Posts Tagged ‘Mos Def’

Positively Spring Music Preview

Posted on 29 Mar 2009 at 5:51pm

How’s this for a super group…Jack White of The White Stripes, Alison Mosshart of the Kills, Jack Lawrence of White’s side project Raconteurs, and Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Dean Fertita; United as one they call themselves The Dead Weather and their debut album, Horehound is due out in June.

The album’s producer, White, plays drums on the record (and also sings). The album was recorded in just three weeks at White’s Third-Man studio-label complex in Nashville.

Other promising releases due out this spring:

Neil Young “Fork in the Road,” on 4/7

Silversun Pickups “Swoon” 4/14

Bob Dylan “Together Through Life” 4/28

Lil Wayne “Rebirth” in May

Also in May, Green Day “21st Century Breakdown”

Eminem “Relapse” 5/18

Conor Oberst Outer South” 5/19

Mos Def “The Ecstatic” and Sonic Youth “The Eternal” 6/9

Wilco, also, will have a new album out sometime in June. Needless to say, it will be a good time for music lovers in the coming months.

Raging Against The RNC

Posted on 06 Sep 2008 at 1:39pm

Following closely on the heels of their free show in Denver during the Democrats’ Convention, Los Angeles rock activists Rage Against The Machine made sure they were in the Twin Cities during the Republicans’ time in the national spotlight.

On Monday, guitarist Tom Morello performed solo (as The Nightwatchman) at the “Take Back Labor Day” benefit in St. Paul, alongside Mos Def, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle and Atmosphere, among others.

On Tuesday evening, Rage Against The Machine made an unscheduled appearance at the Ripple Effect festival on the front lawn of the Minnesota State Capitol building. The police, however, citing a lack of permit, refused to let the thousands of fans assembled hear the band play. Instead, Morello and frontman Zack de la Rocha grabbed megaphones and led the crowd in a cappella renditions of two songs.

Wednesday night saw the band across the river in Minneapolis, playing at a Target Center surrounded by riot police. Rage took the stage, to the delight of the progressive-leaning crowd, wearing Guantanamo Bay prisoner uniforms, playing their first song with heads covered. They played a roaring set, the crowd exploding during every song.

After their encore, the band stayed onstage and explained to the crowd that it was possible to face the police outside “peacefully” without being “passive.” The crowd must have listened, because although there were some arrests on the streets of Minneapolis, there was no violence.