"Paul Simon, Lee Scratch Perry and Jimmy Cliff play blinding sets at Glastonbury Saga stage. All over 70 Tony Benn oldest at 95 !" - James Osborn

"Best thing musically I saw at Glastonbury was probably SBTRKT on the Friday night ...quality stuff." - Joshua Saunders

Glastonbury 2011 (via Glastonbury.fm)

Glastonbury Festival took place in Worthy Farm in Pilton, England this past weekend. Tons of artists from all different backgrounds played the festival. The festival featured guest appearances, secret sets, and other interesting occurrences. Here are a few of the highlights.

Headliner Beyonce played a hits-heavy set with some pretty interesting cover song choices (King of Leon's "Sex on Fire," Etta James' "At Last"). But more even more interestingly, Tricky joined her on stage for a pretty inexplicable guest appearance on "Baby Boy." The trip-hop pioneer took a mic and uttered some sparse vocals as Beyonce and her backup singers belted the song. Video of the performance is below.

Speaking of things related to Massive Attack and Glastonbury, UK DJ Nick Warren, who would regularly DJ for Massive Attack in the '90s, said "My Highlight of Glastonbury Festival was James Blake live." James's set included the track "CMYK" off the 2010 EP of the same name in addition to tracks off his 2011 self-titled album. Some might say James's set was even explosive:

James Blake at Glastonbury

Festival attendees who were not part of the 75,000 watching Beyonce may have ended up at The Streets' set which took place at the same time. The show was apparently one of the Mike Skinner's last, who recently announced a breakup. Unfortunately, The Streets recently cancelled a trip NYC, but maybe they'll reschedule before saying their final goodbye. Video of The Streets' Glastonbury performance below.

This year's secret shows included UK Glastonbury vets Pulp and Radiohead.

It was Pulp's fourth Glastonbury appearance but their first for nine years and as they came on stage, frontman Jarvis Cocker told the crowd: 'We couldn't think of anything to get you so we brought the sunshine.'
After their set, which included some of their biggest hits including Disco 2000 and Common People, he added: 'Thanks Glastonbury, obviously it's been a very important place for us. When we played in '95 things took off for us and we went in a strange orbit around the earth, and now we're back home in one piece.' [Daily Mail]

Video and setlist of Pulp's performance (which Kate Moss did not witness) below.

Radiohead brought Portishead drummer Clive Deamer as a guest to play with Philip Selway. Their setlist was almost entirely made up of The King of Limbs and In Rainbows tracks, and recent non-album material, except for Amnesiac's "I Might Be Wrong." They also surprised fans of their earlier work by playing "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" as an encore. Video of "The Daily Mail" and "Bloom" and setlist below.

Cee Lo, unlike at Coachella, showed up on time for his set, which included a mix of his own material and Gnarls Barkley stuff. He also covered Black Sabbath twice. Big Boi got lost in London, but also ended up showing on time for his set. Like Cee Lo, he still embraces past projects and included a good amount of Outkast material. Big Boi-collaborator Janelle Monae played the festival too. Video of her performance of "Tightrope" below. Catch her and Cee Lo (but not Big Boi) for free at Afro-Punk in August.

Battles brought Matias Aguayo on stage to sing "Ice Cream," the song he recorded lead vocals for on their recently released Gloss Drop. Video below.

British folk/jazz legends Pentangle, who reunited in 2008 but have not been very busy since then, played the festival. Their lineup includes Bert Jansch who is currently a Drag City-recording artist and released The Black Swan on the label in 2006, over 30 years after Pentangle originally broke up. Lauren Laverne of BBC 6 interviewed the band. They talked about the resurgence of folk music and how Bert is a fan of Fleet Foxes (who also played Glastonbury). Video of the interview below.

SBTRKT at Glastonbury 2011 via facebook

SBTRKT, who visits NYC for the first time in July, played a live set (pictured above). His Young Turks labelmate Jamie xx (of The xx) played a set too. Jamie's "Far Nearer" single is on sale now. Pressings are limited. Check out a soundcloud stream of the track below.

Another UK post-dubstepper Jamie Woon played the festival. 3AM writes, "During my bum breaks, I caught Jamie Woon's set and it was fantastic. I've heard a lot about this chap, but haven't listened to his stuff before. Sitting in the middle of a field with a pounding head and cider was the perfect way to be introduced to Jamie's chilled but strong, powerful tunes."

Speaking of dubstep crossover, UK singer Katy B brought her dubstep-leaning pop to Glastonbury as well. She plays a private show in NYC tonight (6/27). It will be her first.

Little Dragon wowed the crowd, according to VH1 anyway:

For the UK at least, this performance of their new song "Ritual Union" is a real coming-out party for the band, who absolutely deserve to be heard on a much wider scale. It's really difficult to make smooth music work in the middle of the day at a big outdoor festival, but Little Dragon pulls it off in style.

