"The VMAs unite us as a people, a shitty, shitty people. #VMAs" - Dave Hill

Tyler's mom & Wavves @ the Video Music Awards (via Hipster Runoff)

Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) has posted his thoughts on last night's VMAs. This is what he said:

"there are great moments in awards shows. bruno mars sounded really good doing 'valerie' for amy winehouse. i don't think anyone is bummed that adele is killing everything. her voice was real and focused when i went thru and watched highlights from tonight. kanye and jay z are always murdering. beyonce is pregnant. yes this is awesome as shit, culturally speaking. but can i just ask, the reader, us, we ... as non-rhetorically as possible: don't we seem dumb? didn't MTV lose the fight against themselves? Didn't Rock'n'Roll STOP? Why are the lights so bright? isn't our talent as artists enough? Why do we try SO hard? Does a moonman mean what it did back then? Should we feel pumped when we get one? Should our mom's cry? I am not even thinking about it that hard. I will close my eyes in 90 seconds and have total peace... But, seriously. Why are we waving around so much? Why do we NEED this shit so bad? Why don't we just have MUSIC? DO music? soul? I don't know. I don't mean to criticize. Anyone. Actually. Except for MTV. You might have had a very large opportunity to be stabilize your self as a global presence of culture and art about 15 years ago and you fucked the dog. Sorry. Im with my girls on this one. Its becoming increasingly clear as I think about it more and more, that the dollars, if they ARE apart of why you are doing something... they are apart of why you are doing something. that's fucked to me. that's the absence of spirit, glue, fabric of what makes us a person. it distracts us from what we could be doing: WORK. on EARTH. Better say this: Forget what I say. If you even read this, you'll probably say to yourself, who is this ass saying shit? It doesn't matter what i say. it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. But this one last thought: What would Bill Hicks say?"
- JV

If you missed the show, or didn't read about it already, Odd Future's Tyler, The Creator won Best New Artist, Adele (as Justin points out) is a good singer, (so is) Beyonce (but more impotantly, she) is pregnant, Lady Gaga does a great Ralph Macchio, and Justin Bieber loves God and Jesus....

Continue reading "Bon Iver's Justin Vernon discusses the MTV VMAs (where Odd Future won, Tyler's mom got excited, etc)"

Odd Future at Pitchfork Fest (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

As mentioned, Odd Future will tour the US and Canada this fall. That tour includes the 10/19 Terminal 5 show which quickly sold out. If you weren't able to get tickets, they've added another NYC area show the next night, October 20 at Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ. Tickets for the NJ show go on sale Friday (8/26) at noon.

Look for Odd Future to get even more famous when they join Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Rick Ross and others as presenters (and possibly winners) at the MTV VMAs on Sunday (8/28). Tyler's video for "Yonkers" is nominated in multiple categories including video of the year.

Updated dates below...

Continue reading "Odd Future add NJ show, will be on the VMAs Sunday ------ updated 2011 Tour Dates"

Spoon @ MSG in August (more by Bao Nguyen)

today in NYC
* whiplash @ UCB
* free comedy @ Pianos
* ZZ Top @ Beacon Theatre
* Spoon @ Cake Shop (afternoon)
* Jim Campilongo @ Living Room
* Jay-Z & Eminem @ Yankee Stadium
* Spoon, Sean Bones @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Gringo Star, Caveman, Soft Black @ Cameo Gallery
* On ODDSAC, Avey Tare & Danny Perez in conversation
* The Charlatans UK, Sherlock's Daughter @ Bowery Ballroom
* Deakin, Prince Rama, Silk Flowers, Amen Dunes @ Glasslands
* The Bouncing Souls @ Rocks Off Concert Cruise (The Temptress)
* Birthdays, Mark DeNardo, Emily Reo, Philip Seymour Hoffman @ Cake Shop

The Animal Collective Marathon continues as Deakin and Prince Rama kick off a tour at Glasslands tonight, and Avey Tare & Danny Perez have a conversation

Unsound Lounge: On ODDSAC, Avey Tare & Danny Perez in conversation
Talk
09/13/10, 8:30pm
Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building
5 East 3rd Street
New York, NY 10003
Free admission

To celebrate the release of their unique "visual album" DVD project ODDSAC (Plexifilm), Animal Collective's Avey Tare and director Danny Perez will join moderator Andy Battaglia in a discussion about how they see and hear--and work to blur the boundaries between the two.

