Tickets for the last Grateful Dead shows are reselling for as much as $4,000

February 28, 2015 by Leave a Comment

HeaderBy Mike Frash //

Grateful Dead nation is split into two distinct factions after the Ticketmaster on sale Saturday morning for the group’s final shows — those who scored tickets and the other ones left with none. This is arguably the most in-demand concert series in recent years, and most Deadheads knew what they would be up against after only one in every 10 mail order tickets were awarded for purchase.

Many folks have reported Ticketmaster crashed at the on-sale time of 10 a.m. CT. From there, many hopeful attendees had their souls crushed as the Ticketmaster waiting room minute countdown continued to fluctuate one hour later, which is common for instant sellout events.

The final three shows, dubbed “Fare Thee Well” for the 50th Anniversary of the Grateful Dead, will feature Bruce Hornsby and Phish’s Trey Anastasio filling in the Jerry Garcia role over Fourth of July weekend at Chicago’s Soldier Field. The injection of the phanner community has helped to make these three shows the hottest tickets of the year.

In opposition to the ethos of the Dead, premium tickets are being sold for as much as $215. And of course, many 21st century scalpers took notice of the demand and have taken to third party sellers for mad, mad profit.

A sign that the day of granting miracles to show-going hopefuls might be kaput, tickets for these shows are selling for as much as $4,000. Granted that could be a deal between a greedy scalper and someone that gives no fucks about spending money, but the overall median for sold tickets so far is $933 for the first show and $941 for the second at 11 a.m. CT.

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So if you’re considering the idea of dropping $1,000 to get into this show, don’t let that deal go down. Ticket prices will likely go down from here and will be broadcasted in some way. But come on, it’s not like Jerry’s coming back for the event — that I’d pay a grand for.

What are your thoughts on this over-demand fiasco?

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Filed Under: Featured, Music Story, News Tagged With: , , ,

Is Father John Misty playing a character?

January 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment

FJM-2Photos by Justin Yee // Written by Mike Frash //

Father John Misty strolled onto stage for his first performance in over a year on January 16th among the redwoods of Felton, Calif., in a venue that looked like a barn mixed with a classy old train depot. As the memorable show progressed, I found myself wondering where the line between Josh Tillman the man and Father John Misty the artist begins and ends.

Father John Misty aka Josh Tillman played every song from I Love You, Honeybear (due out February 10th, just in time for Valentine’s Day) for the first time live, not counting the astounding Letterman performance of “Bored in the USA”.

Launching into the schmaltzy earworm “I Love You, Honeybear”, FJM snatched up a stuffed green teddy bear held high in the air by a young fan near the front and waltzed with it to the romantic refrain, only to punt it back into the audience at the peak of the first dystopian verse. A talented new supporting band has his back, yet FJM still drops to his knees and manhandles the mic stand as he did on prior tours.

Early on he called out the audience as being “up to no good” for singing along to the new songs, referencing the awkward new live music reality when an audience shows they have overplayed a leaked record before it’s even available to purchase.

The house lights briefly came up during “True Affection” and the audience blinked and looked around at each other, giving me the sense that some kind of mockery was being played on us – and we the audience weren’t in on the joke. This is the guy, after all, who performed on the other side of a giant iPhone the last time we saw him. So how much of this is an act?

Is Father John Misty following in Steven Colbert’s footsteps, subjugating authenticity for the sake of satire, essentially holding up a mirror to this self-entitled generation, reflecting a sea of endless selfies? Is Josh Tillman playing a character, or is Father John Misty an evolving artist being true to himself?

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Father John Misty has kept much of his second album under wraps, except for this press release via Sub Pop, which of course is hilarious and revealing.

It’s penned by the artist himself, and begins “Father John Misty aka Josh Tillman, says of the album I Love You, Honeybear …” An important distinction between Josh Tillman and Father John Misty is quickly established as he embraces the FJM label and degrades his real name to “also known as” status. So these details are told through the lens of FJM (bold emphasis his):

I Love You, Honeybear is a concept album about a guy named Josh Tillman who spends quite a bit of time banging his head against walls, cultivating weak ties with strangers and generally avoiding intimacy at all costs. This all serves to fuel a version of himself that his self-loathing narcissism can deal with. We see him engaging in all manner of regrettable behavior.

In a parking lot somewhere he meets Emma, who inspires in him a vision of a life wherein being truly seen is not synonymous with shame, but possibly true liberation and sublime, unfettered creativity. These ambitions are initially thwarted as jealousy, self-destruction and other charming human character traits emerge. Josh Tillman confesses as much all throughout.

First of all, taking Father John Misty, his music or this press release too seriously might be my first mistake. But I Love You, Honeybear is Father John Misty telling the tale of his former self, Josh Tillman, and how he transformed into the bewildering, intriguing character he is today.

We learned in Fear Fun that his “reality is realer than yours” and that he “never liked the name Joshua.” The question still remains, is FJM showing his authentic self, or will he end up looking like the next Ima Robot?


[interview starts at 16:14]

Father John Misty’s hour and a half therapy session on WTF with Marc Maron in late 2013 (as he recorded I Love You, Honeybear) is a primary source in looking behind the curtain. Tillman recollects that he wasn’t allowed to listen to “secular music” growing up, something he referred to as “a death sentence.” His first 10 records, all released as under the moniker J. Tillman, played it safe with literal dark and moody lyricism, never gaining him much traction in the Seattle music scene.

He realized during the J. Tillman years that he might be better at between-song joking and commentary than songwriting based on the crowd’s reaction during shows where he opened for other acts. He worked as a dishwasher, at a bakery and most notably as the drummer for Fleet Foxes — but Tillman expresses he’s always been drawn to things with immediate cause and effect, and that his experience with Robin Pecknold’s outfit made him realize he was an “unhappy narcissist.” He actually did drop it all to wander the Western U.S. and write a novel, something Tillman credits for helping to find his narrative voice.

That’s when the breakdown happened. He says it happened over “Josh Tillman the songwriter and failing to recognize how my value or self worth was tethered to success or lack thereof. I was afraid to face what I was.”

Maron brings up the concept of authenticity early in the interview, and Tillman replied, “That’s a sticky one, God knows what that means. Aesthetic authenticity is like hunting for shadows with a flashlight…”

“This conversation of authenticity played a big role in the shift to this writing style, which I arbitrarily deemed Father John Misty.” Tillman had taken a trip to the mountains of Big Sur for some soul searching just down the road from Felton, and he describes a moment of realization he had naked in a tree dosed on psilocybin:

“I spent my whole life developing this vernacular, this sense of humor, this way of speaking, this way of thinking, this worldview, and I had never really implemented it into my music.”

Something clicked that day, and he took this new thought process into the studio for Fear Fun. To recognize this musical right turn, he changed his stage name from J. Tillman to Father John Misty in a random convo with a roommate on a “why not?” whim. “The whole purpose of this name is that it’s just some dumb shit I would call myself, and it looks hilarious on a marquee, it looks like some Christian Science Puppet Show.” His name could just as well be Father John Sassypants.

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Father John Misty expressed his interest in Norman Mailer, one of the founders of creative nonfiction, when he appeared on the WTF podcast. He also condemned hippies and Mumford & Sons while giving props to the Grateful Dead. But the nod to new journalism, attributing a fictional literary style & form onto fact-based journalism, helps to explain the question of character versus authenticity.

“With the music, the fact that I’m interested in including all of my humanity, putting everything into the songs, that means I want drugs to be in there, I want whatever sex there is to be in there, I want religion to be in there. I want everything to be in there, but unfortunately drugs take a lot of real estate in people’s minds…I’m just interested in including real details.”

With this knowledge, the fog begins to clear. Father John Misty’s lyricism draws from his experiences and personal reality, his thoughts and memories. He might enhance his narrative prose as any great storyteller does, but most importantly he leaves a sense of mystery in tact.

He may have grown into the head tossing, “horny manchild mad mommas boy” that owns the stage like a boss today. But Father John Misty is clearly the vehicle that Tillman is most creative and comfortable in as an artist, channeling his wondrous, insane inner monologue for us to enjoy. Seems real to me.

FJM’s suspicious thoughts on the search for authenticity make sense after this exploration: “Where people look for authenticity, I think it’s a little misguided. I think authenticity is really intangible. It’s easier to see than describe.” This idea is explored throughout I Love You, Honeybear, particularly in “Holy Shit”, where he says, “That’s now myth, that’s now real” in the same breath. Father John Misty seems to strive for ambiguity, avoiding spoon-fed messaging, which at least partially explains his appeal.

Father John Misty has struck a sweet spot in the collective minds of indieheads by Trojan-horsing the singer-songwriter genre with subversive storytelling, and the strength of his new material ensures his rise in stature.

Now his PR campaign is rightfully taking a parallel tone with his music leading up to the album release, helping us to dive deeper into the rabbit hole of duality, that we love him and hate him at the same time. He’s launched Streamline Audio Protocol (SAP), his new website that allows you to listen the new album stripped down to the most basic stems in karaoke-like, instrumental form. This satirical take on the current stream-a-week-before-album-release model and the ubiquitous nature of start ups is as bitingly effective as the lyrics in his LP2.

Anyone that can pull off the line “kissing my brother in my dreams or finding God knows in my jeans” from the ballad “When You’re Smiling And Astride Me” deserves the world’s attention. Perhaps this is the part where Father John Misty gets all he ever wanted?

Father John Misty at Bret Harte Hall in Felton, CA // Photo by Carrie Frash

Father John Misty at Bret Harte Hall in Felton, CA // Photo by Carrie Frash

Filed Under: Artist Spotlight, Editor's Picks, Featured Tagged With: , ,

Killer Mike’s emotional soliloquy on police brutality starts St. Louis show with a heavy dose of real

November 25, 2014 by Leave a Comment

killer-mikePhotos by James Nagel // Written by Mike Frash //

As El-P has pointed out on twitter today, “far as I can tell me and my squad are the only Motherfuckers who fought tooth and nail to get IN to STL Last night.”

