FROM YOURHERE.MTV.COM: As I left the first night of Coheed & Cambria’s historic four night run through Hollywood, I called my wife of 22 days to let her know the show got out early and I would be home sooner than expected. As I walked down the star studded street, with noisy news choppers overhead, she informed me that a gay rights protest had turned ugly at the famed intersection of Hollywood & Highland. Being a few (long) blocks away, I told my wife that I had to take a stand against the inequality of our state and would join my brothers and sisters in protest. I had to take a stand against the hate filled ***** who have left a rotten taste in my mouth. She wished me luck and I made my way towards the gathering.
As my very out of shape body sprinted down Hollywood Blvd, my mind was moving a thousand miles a minute. I thought about growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the impact that had on me. Gay teachers, neighbors, and my own brother have helped shape me into who I am today. Watching my brother grow up has proven to me that being gay (unlike oh lets say Christianity) is not a choice, but something you are born into. I thought about how much I love my brother, and how easy it was for my wife and I to get married a few weeks ago. Outside the marriage office where we obtained our license, we had immigrants passing out chapel information much like a ticket scalper tries to sell you tickets to a sold out show. They even fought over us, despite us letting them know we already had a venue booked. I took this for granted, truly feeling California would do the right thing a few days later at the polls. Boy was I wrong.
Continue reading about the Hollywood prop 8 protests at yourhere.mtv.com...
FROM YOU R HERE: Swedish pop star Robyn is currently on tour in Europe, entertaining fans on Madonna's Sticky & Sweet Tour. Luckily for us, she's found time in her busy schedule to pick up a camera and show us around backstage and on the road.
Check out Robyn's backstage videos over on MTV's You R Here, and keep coming back for more as the tour rolls on …
A Tribe Called Quest, the Pharcyde, De La Soul. The date is ... last Saturday?!
The 1994 — excuse me, 2008 — Rock the Bells Tour is well under way, and I was there at the Los Angeles installment to catch up with a truly epic bill of hip-hop greats, both old and new. This year’s lineup is no joke, combining the aforementioned, fully reunited legends with contemporary, sure-to-be-hall-of-famers like Nas and Mos Def, and of course several up and coming “kids" (Kids in the Hall and Cool Kids, to be exact) to form a monumental trifecta of hip-hop’s past, present and future. Laugh it up, you lucky New Yorkers, but the rest of the country will be just fine without Jay-Z.
Hip-hop artists are genuinely the hardest workers in showbiz, as every artist we spoke with had all sorts of projects in the works. Expect more from Murs, Rakim, De La Soul, Method Man, Ghostface and Raekwon (but don’t let all the other reunions get your hopes up for catching a glimpse of Wu-Tang).
Read the rest of this post on the You R Here blog ...
Tags a tribe called quest, cool kids, de-la-soul, Ghostface, kids in the hall, method-man, Mos-Def, murs, Nas, pharcyde, Raekwon, rakim, rock the bells
Going four years strong, the annual Rock the Bells has really stepped up the competition for similar hip-hop festivals like Atlanta’s Birthday Bash and Hot 97’s Summer Jam. Featuring all-star lineups, first-string secret guests and A-list reunions, Rock the Bells has quickly become the latter-day Woodstock of hip-hop, the lyrical Lollapalooza, the Coachella of “C.R.E.A.M.”
While this year’s show hosted much-anticipated reunions from celebrated groups the Pharcyde and A Tribe Called Quest, as well as a high-profile performance from the controversy-laden Nas backed by a full live band, the night’s secret guests stole the show. No questions asked. Needless to say, New York was more than well represented, as virtually every headliner and guest hailed from the East Coast, constantly reminding fans of the true birthplace of hip-hop.
The first headlining slot went to the renowned De La Soul, who after two decades in the game proved their much-deserved place in hip-hop history with ease. Digging deep into their catalog of hip-hop classics (but surprisingly skipping “Me, Myself and I”), De La Soul drove the crowd wild when they brought out Black Sheep for an animated, participatory performance of “The Choice Is Yours.”
