This weekend I traveled back to where I grew up in Northern New Jersey to see TODD BARRY and Louis C.K. at the nearly sold out William McNeice Theatre. The theatre err…auditorium is located in Sussex County’s Vocational High School. Basically Sussex County is in the middle of nowhere with the only landmark of notoriety being the extremely dangerous water park, Action Park. Todd Barry came onto the stage simply stating “I don’t know where the fuck I am right now.” He then commented upon pulling up that he thought he was doing a show at a prison or perhaps an old steel mill. After pondering why he was there a few minutes longer, he remembered, “he was there to rip shit up.” (more…)

So this isn’t where I came from. This isn’t a New Brunswick basement show. There aren’t dudes with some second wave emo black zip up hoodie with a pin on it that signifies how cool they are by the “no-band-name-listed-just-the logo” insignia. This isn’t a hipster-neo-Joy-Division-meets-Daft-Punk wannabe band that scored an 8.2 on Pitchfork that every dude with an ironic mustache has been gushing about that’s better than Panda Bear still playing stuff that sounds like the Beach Boys but it was “way better.”

Yeah, I’m out of my element but it’s still the same.

There’s the diehards…The people waving their hands to every sway and motion with every great rhyme and sick beat that seriously is almost forcing you to shake your hips and nod your head “YES” like it was your job to make sure people in war-torn nations got their government-approved rations. It reminds me of the fist pounding to every lyric from Hot Water Music that brings you back to the feeling “Live Your Heart and Never Follow.” (more…)

Liverpool’s LADYTRON return with their new LP Velocifero (due out in June via Nettwerk). The record is the first since the critically-acclaimed Witching Hour in 2004 and was produced by Ladytron with assistance from Vicarious Bliss (Ed Banger Records) and Alessandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails).

Check out the first track from the record “Black Cat” right now. The song kicks off the album with an intense bass line and pounding drums, and features vocals in Mira Aroyo’s native Brazilian. And we’re totally digging it!

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MP3: Ladytron :: “Black Cat”

Tickets go on sale today at 10 AM PST for the inaugural Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in San Francisco, CA. The three day event will be held Friday, August 22nd through Sunday, August 24th at Golden Gate Park and features headliners Radiohead, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Jack Johnson.

Tickets are only available via the festival’s website. A portion of the ticket price will benefit the San Francisco Parks and Local Charitable Organizations. (more…)

17 years in the making, GUNS N’ ROSES Chinese Democracy has been recorded, re-recorded, and almost coming out for so long that countless bands have formed, put records out, and broken up while Axl Rose and a revolving crew of musicians and producers work on the album.

Leave it to Dr. Pepper to come to the rescue. The company has issued a press release stating that if the album is released in 2008, they’ll give a free can of their soda to everyone in America. That’s 300 million cans of Dr. Pepper. Actually, make that 299,999,998 – the offer doesn’t extend to ex-axemen Slash and Buckethead (who’s more of a KFC kinda guy, anyway). While this sounds like a publicity stunt, that’s probably because it is – but a brilliant one.

Even though this could have been done ten years ago, when the album was only seven years in the making, the publicity that Dr. Pepper has gotten from the media (not to mention blogs that didn’t exist back in the ‘90s), has been huge. In fact, word even got back to Axl himself, who apparently has an appetite for ‘da soda. He released a statement stating that he was happy to have Dr. Pepper’s support, stating that since Buckethead played on the album, he would share his Dr. Pepper with him.

So we managed to get ourselves into the secret Myspace show thrown for ANTI-FLAG. The band played a 45 minute set that was about 50% new material from their new album The Bright Lights Of America with the rest being crowd favorites. And a favorite crowd it was. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen seen that much crown surfing at the Kniting Factory. (more…)

Hey you crazy cats – maybe I’m a little late to the game on this one – but it’s abosultely brilliant.

The [absolute] geniuses at Skeyelab Music have unearthed a 1959 album from Del Close and John Brent on Mercury Records, called How to Speak Hip…and they’ve put the audio online for your listening pleasure. Y’dig?

