Dizzee Rascal @ The Plug Awards, NYC - Mar 6, 2008 (Christopher Owyoung)

Dizzee Rascal @ Southpaw, Brooklyn, NY - Mar 11, 2008 (Lori Baily/Prefix)

Dizzee Rascal @ SXSW for the Current - Mar 14, 2008 (The Current)

Much earlier -- at 4 p.m. in a sterile television studio -- Dizzee Rascal delivered forty minutes of blistering, grimy hip-hop, flanked by the roster of his Dirtee Stank label. The set drew heavily from his latest, Maths + English (finally seeing a physical U.S. release April 29 after being out in the U.K. for nearly a year), including "Flex," "Sirens," and the new America-only track "G.H.E.T.T.O." He dug back in the catalog for "Stand Up Tall," "I Luv U" and "Fix Up, Look Sharp," making sure to reinforce along with the Billy Squier sample that, yes, he's got the big beat. GZA and Ice Cube need to step up their game Saturday if they hope to take the week's hip-hop crown (which is currently Dizzee's white L.A. Dodgers cap) away. [Rolling Stone @ SXSW]

Dizzee Rascal is going on tour with El-P. Tour dates HERE.

Watch a video of Dizzee being interviewed by The Current HERE. Watch a video of Dizzee teaching hip hop slang BELOW....

More about this year's Plug Awards HERE and a brand new cool Plug Awards video recap also BELOW....

Continue reading "Dizzee Rascal played places, a Plug video recap, tour dates"

The Donnas @ Music Hall, NYC - March 6, 2008 (Bao Nguyen)

Faux Punk @ Music Hall, NYC - March 7, 2008 (Bao Nguyen)

* Vampire Weekend on SNL
* Nico Muhly is @ The Kitchen
* Levon Helm is at the Beacon
* Hey Hey My My is at Sound Fix
* Aa is playing Union Docs Bodega
* Todd Barry headlines Comix again
* Holy Ghost (DFA) at FIXED at Studio B
* School of Language is playing Cake Shop
* Lightspeed Champion is playing Union Pool
* Obits (ex-Hot Snakes) are playing Union Hall
* Sia and Har Mar Superstar are at Webster Hall
* The Stills, Wild Light & Wintersleep are @ Bowery
* Working for a Nuclear Free City is playing Music Hall

The Last Shadow Puppets posted their first video: "The Age of the Understatement".

BusinessWeek: SXSW: Where Tech Mingles with Music

Video of Nick Cave at the Plug Awards below. What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Saturday?"

Nick Cave @ Terminal 5, NYC - March 6, 2008 (tina gao)

Nick Cave played an awesome 45-60 minute set to an appreciative crowd at Terminal 5 last night. Most people were clearly there to see Nick. The rest of the Plug Awards didn't have as much energy - really wasn't that exciting, but it wasn't that bad either.....at least I thought so.....

cave played nine songs, six from the new album. the bad seeds set was awesome. the rest of the show, like someone said earlier, was "awkward and pointless". [anonymous]

I thought it all went pretty fast for what it was. Unlike previous years, they sped right through things - no weird skits or iPod battles. In fact, maybe they sped through it too much. I got there about 20 minutes late and it was hard for me to hear what they were saying on stage a lot so I may have missed it, but I was waiting for Patton Oswalt to tell a joke all night. Instead he basically just read off cards, introduced who was next, and kept things moving along. Of course I was happy to see St. Vincent, Dizzee Rascal, Jose Gonzalez and the Forms, but their sets were only 2-3 songs long (not that I expected them to be longer).

Strangely Animal Collective beat The National for "Best Indie Album", but The National did win "Best Song" - which they were there to accept. Arcade Fire won "Best Album" (a different category than "Indie Album"). Stereogum won best blog, Pitchfork won best website for the 2nd year in a row, and Blog Radio on Sirius (that I am a part of) won "Best Specialty Radio Show" (thanks!) for the 2nd year in a row. Justice won "Best New Artist" and I think Hot Chip won best DJ album. Other awards I can remember went to Bowery Ballroom for best venue, Other Music for best store, and Coachella for best festival. I'll list them all out below when they publish a list.

Continue reading "Nick Cave & The Plug Awards @ Terminal 5, pics & results"

* Plug Awards
* a comedy benefit
* a benefit at Cake Shop
* The Hives at Music Hall
* Wintersleep at Union Hall
* Akron/Family is playing NYU
* Men & Hey Willpower at Union Pool
* The Bloody Beetroots are at Hiro Ballroom

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Thursday?"

details HERE. It was just announced (I think) that DiViNCi from the Solillaquists of Sound is now opening. Video below...

Continue reading "still time to win tickets to see Nick Cave, DiViNCi opening"

Winners will be announced at the PLUG 2008 Independent Music Awards show broadcast live online @ Dell Lounge March 6 at 8pm EST. Register here now to catch the show live (& free), hosted by Patton Oswalt with performances by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, St. Vincent, Dizzee Rascal, José Gonzalez, The Forms, DiVinci, and guest DJ Sally Shapiro.

The live show is Thursday night at Terminal 5 in NYC. It is NOT sold out, BUT I HAVE 10 PAIRS OF TICKETS TO GIVE AWAY. Want them? Details on winning below...

Continue reading "win tickets to the Plug Awards @ Terminal 5"

$10 tickets are back on sale for The Plug Awards featuring Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds...... and The Forms. The Forms also played a great set at our Rock 'n' ROFL party last night at Pianos (full coverage coming soon). More tour dates below....

