by BBG

Would you call it Weird Roots? Madlib and Doom aligned in 2004 to form Madvillain. Their debut LP Madvillainy for Stones Throw included the song "Accordion". Now The Roots have banded together with Weird Al (!) to record a cover of "Accordion". Listen below.

Weird Al was on Fallon last night (hence the meeting up of the two artists), though the cover is not what was performed on air (it was performed during soundcheck). Listen to the cover (which Questlove posted online), and watch the Roots and Al perform "Beer Barrell Polka" (a Fallon web exclusive), below. No word on if "Weird Roots" will release any more material, but you can hear a new-er Madvillain song from their forthcoming LP in a Stones Throw podcast.

As previously discussed, The Roots are in the midst of a series of Blue Note Jazz Fest shows at the Blue Note. Tonight (6/21), Questlove presents the second night of Mo' Meta Blues I, his supergroup consisting of Booker T on organ/keyboards/vocals, Eric Krasno on guitar, and Christian McBridge on bass. Tomorrow (6/22) is Mo' Meta Blues II, The Roots tribute to the 25th anniversary of the seminal Paid in Full LP. Rakim will join the crew at the venue as the band performs the album in its entirety. All four remaining shows are sold-out (early and late each night), but 21-plus'ers can still get in at the bar on a first come, first served basis.

The Roots will also perform at the launch of "Rebuild the Dream" at Town Hall in NYC on Thursday (6/23) "Van Jones calls this new wave of energy the "American Dream Movement". Along with The Roots, artists/DJ Shepard Fairey and other celebrities will be appearing at the campaign commencement." We're unsure of how you can get yourself in this show, but you can watch it online and learn more at their website.

Doom is (supposedly) scheduled to appear at Rock The Bells 2011.

Check out both versions of "Accordion" below.

Continue reading "The Roots covered Madvillain with Weird Al, playing Rebuild the Dream event @ Town Hall after Blue Note shows"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Guilty Simpson & Bumps - Drums (MP3)

A new Madvillain track, "Papermill," is online to stream and download. The Madlib's wirey '70s cop chase sample and top-form wordplay from DOOM are both good signs that the pair is putting in some serious effort to follow-up 2004's Madvillainy. The label writes that the song will be on the new album, which is still a work in progress.

The song is online as part of the Adult Swim singles series, which has been distributing tracks weekly. Madvillian was the second song, and there's already one from Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Matt Sweeney. On the way is music from Black Lips, Freddie Gibbs, Killer Mike, High on Fire, Cults and Washed Out.

To measure just how long the new Madvillain is taking in Madlib-years (remember, he already put out his own part 2 of their debut), consider the fact that Stones Throw gave the beatmaker his own label imprint, Madlib Invazion, in early '10, and that's now in the process of releasing one Madlib CD a month for 12 months. The most recent edition, Madlib Medicine Show #5: History Of The Loop Digga, 1990-2000, collects "Madlib's previously unreleased, made-for-cassette 90s work" under the Loop Digga name (and comes with a comic book to boot).

Madlib's "OJ Simpson" collaborator Guilty Simpson recently released a track with Bumps, the beatmaking trio of Tortoise drummers John McEntire, John Herndon and Dan Bitney. You can get that above. The OJ Simpson album is out now on Stones Throw.

Tortoise kick off a tour in June that brings them to NYC for a June 23rd show at Le Poisson Rouge as part of the Care Fusion Jazz Festival. Tickets are still on sale.

All Tortoise dates and some classic Madvillain videos are below...

Continue reading "updated Tortoise dates, new tracks from Madvillain, Adult Swim, Guilty Simpson, Bonnie Prince Billy & Bumps"

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"

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.