Monthly Archives: June 2009

By Debra Alban-CNN

Michael Jackson was an international superstar, and many in the black community herald him for breaking down racial barriers in the music industry.
Michael Jackson was one of the first black global superstars.

“Michael Jackson made culture accept a person of color way before Tiger Woods, way before Oprah Winfrey, way before Barack Obama,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton. “Michael did with music what they later did in sports and in politics and in television. And no controversy will erase the historic impact.” [Read More]

By Richard Perez-Pena-NewYork Times

Vibe, one of the nation’s leading popular music magazines, is closing immediately, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Word was broken early this afternoon by the Web site dailyfinance.com and spread to other music and media news sites. The spokeswoman, Tracy Nguyen, said the Vibe staff would be formally notified in a meeting at 2 p.m. She said she did not know how many people would be laid off as a result of the closure. [Read More]

By Sarah Stern –NewYork Press

Brooklyn Vegan is reporting that Studio B is set to close by the end of July. The Greenpoint club, located at 259 Banker St., has already switched management once this year, opening a rowdy rooftop area that has angered sleepy neighbors. News of the closing of the popular venue has sparked a venomous exchange online, as commenters search for someone to blame for the demise. [Read More]

By Bloomberg News-NY Times

The Universal Music Group, owned by Vivendi, and other record labels were awarded $1.92 million on Thursday in the retrial of a Minnesota woman accused of swapping music over the Kazaa Internet service.

The federal jury in Minneapolis said the woman, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, of Brainerd, should pay $80,000 for each of the 24 songs that were posted on the site so others could download them. [Read More]

By Ben Sisario -NY Times

The sounds of the Velvet Underground echoed in the Virgin Megastore in Union Square on Sunday afternoon, as bargain-hunting passers-by and hard-core music shoppers poked through what few items remained at the last large-scale record store in New York City. [Read More]

By Swindle Magazine

Mike Giant’s career is the result of genuine curiosity and decades of drawing for five hours a day. He’s been—and remains—a world-class graffiti writer, tattooist and illustrator with his REBEL8 line. He’s made zines, skateboard designs, animations, prints, collages and stacks of interesting artist and company collaborations. He travels all over the world, rides his bikes, practices mindfulness, smokes a gang of weed, and is a fully tattooed goofball that one can bring to dinner parties. [Read More]

By Fact Magazine

Rvng Intl. , the New York label responsible for killer disco re-edits from the likes of Tim Sweeney, Lovefingers, Greg Wilson and Mock & Toof this week brings us the new project from Andre Bumrocks and Jason Convict!, Purple Brain.

Like JD Twitch’s RVNG punk “memoir”  60 Minutes / 10 Inches of Fear, Purple Brain’s self-titled offering is a vinyl + CD package. There’s a 7″ housing two new edits from Purple Brain,and a mix CD of rare-as-hen’s-teeth disco, freakbeat, drone, boogie, horrorcore and other shit that you’ll never, ever find yourself on vinyl. We’ll let RVNG explain in more depth: [Read More]

By Charly Wilder- The Village Voice

Tropicália in Furs, a hole-in-the-wall Brazilian record shop in the East Village, is the kind of place New Yorkers worry will disappear from the city forever. A tiny alternate universe where Technicolor dots bounce off glossy LP covers by Os Mutantes, the Cramps, and Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, it’s never crowded or empty, and the same affable connoisseur is always behind the counter. [Read More]