This week was only 7 days long, yet I have 11 excellent posts to rewind today! It’s been a great week for music news! Before I get right down to the nitty gritty, I want to throw out a juicy tidbit of info that I have been mulling over. For awhile now, I have been wanting to move this site to its own domain. It needs to happen at some point, and I want to do it before this site builds up too far. The only huge difference you will notice by coming to this site, is that the posts on the front page will be teasers. You know, the kind that cut off after a paragraph and you have to click the “Read More” to see the entire post. Well, clicking that read more will take you to the full post on the new site. All other buttons on this site will remain active, with internal links pointing to the new site. The biggest difference for RSS subscribers will be that you might need to subscribe to a new feed so that you can continue to get the full posts in your email or feed reader. I will post an announcement when the feed changes.

So just be watching for the switch! And with that out of the way, on to this week’s REWIND! Just remember, this is by no means all the posts for the week. This is merely a roundup of some of the better stories that deserve to be highlighted. The biggest news stories of the week often do not get mentioned here. To see the rest of this week’s news, simply head to the home page and work your way backwards through time. Either way you choose your adventure, HAVE FUN!

My absolute favorite post of the entire week is about the Young@Heart Chorus:

Rockin On Heaven’s Door

These senior citizens are not just sitting around waiting for senility. They are actively embracing it with Rock N Roll attitude! If you look at nothing else this week, definitely watch the video on that post….

Righteous Hip Hop From Rawkus Records

This post brings us all the way back to the beginning of the week, but I wanted to feature it right away. Mr. J Medeiros has taken a detour from his work with The Procussions and has completed a solo album, Of Gods And Girls. It’s not due out until July 16th, but I will be interviewing Mr. Medeiros on Tuesday. I would be happy to include any thoughtful questions from you, so use the comments box under that post if you have any. Read that post, then ask questions, see? This is your big chance! I will post the interview results on Wednesday or Thursday.

Replicating Bjork

Bjork is a universe unto herself. I imagine her as having her own language and her own technology that she runs on faerie magic. I have thought of her making faeries dance on electronic circuits and the result of their dance steps is what we call Bjork music. Well, an article written by her tech director of 10 years, Alan Pollard, completely dispels this notion. She uses all the same fancy hardware and software that other majors in the music industry use and it’s his job to fit it all onto her laptop for tours. If you like to read about that kind of thing, click over to this post for a great profile on the backend of Bjork’s mischief. Also in this post is a link to Dummy mag which is a brilliant color glossy magazine that you read online. It has a mess of great artists featured, and one of them is Bjork looking especially impish, and well, 5 years old. Check it out if you like all things Bjork.

Manic M.I.A.

M.I.A. is still an epileptic’s worse nightmare. She launched an updated website design that probably physically hurt the person who made it, yet has valuable information contained within. Maybe just wear your stunner shades to view it. The big M.I.A. news this week is her new “Boyz” video complete with its own behind the scenes footage. Jump into this post to watch the videos. In the Bjork post ^^ it’s announced that M.I.A. will open 2 Bjork concerts- the ones in Nimes France.

Rockin Fratellis Retain Self-Respect

The Fratellis turned down Golden Balls Beckham in a bold move to retain their self-respect. The result won them the respect and adoration of many newly-impressed fans… Fratellis 1 Beckham 0

Beastie Boys Returning To Root Down

The punk/jazz thing was a return their roots, so this is back to the b-boy thing. Either way, the Beastie Boys have announced a hip hop revival and a small US tour. The rest of the summer will see the trio switching between drums and drummachines. Maybe it’s a midlife crisis thing. US tour dates behind the jump.

Rockin Robot Flick

Speaking of coming to the US, Daft Punk’s android movie, Electroma, will finally be screened in N. America. Unfortunately, not many places will host the rare, short film. LA and Miami are the only US stops. Miami? Jump in to see more info plus a teaser video.

Reduce Reuse Recycle and ROCK!

