words and photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

Leonard Cohen @ Radio City Music Hall 4/6/2013

On the first night of a two-night stand at Radio City Music Hall on Saturday (April 6), Leonard Cohen -- singer-songwriter, poet, living legend -- promised the sold-out audience that he and his band would give everything they had. And though it's a line he breaks out at nearly every show, over the course of the next three hours, he and his stellar backing band did precisely that.

In a mix of old hits and new songs from last year's Old Ideas, Cohen, decked out in dark suit and fedora, crooned from his knees on several occasions and even skipped across the stage as he exited and entered between two full sets sets and two three-song encores; both maneuvers belying his 78 years. "I ache in the places I used to play," he sang on "Tower of Song." "I was born like this / I had no choice / I was born with the gift of a golden voice."

That golden voice is a bit deeper and more gravelly than before but his delivery was impeccable and the audience was rapt during "Suzanne" and especially his spoken-word version of "A Thousand Kisses Deep."

During the first intermission a friend who was at the show said that he was thinking of the eulogies for the late Roger Ebert and how all of them referenced his belief that (paraphrasing here) "where words and images can lie, emotions are always true."

And that observation fit on the evening. Who in attendance had not been stirred at some point by a Leonard Cohen song? That answer, most likely, not many.

"Hallelujah" was the fitting emotional high point met with enthusiastic applause and then a standing ovation at its conclusion several minutes later.

All along his rich baritone was balanced by his background singers, long-time collaborator Sharon Robinson, and Charley and Hattie Webb, musically known as The Webb Sisters. Cohen returned to spoken-word form as he introduced Robinson's gorgeous turn at lead vocals on "Alexandra Leaving" and the Webb Sisters on "If It Be Thy Will."

And the stellar group of musicians Cohen has assembled were all given several opportunities to shine as Cohen would remove his fedora in reverence, step into the shadow and the spotlight would find the soloist taking his turn, be it Neil Larsen on the Hammond B-3, music director Roscoe Beck on the upright bass ("veteran and victim," quipped Cohen of their 30-plus years performing together) or Javier Mas on bandurria. Mitch Watkins on electric guitar, Alexandru Bublitchi on violin and Rafael Gayol on drums rounded out the band and all deserve recognition. In his return to Radio City the night belonged to Mr. Cohen but his band gets credit for transforming the evening into something close to magical.

Leonard was previously here in December, having played MSG and Barclays Center. More pictures from Saturday -- plus setlists from both nights at Radio City -- are below.

Continue reading "Leonard Cohen played two nights at Radio City Music Hall (night 1 pics & review, setlists from both)"

by Bill Pearis

There no Searching for Sugarman anymore. With the documentary's win at last weekend's Oscars, even my mom knows who Rodriguez is now. The film's success has majorly blown up his career which, until five years ago, was pretty much non-existant. It's definitely well deserved and he's now selling out big venues, such as his upcoming dates at Beacon Theatre on April 8 and Town Hall on April 10. If you didn't get tickets to either of those shows, NYC's next chance to see Rodriguez will be at Radio City Music Hall on October 10. Tickets for that show go on presale Friday (3/1) at 10 AM (presale code: OSCAR) with the regular on-sale happening Saturday at 10 AM.

An updated list of Rodriguez dates are below.

Continue reading "Rodriguez adds Radio City show to tour (updated dates)"

Leonard Cohen at Barclays Center in 2012 (more by Gretchen Robinette)

Musical and poetic legend Leonard Cohen made a great return last year with his new album, Old Ideas, and a massive tour that brought him to NYC for shows at Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center. He's now set to follow that with an international tour in 2013 that brings him back to NYC for a show on April 6 at Radio City Music Hall. Tickets for that show are not on sale yet but check ticketmaster for updates.

A list of all dates (including a Wallingford, CT show) and the video for "Show Me The Place" below...

Continue reading "Leonard Cohen announces tour, playing Radio City (dates)"

by Dave Hill

Dave Hill (or Oscar Wilde) asks a question, Radio City Music Hall 10/10/2012

We already ran photos of Morrissey's Radio City Music Hall appearance on Wednesday (10/10) and you can see more of Chris La Putt shots here. But we asked Moz superfan Dave Hill (who has hosted Smiths Speed Dating before) to review the show for us and his fully-clothed report follows...

