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HOLY CRAP, FREE BLOC PARTY TICKETS!!!

Prefix New York Events is giving away two tickets to the sold out Bloc Party, Secret Machines and Mew show at McCarren Pool on Saturday July 29.

Enter for a chance to win by noon on July 28.

Texas Schools Ban Grills

I love hip-hop, but I think a lot of its fashion trends are misses. Remember when kids were rocking their clothes backwards? Maybe that was just Kris Kross. In any case that wasn't a good look. Grills have been the thing for a minute now, but I wonder if they'll be looked upon one day the way we look back at kids wearing their clothes backwards.

Now a Texas school district has banned grills calling them "safety distracters" and "safety hazards". Umm....

Punk rockers aren't safe either: The school district has also opted to ban the earlobe-stretching practice known as gauging. "The district is having to respond to fads because they've become distracters or a safety hazard for those around them," Malcolm Turner, Arlington school district executive director of student services said. The school board insists they have good reason for the ban: They're trying to get students ready to enter the work force, where they may be required to adhere to a strict dress code. [Spin]

Photo by Prefix photographer Danelle Manthey

Related Links
Paul Wall (Interview)
Paul Wall: Andy Milonakis Show (Video)
Paul Wall [The People's Champ] (CD Review)
Paul Wall: They Don't Know  ft. Mike Jones & Bun B (Video)
Paul Wall: Girl (Video)
Paul Wall: Interview (Video Clip)
Paul Wall: Internet Goin Nuts (Video)

Gnarls Barkley Secret Show--April 28th in L.A!!!

Just confirmed: Gnarls Barkley are performing a free, secret show at The Roxy in Los Angeles on April 28th! Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 7:30.

From Prefix LA Events:

In advance of their set at Coachella and the stateside release of their full-length debut, the quirky soul duo Gnarls Barkley (made up of singer Cee-Lo and producer Dangermouse) play a secret show, sponsored by Myspace. Wanna bet that they're gonna end the set with their hit single "Crazy," which recently hit #1 in England? Yeah, I thought not. This one's first come, first serve, so get there urrrrly. They'll only be on for 35 minutes, so you might even get out early enough to hit traffic on your way to the desert.

Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum as "DJ Jefferson Mangum"

For all of you Neutral Milk Hotel fans out there. 

DJ Jefferson Mangum's short-lived radio show on WFMU is available here: LISTEN
(There were playlists floating around at some point, good luck.)

The shows consist of Jefferson's sound collages and field recordings, some E6 classics, other assorted favorites and full album sides by Coltrane and Robert Wyatt. 

Headline to follow:  Jeff Mangum's Jefferson listens up 52% after P-fix review

'90s Radio

So I threw a party last Saturday and was readying the playlist on my Digital Jukebox (Dell's Ipod, it sucks) that plugs straight into the speaker set I have in my living room.  In order to make the playlist as long as possible I grabbed a bunch of music files off my hard-drive that I hadn't checked out in a while and downloaded them onto my Jukebox (seriously Ipod's are so much better).  Turns out I grabbed a bunch of '90s music that I hadn't listened to in forever.  So today I'm burning up the treadmill to all these great tracks that take me back to high school and I think to myself that when I get home I'll post a list on Prefixmag's message board about my top 6 favorite radio hits from the '90s.  The list would have read like this (no particular order):

1) Weezer - Say It Ain't So,

2) Stone Temple Pilots - Interstate Love Song,

3) Oasis - Don't Look Back in Anger,

4) Smashing Pumpkins - Muzzle,

5) Meat Puppets - Backwater,

6) Pearl Jam - Courdoroy.

Look at those names, all those bands are/were freakin' huge (exception being the Meat Puppets but they're not a one hit wonder even tho they only had one mainstream hit).  Weezer is still huge, Oasis just put an album out, PJ has develped a cult following and the message boards for the two defunct bands are still over-populated.  Then I went and took a shit with my new issue of Magnet that has the New Pornographers on the cover and flipped to the Back Page column where Phil Sheridan has an essay on the general shittiness of modern radio.