Continue reading "Pianos was not shut down, The Forms are playing the Plug Awards, Tix back on sale"

El-P & Del tha Funkee Homosapien, CMJ 2007 (Justin Charles)

* Dizzee Rascal & Nick Cave are playing the Plug Awards
* You can watch the Plug Awards on your computer screen
* Dizzee Rascal is also playing a show at Soutnpaw in Brooklyn
* Dizzee Rascal & El-P are playing the Def Jux showcase at SXSW
* Tickets are on sale for an El-P/Dizzee Rascal show at Webster Hall in May
* El-P, Dizzee Rascal & Busdriver are going on tour togeter. All dates Dates below....

Continue reading "El-P, Dizzee Rascal, Tour Dates, SXSW, Plug Awards stream"

The Wednesday $10 presale for this year's Plug Awards happens at Dell Lounge (password = PLUG08GA). That's also where you'll be able to watch a webcast of the March 6th show. Regular sale starts Friday.

Tickets for the Plug Awards/Nick Cave show go on sale Friday @ noon. Also appearing at this March 6th show: Sally Shapiro (but just as a DJ).

PLUG is proud to announce comedian/actor Patton Oswalt as our host this year. Show will include performances by nominees St. Vincent, Dizzee Rascal, José Gonzales and more, and a special headlining set from this year's PLUG Impact Award Honoree Nick Cave who will be taking the stage with the legendary Bad Seeds. The Awards will be March 6 @ NYC's Terminal 5, 8pm (EST).

Huge thanks to our friends at Dell Lounge for making what was originally a $25 ticket now just 10 bucks for all. So cool.

For those who won't be in town, we have amazing news this year - fans will be able to go to the Dell Lounge and watch the whole thing broadcast live as it happens March 6. More info soon!

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are coming out with a new album, and so is Dizzee Rascal. Dizzee details below....

Continue reading "Nick Cave & Dizzee Rascal playing Plug Awards, $10, albums"

David Cross @ The Plug Awards, 2007 (CRED)

David Cross and Patton Oswalt must still agree on at least one thing: hosting the Plug Awards ceremony is OK. I say that because, David Cross hosted them last year, and Patton Oswalt will be hosting them this year. They take place at Terminal 5 in NYC on March 6th. St Vincent is playing, and so is Jose Gonzalez. More TBA.

VOTE for the winners while you still can.

Mute Records is proud to announce Jose Gonzalez' Green Tour of North America in the spring....in partnership with Reverb, a non-profit organization designed to educate and engage music fansand promote environmental sustainability. They work closely with artists to create earth-friendly events and tours. As part of the greening of Gonzalez' upcoming tour, his rider will include biodegradable catering products, and a reduction of plastic water bottles will be facilitated by providing his crew with re-usable water bottles to carry throughout the tour. In addition, Gonzalez and Reverb will calculate the CO2 footprint of the tour and neutralize emissions from venue energy use, ground transportation, flights and hotel accommodations by supporting clean renewable energy projects.

There will be a 50 cent add on to general ticket purchases that will support Reverb's greening efforts. Pre-sale ticket purchasers via Ticketstoday.com will also have the option to add an additional 50 cents to Native Energy's CO2 Offset program. At the shows, fans will have the opportunity to purchase a custom Jose Gonzalez sticker, the money from which will be used to purchase carbon offsets generated fromtravel to/from the show.

I don't totally understand what they just said, but it sounds nice. Awareness is good, and it's probably better than NOT doing all that (whatever it is they're doing).

As part of the green tour, Jose is playing NYC twice: Highline Ballroom on March 11th, and Brooklyn Masonic Temple the next day. AND, he is also playing a shorter set @ Terminal 5 on March 6th as part of the Plug Awards (DID YOU VOTE YET?). All tour dates below....

Continue reading "Jose Gonzalez going on a "green" tour, playing Plug Awards"

....Beck, Wilco, White Stripes, Kanye West, The Shins, Common & Jay-Z too

Amy Winehouse receives the nomination for Best Record (Mark Ronson), Album of the Year (vs Kanye West), Song of the Year, Best New Artist (vs Feist!), Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (vs Feist!), Best Pop Vocal Album (vs Feist!), and Producer of the Year (Mark Ronson)! I guess it's not weird she was on the cover of the Post.

Is this the Grammys or the Plug Awards?
All (50th annual) Grammy nominations HERE.

Jonathanpberger made the "Spooooky Hallowinehouse" you see above. More like it HERE. His inspiration HERE.

Now Feist has something else to talk about.

Tough call, but I think I'm going to have to vote for Escort to win this year's Plug "Music Video of the Year". Check out all twelve of the nominated videos below....

Continue reading "the 12 music VIDEOS of the year (according to Plug)"

And the nominees for 2008 Independent Album of the Year, are....

* Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (Merge)
* Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin (Sub Pop)
* Battles - Mirrored (Warp)
* Beirut - The Flying Club Cup (Ba Da Bing)
* El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead (Definitive Jux)
* Justice - † (Downtown / Vice / Ed Banger)
* Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (Polyvinyl)
* Panda Bear - Person Pitch (Paw Tracks)
* Radiohead - In Rainbows (self-released)
* Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights (Daptone)
* Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge)
* The National - Boxer (Beggars Banquet)

Vote in that category and others. Thanks once again to the Plug Cartel for nominating BrooklynVegan in the "Music Blog of The Year" category. Let's see if it's possible to win two years in a row.

I was about to question why M.I.A. wasn't nominated for anything, but then I remembered that it's probably because her album came out on Interscope. Major labels don't count, and that's also probably why we don't see LCD Soundsystem or Kanye West on there either. Who else is missing?

The Plug Award event will take place in NYC on March 6th at Terminal 5. Stay tuned for more details. Last year it was at Irving Plaza. The year before that at Webster Hall.