Wednesday night I saw Morrissey at Radio City Music Hall here in New York City. A lot of people think they like and/or "get" Morrissey as much as I do but they are wrong. This was my (insert number of times you or anyone you know has ever seen Morrissey and then add at least one)-th time seeing Morrissey live and I was pretty excited about it because every time I see him he ends up singing all of the songs directly to me no matter where I'm sitting. Somehow he just knows.

Kristeen Young, one of Morrissey's favorites, opened the show but I missed her because they took forever getting my order right at Burger Heaven around the corner so I was a little late. When I got to Radio City and showed the usher my ticket he was like "Wow- this the best seat!"

"Thanks," I said. "I know."

Then the usher pushed a bunch of people out of the way, throwing some of them to the ground even, and showed me to my seat which was basically on stage with the band. As soon as I got settled, Morrissey and his band walked out, which was awesome. Morrissey's band all wore matching T-shirts that said "killjoy" on them, which was crazy and confusing but whatever. Everyone in his band has short hair and look like they do crunches a lot except for the guitarist Boz Boorer, who looks like he does whatever the opposite of crunches are but he is so awesome it's like fuck it.

Once everyone had their instruments on, the entire band including Morrissey seemed to look at me briefly as if to ask "Should we start?" Of course, I was like "Fuck yeah!" so they launched into "Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me" by The Smiths, Morrissey's old band who are basically the best ever, even better than Def Leppard. Also, Morrissey had on a sort of light teal shirt, which looked great and really complimented the cool outfit I was wearing.

Morrissey in Shirt #1 @ Radio City Music Hall

After Morrissey finished singing the first song, a big picture of me with a word bubble asking "Who Is Morrissey?" was projected on the big screen behind the band. It was a nice touch, but totally unnecessary. I was just happy to be there so that was totally above and beyond.

The rest of Morrissey's set list consisted of about 1/3 Smiths songs, a bunch of his solo songs, and a sweet Frankie Valli cover. Given the fact that between the Smiths and his solo material Morrissey has about a bazillion hits, there were times when I was thinking "Hey, Morrissey, maybe you should play more of those songs, you know, mine and everyone else's favorites (though mostly mine)" but I realize that this is my own problem and not Morrissey's and I'm sorry for even bringing it up.

During the song "Meat is Murder" (by the Smiths, duh), they played scenes from the meat-based documentary Meet Your Meat. I saw Motley Crue a couple years ago in Columbus, Ohio and they had a bunch of video projections going too, but this stuff was really, really different from that. It featured a bunch of cows and chickens and stuff being tortured and it was really upsetting and would not have worked with "Girls, Girls, Girls" or really any Motley Crue song I can think of right now. At one point, they even showed a bull getting his nuts cut off. Fuck. I have no idea what they were selling at the Radio City concession stands, but I can't help but think sales must have really taken a hit after that song. Also, it should be noted that the original "Meet Your Meat" documentary is narrated by Alec Baldwin even though everyone knows that guy loves chicken wings so much it's actually kind of weird.

Morrissey wore a total of four different awesome shirts over the course of the night. Toward the end of the show, he ripped off the third shirt of the night. Even as I type this, I still can't decide which one of us works out more, but it was still great. After he put on his fourth shirt of the night, Morrissey and his band came back on stage and played one encore, "Still Ill", one of my favorite songs by the Smiths (mentioned earlier) and then I levitated over the entire audience and went home in a cab that the driver didn't even end up charging me for. I kind of wish Morrissey would have played like nine more songs but, again, this is my own hangup mostly.

Speaking of the Smiths, there are a lot of rumors flying around that they are reuniting next year. I would like to confirm that these rumors are, in fact, true. However, the Smiths will be reuniting for one show only, which will take place in my apartment and will be attended by just me and maybe like six of my friends. Sorry.

---

Morrissey plays tonight (10/12) and Saturday (10/13) at Terminal 5. Both shows are sold out. Check out more pictures and the setlist from Radio City.

