Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

Our 10 favorite shows from the first half of 2016

July 1, 2016 by The Bam Team Leave a Comment

2016 has been a rough year so far for music fans. We’ve watched legends like Prince, David Bowie, Merle Haggard, Phife Dawg, Ralph Stanley and most recently Bernie Worrell all pass on, leaving us stunned and saddened to see them go.

But this year has also provided those of us living in the great state of California with plenty of memorable moments in live music, from Noise Pop to Coachella and beyond. And with half of 2016 already in the rearview mirror (can you believe it?!?!), we thought now would be as good of a time as any to revisit the best performances we’ve witnessed over the past six months.

So, after careful consideration, we present our 10 favorite shows from the first half of 2016.

10. Ty Segall

When it comes to Segall and his live show, there’s really no way to sugarcoat it — the guy is an animal, ready to rip, claw and bite (or just spit) his way through a performance. And in many ways, it’s refreshing to see a musician who has little to no filter when he takes the stage. Just like his music, which borders on garage rock and glam rock and intertwines psychedelic and punk elements into it, his shows are raw and full of emotion. -Josh Herwitt, photo by Josh Herwitt

9. The Last Shadow Puppets

I don’t think I had been to a show in a long time in which the girls were screaming like they were watching The Beatles. The girls were going crazy for Turner, including throwing things on the stage (unfortunately we can’t say for sure if there were any bras or panties that flew through the air). -Rachel Goodman, photo by Diana Cordero

8. The Kills

As with any Kills show, the band was raw, untamed and ready to sonically destroy everything in their path. This was achieved by Hince’s voracious guitar playing, which saw him coxing a plethora of harmonically distorted riffs, with Mosshart taking duties on rhythm guitar when needed. -James Pawlish, photo by James Pawlish

7. Bob Moses

At Mezzanine, both Howie and Vallance proved their prowess as EDM innovators, bringing more to the stage than a couple of laptops and a pretty light show. Surprising those unfamiliar with their work or expecting to be underwhelmed, Bob Moses have elevated the live electronic game for their respective contemporaries and succeeded in defining a new chapter for the genre — an innovative sound standard that’s all their own. -Molly Kish, photo by Lisette Worster

6. Mac DeMarco

The 26-year-old king of slacker rock, who over the past few years has become a fan favorite of many Bay Area audiophiles, never seems to hold back when he comes to town. His first night in SF last week saw him jump from The Indy’s balcony into an awaiting crowd (a feat that was later imitated by a female audience member at The Warfield the next night), run around half naked while playing new songs and perform a 25-minute cover of Eric Clapton’s 1971 hit single “Layla” with fart solos sprinkled throughout. -James Pawlish, photo by James Pawlish

5. Guns N’ Roses

When it came time to deliver, the original trio of Axl, Slash and bassist Duff McKagan most certainly did, while rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus and drummer Frank Ferrer proved to be more than suitable fill-ins for Izzy Stradlin and Steven Adler/Matt Sorum. Meanwhile, the surprise appearance by Angus Young couldn’t have come at a much better time after the announcement was made minutes before GNR’s set that Rose will be filling in for Brian Johnson on AC/DC’s remaining tour dates this year. -Josh Herwitt, photo courtesy of Coachella

4. Young Thug

With his back momentarily turned to the camera-phone flash before the lighting guys again joined the party, Atlanta’s favorite outlander appeared to just take a moment. The point in time could have been one of appreciation or something else on a completely different side of the pendulum. That ambiguity is what seems to keep Young Thug and his pundits going. -Joseph Gray, photo by Joseph Gray

3. Sia

With the Australian artist standing in the back of the stage, her set was more performance art than it was pop music. While her face was hidden thanks to her trademark wig, Sia’s voice stood front and center as she belted out every note to hits like “Diamonds”, “Bird Set Free” and “Titanium”. -Brett Ruffenach, photo courtesy of Coachella

2. Moderat

It’s no surprise that Moderat have made waves in the genre given their well-established roots in Modeselektor (Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary) and Apparat (Sascha Ring). What has been surprising, however, is their ability to step outside the conventions of both parent acts and craft something truly their own. -Zach Bourque, photo by Josh Herwitt

1. LCD Soundsystem

I have seen many concerts as well as attended many festivals in my life, but this was truly among the most beautiful moments in live music I have ever experienced. Wrapping up their headlining performance with “All My Friends”, LCD Soundsystem proved to be among the top artists to ever grace the festival’s main stage. -Brett Ruffenach, photo courtesy of Coachella

What has been your favorite show of 2016 so far? Let us know in the comments section below!

Filed Under: Best of, Best of 2016, Editor's Picks, Featured Tagged With: Best of 2016, Bob Moses, Coachella, Coachella 2016, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2016, Guns N' Roses, LCD Soundsystem, Mac Demarco, Moderat, Sia, The Kills, The Last Shadow Puppets, Ty Segall, Ty Segall & The Muggers, Young Thug

The best & worst of Lightning in a Bottle 2016

June 10, 2016 by Josh Herwitt 4 Comments

Photos by Josh Herwitt & Melissa Herwitt // Written by Josh Herwitt //

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

Lightning in a Bottle (LIB) returned to San Antonio Recreation Area for a third straight year over Memorial Day weekend, serving as that perfect hangover cure for those still suffering from their post-Coachella blues.

Last year, we asked whether the “transformational” festival was undergoing a transformation of its own by shedding its boutique label to go mainstream (read the review here). Now, after paying another visit to Bradley, Calif., the answer to that question appears to be even clearer than before with LIB selling out once again, this time more than a week in advance. Vanessa Hudgens, no less, showed up!

But for as strong as this year’s artist lineup was, not everything went off without a hitch. In fact, there were enough logistical nightmares and bad vibes — believe it or not — to keep us from coming back next year.

So, with another edition of LIB in the books, here are our best and worst moments from 2016:

Best: Emancipator Ensemble

Portland-based musician Douglas Appling, better known by his stage name Emancipator, has been fusing hip-hop-flavored beats with downtempo electronica ever since he started writing his debut LP Soon It Will Be Cold Enough while attending the College of William & Mary. And in many ways, he’s still cooking up that same sonic recipe that borders on post-trip-hop with violinist Ilya Goldberg by his side, although it’s with his ensemble members that we get to see Appling serve as more than just an electronic music producer. At his Friday evening set on the festival’s main stage, Emancipator set the tone for the rest of the weekend, grooving to tracks from his latest studio album Seven Seas with a guitar in hand and a full band at his disposal, much like we saw at The Regency Ballroom last fall (see more photos from that show here).

Worst: The weather

Sitting more than 200 miles north of Los Angeles, San Antonio Recreation Area once again proved to bring hot days and cold nights to LIB. With temperatures peaking in the mid-80’s during the day and dipping into the low 50’s at night, adjusting to such a drastic change in climate is never easy, especially when you’re forced to brave the outdoors by camping in a dried-up lakebed. Whether you were sweating profusely or shivering in your sleep, it was nearly impossible to ever feel comfortable with the weather at LIB.

