For the fourth year in a row, I made pilgrimage to the Live at Leeds Festival. The three day heading takes place over the May Bank Holiday weekend, showcasing local and national talent. The main attraction is the All-Day event on the Saturday which involves you being able to witness all kinds of music from 12:00 to 00:00 across the city in a variety of venues for around£20. This year the line-up exceeded anything from previous years with headliners including Peace, Alunageorge, Tribes, Rudimental, Everything Everything and Darwin Deez. But it’s not all about the big names, the day showcased [...]
In 2010, Sweetgreen’s first ever Sweetlife Festival rocked the back parking lot of the Dupont Circle location. I remember dancing to a Hot Chip DJ set next to a Toyota Camry with my hallmates. The capacity of the lot was about 150. Three years later, I drove to the mammoth Merriweather Post Pavilion for the festival, expanded to host huge acts like Kendrick Lamar and Phoenix, with an estimated audience of 20,000. It’s not just salad anymore, either - the fest boasted a gourmet food selection that rivals that of food festivals, with mac and cheese food trucks and [...]
This past weekend marked the sixth annual Downtown Music Festival — a miniature SXSW-style event featuring plenty of new, rising artists, scattered across multiple NYC venues, all within a one-mile radius. A seasoned festival goer knows there are two approaches to these types of festivals: choose a venue and watch all the artists playing there, or exert the most mental and physical energy possible by attempting to catch multiple sets at overlapping venues. Of course, we chose the latter, knowing exactly what we were getting ourselves into. Sort of. Racing to six or seven shows a night in [...]
Sundance London Festival (25-28 April '13) // Words: Alison Potter & Saam Das The Robert Redford -founded Sundance festival returned to The O2 in London recently for its second edition, and impressed again after last year's Sundance London debut . Alison and Saam managed to pop down to the 2013 fest to check out some of the finest (and not so finest) films on offer. Perhaps the most notable film highlight was [...]
Note: For weekend one's coverage, which included write ups for Billy Joel, Dr. John, Dave Matthews Band, et al., click here . With all the great music during New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival , it’s good to be reminded that before the Internet, personal computer, television, radio, or even telecommunications as a whole, the city was America’s 19th- and early 20th-century capital for culture. Blues from the rural South funneled into the bustling port city. Improvisation combined with African rhythms and blue notes would turn that blues into jazz. The zeitgeist would flee to [...]
The Internet's constant rush of new music is great. But time and time again, audiences come back to the old stuff. As of last year, catalog sales outpace new music sales . People who lived in the era of whatever that "old stuff" is seek it out for nostalgia and young people who never lived in that music's era long for a time in music history they never lived in. But how does the constant rush of quality new music get winnowed down and become “old stuff” or canon? Converting the varied ages at New Orleans Jazz & [...]
As the late great George Harrison taught us, “all things must pass.” Though the ex-Beatle was mainly referring to cloudbursts, sunsets, and the finality of life itself, this nugget of bedrock wisdom rings no less true for our pilgrimage to Coachella’ s exuberant fusion of gluttonous music consumption and skimpy neon ensembles. Sunday saw festivalgoers sporting looser fitting, more modest attire, and the generally mellow mood was a well-earned change of pace following Friday’s frantic nerves and Saturday’s purposeful navigating. But something about our excesses this past weekend must have angered the rock deities. As night descended, [...]
As ticketholders shuffled onto the grounds for Day 2, it was apparent that the newfound and hard-earned wisdom following Friday’s rookie mistakes drove a slew of essential tweaks and adjustments. Some blessed out patrons sporting cringe-inducing red welts lathered on the SPF 50 (it’s the desert folks, get it together - strike one), while others opted to schlep canvas bags this time around after shivering for five hours when the sun vanished on Friday (yeah, strike two). On Saturday, Coachella became America's unofficial Glastonbury by doubling in size and hosting three headlining caliber artists to simultaneously [...]
Thumpty-dump, thumpty-dump, thumpty-dump! Weaving through dense traffic on I-10, blazing past the gargantuan Cabazon dinosaurs and billboards championing musicians of all flavors (from the XX to Ghost BC), speeding by battalions of wind turbines is the greying asphalt that leads to Indio, CA - aka, the "out there" world of Coachella Music and Arts Festival . It's a wild sight once you're there: Ticketholders - fresh off the freeway from office cubicles and lecture halls - sport pasty complexions and keen, darting eyes. The air's filled with overheard chatter about the schedule, what kind of cute outfits everyone's packed, and whether [...]
King Tuff. All Photos by Andrew Halverson Now into its sophomore year, Burgerama has already claimed its own clear and welcoming identity - this time with an extra day of festivities. The two-night hurrah combines bands and friends of the communal and humble Burger Records for a festival that serves Orange County kids and anyone else willing to enjoy seventeen or so hours of indoor rock bliss at The Observatory in Santa Ana. The festival vibe is different here - it is extremely compact, secluded, and the person next to you seems to know [...]
