Future of the Left @ Webster Hall in October (more by Natah Miller)

The Village Voice, the nation's largest alternative weekly newspaper, is excited to announce the addition of SPANK ROCK, FUTURE OF THE LEFT, JAPANDROIDS and BEAR HANDS to the line-up for the 9th Annual Village Voice SIREN MUSIC FESTIVAL™ at Coney Island on Saturday, July 18, 2009 from 12:00 noon - 9:00 p.m. These artists join scheduled performers BUILT TO SPILL, THE RAVEONETTES, FRIGHTENED RABBIT, GRAND DUCHY, MONOTONIX and MICACHU & THE SHAPES, with more to be announced soon.

This free, all day, all ages music festival will feature international, national and local bands and DJs performing on two outdoor stages in historic Coney Island. Now in its 9th year, the SIREN MUSIC FESTIVAL™ has solidified its status as a leading New York City outdoor music festival, drawing over 100,000 music fans by showcasing indie rock veterans and emerging artists.

Siren will be Japandroids' 3rd NYC show in July, and they play the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago the same weekend. All dates HERE.

Spank Rock performed with Ninkjasonik at at pool party happening during Coachella this year. Video below...

Continue reading "Coney Island Siren Festival adds bands to 2009 lineup "

McCarren Pool - Summer 2008 (more by Ryan Muir)

The much-delayed new Topshop store opens in NYC on Broome and Broadway on April 2nd (remember all that advertising at McCarren Pool last summer?). What does this have to do with music (besides the fact that people will probably start adding this place to the list that already includes H&M and American Apparel when they say where 'hipsters' shop)? Well, as previously posted, celebrity-musician deejays (The Rapture, Late of the Pier, James Murphy, etc), in conjunction with East Village Radio, will be playing music in the store all week while people shop (full list here).

And as also previously posted, Santigold and Mark Ronson will be performing, BUT not in the store. There are two nights of Sir Philip Greene-hosted, invite-only parties going on at Balthazar. Tonight, March 31st features Mark Ronson backed by the Dap Kings, and performances by Amazing Baby, Jimmy Fallon, Santogold/Spankrock, Nicolai from The Strokes, Alex Greenwald from Phantom Planet and Daniel Meriweather.

April 1st has Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and "a special guest we cant announce, big voice". Maybe it's Lady Gaga, who was originally mentioned, and who plays two shows at Terminal 5 on May 2nd (after the ones that were supposed to be TONIGHT were postponed) (though I don't know about the "big voice" part).

Then on Thursday, April 2nd, TopShop is having a third party. This time at the Box, and hosted by Sir Philip Greene and Kate Moss (who has a line of clothes in the store), with performances by Adele and La Roux, and DJ sets from The Misshapes and James Murphy.

Sounds fancy.

Spank Rock is performing at a Unis & Anna Sheffeild party tonight (2/12) at Chloe (81 Ludlow St) (10pm - 3am)

The Duke Spirit are performing an an Alexander McQueen party on Friday (2/13) at 330 West St (8-11 p.m.) The Duke Spirit also play NYC-area shows on Sunday and Monday.

NY Magazine's Fashion Week party list includes performances and/or DJ sets by The Virgins (acoustic), James Murphy, Mandy Coon (2MANDYDJS), Mike Nouveau, Deakin (Animal Collective) (DJ set), and White Magic (DJ set).

Santos Party House is hosting a Fashion Week party (DOSSIER / NOMIA) on Sunday (2/15) with DJ Holy Ghost and a live set by Lemonade (downstairs 9pm... 21+).

A rumor is going around that Thom Yorke is here and possibly performing, but Men.Style.com says...