Run the Jewels, the dynamic duo of El-P and Killer Mike, are the closest thing America has to some form of political protest in music these days, so it’s only appropriate that one of the biggest breakthrough acts of the year would be performing in St. Louis mere hours after the Ferguson grand jury decided to not charge Michael Brown’s killer, policeman Darren Wilson, with murder.

So as rioting began in nearby Ferguson, and before the National Guard was sent into Missouri, Michael Render took the stage to deliver one of his most powerful speeches ever:

“It’s not about race, it’s not about class it is not about color — it is about what they killed him for. It is about poverty, it is about greed & it is about the war machine…it’s us against the mother fucking machine.

While this must-see speech isn’t too much of a surprise — Killer Mike has made multiple appearances on cable news outlets in the wake of the Michael Brown tragedy and Ferguson protests and Run the Jewels are on our “best stage banter spewing musicians in live music today” list – the content of Mike’s speech should go down in history as the quintessential reaction to the Grand Jury not indicting policeman Darren Wilson for murder. There’s anger, passion and lust for revenge, but ultimately a call for non-violent protest.

El-P and Killer Mike will be donating the proceeds from the forthcoming Meow The Jewels remix project to the families of Michael Brown and other victims of police brutality.

RELATED: The Unexpected Cult of Run the Jewels
RELATED: 10 most important political protest songs of the last 50 years

Listen to “Ddfh’ for more on Run the Jewels’ take on police brutality.

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Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Trends & Culture, Video Tagged With: , , ,

Tame Impala offer more of the same at Fox Theater Oakland … and we still love it

November 18, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Tame-Impala_post2Photos by James Nagel & Sam Heller // Written by Mike Frash //

Tame Impala with Delicate Steve //
Fox Theater Oakland – Oakland
October 15th, 2014 //

One of the greatest bands currently creating new music and going out on epic tours, Tame Impala put on shows Saturday and Sunday at Fox Theater Oakland. So why did our favorite Aussies launch a mini-tour without any significant differences in their show since they last visited San Francisco and Oakland just over a year ago?

Saturday’s show featured the heady songs semi-inspired by the psychedelic movement of the 1960’s that we’ve come to love, and they’ve perfected the art of the improvisational interlude (when Tame Impala puts a song to bed, only to explode with two more intense minutes of the same song). These extended jams aren’t on record, but they help to spice up the group’s live experience.

RELATED: Tame Impala unveil new jams in LA despite faulty PA system

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One new element to the show on Saturday was enhanced visuals — the background screen extended from the floor to the ceiling, and Kevin Parker turned away from the audience to face the screen multiple times to concentrate on creating visualizations from his lead guitar playing. Parker’s instrument was represented on screen by a green line that circled, zigged, zagged and gets completely chaotic based on what notes he plucked and how intense they were struck. Granted these visuals look like something out of the first version of a Winamp visualizer, but it was still exciting and noteworthy.

Also, Parker ain’t afraid to represent. He was sporting swag that Tame Impala were selling at the merchandise booth. Next time Tame Impala come to town, I suspect it will be with a fresh scoop of new material.

Delicate Steve gave an exciting, powerful set steeped in emotive instrumentals that nicely set the stage for Tame Impala.

Tame Impala
Filed Under: Featured, Photos Tagged With: , , ,

The unexpected cult of Run the Jewels

November 17, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Run-The-Jewels-POSTPhotos by Alfonso Solis // Written by Mike Frash //

Run the Jewels with Ratking, Despot //
Mezzanine – San Francisco
November 14th, 2014 //

“A lot’s happened in the last week, but we are gonna give you a blockbuster night.” -El-P at Mezzanine

Populist leaders and destroyers of fuck boys, purveyors of high fives, hugs and grit-grime aggression that’s cartoonishly giddy, delivering dead-serious messages while inviting you the listener to join them — Run the Jewels operate in a self-imposed world of duality.

And since releasing Run the Jewels 2 on October 28th, the duo of Michael Render and Jaime Meline has exploded. Shortly after rave reviews started rolling out, their show at San Francisco’s Mezzanine sold out, and suddenly tickets were going for $150 into the thousands. Were the tickets being sold in the $800-$1,200 range on StubHub from fans extending RTJ’s penchant for absurdity? Or perhaps the exceptional amount of hype and well-deserved praise being showered on El-P and Killer Mike meant some engineer from Google or Facebook would actually pay 30 times face value. Either way, it shows how popular Run the Jewels have become.

Run the Jewels created this atmosphere by engaging with their audience online, enabling their biggest fans to feel like part of the RTJ inner circle, sharing the cultural torch that’s currently lighting the way to bigger and better things for El-P and Killer Mike. They’ve wisely relied on their audience, which is growing in volume at an exponential rate thanks to their open relationship both new and established media, but more importantly, by creating direct lanes with their fans.

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The Emergence of a Cult Following

Certainly it helps when your new record will widely be considered one of the best albums of the year, but El-P and Killer Mike’s non-stop promotional blitz has been rooted in engaging their supporters, with the half-joking deluxe album options that turned into the forthcoming Meow The Jewels remix record, giving RTJ2 away for free via social media and with Tag The Jewels, a truly worldwide street art project that has sea legs of its own. Run the Jewels have grown into a progressive, cultish movement, one that is completely inclusive, as long as you are on the right side of history.

The Tag The Jewels project looks to take the Run the Jewels hand sign from both RTJ album covers and turn it into an iconic mainstay. Outside of Mezzanine on Jesse Street this past Friday, the brand-new Run the Jewels tour bus hovered over the venue’s entrance with the RTJ2 album cover adorning its side. Unsurprisingly, fans took this opportunity to stand between the two mummy-fist-talons, turning their right hand into a two-fingered gun and the left into a fist holding a real or invisible 36” chain.

During their SF show, El-P and Killer Mike used the hand sign as a calling card much more than on their first tour, throwing up the signal as many as five times — and all the way to the back of the rectangular club space, show-goers mimicked El and Mike, even throwing the RTJ hand sign up on impulse to show love back to the artists.

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“It’s all love and respect.” -Killer Mike at Mezzanine

Much like a Phish or Die Antwoord audience, most everyone in the room at Mezzanine was there in “full buy-in” mode, not worried about what someone might think of you by getting a bit too into the moment. Which, when you think about it, is pretty elusive for a rap act that is beloved by the indie blogosphere and its readers. Yet, there is a collective acceptance, a mentality that has bubbled up from impromptu social media memes, gifs and videos, including El-P auditioning cats for Meow The Jewels by playing them “Oh My Darling Don’t Cry”.

In Run the Jewels’ return to SF, the guys seemed thoroughly blunted when they arrived on stage. They could barely open their eyes for the first few songs, but this didn’t thwart the lyrical precision we’ve come to expect. Relying on audience participation more than the last tour, something that is likely organic since people know RTJ’s material better now, the crowd committed to reinforcing each song with key words and phrasing, creating a sense that we’re all in this thing together. During the show, El-P candidly mentioned that everyone in the room are family, and “we are family now because you paid me.” The crowd was alive and engaged more than a large majority of most concert experiences, to which El-P tweeted post show as “the livest show I’ve ever had in San Fran in 15 years. fuck.”

Run-the-Jewels

Invigorating, Giddy Aggression

Run the Jewels’ lyrical violence is intended as a form of fantasy. Killer Mike made sure it was clear to FOX News watchers that his name refers to “killing the mic” when he went to discuss protests in Ferguson, Mo. And during El-P and Killer Mike’s recent hour-long interview with Microphone Check on NPR Music (a must-listen for fans of Run the Jewels), they spoke to this point:

El-P: “You’re listening to our record and you’re gonna grin. You’re in on the fun. This is not us threatening the listener … We’re not going on records and just being like ‘We’re gonna kill you!’ We’re having fun, and we’re also completely comfortable in our ridiculousness.”

Killer Mike: “And we understand you do want to kill people. But you can’t do that. So, let this be a way for you to kill people and then go back to work and don’t kill anyone.”

Mike is alluding to Run the Jewels as an outlet for invigorating, giddy aggression — to get that aggression out in a way that is cathartic, that doesn’t hurt other people, that is punk rock in its nature.

For example, in “Lie, Cheat, Steal”, Killer Mike states, “A revolutionary banging’ on my adversaries / And I love Dr. King but violence might be necessary / Cause when you live on MLK and it gets very scary / You might have to pull you AK, send one to the cemetery.” While Mike may seem like a civil rights leader more in the vein of the Black Panthers than Martin Luther King Jr., this example is about righteous self-defense.

Bottom line, it’s refreshing to see prominent rappers who are standing up for the good of the people, all people excluding fuck boys. You won’t see Run the Jewels putting down gay people, but most notably, Run the Jewels love women.

El-P2

On Charges of Misogyny

Before launching into the most controversial song off RTJ2, El-P said “This city [San Francisco] has taught me that there is a place for filth in your life.”

Rap music has always had a reputation for being somewhat connected to misogyny. But when I first heard “Love Again (Akinyele Back)” through the second minute of the record, I thought that it was a bit of a departure since El-P and Killer Mike have a clear history of celebrating women.

For example, they satirize date rape’s place in contemporary club culture with “Twin Hype Back” character Chest Rockwell, who says ridiculous things in a cheesy way that contrasts RTJ’s machine gun fire smoothness. In speaking to political power, El-P rhymes “There’s truth where the filth is / There’s lies in the law / You want a whore with a white dress / I want a wife in a thong” in “Angel Dust”. And in “Get It”, El says all he wants is “a castle / and to move like a man with a minimum of harassment / the company of women with opinions and fat asses”. You won’t find any obvious denigration of women in RTJ1 or in Mike or Producto’s solo work, so it sounded a bit odd hearing them get hyper-aggressive in a sexual manner on “Love Again”.