Best: Rubblebucket

LIB has always leaned heavily on electronic music while assembling its lineup, but in more recent years, the festival has also found room to include eclectic, female-fronted indie bands. Last year’s example was Poliça, the Minneapolis five-piece led by vocalist Channy Leaneagh. This year’s case in point was Rubblebucket, the more obscure, yet upbeat Brooklyn alt-dance outfit fronted by Annakalmia Traver. Playing very close to the same time slot on the Lightning Stage as Poliça did the year before, Rubblebucket, nevertheless, got festivalgoers moving after a scorchingly hot day in the sun, setting the bar for the rest of Saturday’s lineup as day turned to night. What makes Rubblebucket such a catch is their horns section that’s made up by Alex Toth (trumpet), Adam Dotson (trombone) and Traver (saxophone), who knows how to charm a crowd with her quirky stage banter.

Best: The Russ Liquid Test

Russ Liquid (born Russell Scott) broke onto the scene back in 2013 with his debut LP Foreign Frequency on STS9’s 1320 Records, fusing jazzy saxophone lines over dance beats much like Colorado livetronica duo Big Gigantic, who also performed at LIB this year, do for a living. But his “Test” set on Sunday at LIB was particularly special, as he stepped on the main stage with guitarist Andrew Block and drummer Nick Mercadel flanked on either side of him. The New Orleans trio laid down one funky groove after another for an hour and a half, at times sounding reminiscent of GRiZ, another electronic producer now based in Colorado who has featured Russ Liquid on his record label’s mix series titled “All Good Radio.” We weren’t all that familiar with Russ Liquid’s work prior to arriving at LIB, but his performance certainly intrigued us enough to want to hear more.

Worst: Crowds

With another sellout bringing more than 20,000 people to Bradley, LIB felt just as crowded as last year — something we never experienced at previous locations like Oak Canyon Park and Lake Skinner Recreational Area. After all, it’s no secret that part of the reason why The Do LaB settled on San Antonio Recreation Area was the fact that it could accommodate more “festies” and therefore, could sell more tickets as a result. But from a consumer’s standpoint, there are obvious drawbacks to that philosophy. Waiting for a shower, for instance, took as long as 2-3 hours depending on what time you got in line. Many of the food vendors had significant lines, taking as long as 15 minutes just to place your order. No one likes waiting in line in 85-degree heat, especially when your phone can’t get service. Part of what made LIB such a nice change-of-pace from Coachella was the sheer lack of crowds, but it was only a matter of time before big business won out, right?

Best: Moderat

Easily the most anticipated set of the weekend from this spectator’s vantage point, Moderat hadn’t toured since dropping a pair of EPs in 2014. But with the release of its third full-length album, aptly titled III, the Berlin-based supergroup comprised of Apparat’s Sascha Ring and Modeselektor members Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary were primed to make their mark on the final day of LIB — and that they did. Beginning with “Ghostmother” off their latest LP, Moderat ran through a good chunk of new material, but nothing ignited the crowd more than their new single “Reminder”, which remains one of our favorite songs of the year so far. As we witnessed a few days earlier in Los Angeles at The Fonda Theatre (read our show review here), the group’s dark, minimalist stage setup with psychedelic flourishes paired nicely with Ring’s ethereal vocals. Of all the other performances throughout the weekend, Moderat’s 90-minute set undoubtedly stood as one of the brightest moments of LIB 2016.

Worst: Trash

LIB has been tabbed as the “Greenest Festival in America” over the last five years, though you might not have known it while looking at the grounds this year. With the festival’s attendance numbers reaching an all-time high, trash has increasingly become a bigger issue at LIB. Sure, it’s easy to blame a bunch of inconsiderate festivalgoers for littering and not picking up after themselves, but a big part of the problem is simply a lack of trash cans and dumpsters near the stages and in the camping areas. Furthermore, LIB’s “pack it in, pack it out” motto just isn’t realistic at this point with the amount of attendees. Maybe that’s the reason why after leaving the festival, trash was spewed all over the street. We’re glad The Do LaB tried their best as they told us on the way out, but sometimes trying your best, especially after you’ve been running the same festival for more than a decade, just isn’t good enough.

Best: Chet Faker

I remember first learning of Chet Faker more than a couple years ago while researching the 2014 LIB lineup for this preview. At the time, the electronic-leaning singer-songwriter from Australia had yet to release a full-length album, which makes it all the more crazy to think that he has already reached festival headliner status in a little more than 24 months since then. But over that stretch, from his two-night run in LA at The Roxy Theatre to last year’s performance at FYF Fest, Nicholas James Murphy has grown his live show tremendously. There’s no question the full band setup has been the right call, affording the 27-year-old Melbourne native the opportunity to breathe new life into songs from his lone LP Built on Glass (read our review here), such as “Melt” and “Gold”. Yet, with only one studio album under his belt and a few festival headlining spots in 2016, including the spring edition of CRSSD Fest back in March, it’s just amazing to think where Murphy could go from here.

Worst: Leaving LIB

If the crowds and trash at LIB weren’t enough to leave a sour taste in your mouth by the end of the weekend, the disaster that ensued in the parking lot after the festival definitely was. Since I started attending concerts and music festivals years ago, I have never seen a bigger shitshow than the LIB parking lot by 9 a.m. on Monday. Taking five hours (yes, you read that right) just to leave San Antonio Recreation Area proved to be the ultimate test in patience for me as well as thousands of other festivalgoers. Of all the worst moments at LIB, this easily took the cake, so much so that after five times attending, this very well could have been my last.

Lightning in a Bottle 2016 - Emancipator Ensemble

Lightning in a Bottle 2016 - Big Gigantic

Lightning in a Bottle 2016 - The Polish Ambassador

Lightning in a Bottle 2016 - Hunter Leggitt

Lightning in a Bottle 2016 - Rubblebucket

Lightning in a Bottle 2016 - Hundred Waters

Lightning in a Bottle 2016 - Lucient Dossier Experience

Lightning in a Bottle 2016 - Lafa Taylor

Lightning in a Bottle 2016 - Vokab Company

Lightning in a Bottle 2016 - The Russ Liquid Test

Lightning in a Bottle 2016 - Nahko & Medicine for the People

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Festival Reviews, Festivals Tagged With: Big Gigantic, Chet Faker, Coachella, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Emancipator, Emancipator Ensemble, Grimes, Hundred Waters, Jamie xx, Lake Skinner Recreational Area, LIB, LIB 2016, Lightning in a Bottle, Lightning in a Bottle 2016, Lucent Dossier Experience, Moderat, Oak Canyon Park, Rubblebucket, San Antonio Recreation Area, The Do LaB, The Polish Ambassador, The Russ Liquid Test, Tourist

Disclosure combine their UK electronic roots with a pop sensibility at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

May 25, 2016 by Brett Ruffenach Leave a Comment

Photos by Lisette Worster // Written by Brett Ruffenach //

Disclosure with Miss Honey Dijon //
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium – San Francisco
May 21st, 2016 //

In the recent rise of electronic music and its foray into the pop music world, attempts to take initially underground styles of house and techno into the mainstream have garnered mixed results. Ultra Music Festival in Miami has scaled back to one weekend after experimenting with a two-weekend format in 2013. Las Vegas’ infatuation with European DJs manning the decks at their multi-million dollar clubs seems to be waning. Big-name artists like Avicii are retiring from touring. Amid the discussion of potentially the “EDM bubble” bursting, only a select few have broken through to the commercially viable world of pop music.