I've got some good news and some bad news for all you fashion, music, and fashion music fans. The bad news first: Despite the rumors Twittering around the Interwebs, Thom Yorke will not, in fact, be playing tomorrow's Rag & Bone show. The good news, however, is that the Radiohead singer did "curate" the tunes that'll accompany the models down the runway. Guess he's returning the favor after the nice bomber jacket the lads hooked him up with for the Grammys. (Notably, Lil Wayne also wore the brand last Sunday--who knows, maybe he's hard at work on a playlist for Spring 2010.) In any case, autograph seekers should leave the Sharpies at home, as I'm told Yorke won't even be at the show. (I assume the same's true for Wayne.)

This is the second time Terminator Salvation came up recently. The first was because of Christian Bale freaking out.

Leave more party tips (if you have them) (preferably ones where bands are playing) in the comments.

photos by Zach Stern

Few descriptions can activate the force fields of cutesy-indie-rock skeptics faster than "twee," "Brooklyn," and "coed duo." And those skeptics are probably gonna want to sit out the second effort from twee, Brooklyn, coed duo Matt & Kim. But if you've spent time sitting outside an all-ages rock club or haunting a vegan video game cafe, or wherever it is kids congregate nowadays, this cavalcade of minimalist organ and drum pop that flits and twits between skewed, sugar rush abandon ("Daylight") and romantic, robotic chanting ("I'll Take Us Home") will read like blueprints for kicking back in the city. Heaving strings on the climax of the hurtling "Cutdown" only add to the cinematic, indie-kids-on-the-loose feel. But for the most part the album is a galloping goof, with vocalist and keyboard player Matt Johnson hamming his way through a series of rousing blog-pop gems. With more traditional rock instrumentation, tracks like "I Wanna" might come off as punk rock, but as is, it sounds like they're having too much fun for any sort of angst to bleed through. [Boston Globe]

Continue reading "Matt & Kim, Spank Rock, Ninjasonik & Rude Mechanical Orchestra @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, NYC - pics"

Santogold looks at Spank Rock (more by Tim Griffin)

Matt & Kim's sold out show at Music Hall of Williamsburg tonight doesn't have any openers listed - just "special guests". The rumor is that there will be at least three openers with one being Spank Rock, so maybe they're just listing it as "special guests" because they know he/they might not show up and then nobody will know the difference.

Matt and Kim's new album Grand was released this week. More tour dates HERE. "Daylight" MP3 HERE. "Daylight" video below...

Continue reading "Special guests opening for MATT AND KIM tonight, new album out now, video, stuff..."

photos by Tim Griffin

big pimp Bjorn w/ Santogold & Lykke Li @ The 2008 Woodies

Santogold, Lykke Li and Kanye West are all on the new N.A.S.A. track that everyone is talking about. That reminded me of the rest of the Woodies pictures I have sitting here. The new song (streaming as a video), and more pics, below...

Continue reading "N.A.S.A., Santogold, Lykke Li, more Woodies pics "

photos by Leia Jospe, words By Black Bubblegum

MC Kool Kyle

Spank Rock was AWOL (once again), but the originoo headz were still in full force in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Wild Style at Danbro Studios Warehouse in Brooklyn back on November 13th. Billed performers who did show up included Busy Bee, Double Trouble, Grandmaster Caz, Grand Wizard Theodore, and The Rub. Unannounced guests included Fantastic Romantic's Master Rob and Kevie Kev, and "starchild" MC Kool Kyle. The entire night was curated by Wild Style director Charlie Ahearn and Sleep When Dead NYC (his son Joe Ahearn).

"It's not just young people here. It's a really great turnout, all over the spectrum, not just one type of person, or race, or age here," [event promoter] Todd P said.

He was right. The audience included hip NYU Freshmen with skinny jeans and ankle boots, a young CUNY professor, a 44-year-old radio station volunteer from Seattle, all sorts of music professionals, video and graffiti artists, nostalgia-stricken fans from the original Bronx scene and everyone in between.

Rapper duo Fenton Arms and Raylight Hope, who call themselves "the future of hip-hop," felt honored to be in the same building with the guys who broke ground 25 years ago.