And pick up a copy of Dave Hill's book Tasteful Nudes now!

photos by Chris La Putt

Morrissey @ Radio City Music Hall -- 10/10/12

One down, two (and a whole tour) to go. Morrissey, one night after appearing on Colbert, played his first of three NYC shows this week, and it was at Radio City Music Hall (the next two are at the less glamorous Terminal 5). As the week goes on, we'll have much more to say about these shows, but meanwhile here's pictures and the setlist from the one that ended just about an hour ago. It continues below...

Continue reading "Morrissey played Radio City Music Hall (pics & setlist) "

by Tim Griffin

Stephen Morrissey & Stephen Colbert - The Colbert Report - 10/9/2012

It was a tale of two Stephens: Morrissey was interviewed and performed on The Colbert Report last night. As per Moz's request, the building was meat-free for the day of his visit. While the interview is only just over five minutes, there was plenty of banter between the crooner and comedian. Morrissey rarely gives anything but e-mail interviews these days, so this was a treat, and some of the more Moz-able / memorable moments are below.

On the consumption of meat:

"If you stick your grandmother in an oven, she will probably be tasty, but is that any reason to eat your grandmother?"

On why he doesn't feel the need to reunite with Johnny Marr and The Smiths:

"Not everybody is a fat old slag... not everybody is."

Colbert seized the moment and may have given Morrissey a bit of a fright,"Well, I hate to tell ya - please welcome, Johnny Marr... Johnny?", as he gestured to the side of the stage. Johnny wasn't there, but that didn't stop a slightly nervous Moz from taking a tense glance over his shoulder.

Check out the interview and live performances of new song "People Are The Same Everywhere" and Years of Refusal's "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" below. As you may know, Morrissey starts his three-night NYC visit tonight (10/10) with his Radio City Music Hall performance followed by two stops at Terminal 5 (10/12, 10/13), all of which are sold out.

Videos are below.

Continue reading "Morrissey played 'The Colbert Report' (interview too!), begins his three-night NYC run tonight at Radio City"

photos by Greg Cristman

bad news for jack white fans tonight - he was just spotted outside the Barclays Center looking for a jay-z ticket. - DFA Records

I don't know who had the rights to Radio City Music Hall but I'm pretty sure Jack White owns it now. #2ndnightsuccess - Carson_Kelly

Jack White played everything at double or triple speed, with a lot of anger, and it was awesome. - BuzzFeed

Jack White's only words about last nights #jackwhitedebacle "Thank You" - Lucien Desar

Lucky for Jack White Sunday night ticket-holders, the above tweet by DFA Records was untrue, and the White Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather/Third Man honcho also played a much longer show than he did on Saturday when he strangely played a super short one.

Here are some pictures from the short Saturday NYC show, and the longer setlist from Sunday at Radio City. It all continues below...

Continue reading "Jack White played a longer show on Sunday at Radio City (night 2 setlist, night 1 pics) #JackWhiteDebacle"

"Excitement turns into disbelief as one of my most influential music heroes plays 45 mediocre minutes and leaves. I'm done with Jack White." - Jeremy Current

"FUCK YOU Jack White you have lost me as a fan forever" - Lisa Piccirillo

""We like Meg better anyway!" - Angry mob member at Jack White concert" - Olga Tchoumak

"Thoroughly disappointed in Jack White. No need to be such a fucking diva. Give the radio city crowd their $90 worth...." - @nowthatsclassy

Jack White @ Radio City (via James Milner)

Jack White came to NYC for his first of two Radio City shows last night (9/29), during which he left the stage after about a 40-50 minute set and never returned for an encore...

Jack White is playing a pair of shows at Radio City Music Hall this weekend and last night's sold out concert was short on songs and long on drama. The former White Stripes frontman abruptly left the stage after an hour prompting a crowd of irate fans to take to the streets.

...

Mr. White's show began with a rollicking set featuring songs from his recent solo album, Blunderbuss, and tracks from his bands; The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. From our seat in the nosebleeds, it seemed as though Mr. White's music was enthusiastically received by the crowd. However, after about forty-five minutes, Mr. White suddenly left the stage.

