Photo via David Bartholow of Gorilla Vs. Bear Right now, my brain feels like washed up kelp. So it goes when you’re up till 4:00 a.m. scrawling reviews about Thom Yorke and Flying Lotus doing a surprise set together at your favorite spot. Thanks to the Head Radio, the Low End has been vouchsafed  as […]

Photo via Austin Surreal Abe Beame is always cooking up something marvelous. What a difference a year and two critically acclaimed mixtapes make. Last June, Big K.R.I.T. had some buzz going — but not enough to save him from famously being booed off stage for attempting to perform “Country Shit” at a Jay Electronica/Joell Ortiz […]

We’ll never be able to forget the 90s. Even if we ever eradicate the cult of Cobain, VH1 will mercilessly bludgeon us until the dialogue from Reality Bites is finally memorized without a glitch. Ricardo “Speedboat” Rozay will continue to keep the memory of MC Hammer alive and well on the obese and ursine front […]

  “I’ve been afraid to release Act II because I feel like it’s not gonna be good enough. I know the people expect so much from me. — Jay Electronica on Aug. 9th, via Twitter for the iPad Jay Electronica has no one to blame but himself. During his sold-out Key Club appearance last week, […]

Photos by Henry Choi The jokes are obvious. Gerontollapalooza was my best attempt. Nor are they necessarily unwarranted. When the only 80s baby on the bill is Wiz Khalifa, it doesn’t inspire confidence in the temperature of hip-hop. Had Guerilla Union wanted to they could’ve assembled a powerhouse undercard of Gibbs, Pill, Danny Brown, Blu, […]

  Aaron Matthews did not accept the Souls of Mischief’s invitation to high tea. Following the meteoric rise of NWA and Dr. Dre, gangsta rap and G-Funk owned West commercial airwaves. Of course, there were alternatives like the Good Life Café, where the jazz-inspired Freestyle Fellowship and The Pharcyde got their start (also where a […]

Disco Vietnam approves of pharmacists, street or otherwise.   If it ain’t raw it’s worthless. Ted Leo’s forthcoming album and first for Matador, The Brutalist Bricks, takes its title from the post-World War II architectural style known as brutalism, which incorporated raw concrete to construct buildings with “striking repetitive angular geometries.” If Leo and his […]

Everyone compares In Living Color to Chappelle’s Show for the same reductive reason: they both featured talented African-American comedians performing topical sketch comedy to the delight of millions. But more than just the superficial racial parallel,  both transcended merely skewering culture icons to wholly re-contextualizing them. Try listening to “Superfreak” without thinking of “I’m Rick […]

Between Randall Roberts’ West Coast Sound post and Reed Johnson’s Pop and Hiss post, you’ll find plenty of specifics, plus pictures. Besides, if you missed Femi Kuti, Santogold, and Saadiq last Sunday, you either live outside Southern California or you’re a huge fan of Million Dollar Password. In other news, Regis Philbin is alive? Who knew. […]

The slender hippie wearing jeans and an aloof gesture, was replaced by a crisp suit and the makings of a middle-aged gut. But as the third installment of the Timeless series proved, Arthur Verocai’s music continues to wield an indelible power that will ensure survival until we’re watching music holograms in our own private hyperbolic […]