitchfork Festival in Chicago. Pics from Pitchfork in this post, along with fellow hip hop luminary (who didn't send a decoy?) Doom. Chicagoist dug Monch, but Doom... not so much.

After that was Pharoahe Monch, who's hip hop set was everything Doom's Saturday set wasn't: intense, ferocious, and with a level of personality the masked wonder couldn't summon on Saturday. Drawing from the crowd, Monch gave props to those such as Rakim, Mos Def, and Michael Jackson. He was the act we knew least about going into the weekend and coming out he's left us only wanting to hear more.

Speaking of Mos Def, the routing for The Ecstatic Tour is solidifying more and more. Details are below. Tickets are still available for his show at The Beach at Governor's Island on 9/12.

Mos Def's partner in the recently reunited Black Star, Talib Kweli, is making his way back to the stage with Reflection Eternal at BB Kings on August 28th, a little more than a month after Rock The Bells. Tickets are now on sale.

Styles P, who provided direct support for Pharoahe Monch at Brooklyn Hip Hop Fest, will headline the first night of the Rock The Block Fest at Southpaw (Aug 6, tix here), with Freeway taking over for the second (Aug 7, tix here). Tickets are also available bundled together (here).

DJ STV SLV (of The Hood Internet) recently remixed Pharoah Monch's "Mayor" with The Black Lips "The Drop I Hold". Hilarity ensues. Download that above. Black Lips' collaboration with GZA is is up there too.

The previously mentioned Ghostface, Redman/Method Man jumpoff at Nokia Theater on July 30th is sold out. We're still waiting for Diesel to announce who the special guests will be at the Roots Webster Hall show happening the same night. Speaking of the Roots, their Highline Ballroom residency has now been extended through November 24th. Tickets are on sale.

In other hip hop news, Q-Tip is paying tribute to Michael Jackson at Nokia Theatre, Jedi Mind Tricks and Brother Ali have announced tours, and The Cool Kids are playing SOB's less than a month after All Points West.

More Pitchfork pics, the Rock the Block flyer, and all Mos Def tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Pharoahe Monch (and DOOM) played P4K (pics), (Organized Konfusion) playing APW ++ tix on sale, Mos Def dates & more"

Peanut Butter Wolf...

As one commenter pointed out, DOOM's upcoming show schedule, in addition to the Pitchfork Festival (which by the way is now sold out of three-day passes), also includes a visit to daylong hip-hop fest Soundset taking place in Shakopee, Minnesota on Sunday, May 24th. Headliners for the concert include Atmosphere, The Pharcyde, Brother Ali, Sage Francis with B. Dolan, and Immortal Technique. Full lineup below. Tickets for the show are on sale.

That fest is being put on in part by Rhymesayers, the label that put out DOOM's MM..FOOD?. Another of DOOM's many labels, Stones Throw Records (which put out the rapper's Madlib collaboration Madvillainy) will have a strong presence in NYC this weekend. Tonight, Friday, May 8th. Stones Throw founder and head Peanut Butter Wolf will perform at the American Museum of Natural History's monthly One Step Beyond party. Tickets are on sale.

Also on the bill with Peanut Butter Wolf are Stones Throw artists James Pants, Mayer Hawthorne and Dam-Funk. Those three will also be at (Le) Poisson Rouge for a Stones Throw Party on Saturday, May 9th. Tickets are on sale.

Coming up at One Step Beyond: "One Step Beyond finishes their second season with a blow out spectacular with a DJ set by electro pioneer Moby on a new date June 5, 2009 with a DJ set from Holy Ghost! (DFA)."

Full info on both Soundset and One Step Beyond below...

Continue reading "Stones Throw in NYC weekend (One Step Beyond & Le Poisson Rouge) ++ the 2009 Soundset lineup (includes DOOM)"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Japandroids - Young Hearts Spark Fire (MP3)

Beirut @ Coco 66 (more by Ryan Muir)

More bands were recently added to the previously announced lineup of the 2009 Pitchfork Festival. The annual fest is taking place Friday, July 17th to Sunday, July 19th in Chicago's Union Park. Tickets are still on sale.

