Read The Lastest Music News/Reviews

Ghost at Webster Hall earlier this month (more by Greg Cristman)

Sweden's favorite Satan-loving rockers Ghost B.C., who recently toured North America in support of their new album, Infestissumam, released one of that album's Japan-only bonus tracks onto the internet this week. The bonus track is a very Ghost-ian cover of Depeche Mode's "Waiting For The Night" from their Violator album. It's not the first time Ghost covered an entirely non-metal song.

Check it out below...

Continue reading "listen to Ghost cover Depeche Mode's "Waiting for the Night"" at brooklynvegan

Rap game Spanish inquisition?

Influential New York radio station Hot97 today grilled polarizing rapper RiFF RAFF and asked him the questions many have been wanting to throw his way since he burst onto the scene. Station veteran Ebro, clearly not a fan of the Houston-born rapper’s chosen path, told RiFF RAFF that to him the rapper’s persona was a big problem, saying ”It looks to me like a stereotype of a certain type of black person”.

RiFF RAFF defended himself at length, and without giving too much away about his background (he’s been notably mysterious for some time now) he seemed to eventually get the trio of interviewers at least partially on-side, noting that he represented a desire to “have fun and not have nothing negative around me at all times”.

To be fair the grilling is a little insistant and definitely pushes into mean spirited territory at times, with Ebro basically throwing the same accusation at RiFF RAFF for the interview’s twenty-odd minute duration, but it makes for interesting viewing, and offers discussion on a question many of us have no doubt pondered.

We’ll leave you with this choice quote from RiFF RAFF: “I don’t like being around humans.” – make of that what you will.

Trail of Dead at BV-SXSW 2011 (more by Chris Gersbeck)

This summer, Austin indie rock vets ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead will be heading out on a tour with Austin indie rock newcomers Ume surrounding Trail of Dead's appearance at Pitchfork Music Festival. That tour hits the NYC-area for a show on July 23 at Maxwell's. Tickets for that show go on sale today (5/24) at noon.

All dates are listed, along with the video for the title track of Trail of Dead's 2012 LP, Lost Songs, below...

Continue reading "Trail of Dead touring with Ume this summer (dates)" at brooklynvegan

When Gucci Mane cranks out way more (excellent) free music than anyone could reasonably be expected to process, it might seem a bit weird when he makes a new mixtape and actually asks people to pay for it. But Gucci’s new Trap House III is probably the best of the many full-lengths he’s released this year, and it’s definitely the weirdest, full of bizarre little synthy circus fanfares and convoluted singsong rhyme schemes. It’s the first tape Gucci’s made since his recent split with Waka Flocka Flame, and replacing Flocka’s anarchic energy, we’ve got sly earwormy sing-raps from Atlanta up-and-comers like Yung Thug and Rich Homie Quan, which makes for an intriguing switch. If Gucci was giving this one away for free, it’d be a lock for Mixtape Of The Week next week. As it is, $6 doesn’t seem like too much to ask. But judge for yourself; Trap House III is streaming below.

Read More...

On June 15, Soundcrash are bringing a seismic bill of dub-heavy noisemakers to London’s KOKO.

Kevin Martin’s remarkable will perform as The Bug, with Flowdan and Daddy Freddy joining him for the occasion. Bad Company graduate dBridge will up the bpm, and DMZ hero Mala will be on site as well. UK dub legend Mad Professor will round out the bill.

With the show fast approaching, FACT are giving away an assortment of tickets and goodies. The winner will bag group tickets (x5) to the KOKO show, plus two copies of The Bug’s 2008 LP London Zoo and a copy of the ‘Hardcore Lover’ 7″. To be in with a chance of winning, send an email through to competitions@thevinylfactory.com, including your name, telephone number and the words ‘The Bug’ in the title field.

Tickets and further information are available here. A teaser video for the night is available to watch below.

Digital love.

