blackbook.Image24971.governorsba

Coachella and Bonnaroo have both claimed the year’s most popular and simultaneously unpopular band, Arcade Fire, to headline their annual music festivals. Now, New York will make a push to be noticed on the summer circuit with the first-ever Governors Ball Music Festival. The one-day, two-stage, twelve-hour concert extravaganza will take place on Governors Island, June 18, and has been billed as “a massive mid-summer dance party of epic proportions.”

more
blackbook.Image23035.100928-Rich

Passion Pit and Tokyo Police Club manager Rich Cohen first became obsessed with music in seventh grade, when he heard They Might Be Giants’ sophomore album, Lincoln. But he didn’t think his piano skills were polished enough for him to become a musician himself, so he set his sights on the next best music business career: band management. Cohen got his start in the business interning at Filter magazine and temping at Virgin Records, which led to a full-time job as the day-to-day manager of Interpol and Elefant. In 2006, he formed his own management company and signed indie rockers Tokyo Police Club. Fast-forward three years, and he added his second client, the catchy, synth-pop band, Passion Pit, to the roster. Rich credits his work ethic, methodical nature, and psychology degree from Syracuse University for his success as a manager. Here’s Rich on social networking, interns, and taking the bands home to meet his parents.

more
blackbook.Image15335.laracroft.j

• Should Brad Pitt go all Tiger Woods on Angelina Jolie and a split becomes imminent, Jolie gets full custody of the kids. Their joint $330 million fortune will be split 50/50. [DListed] • Kristen Stewart on her new stripper movie: "It's about understanding who you're playing and you have a responsibility because you feel like you can't let them down." [MTV] • All because of Susan Boyle: The Scottish delicacy haggis could make a poignant comeback in the U.S. for the first time in 20 years. [The Press Association]

more
blackbook.Image13048.passion_pit

Passion Pit: we gotta have a talk. Sit down. Let's discuss this "Little Secrets" video for a moment. Your album, which I think I once read described as akin to "diving head-first into a ball-pit filled with MDMA-stocked grapes," still sounds fresh after months of good listening. You're not a band that needs music videos; instead, you're a band who -- and I'm a huge fan -- needs to work on making live performances more substantial, and a band that needs to put money where mouths (and high-pitched voices that will wreak hell on vocal chords) are. Instead, what time, effort, and cash have you spent on music videos? Put it somewhere else. And if you've got to spend it on videos, this one? "Little Secrets" is my favorite track on the album. This treatment's just lazy.

more
blackbook.Image12072.30412852-30

The Notorious B.I.G. isn't going anywhere, anytime soon. Tupac may put out posthumous album after posthumous album, but B.I.G.'s rhymes apparently live forever, and ever, and ever. Nowhere is there better evidence of this than in the mashups produced with his tracks mashed into them in it year after year. The latest batch aren't too new, but they are nothing short of stellar, and we've rounded them up: teen popster Miley Cyrus gets her party on, epic post-punk/R & B revivalists The xx go "Runnin" with B.I.G. and 'Pac, MGMT gets their electric felt, and Passion Pit goes toe to toe with Biggie Smalls and Beyoncé Knowles.

more
blackbook.Image11908.phoenix452_

Phoenix has finally -- finally -- released a remix album for their career-changing and year-end-list-destined Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. After the disappointing Wolfgang Diaries which, once procured by hardcore fans, were found to have nothing more than 40-someodd insubstantial demos of boring studio tweaks, it was time they gave us something more to go with what still is many people's favorite album of the year. Better demos! An albums of entirely acoustic tracks! Anything. And we got remixes, some of which are meh, some of which are decent, and some of which are great. There's even a special appearance by none other than 2009's Indie Rock A-List: Animal Collective and Passion Pit, with special appearances by Chairlift, Friendly Fires, and Devendra Banhart, and others. After the jump, the breakdown, and where to find them.

more