Kanye West debuted his song New Slaves last night by projecting a video on buildings throughout the world. In Williamsburg the projections popped up at N. 7th and Bedford, and on the side of Wythe Hotel. You can see (more…)

Kanye West

It’s refreshing (and relaxing) to talk about something other than CMJ for a change.  Not that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy myself during the all-out clusterfuck of a festival that is the “Music Marathon,” but the weight of tracking hundreds of shows, attending them, and consuming all the free booze that’s flowing over a few days borders on burdensome at some points.  I know.  Serious, SERIOUS #hipsterproblems.

I digress.  The beauty of New York City is that we’re not waiting all year to see bands.  We’re not Manchester, Tennessee or Indio, California.  Shit, we’re not even Austin, Texas (no offense.)  We ALWAYS have stuff going on.  And that’s why I’m here, no?

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On November 2, RZA will make his directorial debut with the pop-cultural smorgasbord The Man With the Iron Fists. Written by RZA with Eli Roth and directed by Quentin Tarantino, the film stars Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu and RZA himself.

The film’s soundtrack– which is out on October 23 on Soul Temple/STAX/Red Distribution– is packed, too. We’ve heard Method Man’s track with Freddie Gibbs and Streetlife; Pusha T, Raekwon, and Joell Ortiz’s track; Ghostface’s track with M.O.P. and Pharoahe Monch; the Wu-Tang Clan’s track, the Revelations’ track with Tre Williams, and RZA’s track with the Black Keys.

(Note: this film is directed by RZA not, as Pitchfork says, Quentin Tarantino.) And here’s the trailer: (more…)

As a food, ham isn’t that tough. You know, Christmas dinners and all that. But when I found out that this Kanye + Jay-Z collaboration from their forthcoming Watch the Throne wasn’t about pork, I decided to give it a listen. And I guess “Hard As a Motherfucker” is a cool sentiment and theme for a song.

The track has the two powerhouses rapping over huge strings and operatic vocal arrangements. And the immensity of the production is really its best quality. Some of the rhymes are a little bland, but as the instruments build and then get stripped away to just a lone piano and then cut back in with the melody, it does kind of feel hard as a motherfucker.

Check it out over at Facebook, where you go to find new music. Watch the Throne is slated to be released in March.

Before today there were 11 albums that received at 10.0 rating on Pitchfork. Now, add Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Believe me, I want to give credit where credit is due, and I do like Kanye West, but I have a hard time believing that Kanye released the best album since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot came out eight years ago.

Maybe it’s petty to weight the opinions of a music review site so heavily, but this is the internet, so let’s get petty! Here’s the list of all the previous perfect scores.

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – Source Tags & Codes

12 Rods – Gay? (EP)

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – I See a Darkness

Bob Dylan – The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert

The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin

Robert Pollard – Relaxation of the Asshole (In the review, this album received rating of (1)0.0, giving it a dual rating of 10.0 and 0.0.)

Radiohead – Kid A & OK Computer

Amon Tobin – Bricolage

Walt Mink – El Producto

Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

So what records that came out in the past eight years do you think are better than My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy? Or was this justified?

A little after 2am Sunday morning, as sweaty, drunk, and all but tired hipsters danced and partied to one band after another at Pichfork’s #Offline Festival at Brooklyn Bowl, guests got a big surprise. Glammed out in bling, an excited, energetic, and oh so entertaining Kanye West took the stage. Backed by DJ A-Trak, he performed five of his newest hits: “So Appalled”, “Monster”, “Devil in a New Dress”, “Power”, and “Runaway”. He was electric, charismatic, and on top of his game. It looked like he was having a good time. As an added bonus, GZA took the stage after Kanye, and performed “Liquid Swords”. Its been a great week for live music in NYC. As the impending CMJ/Pitchfork rivalry grows into a feud, the the spoils of war may be ours to reap in the form of good shows.

There are many, many more.

[h/t gruber]