Here They Come: The Roots Make Rare 2011 Stateside Festival Appearance at Outside Lands (OLF Preview)

Staples of hip-hop culture for over two decades, and now - more or less staples of mainstream entertainment and pop culture, The Roots have achieved iconic status.

Formerly having toured over 200 hundred dates a year, the Jimmy Fallon house band has now found a comfortable home not being on the road. While that might mean we get to enjoy a brief dosage of their amazing skill on a nightly basis - it means less of the free flowing Black Thought spearheaded hip-hop medleys and crushing percussion of Knuckles and ?uestlove.

But, at Outside Lands Festival 2011 we do get that dosage. Hopefully at least an hour. Preferably a full two. Its not like they don't have the material. Essentially 10* albums deep (* - depends how you judge Wake Up with John Legend) - and well over a hundred tracks of original material - you'd hope they headline a night. At least I do. I've been a Roots junky since the 90s.

At OLF, no matter how long they play, expect to hear some old gems, definitely Here I Come (the Fallon theme song) and quite possibly, something from their rumored forthcoming album. I hope to get a handsome dosage of Legendary material from Things Fall Apart and/or Illadelph Halflife.

BTB Review of Hood Internet @ Troubadour

This is a guest post submitted by Zachary Siegal-Eisman of BeforeBigs.com from Friday's show at The Troubadour featuring The Hood Internet and Wallpaper.

Arriving at Troubadour around 9:40, it was about 5 minutes into The Hood Internet's set and immediately I noticed how almost everybody was dancing and had their hands in the air. Although only 1/2 of The Hood Internet was present for the show, he still got the party started with upbeat mashups displaying his ear for mixing hip-hop vocals with instrumentals from a song in a completely different genre.

Here's one of my favorites which I enjoyed hearing live.

The Hood Internet - Good Ol' Fashion Rump Shaker (Beastie Boys x Matt & Kim)

The headliner was electronica/dance hip-pop group Wallpaper.

REST OF POST REMOVED AT REQUEST OF WALLPAPER.'S REPRESENTATION.

OMFG - BOWIE IS BACK!

Now, I may have been fooled by someone else's April Fools post, but given it is One Thirty BPM as the source - I am going to cross my fingers and hope for the best. This would mean that yes, it is finally f'ing true, David Bowie is going to hit the road again.

Not as a surprise Coachella guest or even next years headliner. Rather, Bowie is boasting afinal farewell episode of 12 shows in some of the worlds biggest cities - including London, Madrid, Rome, Berlin and 6 lucky locations in the United States.

Not only will Bowie be closing the dozen show run in Los Angeles at The Staples Center on August 10, 2012, it is rumored that Trent Reznor will bring the Nine Inch Nails out of retirement to support the legend. Talk about an amazing bill of talent!

Tickets will only be available via phone in at 1-800-277-3665 starting at 1 pm. Please for the love of god this better not be a hoax.