photos by Amanda Hatfield & Dominick Mastrangelo, words by Andrew Sacher

Talib Kweli w/ Idle Warship @ BV-CMJ @ Public Assembly (by Dominick)

Idle Warship (Talib Kweli and Res), who played our CMJ day party with their full backing band, and who were just added to SXSW, have a few shows coming up this month and next. One of those shows is in Talib's hometown of NYC this Friday (12/9) at Southpaw with Jah C & Jaison Spain, Kyle Rapps, ILLUSTRATE, and The Band Called Fuse. Tickets are on sale. After a short break in their schedule, they'll play NYC again on January 4 at SOB's. Tickets for that show are on sale now. All dates and more pictures from our CMJ show are below.

In related news, Talib Kweli is readying his album Prisoner of Consciousness, which he's been working on for four years, for a 2012 release. He recently spoke to The Boombox about the album:

"Prisoner of Consciousness' is a record I've been working on for the better part of four years," Kweli tells The BoomBox. "I wasn't happy with my last album with Warner Brothers [2007's 'Eardrum,'] and I knew I didn't want to give them 'Prisoner of Consciousness.' I knew the project was too important for me, so I opted to get out of my deal."

The omnipresent Kweli released the follow-up, 'Gutter Rainbows,' earlier this year. The effort was his first solo album off his own imprint, Blacksmith Music. "I'm a touring artist," he admits. "Prisoner of Consciousness' wasn't ready but I still had a bunch of great songs that were timely; a lot of the songs on 'Gutter Rainbows' were songs that work for that time, but if I held on to them, were going to have to be updated. So, I was like let me put together a project and put it out myself and that was what 'Gutter Rainbows was."

However, the 36-year-old rhymer didn't just craft his last project from leftovers from his forthcoming LP. It was all a part of a bigger picture. "'Gutter Rainbows' was not necessarily the outtakes from 'Prisoner of Consciousness,' but 'Gutter Rainbows' was started with the spirit of 'Prisoner of Consciousness' and became its own thing, almost like a prelude to 'Prisoner of Consciousness,'" he explains.

All Idle Warship dates and a belated set of pictures from our CMJ party below...

Continue reading "Idle Warship schedule more shows, played BV-CMJ @ Public Assembly (belated pics & tour dates)"

As the first of three BrooklynVegan not-CMJ DAY PARTIES is already underway, I'm happy to announce that Idle Warship will be playing the free BrooklynVegan day party at Public Assembly on Saturday, 10/22, at 5pm! Full lineup TBA shortly

If you missed Idle Warship's free Restoration Rocks show (due to them not playing it), here's another chance! As their bio reads:

A collaboration between hip-hop luminary Talib Kweli and critically acclaimed soulful singer and songwriter Res, Idle Warship is a genre-bending musical project born out of sheer experimentation and unbridled creative expression. Idle Warship's free-thinking approach has always crossed over from the studio to the other end of the process - the delivery of the music. After releasing free music across the web for the past four years, Idle Warship unveiled "System Addict," a track off Habits of the Heart, on the now wildly-popular social music site Turntable.fm just weeks after its launch. Talib Kweli even received Turntable.fm's very first verified account.

That album, not out until November 1st (via Blacksmith/Element 9/Fontana), is now streaming exclusively on Spotify who are also BrooklynVegan's digital music service partner for all of our CMJ events.

Talib Kweli plays his own Blacksmith CMJ showcase at Music Hall of Williamsburg (right next door) later Saturday night.

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Full BV Saturday lineup coming any second! Full BV Friday day party lineup HERE. Thursday lineup, happening as I write this, HERE.

by Black Bubblegum

Idle Warship

Talib Kweli will team up with Res and Graph Nobel as part of a new group called Idle Warship on Dec 22nd at BB King's in NYC. Tickets are on sale. The crew are wrapping up their debut LP Party Robot, are streaming a few songs at their myspace, and recently released a video for "Black Snake Moan". Check it out along with the show flyer, below..

Continue reading "Talib Kweli, Res & Graph Noble = Idle Warship -- NYC show "