Thinking this was the standard concert tease that often occurs prior to an encore, the vast majority of the audience remained, clapping and cheering in an effort to encourage Mr. White to retake the stage. After over twenty minutes, all of the house lights were turned on and ushers began to make their way through the crowd informing them the show was finished.

"The show is over. We don't know why. You'll probably find out on a blog, MediaTakeOut or some other source," one said. [Observer]

No real answer has been given as to why he ended the set so quickly, but audience members have speculated it may have been due to Jack's discontent with the audience and the sound. During the show, Jack criticized the crowd, asking, "Jesus Christ, is this an NPR convention?" and another person in attendance tweeted, "Mystery solved: Security guy @ Radio City said Jack White "wasn't happy with the sound I don't know why he pulled that" #JackWhiteDebacle." It's also been speculated that it had something to do with Jack being angry at the amount of scalpers who bought tickets. After the show, angry fans gathered in the lobby and outside the venue chanting things like "Fuck Jack White!" and causing security to put up barricades and contain the crowds.

Hopefully things go over better at his second show at the venue tonight (9/30).

UPDATE: Things did go better.

Like last night's show, tonight's is sold out. To see what Jack did play before leaving, his 12-song setlist from last night is below.

Continue reading "Jack White ended his Radio City show after 50 minutes, angering fans (night 1 setlist)"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

"Saw Gotye last night! Radio City Music hall! What a show. Definitely an underrated band and album. Go Gotye. . .Go." - John Siravo

Gotye @ Radio City

Australian singer Gotye brought his North American tour to Radio City on Tuesday night (9/25) with fellow Aussies Missy Higgins and Jonti, for what was Gotye's first of two NYC shows. The second NYC show on his tour is TONIGHT (9/27) at Williamsburg Park with Zammuto and GIVERS. Tickets for tonight's show are still available.

After her opening set at Tuesday night's show, Missy Higgins joined Gotye on stage to sing the duet vocals on "Somebody That I Used to Know," which are performed by Kimbra on the album. Not too surprisingly, that was the only song that the crowd lost their shit during, but Gotye remained intent on delivering a fully worked out set, not focused solely on that one song (and for the record, he didn't even end with it). Gotye and his four-piece backing band had various arrangements worked out for each song in the set, which included almost the entirety of Making Mirrors in addition to material off of his two previous full lengths, which still have not been released in the US. And to complement their sound, the band was backed by large screen animated videos.

Missy Higgins plays The Bell House on Friday (9/28) with Butterfly Boucher and tickets are still available.

More pictures, videos, and the setlist from Radio City are below.

Continue reading "Gotye & Missy Higgins played Radio City (pics, videos, setlist)"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin; words by Andrew Sacher

Grizzly Bear at Radio City Music Hall, 9/24/2012

"This is surreal," said Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste upon taking the stage the historic Radio City Music Hall last night (9/24) -- the band's largest headlining hometown gig to date -- "It makes me think back to our first show at Zebulon in 2004." It is pretty crazy to think that in eight years this "Brooklyn indie band" went from playing local clubs to one of the city's most famed and renowned concert halls, but needless to say, they've paid their dues. When the applause died down, Grizzly Bear went into "Speak in Rounds," one of the most tremendous tracks off the recently released Shields, their fourth in a line of brilliant studio albums and grandest statement yet. The song's explosive, speedy chorus lent to a technicolor light show with hues as layered as Grizzly Bear's sound. Though once "Speak in Rounds" fizzled out into psychedelic ambience, the stage went black, and dim lanterns slowly drifted to the ceiling behind the band. When they'd all risen, Daniel Rossen took over with the spiraling guitar riff of prog fantasy, "Sleeping Ute."

Throughout the set, those lanterns would crawl up and down the backdrop of the stage, creating a hallucinatory light show with the illusion that the stage itself was rising and falling. Mixed with the dreamlike scope of the band's songs, the audio/visual experience transported you out of Radio City, or any other fathomable place, to a world of Grizzly Bear's own. Song after song, the crowd was captivated and the setlist was arranged in such a way that it didn't ever matter what song came next. Of course there were standout moments (the booming "ahhs" and spectacular light show of "While You Wait for the Others" being a huge one), but overall each song contributed equally to the trip that is Grizzly Bear's live show. The minimalist "Shift" provided a moment of tranquility against the ferocious noise breakdown at the end of "Yet Again." "Sun In Your Eyes" (for which the band actually shined bright yellow lights at the audience) acted as a moment of awakening before the comedown of the pre-encore break, which ended with the "moment you've all been waiting for" feeling of "Knife." (That song saw some technical difficulties in the beginning but they were fixed about 45 seconds in.)