"It's like you go back in time and actually chill with Malcolm X," said Arms. "Without that movie rap might not have happened the way it happened." [Greenpoint Gazette]

Continue reading "Wild Style (sans Spank Rock) @ Danbro Studios, NYC - pics"

by Black Bubblegum

In celebration of what some see as the ultimate cinematic document of Hip Hop culture, Wild Style, director Charlie Ahearn has released a 35MM print of Wild Style that will play from Nov 14-20 at Film Forum in NYC. Tickets are available here. Here's what my favorite film critic at the New York Times had to say about the movie:

"Wild Style remains, to borrow a term from the rap lexicon, permanently fresh. In capturing the Hip Hop aesthetic at an early point of ferment and vigor, Ahearn's film was able to intuit what Hip Hop would become."
-[ A. O. Scott, New York Times]

Continue reading "Wild Style playing @ Film Forum, Spank Rock show tonight "

Photos by Johnny Nunez

Nas (and Kells), N.E.R.D., Spank Rock and Grandmaster Flash performed at the Smirnoff party at Capitale in Manhattan on Tuesday night. N.E.R.D.'s next NYC show is for Diesel this Saturday. Nas has one coming up at Hammerstein Ballroom. More pictures from Capitale below...

Continue reading "Nas, N.E.R.D. & Spank Rock @ Capitale, NYC - pics"

by Black Bubblegum

Q-Tip, Maryland, 7/27/08, and lookie what he's wearing... (seoulchild)

"The Abstract", aka Q-Tip, has announced The Renaissance - due October 14th (but let's not hold our breath). The new track "Gettin Up" is currently streaming at his myspace. The new album marks Tip's (not T.I.P.'s) first album since the almost-entirely-J.Dilla-fied Amplified that came out nine years ago.

"The Ab" along with Phife Dawg, Jarobi, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad will reunite at the Rock The Bells Festival as A Tribe Called Quest, flanked by fellow Native Tongues members De La Soul and Mos Def, as well as Nas, Raekwon & Ghostface (playing tracks from their FOREVER upcoming, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II), a reunited Pharcyde (!), Immortal Technique, Method Man & Redman and dead prez. The NY date is this Sunday (August 3rd) at Jones Beach. Set times are below...

When they aren't reuniting, Q-Tip & Ali Shaheed Muhammad have been busy spinning records at Triple Crown, APT, and most recently, Santos Party House among other spots.

And in case ya missed it, Nas hates Rupert Murdoch. Check out those set times...

Continue reading "Rock the Bells Sunday set times, new music by Q-Tip"

photos by Bao Nguyen

DOWNLOAD: Adventure - Battle Cat (MP3)

Ponytail

Bao spent all day Saturday (July 19) running from Siren stage to Siren stage taking pictures and watching bands. In a heat wave. He didn't really feel like going to Whartscape in Baltimore the very next day (July 20), but he did (just a little late).

At a minimum he was hoping to report back on the very first performance of Who Is The Tunafish Man? (aka the Dan Deacon, Girl Talk & Spank Rock supergroup). Unfortunately, lack of permits and cops stopped that from happening, AND Black Dice didn't get to play because of rain. White Williams, Adeventure, Dan Deacon, Trey Told Em, Grand Buffet, Double Dagger and many others played before Bao got there, which was in time to catch Ponytail and then Parts & Labor (the only band on Sunday's 14-hour Whartscape bill that were also at Siren the day before). On top of that, Bao forgot to charge his camera battery, it was hot again (especially at the late part inside that got busted), and the whole festival was eventually running almost 2 hours behind (not that it ultimately mattered). More on the timing, who played, and a few pics (he didn't take that many to save battery life for the headliners) below...

