Last night, I was in the building to Watch The Throne in Baltimore, MD. While I didn’t see any actual thrones, I did see arguably the two best live performers in hip hop. Since I never typed up my Watch The Throne album review (I wrote it on a back of an envelope, while on the metro), this is me making up for that..because no one else wrote about that album on the internet or anything. This isn’t a review as much as it is random thought/observation drop. First off, the doors opened at 6:30, and the showtime on the ticket was 7:30, so I scrambled to get down to Baltimore from the DC area. There is no opener (none is needed, AT ALL), and the duo didn’t hit the stage till 8:48. So if you are going to another tour stop, feel free to add an hour to whatever your ticket says. The arena was full a good hour before hand, which people spent hollering a girls in their best club outfits, getting concessions (nothing like some arena fries to get in the mood for The Throne!), or taking pictures with backdrops (cost: $15).

Kanye & Jay came out to ‘HAM’, which I’m not the biggest fan of but it is a great intro song, especially on the impressive sound system setup the tour uses (the building was shaking most of the night). I actually came to this realization a few months back when I heard used as an at bat intro song by a Washington Nationals player. As ‘HAM’ was rattling the arena, I noticed the mad engineer scientist Mike Dean was really into the music and was through out the whole night, which is plain neat to see. Next thing you know, Kanye & Jay were on top of LCD screened “shark tanks” 2-3 stories high, rapping. This was luxury rap in the flesh, the lighting, pyrotechnics, the soundsystem are probably as good as it gets for a rap show. When Kanye was doing ‘Diamonds are Forever’ it was dope to see Hov reemerge out from the back to do his remix verse, “Yup, I got it from here ‘Ye, damn”. That was a small example of the perfect sequencing of tracks and the rotation of both rappers having the stage to themselves, intertwined with sharing it with cuts they are both on.

Both rappers seemed really into the others songs as they would walk backstage, not just lazily giving up the spotlight. When these two guys combine their catalogs, you are almost overwhelmed at how many songs of theirs are ingrained into your memory.  Unlike many 2 hour shows, there was no lull, even when Kanye & Jay-Z, getting emotional, sitting next to each other on the stage steps for ‘New Day’. To be honest though, I did notice a lot of the “hungry fat dudes” demographic of the audience make a bee-line to the food & beer concessions during ‘Runaway’. I just hope they were back in time for ‘Stronger’ which Kanye followed with and did a good 1 minute of shifting his eyes left to right as the song opens (something you have to see in person). When Jay was running through ‘Big Pimpin’ Hov dropped a few “hold uppp (Pimp C Voice)” before doing C’s verse acapella with the crowd, great stuff.

The show wrapped up with ‘Dudes In Paris’ done… 3 times (which the crazyness of was kind of spoiled for me by the blogs/tweets since it also occurred in Atlanta), followed by Encore. A good amount of the crowd started to leave the building after the 2nd rendition of ‘Paris’, probably thinking there couldn’t be anymore left.. only to scramble to the aisles a minute later.

All in all, if you are fan of at least one of the artists in general, you would enjoy catching the tour.

Three random thoughts: Have kids start wearing Givenchy leather kilts yet? Can I retire Gold Digger? How hot must the duo’s two suit wearing security dudes (I saw Steve!) have been in the stuffy arena?

We’re accustomed to having the best of everything in New York, but the CMJ Music Marathon is basically a baby version of South by Southwest. But that’s not to say there aren’t shows to see. We’ve listed our picks below and will update with more as we find them. In fact, if you notice my swagged out visage at the Tastemakers Lounge on Thursday, greet me as KNOBBZXL the Knobbzfather and you’ll get a free Metal Lungies keychain. I look like this.

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LOLOLOL, what other platinum selling rapper hops out of a trunk to start his performance, and then goes on airlift? Only this guy nicknamed Ye.

Below, There are even more LOLs to be had at Kanye forcing a re-do during the opening of All Of The Lights when the (majority white) crowd didn’t call and respond to the “MJ Gone..” line loud enough.  A Rest In Peace shout-out to Black Eyed Peas was totally normal, too.

From the reviews ACL sounded like a swell job to wrap up the tour supporting My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

It’s time again for my new favorite day of the year. No, it’s not my birthday (I’ve already turned 21… so what is there to look forward to?) and it’s definitely not Christmas…. but it IS Virgin Mobile FreeFest! Never mind that corny introduction and focus on that festival title… FREE. I love free things, especially when it’s a day jam packed with some of my favorite artists. If you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about, just keep reading, I promise I’ll persuade you to join me in the rain this upcoming Saturday, September 10, 2011.

