…Paul Oakenfold and Underworld Played The Warfield in San Francisco on Saturday September 8, 2007…

I was told that Paul Oakenfold had performed all his “mainstream hits” and crowd-pleasers the night before, his second performance featured more experimental pieces and more of his own favorites.

When I walked into the Warfield Theater, there weren’t many people inside and a dj was already playing on stage. He was playing quietly, a nice mix of ravey techno and trance, but it was never announced who he was. Paul Oakenfold silently appeared behind the gear and was talking to a tech for awhile. When he stepped up to the decks at the center of the stage, he was immediately recognized and cheers erupted from the small crowd. I found out early on that this show on Saturday night was added on after the Friday show had already sold most of its tickets, so while Friday night was packed to the gills and somewhat crazy, tonight would be a much smaller crowd with more room to dance and more fresh air to breathe. Excellent! That’s exactly how I like it! I made fast friends with a european raver fella who had been at the previous night’s show and kept me informed about the difference between the two. It sounded like I had inadvertently chosen a night that had more of the elements that would make the show a huge success in my book - room to dance, ventilation, friendly crowd and good music. My new friend also told me that Paul Oakenfold had performed all his “mainstream hits” and crowd-pleasers the night before, his second performance featured more experimental pieces and more of his own favorites.
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HearingTest is still very young as far as websites go (the first post was in March 2007). It started off as a blog and side project to what I do professionally and my dream is to develop HT into a full blown glossy online magazine. I’m starting to realize, slowly, as the year progresses that what I am currently doing with the website is fine if I want to be a breaking news site, but still a long way from magazine style. So, this weekend, I am going to start making a few changes that will bring it more inline with the magazine idea. ([More →])

I just noticed in the local paper that Girl Talk and Dan Deacon will be performing totally FREE in Berkeley, CA on Monday October 1st. So, I checked out the website listed and it says the show is 5-7pm at Lower Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley and it appears to be all-ages and wheelchair accessible. ([More →])

RWD Mag reports today that Wiley is about to release 2 more singles off of Playtime Is Over from Wiley and Big Dada: “No Qualms” and “Baby Girl”… ([More →])

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A one of a kind Johnny Cash dubplate has been revealed and the audio is available to the public for the first time today. Near the end of his time abroad with the US Air Force in Germany in 1954, a 22 year old Johnny Cash recorded a 78 rpm record for his first wife, Vivian. One side was etched with the grooves of “Darlin’ Am I The One?” while the other side was etched with a “tender spoken-word declaration of his love” for his faraway lover. In a strange coincidence, the song was originall performed by Carl Smith who was married, at the time, to June Carter. Apparently, Smith was not the One for June. ([More →])

We have newly updated tour dates for Wolves In The Throne Room plus the flyer and info for their all-ages show this Tuesday in SF with Graves at Sea and Ludicra. ([More →])

Michael Franti and Spearhead continue to tour in support of last year’s release, Yell Fire! The ever-busy Franti is also about to publish the first book from his own publishing company. The book is a “visual and musical journey about self acceptance” for children titled, “What I Be” and the new publishing company is called Stay Human Books. ([More →])

More info on the new Kylie Minogue album: It’s been titled X and we have the tracklist as well as the album cover for the single release of “2 Hearts” ([More →])

RWD Magazine has published one great interview after another every day this week. RWD caught up with Eve to discuss hip hop, beats, her new album, record labels and reppin. Just yesterday, they published one of the best interviews with M.I.A. talking about the Tamil Tigers, Timbaland (including what she thinks of Timbaland using her tune on a Snoop Dogg track) and other treasures. We’ve got those interviews and a bunch of music from the new albums… ([More →])

The brand new Celebration video is here! The Dave Sitek-produced “Evergreen” set in motion by director Matt Goldman… ([More →])

OM will be releasing their third album, Pilgrimage, on Southern Lord Records. I already reported about the album, which will be released on October 2nd, but now we have audio to share! Go to the original OM Pilgrimage article to listen to “Unitive Knowledge of the Godhead.” You can also download the mp3 directly from the new OM page on Southern Lord’s website.

Today’s theme is tenner anniversaries. Next up is veteran sludge-metal band, ISIS. They’re celebrating their 10th anniversary of creating heavy music together and preparing for a few live shows in the US and one in BC this November. 27, longtime collaborators with ISIS, will open the shows. ISIS and 27 will be joined at different shows by different bands, including Oxbow, Big Business, and These Arms Are Snakes. In addition to the handful of live shows, ISIS will be widely releasing a few singles from their 2006 album, In The Absence of Truth. ([More →])

It’s Big Dada’s 10 year anniversary and it’s time to celebrate! UK’s best label for hip hop and grime is having a party and releasing a historic double CD compilation plus a DVD documenting a decade of music. ([More →])