I’m actually just jumping all over the past with this REWIND, in no particular order. Here is some particularly great news for NYC: Brooklyn Vegan has teamed up with Solar 1 to create this year’s Citysol event! July12-15th, you can learn how to be more green, qualify for free beer, rock out to wicked bands like Les Savy Fav, and check out super cool art installations. Jump to this post for more info on this excellent event that is entirely solar and biodiesel powered. A big thank you to Brooklyn Vegan for participating!

Restriction Free Music!

EMI is still turning the music industry and RIAA upside down with its DRM-free catalog. In addition to the Apple iChoons store and Amazon’s upcoming music venture, EMI have now added their restriction-free digital downloads to PassAlong which also oversees online stores such as fyi. The best part is that PassAlong will carry 320kbps mp3s which is a higher bit-rate encoding, which means a higher quality download, and better product.

Retired? Not yet!

Wiley is having quite a retirement party, and there is no sign of it slowing down any time soon. His send-off album is out now, and I bet it’s already had some subwoofers working overtime! He has a new video out now for the song “Mistakes” and is having a record release party in London this week. So, I have 2 links instead of one for this last installment:
Grime and Dubstep Parties – which includes some Mary Anne Hobbs curated events, Skream, Vex’d, Ben Sharpa & Konfab, and many more. Plus, the Wiley retirement party I mean record release party with JME, Boy Better Know types rollin deep.
“Mistakes” video – the latest off of Playtime Is Over.

A’ight, that’s all folks. Jump in and have fun. Fresh news comin atchya tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

This week’s news is brought to you by the letter R

Glastonbury music festival descends upon the English countryside on Friday June 27th. The full lineup is absolutely insane, I can see how this is the biggest rock festival in the UK. Over 200 bands fill the lineup, and a press release states that over 177,000 people are expected to attend! Since I can’t possibly fit the full lineup here, I’ll give you one serious tease instead. In addition to the many stages already announced, I just discovered today that BBC Radio 1 has added their own stage to the festival. The additional lineup includes Tigerstyle, JME, and Ben Sharpa.

BBC Radio Stage Added To Glastonbury:

Friday 22 June

3:00 Jag (BBC Asian Network)
4:00 Tigerstyle (BBC Asian Network)
5:00 Riff Raff (BBC Radio 1)
6:05 Broke’N'£nglish (BBC 1Xtra)
7:10 Riz MC (BBC Asian Network)
8:15 JME (BBC 1Xtra)
9:20 Breaking The Illusion (BBC Radio Humberside)
10:25 Tor (BBC 1Xtra)

Saturday 23 June

3:00 Ben Sharpa (BBC Radio 1)
4:00 How’s My Pop (BBC Radio Lancashire)
5:00 New Cassettes (BBC Radio Northampton)
6:05 OK Tokyo (BBC Radio Berkshire)
7:10 The Ting Tings (BBC Radio Manchester)
8:15 Headliners (BBC Radio Sheffield)
9:20 The Neon Plastix (BBC Radio Sheffield)
10:25 The Ripps (BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire)

Sunday 24 June

3:00 Cate Le Bon (BBC Radio Wales)
4:00 Sam Isaac (BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester)
5:00 Eugene McGuinness (BBC Radio 1)
6:05 Rose Kemp (BBC Radio Bristol)
7:10 A Silent Film (BBC Radio Oxford)
8:15 Doll & the Kicks (BBC Southern Counties Radio)
9:20 Pint Shot Riot (BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire)
10:25 Radio Luxembourg (BBC Radio Cymru Wales)

More info on the BBC Radio Introducing Stage.

