RJD2
The Metro – Chicago, IL
3.13.2010

DH: Do you have any surprises coming up for your US tour?
RJD2: Oh yes! The show starts off with a big one.

Well, RJD2 certainly wasn’t lying when a space creature from a foreign land stepped onto The Metro stage. The space farer “Commissioner Crotchbuttons” promised no harm would fall amongst us Earthlings joining him as he proceeded to beat on a drum machine located firmly where the alien’s crotch should be. Giving us a tour of his alien hardware, the Commissioner gave us a brief demo of what was to come later on in the night.

After a few well placed electro-thrusts, the foreigner unveiled himself to be the master DJ…
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Black Eyed Peas
Bradley Center – Milwaukee, WI
March 11, 2010

“Boom Boom Pow is my freakin’ style,” rapped will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas last Thursday night in Milwaukee. “What up Lexie? I know you’re lookin’ sexy.” The mastermind songwriter and producer behind the Black Eyed Peas spent a good five minutes freestyling alone on stage while reading off of the two jumbotron video screens hanging down on either side of the stage. The Black Eyed Peas vocalist/rapper was getting his ideas and cues from various BlackBerry Messenger texts rolling up the screens sent in from BBM-using fans in the audience. Putting aside the obvious fact that BlackBerry is the official sponsor of the BEP’s The E.N.D World Tour, it was pretty amazing to witness will.i.am coming up with rap verses on the spot while a steady beat played through the Bradley Center’s PA system. That man has some serious skills. This awesome display of talent was only the beginning of what would become an almost two-hour long outrageously entertaining concert from the Black Eyed Peas.

More photos of the Black Eyed Peas after the jump…

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MONEYPENNY

New Mixtape & SXSW Show Schedule
Moneypenny & Friends SXSW Mixtape download below
Wednesday, March 17 (LIVE SET) ASCAP Showcase @ Dirty Dog
505 E. 6th St | 12:15am

Thursday, March 18 (DJ SET) Matt E. Silver Presents party @ The Phoenix
409 Colorado St | 12:45am

Friday, March 19 (DJ SET) “It’s Chicago” party @ The Lodge
411 E. 6th St | 11:20pm
download mixtape

Moneypenny is an alluring female electro pop duo born from Chicago’s burgeoning Nu-Indie scene and poised to pop in 2010. Though the group has yet to officially release any music, they’ve licensed three songs to ABC, played Lollapalooza and performed at key tastemakers events in LA, SF, New York and Chicago. They’ve opened for acts like Robyn, La Roux, and Chromeo and have their own established Chicago club night – SPANDEXXX – which has welcomed acts like Miike Snow, Dragonette, The Golden Filter, and more to the Windy City.
Tastemakers in their own right, Moneypenny have partnered with the Chicago-based ColorJar Venture Accelerator (of which Priceline founding member Jeff Hoffman is a partner) to form Loose Change Recordings, a new-model record label/media company celebrating the music, lifestyle and culture of Chicago’s Nu-Indie scene.
Look for Moneypenny’s debut EP this spring/summer via Loose Change, with a number of subsequent releases from great Chicago-based talent to follow. In the meantime, the girls of Moneypenny are dropping a SXSW-inspired mixtape featuring snippets of songs from their forthcoming EP, as well some of their favorite tracks to have come out of the Windy City over the past couple of months. Download it for free above.

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The Constellations
Southern Gothic
Virgin Records
Lincoln Hall, Chicago
Friday, March 12, 2010

There are a lot of influences – past and present – on The Constellations‘ Southern Gothic. From the opening bars of “Setback” we hear The Beatles providing the backbeat for some interesting rap-like vocals.

One of the things that makes The Constellations a compelling musical act – and one to watch as they grow and develop – is that they aren’t going to settle into a formula which is the death knell for so many bands these days.

Gratefully, The Constellations can’t even settle on a formula for Southern Gothic. They glide effortlessly between genres with such ease they blur the lines. They just as easily drop melodic pop vocals over electronica light as they rock out hard and with focus in quarter time.

Unlike the cookie-cutter pop bands that lock into one thing and just connects the dots, The Constellations find nooks and crannies to fill with texture and shading. There is a sense of economy in their recording. They want to put as much into each bar of music as they can.

They have found a way to make music aurally interesting without making it sound cluttered or labored.

Produced by Ben H. Allen, Southern Gothic feels like an audio snapshot of Atlanta and the diversity of that thriving city. This disc delivers the goods like the curb man at the Varsity. For those not aware, the “curb man” is in reference to the Varsity restaurant that is world famous – and in Atlanta.

Stand out tracks:
“Love Is A Murder” and “December”

Written by: Paul Barile

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Lolene Premieres First Official Single
“Rich (Fake it Til You Make It)”
Debut Album The Electrick Hotel Coming Summer 2010

With her quirky, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, universal pop melodies and trademark curly hair, Lolene is quickly making a name for herself in the US. “Sexy People,” the first track that surfaced from the British-born songstress in the states, cracked the top 5 on Billboard’s Dance Chart and became a dance floor anthem at clubs from coast to coast.

The 24-year-old rising star has just unveiled the first official single from her forthcoming debut produced by The Messengers (Justin Bieber, Chris Brown). “Rich (Fake it Til You Make It)” embodies Lolene’s brand of “awkward pop” which she describes as “Joan Collins in Dynasty, Studio 54, white jump-suits, and disco balls.” Still not sure exactly what that means? Listen to the track to find out! The music video will be filmed next month, and Lolene is looking for a special guest to join in on the fun. Fans can now enter a contest on DanceJam.com to win a trip to Los Angeles and a guest spot in the video.