But that was until the third verse of the song, where they hand it off to female rapper Gangsta Boo to flip the script and give a raunchy, sexually empowering section that holds up to nasty nasty of Run the Jewels.

In their NPR interview last week, El-P said, “Girls listen to raunchy, funny stuff too.” Killer Mike discussed that his wife has heard “Love Again” and immediately compared it to “Just Put It in My Mouth” by Akinyele. The guys then referenced 2 Live Crew and Too $hort as inspirations for the song as well.

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El-P and Killer Mike also addressed the inevitable presumption of misogyny some people have with “Love Again”:

Killer Mike: “So, my thing is, I trust that women are intelligent. And I get offended — I have five sisters … Women are human. I think that when we start saying equal and human, that’s across the board, you know? Women enjoy sex … I’m just happy that our audience gets it …

El-P: “… Our intention is clear. We know our intention. Listen, real story: We made that record, and it didn’t have Boo on it. And we went and got Boo because we knew what we needed for that record … We have good intentions. I know that we are not being misogynist because we are not, a) being completely serious and, b) we’re talking about fucking here. I’m sorry if you’re offending by my language … but you’re not gonna tell me that being raw or being filthy is misogyny. I know the difference.

By definition, misogyny is the dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women. And when you let that definition sink in and listen to “Love Again” on RTJ2, labeling Run the Jewels with hating women is absolutely ridiculous. Sure, Run the Jewels often treat women as sexual objects, but they project and treat women as intellectual equals.

During the performance of “Love Again” at Mezzanine, Mike relied on the crowd to take on the “Dick in your mouth all day” refrain, making it more of a collective, fun thing. But they performed only two-thirds of the song — the all-important Gansta Boo verse was not played disembodied or with a replacement performer. This takes away from RTJ’s spirit of equality and opens the door to critics — especially since El-P admitted in the NPR interview that Gangsta Boo’s verse was a last-minute addition to rectify the song. El and Mike should find a creative way to fix this, or not play the song live, if they want to shut the door on charges of misogyny.

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This was one of the most action-packed hours of live music I’ve ever seen. Ending with the final songs off of their two albums, “A Christmas Fucking Miracle” and “Angel Duster”, the cult of Run the Jewels was mostly spent as the clock approached 1 a.m. That said, most people would have been happy to hear more. Forget the last week though, El and Mike have had a non-stop couple of years and have already gone a long way to solidifying their legacy.

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

The best of Treasure Island Music Festival 2014

October 21, 2014 by 2 Comments

TIMF2014_postPhotos by Marc Fong // Written by Mike Frash //

Treasure Island Music Festival //
Treasure Island – San Francisco
October 18th-19th, 2014 //

Treasure Island Music Festival 2014 will be remembered for its triumphant headliners along with its embrace of minimalist, finger-snapping electro-pop. Some of the performing acts that have blown up over the past year or so — including Jungle, Zedd, BANKS and Chet Faker — offered relatively tame performances, struggling to elevate their live music experiences. But many other acts gave inspired, breathtaking or insanely fun sets.

Here’s our best (and worst) of TIMF 2014.

Kaleidascope

Massive-Attack

Show of the Weekend: Massive Attack

Massive-Attack2With perhaps the most appropriate name for musical act on the planet, Massive Attack capped Treasure Island Music Festival 2014 in stunning fashion. With a balancing act of bass-infused downtempo brilliance highlighted by Martina Topley-Bird’s singing and industrialized synth-stabbing electronic pieces, a range of emotion is achieved for the listener. With contrasting tempos and a duality of tranquility then intensity, a cause-and-effect narrative starts to take shape — especially when paying attention to the video elements of the intense songs. “United Snakes” left nothing to the imagination with its barrage of corporate logos and national flags. It appeared the expanded duo slipped in one frame of a Ferris wheel, reminding us that yes, us consumers at TIMF, the only U.S. festival Massive Attack played on this tour, are part of the system. “Future Proof” visuals stripped out rows of zeroes and ones, using the simplicity of computer code to inspire multiple paths of thought, especially while absorbing this show in the Bay Area. And Tunde Adebimpe from TV On The Radio joined in for “Pray For Rain” for the grand finale.

OutKast-Big-Boi

Biggest Bay Area Party of the Year: OutKast

OutKast-DreIt’s almost the end of the biggest reunion tour in decades, and TIMF patrons were lucky enough to witness one of OutKast’s last shows. The Bridge Stage was more packed in than any show in memory, and festivalgoers outwardly had more fun compared to performances from past years. The set was perfectly paced, with André 3000 seemingly having a fun time — an important part of the equation compared to Big Boi’s rock-steady appearances throughout 2014. The guys gave shout-outs to Casual and The Misfits in the “local love” part of the show, and “Roses” (including a half-hearted apology for the “crazy bitch” outro) once again was one of the highlights. The set ended at least 20 minutes before the scheduled end of the day, emptying a large percentage of patrons into the shuttle line at the same time — there were some reports of people not making it back to SF until 2 a.m.

alt-J

Most Likely to Headline Festivals Very Soon: alt-J

alt-J is no longer a band on the rise, but one of the biggest bands in the world with this just-launched tour in support of the group’s second LP. This hour-long set at TIMF seemed like a coronation of sorts as it was the first festival set the now-quartet has played with new material. The highlights from An Awesome Wave still act as the backbone of the set while the best cuts from This Is All Yours were cherry-picked and sprinkled in perfectly to enhance their already-inspiring live show. “Hunger of the Pine” got things going while “Left Hand Free” worked well, getting away from the heady elements for a bit. “Dissolve Me” into “Matilda” is still so incredibly beautiful and emotive — alt-J should never break these two songs up. “Every Other Freckle” is the one song where I wish the guys would have considered new lyrics, but it’s a small complaint for a concert experience that had a huge crowd rapturously involved. When music implores a festival audience to be fully invested as alt-J pulled off on Sunday, with no one talking during the quiet intimate parts, it becomes clear you are ingesting something special. Even though their rise in popularity has happened remarkably fast, that trend should continue to move upward through festival season next year.

Classixx

Most TIMF Set of the Weekend: Classixx

On paper, Classixx is the ideal act for Treasure Island Music Festival 2014, and the duo delivered on this promise in the all-important sunset time slot. Restrained but upbeat enough, pop-oriented yet progressive in its sound, the LA-based remixers-turned-original producers brought Saturday together based on what we expect from past TIMF years. Their on-stage centerpiece, a modern take on a 1980’s-era television, visualizes Nancy Whang for “All You’re Waiting For” and YACHT’s Claire L. Evans for a remix of “Psychic City”. The television set offers a surreal scene juxtaposed with the backgrounded City skyline, functionally helping to break down the walls of disembodied vocals.

TVOTR

Best New Material: TV On The Radio

TVOTR2TVOTR gave one of the best sets of the weekend with their wonderful mix of slow burners, dance-punk blasts of energy along with three new songs: “Happy Idiot”, “Careful You” and “Could You”. The latter two were particularly impressive and fit perfectly into the band’s catalog. A couple other notes on the show: producer and multi-instrumentalist David Sitek now looks like Bono, Kyp Malone is still professionally chill and Tunde Adebimpe continues to be offended when listeners don’t give him full attention. After completing “Wolf Like Me”, wherein the TI faithful went nuts, the lead singer said that he couldn’t believe he saw someone leave during the song. Agreed Tunde, and we’re looking forward to the forthcoming record.

Janell-Monae

Best Recovery: Janelle Monáe

What’s exactly the point of sound checking a microphone if you’re not going to do it completely? The guy setting up the mic put it on the stand after unsuccessfully getting it to work, and Monáe sang the first song completely unaware her voice wasn’t projecting through the speakers. After some crowd chanting, a new microphone, and three different people near me saying “Why doesn’t she use the backup singer’s mic?” order was finally restored. Also, when we got “Tightrope”, all hope of seeing Monáe join mentor Big Boi during OutKast was shot. Still, there’s no doubt the Electric Lady is just beginning a long and illustrious career. And as she proved with “Cold War”, it’s damn near impossible to take your eyes or ears off her when it’s her time to shine.

Bill-Murray

Best Pop-Culture Friend-Finder: Bill Murray

Bill Murray is clearly the most important American pop culture icon, and this group knows it. They also had a high-flying Bill Murray flag to triangulate positions.

Ana-Tijoux

Best Festival Outlier: Ana Tijoux

French-Chilean MC and singer-songwriter Ana Tijoux brought the best change of pace on Saturday, something apparent from the beginning of “Vengo”. Upbeat and passionate fire-spitting about social injustice with electronic elements and a horn section? Yes please — this was perhaps the only set on the dance-oriented first day without finger snapping or words in English.

Washed-Out

Most TIMF Set of the Weekend Part 2: Washed Out

It’s impressive how Ernest Greene has evolved Washed Out from bedroom project to leader of the chill-wave movement to a live performer that can mimic the energy of a dance show through instrumentation. Like Classixx, this one just felt right for TIMF.

Polica

Most Immersive Set: Poliça

Sultry. Intensely Moody. World music-infused. These are the words I wrote down before being completely drawn into this set. Once awakening after completing locking in to a couple songs, I opted to get to alt-J early for a good spot. It was a tough call since Poliça were thoroughly captivating — I’ll be looking to see them again soon.

Mo

Best Unintentional Festival Blending: MØ

MØ emerged on stage sporting a black eye-patch, seemingly joining in on the pirate theme that has defined TIMF over the years. But after a song, Karen Marie Ørsted needlessly admitted to an eye infection, even though the optical accessory worked well with her braid and masculine power stances. MØ stood above the other new minimalist-glitch offerings on display at TIMF 2014 with her authentic energy, ownership of the stage and video support. Mixing oddly-appealing archival footage on loop, including a small animal’s still-beating heart in the palm of a hand, with imagery of herself working background vocals, made this electropop highlight even more memorable.