Grizzly Bear at Radio City Music Hall, 9/24/2012

It's been mentioned a thousand times that Grizzly Bear plays in a row on stage, and that it helps to show the equality of the band members. So there's no real use repeating this for the sake of repeating it -- but it really is such a crucial part of their set. Especially on the songs off of the ultra-collaborative Shields, Christopher Bear's drums add as much to the melody as Daniel's guitar and piano, and Chris Taylor's backup vocals are as vital to the band's sound as Ed and Daniel's lead, and that's not even in reference to their four-part harmonies. For this tour, they've added a fifth member, Aaron Arntz (previously a member of Zappa Plays Zappa). Aaron is the one member who stays at the back of the stage, and though he's the most hidden, his contributions were noticeable and really fleshed out the complex studio arrangements that couldn't otherwise be replicated live by a four-piece band.

The show opened with a set from Unknown Mortal Orchestra, who played mainly off their 2011 self titled LP, but also included a new song and a well-executed cover of Pink Floyd's "Lucifer Sam." UMO's album is very indebted to Beatles' Revolver, but live frontman Ruban Nielson rips fuzzed out guitar solos and feedback that are way more San Francisco than Liverpool (which was especially great on the distortion-drenched extended version of "Boy Witch"). Admittedly, Ruban is a bit more talented and fun to watch than his bandmates, but in their defense, Radio City is a pretty big stage for a relatively new band with a sound better suited for smaller clubs.

Grizzly Bear's tour with UMO continues in Toronto on Wednesday (9/26) and then at the end of the month, they'll kick off their final leg of the North American portion which Lower Dens supports. If you missed last night's show, did you stream it online? If you missed that too, you can watch an archive of the entire show (via the Fuse YouTube channel), along with more pictures and the setlist from the show, below.

Continue reading "Grizzly Bear played Radio City w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra (pics, review, setlist & video of the full set)"

photos by Jonathan McPhail

Metric @ Radio City Music Hall, 9/23/2012

Metric played what is surely their most luxe NYC show on Sunday night (9/23) when the Toronto band headlined Radio City Music Hall in support of their new album, Synthetica. Their performance, like the album, kicked off with "Artificial Nocturne," "Youth Without Youth," and "Speed the Collapse" but Emily Haines and crew threw in old favorites as well, like "Dead Disco," "Help I'm Alive" and "Monster Hospital."

The biggest surprise of the night (which was streamed online as well) came during the encore when Lou Reed came out to sing on "The Wanderlust," which he also does on Synthetica, and then stuck around for a rendition of the Velvet Underground's classic "Pale Blue Eyes." Video of that is below.

Emily Haines, along with Polaris winner Feist and Amy Milan of Stars (who were here this weekend), are all featuring on the new Jason Collette compilation, Essential Cuts, which culls songs from the Canadian singer's carreer. The record, out today (9/25), comes bundled with his new album, Rekon. Jason will play Joe's Pub on October 10. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

Gotye plays Radio City Music Hall tonight (9/25).

Half Moon Run opened the show, but unfortunately we missed their set. The setlist and more pictures from Metric's set are below.

Continue reading "Metric played Radio City Music Hall and Lou Reed joined for the encore (pics, setlist, video)"

by Andrew Sacher

Bon Iver at Radio City - 9/21/12 (via BrooklynVegan Instagram)

"Cool!" exclaimed Justin Vernon, as 6,000 or so people tremendously applauded for the third (9/21) of four Bon Iver shows at Radio City, in the same awkwardly humble manner he said, "sweet hookup," when he won Best New Artist at the 2011 Grammys. As massive as Bon Iver continues to get, Justin's sense of modesty never seems to fade. He even still prefaces "The Wolves" with asking the crowd to join in on "what might've been lost" (I think by now it's safe to assume they would regardless). I guess it's what they say: you can take the boy out of the abandoned cabin the woods, but you can't take the abandoned cabin the woods out of the boy. (They say that, right?)

