photos by Chris Graham

Pavement @ Sasquatch Fest 2010

The above-pictured Pavement show took place in May 2010 (and wasn't free). In September, Pavement will play Virgin Mobile FreeFest (and it is free)....

"Breaking from traditional festivals, the Virgin Mobile FreeFest presented by Kyocera unveiled its lineup for the award-winning festival, selecting relevant, important, and eclectic headliners to represent this year's free show. This morning, Chairman of the Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson announced the lineup on Virgin Mobile Live, the company's new Internet music stream available on Virgin Mobile websites.

The lineup will include:

M.I.A., LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, PAVEMENT, T.I., LUDACRIS, JOAN JETT, THIEVERY CORPORATION, MATT & KIM, JIMMY EAT WORLD, THE TEMPER TRAP, EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS, AND YEASAYER;

DANCE FOREST: CHROMEO, SLEIGH BELLS, DIE ANTWOORD, MODESELEKTOR, AND NEON INDIAN

Virgin Mobile FreeFest will be held Saturday, September 25 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md. Tickets to the 2010 Virgin Mobile FreeFest will be available to the public on www.ticketfly.com at 10 am EST on Saturday, July 24th.

Not bad for a free show (and yet another Pavement show!). More details, with the full set of pictures of Pavement playing this year's Sasquatch Fest, below...

Continue reading "Virgin Mobile FreeFest lineup +++ Pavement Sasquatch pics "

He actually published this list in August, but in case you missed it...

Continue reading "Gorilla Vs Bear's favorite 'songs of the decade'"

DOWNLOAD: Emiliana Torrini - Me & Armini (MP3)

Emiliana Torrini has added a string of North American tour dates around her August 14th Highline Ballroom show. Tickets for the NYC show are still on sale. Opening that show and a few others will be singer-songwriter Anya Marina (whose Myspace features a cover of TI's "Whatever You Like")

Emiliana Torrini's latest LP, Me And Armini, was released in 2008 on Rough Trade. A track from that is above.

Emiliana recently performed on Belgian TV, where she mentioned adding Kylie Minogue's "Slow," a song she wrote, to her own live repertoire. That video, with all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Emiliana Torrini & Anya Marina - 2009 tour dates & stuff"

TMZ can confirm that Chris Brown just entered an LAPD station, where he turned himself in to police.

Chris is being investigated by the LAPD for an alleged domestic violence felony battery that occurred early this morning near Hancock Park in L.A. Police officials said earlier today they may arrest Brown when they found him. Well, now they know where he is.

According to the female victim -- who cops refuse to identify -- she and Chris got into an argument which turned violent. Cops say when they arrived to the scene, Brown had split, but the woman had "visible injuries and identified Brown as her attacker."

Brown and his girlfriend Rihanna were together earlier last night, attending Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party -- and both canceled their scheduled performances at tonight's event.

Brown is currently being interviewed by detectives. [TMZ]

Radiohead did show up the Grammys, as did an even MORE pregnant M.I.A.. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss took best album (for an album that came out on indie label Rounder Records). Video of Radiohead and M.I.A.'s performances, and a list of all winners (including Daft Punk) below...

Continue reading "a list of all the 2009 Grammy winners, Radiohead, MIA video"

Photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

His latest CD, "Paper Trail," sold more than 560,000 copies in its first week to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts, and his newest single, "Live Your Life" featuring Rihanna, supplanted the album's first single, "Whatever You Like," at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. [AP]

As pointed out in the previous two Diesel party picture posts, after Hot Chip & Chaka Khan came T.I. who made an unbilled, but planned appearance which ended with Franz Ferdinand (who had just played two more Brooklyn shows earlier in the week) playing as his backing band which then went into Franz Ferdinand's set - the longest of the night. T.I. and F.F. collectively were the best entertainment of the evening. The circus performers were a nice touch too. That included two sets (female then male) of aerialists who performed above the crowd before TI and after FF. Circus was the theme with Joey Arias also acting as "ringmaster" and free cotton candy, popcorn and hot pretzels. T.I. didn't bring out Jay-Z like he did at his recent show at Highline Ballroom, but he did have someone else that represented Brooklyn (help?) and...