Glastonbury Partial Lineup:

Friday 22nd June 2007

Bjork
Arctic Monkeys
Spiritualized – Acoustic Mainline
Aliens
M.I.A.
Kasabian
The Fratellis
Bloc Party
Amy Winehouse
Gogol Bordello
Arcade Fire
Squarepusher
Rufus Wainwright
Super Furry Animals
Bright Eyes
Modest Mouse
Hot Chip
Maccabees
Mum Ra
Hold Steady
The New Pornographers
Tokyo Police Club
Neds Atomic Dustbin
Tarantism

Saturday 23rd June

Steven Marley with guest Damian Marley
Iration Steppas
Fat Freddy’s Drop
Daddy G
Mad Professor
Vexd
Scotch Egg Band (Drumize)
Shitmatt
Bong Ra
The Killers
The Kooks
Ganga Giri
Paul Weller
Paolo Nutini
Lily Allen
Dirty Pretty Things
The Pipettes
Iggy And The Stooges
Editors
Maximo Park
Gruff Rhys
Babyshambles
Klaxons
CSS
The Long Blondes
The Twang
Get Cape Wearcape Fly
Patrick Wolf
You Say Party We Say Die
Holy Fuck
Four Tet with Eat Your Own Ears DJs
!!!
Ozric Tentacles
Bonde Do Role

Sunday 24th June

The Who
Kaiser Chiefs
Coldcut
Manic Street Preachers
James Morrison
Marley Brothers Present The 30th Anniversary Of Exodus
The Chemical Brothers
Vitalic
Carl Cox
Pendulum Live
The View
The Go! Team
Pete Doherty
Mika
The Rakes
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly
Coldwar Kids
Mark Ronson
The Horrors
Noisettes
Aqualung
Eatstatic
Dub Pistols

For the entire lineup go to the Glastonbury site.
BBC also has a feature-packed page to keep you fully informed right up to the day of the fest itself.
Here is another article that discusses the details necessary to pull off an event of this size, like the £1mil “super fence” built last year to keep out fans who didn’t have tickets. Previous fences were not capable of keeping out thousands of fans who jumped in…

LINKS

JME on mice bass
Ben Sharpa on mice bass
BBC Radio Glastonbury page
Glastonbury Festival website

Related Music News On HearingTest

Tigerstyle
Sharpa, JME, live shows, grime and left field events
M.I.A. Opening For Bjork In France

Bonnaroo is being streamed live right now until midnight tonight! AT&T’s Blue Room has a live webcast of the whole show, all weekend long. Here’s what is still coming up-

Tonight’s Bonnaroo Schedule:

06:15 PM Gillian Welch
07:45 PM The Nightwatchman
09:00 PM Lily Allen
10:00 PM The Roots

Times are CST (GMT -6)
Now before you run over there, let me just say up front that it wanted me to click to upgrade my Windows Media Player. Next it put something in my temp file that had something to do with Windows DRM licensing. Does anybody know what this is about? I am completely not cool with anything that has DRM, so I almost didn’t report this. But I wanted to use this post as an opportunity to get feedback from you. What happens when you try to watch this? Do you know what Windows DRM is on your computer? Does anyone know how to disable it? Any info you have would be much appreciated. For those who could care less about WinDRM and want to get on with the FREE webcast, here is the lineup for the rest of the weekend:

June 16th Lineup
12:45 PM Old Crow Medicine Show
01:45 PM Spearhead
02:15 PM Regina Spektor
03:30 PM The Black Keys
04:15 PM Damien Rice
05:45 PM Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
07:45 PM The Hold Steady
08:15 PM Mago: Billy Martin & John Medeski
09:45 PM TBA
10:15 PM String Cheese Incident

June 17th Lineup
12:30 PM Robert Glasper Trio
01:00 PM John Butler Trio
02:00 PM The Flaming Lips
03:00 PM Bob Weir & Ratdog
04:30 PM Wolfmother
05:30 PM Wilco
07:15 PM The White Stripes
08:45 PM Widespread Panic

White Stripes Live Webcast

Missed Bonnaroo, don’t Live in LA or NYC, but wish you could see The White Stripes perform live? How about from Icky Thump Records on the Strip? Well, you can watch the performance as it is broadcast live from AT&T’s Blue Room. The show starts at 8pm PST on wednesday June 20th. Don’t miss Jack and Meg on stage at Bonnaroo on Sunday the 17th! (That show is also being webcast live in the Blue Room, just go to the Bonnaroo page on Sunday)

WEBCAST LINKS

The White Stripes in the Blue Room.
Bonnaroo Live Webcast
Blue Room Home – pretty cool place for live streams.