From the opening notes of "Perth," the band's atmospheres took over Radio City, and in typical Bon Iver fashion, their command over the audience didn't let up once throughout the show. Their pre-encore set included all of 2011's excellent Bon Iver, Bon Iver, with the only For Emma, Forever Ago song being "Creature Fear" (whose reworked live version fits best with the newer material), and the rest of that album's inclusions were saved for the encore. My personal highlight of the show was "Woods," the only song of the set I've never personally seen them perform before (and not a song they play often). Justin performed the song solo with just a mic and vocal manipulations. And like James Blake, who is perhaps most directly influenced by "Woods" than any other Bon Iver song, Justin did a pretty great job of keeping the room dead silent on those pauses, save for a few "woohoos!" here and there.

In this fast moving internet world, excitement for bands tends to rise and fall pretty quickly, and if it's been a while since they've released anything, tour announcements will inspire comments like "people still listen to this band?" We need constant reminders that a band is good, create absurd expectations for most of them, and will jump at any opportunity to decide an artist we love isn't good anymore. When Bon Iver decide to stroll through NYC for four Radio City shows over a year after their initial Bon Iver, Bon Iver tour brought them here, they continue to show that they don't fit this formula. The excitement felt throughout their entire show parallels that of the one felt upon first discovering their music.

Bon Iver's final night of the Radio City run is tonight (9/22) with Polica opening. (Folk singer Doug Paisley opened last night.) Tickets for tonight's show are still available. If you missed last night's show, did you stream it online? If you missed that stream, it will rebroadcast for 48 hours, starting this Monday (9/24) at the Bowery Presents Youtube channel. In the meantime, some fan-filmed videos and the setlist from last night's show are below...

Continue reading "Bon Iver played 3 nights at Radio City; final show is tonight (night 3 review, setlist, videos & stream)"

Bon Iver @ Radio City Music Hall, 9/20/2012 (via @itsvman)

We are on night three of Bon Iver's four-night stand at Radio City and you can still get tickets. If you're stuck at home (or don't live in the NYC area) but want to watch, tonight's show is part of Free Music Week at Fuse who, in partnership with Bowery Presents, are streaming it live via the Bowery Presents YouTube page. The setlists from Bon Iver's first two nights with Anais Mitchell (9/19 and 9/20) are below. Tonight's show is with Doug Paisley and Saturday's (9/22) is with Polica.

In addition, Fuse will also stream Radio City shows from Metric on Sunday (9/23) and Grizzly Bear on Monday (9/24), both through that same Fuse YouTube page.

Radio City is especially busy this week. In addition to the shows mentioned above, there's Goyte on Tuesday (9/25) (he also plays Williamsburg Park on Thursday [9/27]), AVICII on Wednesday and Thursday (9/26-27) and Jack White next weekend (9/29-30).

In other streaming news, Bowery Presents will be streaming Thursday's Two Door Cinema Club show (9/27) at Music Hall of Williamsburg through their YouTube Page.

Continue reading "Bon Iver's Radio City run continues; stream tonight's show & Metric & Grizzly Bear too"

Negative Approach earlier this month in Chicago (more by Carmelo Espanola)

Penn Badgley in 'Greetings From Tim Buckley'

We already posted lots of posts today. Here's some more, and some reminders too...

Did you know that Penn Badgley (aka Dan on Gossip Girl) is playing Jeff Buckley in upcoming biopic, Greetings from Tim Buckley? He's even been doing some stealth secret shows in NYC. Watch the trailer below.

Randy Newman is dreaming of... a white president.

As mentioned before, The Killers show at The Paramount is being webcast tonight, which will be directed by legendary German filmmaker Werner Herzog. He also directed a mini Killers documentary, which you can watch below.

Speaking of The Killers, they just announced a tour with Tegan & Sara that will hit Madison Square Garden.

Speaking of MSG, tourmates Aerosmith and Cheap Trick just announced a show there too. Madonna plays there twice in November which is when Neil Young is there too.