T.I. also performed a song with the pregnant M.I.A., and called the lyricist "the hottest rap chick in the game right now, period." T.I. recently sampled "Paper Planes" for a collaboration with Jay-Z, Kanye West and Lil Wayne. The song, "Swagga Like Us," appears on "Paper Trail." [AP]

More pictures from that part of the night below...

Continue reading "T.I., Franz Ferdinand & circus performers @ Pier 3 - pics"

photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

M.I.A. first appeared on stage at last night's Diesel party during T.I.'s surprise set which was right before Franz Ferdinand played. Then she came back to do her own set which segued right into N.E.R.D.'s short set which closed the whole night Hot Chip played much earlier - only a few of their own songs before they became Chaka Khan's backing band. More pictures of M.I.A. below...

Continue reading "M.I.A. is pregnant, played the Diesel Party - pics"

Tickets for the upcoming Metallica shows are on presale.
(Radio Preferred Seating password = magnetic)

Tickets are on sale for the Vision of Disorder show at Irving Plaza.

T.I. is playing Highline Ballroom on September 30th. $50 tickets are on sale.

Dawn Landes opens for Federico Aubele at Bowery Ballroom tonight (Sept 03). Tickets are still on sale.

The Little Ones play Mercury Lounge on October 17th. Tickets are on sale.

White Denim play Mercury Lounge on October 19th. Tickets are on sale.

The T.I. show at United Palace is on sale. Rock the Bells hip hop festival tickets are on sale, and tickets are still available for Rock the Bells' cousin Paid Dues at Nokia Theatre.

Also coming up: Kidz in the Hall @ S.O.B's, the 'Hip Hop Anniversary Tour' at the Paradise Theaterin the Bronx (with AFRIKAA BAMBATA, KURTIS BLOW, GRANDMASTER MELE MEL, ROB BASE, DANA DANE, GRAND WIZARD THEODORE, FORCE MD'S, AIR FORCE CREW, POSITIVE K, DJ HOLLYWOOD, LOVE BUG STARSKI, and DJ KOOL HERC), Lil Wayne in CT, and Black Sheep at Knitting Factory.

Free shows this summer include KRS-One in East River Park, Jungle Brothers in Red Hook, and a Crooklyn Dodgers reunion in Prospect Park.

Paper Trail is the sixth studio album by rapper T.I. scheduled to be released August 12, 2008. He is working on the new studio album while under house arrest on pending gun charges. He has completed 50 tracks for the album already. He says that he only likes about 16 of them though and plans to produce about 16 more. The album is entitled Paper Trail, which comes from lyrics he has written down on paper. He abandoned this style of rapping after his first album I'm Serious. "He wanted to take more time to really put something down (this time)," explains his rep. The album is expected sometime in 2008. According to his MySpace page, Paper Trail is set to be released August 12th, 2008. [Wikipedia]

T.I. will play United Palace Theatre in NYC on June 12th. Without looking it up, I'll assume that by that date (if not already) he will be off house arrest. $69.75 tickets go on sale Saturday @ 10am.

DOWNLOAD Dry Yai - Ease Di Tension (MP3)

Sierra Leone's OkayPlayer-approved star Hip Hop artist, Dry-Yai, will be performing at Joe's Pub August 29th at 11.30pm We're giving away a pair of tickets. To win please email us at BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM (subject: Dry Yai). Include your first and last name. One winner will be picked at random and contacted.

I guess everyone made up and decided to play nice?

Kanye West, Diddy, 50 Cent @ Screamfest @ MSG, NYC - 8/22 (CRED)

There were close to 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night, and it's pretty much a given that none of them believe what they saw. Just imagine how much they've been calling, texting and MySpacing since the show. Heck, you might not even believe this when you read it, but as wrestling legend Kurt Angle would say, "It's true. It's damn true."

