SF Show of the Week // GO4FREE to Dan Deacon at The Fillmore 1/29 (FRI)

January 27, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Dan DeaconWritten by Nik Crossman //

Dan Deacon with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith //
The Fillmore – San Francisco
January 29th, 2016 //

While Dan Deacon released his first two solo albums in 2003, his musical journey began back in high school as a member of the local ska band Channel 59. Studying music composition in graduate school, Deacon has mastered the self-contained computer composition with classic orchestral epics to deliver a truly unique sound to his audience. More of an iconoclast than his recorded music might suggest, the Baltimore electronic musician brings the energy and engagement of ska music to his live performance.

Deacon often performs at ground level with his fans — much like we have witnessed before — leading the crowd through an interactive dancing experience. He even created both an iPhone and Android app to sync up with his live performances and combat the cultural annoyance of people staring at their phones during a show.

Deacon, who grew up playing in a number of alternative rock and punk/metal bands as a kid, followed up his 2012 LP America last February with Gliss Riffer, which boasted single “Feel the Lightning” and received favorable reviews from most major music outlets. This past summer, he proved to be one of our biggest highlights at Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, reeling in a sizable crowd with his peer pressure and oddball antics.

This Friday, Deacon’s overstuffed, vegetable oil-fueled school bus makes a stop off in SF at The Fillmore with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith providing support. Tickets are available for $20, or you could win a pair of tickets by submitting your full name and email below.

Contest ends this Friday at 3 p.m.

Follow Showbams on Twitter for more contest giveaways throughout the week. Be the first to respond to our contest tweets to GO4FREE to these shows:

• Jenny Lee: January 28th (THUR) at The Chapel
• Soft Moon: January 29th (FRI) at The New Parish
• The Soul Rebels: January 29th (FRI) & 30th (SAT) at The Independent
• Battlehooch: January 30th (SAT) at Slim’s

Win-2-Tickets

Enter your name (First and Last) along with your email below. If you win a contest, you’ll be notified on the day the contest ends (details above).

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CONTEST CLOSED.

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Goldenvoice announces 2016 Coachella sideshows

January 25, 2016 by 1 Comment

Coachella 2016 sideshows

Each and every April, Goldenvoice puts on a number of sideshows all around Southern California in support of the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

2016 will be no different, and the renowned concert promoter has unveiled its list of shows that will take place at various venues in and out of the greater Los Angeles area, one of which includes the rustic, Westernized Pappy & Harriet’s in little-ole Pioneertown near Joshua Tree.

The sideshows will kick off on Friday, March 25th in LA at the El Rey Theatre, where London electronic music producer Sophie will take the stage, and will continue through Monday, April 25th with Years & Years headlining The Fonda Theatre. In between those, Goldenvoice will welcome performances by Goldroom, Courtney Barnett, Silversun Pickups (with FOALS), Mbongwana Star, Bob Moses, Savages, AlunaGeorge, The Kills (with The Big Pink), Skepta, Rhye (with Ibeyi), AlunaGeorge, M83, The Arcs, Rancid, The 1975, James Bay, Beach House, Museum of Love, Christine and the Queens, Death Grips, Miike Snow, The Heavy, The Front Bottoms, The Last Shadow Puppets, Deerhunter (with Unknown Mortal Orchestra), Matt & Kim, Of Monsters and Men, Lapsley, St. Germain, Ex Hex, Snakehips, Grimes, The Damned, Nosaj Thing, BADBADNOTGOOD, Parov Stelar and more. Check out the full list of sideshows in the poster above.

As in past years, these sideshows will extend outside of LA’s city limits, with The Glass House and The Fox Theater in Pomona once again playing host to quite a few of them in addition to the aforementioned Pappy & Harriet’s. April 14th’s pairing of Silversun Pickups and FOALS on the night before Coachella Weekend 1, for example, looks particularly appealing, while The Kills’ April 18th date at the Mayan Theater with The Big Pink and LA Witch stands out as one of our other must-see shows on Goldenvoice’s lineup. Of course, there’s also Miike Snow at The Fonda Theatre on April 20th and BADBADNOTGOOD, one of our favorites from FYF Fest (read our review here) last year, hitting The Roxy Theatre on April 22nd. Much like Coachella and its own lineup, there’s a lot to choose from here, though that’s not exactly a bad problem to have if you’re a live music fan in Southern California.

Tickets for most of the sideshows go on sale here this Friday, January 29th at Noon PT or next Friday, February 5th at Noon PT.