Arguably the most successful of all these artists at the moment is Disclosure, the UK garage-inspired, electronic music duo comprised of brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence. Exploding onto the scene with their debut studio album Settle, the two brothers were heralded for their thumping production and accessible style. Now touring in support of their sophomore effort Caracal, the two brothers invaded the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium last Saturday to play the second of two sold-out shows in one of the the largest indoor venues SF has to offer.

Opening their set with radio hit “White Noise”, Disclosure’s production design was about as big and bright as one would expect — with a massive LED screen behind and below them, the two brothers each manned their own booths — in what was more or less a battle station that came with a smorgasbord of instruments to play.

With Guy primarily managing percussion and Howard maneuvering between bass, keyboards and vocals, the English duo presented a fairly innovative approach to producing house music in a live setting. Guy would hit his drum pads to generate the group’s signature 4/4 beat while Howard’s vocals proved to be a particularly impressive part of the duo’s live show. And across songs like “Echoes”, “Jaded” and “F for You”, Howard’s vocals met his bass and synthesizer with power and accuracy. Reflecting on my first encounter with Disclosure at Sasquatch! in 2013, vocals seemed more like a necessity than a feature for Disclosure, so this was quite an improvement from what I remember back then.

Engaged though not enthused relative to the size of the production happening before them, the crowd bopped to the beat during each song, reaching its highest point during “Magnets”, “Nocturnal” and “Holding On”. Considering this was Disclosure’s largest tour yet, those in attendance seemed relatively uninspired compared to other big-name EDM acts I’ve seen in SF. While it made for a smooth entrance and exit from the venue, there was a certain sense of excitement missing from the audience.

When it comes to live music, you could argue there are fundamentally different ways in which one would judge the value of a live band versus a DJ. Live bands focus on technical skill in the forms of instrumentation and vocals. Electronic music producers and DJs, on the other hand, focus on flow and energy, seamlessly blending tracks together to weave a tapestry of music that changes in intensity throughout a set. However, due to their UK garage roots and pop sensibilities, Disclosure find themselves awkwardly positioned between these two forms of live music.

This became particularly apparent about halfway through Disclosure’s set. After six or seven songs that ended as neatly as they began, they switched things up with an extended remix of “Bang That” that lead into their single “When a Fire Starts to Burn”, resulting in a scorching 15-minute period of progressive house music that dramatically changed the vibe. At the very beginning of “When a Fire Starts to Burn”, I thought of the first time I heard this track three years prior and when I heard it this past April at Coachella in a glimpse of the festival’s main stage. In each experience, I had the same thought: Disclosure does not get any better than this. “When a Fire Starts to Burn” is as infectious as Disclosure gets — thumping kick drums, smooth bass lines, wonky chord progressions and nondescript vocal samples. Consequently, it was undoubtedly a highlight of the night.

As Disclosure’s set drew to a close, Guy asked the crowd to welcome Lion Babe vocalist Jillian Hervey, who is featured on their track “Hourglass”, onto the stage. Although Harvey put her all into the song, it felt relatively underwhelming. Disclosure ended their set with “Holding On”, a track that seems to be a new fan favorite.

After leaving and returning just as quickly to the stage for an encore, Disclosure brought out with them Brendan Riley, another vocalist featured on their Caracal cut “Moving Mountains”. Riley put on an incredible performance, showing off his talent as a singer, but truth be told, “Moving Mountains” as a song is an embarrassing departure from Disclosure’s signature sound. With a two-step beat reminiscent of ODESZA and a Flume-like textured production style, the entire song came off as a cheap appeal to the other forms of electronic music that have achieved comparable levels of commercial success.

As the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium emptied out for the night, continuing to lack a certain buzz that similar crowds have possessed in the past, it was clear that Disclosure did not hit their mark. Between the art direction, setlist and flow between tracks, there was a clear lack of cohesiveness in their production. If Disclosure wants to avoid fading into irrelevance as the EDM bubble continues to deflate, they’ll need to bring more to the table than drum pads and big LED screens. Fortunately the Lawrence brothers are barely old enough to order a beer in the U.S., so they’ve still got plenty of time to go back to the drawing board.

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, Coachella, Coachella 2016, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2016, Disclosure, Lion Babe, Miss Honey Dijon

The Heavy do something ‘nasty’ at The Independent

May 2, 2016 by Laura Tsu Leave a Comment

By Laura Tsu //

The Heavy //
The Independent – San Francisco
April 26th, 2016 //

“Let’s do something nasty,” suggested Kelvin Swaby, lead singer of The Heavy, last Tuesday night at The Independent.

For the English four-piece from Bath, doing something “nasty” meant performing deep rock ‘n’ roll rhythms with soulful vocals for a sold-out crowd in SF.

The Heavy are no newcomers to the music industry. The band formed almost a decade ago, and it has produced a number of hits over that time. The quartet’s most famous song “How You Like Me Now?” garnered it many new listeners after being featured in a TV commercial during this year’s Super Bowl as well as in the HBO series “Entourage” and the video game “Borderlands 2”.

However, there was no intention by the band to remain a one-hit wonder. With four studio albums under their belt, The Heavy claim to be perfectionists, and nearly every track they have released is mastered with their bold trademark. Recently, they have been on the road non-stop. March meant multiple performances while in Austin for South by Southwest, and April brought them to the U.S. for two weekends at Coachella along with a West Coast tour that included Northern California dates in SF and Santa Cruz.

Despite the exhaustion that often comes with touring, The Heavy didn’t lack any energy on this night. Swaby, in fact, proved to be the definition of a frontman. His natural charisma sapped away any boredom and tiredness, delivering punches of zest and booming vocals. Subsequently, audience participation happened naturally as Swaby never quite stopped moving and neither did the capacity crowd.

The other three members of The Heavy fabricated the rock ‘n’ roll vibrancy throughout the set. Daniel Taylor (guitar) and Spencer Page (bass) created dense riffs that were punctuated by the rhythms of Chris Ellul (drums) and sprinted side by side with Swaby’s voice. Taylor, Page and Ellul also sang backup vocals, stacking deeper tones behind Swaby’s higher-pitched voice.

