During a recent trip to his hometown of Austin, TX blues / rock musician Gary Clark Jr. stopped by KUTX, pizza in hand, to perform a pair of acoustic songs from his 2012 full-length Blak and Blu. Without the fiery passion of his electric guitar, Clark shows an impressive ability to translate his usually-explosive live show into an intimate and stripped-down setting. Gary Clark Jr. will perform at the 6th Annual Roots Picnic on June 1st; tickets and information can be found here. Watch the video via NPR Music below.
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.
Yesterday was day one of the Roots Picnic with day two continuing this evening with appearances from Diplo, Chill Moody, Rakim (with the Roots playing the classic album Paid In Full in its entirety), Major Lazer, and Kid Cudi. Yesterday’s show included performances from St. Vincent, Wale, tUnE-yArDs, James Murphy, and OCD Moosh & Twist, who put on an incredible show on the main stage. The highlight of the day was De La Soul who played with The Roots for almost two hours. Their set list included classics like “Potholes In My Lawn,” “Buddy,” “Stakes Is High,” “A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays,” and “Me Myself and I.” Mos Def made a surprise guest appearance and while he did trade some verses with De La Soul, he stayed on stage through a good part of De La’s set dancing in the background and allowing De La and The Roots to work the crowd. Mos Def performed several songs at the end of the show including an amazing version of “Umi Says.” The Swollen Fox has a review and photos over here. Below, check out some videos of the Roots Picnic. Check back tomorrow for our photo recap of the Roots Picnic.
In case you missed this article on Pitchfork this week about the 20 Essential Festivals of Summer 2012, of the ten they chose for North America, two are right here in Philly. While we need to actually make it through their choice of the Jay-Z curated Labor Day Made In America festival to see whether or not it will turn out to be “essential,” one thing we know for sure: their choice of The Roots Picnic tomorrow and Sunday is right on target. For the last four years The Roots have thrown one of the best festivals in town and this year, they’ve expanded the picnic to two days (Saturday, June 2nd and Sunday, June 3rd) at the Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing. The lineup features The Roots, De La Soul, Rakim, Danny Brown, St. Vincent, James Murphy (of LCD Soundsystem), Diplo, Major Lazer, Kid Cudi, Chill Moody, OCD: Moosh & Twist, tUnE-yArDs, Shabazz Palaces and more. Two day and single day passes are available here. You can find the complete lineup here.
FRIDAY, June 1st
One of our favorite new Philly band record releases is the album from Hop Along called Get Disowned. The band is having its record release party and is headlining the First Unitarian Church tonight with Band Name, Little Big League and Mary Lattimore. (Doors: 8:00 p.m / Show: 8:30 p.m.; all ages; $10). Also playing: The Kopecky Family Band play at today’s Free At Noon and perform tonight at Milkboy Philly at 8:30 p.m. with The National Rifle and MyNameIsJohnMichael. Tickets to the 21+ show are $10-$12.
SATURDAY, June 2nd
WXPN Welcomes the Appel Farm Arts & Music Festival featuring Dawes, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Rodney Crowell, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Sara Watkins, Jukebox The Ghost, Cheryl Wheeler, Mason Porter and more. (11:30 a.m.; all ages, $5.00 for kids ages 3-12; $40.00-$50.00 for adults).
SUNDAY, June 3rd
Singer-songwriter JBM returns to town and plays Milkboy Philly with Tim Rogers of YOU AM I. JBM (real name: Jesse Merchant) JBM’s new album, Stray Ashes, is a gorgeous and haunting collection of songs that recalls the sparse beauty of records by Jose Gonzalez. (Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:00 pm; tickets to the 21+ show are $12). Below, watch the video produced by Philly’s Out Of Town Films they did with Jesse when he played at Jonny Brenda’s several weeks ago.
This week, we’ve got a pair of weekend passes for The Roots Picnic this Saturday and Sunday, June 2nd-3rd, at Festival Pier. For a chance to win, all you have to do is leave a comment below by 5 p.m. TODAY (May 30th). We’ll select the winners at random this evening and notify them via email. You MUST confirm that you will be attending the event by noon on Thursday, May 31st; once you’ve confirmed that you and your guest will be attending the show, your names will be added to the guest list. (Just make sure to use a valid email address when posting your comment; we promise not to sell your contact info or sign you up for anything—we just want to be able to get in touch with you if you win.)
This year’s lineup includes: The Roots, Kid Cudi, De La Soul (backed by the Roots), Wale, Diplo, Major Lazer, St. Vincent, Tune-Yards, Shabazz Palaces, OCD: Moosh & Twist, Danny Brown, The Hood Internet, Chill Moody, Flosstradamus, Stretch Armstrong, Star Slinger, Mr. MFN Exquire, Kids These Days, DJ Diamond Kuts. Also in the mix is James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem who will be doing a special DJ set. Below, listen to the official Roots Picnic mixtape mixed by DJ Low Budget.
The 5th annual The Roots Picnic is Saturday, June 2nd and Sunday, June 3rd at the Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing. The two day event will feature performances from De La Soul backed by The Roots, St. Vincent, OCD: Moosh & Twist, CHill Moody, Wale, tune-yards, Kid Cudi, Rakim (playing the classic Paid In Full with The Roots), Danny Brown, Diplo, Selah Sue, a DJ set by James Murphy, Major Lazer, and more. Go here for the complete lineup and to purchase tickets. Below, listen to the official Roots Picnic mixtape mixed by DJ Low Budget.
This week, we’ve got a pair of weekend passes for 