Goldenvoice

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Ty Segall shows us how to rock — and rock hard

January 20, 2016 by 2 Comments

Ty Segall & The MuggersBy Josh Herwitt //

Ty Segall & The Muggers //
Teragram Ballroom – Los Angeles
January 15th, 2016 //

If there’s one thing Ty Segall knows how to do well, it’s work — even if making loud, guitar-driven rock music might not seem like work to some.

At the young age of 28, the California native has already played in a handful of bands — most of which are comically named — like The Traditional Fools, Epsilons, Party Fowl, Sic Alps and The Perverts, and nowadays you can find him moonlighting between Broken Bat, GØGGS and most notably Fuzz, which released their sophomore LP this past fall.

Yet, it’s Segall’s prolific solo career that has earned him the most attention from critics and fans alike, one that will see him drop his eighth studio album Emotional Mugger in as many years this week, almost a decade after befriending John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees and releasing his self-titled debut on Dwyer’s label Castle Face Records.

Ty Segall & The Muggers

But if there’s another thing Segall knows how to do well, it’s rock — and not just rock, but rock hard (and that might be an understatement).

Playing the first of two sold-out nights in his hometown of Los Angeles, Segall and his band, appropriately named “The Muggers” for this current tour, shredded their way through track after track on his forthcoming album. The riffs were heavy, the sound was crunchy and the atmosphere was pure, unadulterated rock ‘n’ roll.

It’s also fair to say that Segall knows his fans and the way they respond to his music pretty damn well, because in retrospect, he couldn’t have picked a better venue for the occasion than the standing-room-only Teragram Ballroom. When Segall and his bandmates took the stage just after 11 p.m. on Friday night and ripped into the opening track “Squealer” from Emotional Mugger, the crowd, a mix of mostly hipsters in their 20’s and the occasional dad fan, lost its collective mind.

Ty Segall & The Muggers

Segall, after all, has no problem with dads. In fact, he reminded us several times to go home after the show and make babies, either “with someone you love or with someone you don’t care about.” As strange and funny as that might sound, Segall’s absurd stage banter was all part of the show, particularly once you realize that he chose a creepy baby doll to grace the black-and-white cover of Emotional Mugger (to perpetuate the theme, Segall wore a baby-face mask at the beginning of the show). At one point in between songs, he even spat in his hand and walked off stage to give it to his girlfriend. How sweet of him, right?

But Segall is no doubt a showman himself, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who expends as much energy onstage as he does in merely 90 minutes. His passion simply rubs off on his fans, who wasted little time climbing onstage and taking the plunge into a sea of hands for a couple of minutes. Segall, of course, also got in on the action at one point, as his shows are often known to feature crowd surfing from both band and audience members, and he made sure to take the mic stand with him while he horizontally slithered across the room.

When it comes to Segall and his live show, there’s really no way to sugarcoat it — the guy is an animal, ready to rip, claw and bite (or just spit) his way through a performance. And in many ways, it’s refreshing to see a musician who has little to no filter when he takes the stage. Just like his music, which borders on garage rock and glam rock and intertwines psychedelic and punk elements into it, his shows are raw and full of emotion. So, if that was his plan, to mug us of our own emotions for at least a short while on this cold, winter night, well then mission accomplished, Ty.

Setlist:
Squealer
California Hills
Emotional Mugger/Leopard Priestess
Breakfast Eggs
Diversion
Baby Big Man (I Want a Mommy)
Mandy Cream
Candy Sam
Squealer Two
The Magazine
Thank God for Sinners
They Told Me Too
You’re the Doctor
The Crawler
Spiders
Manipulator
Feel

Encore:
Finger
The Feels
The Singer

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SF Show of the Week // GO4FREE to A-Trak at Mezzanine 1/21 (THUR)

January 20, 2016 by Leave a Comment

A-TrakWritten by Nik Crossman //

SB50 Collection Launch: A-Trak //
Mezzanine – San Francisco
January 21st, 2015 //

Hailing from Montreal, Alain Macklovitch (aka A-Trak) has more than just Moroccan and Russian ancestry running through his blood. As the younger brother of Chromeo frontman David Macklovitch, A-Trak was the first to win all three coveted DJ competition titles (DMC, ITF and Vestax), and at the age of 15, he shook up the DJ world by becoming the youngest — and the first Canadian — to win the DMC World Championship in 1997.

That’s not all A-Trak did in the 90’s, though. From developing a new notation for scratching to blogging about music innovation and starting a record label with his brother, he developed a variety of skills to make him one of the most sought-after DJs in the early 2000s. More than a decade ago, Grammy-winning hip-hop artist Kanye West recruited A-Trak to be his personal tour DJ, and the two have collaborated closely ever since.