More White Stripes Reports

White Stripes news on HearingTest

The Beasties have added another London show to their huge tour:

9/6 London, UK Camden Roundhouse

Tickets go on sale to the public Friday, June 15th at 10:00am.

Click over to the Beastie Boys news page for info to get tix.

Brrrup! Another sizzling Wiley video! Feel the beat drop in “Mistakes.” This tune is heartfelt and dare I say with conscious lyrics. Reminds me just a likkle bit of Dizzee’s “Brand New Day” from Boy In Da Corner, when he was still under Eski-boy’s wing.

“Mistakes” video in high quality mov format

or watch it from youTube:

Wiley also released Tshirts today with his name sprayed in white across the chest. They would sure look hot on some fellas. Get one from the Ninja Tune Shop. And, yes, Wiley is even playing the Dour Festival in Belgium on July 13th. I still need a ticket to that if anyone has an extra! (I also need a plane ticket if anybody has a wad of bills they want to donate! Just email me.)

Also on the Big Dada horizon, they have a 10th Anniversary album coming out called Big Dada Best Bits. It’s scheduled for release in September and I will have more details on that over the summer. In the meantime, check out Big Dada’s download page. There are even some FREE mp3s on there. For you.

WILEY LINKS

Eski Space
Wicked likkle Wiley player that you can embed on your blog/myspace/MOG/ what have you. Plays Wiley videos and songs!
Big Dada website
Download Playtime Is Over From BLEEP.com
All things Wiley on HearingTest

Welcome to the premier edition of HT-Rewind! Issue 001!

The Greatest Hits from the first week of June:

Drones Of The Dour – Sunn O))), Wolf Eyes, Wolves In The Throneroom, Merzbow, Weedeater Shows

Sunn O))) announced a string of West Coast US shows with the incredibly talented Wolves In The Throneroom bringing furious black metal along and Southern Lord label mates Weedeater. Sunn O))) also announced that they will play the Super Sonic Fest in UK alongside Mogwai and Miasma, as well as the Dour Festival with previous tour mates Wolf Eyes plus Merzbow and Wilco.

Sunn O))) To Release Oracle On Vinyl

Sunn O))) also announced that they will be releasing Oracle on vinyl. Brainwashed got a hold of the cd and has reviewed it with samplage.

Digitized – Bob Marley’s Exodus Gets A Futuristic Release

Exodus turns 30 this year, and to celebrate Island will be reissuing the entire album on USB stick, Micro SD, deluxe cd, cd, and vinyl. The first 3 come with video footage of Bob Marley and the Wailers performing live in London in 1977. The vinyl will be reissued as an exact replica of its first release.

Dope New 50/50 Video From Wiley!

Eski Boy makes a smokin video for “50/50″ from his upcoming Playtime Is Over and HearingTest has the links to a crystal clear mov format. It positively sparkles, and comes rumbling out of the subwoofers! In addition to the vid, the sweet fellas over at Big Dada have sent us a link to where you can get your own Wiley player. It’s sweet too, I wish I could show you here, but WordPress does not allow embedding of players other than a few like yT. But trust me, go check it out, it has the video for “50/50″ plus audio for “Gangsters” and “Bow E3″. It’s a clever likkle device -
www.bigdada.com/wileyplayer/

December ATP – Portishead, Aphex Twin, Earth, Julian Cope And More

Yep, all those folks are on the lineup. What isn’t obvious from the beginning of this report is that the second part features an album review by Julian Cope for one of the most amazing dark ambient metal bands – Sacrificial Totem. The album that Cope reviewed is Hurqalya which can be found on Katabatik. All fans of ambient noise, ambient metal, and atmospheric sonic storytelling should definitely check this out. Katabatik releases albums and hosts concerts with bands who create unique sonic experimentations. Their catalogue ranges from experimental electronica to IDM to ambient, metal, ragtime, and glitch-core. Definitely a fine resource of music.