As all of these features meld together, neo-soul joins indie rock to create a dance-able frenzy for fans. But together, their instruments, individual talents and dynamism also amalgamate into one “nasty” live performance.

Setlist:
Can’t Play Dead
The Apology
Not the One
Miss California
Short Change Hero
Big Bad Wolf
Curse Me Good
“Slave to Your Love”
Same Ol’
Since You Been Gone
Last Confession
Turn Up
What Happened to the Love?

Encore:
What Makes a Good Man?
How You Like Me Now?

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Coachella, Coachella 2016, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2016, The Heavy, The Independent

Will Lightning in a Bottle continue its rise in 2016?

May 2, 2016 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

Photos courtesy of Juliana Bernstein // Written by Josh Herwitt //

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

So you’re all recovered from Coachella by now, and you’re feeling like you’re ready to get back out there pretty soon.

Sure, you could wait until Outside Lands returns to San Francisco this summer, but that’s not until the first weekend of August anyway. Three months between music festivals, after all, can be a long time for some passionate music fans.

If you’re itching to go to another fest in between Coachella and Outside Lands but also feeling a little more adventurous than usual, Lightning in a Bottle (LIB) might be just what the doctor ordered.

Geographically, the “transformational” festival remains perfectly located to tap into both the LA and SF markets since adopting San Antonio Recreation Area in Bradley, Calif., as its home for what will be the third straight year this Memorial Day weekend.

But LIB has always been so much more than merely a music festival. In what has been The Do LaB’s crown jewel of all the events it puts on throughout the year, LIB offers its own unique melange of art, yoga, workshops and speakers that few other U.S. festivals have been able to replicate; Symbiosis Gathering in Northern California and Further Future near Las Vegas are the closest comparison to date in matching LIB’s Burning Man-esque vibe. Major corporate sponsors like Heineken, American Express, H&M or T-Mobile don’t exist. Instead, it has made lasting partnerships with small to mid-size companies like New Belgium, Reed’s, KIND and your favorite coconut water brand (LIB had partnerships with three different ones last year). For California’s music scene in particular, what has been dubbed the “Greenest Festival in America” the past five years continues to serve as a stopgap between the state’s two largest music festivals in its two largest geographic regions.

And for that very reason, we’ve noticed that LIB may be undergoing a bit of a transformation after selling out for the first time in 15 years last May (read our review here), with attendance numbers reaching as high as 20,000, roughly 5,000 more than in previous editions. But even at this juncture more than a decade since LIB started as a friend’s birthday party in the Santa Ynez Mountains outside of Santa Barbara, each year is just as critical as the last in shaping its identity. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the festival’s boutique roots can stay firmly planted in the ground, and as the music migrates further and further toward the mainstream with indie-electronic artists like Chet Faker, Grimes and Jamie xx topping this year’s lineup, toeing that line can start to look rather murky. In fact, it’s become fairly commonplace to see Coachella and LIB share artists who either played in Indio the year before (i.e. Jamie xx, Chet Faker and Cashmere Cat) or less than two months prior (i.e. Grimes, TOKiMONSTA and Lucent Dossier Experience). Who knows, you may even see LIB newcomers like Moderat and Tourist making their debuts in the desert next year, too.

LIB has not officially sold out yet, but with 80 percent of its tickets already accounted for, you can bet that it will by the time we reach Memorial Day weekend. This year’s bill is as strong as its ever been, with an undercard that will see international acts like Cashmere Cat, Ibeyi, Four Tet and Guy Gerber perform on The Do LaB’s three innovatively designed stages.

That’s not to say the U.S. is not well-represented at LIB, however. Portland-based electronic producer Emancipator (born Douglas Appling) and Colorado “jazztronica” duo Big Gigantic are two of the bigger names to grace the festival’s poster this year, while Florida electro-rock trio Hundred Waters and Brooklyn indie-dance quartet Rubblebucket are two other domestic groups bolstering an already-impressive collection of artists.

It should be no surprise then why LIB has become one of California’s fastest-growing festivals over the last five years as the lineup steadily improves with each spring that passes. Yet, only time will tell what kind of impact it makes in what’s been one wild and crazy 2016 so far.

Filed Under: Featured, Festivals Tagged With: Alina Baraz, AndHim, Big Gigantic, Cashmere Cat, Coachella, Coachella 2016, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2016, Emancipator Ensemble, Four Tet, G Jones, Grimes, Guy Gerber, Hundred Waters, Ibeyi, Jamie xx, Josh Wink, Lee Burridge, LIB, LIB 2016, Lightning in a Bottle, Lightning in Bottle 2016, Lucent Dossier Experience, Mija, Minnesota, Moderat, PANTyRAiD, Pimps of Joytime, Rubblebucket, The Do LaB, The Polish Ambassador, The Russ Liquid Test, Tokimonsta, Tourist, William Close, William Close & The Earth Harp Collective

Fauxchella 2016: Coachella FOMO no mo’ in the Bay

April 27, 2016 by Molly Kish Leave a Comment

M83 at Fox Theater Oakland // Photo by Pedro Paredes

Photos by Steve Carlson, Norm de Veyra, Marc Fong, Pedro Paredes, Mike Rosati & Lisette Worster // Written by Molly Kish //

Fauxchella //
Various Bay Area venues – San Francisco & Oakland
April 13th-April 22nd, 2016 //

Paving the way for large-scale festivals all across North America, Coachella has served as an archetype in live music production since its conception 17 years ago. Throughout its storied history, Coachella’s stages have been graced with a roster of unparalleled talent. Year after year, the festival’s lineup has featured iconic performances from both artists on the verge of breaking into the mainstream and industry legends taking victory laps.

Located in the heart of Southern California’s Inland Empire, the three-day music festival now hosts back-to-back weekends at the Empire Polo Club with one of the most competitive artist lineups you’ll find anywhere. While Coachella’s location remains ideal for music fans based in California and many surrounding states, it can be a daunting task to make the trek to Indio for those living in other parts of the country. This reality has subsequently broke ground for offshoot shows up and down the West Coast, including the Bay Area and Pacific Northwest.

James Bay at Fox Theater Oakland // Photo by Steve Carlson

In reference to this, the Bay Area music scene has dubbed the calendar dates leading into and out of Coachella’s consecutive weekends as its own unofficial festival, colloquially referred to as “Fauxchella.” Featuring headlining performances from Coachella artists in and around Northern California, the roughly two-week stretch serves as a strong preview for the upcoming summer concert season with many of the top names in the business getting to test out their live show in preparation for the desert or fine-tune their skills in between each weekend of the festival. For many music fans, Fauxchella remains the most optimal time to catch these high-profile artists performing at their best inside many of the Bay Area’s most beautiful and intimate venues.

Showbams took full advantage of this year’s Fauxchella festivities as we caught a number of performances throughout the Bay Area. Take a peek at our massive collection of photos, and let us know which shows were your favorite in the comments section below.

