The Roots, Yoko Ono, Yo La Tengo, Patti Smith, Charlie Haden (with Robert Wyatt), and Moby are among the initial artists announced for Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown Festival, which takes place in London from June 13-21. Coleman is also set to perform at least twice during the fest, which has been curated in the past by the likes of Massive Attack, Scott Walker, and Jarvis Cocker. [Meltdown; HT The Daily Swarm] More »
The Roots, Nas, Damian Marley, Big Boi, and Common are headlining this year’s installment of the Rock The Bells tour, which will set up shop in 10 cities across North America this summer. Nas and Marley are also putting out an album in June, so presumably they’ll share some stage time. The bill’s exact lineup will fluctuate a bit from city to city, but a rundown of all the performers scheduled to play at least one date is after the jump.
Last night Justin Timberlake appeared on the… More »
Things Fall Apart, the Roots album that bumped the Philadelphia band from hip-hop underdogs to the favorite rap group of thousands of white kids (this one included, for awhile), celebrated its 10th anniversary on Monday. With the band being installed as the house musicians for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon next week, I’d like to take a moment and remember how shockingly great the album sounded on first listen (on the way home from the local Circuit City), with its live rhythm section and Rahzel doing whatever he does and an all-star team of underground rap on nearly every track.
Because NBC is too cheap to pay royalties to… More »
I hate going back to the 2008 well (especially after Skillz has wrapped everything up), but until 2009 coughs up some more news, this is what we’re stuck with… looking back on 2008 and thinking about what music didn’t live up to our possibly inflated expectations.
The Spiceworld-esque double-decker bus belonging to Philly heroes and possible new Jimmy Fallon sidemen The Roots pulled a 360 and ended up laying on top of another van while the band was traveling around Europe. It all sounds pretty freaky, and it’s amazing that they walked away relatively unscathed. ?uestlove describes it thusly in an e-mail reprinted by Okayplayer:
A few weeks ago, anybody who knew of The Roots would think they had a pretty clear career path going. One of the few near-universally respected musical entites, The Roots could happily spend the rest of their days backing up big-name artists, playing expansive and adventurous shows, and putting out albums totally unencumbered by commercial expectations. They’d pulled off one of the hardest tricks in the cultural book–achieving auteur status–which meant that they could do anything they want as long, as it seemed in line with their overall aesthetic. Their idiosyncrasies and vision would continue to be rewarded as long as their fans lived. So why in the world have they allegedly decided to be the house band for Jimmy “What Fourth Wall?” Fallon?
