December 5th 2008 @ Subterranean (2011 North Ave. Chicago)

AlwaysUrban is a proud sponsor of the Windy City Winter Ball.

Congrats to MPLS Henrys and Phillip Morris on the release of their albums.

Featuring…
MPLS Henrys (Album Release)
Phillip Morris (Album Release)
Dirty Diamonds

DJ Sets by…
Jive w/ special guest Artoo

Dario X

Tickets available on Subt.net

See you there in formal wear!

In the past two months Lovers in Arms have…


Finished their west coast tour
Dropped their album Strength for the Weary
Played a stupendous show at SubTs in Chicago.

Even after all that work Caroline and Armando still had the free time to answer a few questions about the formation of the band, how their sound came to be what it is, and the age old question “Which is better, bread bowl soup, or the mad hatter?”

READ THE INTERVIEW | Go see LiA Nov 11th @ Martys in Chicago

Oct. 23rd @ Alibi (116 MacDougal St, NYC)



featuring…

VJ Ralph McDaniels (Hot 97 WQHT NYC / Video Music Box)

DJ Ayres ( The Rub )
Kev Sakoda (KPSC / Happy Ending NYC / Trek Life)

Hosted by Jean Grae (okayplayer.com / blacksmith / warner bros)

Open bar by Vincent VanGogh Vodka

Sponsored by AlwaysUrban

Thursday 9/11 @ Lakeview Brodcasting Co.

3542 N. Halsted

10 p.m.- 2 a.m.

In collaboration with Chicago Dirty Girls , and dykesinthecity, Always Urban is proud to participate in….

“Spare some CHANGE?”

Party goers will bring in their spare change to donate to the Obama/Biden 08 ticket. Some people can spare some pennies while others may choose to spare a $20. People can also donate by participating in a raffle. Participants can win a hoodie from dykesinthecity (www.ditc.net), an Obama / Midnight Marauders tshirt from alwaysurban.com, Obama magnets, buttons and other political chachkas.

This is going to be the best jam since the Gum2 Political Party 2004 at Cinespace (how’s that for an obscure reference?).

More info available soon from Chicago Dirty Girls

I got into the AU office this morning, and I wasn’t sure what song I was going to put up for this week’s music download. First thing in my mailbox… Blake9’s new EP. Yahtzee! Thanks to Candlewax for sending this my way. Enjoy “Cold Rip” and look out for the EP dropping in May. Blake9’s myspace

A little from the Candlewax Press Release…

DJ/Producer Blake9 is releasing his first EP on Candlewax Records. After two recent 12-inch releases one with group Nine:Fifteen (Blake9 & Comel_15) titled Walking Thru Fire (2007) and the other titled Art For Art’s Sake (2006) with Count Bass D, the Candlewax Records founder is hoping to continue the label’s buzz with Crawl Before You Walk, another undeniably raw hip hop release from the label quickly establishing itself amongst the indie-elite.

* click here or above for download

Tanya Morgan Spring 2008 Tour Dates
March 25 - Gottrocks - Greenville SC
March 26 - The Graduate - Charlotte NC
March 27 - The Gypsy Hut - Cincinnati OH
March 30 - TBA - Toronto CA
April 3 - The Western Front - Cambridge MA
April 5 - Trinity College - Hartford CT
April 6 - Castaways - Ithaca NY
April 9 - Awful Arthurs - Roanoke VA
April 10 - Knitting Factory - New York City
April 11 - The Garage - Asheville NC
April 12 - Signal Fest - Chapel Hill NC
April 13 - The Soapbox - Wilmington NC
April 18 - The Note - Chicago IL**Sponsored by AlwaysUrban.com
April 22 - Univ of Nebraska @ Omaha NE

Stay Tuned @ http://www.myspace.com/tanyamorgan

Pop-Off’s newest disc got me through a REALLY hungover morning yesterday. Skyzoo kills his freestyle over Lupe Fiasco’s Superstar. Here’s the official word on it from Pop-Off Productions.

“While many artists and DJs step into the industry claiming to be the next king of their individual craft, only a chosen few are built with the potential to snatch the crown. Brooklyn phenom Skyzoo and Upstate New York’s premiere DJ, Don Notz (of Pop-Off Productions), represent the minority and have teamed up to present the future of East Coast hip-hop. With carefully selected features from the next generation of potent lyricists, Don Notz masterfully delivers the third chapter of Heirs To The Throne, 80 pavement cracking minutes of a promising future that will be appreciated by the masses.”

Download from Rapid Share

yours truly
-jive

The tirelessly creative band Radiohead has a new album coming out called “In Rainbows”. I haven’t heard any of the album yet, but the band is already generating a ton of press for the creative way that they are selling the album. Basically, you can choose to pay whatever you want to download the album as mp3 files. Additionally, there is a really intense, and feature-packed box set available for something like $60-80. So far, Radiohead’s management have stated that more fans have pre-ordered the box set, which has to serve as a huge FU to the music distribution hierarchy who surely won’t be able to fathom why fans might choose to pay something for music that they could otherwise get for free.

I’m a casual fan of Radiohead, I’m setting my personal price for “In Rainbows” at about $6. But truthfully, I wouldn’t even be thinking about buying it otherwise unless one of my friends told me it was exceptional. Now I’m interested just because I respect their balls.

Amazon.com launched their online music download platform today. I’m gonna give it the once over ASAP, but you gotta love being able to download music without iTunes file encoding. I give Apple serious props for helping to kick-start the digital music age, but having a MP4 that I can play on my iPod, but not on my Treo is busted. The free market is gonna kick MP3 encoding right in the nuts.

Well now that Web 2.0 is kicking-it-liiive it’s definitely not just about what you know, but what everyone you have ever known, and not known, has ever known, and does Kevin Bacon know all that shit? So there are now tons of websites that are gathering tons of data and trying to help you find something new. Well I’m putting my seal-of-approval on Pandora.com. It is a free “radio” website that creates a station based on information you provide, basically the name of a band you dig. As you vote on the songs the station plays, the website alters the playlist.

To make a long story short, you type in a band you love, this tool will help you find some new music. This is similar software that can be found on other web-radio sites, but Pandora takes it a step further by analyzing each song as it’s played and applying that logic to try and understand what you dig. I dig, I dig.