Questlove

Fried Chicken, dumplings, cupcakes and slushies, anyone? Questlove, Stephen Starr to open Hybird in New York on Saturday, May 18

Questlove and restauranteur Stephen Starr open Hybird in New York’s Chelsea Market. The menu features Quest’s fried chicken drumsticks, dumplings, “Questolicious Cupcakes” (including the “Sexual Chocolate (On Chocolate)” variety, which would make a great song title – ed.), and slushies.

Michael Klein, from the Philadelphia Inquirer attended an industry party at Hybird and writes “the drumsticks are plump, meaty and thick-crusted.” As for a Philly location? Klein writes Stephen Starr’s response: “This isn’t even open!” Starr exclaimed. “Let’s see how it does. But if it works, Philly is definitely the next place.”

While we’re excited for the new venture and wish them only the best, it’s unfortunate that these two Philadelphians decided to open their first joint venture in New York. For now, we’ll just have to keep going back to our favorite joint for fried chicken and donuts. And we’re pretty sure Hybird doesn’t deliver.

FILED UNDER: Artists, Events, Questlove, Stephen Starr

May 9, 2013 | 12:45 PM | By Bruce Warren

Just announced: John Mayer, J.Cole, Ne-Yo. Jill Scott and Grace Potter join The Roots for July 4th WaWa Welcome America #phillyjam

Questlove and Black Thought from The Roots have announced the lineup to this year’s Philly 4th of July Jam as part of the WaWa Welcome America! The lineup includes John Mayer, Ne-Yo, J.Cole, Demi Lovato, Grace Potter, and Jill Scott. You can get more information about all the WaWa Welcome America festivities here.

FILED UNDER: Artists, Events, News, Black Thought, Grace Potter, J. Cole, Jill Scott, John Mayer, Ne-Yo, Questlove, The Roots, WaWa Welcome America

April 28, 2013 | 9:51 AM | By Julie Miller

Tonight’s Concert Picks: The Intersection of Music and Technology at Underground Arts, Kaki King at World Cafe Live, Buried Beds with Auctioneer and Great American Canyon Band at Kung Fu Necktie

In conjunction with Philly Tech Week, WXPN and Little Giant Media present The Intersection of Music and Technology at Underground Arts. The free event will feature live performances by Lushlife (pictured), Khari Mateen and POW POW (Chris Powell of Man Man), DJ sets by DJ PHSH and Making Time’s Dave Pianka and a panel discussion / Q&A with Questlove and XPN’s Bruce Warren. More information for free 21+ event can be found here. Below, watch Lushlife’s video for “Magnolia.”

At World Cafe Live, it’s An Evening with Kaki King. The guitar virtuoso has embarked on a retrospective tour, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the release of her debut album Everybody Loves You. Recently, King released Glow, an instrumental record on which she collaborated with string quartet ETHEL. Tickets and information for tonight’s all-ages show can be found here. Below, watch her video for “Glow” and revisit her set at the 2012 XPoNential Music Festival via Archive.org here.

Buried Beds headline Kung Fu Necktie tonight with support from Auctioneer and Great American Canyon Band. Bridging the gap between their most recent release Small Stories and an upcoming as-yet untitled release, local indie pop band Buried Beds have been detailing their recording experience with video clips and updates, including this one in which the members filmed a “huge drums” session. Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ show can be found here. Below, watch Auctioneer’s Shaking Through episode.

Shaking Through: Auctioneer from Weathervane Music on Vimeo.

FILED UNDER: Artists, Concert Previews, Events, Auctioneer, Buried Beds, Kaki King, Khari Mateen, Kung Fu Necktie, Lushlife, Philly Tech Week, Pow Pow, Questlove, The Great American Canyon Band, Underground Arts, World Cafe Live

April 19, 2013 | 2:57 PM | By Julie Miller

VIDEO

Watch Questlove jam with D’Angelo at Bonnaroo 2012 (The Roots Picnic happening at Festival Pier on 6/1)

From the beginning, Bonnaroo SuperJams have been synonymous with exciting, unexpected one-off collaborations of music’s top artists, with past festivals linking up the likes of Dr. John, Mike Gordon, Luther Dickinson and Stanton Moore (2003), and this year featuring Jim James, Zigaboo Modeliste, John Oates and Preservation Hall Jazz Band. In 2012, Questlove and The Roots took things one step further by facilitating the return of R&B artist / producer D’Angelo in one of his first stateside concerts in eleven years. In the third of four videos documenting the SuperJam, the collaborators perform Funkadelic tracks “Funky Dollar Bill” and “Hit it and Quit it.” Watch the clip below and check out the first two installments here and here. The Roots Picnic with Gary Clark Jr., Grimes, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and more comes to Festival Pier on June 1st. Tickets and information can be found here.

FILED UNDER: Artists, Concert Previews, Events, Bonnaroo, D'Angelo, Questlove, The Roots, The Roots Picnic

April 9, 2013 | 11:25 AM | By John Vettese

VIDEO

See a Questlove Q&A, watch sets by Khari Mateen, Lushlife and Pow Pow at Underground Arts for Philly Tech Week

Tech With the 2013 edition of Philly Tech Week upon us, WXPN has teamed up with Little Giant Media for a performance, tech talk and DJ night at Underground Arts called The Intersection of Music and Technology.The free 21+ event happens on Sunday, April 28th beginning at 5 p.m.