T.I. orchestrated a mammoth hip-hop moment, a piece of history in the form of an onstage party featuring the cream of the crop in hip-hop: T.I., Jay-Z, Diddy, Swizz Beatz, Ciara, Kanye West and 50 Cent. They were all onstage performing and partying together ... as in, everybody was onstage at the same time. [MTV]

Hov, Kanye West, Diddy, 50 Cent @ MSG, NYC - 8/22

NEWS

• Speaking of international hip hop (Dry Yai), Soulico (from Isreal) is playing the blogger-curated After The Jump Fest this weekend.
• MF Doom sends a poser to perform in his mask?
• Blender interviews RZA, who also shares his top 10 list of hottest MC's out right now here. I think you'll be surprised at his list. What is your list?
• GZA is performing 'Liquid Swords' in Brooklyn
• With all this Hip Hop beef abound, lets look at how even The Beatles released diss songs targeting each other.
• Cormega will be releasing two projects from his Legal Hustle imprint this year, with one of them being a producer instrumental series titled Legal Hustle Presents Got Beats?. The disc will feature beats from DJ Premier, Alchemist, Ayatollah, Buckwild, Ski Beats, Heatmakerz and more.
• KRS One is to sign with Duck Down Records while The Dogg Pound signs with Cash Money Records.
• TSS reminisces and relives the Up In Smoke tour.
• Go here to read my summary of all the recent 50 Cent drama.
• Hi Tek is set to release his third solo album.

More news, downloads, videos, and tour dates below...

Continue reading "Wes' Weekly Hip Hop News Roundup (August 23, 2007)"

Tickets are still on sale for Lil' Wayne @ Beacon Theatre on July 22nd.

pharoahe monch + styles p @ Highline Ballroom, NYC - June 29, 2007 (CRED)

styles showed up at the p. monch show to collab for "the life". pharoahe is on some street soul tip for this current tour with a live band. i'm feeling it, desire is my joint right now. [thisismecl]

NEWS

• Even though we already know this isn't true, everyone is jumping on this story of Timbaland allegedly retiring, it's really just based on some off the cuff boasting remarks.
• A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip is hard at work on his upcoming The Renaissance album. Stream "WorkItOut" (real, mov, asx).
• In case anyone got the wrong impressions Cassidy lets us know that his upcoming album 'B.A.R.S.' (Sept. 18th) album is 'not church music'.
• One of my favorite rappers of 2006, Obie Trice is interviewed on XXL and speaks on his new work, the state of Hip Hop (who doesn't nowadays), and more. Interesting read.
• Prefix gives us a bunch of photos and videos of the Pharaohe Monch show at Highline last week.
• Master P's new clean lyrics album Gutta Music Allstars, and an exclusive track called 'Let the Kids Grow' is going up on AmieStreet tomorrow. Master P says,

  As you may have heard, Romeo and I are taking a stand against the negativity in hip-hop because we all need to be responsible for our actions and the communities we represent. Similarly, Amie Street is out there making a positive impact on the future of online music by making it available to people in a new way and I like what they've got going on.

  More about that here.
• Public Enemy's Chuck D signs on with Tunecore for his digital distribution.
• The legendary breakdancing Rock Steady Crew is celebrating their 30th (!!!) anniversary with events from July 23rd-29th in Manhattan, the Bronx and a free concert at Lincoln Park in Newark.

More Hip Hop below......

Continue reading "Wes' Weekly Hip Hop News Roundup (July 5, 2007)"

DOWNLOAD: Evidence ft Termanology - 'Low IQ' (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: an 18:00 interview w/ Pharoahe Monch (MP3)

Pharoahe Monch is fronting a live band this Friday (June 29 - 11:30pm) at Highline Ballroom in NYC. Black Milk, Polyrhythm Addicts, The Cool Kids, and DJ Ready Cee are opening. It's the official launch party for Pharoahe's new album Desire, which by the way I LOVE. It's a very strong effort with excellent, soulful and cohesive production, diverse and intelligent topic matter, innovative song concepts, and it just has a whole lot of heart --> Highly recommended. Check out another review at About.com, and interviews with Pharoahe HERE and HERE. All tour dates at the end of this post

We have a pair of tickets to give away to the NYC show on Friday. Want to win them? E-mail BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM (subject: Monch), and let us know who you wish we'd cover more in this weekly post. One winner will be picked Friday at Noon, and notified. If you don't win, tickets are still on sale.

50 Cent is playing the Hard Rock Cafe in NYC on July 18th. Tickets onsale @ 9am (also the presale password = MTV). Eve is playing the 19th. T.I. is playing that night too.

More Hip Hop below.....

Continue reading "Wes' Weekly Hip Hop News Roundup (June 28, 2007)"