White-Denim

Band that Deserves More Listeners: White Denim

It’s a shame White Denim couldn’t be featured later in the day for more festivalgoers on Sunday. The seemingly spastic song structures and prog-rock mentality make White Denim a group to add to that list of bands you try to see perform live when they come to town.

The-New-Pornographers

Set that Thinned Out the Most: The New Pornographers

Along with the TIMF headliners, The New Pornographers have the most seniority out of all TIMF acts. Cuts from their underestimated 2014 record Brill Bruisers created the backbone of the set with fan favorites laced in throughout. Songs led by Destroyer’s Dan Bejar, with their skewered and self-inflicting lyrics, resonated strongest. This show thinned out as the set went on while most younger festivalgoers were queuing up for Chet Faker, signifying the current state of indie music popularity. Sadly, the eight members of the group walked off stage to nary an audible clap.

Silent-Disco

Best Constant Dance Party: Silent Disco

With no overlapping sets, Silent Disco is always an option if you want house music instead of the provided musicians on stage.

BANKS

Best Pop-Culture Friend-Finder 2: Kim Kardashian with Laser Beam Eyes at BANKS

BANKS kind of sums up the direction indie-turned-pop music has gone in 2014. Sleek bare-bones production, glitch elements and moody synth lay the ground work for whispery vocals. This aural cocktail has captured the collective zeitgeist (along with much of the TIMF curation) this year. Jillian Banks has an immaculate voice and is mega popular worldwide, but her set felt like more of the same. BANKS banned media photography for her TIMF set, so here’s a photo of one of the best location markers of the weekend: Kim Kardashian with laser beams coming out of her eyes.

The-Growlers

Most Entertaining Hype Man: The Growlers

Weirdo garage rock! The Growlers almost didn’t make their set according to the introduction given by the group’s eccentric hype-man named DMTina. But the psych-goth surf rock was pleasant enough, with “Chinese Fountain” giving a fun tone to the afternoon, but the dude in the robe pretty much stole the show.

St.-Lucia

Most Shiny Electro-Pop of the Weekend: St. Lucia

I have to be honest, St. Lucia is a bit too shiny and synth-heavy for me, but damn do they give it their all. If you’re into the nu-disco pop revival, St. Lucia is for you. OutKast was a priority, though.

Jungle

Most Surface-Level Fun: Jungle

Churning soul-disco mystery collective Jungle is a more well-known entity now, and the skyrocketing, UK-based outfit adeptly loops morsels of pleasurable phrasing as a house DJ would. But it all sounds the same. And given their debut record, I expected many similarities from song to song but still hoped for something more out of their live interpretations. Jungle is generic to the point of being an emotional blank slate, tofu without any other tastes involved. But there’s no better time than now to get involved in some Giants pandering — the “Let’s Go Giants” chant sparked by Josh Lloyd-Watson’s jersey and reference to SF’s World Series-bound team was one of the biggest crowd responses of the set.

Robot-Dance-Party

Best Mobile Dance Party: Robot Dance Party

Robot Dance Party can’t stop, won’t stop.

Chet-Faker2

Most Unlikely Show with People on Shoulders: Chet Faker

Chet-FakerChet Faker had the crew bring out a huge bass speaker to put directly behind him after his first song to give his music more oomph. And when he dipped into his career-making collaborations with Flume, “Left Alone” and “Drop the Game”, the Tunnel stage instantly began moving like the rhythm of the ocean. But otherwise, the set was downtempo to the point of boredom. And it’s not a good idea to take one of your best songs, “Talk is Cheap”, and strip it down even more. Some ladies still felt compelled to rock their friend’s shoulders as if it was a dance show, something that I’m still trying to figure out.

Zedd

Biggest Spectacle Over Substance: Zedd

More than any other set at TIMF 2014, Zedd felt out of place. By this point on Saturday, the fest needed a jump of adrenaline, but the Top 40 producer wasn’t the solution. Where acts like Knife Party or Bassnectar would have fallen more in line with the traditional ethos of TIMF, Zedd brought his world of contemporary pop to the island. There was no layering or transitions, his drops didn’t stand out from the EDM pack, and the show lacked any memorable surprises.

What were your favorite sets of Treasure Island Music Festival 2014?

OutKast at TIMF // Photo by Marc Fong
Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Festivals Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

11 songs with finger snaps from the past three years that won’t make you want to jab things in your ears

October 10, 2014 by 1 Comment

awsnap

By Mike Frash //

You can’t find a texture bed more minimalist than the repeating finger snap. When you think about it, cavemen and cave women probably made music by pressing their hand digits together.

And lately, finger snapping has bubbled up from the underground as dance producers have come to dominate modern pop production. And it’s everywhere. So, here are some songs from the past 30 months or so that have finger snaps and likely won’t make you want to project sharpened pencils in your ear hole. Unless you’re a rock purist — then you’ll probably hate this shit.

11. Glass Animals – “Gooey”



Glass Animals might have goofier lyrics than alt-J and Phish combined, but their sexy-smooth lounge rock is catching on. This finger snap in “Gooey” is more like a jangly clap-snap, but it counts.

10. Run The Jewels – “Sea Legs”



I try to infuse Killer Mike & El-P’s partnership Run the Jewels into most conversations, so why not find a way to get them on this snap list. Snaps only bookend “Sea Legs”, but look, I’m just trying to promote Meow the Jewels. Let’s make this happen.

9. Autre Ne Veut – “Counting”



Arthur Ashin’s falsetto-led future pop channels pain and chaos into a tight, emotive package with “Counting”, using brass and guitar as accent elements while the percussion, including (yes) snaps, dominate the mix.

8. Tinashe, Schoolboy Q – “2 On”

Tinashe released her likable first record in October 2014, and with “2 On”, she takes traditional male language and seemingly repackages it into “break-the-glass-ceiling” R&B-rap rhyming, that is until Schoolboy Q sets everything (unfortunately) back to normal with his opening line, “Uh, pull your panties down from under you, beat that pussy up, make you wanna holler Q.” Still, it’s a pretty addictive track.

7. How To Dress Well – “& It Was U”


Tom Krell is adept at letting his voice carry the emotional weight of his music, and none of his songs show this better than the snap-dominated “& It Was U”.

6. Classixx – “Dominoes”



Electronic music this silky and easy to digest puts it in the cross hairs of where pop is going, and the duo’s live show is a euphoric good time. Classixx will be at Treasure Island Music Festival 2014 in SF.

5. Perfume Genius – “Fool”

The new record from Perfume Genius is a gem, and Mike Hadreas gives a heaven’s call of a bellow in the middle of “Fool”, all while using snaps to keep the tune grounded.

4. DJ Koze – “Amydala (feat. Milosh)”



If you never got around to listening to DJ Koze’s 2013 masterpiece Amydgala, get on that. The song “Amydala” features Milosh (the singer from Rhye), whose voice blends with all the musical elements on this driving track. Look for the snaps to add another layer on the back third.

3. Darkside – “Paper Trails”



The magical collaboration between Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington may be on hiatus (read our review here from their only SF show), but we can still revisit one of the best songs from 2013, which keeps its methodical pace with a snap (or at least a modulated clap that sounds like a snap).

2. Lorde – “Royals”

To not include Lorde’s wubby, snap-paced “Royals” in this list would be playing hipster-devil’s advocate. Lorde’s music is much better than most radio fodder (ahem Foster The People and Robin Thicke). And how is she only 17 still? She’s tracking ahead of Madonna in her influence on the pop landscape.

1. Dillon Francis feat. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – “Without You”



DF + TEED combined forces for this 2013 insta-classic that uses finger snaps as the critical, minimalist linchpin for the inverted drop.

BONUS: We can’t forget the Super Mario Theme finger snap guy:

Filed Under: BAM of the Week, Featured Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2014: Three hot days of treating SF

October 9, 2014 by 4 Comments

HSB-October-03,-2014-5Photos by Pedro Paredes, Tom Dellinger & Benjamin Wallen // Written by Mike Frash //

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2014 //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
October 3rd-5th, 2014 //

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is the best free music festival in the world. There are no security checkpoints, yet a quarter million people get along like old friends each day. You get to choose from seven different stages (a new one was added this year). And you can count on the sun to shine brightly come early October just about every year in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. It’s just one of those SF laissez-faire weekends that works.

Warren Hellman’s event and ongoing gift is a real-life Choose Your Own Adventure for music heads while also setting the scene for a weekend-long picnic in the park.

The hottest day of the year in SF was on HSB Friday, so finding shade and a spot in close proximity to a stage was like getting a half-decent apartment rental price in this City — it was basically impossible.

Headliner choices to end the first day were a toss-up, and you really can’t go wrong when choosing between Ryan Adams, Conor Oberst, Yo La Tengo and Lucinda Williams.

Ryan Adams headlining The Banjo Stage on Friday

Ryan Adams headlining The Banjo Stage on Friday.

The Banjo Stage was packed, yet restrained for Ryan Adams, who impressed with a set full of cuts from his remarkable self-titled album from this year. The over-heated audience finally let loose when the sun went down, and Adams, plus his band, delivered a goofy-fun, impromptu song (watch it here) that was made up on the spot. Hellman Hallow erupted in celebration of three (“No, it’s not three. It’s four fucking balloons.”) in the back of the park.

Conor Oberst once again curated the Rooster Stage for Friday, with Waxahatchee and Jonathan Wilson both showing early on why they keep growing more popular. Wilson offered one of the most eye-opening sets of the weekend — the segmented sections of energy connected like a mystery train heading toward infinity.

RELATED: View photos from Conor Oberst’s show at The Fillmore after Hardly Strictly.

If you like music, then you'll probably like Jonathan Wilson

If you like music, then you’ll probably like Jonathan Wilson. Marx Meadow perfectly matched the feel of his show.

Sharon Van Etten suffered from some early technical issues, and the sound output was less than half as strong as other shows in Marx Meadow throughout the weekend. But with every slow-building crescendo, the crowd would stop talking and take heed of one of the most powerful performers around.

