Still a relative newcomer in the world of festivals, the Bay Area’s Treasure Island Music Festival is now planning for a third year of its two-day music extravaganza, with 2009 dates set for October 17 and 18. The event will, as it does every year, take place on that man-made island halfway between San Francisco and the East Bay.

Once again the Noise Pop crew takes the reins on this one, alongside Bay Area-based concert producers Another Planet Entertainment. Anyone attending last year will recall the ferris wheel smack in the middle of the two outdoor stages, performances from Hot Chip, Goldfrapp, Mike Realm, Foals, CSS, TV on the Radio, and Justice, and abnormally tasty, reasonably priced food for sale. Noise Pop is promising that this edition of the festival will be “the best yet,” so stay tuned for lineup and ticket information, which will be announced in early summer.

News stations have been abuzz lately with the slayings of four Oakland, CA police officers at the end of March, but not everyone views the situation—or Oakland’s violent history in general—as a black-and-white, good guys-versus-bad guys scenario. Zion I’s MC Zumbi—an artist often known for his politically conscious lyrics—is digging a little deeper into the matter with a new track he created alongside Trackmasters producer ARE as The Burnerz, but there’s more to “Cops Hate Kidz” than its pointed name lets on.

Zumbi and ARE penned the track in response to the aforementioned slayings, but also as a rebuttal to the January murder of 22-year-old Oscar Grant, who was unarmed and shot execution-style at an Oakland public-transit station. “We feel that the tragedies that we are witnessing can be attributed to the long history of police brutality experienced in the black and brown communities,” explains Zumbi of the track, that, through its heated lyrics and ARE’s hard-hitting beats and rhythms, exposes the double-sided nature of the situation.

“It is our hope to fuel discussion about ways that the police can better ‘protect and serve’ the community, rather than abuse and exploit their power,” Zumbi continues. “As we move towards a ‘new America,’ it will be important that we learn to work together. The old models are falling before our eyes. This is our opportunity to engage change.”

He’ll likely share more of his message this spring, as Zion I is currently on a North American tour that runs until mid-May. In the meantime, you can hear “Cops Hate Kidz” right here:

Stream: “Cops Hate Kidz”

Dates:
04/01 Riverside, CA – University of California Riverside’s Belltower
04/02 Santa Barbara, CA – Velvet Jones
04/03 Santa Cruz, CA – University of California Santa Cruz
04/04 Sacramento, CA – Empire
04/05 Arcata, CA – Humboldt Brew
04/07 Eugene, OR – WOW Hall
04/08 Seattle, WA – Neumo’s
04/09 Portland, OR – Berbati’s Pan
04/11 Bellingham, WA – Nightlight Lounge
04/12 Whistler, BC – Garfinkel’s
04/13 Vancouver, BC – The Modern
04/17 Missoula, MT – The Badlander
04/18 Bozeman, MT – Zebra Lounge
04/20 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
04/21 Colorado Springs, CO – Black Sheep
04/24 Minneapolis, MN – McNally College
04/25 Aspen, CO – Belly Up Tavern
04/28 Park City, UT – Star Bar
05/01 San Francisco, CA – Slim’s
05/07 Chicago, IL – Morseland
05/11 London, ON – Call the Office
05/12 Rochester, NY – Dubland Underground

zumbi

As the compact disc creeps closer to its slow and painful demise, another artifact from the past—vinyl—is still basking in all of its glory with a new, inclusive pictorial guide entitled Extraordinary Records. Presented in collaboration with Colors magazine, the book features a striking and colorful array of 400-plus images of vinyl albums (sans the covers) owned by collectors and Extraordinary Records contributors Alessandro Benedetti and Peter Bastine.

From countless designs and colors that include gold and clear records and splatter, marble, and beautiful picture discs dating back to the 1970s, this pair of record heads share an impressive 16,000 records between the two of them, while the book’s author, Italian producer and songwriter Giorgio Moroder, documents these recordings, including releases by The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Prince, and many more along the way. One page of the book showcases Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here on breathtaking picture discs, while another provides a stunning batch of odd-shaped novelties in the form of hearts and seashells. There’s even a slab of vinyl with a giant white whale in tow from sludge metal kingpins Mastodon. If you have an hour to do some skimming, Extraordinary Colors will definitely not disappoint.

Extraordinary Records is available through Taschen for $39.99.

According to reports from clubland, Hyperdub label boss Kode9 isn’t sticking strictly to dubstep these days when playing out. Sets in Europe, according to our friends at Resident Advisor, have veered into that ill-described new musical movement known as “wonky” (a style that may or may not be named after ketamine), which blends trip-hop and 8-bit sounds, both of which have made their way into Kode9’s sets.

Wonky or not, he’ll probably be taking these new elements with him when he flies Stateside this month for a handful of North American shows. He’ll play two California performances with Flying Lotus before a doing few solo dates in major U.S. cities. This trip will also mark his first spot at Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder event. Perhaps he’s incorporating those new musical styles into his set to prepare for his upcoming appearance at Coachella, not exactly a typical dubstep destination (though Hyperdub taking over indie rock land would make for an interesting experiment).

Catch him at one of these dates:

0/09 Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret
04/10 Los Angeles, CA – The Echoplex *
04/11 San Francisco, CA – Mighty *
04/14 Chicago, IL – Sonotheque
04/15 Boston, MA – Good Life
04/16 New York, NY – Brainfeeder @ Love
04/17 New York, NY – American Museum of Natural History
04/18 Indio, CA – Coachella

* = w/ Flying Lotus

Photo by Georgina Cook.