This year FreeFest pulled in a pretty awesome lineup in my opinion (last year’s was pretty noteworthy as well). Starting at 11 AM, Merriweather Post Pavilion will host :

Eclectic Method: 12-1:30 PM//Dance Forest

Alberta Cross: 12:15-1:15//Festival Stage

**Bombay Bicycle Club: 1:00-2:00//Pavilion Stage

**Two Door Cinema Club: 1:45-2:45//Festival Stage

Porter Robinson: 1:45-3:15//Dance Forest

*Okkervil River: 2:30-3:30//Pavilion Stage

*Big Sean: 3:15-4:15//Festival Stage

**Calvin Harris: 3:15-4:45//Dance Forest

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals: 4:00-5:00//Pavilion Stage

**Cut Copy: 4:45-5:45//Festival Stage

*!!!: 5:00-6:00//Dance Forest

Patti Smith: 5:30-6:30//Pavilion Stage

*Cee Lo Green: 6:20-7:20//Festival Stage

**James Murphy: 6:15-7:45//Dance Forest

**TV On The Radio: 7:00-8:15// Pavilion Stage

**Empire of the Sun: 8:00-8:55//Festival Stage

Teddybears: 8:15-9:15//Dance Forest

**The Black Keys: 8:45-10//Pavilion Stage

**Deadmau5: 9:20-11//Festival Stage

*Ghostland Observatory9:45-10:45//Dance Forest

(** for an act that there is no chance in hell I’ll miss)

(* for acts that I’ll try and hear at least a few songs)

I’m thoroughly surprised that in this one day extravaganza there is only one REAL time conflict on my schedule which happens to occur during Deadmau5′s TWO HOUR set…. I don’t know if I can handle two hours of Deadmau5 so I might just be lucky and able to go see Ghostland Observatory.

Even if you didn’t score free tickets before they “free”d out you can still get a Free-I-P pass for less than $50 which scores you a bunch of extra cool stuff including comped drinks.

I’ll leave you with this:
Something Good Can Work (The Twelves Remix) by skorsz

I remember watching youtubes of last years Fool’s Gold Labor Day party with Yelawolf rocking the hell out of his set, well this year I will probably doing the same with shaky cell cam videos of Juicy J & Danny Brown rocking. Danny Brown’s live set impressed me so much at SXSW, that I became a believer, dude is just great on stage. Of course, you can’t forget the rest of the Fool’s Gold fam including, A-Trak, Dave1, Araabmuzik (mpc vibez!!) and Nick Catchdubs who are sure to have gems to drop. If you are in NYC, I can’t think of a better way to spend your Labor Day, ok now close the Safari window and go get in line.

Fool’s Gold Day Off

Juicy J
Danny Brown
Just Blaze
Brothers Macklovitch (A-Trak & Dave1)
Araabmuzik
Cubic Zirconia
Party Supplies
Nick Catchdubs
+ Special Guests
 

 
City Winery Backyard
155 Varick St
(Entrance on Spring btwn Hudson & Varick)
2-8pm / All ages

A year later, Perseus’ remix of “Record Collection” is a seven minute blissful ode to the 80s pop-tinged fun of the original. It will appear on Record Collection 2012, a collection of remixes due out September 5. You can also listen to the Plastic Plates remix in The Magician’s Magic Tape 13 mix below. It starts at 3:57.

After the break, you’ll find several cuts recorded at Mr. Ronson’s gig at the Enmore Theater in Sydney, Australia on March 11, 2011.

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The third and final day of Pitchfork Music Festival marked the end to an overwhelmingly exhausting weekend. Sunday happened to be the first day that sold out when tickets first went on sale a few months ago so needless to say it was packed. The crowd was relatively lethargic as everyone was huddled in the shade trying to get away from the oppressive heat (whine, whine, whine, bitch, bitch, bitch… whatever it was hot). I’ll go easy on the first half of the artists for the day and blame the level of boring on the heat. Two early acts I was excited to see were How to Dress Well and OFWGKTA. Especially OFWGKTA, expecting them to bring this out of the world performance due to all the hype they’ve gotten in the last year, I was disappointed with their set but even that kind of grew into just not giving a shit. How to Dress Well didn’t fare much better and frankly they just didn’t sound good. Their drummer had about half a drum set with the floor toms and bass drum turned on their sides sitting flat on the stage, it sounded terrible. Watching them set up you could feel the anticipation in the crowd as they had an orchestral accompaniment to the band. Unfortunately they didn’t seem to do much with that either.