Beyond his countless accolades and magazine cover shots, A-Trak’s long dedication to music innovation has changed the game forever. In 2015, he started a weekly two-hour radio show “Day Off Radio” on the iTunes radio station Beats 1 while continuing to tour the world as one of the industry’s premier DJs.

This Thursday, lifestyle apparel brands Black Scale, Benny Gold and 47 Brand will all come together to present their Super Bowl 50 Collection Launch at Mezzanine, and who better to bring life to the party than A-Trak, the MVP of the DJ world? Tickets are available for $20, or you could win a pair of tickets by submitting your full name and email below.

Contest ends this Thursday at 3 p.m.

Follow Showbams on Twitter for more contest giveaways throughout the week. Be the first to respond to our contest tweets to GO4FREE to these shows:

• D.R.A.M.: January 21st (THUR) at The Independent
• Krayzie Bone: January 21st (THUR) at Brick & Mortar Music Hall
• The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit: January 22nd (FRI) at Slim’s
• Chicano Batman: January 23rd (SAT) at The Independent

Win-2-Tickets

Enter your name (First and Last) along with your email below. If you win a contest, you’ll be notified on the day the contest ends (details above).

Like Showbams on Facebook, follow Showbams on Twitter and follow Showbams on Instagram. Subscribe to our social channels for a better chance to win!

CONTEST CLOSED.

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Lightning in a Bottle unveils 2016 lineup

January 20, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Lightning in a Bottle 2016 lineup

Lightning in a Bottle //
San Antonio Recreation Area – Bradley, CA
May 25th-30th, 2016 //

Returning to San Antonio Recreation Area for a third straight year, Lightning in a Bottle will once again take place over Memorial Day weekend — and this year’s bill is as strong as ever.

Led by headliners Chet Faker, Grimes and Jamie xx, the famed boutique festival that began more than 15 years ago as a birthday party among friends (and who would eventually start The Do LaB, a Los Angeles-based event production company) in the Santa Ynez Mountains will also feature performances from Big Gigantic, Moderat, Ibeyi, Emancipator Ensemble, Four Tet, Tourist, Cashmere Cat, Guy Gerber, Tokimonsta, The Polish Ambassador, Alina Baraz, Josh Wink, Hundred Waters, Lee Burridge, Minnesota and G Jones (B2B), Pimps of Joytime, Mija, Rubblebucket, PANTyRAiD, The Russ Liquid Test, AndHim and many more.

Furthermore, The Do LaB will welcome back the LA avant-garde circus act Lucent Dossier Experience and William Close & The Earth Harp Collective, which both have become LIB mainstays over the years. Check out the poster above for the rest of the lineup.

Tabbed as the “Greenest Festival in America” each of the last five years, LIB offers more than just live music on three different stages, with art, yoga, workshops and speakers all playing a crucial role in maintaining the festival’s identity, which centers around sustainability, social cohesion, personal health and creative expression. The word has certainly gotten out about LIB since its early beginnings, as last year’s festival, which boasted Australian DJ/producer Flume as its main headliner and included sets from SBTRKT, ODESZA, RL Grime and Tycho, was the first reported sellout in its longstanding history.

Weekend passes to LIB can be purchased here starting at $270, and the festival reports that 50 percent of them have already been sold, leaving us to believe another capacity crowd will be descending upon Bradley, Calif., this May. If you’re getting excited for LIB after reading this, make sure to check out our coverage from 2015.

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With SnowBall canceled again, why does Colorado still not have a large-scale music festival?

January 15, 2016 by 1 Comment

SnowBall Music FestivalWritten by Josh Herwitt //

Ever since I started visiting Denver on an annual basis to attend concerts at the world-famous Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, it was easy to see just how important live music was to the state of Colorado. From rock to electronic to hip-hop, there has never been a shortage of shows in The Centennial State, which still boasts one of the best live music scenes in the country today.

Which brings me to yesterday, when a random thought came over me as to when SnowBall Music Festival would be releasing its 2016 lineup. The three-day fest, which I attended from 2011-2013, was forced to cancel its 2015 edition but assured fans that it would be returning in 2016 and specifically to the mountains, where it all started in Avon, Colo.

Yet, after taking a look at SnowBall’s Facebook page, I quickly noticed that no updates had been posted to it since January 2015, when the festival announced that it would not be taking place that same year. With almost a whole year of no news, it was strange to not see anything by now, so I decided to comment on SnowBall’s last Facebook post, asking when its 2016 lineup might be released.