New acts include Beirut, DOOM, Frightened Rabbit, Lindstrøm, DJ/Rupture, Ponytail, the Mae Shi, and Dianogah.

From those new bands, Frightened Rabbit is also on the bill for NYC's Siren Fest. The annual, free Coney Island concert is scheduled for Saturday, July 18th.

DJ/Rupture is also appearing at the NYC event for Barcelona's Sonar Festival on May 12th.

Another act on the Pitchfork bill, DOOM, will be performing his first show since the news broke in 2007 that he'd been allegedly lip-syncing and/or sending stand-ins to take his place at live shows. A few months after that, canceled DOOM shows spurred rumors that the rapper was in the hospital, addicted to crack, too lazy to show up...basically anything you can imagine or post on a message board.

DOOM somewhat addressed those questions in an interview with HipHopDX in April. His response started like this:

I'm a director as well as a writer. I choose different characters, I choose their direction and where I want to put them. So who I choose to put as the character is up to me. The character that I hired, he got paid for it. There's no impostor.

He went on to say that maybe it was really him, he just lost a lot of weight (one fake rapper in question was noticeably skinnier than the hefty DOOM). He closed his answer like this:

But I'll tell you one thing, if you're coming to a DOOM show, don't expect to see me, expect to hear me or hear the music that I present. And it's gonna be a unique experience every time. So that's all I have to say about that.

In short, expect the "DOOM Experience." P4k Fest is his only current date, but we think there will be more announced at some point this year.

DOOM's latest, Born Like This, came out in late March on Lex Records. Radiohead's Thom Yorke recently remixed that album's "Gazillion Ear." That remix is out now as a bonus track on iTunes. A YouTube rip of the song is below.

Japandroids

Japandroids are on the schedule for Pitchfork as well. The pair were scheduled to play two New York City shows this week at Pianos on May 6th and Public Assembly on May 7th, but the band had to cancel those and other dates because of singer-guitarist Brian King's "emergency surgery for a perforated ulcer," as reported by Pitchfork. Luckily, he'll be well enough to head out a tour that starts at the end of May. Japandroids' two rescheduled NYC dates will be Friday, July 10th at Brooklyn's Cameo Gallery and Saturday, July 11th at Pianos. Tickets for the latter are on sale.

Other summer fests for Japandroids include Sasquatch Music Festival on May 24th, Calgary's Sled Island Festival on June 25th, and Seattle's Capitol Hill Block Party on July 24th. They also have tour dates across North America, posted below.

Japandroid's Post-Nothing is out now on Unfamiliar Records. An MP3 of "Young Hearts Spark Fire" from that record is posted above; a video of the guys playing "Heart Sweats" live, below.

All videos, updated Pitchfork Festival line-up, and Japandroids tour dates below...

Continue reading "Pitchfork Fest's updated lineup w/ DOOM, Beirut, Frightened Rabbit & updated 2009 JAPANDROIDS tour dates "

by Andrew Frisicano

Four Tet (aka electronic musician Kieran Hebden) has announced six dates in US and Canada, including a NYC performance (UPDATE: DJ SET) at The American Museum of Natural History's monthly One Step Beyond party on Friday March 13 (tix here). The gig, with Jon Hopkins and Mapei, is the first time Hebden will play a NYC "Four Tet" set (UPDATE: DJ SET) since canceling his June 2008 Studio B show.

In 2008, Hebden paired up with drummer Steve Reid to release the collaborative record NYC. Appropriately, the duo visited New York in December and July.

Opening for Four Tet at the AMNH (and two other shows) will be Domino signee Jon Hopkins, a British "composer, pianist and self-taught studio wizard," who is releasing his third record, Insides, on May 5 - free single "Wire" is up at Domino Records. Hopkins also plays Pianos on 3/14.

You may know Four Tet's Madvillainy remixes - released by Stones Throw and as part of the Domino released Four Tet Remixes 2xCD - well, Hebden and other remixers should have new source material soon, as Lex Records reports that it will release (MF) DOOM's new CD, Born Like This, on March 24, 2009. We reported last Fall that DOOM might be preparing his MM..FOOD follow-up for an unexpected release. The new disc is currently available for pre-order, and tracks "That's That" and "Ballskin" are now streaming on DOOM's Myspace.