For anyone who has ever been a fan of Jazz, Kerouac, Beatnicks, or subcultures in general – I highly recommend giving it a listen.

To Mercury (Island) Records, I have a request. Please, PLEASE – break this into tracks, put it on CD and re-release it (BUT DON’T REMASTER!! GO STRAIGHT FROM THE VINYL)!!!

The boys in WHAT MADE MILWAUKEE FAMOUS is throwing a free show in Las Vega, yes that’s right, a free show.

The band will be showing up at Deep Rock Drive on Sunday, April 6th at 4pm (pst). The show will be taped in HD for airing at a laer date.

The band is giving away 100 tickets their fans to attend the show. All you have to do is RSVP. You can get your name on the list by emailing, RSVP@deeprockdrive.com (put “RSVP for WMMF” in the subject line). You can request up to a +3.

It’s at the Deep Rock Drive studios near the Palms –
4290 Las Vegas Studio Court
Las Vegas, NV 89118

Those not in Vegas can log into Deep Rock Drive the day of the show and see it live.

Adobe has just released a beta of its new web-based photo editing software, Photoshop Express. The free service is a novice-friendly, sized-down version of its professional photo suite. It’s not nearly as powerful and versatile as the full retail version of Photoshop, but it can handle most of your imaging needs: exposure, red eye, touch-ups, etc. There are a also a number of unique features that can separate it from competitors Picnik and FotoFlexer.

The service includes 2GB of free storage, and all edits are saved but not permanent - they can be undone at any time, in any order, even something drastic like cropping. It also connects with other photo storage sites like Picasa and Photobucket and even Facebook for on-the-fly editing and seamless updating. Flickr support is on the way too. Photoshop Express may not be a replacement for an expensive photo editing suite, but it’s a great way for removing that zit from your otherwise perfect Facebook Mobile shot of you at last night’s Moby Listening Party.

SHANNON NICOLE is having a contest! Enter now, for one lucky winner will win a 1GB silver iPod shuffle pre-loaded with Shannon’s song, “Buses And Trains.”

TO ENTER:

1. Become friends with Shannon’s Myspace profile.
2. Put Shannon’s profile in the “Top Friends” section of your personal Myspace profile OR grab any of the banners on Shannon’s profile page and place them somewhere on your personal Myspace profile.*
3. E-mail a screenshot or the url of your Myspace profile to shannonnicolecontest@gmail.com and you will be entered.

THE WINNERS:
One grand prize winner, selected at random from the entries, will win the a 1GB Silver iPod shuffle pre-loaded with Shannon Nicole’s song “Buses And Trains.” The grand prize winner will also receive two shirts compliments of Sinful Clothing.

Two second-place winners will receive a complimentary MP3 of the song “Buses And Trains” emailed to them.

The contest will end on Tuesday, April 8th at 3pm est.

*Shannon’s banners/top friend must be present on your profile until the end of the contest (April 8th) for you to be eligible for the prize.

Just the other day I was thinking that I don’t see enough of B-52S frontman Fred Schneider on the robotic transportation devices known as Segways. So you can only imagine my relief when I got to lay my eyes on the band’s new video for the song “Funplex” this morning. Good ol’ Fred is zooming all around the mall on that thing. And just to add the special B-52’s touch, he added a cup holder.

“Hop on my Segway! It’s as big as a whale! And it’s about to set sail!”

I guess the only question is who pulls off the Segway better? One Fred Schneider or Gob Bluth from the tv show Arrested Development?

Now that a Sirius/XM Satellite Radio merger is one step closer to reality, you may be asking yourself logical questions about future types of programming packages and usability of older equipment. Thankfully satellite radio blog Orbicast spells it out in plain English.

Both companies have defended the possible merger as a venture that will benefit consumers, promising compatibility with existing radios and more flexible pricing and programming choices, including a delicious a la carte option. We break down the post-merger choices for you after the break. (more…)