Before even reaching Boise’s downtown there was something different in the air for this year’s Treefort Music Festival . Namely, there were construction cranes cutting through the Boise skyline, a sight unseen for at least seven years. Most notable is the skyrise sprouting at the corner of 8th and Main Streets, a site previously referred to as The Boise Hole, for its ambitious plans for large development and subsequent loss of backing — it was literally a giant hole in the ground for more than 10 years, a downtown void for a decade, the mental presence of something larger, but [...]
The aerial view of Ultra Music Festival is massively deceiving. When perched some 50-stories above downtown Miami, the Bayfront Park location looks like a serene beach side environment with shade-producing palm trees lining the short walk in-between stages. In reality, the jaunt between the northern UMF Radio Stage and the intimate Bayfront Stage takes an approximate 20-minutes and requires revelers to weave through the crowds of the Main Stage, Live Stage, indoor public restrooms, the spill over from vending, and a hill scattered with resting fatigued Ultranauts. The simple reaction would be to avoid the hike, but for those [...]
The shining city lights of New Orleans were momentarily eclipsed by the neon haze of thousands of LED lights and the bobbing glow sticks of a perpetually dancing crowd on the banks of the Mississippi River. This was Buku Music + Art Project : the eclectic two-day festival that took over the Mardi Gras World facility last weekend. While gates opened around four in the afternoon each day, the party lasted until three in the morning. Regardless of the ground's close quarters, each stage felt as if it belonged to an entirely different festival. There was something [...]
I was in Portland last weekend. So was Comic Con . I have never been to Comic Con, so the lure of entering a world completely unknown to me was irresistible. It was kind of like SXSW, only replace the beer, hipsters and sunshine with collectibles, comic book/sci fi enthusiast and the dim glow of the convention center. Here are some thoughts: Money There is a lot of money here. Everyone is selling or buying something - comic books, costumes, artistic work, collectibles, t-shirts with random sayings .. it's all there, and [...]
All photos by Oliver Correa & Amanda Rohowksy Last month I had the pleasure of attending my first Stateside festival which, by default, was the best too. But for all of Asheville's breathtaking scenery, strong sense of community and charming quirks, it took a mere two weeks for Moogfest to slip from pole position, trumped by a minor masterstroke of both efficiency and efficacy that both reaffirmed the ability of multi-venue events to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the summer mainstays that become cities within themselves, and neatly underscored in the process why electronic music deserves to be enjoying [...]
Even though Electronic Dance Music, EDM, has surfaced as the next big thing, the niche for underground dance music is thriving in a way of its own. Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival is a club-to-club festival focused around electronic music and visual arts. In its fifth year ( we did a review last year as well ), BEMF continues to showcase an array of artists, both established and up-and-coming, representing the eclectic forms of hip hop, bass, house, techno, and IDM amongst others. Deadboy , member of the UK label Numbers , filled the [...]
At around 4:15 a.m. Saturday morning, the official Fun Fun Fun Fest app sent a push notification, which is weird because usually there are two things that happen that late over cell phones: emergencies or regrettable judgment calls. I guess you could say this was both. It read , "Hey girl can I com over? I been drinkin bout you. Hollr." It's one of the best booty-texts I've heard in a minute - and it went out to thousands of people. If it was real, that's awesome. I hope that guy/girl found love in a [...]
The walk between Moogfest' s U.S. Cellular Center and the much more intimate Orange Peel is approximately 18 minutes. Not too bad in festival terms, and instead of battling the hoard during that time, the hike is better spent grabbing a handmade crepe, petting some puppies, watching a few buskers, indulging in some fine chocolates, and/or sharing some stories over a microbrew with a local. Okay, so maybe the walk can end up taking closer to an hour. That is part of the charm around Asheville. Void of the chains that clutter most downtown skylines, Asheville runs at its own [...]
![[Festival Review] Treasure Island Music Festival, San Francisco](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/4584914_lg.jpg)
Treasure Island Music Festival has long touted itself as an intimate and authentic experience in San Francisco music and culture. Attendees are rewarded well in advance with a promise from the event's coordinators that the eclectic lineup will be devoid of all scheduling conflicts between the festivals two main stages, both adjacent to the city's bay shoreline. Therefore, eliminating any potential for those tough decisions while budgeting your time between favorite bands, food trucks, a silent disco and all other festival amenities one could hope for. With that being said, the two-day fall music and culture getaway was [...]
![[Festival Review] CMJ 2012: Day 3 – Sky Ferreira, MS MR, Color Film, Killer Mike & more](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/4583291_lg.jpg)
Because Thursday, Day 3 of CMJ, was a literal marathon ( I saw SEVEN bands ) I'll try to keep each artist description down to just a few lines. First, at around 5pm I peeked into Rockwood Music Hall, a rustic, intimate venue on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I caught the tail end portion of Kris Gruen 's indie folk set. He's got strong but cozy vocals, and a stunningly tight and seasoned live show that seemed far too good and spot-on to be showcased on such a small stage. After him came goodbye motel , [...]
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[stream] Smith Westerns // 3AM Spiritual
The Dodos – “Confidence”
