Best Coast at Terminal 5 (more by Chris La Putt)

As mentioned earlier today in a tickets-on-sale post, Best Coast, who were initially supposed to open for Green Day on the latter's tour before it was postponed, are in fact opening for them on their rescheduled dates which include a NYC show on April 7 at Barclays Center. Tickets for that show are are on sale now and all tickets purchased for the original date (1/16) will be honored. All dates are listed below.

Speaking of artists that would probably be better fit to headline Terminal 5 but are opening in big arenas for pop stars, Miguel was announced to open for Alicia Keys on her tour which hits NYC on April 5 at Barclays Center and April 11 on Madison Square Garden. Tickets for those shows are not on sale yet but you can check ticketmaster for updates. All dates are listed below.

And one more: The Hives are touring in February and March as an opening act for Pink and that tour hits Madison Square Garden on March 22. That show is sold out, but the tour also hits Izod Center (3/23) in NJ and Nassau Coliseum (3/25) in Long Island and tickets for those shows are still available. All dates are listed below.

In related news, bands who you would think might be opening for bigger acts at Madison Square Garden, but are actually the headliners themselves include Sigur Ros (3/25) and Passion Pit (2/8). We're not sure who is opening for Sigur Ros, if anyone, but Matt & Kim open for Passion Pit. Muse also has two MSG shows coming up (as does Lady Gaga). Mumford and Sons also have two upcoming Barclays Center shows, one with The Felice Brothers, the other with Haim (both with Ben Howard).

All lists of dates below...

Continue reading "Best Coast touring w/ Green Day, Miguel touring w/ Alicia Keys, The Hives touring w/ Pink (dates)"

Japandroids at Pitchfork, July 2012 (more by Fred Pessaro // BBG)

NPR Music have announced their "50 favorite" albums of 2012, which includes names like Pallbearer, Andy Stott, Cat Power, Fiona Apple, Death Grips, and Swans. (No Grimes, though.) The list is also deep with hip hop, with shouts to Homeboy Sandman, Kendrick Lamar, Killer Mike and many others. Much like Q magazine did, NPR opted to list them alphabetically instead of one better than the next. Check out the full list below.

Japandroids also made the list, and the band played the first of two shows at Webster Hall last night (12/4). The band continues their stay at the venue tonight and tickets are still available.

Continue reading "NPR Music's Top 50 LPs of 2012"

by Andrew Sacher

As expected, there have been lots of (dangerous) rumors floating around about Big Boi's upcoming sophomore solo album, Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors, which is due out December 11 via Def Jam (pushed back from November 13). He's now revealed what is (fingers crossed!) the official tracklist for the album and the guest spots are pretty exciting. Despite Little Dragon's initial guest spot having gone to Kelly Rowland a while back, the group actually appears on three other album tracks. The album's got plenty of love from the dirty south, like on "Gossip," which features veteran UGK and worthy newcomer Big K.R.I.T.; frequent Outkast/Big Boi collaborator Killer Mike appears on a track with Little Dragon; TI and Ludacris end up on a track together; and Sleepy Brown of Organized Noize, who produced a ton of Outkast back in the day is on one too. In more surprising (and also exciting) news, Wavves and Jai Paul are both on the album. As is A$AP Rocky, Phantogram, Kid Cudi, and others. You can check out the full tracklist below.

In related news, TI also revealed the tracklist for his much-delayed upcoming album, Trouble Man (due out 12/18), and it looks a bit different than the one we initially mentioned. The most striking difference is that the song sampling Gotye and featuring Kendrick Lamar is not listed anymore. But in more positive news, Big Boi's Outkast partner Andre 3000 is there on the song, "Sorry" (the one where he allegedly apologizes to Big Boi). Cee Lo Green, A$AP Rocky, R. Kelly, and more are set to appear too. The full tracklist is below. TI plays NYC on December 18 at Best Buy Theater (tickets).

Speaking of Big Boi and Little Dragon, they were hanging out together a bit before Halloween at a "costume party" (check out their costumes). A video of them together and those tracklists, are below.