NME Offers Free White Stripes Record In Magazine This Week

A limited edition red vinyl picture disc of “Rag And Bone” from the White Stripes’ upcoming Icky Thump was included in this week’s issue of NME. More info and pictures in the report.

Download – Matt Shadetek Releases His BBC Mix

MO FIRE! MO BASS!! Bo! This mix is the shizzle! If you haven’t already, go get this mix NOW! Killer tunes, mostly original stuff and remixes from the likes of Matt Shadetek, Drop The Lime, Plastician etc. Originally mixed for BBC’s Mary Anne Hobbs show, this is the first time its been available for download, and it’s FREE! If you like what you hear, show your love and buy some vinyl and keep it spinning!

Glen E Friedman Releases Fugazi Photos

Another fantastic picture book from the super talented Friedman. This report has links to where you can find other books by Friedman on Burning Flags Press.

Blue Scholars Video For “Back Home” From Bayani

The song rules, the video rules. Go check it out. It’s about bringing our troops home to their families where they belong.

Dragons Exist And So Do Ninjas

Ninja Tunes found a rare master tape from 1970 of psychedelic surf rock by the Dragons. Dennis Dragon is known for his work composing soundtracks for 1970’s skate films, surf films, ski films, and more. This is such an epic story of the Dragon Brothers and how they were just too far ahead of the music business in the 70’s. If you read nothing else, read this. Okay, maybe just this, Shadetek, and Wiley.

Whew! What a week! And this is just the highlights! ENJOY!

This week’s news is brought to you by the letter D

On Tuesday the Beastie Boys were honored with Artist of the Year at the 11th Annual Webby Awards. They received this award for their innovative idea in 2006 of incorporating user-generated content into their live concert film, notoriously known as Awesome, I F***ing Shot That. The Beastie Boys movie was compiled entirely of footage created by the audience with cameras that were distributed at the concert.

The Webby Award also chose them in part for their work and loud advocation of more flexible copyright laws and a share-alike attitude with their own music. David-Michel Davies, executive director of The Webby Awards, described the Beastie Boys’ audience interaction enthusiastically when he stated:

“From the Internet to video to music, Beastie Boys have created a totally unique, two-way relationship with their fans… They embody the kind of collaboration and exchange of ideas that the Web is all about.”

It’s true. Just check out their official website with its own page dedicated to making Beastie Boys vocal A Cappellas available for fans to create remixes. Their website also has a tour diary, a studio cam, and a blog where they post the kinds of things that they are getting kicks from, like the fantastic G.I. Joe PSA by Eric Fensler or clips from Sesame Street.

The Webby Awards have a strict 5-word acceptance speech rule, and this is how the Boys worked it:

Can anyone fix my computer?

Hint: go to the blog and watch the G.I. Joe PSA, for reals….

For more fab 1 liners, go to the Webby Awards speeches page. For more BBoys photos from the event, go to this Picture Page. Other Award winners included LonelyGirl15, Halcyon, Ask A Ninja, and many more!

LINKS

Webby Awards Main Page
More photos from 11th Annual Webby Awards Ceremony
Beastie Boys Main Page
Awesome, I F***ing Shot That

Oxjam, the Oxfam music festival, announced its preliminary lineup today. Oxjam is no ordinary show, it is an umbrella for 3,000 music events that take place in the UK in October. Oxjam is considered a movement – different musicians, artists, promoters and party people come together each year to try to raise money and awareness for Oxfam. Oxfam is a UK charity whose mission is to end poverty worldwide. So, you can see why it would take such a large event to accomplish such a HUGE goal.