Miike Snow at The Independent - 04.14.16

KANEHOLLER at The Independent - 04.14.16

Eyes on the Shore at The Independent - 04.15.16

Underworld at Fox Theater Oakland - 04.16.16

CHVRCHES at Fox Theater Oakland - 04.19.16

James Bay at Fox Theater Oakland - 04.22.16

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Photos Tagged With: CHRVCHES, Coachella, Coachella 2016, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2016, DMA's, Eyes on the Shore, Fauxchella, Fauxchella 2016, Jack Ü, James Bay, KANEHOLLER, Lapsley, M83, Miike Snow, Morly, Savages, St. Germain, The 1975, The Trims, Underworld, Wolf Alice, YACHT, Young Fathers

Our 10 favorite moments from Coachella 2016

April 25, 2016 by The Bam Team 4 Comments

Photos courtesy of Coachella // Written by Josh Herwitt & Brett Ruffenach //

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival //
Empire Polo Club – Indio, CA
April 15th-17th, 2016 //

Say what you will about Coachella. The famed music festival has become known for creating a culture that hinges on celebrity sightings, shirtless bros, H&M outfits, pool parties, drugs and a shitload of millenials obsessed with their Instagram feeds.

But for music lovers like ourselves, there is no bigger stage in the entire music industry than the ones Goldenvoice set up across the Empire Polo Club each April, with 2016 marking the 17th edition of the longest-standing and highest-grossing music festival in the country. The latter of those two accomplishments has produced plenty of haters in recent years, but it’s impractical to deny the magnitude and scope of Coachella as it has morphed from modest, two-day music festival into three-day, two-weekend megafest.

What makes Coachella so unique are the trends it sets, whether it’s through music, fashion or culture. There is no music festival out there with the same pedigree for reuniting broken-up bands or welcoming special guest stars quite like Coachella has built over the last five years — and 2016 was no different. Between LCD Soundsystem and Guns N’ Roses, two of the biggest reunions in music served as headlining material while the fest once again made headlines with a laundry list of surprise appearances that included Rihanna, Kanye, T.I., Seal, Lorde, Kesha and even Kristin Wiig.

We hit the polo fields in Indio for the first weekend of Coachella, and while it was physically impossible for us to catch all 180 acts in roughly 40 hours of festival time, we still witnessed plenty of great music. So, without further ado, we present our 10 highlights from Coachella after surviving three days in the desert. -JH

Despacio

Despacio is more of a side project than a particular artist. Consisting of a 50,000-watt sound system created by LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy in partnership with McIntosh Laboratory, Coachella was fortunate enough to be the only North American festival hosting this makeshift “club” all three days. With brothers David and Stephen Dewaele of 2manydjs spinning their personal vinyl collection for six hours a day next to Murphy, Despacio served as the perfect intro music as I arrived at the Empire Polo Club each day. The trio of DJs kept things pretty eclectic, playing very few tracks the crowd would actually recognize besides Sister Nancy’s “Bam Bam” or Warren Zevon’s “Nighttime in the Switching Yard”. I got the opportunity to experience Despacio at Sónar in Barcelona a couple years ago, and seeing it again only made me wish that it could be featured at every music festival. With the three DJs manning the decks in a dark corner of the club, Despacio tries to turn the crowd away from the stage and toward each other — something every festival could use a little more of. -BR

Miike Snow

Sunday’s roster at Coachella last year was significantly weaker in comparison to Friday’s and Saturday’s. This year was much of the same, though Calvin Harris somehow proved to be an even worse headliner than Drake (we didn’t know that was possible). But one of the bright spots on Day 3 was no doubt Miike Snow’s 9:45 p.m. slot in the Mojave Tent, the same place where I discovered the Swedish trio back in 2010 during my first Coachella. Andrew Wyatt, Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg have come a long way since then, and with three studio albums in their catalog, including their latest effort iii, they have more than enough material to fill out a 50-minute set and leave you wanting to hear more. -JH

Run the Jewels

I’m not sure if there’s a group of rappers more infectious than Run the Jewels at the moment. Between their poignant songwriting, booming instrumentals and cultural relevance, the duo featuring El-P and Killer Mike has ascended into the top tier of hip-hop acts. Introduced via video by 2016 U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (a political ally and friend of Killer Mike’s), the two emcees opened with a new track from their highly anticipated third LP RTJ3. They managed to keep the crowd’s energy up throughout their Saturday afternoon set despite the heat, bringing onstage an impressive list of guests, from DJ Shadow to Boots to even Nas, the latter of which joined them for a short performance of his classic track “Made You Look”. Over the course of three days, I’m not sure I saw a crowd more excited to hear new material by an artist than what I witnessed at Run the Jewels. Killer Mike and El-P are unstoppable. -BR

St. Germain

For as “mainstream” as Coachella has become in recent years, it has made a point of staging some rare live performances by different alt-electronic artists from overseas. Back in 2014, we caught British musician/producer Bonobo for a full-band set in the Mojave Tent, and last year Norwegian DJ/record producer Todd Terje ignited a disco-infused dance party in the Gobi Tent with his backing band The Olsens. So, when St. Germain was billed for this year’s festival, I knew Ludovic Navarre’s gypsy jazz/downtempo house project was a must-see act on Day 1. Not only did St. Germain’s self-titled LP in October mark a 15-year drought between albums, but it had also been nearly as long since Navarre performed at Coachella. While his cast of sidekicks wasn’t quite as large as the 20-piece big band he brought in 2001, he did assemble a group of musicians from Mali, Senegal and Brazil that hypnotized the crowd with a variety of world-music grooves that played as well live as it would over the speaker system at a French-Moroccan cafe. -JH

Vince Staples

As an emerging force in the world of hip-hop, Vince Staples took the stage at the Sahara Tent on Day 2 and put on a set that met the hype surrounding his 2015 critically acclaimed album Summertime ’06. Though the primarily EDM-focused Sahara Tent seemed like a strange fit for the Odd Future associate, Staples covered the protruding wall of LED cubes with relative ease as the crowd hung on his every word. The Long Beach-based rapper’s banter between songs, along with his range and ability to deliver heartfelt tracks like “Summertime” and bangers like “Norf Norf”, proved that he is a human torch that shouldn’t burn out anytime soon. -BR

The Arcs

Dan Auerbach is no stranger to Coachella. The seven-time Grammy winner headlined the fest in 2012 with The Black Keys, just a year after the band assumed the sub-headliner role behind Kings of Leon. But after a four-year absence in Indio, Auerbach was back with his latest side project The Arcs months after releasing the group’s debut album Yours, Dreamily,. While it’s easy to confuse blues-y singles like “Stay in My Corner”, “Outta My Mind” and “Put a Flower in Your Pocket” — all of which were performed by Auerbach and his bandmates during their set — for some of The Keys’ own material, what made this performance extra special were the guest stars who took the stage. If you thought Auerbach could shred on his own, adding Joe Walsh and his mentor Glenn Schwartz only made our ears tingle even more, especially when you consider what Schwartz is still capable of doing at the age of 78. -JH