Snowball Music Festival 2013

Within 30 minutes of posting my comment, the festival released an official statement on their Facebook page, stating that SnowBall had been canceled for a second straight year and would not be returning to the mountains in 2016 after all. The news, of course, didn’t shock me, as I expected at this point it wouldn’t be happening considering that there were no updates on the festival’s social media channels for nearly a year.

But as I continue to think about the live music landscape in Colorado, it continues to surprise me that the state has yet to host its own large-scale music festival on a year-to-year basis. With comparable U.S. cities like Seattle, Austin, San Francisco and Las Vegas all holding their own unique music festivals, it’s hard to understand why Denver hasn’t jumped on board by now. Add in the fact that AEG Live, which produces the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in conjunction with West Coast concert promoter Goldenvoice each April, is a subsidiary of the Denver-based Anschutz Corporation, and it’s even more perplexing when you stop and think about it.

That’s not to say that Colorado doesn’t have its fair share of music festivals already — Global Dance Festival, Sonic Bloom, ARISE Music Festival and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival are all still in circulation — but none of them feature an eclectic bill of artists that garners national attention like Sasquatch!, Austin City Limits, Outside Lands and Life Is Beautiful all do. Riot Fest, which returned to Denver for its third year last August, is the closest thing Colorado has to a large-scale music festival, except it also throws separate editions in Toronto and Chicago, where the multi-day punk fest was born. In fact, when SnowBall debuted in 2011 with Pretty Lights, Bassnectar and The Flaming Lips serving as its headliners, there was hope among the festival’s organizers and fans that it could eventually develop into something bigger. But with SnowBall’s future looking rather bleak now, it’s unclear whether a large-scale music festival will ever make its home where the columbines grow.

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SF Show of the Week // GO4FREE to DeVotchKa at GAMH 1/14 (THUR)

January 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment

DevotchkaWritten by Nik Crossman //

DeVotchKa with Barrio Manouche //
Great American Music Hall – San Francisco
January 14th, 2015 //

Start with Nick Urata on theremin, bouzouki, guitar and piano, throw in Tom Hagerman on accordion and violin, add Jeanie Schroder on sousaphone, upright bass and flute, and finally round it out with Shawn King on percussion, trumpet and organ. Put them all together, and you have DeVotchKa, a multi-instrumental and vocal ensemble from Denver.

Starting as a backing band for burlesque shows, the quartet gained an underground following while touring the U.S. in support of its self-released albums. But the band’s following turned more mainstream when its song “How It Ends” was featured in the trailers for the 2005 film “Everything Is Illuminated” and for the video game “Gears of War 2” a few years later.

In 2008, Boston alternative newspaper The Phoenix tabbed DeVotchKa as the “Best New Band from Colorado”, and their hit “How it Ends” climbed to as high as No. 101 on the UK Singles Chart. From scoring the 2006 film “Little Miss Sunshine” to performing covers of Siouxsie and the Banshees, they continue to produce a unique sound with their incredible musicianship.

This Thursday, the four-piece lands in SF to play the Great American Music Hall with opening support from Barrio Manouche, the Spanish gypsy-jazz group. Tickets are available for $26, or you could win a pair of tickets by submitting your full name and email below.

Contest ends this Thursday at 3 p.m.

Follow Showbams on Twitter for more contest giveaways throughout the week. Be the first to respond to our contest tweets to GO4FREE to these shows:

• Ghost Parade: January 13th (WED) at Brick & Mortar Music Hall
• Blockhead: January 15th (FRI) at The New Parish
• The Seshen: January 16th (SAT) at The New Parish
• The Go! Team: January 18th (MON) at Great American Music Hall

Win-2-Tickets

Enter your name (First and Last) along with your email below. If you win a contest, you’ll be notified on the day the contest ends (details above).

Like Showbams on Facebook, follow Showbams on Twitter and follow Showbams on Instagram. Subscribe to our social channels for a better chance to win!

CONTEST CLOSED.

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Sasquatch! Music Festival releases 2016 lineup

January 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Sasquatch! Music Festival - 2016 lineup

Sasquatch! Music Festival //
Gorge Amphitheatre – Quincy, WA
May 27th-30th, 2016 //

Returning to the majestic Gorge Amphitheatre over Memorial Day weekend, Sasquatch! Music Festival has dropped another impressive lineup for its 2016 edition.

Now in its 15th year, the Pacific Northwest fest organized by Adam Zacks and Live Nation will feature performances by The Cure, Florence + the Machine, Disclosure, Major Lazer, Alabama Shakes and a whole lot more over four action-packed days. Some of our favorites include Leon Bridges, Jamie xx, A$AP Rocky, Caribou, M83, Kurt Vile, Yeasayer, Mac DeMarco, Big Grams, Chet Faker, Lord Huron and Tycho. See the poster above for the full lineup.