The Klaxons are one of the headliners of this year’s event, and their very own James Righton describes Oxjam thus:

For us, Oxjam is the highlight of the festival season because everyone gets to make the noise themselves. The only thing more exciting than putting on your own event to help fight poverty is knowing that you’re part of a movement of thousands of gigs, club nights and events right across the country.

That’s right, Oxjam needs your help putting these events together! Each year they put out the call for musicians and promoters to organize events as part of the greater movement. And besides a feeling of accomplishment and the satisfaction that you are making the world a better place to live, you might also get featured on MTV. So, if you are in the UK or plan on being there in October, you might want to join the fun!

OXJAM Partial LINEUP 2007

Klaxons
The Kooks
DJ Shadow
Kasabian
Kaiser Chiefs
Merry Men
the Matadors
The Furze
Yer MoMMa
Lost Without Cause
The Clerks Band
The Bakery Girls
Mirno

That’s a lot of K in a lineup… 40,000 musicians total are expected to be involved, so don’t expect a full lineup from me! :) To find out more about any of these bands, and to see other bands that are involved in Oxjam 2007, go to the Mtv Oxjam page…

LINKS

Mtv Oxjam page
NME report
Oxfam website

Roll Deep Plays Live, DJ Set of Klaxons vs CSS, eLPATE + Prancehall, Team Pegah Mix
15th June Brighton

Click the image to go to the website where you can get all the details, plus enter to win a pair of free tix….

Tales Of The Jackalope announced the lineup for this summer’s event. TOTJ 2007 takes place in the “enigmatic and romantic countryside” of Kimberly Hall in South Norfolk from noon on August 4th until noon the next day.

Tales Of The Jackalope Lineup

DIZZEE RASCAL
THE FALL
2MANYDJS
ESG
UFFIE & FEADZ
THE HOURS
FUCKED UP
RUMBLESTRIPS
FOALS
SHY CHILD
CHRIS CUNNINGHAM
LATE OF THE PIER
ERRORS
DANANANANANYKROYD
XX TEENS
COMANECHI
FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE MUSIC
STRIKEN CITY
CONAN & THE MOCCASINS
EBONY BONES
THE MORE ASSURED
AUTOKRATZ
CHOW CHOW
OX.EAGLE.LION.MAN.
SHAKES
TRIM
DEAD PIXEL
MAMASHAMONE

Get all the info you need at the TOTJ website. Only 3000 people can attend, so don’t sleep!

Lots of Eski-boy goodies today! First of all, check the video for “50/50″ off the upcoming Playtime Is Over album:

50/50 Vid

Oh its just so UK dance! I love it!

The album gets dropped worldwide on June 4th, but you can get the (320kbps) mp3s of “50/50″ and “Bow E3″ from BLEEP right now. You will however have to wait to attend the album release party with Boy Better Know crew (JME, Skepta), Loefah and Illa Man all supporting the Grandfather of Grime! That will be at Cargo in London on a Thursday – June 21st. Thursday has always been my favorite day of the week. Nothing but good things happen on Thursdays. Wiley will be performing live, and for only 10 Quid you can’t afford to miss it!

If you want more Wiley, you can get your fix with the Independent Music Magazine today, he’s the adorable cover boy, same with RWD Mag, The Wire, Echoes. Next week he graces the cover of Plan B and One Week To Live. Big Smoke covers him at the end of the month. Whoo boy, good thing his face is so pleasant to look at. That’s a lot of music magazine covers to be staring out from!

Independent said this about the upcoming album:

“Playtime is Over is so important, not just to him, but to the future legacy of grime, and what it might mean in 10 years time.. Brilliantly grime, fuelled with anthems and sing-alongs and deserves to go down as his greatest work to date.”

Playtime Is Over is released on June 4th by Big Dada. You can listen to the single “Bow E3″ on their homepage.