Sia

From the very beginning, Sia set herself apart from every other artist who took the Coachella Stage this year. With the Australian artist standing in the back of the stage, her set was more performance art than it was pop music. While her face was hidden thanks to her trademark wig, Sia’s voice stood front and center as she belted out every note to hits like “Diamonds”, “Bird Set Free” and “Titanium”. Throughout it all, different dancers and actors would come on stage, abstractly embodying the themes her songwriting often conveys: fear, anticipation, stress, anger, joy, love and most of all, doubt. As Kristen Wiig and Paul Dano contributed to the overall performance, the height of Sia’s conceptual masterpiece reached its peak with a breathtaking rendition of “Breathe Me”, bringing some of the audience to tears. It was the true headliner of Sunday night and among the top performances of the entire weekend. -BR

Silversun Pickups

Ever since these LA alt-rockers burst onto the scene in the mid-2000’s with radio hits like “Future Foe Scenarios”, “Well Thought Out Twinkles”, and “Lazy Eye”, Silversun Pickups have been high on my list of bands to see live. But for whatever reason (most of it likely my doing), the opportunity hadn’t presented itself until Coachella revealed its lineup in early January. Pitted against Ice Cube in what proved to be my biggest scheduling conflict of the weekend, SSPU didn’t make me question my decision the minute they stepped onstage and tore into “Nightlight”, the first single from their fourth and most recent studio album Better Nature. At a time when special guest appearances have become the trend at Coachella, it was refreshing to see a band not feel the need to go down the same path as everyone else. Instead, Brian Aubert, Nikki Monninger, Chris Guanlao and Joe Lester looked comfortable just being themselves, even if their nine-song set felt like it was over in the blink of an (lazy) eye. -JH

LCD Soundsystem

Over the last couple of years, it’s hard to think of a band I have wanted to see more than LCD Soundsystem. Deeply tied to my formative years in college, the Brooklyn outfit’s return after a five-year hiatus was nothing short of stunning. Opening with the undeniably groovy “Us vs. Them” and covering a good chunk of their catalog over almost two hours, LCD certainly met the expectations of an eager crowd. James Murphy kept the banter between songs fairly short, and these indie heavyweights demonstrated a true dedication to their craft, starting fast with songs like “Movements” and “Yeah” before moving to more deep, tightly wound rhythms on “Someone Great” and “Home”. Though “Losing My Edge” was written more than 10 years ago, Murphy’s part-improvised, part-proclamation, part-perfectly-delivered rendition of the track seemed to really capture the attention of more casual LCD fans. Nearing the end of its set, the band covered “Heroes” by late collaborator David Bowie. I have seen many concerts as well as attended many festivals in my life, but this was truly among the most beautiful moments in live music I have ever experienced. Wrapping up their headlining performance with “All My Friends”, LCD Soundsystem proved to be among the top artists to ever grace the festival’s main stage. -BR

Guns N’ Roses

There may have been no more talked-about act in Coachella’s 17-year history than Saturday’s headliner — and for good reason. Going back to 1993, it had been 23 years since Axl Rose and Slash last performed on the same stage together, and though some of that allure had worn off by the time they reached Indio thanks to a surprise show in LA and back-to-back nights in Las Vegas in prior weeks, Guns N’ Roses were still the talk of the town leading up to Coachella. In fact, all you had to do was look around on Saturday and see just how many GNR T-shirts were traversing the polo fields before their 10:30 p.m. set. When it came time to deliver, the original trio of Axl, Slash and bassist Duff McKagan most certainly did, while rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus and drummer Frank Ferrer proved to be more than suitable fill-ins for Izzy Stradlin and Steven Adler/Matt Sorum. Meanwhile, the surprise appearance by Angus Young couldn’t have come at a much better time after the announcement was made minutes before GNR’s set that Rose will be filling in for Brian Johnson on AC/DC’s remaining tour dates this year. GNR have always been one of my biggest bucket-list bands, and even if a broken leg prevented Axl from strutting and slithering across the stage like he once did as a brash, slender 21-year-old rock star, seeing one of my favorite childhood bands perform for two and a half hours felt all too surreal as I left the Empire Polo Club that night. -JH

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Festival Reviews, Festivals Tagged With: Coachella, Coachella 2016, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2016, Despacio, Guns N' Roses, Kanye West, Kesha, Kristin Wiig, LCD Soundsystem, Lorde, Miike Snow, Nosaj Thing, Rihanna, Run The Jewels, Seal, Sia, Silversun Pickups, St. Germain, T.I., The Arcs, Vince Staples

Coachella releases 2016 set times

April 13, 2016 by Josh Herwitt 1 Comment

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival //
Empire Polo Club – Indio, CA
April 15th-17th & April 22nd-24th, 2016 //

Let the Coachella lineup-conflict talk commence! For those headed to the desert this year, you can now start making your weekend plans.

The three-day, two-weekend music and arts festival released this year’s set times just after 9 a.m. PT (9:06 a.m. to be exact), more than 14 hours after last year’s schedule came out (like the music geeks we are, we keep tabs on that sort of stuff).

Meanwhile, just like every year, Coachellans will have some difficult decisions to make as they head to the Empire Polo Club.

Which is your biggest lineup conflict, and who are you most excited to see?

WEEKEND 1 SET TIMES

WEEKEND 2 SET TIMES

Happy Coachella!

Filed Under: Featured, Festivals Tagged With: Coachella, Coachella 2016, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2016

Fauxchella Shows of the Month // GO4FREE to Hudson Mohawke, Savages or DMA’s

April 12, 2016 by The Bam Team Leave a Comment

Written by Nik Crossman //

Can’t make it to Coachella this year? No worries! We’ve got you covered with tickets to some of the best Fauxchella shows in the Bay Area.

Win a pair of free tickets to one of our Fauxchella Shows of the Month by entering your name and email below.

DMA’s: April 15th (FRI) @ The Independent // BUY TICKETS

Releasing their debut LP in February, these Aussies continue to rise on the popularity of their single “Delete”. Before heading down to the desert for their Saturday set at Coachella, DMA’s will headline The Independent the day before to showcase their unique, layered harmonies and acoustic-to-electric transitions.

Contest ends Friday, April 15th at 3 p.m.

Savages: April 19th (TUE) @ The Fillmore // BUY TICKETS

Pulling their name from the 1954 novel Lord of the Flies, this London-based punk quartet is the “closest thing to art that post-punk has offered in a while,” writes The Guardian. Their latest and second full-length album Adore Life dropped in January and peaked at No. 26 on the UK charts. In between their two sets at Coachella, Savages will make a pit stop in SF to play The Fillmore.