The heat effected Van Etten's sound output and between-song banter, but there were still plenty of affecting moments

The staggering heat may have affected Van Etten’s between-song banter, but she still affected us.

Dawes has become that festival set I usually walk by on the way to another, but I’m completely in favor of making “When My Time Comes” the new National Anthem for the United States.

Mini-Boss Taylor Goldsmith from Dawes carries on the energy of Bruce Springsteen.

Mini-Boss Taylor Goldsmith from Dawes carries on the energy of Bruce Springsteen.

The Towers of Gold Stage on Saturday was a classic example of the “Hardly Strictly” side of this bluegrass-based fest. Red Baraat had us dancing, Deltron 3030 with the 3030 Orchestra (and Dan The Automator orchestrating) had us rhyming along, Built to Spill got collective head-bopping going and Social Distortion drew out the punk rock rage in many.

Then, capping the day by seeing Robert Earl Keen hold down Saturday evening duties at the Rooster Stage once again just felt right.

Year after year, the energy at Robert Earl Keen to end Saturday is undeniable.

Year after year, the energy at Robert Earl Keen’s set to end Saturday is undeniable.

SF-based singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek has had quite the year, creating one of the best albums of 2014 while making waves as of late. He bullies his audiences, and he’s directed his ire at The War on Drugs the past few weeks since WOD, one of the best live acts of 2014, overpowered Kozelek’s Sun Kil Moon set during the Ottawa Folk Festival.

There was no sound-bleed during Kozelek’s Sun Kil Moon set on Sunday, and he had a four-piece supporting him to rework some of his recent work. Songs were slowed down and vocals were turned up with extra echo, placing greater significance on words and phrasing. “Michelene” seemed more tragic, and “Gustavo” lingered in the air.

Kozelek seemed gracious and positive throughout, professing his love for San Francisco by saying “I’m gonna live here and die here”, and based on his 2014 record Benji, I believe him.

Chuck Prophet delivered a full sound with a supporting orchestra on Sunday.

Chuck Prophet during his part on Saturday at the “Holler Down the Hollow” set at the Banjo Stage.

Chuck Prophet & The Mission Express put on a delightful set with orchestral backing, Tweedy played a handful of Wilco songs solo acoustic (including “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart”) and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead finished off the Arrow Stage on Sunday in usual jammy fashion, performing classic Grateful Dead tunes much better than anyone out there today, including Furthur.

What were your favorite sets of the weekend?

Steve Earle, Peter Rowan...

Steve Earle, Peter Rowan…

David Rawlings

David Rawlings

It was fucking hot (for SF)

It was fucking hot (for SF)

John Paul Jones

John Paul Jones

A park legend

A park legend

The Lone Bellow

The Lone Bellow

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down

Timeless couple

Timeless couple

HSB fills in nicely.

HSB fills in nicely.

The Mastersons

The Mastersons

Paul Janeway

Paul Janeway

Good times.

Good times.

Beer.

Beer.

Until next year...

Until next year…

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Festivals Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2014 daily schedule announced

September 22, 2014 by 2 Comments

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2013

Photos by Shawn Reiss // Written by Mike Frash //

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2014 //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
October 3rd-5th, 2014 //

UPDATE: Full Stage Schedules have been announced!

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is coming up quickly, and the daily lineup has now been announced (but not the complete schedule). Take a look below at which artists are playing each day. Friday, as always, is stacked. If you haven’t put in for that day off yet, now is the time.

As you likely know by now, this is a free event in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park courtesy of the late Warren Hellman.

FRIDAY OCT 3 (10:30am – 7pm)
• Ryan Adams
• John Prine
• Conor Brings Friends For Friday Featuring: Waxahatchee, The Good Life, Jonathan Wilson, Sharon Van Etten, Dawes, Conor Oberst
• Lucinda Williams
• Yo La Tengo
• Cibo Matto with Nels Cline
• Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
• Hurray For The Riff Raff
• Poor Man’s Whiskey (Friday morning middle school program)
• The Aquabats! (Friday morning middle school program)
• Buckwheat Zydeco
• Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin with The Guilty Ones
• The Waybacks
• Peter Rowan’s Twang An’ Groove
• Dry Branch Fire Squad
• Bill Kirchen & Too Much Fun

SATURDAY OCT 4 (11am – 7:15pm)
• Steve Earle & The Dukes
• Robert Earl Keen
• Chris Isaak
• Holler Down The Hollow: A Hardly Strictly Salute To the Masters (Dickens, Hellman, Reed, Scruggs, Seeger, Watson & Winchester),
• Dave Rawlings Machine
• Social Distortion
• Built to Spill
• Deltron 3030 with The 3030 Orchestra
• Mavis Staples
• Red Baraat
• St. Paul & The Broken Bones
• Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds
• Justin Townes Earle
• The Felice Brothers
• Jon Batiste and Stay Human
• Buddy Miller’s Cavalcade of Stars: Kate York, Striking Matches, Nikki Lane, Shawn Colvin, Tony Joe White, Buddy Miller & Friends with Doug Seegers, Sam Palladio & McCrary Sisters
• Willie Watson
• Chris Smither
• Evolfo
• Carlene Carter
• Reckless Kelly
• The Flatlanders Featuring Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Butch Hancock
• Johnnyswim
• The Mastersons
• Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas
• Rose’s Pawn Shop
• Blue Rodeo
• Bad Luck Jonathan
• Horseshoe Hill
• Parker Millsap
• Alison Brown Quintet
• Heidi Clare
• The Time Jumpers Featuring Vince Gill, Kenny Sears, Dawn Sears and Ranger Doug Green
• McCrary Sisters
• Whograss

SUNDAY OCT 5 (11am – 7pm)
• Emmylou Harris
• Dwight Yoakam
• Tweedy
• Sun Kil Moon
• Lukas Nelson & Promise of The Real
• Joe Russo’s Almost Dead
• Laurie Lewis & The Right Hands
• T Bone Burnett
• Rosanne Cash
• Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn
• Lake Street Dive
• The Sam Chase
• Bruce Cockburn
• Malawi Mouse Boys
• Kevin Welch, Kieran Kane & Fats Kaplin
• The Brothers Gibb
• The Lone Bellow
• Caitlin Rose
• Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
• Blackie and The Rodeo Kings
• Chuck Cannon
• The High Bar Gang
• JB Nimble
• Jerry Douglas Presents Earls of Leicester
• Rising Appalachia
• Shelly Colvin
• The Apache Relay
• Robbie Fulks
• Moonalice
• Jimmie Dale Gilmore
• Bonnie “Prince” Billy & The Cairo Gang featuring Dawn McCarthy
• Hot Rize Featuring Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers
• Chuck Prophet & The Mission Express ‘Strings In The Temple’
• The Go To Hell Man Clan
• Jason Isbell
• Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
• Jesse DeNatale
• Sarah Jarosz

HSB

Filed Under: Featured, Festivals Tagged With:

Meow the Jewels hits 10k in Kickstarter funding

September 21, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Meow The Jewels

One of our favorite live acts of last (and this) year, Run the Jewels, have been building a media fervor as their next album, RTJ2, inches closer to an October 28th release. Killer Mike has made multiple appearances on cable news outlets in the wake of the Michael Brown tragedy and Ferguson protests, two dope new songs have been released as of late, and as we wait in anticipation for the new record, a genius collection of deluxe package offerings have stolen our hearts.

The bonus packages offered by Run the Jewels this past week have achieved for the duo a free round of viral advertising that might extend into unprecedented territory, while completely staying true to form and style.

If you haven’t checked out the bonus package choices yet, do it for a good laugh at least, but most attention has been given to the 40k bonus offering called “The Meow The Jewels Package”, promising “Run the Jewels will re-record RTJ2 using nothing but cat sounds for music.” Almost immediately, someone from Phoenix, Ariz., started a Kickstarter campaign and accompanying social media channels to crowd-fund the would be project.

Run the Jewels have captured the cultural zeitgeist by opening up their world to all cat-sourced production (Run the Jewels part one only had one cat’s meow.) El-P, whom is the sole producer of Run The Jewels, immediately confirmed that he will make this a reality if the Meow the Jewels Kickstarter total of $45,100 is met. And all the proceeds will go to charity.

Meow The Jewels3

Meow The Jewels hit 10k in funding on Sunday, with 622 total backers. With 36 days left to go (as of September 21st) there’s plenty of time to spread the word and bank small donations like the early days of the Obama campaign (There have been 16 backers whom have given $100 or more and no 1k backers…yet).

For backing Meow The Jewels, a plethora of sick swag is promised in return. Meow The Jewels stickers, “MTJ” branded lighters, shirts, bags of catnip, and final product vinyl signed by Mike and El-P are promised, and for being a 1k donator, you can submit your very own cat’s ridiculous utterances to be worked into the production of Meow The Jewels.

Consider donating today.

Killer Mike and El-P released one of the best albums of 2013 with their self-titled debut, self-producing the entire thing and releasing it as a free download a full year before U2 tried it. It was through the duo’s captivating live performances that word continued to spread about Run the Jewels — and now the guys are ready to catapult to the top tier of rap acts.

Even though cats may be providing all original sources of sound production for an RTJ2 remix album, Run the Jewels is still not for your children.

Meow The Jewels2

Filed Under: Featured, On The Media, Trends & Culture Tagged With: , , , , ,

Beck opens for himself to launch The Masonic in SF

September 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Beck_Masonic

By Mike Frash

Beck //
The Masonic – San Francisco
September 19th, 2014 //

A new music venue premiered in San Francisco on Friday night in a historic space with Beck breaking the champaign bottle on The Masonic, formerly known as the Nob Hill Masonic Center.

It was an early-evening event, as Beck Hansen took to the stage at 8:37 and was finished by 10:20, which is likely a harbinger for events to come at the venue promoted by Live Nation.

Located atop Nob Hill, a district rich in history (and hoity-toity residents), opening night of The Masonic has been a long time coming. Live Nation began this refurbishment process in 2008, but Nob Hill neighborhood groups did everything in their power to thwart The Masonic’s development.