Continue reading "Big Boi and TI reveal tracklists / guests for their new LPs"

T.I. at SXSW 2012 (more by Ryan Muir)


Atlanta MC T.I. is prepping to release Trouble Man, his eighth studio album, before the end of the year. Though not named after the the excellent Marvin Gaye soundtrack of the same name, as a recent listening party can attest, the LP does dip its toes into samples from that effort while logging guest spots from R. Kelly, Kendrick Lamar, Andre 3000, Lil Wayne, A$AP Rocky, No I.D., P!nk, Cee-Lo, Pharrell Williams and more. Gotye gets into the mix via a sample on TI's track "Somebody That I Used To Know". Stream some tracks below.

In the meantime, the promotional arm is in full swing for T.I. and you can look for the MC to play some live dates. One of those goes down in NYC on December 18th at Best Buy. Tickets are on sale now.

All known tour dates, those song streams and some video is below

Continue reading "T.I. is the 'Trouble Man', readies guest-filled new LP and adds dates (including NYC)"

words & photos by Chris La Putt

Butch Walkter in Brooklyn

"Well, I left the town of sinners, redneck priests and meth lab stalls
To find myself a few more just like me
The option's pretty skinny and the order's pretty tall
To swim the hippest waters in the sea

Somewhere in the sticky city, driving back and forth
I found myself a squat in Williamsburg
Nobody seemed the same sincerely this could be a curse
But everyone's the same with different shirts"

Former Marvelous 3 lead singer Butch Walker peformed at Music Hall of Williamsburg last month (10/25), "3 Kids in Brooklyn" included (the song quoted above)., in support of his recent album The Spade. Butch is known for his many pop star connections, so I guess it wasn't a complete surprise that Pink showed up and did a duet with him at his Williamsburg show (like she has done in the past). Not as cool as Mastodon's Brent Hinds jamming with him on 10/7 in Atlanta, but much crazier considering the size and location of the venue and the size of the special guest's fame. Videos of both are below.

Members of Butch's backing band, the Black Widows, opened the Brooklyn show, as did Shovels and Rope (who have shared bills with Jason Isbell and the Felice Brothers in NYC over the past year). Pictures of the whole Brooklyn show are in this post.

Earlier that day Butch was on Leonard Lopate's show on WNYC discussing his new book Drinking with Strangers: Music Lessons from a Teenage Bullet Belt which is about his life as a musician and record producer. You can listen to the segment below. Want to ask Butch a question about it? The Daily Swarm is collecting questions for an upcoming Butch interview.

Pictures, videos, and Butch's WNYC interview, below...

Continue reading "Butch Walker wrote a book, jams w/ Brett Hinds of Mastodon (video), and.... Pink in Brooklyn (pics from MHOW)"

Leftover Crack fan in Texas (more)

Leftover Crack, Star Fucking Hipsters, Trash Talk, and The Casualties are playing Irving Plaza on July 3rd. Assuming Irving Plaza doesn't get shut down (unlikely) (or even if it does), this punk show is sure to be a good time. Tickets are on sale.

Less of a good time will probably be had at the punk show happening at Madison Square Garden on July 27th. Tickets for Green Day's big NYC show are on sale (@ 10am). They are also playing a few shows at much smaller venues, and Saturday Night Live this weekend.

The opposite of a good time will probably be had at the same big venue on October 5th. The Ting Tings are playing MSG with Pink. Tickets are on presale (@ 10am). PASSWORD = LEAPFROG

Probably fun, but still kind of lame? Aerosmith and ZZ Top play MSG on September 14th. Tickets are on AmEx and Internet presale now, and go on general sale Monday, May 18th, at 10am. It's the same day Kings of Leon play Nassau Coliseum.

Back to good times... Ween are playing the Stone Pony's Summerstage in Asbury Park on July 18th. Tickets go on sale Saturday at noon. Gene Ween is playing Brooklyn on May 21st.

Same venue, same summer (move over Blondie, Pat Benatar and The Donnas): The Pretenders, Cat Power and Juliette (and the Licks) Lewis are playing the Stone Pony's Summerstage on August 9th. Tickets are currently on Ticket Rush presale (password = live), and they go on general sale Saturday at noon. The same three ladies (bands) have an August 22nd Colorado show scheduled, so let's home for a full tour with NYC date too.

Peter Frampton plays Stone Pony Summerstage on August 30th. Tickets are currently on Ticket Rush presale (password = live), and go on general sale Saturday at noon.

And don't forget Kylie Minogue tickets go on sale Saturday at 10am.

an Ahmet Ertegun Tribute....

continued below....

Continue reading "Led Zeppelin reunion concert photos & setlist"