live

Nneka was an artist I have been meaning to check out since her recent explosion in my Google reader on the blogs and I am impressed with her live performance. She clearly can sing, as this tune titled “Heartbeat” demonstrates, but I have since checked out several of her other songs and she also throws down some rhymes too. Naturally, people will want to compare her to Lauryn Hill but she brings her own unique style to it all. Go get the album called Concrete Jungle and support a dope artist.

Vampire Weekend recently performed an acoustic set in France for La Blogotheque and I think they gave the French a reason to like Americans. Not only do they perform a dope set of songs from both albums and a cover of the Honeycomb’s “Have I the Right”, but Ezra even speaks a little bit of French to the crowd which surely impressed me. As you can tell I like watching groups who can rock an acoustic show as it showcases their musical talents and the great structure and lyrics of the songs. Go see these guys if you are fan like me because their concert is a college late night dance party with great music.

The more I listen to music like this from Common and think about it the further he shoots up my list of favorites.

Brad and Sean attend a Grammy Songwriter Forum that includes Common, Nas, Colbie Callait, Zac Brown and more. Out of nowhere…Common decides to bring genres together and performs an impromptu performance with Colbie Callait and Zac Brown.

Check below to see Nas & Common talking about violent lyrics in hip-hop. This seemed to be a very interesting panel and I wish I had a chance to attend it.

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Congrats to Mayer on reaching another stepping stone in his career by starting to play the late night circuit, I hope this helps blow him up even more. Everyone on the underground has been on this and so have a bunch artists and the guy has been touring extensively to promote himself. The album itself, A Strange Arrangement, is one of my favorites of last year and if you like the old school, Motown sound then you will be into it. Anyone know if he is coming to Webster Hall on March 4th? I saw somewhere that he was but it isn’t on their calendar and I need to see him at some point this year.

El Perro Del Mar has an album out called Love Is Not Pop and this is a song from it. Although I had not heard the song before, I have seen videos of Lykke Li live and she usually kills it but El Perro is as at least as good as her. She plays guitar and I actually liked her voice better but will have to listen to the album to see if can compare with Lykke Li’s song writing and unique style. Shouts to P&P for the video and for always staying on top of the new indie artists.

On January 27, DOOM and Mos Def will be performing at the Kool Haus on Queen’s Quay. In December, word was released that these two would be performing two concerts: one in Toronto and one in New York (which I believe is on the 30th at the Nokia Theatre). While DOOM and live performances are two things that have proven to not mix well, seeing as Mos Def (an avid supporter of the villain) is on the bill also, I took a leap of faith and bought a ticket. If worst comes to worst and both acts are no-shows, at least D-Sisive is scheduled to open. Regardless, the promise of a night of such high quality lyrical hip-hop seems too good to pass up, so if you’re interested, check here and click the header that says “concerts”  for more information.

Before I headed back to the DMV for the holidays I was fortunate enough to attend the CAUSE performance at the Webster Hall Studio and per usual it was a good show. Lyriciss (backed up by Pro’Verb) was one of the opening acts and Prophit as well Shanelle Gabrielle tore up the mic too. I left shortly after it ended so I didn’t catch CAUSE, DJ Fat Fingaz and Dead Stock Ric give us this shout out but we certainly appreciate it. Shouts to JM too for putting this all together, as I said I was unaware and without a camera but he came through in the clutch so enjoy this exclusive video from the show.