3000s

I walked into Brooklyn’s Crown Hill Theatre wondering what kind of set to expect at the first stop of André 3000’s New Blue Sun tour. I had never been to the Crown Heights venue; I didn’t know whether he would be on a bare stage or have chairs arranged in a big circle that he’d play in the middle of. How would he split the difference between being an artist performing for paying fans and being the far-removed, flute-carrying maverick who does what he wants? When I walked in, I saw a dark stage with four light…

Last week, the news that André 3000 would be releasing an album of instrumental flute jams was greeted with enough head-scratching to draw blood. But don’t tell that to Jake Fridkis, who plays principal flute with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. If you’ve heard DJ Khaled and Drake’s “No Secret” or Roddy Rich and Ty Dolla Sign’s “llf,” among others, you’ve heard his instrument, which was woven into the fabric of those tracks. “It’s now hit the point where people are saying, ‘Flute is the new instrument in rap,’”…

There have been hundreds upon hundreds of ambient music albums released this year, but there’s only one released by an elite-tier rapper with a 13-times-Platinum record under his overalls. In the 16 years since the tectonic-shifting Outkast went on hiatus, fans of the duo’s André 3000 have been clamoring for the superstar to deliver something more than the occasional knockout guest verse. Instead, he’s been following his arrow as a nomadic, bohemian troubadour playing his flute in airports, coffee shops, sidewalks and…

L.A.-based musician Matthew “Matthewdavid” McQueen is credited on Andre 3000’s debut solo album New Blue Sun as providing “mycelial electronics.” The 39-year-old founder of the record label and music collective Leaving released Mycelium Music in April, a record inspired by the interconnected networks of fungi and produced in large part using an open-source, script-based instrument called Norns, which allows users to create and manipulate sounds by breaking apart and stretching samples into grains or bits. When he got…

Cult-beloved cult-movie series Mystery Science Theater 3000 has big plans for its crowdfunded 14th season, with a 48-hour version of its traditional Thanksgiving marathon styled as a telethon to help it reach its goal. Ahead of next week’s “Mega Turkey Day Marathon Telethon,” io9 got a chance to talk to MST3K creator Joel Hodgson to learn more.Cheryl Eddy, io9: When Mystery Science Theater 3000 started in the late ‘80s, it singled out weird movies that were otherwise not on the radar of most fans. These days, it’s much…