Video of that and their whole setlist is below.

UK anti-folkie Emmy the Great covered The Pixies' classic "Where Is My Mind" with help from Tim Wheeler of the punky brit-poppers Ash. Full setlist below.

On a more negative note,

A senior member of David Cameron's Tory constituency has been found dead in a portable toilet at the Glastonbury festival.

Christopher Shale, the chairman of West Oxfordshire Conservative Association, suffered a heart attack, sources believe.

His body was found in a portable toilet in the backstage area, where many celebrities and performers stay.

A story in the Mail on Sunday contained leaked sections of a strategy document Shale had drafted for David Cameron, in which he said the party can be perceived as "crass" and "always on the take".

Avon and Somerset police confirmed that the body of a man in his mid-50s had been found in the backstage area. A woman was seen being comforted by officers.

His body was found at 8.45am. An area between the Pyramid stage and the Other stage has been cordoned off. [Guardian]

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Videos, soundcloud streams, setlists, and other stuff below...

Continue reading "Glastonbury 2011 happened (highlights, video, setlists, Tricky, SBTRKT, Radiohead, Pulp, Beyonce, Janelle Monae & more)"

"pretty sure this thai food just gave me the plague." -El-P

As you may have noticed (it happened a few weeks ago I think), The Streets cancelled his forthcoming appearance with El-P at Terminal 5. The show was billed as The Streets' "last ever North American show". Whether that means the end of The Streets live for this continent remains to be seen, but we'll keep you posted.

Another bum-out was that the T5 shows was twitter favorite El-P's only current date while he crafts his forthcoming LP. That hasn't changed (so far), but bad news turned to good news when El-P posted the above picture last week with the caption of "stay tuned, nyc".

Well, stay tuned no longer, as Company Flow will reunite at NYC's Santos Party House on July 16th, and tickets are on sale. The show makes TWO upcoming appearances for Company Flow who will also appear at ATP in the UK a few days after Santos.

Company Flow will bring along with them Fondle 'Em faves/Indelible MCs co-conspirators The Juggaknots (!), as well as "many old friends and special guests still to be announced!!!!". Now we just need Siah & Yeshua DapoED and MF Doom on the bill, and my 1996 dreams will be fulfilled. Juggaknots released the classic Clear Blue Skies LP via Fondle 'Em Records in the 90s, an essential piece of underground hip hop from that era.
In other El-P news, the MC recent collaborated with artist Travis Millard who is responsible for the recent Megapuss art and blessed El-P's Weareallgointoburninhellmegamixx2. Check out the video (with some killer El-P instrumentals) that promotes Millard's art show at Fecal Face Dot Gallery in San Francisco below.

Continue reading "Company Flow reunion show happening @ Santos w/ The Juggaknots! (though El-P & the Streets are not playing T5)"

The Streets

"It's obvious. I've been doing it for 10 years and I've always tried to do something different with each album," he says. "Some [of my work has] been amazingly received and some of it hasn't been, and I've run out of new avenues.

"As uninteresting as the Streets is to talk about, the most interesting element of anything is its death, so if you're going to talk about the Streets, ending the Streets is probably a good thing to talk about," he continues, ceding the point that there might yet be some purpose to our interview, which is only two minutes old. "But it's not interesting really. I haven't really got anything more to do." -[says Mike Skinner to The Guardian on why The Streets is ending]

The Streets' new and reportedly final LP, Computers and Blues, is out now digitally, and is streaming in full below. Skinner is scheduled to hop the pond to play his "only North American concert" (and final?) on August 5th at Terminal 5 with El-P. Tickets for the big NYC show go on AmEx presale at noon today (4/27) and regular sale on Friday.

Meanwhile El-P is keeping busy. He recently said, "sorry i've been absent. making one of those 'albums' i've heard so much about. some major announcements coming soon." No word on a release date, but he also Tweeted that, "my album, the Killer Mike album and the STEPSON are all in the works. enjoy the break from me while you can, music."

STEPSON is a new collaboration between El-P and Nick Diamonds, aka Nicholas Thorburn, of Islands/Unicorns/Mister Heavenly fame.

Full Streets album stream below...

Continue reading "The Streets released a 'final' LP, playing 'only' US show @ T5 w/ El-P (who is collaborating w/ Nick Diamonds as Stepson)"

DOWNLOAD: The Streets - Let's Push Things Forward (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Streets - Get Out My House (mc's Mix) (MP3)

Word on The Streets is that Atlantic Records and VICE are splitting up. What this means for each artist involved is being decided as we speak. Some history below...

Continue reading "VICE Records to become indie? Atlantic splits"