TRACKLIST FOR Playtime Is Over

01 50/50
02 Bow E3
03 Slippin’
04 Flyboy
05 Baby Girl
06 Gangsters
07 Stars
08 Letter 2 Dizzee
09 My Mistakes
10 No Qualms
11 Johnny Was a Bad Boy
12 Nothing About Me
13 Come Lay With Me
14 Getalong Gang
15 Eski-Boy
16 Playtime’s Over

Don’t think for a New York minute that this album is going to be released in digital format only. No, these are vinyl traditionalists. You can purchase the 2x LP, the black CD, or the mp3 bundle. Your choice. It’s here on the Big Dada page for Playtime Is Over along with a great bio.

He also had a short performance on Channel 4, which you can watch here.

LINKS

Wiley’s Space Listen & Learn
BLEEP – Listen/Buy
Boomkat – Listen/Buy
BBC Review – Listen to ram
Wiki

Thanks James, Big Dada for the scoop! I haven’t been this excited about a new album in so long!!

In other grime news, Dizzee Rascal’s new single, “Sirens” hit stores this week.  BLEEP has “Sirens” as well as Dizzee’s collab with Arctic Monkeys, “Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend”. You can listen to them on BLEEP and/or order individual tracks in mp3 format. “Sirens” is from Dizzee’s upcoming album (available in the US as digital only, but available on vinyl and CD in UK and Europe) Maths + English and “Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend” is from the recently released Arctic Monkeys album Favourite Worst Nightmare which is available on CD, vinyl, and download.

Technorati Tags: Dizzee, grime, music, news, mp3, hiphop

3 artists were honored this year at the International Reggae and World Music Awards – Half Pint, Gregory Isaacs, and Doug E Fresh all took home the special Producer’s Respect Award. Half Pint has worked with King Jammy, Bobby “Digital” Dixon, Steelie & Cleevie among many other big name producers to beautifully combine the best elements of reggae and ragga music styles. The riddims feature the pounding bass beats and steppers rhythms of ragga/dancehall while Half Pint’s vocals have the uplifting positive vibrations of reggae and ska. Gregory Isaacs continues to bring soul to roots reggae music, producing hit after hit since he first took the stage in the early 70’s. Both artists are Jamaican legends due to consistently keeping a positive in rebel music. One of Half Pint’s first singles, “Winsome” was covered by the Rolling Stones in 1987. Other big hits include “Greetings” (one of my favorites!), “Freedom Fighter”, and “Level The Vibes”. Gregory Isaacs has sung absolutely amazing soulful songs such as “Night Nurse” which was remixed by Kruder & Dorfmeister into a powerful, emotional tune that will floor you if you listen to it on a good soundsystem, “Gone A Jail” which seems to be sung exclusively for Shockout Records (Oakland CA!), and “Clash”. Everything that Isaacs sings is dripping with emotion and soulful crooning…

Half Pint Lookin Sharp At The Awards

LINKS

Half Pint
official website
wiki entry

Gregory Isaacs
music$pace
wiki entry

Doug E Fresh
wiki entry

Technorati Tags: music, reggae, news, ragga, dancehall

The freshly released Reggae Festival Guide 2007 announces this non-reggae festival which I think many California readers would enjoy. The lineup includes the smoking hot Ivan Neville and Leo Nocentelli as part of the New Orleans Social Club. And on that note, Ivan Neville was AMAZING amazing amAzing last night at the MOG Anniversary party! He had 3 keyboards in a stack and looked like his was dribbling some mean bball the way his hands were bouncing. The entire band brought the N’arlins funk and heat to a starved SF scene. It was excellent, too bad if you missed it, definitely jump at any opportunity to see Ivan Neville, Zigaboo Modeliste, George Porter Junior, and Renard Poche. Like at this festival in Sonoma for example:
I don’t want to leave out any important details, so here is the script, straight from the guide:

Health and Harmony Festival

June 8, 9, 10, 2007
Sonoma County Fairgrounds

As the earth spins toward the summer solstice, people naturally feel a need to come together outside and celebrate – it’s hardwired into our instincts. Last year’s Festival was the largest and most successful ever, and just to make sure this year is even better, the Festival organizers have gone into partnership with the institution that defined concert production nationwide, Northern California’s own Live Nation (formerly Bill Graham Presents). Said Festival Director Scott McKeown, “Combining the strengths of both organizations allows us to bring to the North Bay a world-class music and lifestyle festival as has never before been seen in Northern California.” It’s an unbeatable combination.