If you’re thinking about going to Sasquatch! this May, you’ll need to act quickly. GA tickets go on sale Tuesday, January 12th (in other words, today) at 10 a.m. here, and VIP supertickets can also be purchased on the festival’s website here.

Last spring, Showbams made the trek to The Gorge to cover Sasquatch! for our first time, and we didn’t leave disappointed when it was all said and done. With another stellar bill of artists, Sasquatch! is sure to shine once again in 2016.


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Coachella organizers launch new NYC music festival

January 11, 2016 by 2 Comments

Coachella 2015

Around this time last week, Coachella unveiled its 2016 lineup, instantly sending shockwaves across the Internet by officially confirming the reunions of both LCD Soundsystem and Guns N’ Roses.

Just a week later, and the music festival’s organizers at Goldenvoice have dropped some more headline-worthy news on a Monday night, though this time it doesn’t involve Coachella.

Instead, the Los Angeles-based events and promotions company is taking its festival game to the East Coast, where it will host Panorama from July 22nd-24th in New York City.

The three-day music festival will bring “music, art, technology and local food offerings” to Randall’s Island Park, the same location where Governor’s Ball will also be held seven weeks earlier on June 3rd-5th. It’s a bold decision on Goldenvoice’s part, knowing that the Big Apple already has one well-established summer music festival, but a petition from the organizers at Governor’s Ball wasn’t enough to block Panorama from getting off the ground.

“We look forward to bringing Panorama to New York City and introducing a new festival that showcases today’s top music acts,” Goldenvoice’s Mark Shulman said in a statement. “We’re committed to creating an event that will provide significant benefits to New York City with the level of experience and meticulous attention to detail for which Goldenvoice is known.”

Goldenvoice also said that in addition to launching Panorama this July, it plans to continue working on bringing a music festival to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens someday.

While Governor’s Ball boasts Kanye West, The Strokes and The Killers as headliners (not to mention Beck, whom Yeezy had some interesting words for after last year’s Grammys) in its sixth year this June, it’s hard to imagine it being able hold its own in the long run against a Goldenvoice-run event like Panorama.

Shulman says that “Goldenvoice has received tremendous support from the local community and elected officials,” so we’ll see if two, and potentially three, summer music festivals in the greater NYC area can co-exist over time. As we saw in Southern California last year, there may be a limit to how many music festivals are actually sustainable in one of the country’s biggest music markets, much like EDM promoter SFX experienced with One Tribe Festival.

Goldenvoice

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Bay Area music fans ring in 2016 at The Big One

January 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment

The Big One - The Flaming LipsPhotos by Josh Miller & Erin Milgram // Written by Molly Kish & Kevin Quandt //

The Big One //
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium – San Francisco
December 31st, 2015 //

2016 descended upon SF in epic fashion at Another Planet Entertainment’s New Year’s Eve celebration, aptly titled “The Big One”. With more than 17 musical acts, live art installations and three separate galleries of entertainment at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, partygoers were showered by a psychedelic flurry of confetti and balloons during The Flaming Lips’ midnight countdown and continued partying into the early-morning hours.

We were on the scene to revel in what easily was the Bay Area’s wildest NYE 2015 party, and here are our favorite highlights from the night.

The Big One - The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips

When one considers bombastic artists to ring in a New Year or perform at any major party holiday, The Flaming Lips likely come to mind, as the Oklahoma City psych-rock band has created one of the most over-the-top displays in the music industry. This evening was no exception as frontman Wayne Coyne started the evening atop a structure that could be described as some warped, LED octopus. “The Gold Mountain in our Madness” opened the Lips’ set as the energy in the room quickly lifted from the mellow vibes of Tycho that came before. The mercury continued to rise as the midnight hour approached. A cover of the Miley Cyrus collaboration “Evil Is But a Shadow” was the first track to greet the attendees in 2016, and though some were bummed we didn’t get an appearance from Miley, the celebratory atmosphere was in full swing. -KQ

The Big One - Ratatat

Ratatat

Ratatat kept feet moving with their unique amalgamation of dance rock, which left many to decide between head-banging and crushing dance moves. “Pricks of Brightness” and “Loud Pipes” were early highlights from this Brooklyn duo, who saw a tremendous return to form in 2015 with the release of Magnifique. Props should be given to Another Planet Entertainment and HUSHconcerts for slotting in this live duo over a big-name DJ. Moves like this make us hopeful for The Big One in the coming years. -KQ