Contest ends Tuesday, April 19th at 3 p.m.

Hudson Mohawke: April 21st (THUR) @ Mezzanine // BUY TICKETS

Better known by his stage name Hudson Mohawke, Ross Birchard is a Scottish DJ/producer from Glasgow who started his claim to fame by becoming the youngest ever DMC UK finalist. Building on his early popularity through his work as a turntablist, he continues to win over fans with his genre-smashing, wonky approach; in 2013, he signed on to Kanye West’s GOOD Music label. If you can’t make it to Coachella, make sure to catch him in SF for a Thursday night party at Mezzanine.

Contest ends Thursday, April 21st at 3 p.m.

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

• Chuck Prophet: April 15th (FRI) @ Great American Music Hall
• (((folkYEAH!))) Presents Marc & the Casuals with special guest Sean Hayes & Extra Classic: April 15th (FRI) @ The Chapel
• Haelos: April 19th (TUE) @ Brick & Mortar Music Hall
• Bombino: April 22nd (FRI) @ The New Parish
• Keller Williams: April 22nd (FRI) @ Great American Music Hall
• Bombino: April 23rd (SAT) @ The Independent
• Day Wave: April 25th (MON) @ The Independent
• Say Anything: April 27th (WED) @ Slim’s
• Garden & Villa: April 27th (WED) @ Brick & Mortar Music Hall
• Fruition: April 28th (THUR) @ The Chapel
• The Sam Chase: April 29th (FRI) @ Great American Music Hall
• The Slackers: April 30th (SAT) @ Slim’s
• Thao & the Get Down Stay Down: April 30th (SAT) @ The Fillmore

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

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

CONTESTS CLOSED.

Filed Under: Contests Tagged With: Bombino, Brick & Mortar Music Hall, Chuck Prophet, Coachella, Coachella 2016, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2016, Day Wave, DMA's, Fauxchella, Fauxchella 2016, Fruition, GAMH, Hudson Mohawke, Keller Williams, Mezzanine, Savages, Say Anything, Slims, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, The Chapel, The Fillmore, The Indepedent, The Sam Chase, The Slackers

Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem & Lionel Richie to headline Outside Lands 2016 lineup

April 5, 2016 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
August 5th-7th, 2016 //

After rumors swirled in early 2016, Radiohead will indeed return to headline the ninth edition of Outside Lands along with LCD Soundsystem and Lionel Richie.

The British alt-rockers led by frontman Thom Yorke headlined the three-day music and arts festival in its inaugural year back in 2008, touring off their 2007 Grammy-winning album In Rainbows and playing a 22-song set highlighted by such classics “Just”, “Paranoid Android” and “Fake Plastic Trees”. Now with their impending ninth studio album expected to be out some time later this year, Radiohead will be back at Golden Gate Park this summer for one of just three West Coast and six North American dates in 2016, which also include two nights at the world-famous Madison Square Garden, a headlining spot at Lollapalooza in Chicago and two more shows at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on either side of their Outside Lands performance.

LCD Soundsystem, on the other hand, have been tabbed to headline a myriad of large-scale U.S. and international festivals this year (reminding us of the reunion run Outkast embarked on in 2014), starting with two weekends at Coachella this month and continuing this summer at Primavera Sound, Bonnaroo, Roskilde and Panorama, among others. With a busy touring schedule already set, the band has also confirmed that it will release a new album this year, making us think that James Murphy and company will be showcasing some new material at their upcoming shows.

An original member of the Commodores, Lionel Richie’s last solo album Tuskegee came back in 2012, but Outside Lands has always had a penchant for incorporating legendary artists as headliners, much like they have done with Elton John, Tom Petty, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder the past four years. It goes without saying that fans can expect a career-spanning set from Richie, who remains one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time thanks in large to such No. 1 U.S. singles as “Endless Love”, Truly”, “All Night Long (All Night)”, “Hello” and “Say You, Say Me”.

While the three headliners slated to play Outside Lands this year are certainly something to rave about, there are plenty of other highlights sprinkled throughout the lineup, including Lana Del Rey, J. Cole, Duran Duran, Zedd, Ryan Adams, Major Lazer, Air, Sufjan Stevens, Chance the Rapper, Beach House, Miguel, Halsey, Big Grams (Big Boi + Phantogram), Grimes, Jason Isbell, Miike Snow, Third Eye Blind, Kehlani, The Last Shadow Puppets, GRiZ, Brandi Carlile, Thomas Jack, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, FOALS, Lord Huron, JAUZ, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, St. Lucia, Years & Years, Vince Staples, Poliça, Lettuce, Ibeyi, Hiatus Kaiyote, Peaches, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Snakehips, Oh Wonder, Kamasi Washington, Jack Garratt, RÜFÜS DU SOL, Ra Ra Riot, TOKiMONSTA, The Knocks, DIIV and many more.

This year’s festival will once again include a full lineup of comedy performances as well as its famed Beer Lands, Wine Lands and Choco Lands + Cheese Lands. Because as we all know by now, it’s hard to find much better food or drink options at a music festival than what Outside Lands has to offer on an annual basis.

If you didn’t grab Eager Beaver tickets last week, you can buy Outside Lands tickets starting this Thursday, April 7th at 10 a.m. Three-day GA passes will be sold for $355, and three-day VIP passes can be purchased for $765. Single-day passes will also be sold, with GA prices set at $145 and VIP prices set at $325. Three-day shuttle passes and three-day parking passes are available for $48 and $240, respectively.

Getting excited for Outside Lands after this year’s lineup announcement? Make sure to check out our coverage from the festival’s 2015 edition here.

Filed Under: Featured, Festivals Tagged With: Air, Anderson .Paak, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Beach House, Big Freedia, Big Grams, Big Grams (Big Boi + Phantogram), Brandi Carlile, Chance The Rapper, Coachella, Coachella 2016, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2016, DIIV, Down and Outlaws, Duran Duran, Fantastic Negrito, FOALS, GastroMagic, Grimes, GRIZ, Halsey, Hiatus Kaiyote, Ibeyi, J. Cole, Jack Garratt, Jason Isbell, JAUZ, Jidenna, Julien Baker, Kamasi Washington, Kehlani, Lana Del Rey, Lapsley, LCD Soundsystem, Lettuce, Lionel Richie, Lord Huron, Major Lazer, Marian Hill, Methyl Ethel, Miguel, Miike Snow, Moon Taxi, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Oh Wonder, Outside Clams, Outside Lands, Outside Lands 2016, Outside Lands Castland, Outside Lands Forest Feast, Outside Lands Music Festival, Outside Lands Music Festival 2016, Outside Lands night shows, Peaches, Poliça, Ra Ra Riot, Radiohead, RÜFÜS DU SOL, Rogue Wave, Ryan Adams, snakehips, St. Lucia, Sufjan Stevens, The Back Wine, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, The Knocks, The Last Shadow Puppets, The West Coast Get Down, Third Eye Blind, Thomas Jack, Tokimonsta, Tortoise & The Pimps, Vince Staples, Washington and The West Coast Get Down, Years & Years, Zedd