Lolene’s career began first as a songwriter where she lent her talents to the likes of Christina Milian, Danja (Britney Spears, Nelly Furtado) and Evan Bogart (Beyonce, Leona Lewis). Armed with nothing but a suitcase and a demo CD, Lolene moved to Hollywood from her hometown of Bristol, UK in search of her big break where she was discovered by multi-platinum producer J.R. Rotem and ultimately signed to Capitol/EMI Records.

Stay tuned for Lolene’s major label debut, The Electrick Hotel, due out this summer.

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ELLEN ALLIEN RETURNS WITH DUST, OUT MAY 18TH ON BPITCH CONTROL

Ellen Allien, owner of the BPitch Control label and queen of Berlin’s more delicately woven rave music, has been tinkering with the sound of the city for over a decade now. What has remained from all these years – packed with great releases, highly original remixes and exploratory mix CDs – are her five monolithic albums (Stadtkind, Berlinette, Thrills, the collaboration with Apparat – Orchestra of Bubbles, and Sool), each the condensed result of a completely different creative phase – made to stand the test of time. Indeed, looking back, each of them in its own right can be seen as marking a piece of techno history.

Just like each of Ellen’s previous albums, her last, Sool, where minimalist artifacts float through the room with a cool elegance and distanced allure, was followed by a metamorphosis. With her new album, Dust, out May 18th on BPitch Control, Ellen removes the sense of remoteness entirely. A warm immediacy takes center stage in place of distanced artistic abstraction. As such, what is perhaps Ellen’s most personal album takes the form of a complete spectrum of her creative output to date, a cross-section in time which also looks ahead to previously untrodden paths. . .  The world according to Ellen.

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RJD2 EMBARKS ON THIRD LEG OF FOUR-MONTH TOUR, RELEASES NEW VIDEOS AND REMIX!

Philly’s own RJD2 is preparing to embark on the third leg of his massive four-month tour, and where better to start it than in his hometown of Philadelphia? RJ kicks things off on the east coast, with two shows in New York City, before heading up through Canada and down into the belly of the Midwest.

RJ and friends have been releasing videos at a feverish pace, with two new videos released in the last month! “The Glow” featured a vicious yuppie Ken doll, wreaking havoc in his endless search for the spotlight and more personal possessions. The newest is the strangely psychedelic, slightly post-apocalyptic envisioning of the song “A Spaceship For Now.” Take it away, RJ:

“What I love about the video is how surreal and weird it is. It’s like a timeline with gaps in it that basically forces you to come up with your own storyline or chronology. Or you can just bug out on the big ambience of the synths. It’s a perfect fit.”

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Grabbing his name from a graffiti mistake, the intergalactic DJ Nosaj Thing sent the Chicago crowd spinning with track after track of pure gold. His set was a pretty standard amount of time for an opener, yet the L.A. native seemed to slow down time with his very unique electronic sound. Originally wanting to produce tracks as the next Timberland, Nosaj Thing decided to take matters into his own hands and create his own music in the meantime. “I find creating music very therapeutic… When I first start creating a track, I don’t really think about it,” Jason said in a pre-show interview.

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A self-proclaimed “music research geek”, L.A.-native Jason Chung a.k.a. Nosaj Thing originally wanted to produce tracks like Dr. Dre or drop beats in the likes of Timberland. After sneaking out to his first rave sometime during 8th grade (remember: This is L.A.), Chung was hooked on the melodies and bass of electronic music. leaving high school and a synth-pop duo (sans keytar), the young mix master started creating his own tracks using every resource at his disposal.

Nosaj Thing’s debut album Drift topped iTunes Electronic charts at #5, but his work doesn’t stop there. With almost as many remixes as original songs and a secret remix EP dropping this summer, the 23 year-old DJ is spending time working on an innovative live visual performance creating an otherworldly environment not unlike the moody melodies featured in Drift.

What Nosaj Thing has in store for his fans comes after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

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RUSKO TO RELEASE “O.M.G.!” LP THIS MAY ON MAD DECENT
FIRST SINGLE “WOO BOOST” OUT THIS MONTH, NEW PODCAST AVAILABLE NOW

The world may not be ready for the bass-heavy wrath that UK dubstep trailblazer, Rusko, is bringing to domestic soil this spring as he prepares to launch, O.M.G.!, his debut LP on Mad Decent.  As one of the most well recognized names in dubstep and producer du jour to some of the hottest artists around right now, his name will be burning into brains everywhere.  For a teaser taste of what’s to come, Mad Decent has released a new Rusko Podcast, with a preview of sounds, his explanation of the origins of dubstep and what makes California’s weed great – available now!

Rusko, also known as Christopher Mercer, was born in Leeds, UK to a musical family. After graduating from Leeds University with a degree in musical performance, Rusko discovered the world of dubstup through SUB DUB and an appearance from the Digital Mystikz. He moved to London to increase his musical opportunities and most notably co-produced “Cockney Thug”, arguably THE dubstep anthem of the last few years. In 2010, Rusko has teamed up as a member of the Mad Decent crew and collborated with notable artists such as MIA, Diplo, Santigold and Hot Chip among others.   O.M.G.! will feature guest appearances from Gucci Mane, Crookers, Amber Coffman (Dirty Projectors) & more!

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