The Big One - Tycho

Tycho

The late cancellation from XXYYXX left some attendees in Larkin Hall a tad disappointed, but an extended set from Scott Hansen, popularly known as Tycho, kept revelers in the mood for continued dance-floor high jinks. As this DJ set stretched into its second hour, Hanson shifted to a style more akin to the beat-bass stylings of the original slated artist. This move may have even thrown some for a loop, as they could have easily assumed it was XXYYXX at the helm. -KQ

The Big One

Shigeto

Ghostly International recording artist Shigeto (born Zachary Shigeto Saginaw) held his own in Larkin Hall while being pitted against the downtempo soundscapes of Tycho in the venue’s main room. Serving as the perfect transition between his labelmate Scott Hanson’s ambient performance and The Flaming Lips’ onslaught of maniacal theatrics, Shigeto’s stripped-down live show was a welcomed choice for those attendees looking to ramp it up a notch before the NYE midnight countdown. He performed at ground level to an intimately devoted crowd and layered his jazz-infused electronic beats over mind-blowing live percussion, switching back and forth in real time between manning his mixing board and pounding away feverishly on his full drum kit mere inches away from the audience. -MK

The Big One - Gramatik

Gramatik

After a mind-melting, ball-dropping performance from The Flaming Lips, the audience was reinvigorated by the ax-wielding electronic giants Ratatat, followed by Slovenia-born and Brooklyn-based producer Gramatik. Heavy bass lines and spine-tingling beats filled the main auditorium as Denis Jašarević, in prime position to close the night’s festivities out on a high, took over the main auditorium with his signature glitch-hop bangers. Although much of the crowd had thinned by the time this early-hours set commenced, true ragers were in rare form and ready to “womp” their way into 2016. Dropping a slew of hits, including his single “Native Son” featuring Raekwon, Gramatik kept his audience moving all the way until 3 a.m. Crowd members sprawled throughout the entire auditorium, dancing and laughing until the final bassline thumps knocked the remnants of glitter, confetti and balloons from the rafters. -MK

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Albums you’ll want to hear in 2016

January 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment

2016 albumsWritten by Josh Herwitt //

Now that we’ve said our goodbyes to 2015, it’s time to start looking ahead to 2016 and what lies ahead when it comes to new music. Although it’s still rather early and new albums are sure to be announced after this writing, there’s plenty of ear candy that’s already set to be released in 2016.

Here are 10 upcoming albums (in chronological order by release date) that you’ll want to hear and could very well end up being on some “Best of 2016” lists in another 12 months.

David Bowie – ★ (Blackstar)

David Bowie - Blackstar

Release date: January 8th
Record label: RCA/Columbia

The 20th studio album from Ziggy Stardust will be one of the first to hit stands in 2016, and although the 68-year-old legend has said that his touring days are over, Bowie is still capable of making an intriguing record, much like he did in 2013 with The Next Day. From what we’ve heard on ★, be it the 10-minute title track or in recent weeks “Lazarus” (the song that Bowie is also using in his off-Broadway musical by the same name), we’re eager to hear the rest.

Tortoise – The Catastrophist

Tortoise - The Catastrophist

Release date: January 22nd
Record label: Thrill Jockey

It’s been more than six years since Tortoise last released an album, but the Chicago post-rock outfit will unveil The Catastrophist, led by first single “Gesceap”, later this month. Featuring vocal contributions from Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley and Todd Rittmann of Chicago bands U.S. Maple and Dead Rider, the new LP was inspired by music closely tied to Chicago’s jazz and improvised music scenes that the city commissioned the band to write back in 2010.

Ty Segall – Emotional Mugger

Ty Segall - Emotional Mugger

Release date: January 22nd
Record label: Drag City

Segall announced his eighth studio album by mailing a VHS tape to Pitchfork less than two months ago, and if that wasn’t eccentric enough, the prolific garage rocker followed it up with a dedicated website for the LP, which includes a hotline number to call and two videos — one that shows him and the band wearing baby masks and another that sees him playing a doctor while explaining what “emotional mugging” is. Despite Emotional Mugger not extending quite as long as Segall’s previous solo effort Manipulator did, many of the track names are worth a chuckle, from “Breakfast Eggs” to “Baby Big Man (I Want a Mommy)”.

Bloc Party – Hymns

Bloc Party - Hymns

Release date: January 29th
Record label: BMG

Long known for pioneering a sound that bridged the gap between indie rock and electronic music, Bloc Party return in early 2016 with their fifth studio album and their first with new members Justin Harris (bass, keyboards) and Louise Bartle (drums). Debuting material from Hymns, including newest single “The Good News” at FYF Fest (read our festival review here) in August, the British quartet will also offer a deluxe edition of the LP with four bonus tracks.