Luckily, Shabazz Palaces kicked off a streak of acts that fell on the opposite end of the spectrum. If you haven’t heard, Shabazz Palaces is a duo that consists of electronic beats with live drums over the top paired with live vocals. They sounded awesome and were worth waiting around to hear their entire set. They have an almost new world sound but they don’t seem as if they’re trying too hard, they sound utterly sincere. Baths followed Shabazz Palaces with a surprisingly energetic performance from an artist who was performing behind a table. His energy got the crowd moving and was the perfect precursor to Toro y Moi. Toro y Moi were by far one of the best sounding on Sunday. They mainly played songs off of Underneath the Pine, which is a personal favorite of mine. Although Chaz Bundick is reluctant to have Toro y Moi be labeled as chillwave, their chillwave….esque sound set the perfect ambiance for a hot Sunday afternoon.

As I shared some shade and some beers with a friend while waiting for Deerhunter I was able to people watch and ended up sitting two feet away from Andrea Estrella from Twin Sister (as they had played the Blue Stage earlier in the day). We lost track of time, enjoying not being baked by the sun, and ended up having to try and hurry our way through the gigantic crowd waiting for Deerhunter. It took us 13 minutes to make it from one side of the stage to the other, what?! To give you  an idea, in a normal crowd that walk would take me three minutes tops, it was crazy. Deerhunter was worth the elbowing though, they played a great set while squinting into the sun. Cut Copy was the last act of the day on the Red Stage and although people have been h8n on their latest album Zonoscope, I thought they sounded great. Unfortunately it seemed like every press person at Pitchfork had jammed themselves into the photo pit so I was only able to see them if I turned myself horizontal and stood all the way up on my toes (looks like yoga’s been paying off). They played crowd favorites from In Ghost Colours which sound just as good as they did when the album came out all the way back in 2008.

TV on the Radio headlined the last day of Pitchfork and they didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately, I suck and my camera died as I was literally headed into the photo pit. I probably won’t stop kicking myself for that one for a while. I was so glad that they played songs off of Return to Cookie Mountain and Dear Science because those are my personal favorites. Nine Types of Light, which dropped in April of this year, has gotten so much attention (and it is good) but c’mon, Dear Science is ear meltingly awesome. Although they sounded fantastic, my feet could not have been more relieved when their set was finished because it meant that I could sleep forever (probably why you’re reading this review a week late…).

On a related note, check out the rest of the festival pics on ML’s Flickr! Click meeeeeee

Crown Royal is sponsoring a mini Big Boi tour that hits DC tonight (they even let him design his own bag, which I’d like to obtain to fill with quarters.). The folks at Rolling Stone teamed up with them to bring the internets massive a live stream. Based on seeing Big Boi at Bonnaroo come through with  sharp raps, a lot of on stage dancing, a lively brass section, and just a straight up party vibe– you should definitely tune (stream?) in.

Watch the concert below:

Walking into Union Park on Saturday was like working through a hangover I acquired without ever actually being drunk. Despite being dehydrated, and maybe just a little bit cranky, day two of Pitchfork held a lineup full of impressive acts that was even better than I had originally expected. It proved that Pitchfork really is a great platform for up and coming bands to generate a larger following (more specifically Sun Airway and Twin Shadow).

Sun Airway, who played the Blue Stage at 1:45 PM, might be my top pick for “Artists to Watch” from Pitchfork 2011. Although Sun Airway’s debut album, Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier, dropped nearly a year ago they still seem to be reasonably unknown throughout the music community. Their sound is filled with reverbing melodies and synth which leaves them sounding like a more coherent version of Animal Collective (I say that loosely because I really don’t think this is a band that you’ll be able to pigeon hole with a label). They were fun to watch, even in the heat, with all members of the band in tune with each other. All of this has quickly made Sun Airway a potential for my new summer obsession.

Wild Nothing who followed Sun Airway at the Blue Stage were fun to watch in a similar vein, a full piece band playing a solid set. Now, I didn’t know too much about Wild Nothing going into Pitchfork but was surprised to hear that they are actually a one-man band consisting of lead singer Jack Tatum. Seeing them live, it really felt like every member present was an integral addition to the sound and overall feel of the performance. They’re also an act that I would recommend to keep an eye out for in the next year.

Gang Gang Dance and Twin Shadow were hands down was the most entertaining acts to watch all weekend. There was so much energy on stage and Gang Gang Dance even had a shaman burning sage during the show. It’s acts like these that really make or break a festival because why go see someone live if they’re boring, might as well save your cash and stay home.