After appeals to Superior Court and a lengthy environmental review, the parties settled at a cap of 79 events per year, fewer bars available to control alcohol consumption and an early starting (and ending times) for events.

The lines to purchase food and drinks were indeed very long, with only four places to queue up for a capacity 3,300 crowd. And when tickets range from $75.00-$99.50 plus fees, access to a quick beer pre-show shouldn’t be a hassle, but it is what it is. Live Nation sent out an email on Friday that had warned of the early start time, which had a large majority of patrons arriving at the same time around 8pm.

Expensive tickets also translated into typical SF laissez-faire security treatment, both at the doors and in not policing open marijuana smoking. Also, posters to commemorate the evening were handed out upon leaving The Masonic, something Live Nation has made a wonderful habit of doing for every sold out show at The Fillmore.

The venue is extremely intimate for its size, with all seats and General Admission areas close to the stage, which speaks to the architectural choice of a spherical space. This also helps the overall sound as well compared to other venues, allowing audio waves to envelop the audience.

So maybe it was due to time constraints, or that Beck is a festival headliner and he doesn’t need the support, but there was no opening act on the bill. So Beck opened for himself, and he said as much upon taking the stage.

The opening nine-song segment honed on Beck’s more mellow offerings, taking on most of this year’s Morning Phase, a couple cuts from 2002’s Sea Change and “Asshole” by fan-request for only the fourth time since 2009.

The mix was a bit rough at first, with vocals and guitar too high, but after a few songs, instruments blended much better. Beck and band briefly left the stage to signify a changeover to the radio hits, but “Devil’s Haircut” was a train wreck to ignite the rock section of the show. It sounded as if the drum and bass were being played in a different time signature than the rest of the group. Everything tightened up by the time “Loser” had begun.

Beck_tape

The Quiet Storm stretched out crime scene caution tape at the end of the main set, only to cut said tape during the always entertaining “Debra” during the encore.

Despite the small hiccups, Beck put on a thoroughly enjoyable evening, particularly by leading with the Morning Phase-driven segment.

Old Crow Medicine Show, Train and Modest Mouse will be performing at The Masonic this week if you want to check out SF’s newest music venue.

SETLIST
The Golden Age
Blackbird Chain
Blue Moon
Say Goodbye
Heart Is a Drum
Country Down
Lost Cause
Asshole(Partial)
Waking Light

Devil’s Haircut
Black Tambourine
Loser
Hell Yes
Think I’m in Love / I Feel Love
(Donna Summer cover)
Soul of a Man
Girl
Timebomb
E-Pro

ENCORE
Debra
Where It’s At


http://instagram.com/p/tLW1ISpKUx/
http://instagram.com/p/tK2r3fCYy0/


http://instagram.com/p/tKAeu_oNvR/

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: ,

With the death of net neutrality, how will music consumption change?

September 15, 2014 by 2 Comments

net-neutrality_post

By Mike Frash //

The way the Internet works is about to fundamentally change, unless companies, organizations and people continue to band together in a populist uprising to take on Big Cable. If the Telecom behemoths have their way, the wild, weird open web as we know it is dead.

So how might the death of net neutrality effect the way we consume digital music?

The second battle over net neutrality is heating up, and we the people are losing. A major blow to net neutrality went down last week when a three judge panel unanimously agreed with Verizon’s appeal to 2011 net neutrality regulations that “the FCC did not have the legal authority to enact …”

Within a day, a grassroots conglomeration of 76 major websites and thousands of others organized by Battle For The Net joined forces on September 10th for “Internet Slowdown Day”, building a campaign of awareness around the corporate threat to net neutrality.

On September 10th, over two million people took action, making 312,171 calls, writing 2,332,092 emails and filing 777,364 comments to the FCC, numbers that indicate a successful viral and action-inducing effort. One of the more effective illustrations of the Internet’s possible future came from Join the Fast Lane, a mocked up website that shows what using the Internet might be like soon.

The battle over net neutrality signifies the most important struggle between populism and corporate interest in the age of information. “Team Cable” has the money and K Street influence on their side, but “Team Internet” is able to use their platforms and creativity to make an impactful counter attack.

Visit Battle For The Net and sign their letter to lawmakers — it should take about 20 seconds to complete.

Internet-Slowdown-Day

So what will happen to the landscape of digital music consumption if net neutrality is no more?

Rock The Net is an effort from the Future of Music Coalition, which believes “creators must be able to compete on a level technological playing field alongside the biggest companies.” Artists that support Rock The Net include R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Death Cab for Cutie, Bob Mould, Calexico, Les Claypool, Rogue Wave, and many more.

In writing about access and innovation for artists, Rock The Net declares, “imagine logging on to your favorite band’s website, only to have it take forever to load on your computer because they couldn’t afford (or didn’t want) to pay a toll to powerful Internet Service Providers. All artists deserve the right to use the Internet to cultivate listeners, and fans deserve to make their own choices of how and where to access legitimate content. That’s why the open Internet must be preserved.”

Is it possible that net neutrality regulation are part of why there are more mega-break out bands now more than ever? Would Imagine Dragons, alt-J, Chvrches, The Lumineers, Disclosure, Sky Ferreira, Capital Cities, and Bastille have all made it as big as they are now without an open Internet?

Streaming music has become the most essential means of listening to music, greatly reducing peer-to-peer piracy. Piracy has been so rampant that many artists stream new albums a week before they are released. Spotify, Beats Music, Pandora, MOG, Rdio, YouTube, Grooveshark and others have become the de facto platform for music consumption.

When these companies are forced to choose the “fast lane” of bandwidth options, you can bet streaming will cost more — all so the elite can get richer. Services that don’t pay ISPs could lose sound quality if they don’t pay to allow users more bandwidth — as Gizmodo pointed out, “… the end of net neutrality would mean striking deals with ISPs if they want to reach consumers, the same way television networks must do with cable companies.”

The absence of net neutrality also means it’s plausible that Big Cable could help decide the victor of the battle for streaming supremacy by taking the most strategic pay-to-play partnership that comes their way.

And if streaming starts to sound worse, has interruptions or gets more expensive, won’t we see a second boom in piracy? Will private bit torrenting networks become even more popular, while a new generation masters IP blocking and online activity masking?

How do you see the future of music without net neutrality?

As corrupt as this whole thing is, it’s not over yet. You can still make your voice heard at the FCC Website, and visit Battle for the Net for more information and tools for your own website.

What is net neutrality?

You might be asking yourself, what exactly is net neutrality and why do I care? Let’s let Jimmy Kimmel, an expert curator in virality, explain:

We are now amidst the second major battle of online businesses & users versus IP & Content Provider Associations. The first major counter-offensive on January 18, 2012 was against proposed legislation called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), which were legislation largely funded by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). If passed, these laws would have threatened online freedom of speech and Internet communities. Websites could be outright shut down if one user of a community shared a link to trademarked media.

Virtually all major web-based businesses protested this legislation. Wikipedia went completely dark for the day, only featuring an easy to use widget that helped visitors find the contact details of their representatives in DC. Reddit, WordPress, Mozilla and Flickr conducted prominent information campaigns. Google covered their iconic landing page logo with a censor bar, and a petition at Google recorded over 4.5 million signatures.

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Congressional offices were flooded, and the laws being pushed by content provider associations and big cable were tabled, and the power brokers behind the would-be laws had no clue what hit them. But in typical villain style, these groups retreated to their lair to regroup, strategically infiltrating the FCC, to come back with a stronger and final spear to the heart of net neutrality.

The FCC cleared way in April for a two-tiered system, where Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Verizon can charge tech companies for bandwidth priority, creating a
fast lane” for established businesses that can afford it, making it much harder for start ups and small businesses to compete. It’s a sort of caste system that will ultimately mean consumers pay higher prices for online subscriptions and services.

The biggest hurdle for the people and online businesses is the cronyism between the FCC and Telecommunication Corporations. Comcast has spent over 18 million dollars in lobbying over the past year. Law professor and net neutrality expert Susan Crawford has essentially said that “if the FCC tries to save it [net neutrality] … Republicans have sworn to dismantle the FCC.”

Then in 2013, President Obama named Tom Wheeler, a former top lobbyist for a consortium of Big Cable behemoths, the current Chairman of the FCC. John Oliver compares this incestual corruption hilariously to “needing a babysitter and hiring a dingo.”

The semi-fascist possibility of collusion between the governmental agency meant to regulate communications and the cable providers themselves looms over all these proceedings. As Vice pointed out, “The FCC is stocked with staffers who have recently worked for Internet Service Providers (ISP) that stand to benefit tremendously from the defeat of net neutrality.”

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Filed Under: Featured, Show Experience, Trends & Culture Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2014 complete lineup announced, and it’s incredible

August 26, 2014 by 1 Comment

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Photos by Shawn Reiss // Written by Mike Frash //

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2014 //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
October 3rd-5th, 2014 //

The complete lineup for the 14th Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park has been announced, and feast your eyes on some of the highlights (we split acts into “Legend” and “Indie/Hardly Strictly Bluegrass” categories):

The Legends:
Emmylou Harris
Dwight Yoakam
Chris Isaak
Steve Earle & The Dukes
Rosanne Cash
Lucinda Williams
Dave Rawlings Machine
T Bone Burnett
Mavis Staples
Robert Earl Keen
John Prine
Holler Down the Hollow: A Hardly Strictly Salute to the Masters (Dickens, Hellman, Reed, Scruggs, Seeger, Watson & Winchester)
Many, Many More

Indie/Hardly Strictly Bluegrass…
Conor Brings Friends For Friday featuring Waxahatchee, The Good Life, Jonathan Wilson, Sharon Van Etten, Dawes, Conor Oberst
Ryan Adams
Tweedy
Built to Spill
Sun Kil Moon
Yo La Tengo
Social Distortion
Deltron 3030 with The 3030 Orchestra
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
Hurray for the Riff Raff
St. Paul & The Broken Bones
Lukas Nelson & Promise of The Real
Lake Street Dive
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead
Red Baraat
Cibo Matto
Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds
Justin Townes Earle
The Felice Brothers
The Lone Bellow
Malawi Mouse Boys
The Sam Chase
The Aquabats! (Friday morning middle school program)
Poor Man’s Whiskey (Friday morning middle school program)
And many, many more!