St. Lucia – Matter

St. Lucia - Matter

Release date: January 29th
Record label: Columbia

Jean-Philip Grobler released the debut LP for his Brooklyn-based, synthpop project St. Lucia toward the end of 2013, and late this month, the South African native will unveil his follow-up to When the Night. If you were curious as to how Matter will sound in comparison to his first full length, Grobler has a geographical analogy to describe both: “If the last album sounded like the tropics, this album is the desert.”

Black Moth Super Rainbow

Black Moth Super Rainbow - SeeFu Lilac

Release date: N/A
Record label: N/A

Thomas Fec has become well-regarded in indie-electronic circles for his work as Tobacco over the last several years, but for more than a decade, he has also served as the frontman of Black Moth Super Rainbow, the Pittsburgh psych-rock group that’s preparing to drop its sixth studio album later this year. As BMSR fans await the LP’s official release, the band surprised many in mid-November by streaming its new mini-album Seefu Lilac, which features “neon flavored outtakes from a 6th album that doesn’t yet exist.”

Animal Collective – Painting With

Animal Collective - Painting With

Release date: February 19th
Record label: Domino

After streaming new material on loop at Baltimore’s BWI Airport the day before Thanksgiving, Animal Collective are now just a few weeks away from the release of their 10th studio album. Taking some much-needed time off after its latest tour so that David Portner and Noah Lennox could focus on their own side projects, the band refined its songwriting approach for Painting With, removing the long, ambient passages that were often synonymous with their previous LPs and also collaborating with Welsh musician John Cale and multireedist Colin Stetson.

Wild Nothing – Life of Pause

Wild Nothing - Life of Pause

Release date: February 19th
Record label: Captured Tracks

Jack Tatum remains the brains behind his indie-rock/dream-pop project Wild Nothing, having been its founder and lone songwriter since 2009. Feeding off the success of 2012’s Nocturne, Tatum consciously wanted to reinvent himself as a musician while recording Life of Pause in Los Angeles and Stockholm with producer Thom Monahan, and if his double-sided single “To Know You”/”TV Queen” is any indication, we’re starting to see what he means.

Poliça – United Crushers

Poliça - United Crushers

Release date: March 4th
Record label: Mom + Pop

Poliça lead vocalist Channy Leaneagh may have been pregnant last year, but you wouldn’t have known it from the way this Minneapolis synthpop group has continued to work in the studio. In following up its successful sophomore effort Shulamith from 2013, the five-piece takes a more political approach on its third full-length album United Crushers, which boasts first single “Lime Habit”.

Charles Bradley – Changes

Charles Bradley - Changes

Release date: April 1st
Record label: Daptone Records

You have to wonder if Charles Bradley was a Black Sabbath fan growing up as a kid, because his new album Changes draws plenty of inspiration from the legendary heavy metal group’s Vol. 4. While his cover of the famous Sabbath hit serves as the LP’s title track, the “Screaming Eagle of Soul” continues to win us over with his rags-to-riches story (Bradley was at one time homeless before becoming a cook and working various odd jobs) and his undying charisma.

The following artists and bands are expected to release new albums in 2016 but have yet to confirm an official release date and/or an album title:

AlunaGeorge
ANTEMASQUE
Band of Horses
Beck
Blink-182
Chairlift – Moth
Chromatics – Dear Tommy
Crystal Castles
Death Grips – Bottomless Pit
Deftones
Diddy – No Way Out 2
DJ Premier – Last Session @ 320
Drake – Views From the 6
Frank Ocean
Gary Numan
Gorillaz
GZA – Dark Matter
Haim
James Blake – Radio Silence
Kanye West – SWISH
Kings of Leon
LCD Soundsystem
Lupe Fiasco – Drogas
M.I.A. – Matahdatah
M83
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Major Lazer – Music Is the Weapon
Mark Kozelek
Metallica
Metronomy
Modest Mouse
My Morning Jacket
No Doubt
Pete Yorn – Arranging Time
Radiohead
Rihanna – Anti
Spiritualized
The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Killers
The Strokes
Zeds Dead

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BottleRock drops 2016 lineup, led by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stevie Wonder, Florence + the Machine

January 5, 2016 by Leave a Comment

BottleRock Napa 2016 lineup

BottleRock Napa Valley //
Napa Valley Expo – Napa, CA
May 27th-29th, 2016 //

While everyone has been fixating on Monday night’s Coachella lineup announcement, which includes a reunited LCD Soundsystem and some form of Guns N’ Roses headlining the Indio festival, BottleRock Napa Valley was busy unveiling their own bill less than a day later.