Kanye West: Late Registration (Album Stream)

Edit:  I've been told that only 2 minute snippets are available. weak.

Stream Kanye West's Late Registration at NME (NME?) (I need to put up a media linkage post it's been a long time.)

Stevie Wonder is a Musical Genius!

After participating in the Atlanta march to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Stevie Wonder swept into Harlem's historic Apollo Theatre for the "Secure The Rights Forever: Educate & Legistlate the Voting Rights Act" benefit concert. With A-listers like Nicole Kidman (whose seats were significantly further back than mine) and Natalie Portman (who had 2nd row center seats) in attendance, Stevie educated audience members about the need to renew the Voting Rights Act, cracked hella funnies (Re: the endurance of race, "The black can't come off but it can come out."), and performed many of his seventies hits.

Picks for Insound

The nice folks over at Insound are having a big sale, from now until Labor Day where new customers get 25% off their purchases.  They've also asked us to give them a list of top albums/downloads much like Brooklyn Vegan last week.  We avoided putting some albums on the list that have been discussed to no end (Sufjan Stevens, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bloc Party, Decemberists, Gorillaz, M.I.A.) and also tried our best not to duplicate BV's picks (Andrew Bird, Antony and the Johnsons, Stars, Feist, Thunderbirds Are Now!).

Here's our list and keep in mind that these albums are 15% off until August 9th.  Drum roll please....

13+God: 13+God
Akron/Family: Akron/Family
Bear vs. Shark: Terrorhawk
The Books: Lost and Safe
Edan: Beauty and the Beats
The Evens: The Evens
Hold Steady: Seperation Sunday
Iron & Wine: Woman King
Mahjongg: Raydoncong 2005
Okkervil River: Black Sheep Boy
Xiu Xiu: La Fortet

Future releases available for pre-order...
New Pornographers, Devendra Banhart, Juan Maclean, Sons & Daughters

Insound newsletter with the Prefix picks!

New releases this week...

Pretty weak week for releases, but there's always something worth buying.  Check out this week's previews by witty Prefix staffer Mike Krolak today.  Here's one of MK's previews:

Michael Penn
Mr. Hollywood Jr. 1947
SpinART
"With the connections this guy has, at least you can be certain the album title is right on. Hubby to Aimee Mann, composer for director P.T. Anderson, and older brother to actors Sean (maybe you’ve heard of him) and Chris (maybe you haven’t), Michael Penn happens to be a pretty damn solid songwriter in his own right. His new record for SpinART -- whom he shacked up with after troubles at Epic -- looks back to 1947 to draw parallels to today’s world, and he suggests Googling the song titles to help connect the dots. We’re not motivated enough to do that, but we will use that information to assume his brooding adult-contemporary pop is well researched and thoughtful. "

Related Links:
Coolfer's list of this week's notables
Large Hearted Boy's picks along with lots of DVDs

Warlocks at Scenic (07.28.05)

<---Pic taken with Treo (that's why it's so blurry.)
The Warlocks played a show at Scenic (E. Village) for a special early evening album preview show.  I wasn't too familiar with their past work and while I do have the upcoming album on my computer, it seems that I burned a copy protected version.  Basically, the version I have keeps skipping on every track, so it's unlistenable.  Having never been to Scenic, I was surprised that the downstairs venue was so small.  Maybe about the size of the Old Office at the Knitting Factory (fits 100 maybe).  The sound wasn't great, but the band was impressive.  I assume most of the crowd was press and friends, but in any case people seemed to enjoy it.  2 drummers, 3 guitarists, 1 bassist, 1 keyboardist playing some loud psychedelic rockin stuff on a tiny ass stage.  I just thought SexDrugsRockNRoll.  Also, look out for a CD review and a weird dating game type interview with the band in the coming weeks at Prefixmag.com.