Continue reading "Cops & rain messed w/ Whartscape, Who Is The Tunafish Man? (Deacon + Girl Talk + Spankrock) didn't play, poor Bao"

This weekend in Baltimore:

in addition to my set and greggs trey told em set on sunday july 20, at whartscape, gregg gillis (girltalk), naeem juwan (spankrock) and i (dan deacon) will be doing a joint set of all new material jams eternal.

gregg and i have been talking about doing a band together for some time and i'm really excited naeem is going to be a part of it for this rad first birth. hopefully our sick jams turn out sick. tickets are still available but close to selling out. getting tickets would be safer than just showing up.

ok baltimore, see you soooooon

also "get funky"

dan'

Hearts of Darkness is also playing the Delancey in NYC tonight (with a secret guest) (thx SAK).

Girl Talk tour dates HERE.

I have one pair of tickets to the previously mentioned Flavorpill event at the Museum of Natural History (flyer below). For a chance at winning them, email BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM (subject: One Step Beyond). Include your first and last name. One winner will be notified.

Continue reading "Black Star playing McCarren Pool w/ NERD? + win Museum tix"

Studio B (NewYorkShitty is still pissed and made this picture)

"I don't want to be associated with marijuana, but I do want to be associated with not doing what people want me to do," said Sabina Sciubba, the seductive Italian-German lead singer of Brazilian Girls, as she lit up a joint on stage at Studio B during Friday's party for the club's new rooftop level. Her multilingual, electro-lounge performance, along with a gamine outfit of red tights under a see-through tutu, an Obama T-shirt, and white plastic sunglasses, literally brought down the upstairs crowd.

Heavyhanded guards manning a candlelit staircase at the back of the venue kept the rooftop from getting too packed before and after the New York quartet's performance, but could do nothing to prevent the upstairs cocktail menu from selling out fast. "Interdisciplinary creative team" Andrew Andrew sipped matching Coronas amidst the palm trees dotting the 9,000 square-foot space, complete with an extra-long bar, skyline views, and DJ booth. Coming soon: a retractable glass covering that will keep crowds coming to Greenpoint's outskirts year-round, eternal lack of taxis notwithstanding. [BlackBook]

Joey from NYC just wrote in with this message.....

I thought the Santogold Miller Lite commercial was weird...until I just saw the SPANK ROCK WISHBONE SALAD DRESSING COMMERCIAL! WHAT THE FUCK??!

Spank Rock did not play Studio B Friday.

Amanda Blank covering for Spank Rock @ Coachella 2008 (jonprc)

Today we learned that Naeem Juwan Hanks (aka MC Spank Rock) experienced a serious sudden health problem that will cause him to have to cancel his Studio B performance this Friday.

A STATEMENT FROM SPANK ROCK'S MANAGEMENT:
Naeem Juwan Hanks (aka MC Spank Rock) experienced a serious sudden ailment that resulted in his inability to perform at Coachella this past weekend and will cause him to have to cancel his Studio B rooftop performance in NYC this week. While in Indio, at the Coachella Music festival, he had to endure two emergency room visits (one hour before his set time) that eventually resulted in an actual operation on Monday and he now remains in Palm Springs to recover from this unexpected surgery. Our love and well wishes go his way and our thanks to involved industry peers and fans for their understanding and support.

We wish him the best and hope he feels better soon.

While this unfortunate circumstance is beyond our control, we'd like to offer refunds to those Spank Rock fans who wish to no longer attend due to their cancellation.

Customers who purchased tickets online via Ticketweb will receive an email with refund instructions. Those seeking a refund who purchased tickets at either Other Music or Sound Fix should follow up with Studio B directly using this email: generalinquiries@clubstudiob.com with SPANK ROCK REFUND in the subject.

We hope to see you this Friday with Brazilian Girls, The Rub, Chester French ,Roxy Cottontail, 88-Keys, and more with the debut of Studio B's new rooftop, starting at 9 PM !

