By far the most exciting thing to happen this morning besides Kanye West’s idiocy is the official announcement of a new hip-hop project lead by the Black Keys and MC Jim Jones. Entitled Blakroc, the collaboration’s first album is due out November 27th.
Featured guests include Mos Def, RZA, Raekwon, Q-Tip, Ludacris, Pharoahe Monch, M.O.P.’s Billy [...]

Photos by Jay and Laura; words by Anna.
Outside Lands 2009 could have been a lot of things: a failure, a disappointment, a misplaced attempt to draw a wider range of music fans. The slightly off-kilter lineup largely paid tribute to the ’90s (Pearl Jam, Incubus, Dave Matthews Band, Q-Tip and The Beastie Boys — before [...]

With so many bands (over 90 at last count) ready to diverge on San Francisco for the second annual Outside Lands Festival this weekend, we thought it’d be helpful to provide some playlists so you know what to look forward to.
Below are samples of all bands playing on Friday. We’ll roll out new playlists tomorrow [...]

Initial announcements regarding the lineup at this year’s Outside Lands Festival may have received a more varied reaction, seeing as it branches pretty far beyond the more indie-centric lineup of 2008. Perhaps this announcement of the OSL daily schedule will help sway those teetering on the “not-sure-how-I-feel-about-the-Black-Eyed-Peas” fence.
Single-day tickets go on sale here on June [...]

The organizers of Outside Lands announced the initial lineup for the festival’s second year. The three headliners are Pearl Jam, Beastie Boys and Dave Matthews Band. Bay Area acts include The Dodos, John Vanderslice and The Morning Benders. Here’s the full lineup:

[The Blogmine is a weekly feature where your fearless Stranger Dance staffers dig up all the gold hidden around the blogosphere. Feel free to pass along any interesting stories we may miss.]

Is “Little Dealer Boy” a new Christmas classic? Umm, yes. [Wired Listening Post]
The coming Colbert/Kanye apocalypse will spare nobody (yes, we’re on a Colbert [...]

What’s cookin’ for this episode of Panther Picks? First, we start with a pinch of Department of Eagles – a band I heard about from the Stranger. I’ll go on record right now and say that I think Grizzly Bear is a bit overrated, but DOE is interesting enough to post (and besides, my song’s [...]

Here’s a quick roundup of some of the best out there:

Todd Martens reviews Wilco’s five days back home in Chicago [Extended Play @ LA Times]
Long-lost album from one-third of seminal hip-hop crew A Tribe Called Quest [The Good, The Bad, and the Unknown]
Mike Doughty released acoustic videos in support of new album, Golden Delicious [...]