Avey DJ'd the Panda Bear show on Governors Island Saturday night (pics coming soon).

Spoon plays early and late.

Jay-Z and Eminem play their first of two shows at the new Yankee Stadium tonight.

The VMAs happened Sunday. The Black Keys won for "Breakthrough Video" and pretty much everything else went to Lady Gaga (Eminem and Jay-Z got some too). Robyn was there. Video of her on the red carpet below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

"The Fame Kills Tour Club is pleased to announce that tickets and VIP packages will soon be available for the Fame Kills Tour: Starring Kanye West & Lady Gaga! Fame Kills Tour Club members will get exclusive access to presale tickets and VIP packages before they go on sale to the public! Interested in becoming a member? JOIN HERE!

To check when presales start for a particular concert, please see the start date displayed in the "TOUR CLUB PRESALE" and "VIP PACKAGES" columns next to the shows listed below.

To participate in any of these presales, simply log-in to your Fame Kills Tour Club account, pick up your passcode, and click on the link displayed in the "TOUR CLUB PRESALE" or "VIP PACKAGES" column next to the show of your choice (while the presale is active). After you click on the link, you will be directed to the ticket vendor's website, where you will be asked to enter your passcode and select the number of presale tickets/VIP packages you would like to purchase. Please note each Fame Kills Tour Club member is allowed to purchase up to 4 presale tickets or VIP packages total per membership year."

The only NYC-area dates so far are December 22nd at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ, and January 3rd, 2010 at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. Neither of those dates go on presale until September 29th, unlike many of the other dates on the tour which go on presale Tuesday morning.

That said, there are still lots of days off on this tour. They hit the Verizon Center in DC on December 30th, but are currently free on the 31st. One keen Anonymous commenter noticed this and said, "I hope this New Year's Eve show at MSG isn't Kanye and Lady Gaga......". I think that person's on to something.

Meanwhile, some of the first New Years Eve shows to officially be announced are Dean & Britta (early) & The Felice Brothers (late) at Southpaw in Brooklyn.

Above picture via kanyegate.tumblr.com

Continue reading "Kanye West & Lady Gaga playing MSG on New Years Eve? -- presale for other dates starting soon "

Kanye @ SXSW 2009 (more by Faith-Ann Young)

Critics may have hated it, but Monday's premiere of "The Jay Leno Show" got a warm reception from viewers.

Thanks in part to a newsworthy appearance from rapper Kanye West -- who drew widespread scorn for his behavior during the MTV Video Music Awards the previous night -- the former "Tonight Show" host's 10 p.m. comedy-variety show drew a surprisingly large crowd of 18.4 million total viewers, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. That's more than three times what he averaged on "The Tonight Show."

Among the key demographic of viewers aged 18 to 49, "Leno" scored a 5.3 rating/14 share, easily the night's top-rated program. It was NBC's most-watched program in the time period since last year's Summer Olympics. [LA Times]

That widespread scorn even reached President Obama who was taped calling Kanye West a jackass.

Meanwhile, as Kanye promised a few weeks ago, he's going out on tour with Lady Gaga who was also a big star at the VMAs. The'Fame Kills' tour runs from November into January 2010, and includes two (for now?) NYC-area shows: December 22 at the Izod Center and January 3 at Nassau Coliseum. Ticket info TBA. All tour dates, and videos from the Leno show, are below...

Continue reading "Kanye West (the jackass) & Lady Gaga - 2009 Tour Dates"