I’ll try not to drool too much about Fleet Foxes who closed out the second day of Pitchfork. Seeing Fleet Foxes live is something I would recommend to anyone who enjoys their genre of music because hearing the members harmonize is something that really creates a higher understanding of what talent is out there. They started off their set with older songs and slowly transitioned into newer material ending with the title track off of their newest album Helplessness Blues. Robin Pecknold’s lead vocals are more than enough to give you chills and take you to a place that isn’t filled with drunk bros with laser pointers (yeah, Pitchfork attracts those guys too). Fleet Foxes, in addition to the aforementioned acts, were the perfect culmination to my favorite day at Pitchfork to date.

Friday at Pitchfork Music Festival was the perfect intro to a music filled weekend being that it was the least crowded and the weather was near perfect. I roamed my way around the grounds when I first got to Union Park around 3 PM and it was noticeable that Friday pulled in one of the youngest crowds I’ve seen at Pitchfork in a few years. I can only assume that the reason was Animal Collective because the other bands lined up seem to appeal to an older crowd in my mind.

The first act I caught was EMA which I headed into fresh and excited after hearing about her, mainly through Pitchfork media, and was interested to see what she would bring to the stage. Unfortunately, she packed light. It may have been the early time slot she was awarded but she played to a pretty weak crowd and didn’t have much, if any, stage presence. She turned out to be playing a show that I had to really force myself to get into, thinking in the back of my head that if she has gotten so much buzz then there must be something noteworthy. Instead I ended up leaving her set early finding her live vocals uninteresting and that I couldn’t get one decent photo from such a lackluster performance. I left wishing that I would have skipped her act entirely and gone straight to Gatekeeper whose performance at the Blue Stage sounded pretty awesome even from the sidelines.

Luckily, the next stage I hopped to was the Green Stage at 4:35 where Battles was playing and they had me hooked from the first note. Battles is one of the four or five bands that I’ve wanted to see ever since I started liking halfway decent music in the latter part of my high school years. Not only were they extremely entertaining to watch (Ian Williams on the coolest keyboard setup I’ve ever seen) but they sounded good, really good. They started off their set with a few numbers from their recently released album Gloss Drop but they also played to their fans with numerous numbers off of Mirrored, the album that gave them so much notoriety in 2007. If I hadn’t caught a single other act that day I would have left happy knowing that not only does Battles sound good at home blasting out of my speakers but that they can live up to that in a festival setting.

After Battles I switched it up and caught Curren$y at the Blue Stage (where the shade is the best thing ever). The thing I loved about Curren$y’s set is that he really interacted with the crowd. He started off his set by jokingly (but not jokingly) addressing the crowd with “Don’t clap for me, don’t do that shit, just light up”. It’s great that he’s able to not take himself 100% seriously and just have fun. You could tell that no one felt more comfortable performing on that stage than he did. Besides having a great demeanor he also sounded awesome. His rapping wasn’t lazy, he had a bad ass girl DJ (new life ambition for me?), and he seemed truly grateful and even surprised that such an enthusiastic crowd had come to see him.

Unfortunately the day couldn’t stay as perfect as it was seeming to be because after Curren$y had finished it was time for Das Racist. Now, not knowing much about Das Racist, but having seen how much people all over the blawgz seem to love them, I had somewhat high expectations. I mean, even Rolling Stone awarded hahahaha jk? one of the fifty best singles in 2010. About 1/8 of the way through the first song I could see that this was definitely not what I was expecting. They were drunk, way too drunk to be rapping coherently. Good thing that their rapping isn’t very coherent in the first place. Their lyrics sounded lazy and gimmicky. I understand humor and I would like to consider myself humorous, but as a musical artist you need to have at least some respect for your talent and take yourself a little bit seriously. Das Racist has gladly held tight to this title of hipster rap but, seriously, if you want to consider yourself worthwhile don’t show up to a venue, where people have paid to come see you, wasted and slurring.

James Blake saved the integrity of the Blue Stage when he played his set at 7:30. Although a music festival isn’t the ideal setting for Blake’s sound he still put on a pretty impressive performance. He started his softer tracks and slowly built up to some dance numbers. It was clear that he thought through his set list and what would be the best for the type of crowd that was coming to see him play. His voice sounded great although if I were to see him again it would probably be in a smaller more intimate venue.

Animal Collective headlined day one of Pitchfork and they maybe weren’t my favorite act of the day but they were definitely better than the last time I had seen them which was in 2008. The thing that’s fun about Animal Collective live is their stage set up. The only way to describe it would probably be underwater Halloween (wut? I know, weird, but still pretty cool). They played a solid set with Pandabear on drums but unfortunately he was hidden by some sort of paper-mache iceberg, really the only member you could see clearly was Avey Tare so if you’re one of those people that needs to see the band up close then this might not have been the show for you. Regardless, the overall ambiance of their set was the perfect closing act for the day.