CONTEST HAS ENDED!

Troubador, Will Oldham (aka: Bonnie “Prince” Billy) has performed and released albums under various different pseudonyms including, Palace and Palace Music. His music is beautiful and honest; so honest that, at times, some may even consider it vulgur. His fans vary as much as his monikers, which may be explained through his range of collaborations. Oldham has released musical projects with Tortoise and David Berman (Silver Jews) and has even featured vocals from film director Harmony Korine on his albums.

THE PRIZE
I am giving away 2 free tickets to the following performance
Thursday, March 26
The Moore Theatre
Seattle

TO ENTER:
The contest will focus around the title of Bonnie Prince Billy‘s latest release “BEWARE” and entrants will need to submit their best idea for a warning label or clever piece of life advice.

The contest will close on midnight Sun. March 22nd.
All entries will need to be posted on contest page.
Entries will be judged on creativity.

To Enter CLICK HERE

Popularity: 4% [?]

(To read part 1 about the N8 Van Dyke art show CLICK HERE)

I was surprised to get a call from my friend John telling me that he was having trouble getting tickets, earlier that day.  I saw Kool Keith at the exact same location (Neumos) about 5 years ago and I didn’t have any issue buying tickets at the door.  Unless everybody went out and bought the “Grandma’s Boy” soundtrack, I’m at a loss as to why Keith‘s popularity would have skyrocketed since then.  I did hear that they stepped up the advertising for this show, which would make sense, but the major consensus seemed to be that people just really wanted to see “Kool” Keith Thornton “battle himself on stage“.

Keith‘s latest release, Dr. Dooom 2, is a sequel to 1999′s First Come First Served; also released under the Dr. Dooom Moniker.  Rocking a phony strap-on beard and pushing the “Funky Redneck” pseudonym, DJ/Producer Kutmasta Kurt is back to collaborate with his old friend for this follow up, as well.  Much like the first Dr. Dooom effort, part 2 has a strong emphasis on killing off Dr. Octagon, arguably Thornton‘s most “successful” persona.  The first video released for the album is for a song called “R.I.P. Dr. Octagon” and, like the subsequent video for “Take That Ride“, it has a really nice, grimy 1970s horror film look to it and the track is solid.  The tour itself has been promoted as “Dr. Dooom VS Dr. Octagon“, which further helped to fuel the idea that Thornton‘s personas would, somehow, be going head to head in a lyrical battle in front of the crowd that night. (more…)

Popularity: 4% [?]

Heath Ledger killed the Joker (ha-ha). Everyone is concerned with originality and ownership. But c’mon folks, “Why so serious?”. If the ending results of an idea are more crisp and refreshed under new and loving inspiration, then I welcome them. Is this the case for The Gene Ween Band?  What?

“The Gene Ween Band is a side project of Aaron Freeman of Ween” says their official MySpace.

Aaron “Gene Ween” Freeman, Dave Dreiwitz, Scott Metzger, and Joe Russo is the official band roster.   A dream team of some of indie/jam rock’s finest are the meat in this gumbo, branded with the Boognish seal of “WEEN”.  Does this overshadow the “Gene” & “Band” aspects?  Many will expect the universe.  Many will naysay. (more…)

Popularity: 6% [?]

The interview below was conducted by one of our newest writers, Dr. Radical, back in November during Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX.  We had hopes of posting it earlier, however, Dr. Radical was struck by a vehicle which held the transcription time back a bit.  He is fully recovered and we are pleased to provide his first work for the site to you now.  We feel that he did a tremendous job.  He didn’t come away with any current photos of the group so I contacted The DM vocalist Rodney Anonymous to see if he had any available.  He didn’t seem to know where they were located and responded by saying the following in an email:

“Can’t you just use a picture of the Jonas Brothers…or porn?“

Hence, the header photo.  All other images featured are courtesy of  photographer Nina Sabatino (aka: Dean Clean’s sister).  More of her work can be viewed through her Flickr account by clicking here.

Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoy it.

-Dead C (more…)

Popularity: 9% [?]

Much like they did with their reunion announcement, Phish non-challantly posted the above video featuring skywriting over the live favorite “Punch You in The Eye” this morning, to inform fans of their intentions for their 2009 Summer Tour.  You will notice that there are no West Coast show dates as of yet but, we expect them to hit up this side of the country in the fall.  “Why?” you ask.  Because it makes sense based on their history and track records.  That and because I don’t have it in me to travel the distances that I used to and risk being incarcerated.

The following photo and information is taken directly from Phish.com: (more…)

Popularity: 5% [?]

Back at the Evergreen State College, hip-hop with a message was huge in the 1990′s.  Blackstar, the group that Mos Def formed with Talib Kweli, was blasted out the dorms heading into the new millennium.  Mos Def (aka Dante Smith) has released a few albums since his popularity of the late 90s, but he has also been busy with making his share of films in Hollywood.

Take a trip to Netflix or imdb and you’ll find out that Mos Def is a fairly prolific actor who studied film at NYU back in the early 90′s.  He also appeared in “The Hard Way” with Michael J Fox (1991) and starred on the short lived “Cosby Mysteries” (1994) but, what really caught my eye was the “Hip Hopera“, “Carmen“, which was produced by MTV in 2001.  I remember watching MTV pump the musical like it was the sequel to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller“.  The latest Destiny’s Child video, “Survivor“, was even set to premiere after the television “masterpiece“.  Well, the music sucked and, although Mos Def did a good job, he couldn’t save this poorly conceived idea to make the modern day version of “Carmen“.  It was like a generic time capsule of the early 21^st century rap music videos as a long form musical.  What I did enjoy was the MC’s work on “The Dave Chapelle Show“.  It felt magical and his performances were awesome.

2004 was a good year for Mos Def musically.  He released the critically acclaimed album, The New Danger, which featured the band Black Jack Johnson. Even though it was not a straight hip hop record, it brought Bad Brains and Living Colour together and that, alone, is pretty sweet.  In this coming year the rapper is scheduled to come out with a new CD, but it is more likely that a new Mos Def movie or television program will hit the streets before that project is released.  Smith’s ex-wife, Alana Wyatt, recently wrote a tell-all book about him, which makes some scandalous accusations about the artist, who prides himself on being “conscious“.  I have not read it, but I’m sure it was made to exploit the character and career of the performer by someone that could never have created masterpieces like 1999′s “Black on Both Sides” and 2007′s “Be Kind Rewind“.  With his latest release being the film “Cadillac Records” and, without a new record out in stores to promote, it seems as if Mos Def will simply go on tour for the hell of it.  This time through, I was able to catch Mos live at The Moore Theatre to see what his current stage show was all about. (more…)

Popularity: 3% [?]