Daft Punk‘s world-beating single ‘Get Lucky’ has already broken Spotify’s first-day streaming record, at this point nudging towards a mammoth thirty million plays, and it  looks like the French duo’s full-length Random Access Memories is on its way to go even further.

The album has already reset the Spotify record for first day streaming, and now it looks like it’s set to grab the record for most first week streams, nudging out current top-spot holder Babel by folkie types Mumford & Sons.

Random Access Memories has had an incredible run this last few weeks, and while the music itself is still like Marmite to some fans, it at least seems to be pushing people to actually take a proper listen and see what the fuss is about. FACT’s Tom Lea reviewed the album here. [via The Next Web]

If you like your hip-hop laid back to the point of being horizontal, Digable Planets will likely already have pride of place on your hard drive.

Consisting of Ishamel ‘Butterfly’ Butler, Craig ‘Doodlebug’ Irving and Mary Ann ‘Ladybug’ Vieira, plus touring DJ Silkworm (who would later come into his own as King Britt), Digable Planets were a major force in the early 1990s alt.rap scene. 1993 debut Reachin’ (A New Refutation Of Time And Space), notable for smash ‘Rebirth Of Slick’, laid poker-faced rhymes over backing tracks schooled in cool jazz and Grant Green. 1994′s Blowout Comb saw them expand their palette, bringing in the likes of Guru and Jeru The Damaja into the fold and beefing up their sound considerably.

The group split soon after, although they reunited in various permutations throughout the 2000s. After a period in the wilderness, Butler’s career has also had a second lease of life: trading as Palaceer Lazaro, he’s the mastermind behind critically feted wyrd-rap unit Shabazz Palaces.

Light In The Attic – home to recent reissues of PiL’s First Issue and the Searching For Sugar Man OST – will handle an expanded Blowout Comb reissue. Following on from this year’s repress of D’Angelo’s Voodoo, sub-label Modern Classics will put out the record next week. Blowout Comb...

Available on: From the Rib LP

Eleven years since Eve-Olution Eve returns with Lip Lock, her mere fourth album since 1999 and what the Philly-born Ruff Ryder has called her most honest work to date. After Interscope repeatedly delayed, then shelved her last full-length Here I Am, Lip Lock presents itself not as the remnants of what Here I Am once was but a well-executed reminder of what Eve always has been

Channel your Pretty Young Thug on this new collection of Lil B-themed garb. 

The Fader have snouted out fashion student Isabel Simpson-Kirsch, currently studying at NY design school Parsons. As part of her thesis, Simpson-Kirsch has used Lil B as the main design motif in a new fashion line. The title? ‘Based’, of course.

The portfolio includes everything from boxer shorts to platform shows to full-length dresses. According to Simpson-Kirsch, Lil B has been a crucial point of inspiration throughout her scholarly endeavours:

“Junior year at Parsons is so hard– that’s when everybody drops out. Lil B helped me through it. Being Based and positive got me through it. And this summer, I was like, the only way I can come back and do this thesis is if it really comes from my heart.”

This being a uni project, there doesn’t appear to be any plan for a commercial release as yet (although we’re sure Ms. Simpson-Kirsch has probably had more than a few offers). Selected highlights from the range are below.

Following one of 2012′s best songs was always going to be a tall order, especially when you were the band responsible; ‘Wings‘ served its purpose, by soaring above the clouds of its dream-pop competitors to the top of the pile.

Perhaps its stand-out quality explains why HAERTS have taken over half a year to unveil their second offering. The Brooklyn-based, cosmopolitan quintet may not have reached the dizzy heights of their previous effort, but this new track is nevertheless bursting with Nini Fabi’s stunning vocal, a shuffling rhythm and joyful build-ups that possess that unique power-ballad ability to force a smile on your face.

Welcome the return of HAERTS, who have succeeded where so many fail in following a vastly-buzzed debut; stream ‘All The Days’ below.