Hosted by WXPN’s Bruce Warren, the event will kick off an hour-long Q&A with Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson of The Roots. Presentations will be made by the folks at Rapgenius.com, Soulspazm Digital and theFUTURE.fm, and DJ’s Dave P of Making Time and DJ Phsh will spin.

The centerpiece live performances will come from production wizard and sonic adventuerer Khari Mateen, electro-pop experimenter Chris Powell of Man Man performing under his Pow Pow moniker, and tech-savvy rapper Lushlife. For more information on The Intersection of Music and Technology, visit its Facebook event page here. Below, watch Lushlife perform “Still I Hear The Word Progress” and talk about his gear fixation in his HotBox Studio / Deli Magazine Choice Cuts Session.

FILED UNDER: Artists, Concert Previews, Events, News, Bruce Warren, Chris Powell, Dave P, DJ PHSH, Khari Mateen, Lushlife, Philly Tech Week, Pow Pow, Questlove, Underground Arts

March 8, 2013 | 12:30 PM | By Bruce Warren

THE HOT PHILLY 15

Introducing: The Hot Philly 15

Photo of Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee by Rachel Del Sordo

Photo of Kate Crutchfield of Waxahatchee by Rachel Del Sordo

The Hot Philly 15 is a completely subjective list of Philly-made and Philly Local music happenings we love this week. It’s somewhat informed by what we’re playing on the radio, what we’re blogging about and what you’re talking about.

1 – Waxahatchee: With an excellent new album, Cerulean Salt, a fantastic Key Studio Session, a high profile upcoming gig at SXSW with NPR Music, and Best New Music on Pitchfork, we’re in love. You should be too.

2 – The Delfonics – Who would have thought 45 years after the release of “La La Means I Love You,” William Hart would still be kickin’ it? Listen to Adrian Younge Presents The Delfonics here. Download the new song, “Enemies” here.

3 – Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel: Philly Bands heading to SXSW include: DRGN KNG, Blayer Pointdujour and The Rockers Galore, Creepoid, Lantern, Bleeding Rainbow, Norwegian Arms, A Life Once Lost, Dangerous Ponies, The Fleeting Ends, Lushlife, The Kalob Griffin Band, Katie Frank & The Pheromones, Nothing, Cold Fronts, Free Energy, Thee Idea Men. If we forgot you, sorry. We never got your press release.

4 – Chill Moody: We want him to be the mtvU Freshmen Video of the Week. Vote for him here.

The Lawsuits | Photos by Matthew Smith | Montage by Bryan Schreck

5 – The Lawsuits Key Studio Session – listen to it here.

6 – Heavy Rotation: The Fleeting Ends release their poptastical new album, Our Eyes Are Peeled, on March 22nd. It’s getting lots of advance play in the office here.

7 – The Hotbox Studio (video) Sessions recently kicked back into action with Cheers Elephant and Grandchildren

8 – Tayyib Ali dropped his new mixtape, Keystone State Of Mind 2. Download it here.

9 – Tara Murtha’s Philly Weekly cover story on the closing of Fluid. Read it here.

10 – Stereogum premiered a new jam from our friends Free Energy. Download it here.

11 – Questlove and D’Angelo get down at the Brooklyn Bowl here. Okay, so the Brooklyn Bowl isn’t Philly. Neither is D’Angelo. But Quest is.

12 – Mike Slo-Mo Brenner gets all world music on our asses with a new collection of Indian slide guitar music he recorded in Calcutta.

13 – Duet of the moment: Juston Stens and Jessica Lea Mayfield, “Strange Love.” Download it here.

14 – Entertainment Weekly debuted the new Purling Hiss video for the song “Mercury Retrograde” here. It’s psychedelic, baby.

15 – Work Drugs: The Philly smooth-fi music machine drops yet another new single, “Sunset On High Street.” Download it here and don’t miss them tomorrow night with Night Panther at Kung Fu Necktie.

FILED UNDER: Artists, Scene, Adrian Younge, Chill Moody, Free Energy, Juston Stens, Mike Brenner, Purling Hiss, Questlove, Tayyib Ali, The Delfonics, The Fleeting Ends, The Hot Philly 15, The Lawsuits, waxahatchee, Work Drugs

March 6, 2013 | 1:09 PM | By John Vettese

D’Angelo and ?uestlove get their 80s soul on with covers of The S.O.S. Band and Prince

Photo by Myo Campbell | okayplayer.com

Another treat for funk / soul heads today comes courtesy of the folks at Okayplayer.com, who grabbed these videos of Roots drummer ?uestlove and aughties vocal legend D’Angelo playing Brooklyn Bowl last night for their much-anticipated “Brothers In Arms” show. Their set featured covers of Sly and the Family Stone, Bobby Womack, Funkadelic as well as more recent names. Below, watch videos of ?uest and D’Angelo playing The S.O.S. Band’s “Tell Me if You Still Care” and Prince & The Revolution’s “New Position.”

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