Whose new cover art is better: Neil Young's or Titus Andronicus'?

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs has a new video for his single "Your Love" which you can watch below.

You can stream Natural Child's new album, Hard in Heaven, over at Spinner.

Read part 2 of Kelly Pratt's tour diary written on the road with St. Vincent and David Byrne. Part 2.5 also went up today at BV Chicago.

A plethora of heavy music live photographs by Carmelo Espanola also went up today on BV Chicago.

A music monitoring firm has determined that Drake is currently the most pirated musician in the United States. If you live in the UK, it can tell you what artist is the most pirated in your neighborhood.

more stuff below...

Continue reading "Also: Penn Badgley IS Jeff Buckley, Drake most pirated in US, Herzog's Killers doc, MSG shows, Promise Ring cover Adele & more..."

Nas at Rock The Bells 2011 (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Life is good indeed. Nas will ring in the New Year in style, joined by Elle Varner when he takes to the stages of Radio City Music Hall on December 31 for a one-off show at the venue. Tickets for the show go on sale Friday (9/14) at noon... which, coincidentally, is Nas's 39th birthday.

Nas recently played Rock The Bells and is scheduled to take on Virgin Mobile Freefest outside of DC in early October.

Hopefully this show goes better for the Queensbridge MC than the New Year's show he was supposed to appear at in Angola.

by BIll Pearis

Half Moon Run at Hotel Vegan, SXSW 2012 (more by Tim Griffin)

Montreal's Half Moon Run have been tapped to open on Metric's upcoming North American tour which includes a stop at Radio City Music Hall on September 23 to which tickets are still available. All Metric/Half Moon Run tour dates are at the bottom of this post.

The band won over crowds at the 2011 M for Montreal and have since played BV / M for Montreal shows at SXSW and the Great Escape festival. Their debut album Dark Eyes came out earlier this year, mingling '60s folk rock harmonies and modern dynamics and percussion, and you can stream the whole thing at the bottom of this post. If you're going to see Metric on this tour, definitely go early and catch them.

There's a few open dates after the Radio City show, maybe Half Moon Run will add a smaller show while they're in town? We can hope. Tour dates and album stream are below.

Continue reading "Half Moon Run released 'Dark Eyes,' going on tour with Metric (dates and streams)"

Jack White in his Third Man rolling record store in 2011 (more by Ryan Muir)

Tickets just went on sale and sold immmediately for Jack White's Radio City show (9/29) and he just added a second show at the venue which will happen the next night (9/30). Tickets for the new show will be live momentarily. Keep an eye on ticketmaster ARE ON SALE.

Jack White at Firefly Music Fest 2012 (more by Dana [distortion] Yavin)

Tickets to Jack White's September 29 show at Radio City Music Hall just went on sale (8/3 at 10 AM).

UPDATE: SECOND SHOW ADDED

Lollapalooza starts today. If you're in Chicago, where Jack White is playing, look for the The Third Man Records rolling record store.

Jack White at Firefly Music Fest 2012 (more by Dana [distortion] Yavin)

Jack White just announced he's playing Radio City Music Hall on September 29. Tickets go on sale Friday, August 3 at 10 AM with a presale starting Wednesday (8/1) at 10 AM. (Password is "JACK") Additionally, if you're a Third Man Records Vault member, a limited number of presale tickets will be available there (also at 10 AM on 8/1).

Jack will play Lollapalooza in Chicago this weekend (Aug 3 - 5) and he's bringing the Third Man Rolling Record Store with him.

Updated Jack White tour dates are below.

Continue reading "Jack White playing Radio City Music Hall (updated dates)"

Bon Iver in Switzerland, July 19 2012 (via @boniver)

As you know, Bon Iver has four shows coming up at Radio City Music Hall, two sold out ones with Anais Mitchell (9/19 and 9/20), and two that were more recently added without openers. Well, 9/22 still has no opener, but it was announced that Canadian folk-country singer-songwriter Doug Paisley will be opening on 9/21. Tickets are still on sale for 9/21 and 9/22 and we have a pair of tickets you can win to the 9/22 show (the one with no opener announced yet). Contest details and all Doug Paisley tour dates are below.

