by Black Bubblegum

Ghost & Rae @ Rock The Bells 2008 (more by villageslum.com)

The Wallaby Champ aka Ghostface Killah will join forces with fellow miscreants and Wu-affiliates (loosely and not) Method Man & Redman to play an "All Points West Kick Off Party" on July 30th at Nokia Theater. Tickets are on AMEX pre-sale starting at noon on 6/11, with gen-pop getting theirs at noon on 6/13. Get 'em here. The show is one of a string of dates dubbed as "The Footprints In Hip Hop Tour", and although full details are sketch, all known tour dates are below.

Meanwhile, Raekwon is still touting August 11th as the release date for Only Built For Cuban Linx 2, and in an act of good faith, released the Blood On Chef's Apron mixtape. Cop that here. Raekwon was recently interviewed by Allhiphop.com and dropped a video for "New Wu" featuring Ghost and Meth, which is viewable below. Raekwon is hitting the road with Rock The Bells this summer.

Red & Meth are touring off of their recent LP Blackout 2!, and I am guessing, building hype for their upcoming monolithic celluloid masterpiece How High 2. Not a joke.

APW 2009 also has it's share of hip hop goodness (tickets here), including the return of Organized Konfusion!

Dates & videos below...

Continue reading "Ghostface, Redman & Method Man - 2009 tour dates"

No Age @ Market Hotel (more by Leia Jospe)

No Age and Bob Mould were two of the many artists who played the Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco this year (Feb 24-March 1). They are also two artists who played, together! Video from that show below.

Bob Mould has a few more shows coming up including one at Carnegie Hall and two at Joe's Pub.

Currently in Mexico, No Age have a few dates scheduled around their appearance at the Sub Pop SXSW showcase in Austin on March 19th (all dates below). On March 20th, they'll be judging a battle of the bands in the same Texas town, and so will we (BrooklynVegan) - well Black Bubblegum to be exact, and so will GZA...

"Eight of the best unsigned, independent bands around will compete in the inaugural Dickies Battle of the Bands on Friday, March 20, 2009 at The Compound in Austin, TX from 1-6 p.m. Grand-Prize winner receives the roar of the crowd as they dominate the stage AND a fat check for $10,000. Runners-up will be rewarded handsomely with Dickies gear.

Admission is FREE to the Dickies Battle on March 20th from 1-6 p.m. at The Compound in Austin, TX?
No badge required BUT you must be 21 or older to enter.
ID's will be checked. See you at The Compound!
[More info @ Dickies Battle]

The bands competing are 6 Days Bender, Facts on File, Golden Triangle, Holy Hail, Roll the Tanks, The Ferocious Few, The Snake Trap and The Story Of.

This is one of many BV-related SXSW events. Info on the BV official showcase HERE. Others TBA. All No Age dates and that video below...

Continue reading "No Age played w/ Bob Mould, judging Battle of the Bands w/ GZA & Black Bubblegum, touring (dates)"

N.A.S.A., and their worldwide debut The Spirit of Apllo, is an ongoing creative collaboration between two lifelong music aficionados, Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon, and their friends, friends of friends and musical heroes.

While N.A.S.A. stands for North America/South America and contains a number of superstar artists from both coasts of the U.S., it is about as far from a tension-building geographical showdown as a record can get. Rather, The Spirit of Apollo was born with the righteous goal of bringing people together through music and art, and that is exactly what masterminds Sam Spiegel (Squeak E. Clean) and Ze Gonzales (DJ Zegon) have done.

Unexpected collaborations abound on the seventeen track release. Tom Waits growls over Kool Keith, Karen O taunts while Ol' Dirty Bastard gives shoutouts to Wu Tang and N.A.S.A from the grave, and David Byrne, Chuck D and others expound on the evils of "Money." In spite of the range of performers, the pairings seem organic, inspired and make perfect sense on the first listen, never coming off as ironic or impulsive.... [RCRD LBL]

Other N.A.S.A. collbaroators included Lykke Li, Santogold and Kanye West. Tickets are on sale for a March 12th show at (Le) Poisson Rouge in NYC. The date is part of a larger tour. Watch the David Byrne/Chuck D/Ras Congo/Seu Jorge/Z-Trip "Money" video, and see all dates, below...

Continue reading "N.A.S.A. - 2009 Tour Dates (LPR), David Byrne/Chuck D video"

DOWNLOAD: Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (MP3)

I just wanted to to make the title of this post as scary as possible. Rakim & Brother Ali are both playing with Ghostface Killah at his November 16th show at Nokia Theatre. Tickets are still on sale. Ghostface's next album The Big Doe Rehab will be released by Def Jam on December 4th. Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut album will be released by XL Recordings (Radiohead's home overseas) on January 29th. More Vampire & Ghost tour dates & album news below.....

Continue reading "Vampire Weekend & Ghostface Killah - albums, Tour Dates"