Daily schedules have not been announced, but we already know Ryan Adams will conflict with the “Conor Brings Friends For Friday” lineup on … Friday. So, that’s one tough one. Oberst has been touring with Dawes this year, and Dawes has been Conor Oberst’s backing band as well, so the Rooster Stage should be a treat this year to start the fest.

This is undoubtedly one of the best HSB lineups yet. Is it too early to camp out for a prime spot? For newcomers, this fest is free thanks to the amazing gift from the late, great Warren Hellman.

Who are you most excited to see? Tell us in the comments section.

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It’s official: Jack White is the biggest rock star in the world

August 25, 2014 by 1 Comment

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Photos by David James Swanson // Written by Mike Frash //

Jack White //
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium – San Francisco
August 23rd, 2014 //

Severe ankle sprain, what? No big deal, the show must go on.

On a weekend with appealing festivals all over California, Jack White proved on Saturday that he’s not only a bonafide festival headliner for any occasion, but also the biggest and most essential rock star in the world.

The Jack White that showed up in San Francisco this past weekend was more focused and engaging than prior tours. He’s noticeably more upbeat and punk in how he performed than in the past, while also appearing authentic, positive, comfortable and likable.

So when the Third Man giant proclaimed, “From the Bottom of the Hill to the top of the hill” in reference to playing the tiny San Francisco club twice in 2000 with The White Stripes, he wasn’t bragging. He was stating a plain fact.

Jack White is the king of rock at this point in time, and he was magnificent on Saturday, not showing the effect of a bad ankle sprain within 24 hours of being pressured by his team to cancel the whole tour due the accident Friday night.

White is clearly on a mission to graduate to arenas after this theater-sized tour, and he’s on his way — so he’s not going to let some lower body swelling get in his way.

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What’s most appealing is how White is achieving this feat within the boundaries of his established throwback style.

White and his band appeared from behind a massive theater curtain to launch into an impactful “Sixteen Saltines”, while a television from the ‘50s sticks out in the middle of the stage to remind you that this artist, who now sports an Elvis-like haircut, could have thrived in another era from the past. Also, it reminds you that looking at a bright screen is not very fun while at a concert.

Jack White was one of the first artists to speak up about concert smartphone photos and videos, and signs were put up on his 2012 tour asking fans to keep their phones in their pockets during the show. The public backlash was pretty brutal.

To clarify his position in 2012, he wrote “the only thing that we’ve ever asked of the audience is to not take pictures or videos while holding up their camera phones, etc that block other peoples view or otherwise hinder other fans concert experiences.” The message continued, “Along with that, the bigger idea is for people to experience the event with their own eyes and not watch an entire show through a tiny screen in their hand.”

Before the show began on Saturday, someone from White’s camp spoke to the crowd, reiterating these points in a comedic way, and the crowd erupted in support and applause. A lot can change in a couple years. Also, White has hired a tour photographer to cover the show in leu of discouraging press and crowd-based photography. They’re available on White’s site after every show, and as the speaker mentioned, “You can claim them as your own.” We won’t — the tour photos are courtesy of David James Swanson.

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Labeled as grumpy, sad and controlling the past few years, White was the ambassador of fun during this show. Smooth transitions were a plenty, and songs would often play out in three to five song segments. The setlist was upbeat and energetic, slower songs were played faster than their studio recordings on most occasions, and the crowd was along for the ride, bouncing this positive energy back to the stage to fuel the frontman.

“Hello Operator” was absent of words but was filled in by an uproarious harmonica solo. The one Dead Weather song of the evening, “I Cut Like a Buffalo”, transformed into a blues meets ecstatic chaos number that was a high point of the show.

The cavernous space of Bill Graham Civic Auditorium never felt so small.

A couple quick covers were laced into the extended encore, much like what Phish has been doing for years and what Arcade Fire has been doing lately. Jimi Hendrix’s “Manic Depression” slid into the middle of “Icky Thump”, with “Message In A Bottle” emerging during “Steady, As She Goes” by The Raconteurs. This section in particular showed of White’s better than ever shredding skills.

After finishing his part of “Seven Nation Army” and successfully appealing to the audience for support with his stadium anthem, he joined in on drums to bring the show to a thundering conclusion. With the crowd going bonkers, he approached the mic one more time for a sincere thank you to San Francisco as he held his hands over his heart.

Without question, Jack White is one of the best live artists of 2014. And now with a humble, inclusive attitude, his stock should only rise further.

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Epically horrible line at FYF Fest inspires Twitter gold

August 23, 2014 by 2 Comments

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FYF Fest in Los Angeles kicked off today with a new location at LA Sports Arena & Exposition Park, one of the best lineups of the year and a major logistical problem — the epic line to get in. The festival has admitted as much:

When you get to the fest before any music starts and you are handed your program two hours later, there’s plenty of time to come up with warranted hate-snark to blast on social media. Just check out the comments in response to the above tweet from FYF, and look at some interesting comments and comedy gold below.

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Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2014 proving to be as diverse as ever

August 21, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2013Photos by Shawn Reiss // Written by Mike Frash

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
October 3rd-5th, 2014 //

The 14th incarnation of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is shaping up to be one of the finest offerings yet, especially if the four rounds of medley preview clues are any indication.

Adept at balancing legends, local Bay Area acts and fast-rising talent, the curation team for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass never disappoints the hundreds of thousands of music lovers that show up for the free event.

The HSB website has shared the traditional four medleys that preview many of the acts that will play, and variety is the key word (listen below). Returning legends include Emmylou Harris, Chris Isaak, Lucinda Williams, Shawn Colvin, Dave Rawlings Machine and Buddy Miller.

But take a look at the standout indie, rock and neo-soul acts announced so far, including a dash of hip-hop and punk:

• Ryan Adams
• Sun Kil Moon
• Deltron 3030 with The 3030 Orchestra
• Social Distortion
• Yo La Tengo
• Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
• Jonathan Wilson
• St. Paul & The Broken Bones
• The Sam Chase
• Cibo Matto
• Malawi Mouse Boys

History tells us the complete lineup will be announced after the four rounds of medleys — it could come as early as next week!

Watch webcasts, read our survival guide and view our photos from Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2013.







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Tame Impala ‘plagiarism’ coverage grasping for straws, clicks

August 18, 2014 by 1 Comment
Tame Impala performing as The Spice Girls on Halloween 2013 in San Francisco.

Tame Impala performing as The Spice Girls on Halloween 2013 in San Francisco.

UPDATE 8/20: Hats off to Rolling Stone‘s Jason Newman, who actually took the time for some investigative journalism to follow up with the Rata publishers. They said that “It was a joke,” and Rolling Stone got a hold of Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, who replied, “This is a joke, right?” Now, Pablo Ruiz is considering legal action thanks to the music media noise machine that spread the non-story on Monday.

Rolling Stone reported, “Ruiz told ESPN Radio that he would be interested in performing with the band when they play BUE Fest in Buenos Aries on November 24th.” So, maybe Tame Impala and Ruiz can join together for “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” > “Océano” > “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”, have a laugh and move on. Read our original On The Media report below:

Music blogs overshadow Tame Impala’s mini tour announcement with borderline slander.

Consequence of Sound, arguably the best U.S. music blog over the past couple of years, ran a story today reporting that another blog from South America has accused Tame Impala of plagiarism. Pitchfork picked up the story an hour later, and like a pack of flies on shit, many other music outlets followed suit from there, pointing to the CoS story.

Suddenly the headline is: Tame Impala are accused of stealing “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”. In an age when headlines matter more than content, accusations like this stick in the hearts and minds of consumers longer than one news cycle.

So, who really made this accusation? CoS points to the “Chilean news site” Rata, a small music blog from Chile. Online media entities are the ones accusing here, not an individual, an artist or a record label. This source article seems to be satirical in nature, much like The Onion. The article claims “the discovery happened at a gathering where musicologists analyzed songs from different eras, and made this conclusion.” The video then, also made by Rata, offers “proof”:

Apparently those familiar with former pop star Pablo Ruiz have been joking about this similarity for a while now, but one could also argue that Pablo Ruiz plagiarized Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba”. That doesn’t make it true just because someone said it or put it on the Internet.

I mean, come on, there’s evidence of Kevin Parker’s first demo of “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” as he’s working through the songwriting process here:



All of this is a bit of a low blow considering Tame Impala announced a tour today, which visits New York, California and South America, including a stop at BUE Fest in Buenos Aires, Argentina. So, perhaps this is all a tie-in to promote the tour, but that sure would be testing the notion that “all publicity is good publicity.”

This is also a classic example of the echo chamber that is the music news industry at this point in time. One outlet reports, everyone else regurgitates the same thing with a link to the “source”, deferring journalistic integrity to the news breaker, all to get the article up ASAP before the East Coast finishes the work day. And so it goes …

Here’s hoping Tame Impala arrive in November at the Fox Theater in Oakland ready to road test some new material.

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Outside Lands Day 3: Flume draws massive crowd, inspires tree dancing

August 11, 2014 by 3 Comments

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Photos by Marc Fong // Written by Mike Frash //

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
August 8th-10th, 2014 //

When we wrote about Flume possibly playing Outside Lands this year in our artist rumors article, we mentioned the Australian DJ could headline this year, a divisive point that got some folks questioning our claim. Based on the crowd that showed up and the high level of sustained excitement on Sunday, that possibility isn’t too far away for Harley Streten. Sure, CHVRCHES’ cancelling their set caused some massive swelling at the east end of the festival for Flume, but many of the disappointed must have found a new favorite.