All tour dates, "Rhinestone Cowboy" Four Tet remix video, and Born Like This track list below...

Continue reading "Four Tet & Jon Hopkins tour dates & a new MF DOOM album"

by Andrew Frisicano

Fans of rapper-mysterio MF DOOM (those still around after his show-skipping antics this past year) can look forward to the follow up to 2004's MM...FOOD next month. DJ blog Spyder's Random Things recently posted an (apparently legit) one-sheet announcing that the new DOOM (sans MF) record, Born Into This, will hit October 21 on Lex Records. Though there's no mention of the new record on Lex's site, it's not really a surprise that word of the reclusive MC's new album would come via blog leak (though I'd watch for a sudden head cold to push the date back). The one-sheet states that the record will feature "superstar guests including production from J Dilla, Dangermouse and guests MC's Ghostface and Raekwon."

DOOM was conspicuously absent from Stones Throw's new Madvillainy 2: The Box, a Madlib-led remix album of 2004's Madvillainy, shipping as a limited-edition box set this Monday, September 15. The album, now available in digital form, recycles the original's vocal tracks under new Madlib production and will be packaged with:

CD Madvillainy "2" The Madlib Remix. 25 tracks.
7-INCH "One Beer (Drunk Version)" Madlib's original 2004 version, lost until recently on the floor of his Bomb Shelter studio. If you saw the studio you'd understand.
CASSETTE The Madvillainy Demo Tape. 12 tracks, 36 minutes. This is the first and only official release of the infamous Madvillain demo that "leaked into cyberspace," while the album was still in progress, as DOOM alludes to in the lyrics of "Rhinestone Cowboy."
T-SHIRT Nominated. Best Rolled L's. Madvillain shirt.
COMIC BOOK Meanwhile... the continuation of the All Caps video, included with the CD.
THE BOX 12x13x3 inches.

Stones Throw is also releasing a two of Madlib's latests, WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip and Beat Konducta Vol. 5: Dil Cosby Suite, on September 29 and October 28.

A pair of DOOM clasics, Operation: Doomsday and KMD's Black Bastards, will be reissued October 7 on Metal Face Records.

Walk to cure Lupus in honor of J Dilla, and then go see Madlib, Karriem Riggins as Supreme Team, J Rocc, Peanut Butter Wolf, Percee P & Guilty Simpson at Highline Ballroom in NYC on December 2nd. Tickets are on sale. Percee P is currently on tour with Common and Q-Tip, which also means you can see Percee at Nokia Theatre on October 7th. Q-Tip is also playing Gramercy Theatre on October 16th.

In somewhat related news, MF Doom was recently scheduled to play Central Park. How was that? I bet it would have been better if he showed up. According to Wikipedia,

On 22 September 2007, at a show in New York where DOOM was supposed to be the headliner but cancelled, the MC for the show, Kenny Muhammad, asked for a minute of silence for MF DOOM who was "fighting for his life in the hospital".

Not good. He didn't show up at the Independent in San Fran on September 18th either, and this all comes after accusations of him lip-syncing at some shows in August. People are now starting rumors that he died, and AllHipHop claims that, "Apparently, MF Doom is in the hospital, but not from a heart attack." I hope whatever is wrong, that he comes out of it okay!

The Madlib show is part of an upcoming Stones Throw records tour that also includes a show at the El Ray Theatre in LA on November 8th. More dates TBA.

MF Doom @ the El Ray in LA - Aug 12, 2007 (CRED)

"New York" and "Tokyo" represent two extremes. East and West, underground and mainstream, cool and cute, futurism and traditionalism... NEWYORK-TOKYO MUSIC FESTIVAL's mission is to evenly encompass both sides of paired extremes and spawn a new creative experience.

This year's show is in Central Park on September 22nd, 2007 @ 2pm. MF Doom, Pharoahe Monch, Collie Budz, Teriyaki Boyz, and DJ Uppercut are among those performing. Tickets are on sale.

MF Doom's last NYC show was at Randall's Island for Rock The Bells.