Just Blaze

MoMA PSOne may take home the bloggable gold once again this week with Just Blaze, Nick Catchdubs, Danny Brown, The Stallions and BAIO (of Vampire Weekend) at Warm Up on Saturday, but there’s no fewer than four more hip-hop shows this week we’d say are up to snuff with that one.  The best part about them is that they’re all FREE (except for warm up, which is just $15), and they’re all on different days.

The legendary Pete Rock appropriately gets things started on Wednesday at East River Park with a free show with DJ Premiere.  THEN Action Bronson plays Thursday night at Music Hall of Williamsburg (with Flatbush Zombies, Meyhem Lauren and Tanya Morgan.)  Nas released his first decent album in about a decade last week (or more, depending on who you ask), and he plays tribute to the city that made him a star with free one at the iHeartRadio Theater on Friday night.  Cap it all off this weekend with the FREE Afropunk festival; which is hip hop heavy with Erykah Badu, Janelle Monae, Das Racist, Ninjasonik, and Spank Rock, PLUS TV On The Radio, Toro Y Moi, Body Language, Cerebral Ballzy and much, much more.

If it’s not a hip-hop week, then it’s Teengirl Fantasy’s week.  Their highly anticipated LP, Tracer, is out tomorrow, which features guest spots from Panda Bear and Laurel Halo (to name just a couple) and they’re appropriately all over our buzz list for this week.  And why not start with tonight?  Teengirl Fantasy are part of a FREE show at Summerstage which gets going at 6 PM with none other than Araabmuzik.  Flosstradamus and Nick Hook are also on the bill, and you don’t even have to go uptown for it either – this one’s down at East River Park.  Too last minute for you?  For just fifteen bucks, you can catch them on Thursday ON A BOAT, with Lemonade and Gatekeeper on the latest Rocks off Cruise.

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NYCEDC

The long awaited WNYC Transmitter Park will open in Greenpoint on Saturday, park officials told The New York Post today. The waterfront space, named after its former use as a location for a WNYC radio transmissions tower, is on 1.6 acres between Greenpoint Ave and Kent Street, steps from the India Street stop on the East River Ferry. The project cost $12 million and took two years to complete.

According to the Post, the park is the first piece of 50 acres of parkland that Bloomberg promised north Brooklyn as part of the 2005 rezoning that so drastically changed the area.

Greenpointers says the park will have an open law, play area, bird garden, and café. A new pier is still under construction.

Do you remember venturing out to/in Williamsburg every Sunday, rain or shine for the Jelly Pool Parties at the once defunct McCarren Park Pool? (more…)

Last Saturday experimental avant-garde crew “Silver Process” played on a roof in Bushwick. The five-piece created a live score to Jess Franco’s trash classic “Die Säge des Todes“. The personnel for this special performance was Joe Merolla – cello, Chuck Bettis – electronics, Dave Miller – percussion, Jeff Tobias – alto saxophone and Dylan Angell – trumpet. A full audio recording of the set will be available for streaming on the band’s website soon. For the time being, here’s a little video edit.

You can listen to it now here.

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As mentioned, Animal Collective premiered the entirety of their new album, Centipede Hz, last night (8/19) on Animal Collective Radio. The album is now streaming there on-demand in advance of it’s September 4 release date with song visuals created by Abby Portner.

The band also made a video for single for “Today’s Supernatural,” directed by frequent AC collaborator Danny Perez, which you can watch below, along with an interview with the band’s electronics wrangler, Geologist (Brian Weitz)…. Animal Collective will support the new album on a tour with Micachu & the Shapes which hits NYC on October 5 at Williamsburg Park.

Watch the new video after the jump:
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Until the Quiet Comes will be released October 2 on Warp.

How miseable is it on the L platform? L-Degrees.com has you covered. An interview with the creator of the site, via Gothamist :

Over the past month I have been recording the temperature at the different platforms and the above ground temperature. I came to a fairly accurate system which has allowed me to pull in the localized weather from Yahoo Weather for the different neighborhoods and add a weighting system for the temperature at the platforms.

On the tests that I have been doing it has been accurate to a couple of degrees around 80% of the time. However, like the weather, sometimes there are some things you cant account for that may affect the weather.

We can blame Buscemi:

An eruption is about to rock parts of Greenpoint and Manhattan, officials warned, when HBO drama “Boardwalk Empire” shoots tonight.

The Prohibition-era show produced by Martin Scorcese will film an explosion near Commercial and Franklin streets, the city’s Notify NYC alerts source tweeted yesterday — and the sounds will likely reverberate throughout the neighborhood and across the water, an email sent by Manhattan Community Board 6 noted.

“This shoot will include a large fire-ball effect residents in surrounding communities and Manhattan may be able to see and hear,” the email said.
Residents can expect to hear the blast between 10 p.m. – 11 p.m.

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(Woodbine street in Bushwick via)

Gothamist has more pictures, as does Gawker.