Australian producer Harley Streten weaved together a crowd-pleasing set that had a saturated Twin Peaks field bouncing along with hands up for the duration, all in the 3 p.m. hour on Sunday. In the past year, Flume’s set has become more sophisticated, led by a restrained approach that intermingles hip-hop, trap, R&B and rap. The drops are inverted in their intensity compared to traditional EDM, offering slight delays and unpredictable syncopation.

Flume has helped to create and capitalize off music’s popular trend toward marrying dance music and hip-hop, and his ability to curate a festival-sized mega party cannot be questioned at this point. Fortune favors the bold …

Add in remixes, including Major Lazer’s “Get Free” & Lorde’s “Tennis Court”, while throwing back to Friday with a rework of Disclosure’s “You & Me” and “Insane” with Killer Mike’s verses, and even the uninitiated were pulled into the excitement. Streten was also able to bring in “Touched” by What So Not, his new duo with Emoh Instead.

And did I mention how packed it was? Twenty minutes before Flume was to start there was nowhere to go. Some folks had to resort to tree dancing … for mostly hilarious results (watch the video above). While the conservationist in me says raging out a tree for an hour isn’t right, it was pretty funny — but not to Ranger Dave. According to a user on a Reddit thread titled FLUME FUCKING KILLED IT, “Apparently he got fined, and just posted his ticket on Facebook.” So think twice before trying this next year.

Some shows, per usual, were very crowed this year. Perhaps too crowded. Atmosphere’s show on Saturday left no room to breath. Capital Cities looked really packed. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis easily outdrew Tom Petty. So, would you pay a little more money if Outside Lands sold less tickets? Or do you prefer the masses like penguins huddling to keep warm in the winter, or maybe just going to where the crowds aren’t.

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• Woods are the most quintessential California band that is not from here — they call Brooklyn home. The group curates the Woodsist Festival down the road in Big Sur, their most famous song before this year was “Cali in a Cup”, and they felt right at home in the confines of Golden Gate Park early Sunday. When they played their new song “With Light And With Love” — one of the best songs of 2014 — the spirit of the Grateful Dead performances from the late ‘60s felt present on what used to be Speedway Meadow.

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• Jenny Lewis, sporting a snazzy technicolor dream-coat that matches her new album cover for The Voyager, delighted with a slew of new cuts from the record along with some Rilo Kiley joints.

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• A buzzy yet not overwhelming crowd came together for Spoon, who released their addictive new record They Want My Soul the Tuesday before Outside Lands. There are a bunch of future classics to be found in the new material that was played, including “Inside Out”, “Do You” & “Outlier”, and the new jams mixed in seamlessly with songs such as “I Turn My Camera On” and “I Summon You”. Britt Daniel looked inspired after four years on break from Spoon with Divine Fits. Watch for Spoon to have a big year, and give the new album a listen if you haven’t yet.

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• You certainly can’t say The Flaming Lips aren’t trying. They seem to change from year to year, and when the Lips form a set that centers around Wayne Coyne’s voice as they did at Outside Lands, it can feel uninspired at times and triumphant at others, but our heroic muscle man gives 100 percent the entire time amongst psychedelic spectacle. Their Halloween show from 2013 in SF made my top 10 shows list last year because they took the opposite approach with Coyne’s voice, modulating it into an electronic instrument, and gone were the hyper happy Yoshimi songs, the cheerleaders, the confetti cannons and human hamster ball. All of it. Instead, the Halloween show was a glorious drone-filled, psychedelic freak out, reflecting the studio work they’d released the past two years.

Coyne and company realize a festival set is different than a normal show, so they have tried to find middle ground. The Flaming Lips leader wore a muscle body suit as if he was skinned, the cheerleaders are now put in rainbow, sun and earth costumes, while songs like “Do You Realize?” and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” were played with a dystopic, bleak tone. So, by having a setlist of lighter hits that were played through a jarring lens, nobody got what they really wanted. On a positive note, the Flaming Lips are keeping it weirder than ever, and many of the extended whiffs of Pink Floyd’s languid guitar hit the spot.

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• We weren’t that excited about The Killers or Tiësto to finish the festival, but we’re ready to eat our hat. I went to Tiësto since I firmly believe it’s best to say goodbye with a dance party, leaving it all on the field. The Dutch DJ was far less anthemic than anticipated, dropping some surprisingly powerful bass that speaks to his progressive nature behind the dials. Lands End was going bonkers. The overall reaction to The Killers from various press and social media websites has been very positive — Another Planet Entertainment and Superfly Presents have got their fingers on the pulse of what works for entertaining the masses at Outside Lands. We’re already looking forward to the schedule for year No. 8 in 2015.

What was your favorite act on Sunday? Did you see the dude in the tree at Flume? Tell us your story below.

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Outside Lands Day 2: HAIM take another step toward the top

August 10, 2014 by 1 Comment

HAIM_postPhotos by Marc Fong // Written by Mike Frash //

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
August 8th-10th, 2014 //

Saturday brought a more celebratory tone to Outside Lands Music and Arts Festiva despite the typical August fog’s return to SF’s Golden Gate Park. Following Kanye West’s exciting Friday set that was marred by multiple man-baby moments, it was time for smiles to become contagious and for the communal spirit of the fest to take flight.

No one led this Day 2 transition better than HAIM. “I want to see babes on babes on babes. Totem pole!” demanded ESTE FUCKING HAIM of the Outside Lands crowd, and oblige they did. An effective festival technique, Alana, Danielle and Este quickly counted as festivalgoers doubled up toward the sky like a meerkat looking for a predator. And by the time the awesome threesome blasted into “Forever”, the crowd had been primed by funny, engaging banter.

More importantly, they are remarkably talented at what they do. HAIM fucking rocks live. They elongate and have adapted some of their songs, like “Forever”, for the better. Before introducing “The Wire”, Danielle prepped the audience for the call and response of “Right!”. Full buy-in permeated the Lands End stage as most everyone joined in the fun.

If HAIM continue to write undeniably catchy songs while retaining their fierce attitudes, the sky’s the limit. The atypical vocal phrasing never gets old, and I hope they continue to create music that develops around their quirky approach to modern pop while re-purposing the familiar. These Los Angeles-based sisters could be headlining big festivals in 3-5 years.

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• Jagwar Ma displayed noted improvement since their show last year at The Independent, the group has expanded their sound further on stage, stretching out the vocal mantras into delirious territory. Jano Ma’s production showed shades of Nine Inch Nails, balancing Moog synthesizer and a squelchy analogue sound.

• Big Freedia was everywhere Saturday. The Queen Diva brought a taste of NOLA to the new GastroMagic stage, allowing proactive patrons to cook up a beignet while they got there bounce on. Then, Freedia was at the Soundwave tent, and finally for her proper set at the Panhandle Stage. Ass Everywhere!

• SF-based graphic designer-turned-musician-turned-full-band Tycho had a prime spot mid-day at Twin Peaks, but it’s unclear if Scott Hansen’s minimalist approach translates in a big, open field at a festival. While the crowd energy was low as expected, it was a solid set accompanied by a new, intriguingly odd video component.

• The Sutro Stage was alive with an intimate crowd for Deer Tick. Screaming fans belted out lyrics and danced with interlocked arms to the group’s raucous, twangy Southern rock.

• Duck Sauce is refreshing for embracing the absurd, boiling down dance music into explosions of bass with melodies as obnoxious as “Gangum Style” or happy hardcore. But A-Trak and Armand Van Helden have pinpointed the perfect equation for a ridiculously good time, making sure not to ever get too jarring or obvious. When looking for a raging, good time in a festival setting, nothing may be more fun than Duck Sauce. Quack.

• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are just about as “legend” as it gets, and tracks from Petty’s 2014 LP Hypnotic Eye were laced throughout the main stage headliner’s set. “Friend of the Devil” was covered, a nod and a wink to the Grateful Dead’s home turf, while “American Girl” finished of the night on a high note.

• Macklemore & Ryan Lewis at Twin Peaks was way more crowded than Tom Petty’s show. Macklemore brought out Mary Lambert for the GBLT anthem “Same Love”, which included a wedding proposal well-suited for SF.

What was your favorite show or moment on Saturday? What are you looking forward to Sunday?

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Outside Lands Day 1: Kanye West rants like a petulant child

August 9, 2014 by 4 Comments

OSL-2014-POSTPhotos by Marc Fong // Written by Mike Frash //

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
August 8th-10th, 2014 //

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival has graduated to the upper tier of festivals in its seventh year, selling out within 24 hours and packing in SF’s Golden Gate Park on Friday afternoon much earlier than past iterations. And for the first time, the Lands End main stage featured rap and electronic-oriented music, drawing a youthful crowd usually reserved for Justice or Pretty Lights at the Twin Peaks stage.

But more than imagined and expected, Friday’s headliner Kanye West showed that he behaves like a petulant child, launching into mini temper tantrums throughout the night, amidst an inspiring show the crowd was digging. His performance confirmed everything his detractors spout —- that he’s a narcissist to the point that he truly believes it’s a form of art.

Yes, I understand that this is what Kanye does. It was expected. It’s still a buzz kill, almost a tactical time killer.

“I want you to tell your kids about this night,” he said. This advice came amongst one of the four rants that cut off songs at their best moments, stopping all the natural momentum so Kanye could drop all sound and preach. It’s reminiscent of Andy Kaufman’s “challenge the audience” mentality, getting people to question why they came in the first place.

There were moments of complete crowd elation, but when the encore was over by 9:50 p.m. (10 minutes before last call), you have to ask, did he give it his all? Kanye is the ideal artist of this generation —- innovating to push the lines of contemporary pop while being completely self-absorbed.

Should Kanye give up the rants for the sake of entertainment or will you be telling your kids about it? Leave a comment with your favorite rant line, your top show of the day, a link to your photos or video.

“Imma need y’all to make a bigger circle!”

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