photos by Chris La Putt

Indie darlings Matt & Kim kicked off the show -- which celebrates the year's best music as determined by MTVu's college-centric audience -- with an energetic performance of their breakout single "Lessons Learned." Later, the duo returned to accept their Best Video Woodie award.

"We've had one heck of a year," said Matt Johnson, before counterpart Kim Schifino leapt into the crowd.

Additional performers included veteran alt-rockers Death Cab for Cutie, who rocked the audience with its "New Moon" soundtrack single "Meet Me on the Equinox," as well as Passion Pit, the Dead Weather and Clipse, who were joined onstage by fellow rappers Cam'ron and Rick Ross.

Presenter highlights came from Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz and pop prankserts 3OH!3. Wentz rolled onto the stage holding a red Solo cup, while 3OH!3 gave a nod to Lady Gaga by dressing in her various VMA outfits. Asher Roth, will.i.am, and surprise guest Cyndi Lauper also presented awards. [Billboard]

Cyndi presented an award with Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester who also recently made an appearance at the Weezer (and Matt & Kim) show on Halloween that was sponsored by RXP aka the Matt Pinfield station. Matt was also at the Woodies as was Diplo who was DJing and David Cross, Zooey Deschanel, Janelle Monae, Dave 1 from Chromeo, and Mary Louise Parker. Matt and Kim didn't get naked like they do in their winning video (their second MTV win for that video), but their backup singers did strip down to their underwear.

The Dead Weather also played a show one day before the Woodies in Brooklyn. The Woodies air December 4th at 10pm. More pictures from the event (11/18 at Roseland Ballroom in NYC), below...

Continue reading "2009 mtvU Woodie Awards @ Roseland - pics (Passion Pit, Dead Weather, Matt & Kim, Clipse, Death Cab, more) "

"If this is the world we helped create," guitarist James Suptic said, after looking into the crowd at a reunion gig, "then I apologise."

The Get Up Kids were either second- or third-wave emo, depending on who you ask. What is certain is that they formed in 1995, released four albums, broke up in 2005 and reunited last year. And yet their earnest, heart-on-sleeve punk pop inspired much of the more theatrical late-noughties emo boom.

"There should be a How to Be a Pop-Punk Kid Starter Kit with bands like the Get Up Kids, so kids would know whose shoulders bands like us are standing on," Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz told Alternative Press in 2005. "Fall Out Boy would not be a band if it were not for the Get Up Kids."

"Honestly, I don't often think about the state of emo," Suptic told Drowned in Sound. "We played the Bamboozle fests this year and we felt really out of place. I could name maybe three bands we played with. It was just a sea of neon shirts to us ... the punk scene we came out of and the punk scene now are completely different. It's like glam rock now."

While acts like Fall Out Boy pay tribute to Get Up Kids, the feeling isn't mutual. "If a band gets huge and they say we inspired them - great," Suptic said. "The problem is most of them aren't very good. What does that say about us? I don't know. Maybe we sucked." [Guardian]

Tour dates HERE.

"CHICAGO--The self-proclaimed founding member of a street gang that purports to exert control through use of violence over hardcore punk rock music in clubs and concert venues in major cities nationwide was arrested yesterday by FBI agents in Los Angeles on a federal extortion charge filed in Chicago. The defendant, Elgin Nathan James, allegedly extorted $5,000 from an unnamed victim, a popular recording artist from the Chicago area, while the victim's band was on tour in late 2005 and early 2006, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced today." [FBI]

The street gang they're referring to is the notorious straight-edge crew FSU which stands for Friends Stand United, or as most know it... Fuck Shit Up (or as the FBI document refers to it, "F(_ _ _) S(_ _ _) Up"). The charges continue...

On Nov. 27, 2005, the victim and several friends left a bar in Orlando, Fla., and were jumped by a group of men, some of whom were wearing clothing with logos that said "FSU" and "FSU Nation." The victim escaped with one friend. But another friend and that friend's brother were severely beaten by the gang, the charges allege. About an hour later, the victim received a telephone call from James, and according to the victim, James asked how the victim's trip to Florida was going when the victim had never told James that the victim would be traveling in Florida......

.....On Feb. 25, 2006, under FBI surveillance, the victim met James outside the southern California club and handed James an envelope containing $5,000, which the FBI had provided to the victim, according to the charges

As stated above, these charges are just coming now - over 3 years after the above incident happened. Since then Elgin James moved to LA, released a short film starring Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz and became a Sundance recognized-filmmaker! More about FSU and Elgin below...

Continue reading "FSU's Elgin James charged by FBI w/ using "Violence to Control Hardcore Punk Rock Music Scene""

Mr. Lavandeira (Perez) has been negotiating a deal that would provide him with his own imprint at Warner Brothers Records, a division of the music giant Warner Music Group, he said. This was confirmed by several other people associated with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because no deal has been made. The talks are preliminary, and an agreement is not certain, but Mr. Lavandeira could receive $100,000 a year as an advance against 50 percent of any profits generated by artists he discovers and releases through Warner Brothers, these people said. [NY Times]

Perez will also be representing at SXSW this year.