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By Keir Bristol

It’s been a busy, drama-filled week!

Wednesday, November 24- Music blog On Joyful Wings put together an album of Sufjan Steven’s covers… all of the songs are from Seven Swans. Check out the track list for Seven Swans Reimagined here. [via You Aint No Picasso]

Thursday, November 25- Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Drake, Kanye West give concert for Thanksgiving at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. [via Billboard's The Juice]
Check out the videos here:  New York Thanksgiving Concert featuring Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, Rihanna, Drake video 1
video 2

Friday, November 26- Lil Kim drops “Black Friday,” a diss directed at Nicki Minaj in response to her song “Roman’s Revenge” featuring Eminem, rumored to be about Kim. Listen to the diss track here.

Lil Kim, aka Queen Bee

Click here to read a list of the Black Friday Record Store Day exclusive releases, provided by BrooklynVegan.com.

Saturday, November 27- Time for some holiday albums!

• Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks- Crazy for Christmas
• The Puppini Sisters- Christmas with the Puppini Sisters
• Scott Miller- Christmas Gift

Sunday, November 28- MTV debuts Nicki Minaj’s music documentary “My Time Now” at 10 pm EST, one week following the release of hew new album, Pink Friday.

Nicki Minaj is named the New Queen of Hip Hop by Rolling Stone

Monday, November 29- According to the New York Times, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has taken down a number of piracy sites, including torrent-finder.com, onsmash.com, rapgodfathers.com, and dajaz1.com.

Alternative supergroup Wolf Parade goes on an indefinite hiatus. [via Pitchfork]

Wolf Parade

Jamie of the Xx remixes Gil Scott-Heron’s I’m New Here. [via Pitchfork]
Check out a video of the remixed “New York Is Killing Me” here.

Tuesday, November 30- Sony Music apologizes to Bradford Cox of the Atlas Sound/Deerhunter for accidentally forcing him to remove demos made in his bedroom from his blog, according to BrooklynVegan.com. Neither the Atlas Sound or Deerhunter are signed to Sony Music. “Apparently Sony Music owns my bedroom,” said Cox of the confusion. Links to the demos here.

Picture of Nicki Minaj taken by Edward Keating and provided by RollingStone.com.
Picture of Wolf Parade provided by Wikipedia.com.

By Kate Winderman

Last weekend my friends and I went to Ireland. I was mostly looking forward to being able to communicate successfully with people without second guessing everything I ever said, having access to tea at all hours of the day, and eating lots of pastries and hearty foods that aren’t pasta. Each of those goals were accomplished.

On Friday we took a bus from Dublin to Galway. The bus ride was about 4 hours long, but the time really flew by because the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. There wasn’t anything particularly out of the ordinary to look at, but there was green fields everywhere you turned. Rome doesn’t have green things. It was a nice change. Once we got to Galway, we had a delicious lunch: soup and sandwich. Yes, it’s simple, but it isn’t pure carbs. Then we walked around the main part of the city for a while, saw the cathedral, and eventually made our way back to the bus station for our ride back to Dublin. We grabbed some Indian food and went to bed early.

Saturday was our day to explore Dublin. Looking at the map of the city was completely overwhelming, as there were so many highlighted areas of things to see and do. We could easily get around on foot which was nice, and we didn’t really have a set itinerary except for seeing the Guiness factory toward the end of the day. So our afternoon was spent seeing Christchurch and St. Patrick’s, visiting Trinity College (where Oscar Wilde and many other prominent people studied), shopping, and visiting various shops. The Guiness Storehouse, our next activity, was really interesting. We got to see how Guiness is made, and got a free drink in the end of the tour in a bar that overlooked the whole city!

That night, we went to Temple Bar, which is the area where tourists and the Irish tend to spend their evenings. We found a bar that was playing live music, which was such an opposition to what we are used to in Rome. Everyone was so jolly, and as the evening went on, they actually whipped out an Irish jig. What could be better?

Jennifer and Me in the Guiness bar overlooking Dublin

By Keir Bristol

I am aware that a lot of my readers will not be able to attend the infamous CMJ festival in New York this week. But for those who are, allow this blog entry to serve as a guide through CMJ (and for those who aren’t, feel free to live vicariously through this blog post.)

CMJ Music Schedule

As you can see CMJ has a very extensive schedule with very few breaks in between. Allow the Music Insider to point out the (potentially) coolest shows for you.

Tuesday, October 19:

• Yo La Tengo, Dom, Screaming Females and Dâm-Funk at BROOKLYN BOWL. Yo La Tengo is an indie band from Hoboken, New Jersey somewhat similar to Sonic Youth and Pavement, except a little more dreamy-pop. Screaming Females is a punk-ish band, also from New Jersey. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing the Screaming Females live last summer- See them live if you can, but if not check them out here. Dâm-Funk is a funk DJ sure to have you dancing!

Yo La Tengo

Wednesday, October 20:

• Head over to Webster Hall today to check out indie rock bands The Drums and Surfer Blood. Surfer Blood has been compared to bands such as Weezer and Pavement. The Drums are a little more Shangri-La’s meet the Smiths. Click the names of the bands to listen!
• Phoenix, Dirty Projectors, and Wavves at Madison Square Garden. Preview French Grammy-award winning band Phoenix here. Dirty Projectors are an experimental rock band from Brooklyn that have been around since 2002, but especially came into the spotlight with 2009’s Bitte Orca. Check them out here. Wavves is a noise-pop band from California- but even if I didn’t tell you, you’d be able to tell that they were from Cali from the music.

Phoenix

Thursday, October 21:

• The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, the Blow, Screaming Females at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart are a lo-fi indie-pop band (think Girls), and the Blow can be compared to Matteah Baim or Mirah.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – Say No To Love // The Blow // Hey Boy (Live in London)

Friday, October 22:

• Ghostface Killah, Sheek Louch, Frank Dukes, GLC at B.B. King’s. Ghostface Killah of the Wu-Tang Clan! Need I say more? If you need some more hip-hop, check out Sheek Louch, Frank Dukes and GLC!

Ghostface Killah – \”Back Like That\” featuring Ne-Yo

Saturday, October 23:

• Surfer Blood, Neon Indian, Dom, Wild Nothing, Lower Dens, Lia Ices, Lord Huron at the Bowery Ballroom. Wild Nothing is a one-man band headed by Jack Tatum similar to My Bloody Valentine. Check out Lord Huron if you’re feeling a little tropical…or psychedelic.. or both. Lia Ices is a singer-songwriter comparable to Anni Rossi. Lower Dens will provide you with some indie dream-pop while DOM mixes it up with some surf-punk.

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