Thank you, Studio B

"Spank rock isn't real hip hop , it would be disrepectful to have him on the same bill as Rakim.." [Anonymous]

I don't know who wrote the above anonymous comment, but I've had more than one conversation with more than one hip hop fan about the very same thing - "real" vs "hipster" and/or "fake" hip hop. Are Spank Rock and friends "hip hop"? Does it matter? I don't care, but it's always a fun conversation, and I couldn't help but notice the strong prescence Spank Rock and friends have on this year's Rock the Bells festival lineup - a festival that is is, for the most part anyway, about hip hop.

on a related note: Santogold also has shows coming up at the Virgin Megastore and Summerstage. Spank Rock is playing Studio B.

Studio B, Banker Street, Brooklyn, NY (paulinka)

Tickets are on sale for a "Brazilian Girls with Spank Rock , The Rub , DJ Roxy Cottontail" show @ Studio B on May 2nd. Why? Because:

Have you heard...? It's true. Studio B is opening a rooftop garden on May 2, just in time for Spring! To celebrate the event we're planning a blow-out, throw-down featuring Brazilian Girls, Spank Rock, The Rub, DJ Roxy Cottontail and more tba! Tickets on sale today. So come join us as we unveil our Greenpoint oasis.
[Studio B]

DOWNLOAD: Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes (XXXchange remix) (MP3)

Santogold & Mark Ronson shooting video

Continue reading "Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes (video & remix), SXSW"

Midnight Juggernauts @ Terminal 5, NYC - Oct 22, 2007 (tixgirl)

Midnight Juggernauts make great dance music. I don't know about their live show though. I heard mixed things about their opening sets for Justice at Terminal 5. That said, tickets are on sale for a May 9th show at Bowery Ballroom - part of a Coachella-related tour the Australian band is going on with NYC's Shy Child.

Shy Child recently signed to Kill Rock Stars.

Shy Child Set To Release Sophomore Smash "Noise Won't Stop" May 5th On Kill Rock Stars Features Spank Rock & Produced By Chris Zane (White Rabbits/Asobi Seksu/Les Savy Fav)

Midnight Juggernauts are proud to announce the release of their long-awaited debut album Dystopia on May 27th through Astralwerks.

Continue reading "Midnight Juggernauts & Shy Child - Tour Dates, albums"

GZA @ Studio B, NYC - Feb 1, 2008 (Chris La Putt)

OMG YES!!! BEST SHOW OF THE YEAR SO FAR AND MAYBE BEST SHOW OF LAST YEAR ALSO. HOLY SHIT JUST UNREAL. DJ'S AND GZA AND BUSY P. I MEAN YOU CANNOT PUT TOGETHER A BETTER LINEUP.

Now it's RZA's turn to play Studio B......this Friday, and it's free...

Continue reading "RZA playing Studio B (free), GZA did, Spank Rock didn't"

GZA is playing at Studio B tonight (Feb 1) (thx Chris).

...but not at the same show

* Rakim & Chuck D are playing Studio B this Sunday
* Spank Rock, The Rapture (DJ) & Le Tigre (DJ) are playing Studio B on Feb 1

DOWNLOAD: Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Santogold - you'll find a way (switch and sinden mix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Santogold - Shuv it ft. Spank Rock (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Santogold - Shove It (KMFX rmx) (MP3)

Santogold (a nickname she got from a classmate back in the '80's for her sister-girl style) is a project that's all about Santi: new band, programmed beats, tons of reggae influences, an impressive list of producers and collaborators, all spiked with Whites's varying vocal styles. In her new song "LES Artistes" she addresses the way folks tend to front like they're something they're not. "I'm an old school artist," she says. "I don't care about looking the part all the time, and in the modern entertainer world it's all about looking the part. In fact, you don't even have to have anything beyond that. If you look the part then you are the part. I just can't be bothered half the time." [FADER]

Continue reading "Santogold - pics from CMJ, free show tonight"

01 LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
...
15 Les Savy Fav: Let's Stay Friends
16 The Good, the Bad & the Queen: self-titled
17 Britney Spears: Blackout
18 Bruce Springsteen: Magic
19 Josh Ritter: The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
20 El-P: I'll Sleep When You're Dead