June 3, 2013 – Traxman, a leading ambassador of Chicago's footwork style, was shot in the leg during an armed robbery in his home city. Traxman's latest album Da Mind of Traxman was, along with his fellow Teklife crew member DJ Rashad's TEKLIFE Vol. 1 - Welcome to the Chi, among SPIN's 50 Best Albums of 2012. As FACT points out, label Planet Mu has set up a fundraising campaign for Traxman, born Cornelius Ferguson. The campaign has already raised more than twice its $500 goal, which was to cover the $250 that Traxman lost in the robbery as well as the cost of replacing his stolen passport. The robbery took place while Traxman was walking to a local store, the label says, adding that "Traxman is in good spirits and on the mend." The incident comes after AraabMuzik was shot while being robbed about a month ago.

June 3, 2013 – London's Gold Panda releases new album Half of Where You Live on June 11 via Ghostly International, and he is streaming the whole thing now over on his Tumblr. The producer known only as Derwin has previously shared the sample-fluttering "Brazil" and the more tranquil but still percussively percolating "We Work Nights" from the LP, his first since 2010's lush, textured Lucky Shiner. Charli XCX's "You (Ha Ha Ha)" sampled a shining Lucky track, and Panda also produced Sole's "Extremophile." Now we can hear what the Gold fella has been up to these past couple of years, and on first pass it's as warm and promising as you'd expect.Stream Gold Panda's Half of Where You Live here.

June 3, 2013 – The Roots went back to their Philadelphia roots on Friday to witness the unveiling of a new mural painted as a tribute to them. "This is one of the greatest moments of our career," drummer Ahrmir "?uestlove" Thompson said, as quoted by the AP. Fellow Roots co-founder Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter, who previously recalled being ordered to scrub such murals after a vandalism bust, reportedly called the painting "an honor and a blessing."The mural on the back of the World Communications Charter School is located near the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, where ?uestlove and Black Thought started the Roots as students. The mural also happens to be on South Street, where the Roots members busked for change in the early '90s.

June 3, 2013 – Lou Reed has a new liver, and he's sounding magnificently upbeat about it."I am a triumph of modern medicine, physics, and chemistry," the former Velvet Underground frontman wrote in a Facebook post. He continued, referring to his decades-long study of chai: "I am bigger and stronger than ever. My Chen Taiji and health regimen has served me well all of these years, thanks to Master Ren Guang-yi. I look forward to being on stage performing, and writing more songs to connect with your hearts and spirits and the universe well into the future."The post was Reed's first official statement since Laurie Anderson, his wife and the avant-garde artist, told the Times of London he won't "ever totally recover" from the liver transplant.

June 3, 2013 – The title character of "Diane Young," who sets fire to a Saab, is responsible for the "craziest thing anybody does" on Vampire Weekend's Essential new album, Modern Vampires of the City, SPIN's Mike Powell wrote. With a directing credit for Primo Kahn, whose name yields little else in online searches, the "Diane Young" video isn't that crazy, but it's packed with amusing hijinks. The band members are gathered around a long table reminiscent of Leonardo Da Vinci's classic "The Last Supper" painting; joining them for an unusual meal are Santigold, Sky Ferreira, Dirty Projectors' Dave Longstreth, the Walkmen's Hamilton Leithauser, and Chromeo. The question everyone will be left asking, though: "Who's that looking psychotic in a balaclava?"See also: The Vampire Weekipedia: A Glossary of Terms

June 3, 2013 – Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings still plan to Give the People What They Want, but first the soul-funk flame-keepers have to take care of their own medical needs.Jones has received a diagnosis of stage-one bile duct cancer, her reps have announced. Luckily, doctors found the cancer early, and it hasn't spread. Jones is expected to make a full recovery, according to the announcement, but the invasive and complex surgical procedure involved will require a fairly long convalescence.Give the People What They Want, Jones & the Dap-Kings' follow-up to 2010's I Learned the Hard Way, has been pushed back from its planned August 6 release date to an unspecified later time. The band's touring plans have also been canceled, but the announcement promises they will be rescheduled.

June 3, 2013 – "Sending good thoughts to Mookie," Pearl Jam wrote in an Instagram post over the weekend, along with a photo of former NBA point guard Mookie Blaylock in a New Jersey Nets jersey. Blaylock, who was part of a car accident on Friday afternoon, has longstanding significance for the band. In fact, Pearl Jam's original name was Mookie Blaylock, and they titled their landmark 1991 debut, Ten, after Blaylock's uniform number.Jeff Ament, Pearl Jam's bassist, told the New York Times the connection goes back to when he, Eddie Vedder, and the band's other original members would open packs of baseball cards during their early days of recording. "One of the cards that went to my manager, and ended up in a cassette, was Mookie's card," Ament told the Times. "Fast-forward a couple of weeks: We got offered the Alice in Chains tour on the West Coast.

May 31, 2013 – Adrian Grenier is growing his Entourage. The actor and entrepreneur best known as the HBO show's fictitious movie star Vince Chase opened up a recording studio in his Brooklyn home's basement last May, calling it Wreckroom. More than 50 artists have made use of the space for free engineering time, recording equipment, and video sessions.Now, Wreckroom has added Wreckroom Records. As a redesigned website shows, Wreckroom has now started to release EPs and has also begun a new video series of cover songs, appropriately titled "Under the Covers." Two bands, Missouri "punk 'n' roll" trio Radkey and metal-spined Brooklyn five-piece the Skins, are each set to release EPs on the label this summer.Watch clips from both bands, recorded at the Wreckroom, below.

May 31, 2013 – For at least one couple, last week's American Idol season finale resulted in a drunken mutual stabbing. Thankfully, Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey found a more graceful way to cap a season in which the show's ratings hit an all-time low: They're leaving it, hasta la vista.In a tweet yesterday, Minaj officially confirmed her previously reported departure. She wrote: "Thank you American Idol for a life changing experience! Wouldn't trade it for the world! Time to focus on the Music!!! Mmmuuuaahhh!!!" Earlier this week, Her Pinkness had told Hot 97 radio host Pete Rosenberg, in a beef-quashing interview, "I agree that Nicki Minaj should focus on rap." Idol's loss could be hip-hop heads' gain.Carey also confirmed her exit via tweet thanks to her PR firm, PMK-BNC.

May 31, 2013 – Daft Punk may have left behind the electronic dance music they helped popularize, but their world-conquering Random Access Memories hasn't been the only new release causing drooling among club-music mavens in recent months.  Breaking Out brother duo Disclosure will release their debut album Settle in their native Britain on Monday, and they've already unveiled plenty of tracks that expertly blend recent strains of U.K.