In other DeYarmond Edison-related news, Megafaun played the Newport Folk Festival over the weekend (check out a pics and streams here), and are about to kick off a European tour with Damien Jurado. Also, Field Report (aka Chris Porterfield) recently made their NYC-debut at Mercury Lounge while on out with the Counting Crows, a tour that continues through August 10. All dates are listed below.

Continue reading "Doug Paisley opening for Bon Iver at Radio City on 9/21; win tickets to the show on 9/22 ++ related tour news"

Bon Iver at Coachella 2012 (more by David Andrako)

Tickets go on sale today at 10 AM for the recently added Bon Iver shows at Radio City Music Hall. The new shows happen at the NYC venue on September 21 and 22, after the already sold out dates on 9/19 and 9/20.

Tickets to the two just-added Bon Iver Radio City Music Hall shows (9/21 and 9/22) go on presale this morning (6/28) at 10AM. (Password: "Holocene") Good luck. Regular on-sale starts Friday (6/29) at 10AM.

In other news, you may or may not have been aware that Justin Vernon designed his own line of shoes. LA Times recently took the time to review the shoe. Here's what they had to say:

And then there's the bone. Yes, the fish bone that covers the entire toe, and makes it look as though you're a messy grizzly bear without the manners or wherewithal to clean up after yourself. Who, it must be asked, walks around with fishbones on their toes? Fishermen? No right-minded man would take a single step without kicking that carcass back into the lake.

But, then, no right-minded man would go fishing in these, not even to get from the parking lot to the boat. They're salmon, and they'll get dirty. So you wear them when you drive into town on Saturday night. Perhaps, but, well, there are fish carcasses on your feet, and the minute you march into the bar you'll be pegged as a folkie by the cowboy-booted drunks.

Vernon, who is currently working on a new style of galoshes that he believes will add "a little pizazz" to morning wades through Wisconsin mud, should be admired for his first attempt at a shoe -- even if they're nowhere near as experimental as No Age's Ed Templeton-designed sneakers for Emerica. And set alongside Kanye West's new NIke Air Yeezy 2, which came out on Saturday, well, the differences are obvious. West's are brash. Vernon's are pink.

Bon Iver @ Sasquatch 2012 (more by Chris Graham)

As we mentioned last week, Bon Iver's two upcoming shows at Radio City Music Hall are now sold out. Naturally, they just added two more. So his NYC run now looks like this:

09/19/12 New York, NY- Radio City Music Hall ^ - SOLD OUT
09/20/12 New York, NY- Radio City Music Hall ^ - SOLD OUT
09/21/12 New York, NY- Radio City Music Hall
09/22/12 New York, NY- Radio City Music Hall

The first two shows are with Anais Mitchell, as are the five other new U.S. dates just announced:

09/12/12 Providence, RI- Providence Performing Arts Center ^
09/13/12 Boston, MA- Bank of America Pavilion ^
09/15/12 Columbia, MD- Merriweather Post Pavilion ^
09/16/12 Philadelphia, PA- Mann Center for the Performing Arts ^
09/17/12 Cooperstown, NY- Ommegang Brewery ^

No openers yet for the other two shows which will probably go on sale this week (stay tuned).

Bon Iver's full list of tour dates is below...

Continue reading "Bon Iver announces gigs w/ Anais Mitchell, two more Radio City Music Hall shows (updated tour dates)"

Tickets to Morrissey's October 10 show at Radio City Music Hall went on sale Friday and, no surprise, sold out pretty much immediately. It may also not be a big surprise to learn that the Moz has added not one but two additional NYC shows: October 12 and 13 at Terminal 5. Kristeen Young will open both. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 29 at noon. No ticket link yet but you can keep checking Ticketmaster.

We also have a pair of tickets to give away for each show. Details are with all tour dates, below.

Continue reading "Morrissey adds two Terminal 5 shows (win tickets)"

Tickets ($45 - $95) for the Morrissey show happening October 10 at Radio City Music Hall go on sale Friday, June 22 at 10AM. No ticket link yet but there is a Bowery event page now.

Additionally, we're giving away a pair of tickets to the show. Details are below.

Continue reading "Morrissey Radio City tickets on sale Friday (win a pair!)"