The three-day festival in downtown Napa, which appeals to an older crowd than the aforementioned Coachella, announced its lineup early Tuesday and will welcome Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stevie Wonder and Florence + the Machine as headliners over Memorial Day weekend.

With more than 70 artists scheduled to perform across four stages, other noteworthy acts on this year’s lineup include The Lumineers, Death Cab for Cutie, Lenny Kravitz, Walk the Moon, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Ziggy Marley, Grouplove, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Gogol Bordello, Cold War Kids, Iration, Misterwives, Atlas Genius, Buddy Guy, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, The Pharcyde, The Joy Formidable, X Ambassadors, Ozomatli and Jamestown Revival.

BottleRock will also be bringing back and expanding its popular Culinary Stage that’s known for matching culinary stars up with celebrities, as last year’s festival saw Snoop Dogg teaming up with “Iron Chef” Masaharu Morimoto.

Tickets go on sale on Thursday, January 7th at 10 a.m. here and start at $269 for a three-day GA pass. VIP passes will be sold for $619, and a three-day platinum pass is as much as $3,100.

So, as you get ready for your “first taste of summer,” go back in time with our 2014 coverage.

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Coachella releases 2016 lineup, headlined by LCD Soundsystem, Guns N’ Roses, Calvin Harris

January 4, 2016 by 4 Comments

Coachella 2016 lineup

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival //
Empire Polo Club – Indio, CA
April 15th-17th & April 22nd-24th //

Early last week, rumors started to swirl that both Guns N’ Roses and LCD Soundsystem would headline Coachella this April. Now, those rumors have been officially confirmed.

The three-day, two-weekend festival announced its 2016 lineup on Monday night, and both reunited bands (though we’re still not sure which members from Guns N’ Roses will take the stage) will indeed headline the Goldenvoice event along with superstar DJ Calvin Harris, who performed on Coachella’s main stage two years ago and attracted the second largest crowd in its history.

Other notable acts listed on this year’s bill include Ellie Goulding, Sufjan Stevens, Jack Ü, M83, Underworld, The Kills, Foals, Ice Cube, Disclosure, Zedd, A$AP Rocky, CHRVCHES, Halsey, James Bay, Sia, Major Lazer, Flume, Beach House, The 1975, Rancid and Mike Snow.

Coachella’s first weekend is scheduled for April 15th-17th, with its second weekend slated for April 22nd-24th. All tickets will go on sale for both weekends on Wednesday, January 6th at 11 a.m. here. GA passes for Weekend 1 are already sold out, and a limited number of Weekend 1 GA + Shuttle passes remain. The festival’s organizers strongly recommend buying Weekend 2 passes for those interested in attending.

UPDATE: Guns N’ Roses released a statement on Tuesday confirming that original members Slash (guitar) and Duff McKagan (bass) will join frontman Axl Rose onstage at Coachella this year. The band’s Saturday night headlining set will mark the first time all three have played a show together since 1993. The rest of the band’s lineup has not been confirmed yet, but stay tuned for more information here.

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Father John Misty wins our unofficial NYE 2015 photo contest

January 1, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Father John Misty

Known for some of the best stage banter in the business and his classic improv-snark, which includes his 1989 antics just a few months ago, Father John Misty was back at it on New Year’s Eve, deadpanning in true FJM fashion.

In what’s become an ongoing series of Instagram photos (now up to a total of 10) that shows our No. 4 favorite live music act of 2015 glued to his phone, whether he’s playing air hockey, doing a television interview or performing live, Tillman made us laugh — as he often does — with his latest offering on NYE, sitting by himself with a drink in hand while checking his phone in a decked-out hotel room full of colorful balloons at the famed Chateau Marmont, one of his favorite spots in Los Angeles.

Father John Misty - New Year's Eve

Around this time last year, we asked if “Father John Misty is playing a character”, and while we still don’t have a definitive answer to that question (and who knows if we ever will), we admittedly just can’t get enough of the FJM persona, whether partially manufactured or not.

We can only assume that Tillman was hanging out with LA-based pop artist Alia Penner since she was tagged in the photo (serving, presumably, as a photo credit) and due to the fact that she documented the scene sans Tillman with her own Instagram photo shortly thereafter, but based on what we saw via social media from across the music industry Thursday night, “Mr. Honeybear” undoubtedly won our unofficial NYE 2015 photo contest before the ball dropped on 2016.

Father John Misty

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