By Bloomberg News-NY Times

The Universal Music Group, owned by Vivendi, and other record labels were awarded $1.92 million on Thursday in the retrial of a Minnesota woman accused of swapping music over the Kazaa Internet service.

The federal jury in Minneapolis said the woman, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, of Brainerd, should pay $80,000 for each of the 24 songs that were posted on the site so others could download them. [Read More]

By Ben Sisario -NY Times

The sounds of the Velvet Underground echoed in the Virgin Megastore in Union Square on Sunday afternoon, as bargain-hunting passers-by and hard-core music shoppers poked through what few items remained at the last large-scale record store in New York City. [Read More]

By Swindle Magazine

Mike Giant’s career is the result of genuine curiosity and decades of drawing for five hours a day. He’s been—and remains—a world-class graffiti writer, tattooist and illustrator with his REBEL8 line. He’s made zines, skateboard designs, animations, prints, collages and stacks of interesting artist and company collaborations. He travels all over the world, rides his bikes, practices mindfulness, smokes a gang of weed, and is a fully tattooed goofball that one can bring to dinner parties. [Read More]

By Fact Magazine

Rvng Intl. , the New York label responsible for killer disco re-edits from the likes of Tim Sweeney, Lovefingers, Greg Wilson and Mock & Toof this week brings us the new project from Andre Bumrocks and Jason Convict!, Purple Brain.

Like JD Twitch’s RVNG punk “memoir” 60 Minutes / 10 Inches of Fear, Purple Brain’s self-titled offering is a vinyl + CD package. There’s a 7″ housing two new edits from Purple Brain,and a mix CD of rare-as-hen’s-teeth disco, freakbeat, drone, boogie, horrorcore and other shit that you’ll never, ever find yourself on vinyl. We’ll let RVNG explain in more depth: [Read More]

By Charly Wilder- The Village Voice

Tropicália in Furs, a hole-in-the-wall Brazilian record shop in the East Village, is the kind of place New Yorkers worry will disappear from the city forever. A tiny alternate universe where Technicolor dots bounce off glossy LP covers by Os Mutantes, the Cramps, and Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, it’s never crowded or empty, and the same affable connoisseur is always behind the counter. [Read More]

By DumboNYC

A collaboration by a group called 303 Collectives (named for the studio number at 135 Plymouth Street in Dumbo) painted the Water Street wall (between Jay and Pearl Streets) over the Memorial Day weekend. I spoke with Craig Anthony Miller (aka Cam) yesterday, who was kind enough to speak about how it got started and the images in the painting while traveling in his car. 303 artists include Cam, Demon 202, Tron, John Breiner and One 9 (who wasn’t there for the painting). [Read More]

By Sean Joseph-amNY

They work long hours and have to put up with rain, sleet, snow and hail — but unlike postal workers, they have to do it while hanging on the side of a building.

New York’s mural artists are hardly a vanishing breed — this boutique business is still a big draw among companies looking to stand out amid the city’s sea of billboards and hanging mesh ads. [Read More]

By Metro

They might play the hottest dance clubs from Paris to Ibiza and Tokyo to Milan during the weekends, but on school nights, wunderkind tech-house DJs The Martinez Brothers spend their time hanging in their parents’ basement in Monroe, New York. [Read more]

By Matt Harvey & Jamie Peck-NYPress

With the June 9 release of its latest album (and first for local indie Matador) quickly approaching, Sonic Youth—one of the most influential New York rock bands of all time—seems to be coming home to roost.
Not only is the group putting out records with a small, New York–based label, but its members have spent the past week skulking downtown—below Delancey Street even!— and making it known that despite having a few decades on the kids making today’s noisy rock music, they’re still a force to be reckoned with. Without further ado, this week’s all–Sonic Youth “Bash Compactor.” [Read More]