For the first time in the festival’s substantial history, Friday will offer a full day of music and events: three days, three nights, and three Main Stages full of fun and music.

Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys), soul diva Erykah Badu, conscious hip-hop revolutionaries The Roots, Rickie Lee Jones, New Orleans Social Club (featuring Ivan Neville and the legendary Leo Nocentelli among others), and the cream of the jam band and acoustic world, including moe., Umphrey’s McGee, the Waybacks, Hot Buttered Rum, Animal Liberation Orchestra, the Mike Stern Allstars (featuring Victor Wooten of the Flecktones and Dennis Chambers along with Miles Davis guitarist Stern), Vernon Bush, New Monsoon, Common, and Sound Tribe Sector 9 lead the musical entertainment.

As always, there will be further music late at night with the “Harmony After Dark Zone,” featuring Jai Uttal, One at Last, Sheila Chandra, and Shimsai among many others. The “After Dark Zone” will be in three different venues for one modest price. Along with that, the Techno Tribal Dance, with Stanton Warrior, Shpongle, Ganga Girl, and Rabbit in the Moon among others, will go late with the very best of trance dance culture,

Of course, music is only one aspect of the 29th Harmony Festival, which will bring together many different facets of leading-edge information and approaches to healthier, more satisfying lifestyles with an amazing array of distinguished speakers, including Amy Goodman, Arianna Huffington, Edwin Black, Van Jones, and Rabbi Michael Lerner.

This year’s Festival theme is “Promoting Global Cooling.” Every conscious person is aware of the current planetary crisis, and forums, speakers, and exhibits will provide much valuable information; but the theme has a double meaning as it seeks to present an alternative, calmer worldview that seeks to cool down the currently over-heated and divisive partisan atmosphere in which these matters are being considered. Harmony means many things here, in musical, political, and spiritual terms, and the Festival is a holistic gathering that presents the most compelling advances in personal and social transformation, health, healing, ecology, art, activism, food, politics – in fact, the whole life package. It is a Party with a Purpose.

For more information visit: www.harmonyfestival.com

While there has not been any updates or changes to M.I.A.’s webpage or blog, NME.com reports that the US government has again denied her the visas necessary to step foot on american soil. This means she will be forced to cancel her appearance at the Sasquatch festival this weekend, but if she can finagle the proper paperwork in time, she will still make it to Lollapalooza, Virgin Festival, and Austin City Limits Festival. Keep your fingers crossed, but don’t hold your breath.
With the NYPD spying on hip hop artists, I don’t doubt that the customs department is aware of M.I.A.’s lyrics for “Bird Flu”:

BIG on the underground
what’s the point of knocking me down?
everybody knows

I’m already good on the ground

most of us stay strong
shit don’t really bound us
then I go on my own
making bombs with rubber bands

I have my hard down
so I need a man for romance
streets are making em hard
so they selfish little roamers
jumpin’ girl to girl
make us meat like burgers
when I get fat
I’ll pop me out some leaders

A protocol to be a Rocawear model?
it didn’t really drop that way
my legs hit the hurdle

A protocol to be a rocker on a label?
it didn’t really drop that way
our beats were too evil

but I put away paper for later so I’m stable
a better something better come
so I could get cable
ghetto pops, food drops
I store them in my stable
I cook em up , pop em down
eat me it off ya a table

The village got on the phone
said the street is comin’ to town
they wanna check my papers
see what I carry around
credentials are boring
I burnt them at the burial ground
don’t order me about
I’m an outlaw from the badland

put away shots for later
so I’m stable
live in trees chew on feet
watch lost on cable
bird flu gonna get you
made it in my stable
from the crap you drop
on my crop when they pay you.

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