Read the rest of this post on the You R Here blog ...
Plus check out a full report on MTVNews.com ...
Three days, seven stages and well over a hundred acts... Lollaplooza 2008 is a lot of ground to cover. So we're getting help from you. All weekend long, fans are sharing their experiences in our You R Here community, like Zach Swickey, who made the trip to Chicago from Norman, Oklahoma, and filed this report:
The Windy City is not living up to its name. It’s hot with zero clouds and only a slight hint of a breeze here on day one of Lollapalooza.
Unfortunately, my day started late due to the necessity of sleep from watching the 1 a.m. showing of “The Dark Knight” (every other showing had been sold out for days). Anyway, this was actually my first time to see the Go! Team live. They did not disappoint. I hate to be cliché, but I highly prefer their first album, and luckily for me they played a good balance of new and old songs.
There is nothing more awkward and entertaining than watching thousands of white people (and a few dozen black people) dancing to “Ladyflash.”
(click here to read more from Zach)
Whether being subpoenaed in Texas or sequestered in Memphis, the Hold Steady have been raging across the country in support of their most recent release, Stay Positive, leaving a trail of empty Pabst cans and thoroughly rocked faces in their wake.
Wednesday night in Hollywood was no exception, as we were treated to nearly two hours of inclusion rock that featured all the tracks off of the best album of 2008 so far. In a preshow interview, frontman Craig Finn said it best: “We want each show to be a celebratory experience” — and celebrate we did. Feel free to pump your fist as you read the remainder of this entry.
In the aforementioned interview, the band had explained just how finely tuned its set list has become over the years, so there was much anticipation in the air as even the oldest fans were excited to see how a new album would work into the mix. The show appropriately opened with “Constructive Summer,” the first track on Stay Positive, which lyrically set the tone for the rest of the night. “Constructive,” of course, is a relative term to Hold Steady fans, who know that time spent getting wasted is far from wasted time.
Read the rest of this post on the You R Here blog …
It was a night to pay respect to the DJ.
In the midsection of New York City’s Time Square, soft-drink titan Pepsi, along with radio station Hot 97, brought out some of the biggest disc jockeys across the States. A few years back, the company launched its Pepsi Division campaign, which features record spinners DJ Enuff, DJ Drama, Clinton Sparks, Felli Fel, DJ Irie and many more.
The line to enter the venue snaked around the corner on both ends of 41st Street, but as a veteran OG in the game, the kid don’t wait on lines anymore, a nice habit picked up from my compadre Shaheem Reid, who’s infamous for bumrushing lines.
Upon entering the venue I was greeted by none other than DJ Drama, who was giving an interview to my girl Hillary Crosley over at Billboard. “That Mixtape Monday piece was incredible,” Drama told me.
Read the rest of this post on the You R Here blog ...
R.E.M. treated their New York fans to an arena-size rock 'n' roll show last night at Madison Square Garden, and those fans have been sharing their experience on MTV's You R Here. Users PlayboyTonyNYC, Radhika and EmptyVitamin uploaded a slew of camera-phone pictures, and Radhika posted a rather detailed review of the career-spanning set, writing:
New York's Madison Square Garden was the place to be Thursday night, thanks to a brilliant performance by the legendary R.E.M. Featuring a lively light show, funky camera work relayed on projection screens, and a hefty dose of biting political commentary courtesy of singer Michael Stipe, the concert proved that the band still knows exactly how to hold a crowd's attention.
Stipe was in top form throughout the night, dressed in a sharp suit while lithely dancing around the stage, smiling and occasionally making self-deprecating remarks. "This song is like from the year 1740," he joked while introducing "Ignoreland" from 1992's Automatic for the People, and at another point he even asked one of the audience members if he needed earplugs since he looked so "miserable."
Read more...