Goldenvoice announces 2016 Coachella sideshows

January 25, 2016 by Josh Herwitt 1 Comment

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

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

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

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

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

Filed Under: Featured, Festivals Tagged With: AlunaGeorge, BADBADNOTGOOD, Beach House, Bob Moses, Christine and the Queens, Coachella, Coachella 2016, Coachella 2016 sideshows, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2016, Coachella sideshows, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2016, Courtney Barnett, Death Grips, Deerhunter, El Rey Theatre, Ex Hex, FOALS, Goldenvoice, Goldenvoice Presents April, Goldenvoice Presents April 2016, Goldroom, Grimes, Ibeyi, James Bay, Lapsley, M83, Matt & Kim, Mbongwana Star, Miike Snow, Museum of Love, Nosaj Thing, Of Monsters and Men, Pappy & Harriet's, Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace, Pappy and Harriet's, Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown Palace, Parov Stelar, Rancid, Rhye, Savages, Silversun Pickups, Skepta, snakehips, St. Germain, The 1975, The Arcs, The Big Pink, The Damned, The Fonda Theatre, The Front Bottoms, The Heavy, The Kills, The Last Shadow Puppets, Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Coachella organizers launch new NYC music festival

January 11, 2016 by Josh Herwitt 2 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

January 4, 2016 by Josh Herwitt 4 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

Filed Under: Featured, Festivals Tagged With: A$AP Rocky, Beach House, Calvin Harris, CHRVCHES, Coachella, Coachella 2016, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2016, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2016, Disclosure, Ellie Goulding, Flume, FOALS, Guns N' Roses, Halsey, Ice Cube, Jack Ü, James Bay, LCD Soundsystem, M83, Major Lazer, Mike Snow, Rancid, Sia, Sufjan Stevens, The 1975, The Kills, Underworld, Zedd

The Bam Team’s 5 Favorite Shows, Albums & Songs of 2015

December 22, 2015 by The Bam Team 2 Comments

Caribou at The Fillmore // Showbams’ Photo of the Year, by Justin Yee

Ah, where did 2015 go? It felt like we were just ringing in a new year a couple months ago. But with another year in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to once again doll out our annual “Best of” lists. Much like we did in 2014, we heard a lot of music this year, whether it was at a show or at a festival, at work, on the bus or in our cars. From established headliners who continue to amaze us to emerging artists who rekindled our excitement for new music, our collective lives were filled with one musical memory after another over the past 12 months.

So, without further ado, Showbams presents The Bam Team’s five favorite shows, albums and songs from 2015.

The 25 Best Live Music Acts of 2015

Listen to The Bam Team’s favorite songs of 2015:

Tycho at Lightning in a Bottle // Photo by Josh Herwitt

Josh Herwitt // Los Angeles

Top 5 Shows of 2015
1. Jack White at Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Weekend 1 – Indio, CA – April 11th
There’s a reason why Mr. White was named our No. 1 live music act of 2014 around this time last year, and it’s not because he’s simply a guitar god. The Detroit native and former White Stripe is much more than that now, as he has proven with the kind of clever, genre-swirling songwriting that permeates his two solo albums Blunderbuss and Lazaretto. But witnessing White perform live almost feels like a musical right of passage in and of itself, reminding us that while inventive, mainstream rock ‘n’ roll may be harder to come by these days, it’s still far from dead. On this warm, spring night in the California desert, he imparted on us that “music is sacred” — not just with his words in between songs, but also with every ferverous note that he struck on his fret board. From the moment White appeared on the festival’s main stage, his 20-song, headlining set was bold and powerful, even if it would serve as one of his last shows for a while.

2. My Morning Jacket at Santa Barbara Bowl – Santa Barbara, CA – October 11th
3. Modest Mouse at Hollywood Forever – Los Angeles, CA – August 21st
4. Tycho at Lightning in a Bottle – Bradley, CA – May 24th
5. The War on Drugs at Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Weekend 1 – Indio, CA – April 10th

Top 5 Albums of 2015
1. My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall
When My Morning Jacket announced that they would be releasing a new studio LP in May after nearly a four-year layoff, their longest between albums since forming in the late 90’s, I wasn’t sure if they could top what they had devised on 2011’s Circuital. But these Louisville rockers, rather, did just that, putting together a flawless record that opens with the inspiring “Believe (Nobody Knows)” and concludes with the gloomy, yet poignant “Only Memories Remain”. In between it all, frontman Jim James continues to build off his 2013 solo album, showing what a thoughtful songwriter he has become — knowing when to step on the gas pedal and when to ease off of it. With an already impressive catalog highlighted by 2005’s Z, it’s hard to definitively say that The Waterfall has taken over the throne as MMJ’s best album now, but there’s no doubt it belongs in the conversation.

2. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
3. Silversun Pickups – Better Nature
4. Jamie xx – In Colour
5. Tame Impala – Currents

Top 5 Songs of 2015
1. My Morning Jacket – “Tropics (Erase Traces)”
It’s only fitting that my favorite album of the year also boasts my favorite song of the year. The penultimate track on My Morning Jacket’s The Waterfall is an absolute rocker that gradually builds from the opening, Led Zeppelin-esque guitar lick before peaking midway through for a chilling finish. There might not be a better example in MMJ’s catalog that demonstrates how well Jim James and Carl Broemel play off each other, and if the two guitarists haven’t already, then they’ve certainly cemented themselves as one of rock’s best one-two punches by now.

2. The Weeknd – “The Hills”
3. Modest Mouse – “The Ground Walks, With Time in a Box”
4. Battles – “The Yabba”
5. Tame Impala – “The Less I Know the Better”

The Chemical Brothers at The Armory // Photo by Justin Yee

Molly Kish // San Francisco

Top 5 Shows of 2015
1. Jamie xx at Bimbo’s 365 Club – San Francisco, CA – July 31st
Whereas those familiar with his early XL Records mixtapes were satiated by his intermingling of Gil Scott-Heron and Idris Muhammad samples between hits, Jamie xx’s newfound, post-In Colour fans experienced equally breathtaking moments with the crowd hitting peak energy levels during the chorus of “Loud Places” amidst the glow of a warped-speed, neon-green strobe light. Another notable moment included the near-religious choral drop of “Gosh” that escalated the packed house to spiritual levels of enthusiasm, all while bathed in the glowing sparkle of Jamie Smith’s staggeringly iridescent, ceiling-to-floor disco ball and stage lights.

2. The Chemical Brothers at The Armory – San Francisco, CA – November 30th
3. Kate Tempest at The Independent – San Francisco, CA – May 20th
4. Kishi Bashi at Palace of Fine Arts Theatre – San Francisco, CA – January 30th
5. Caribou at The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA – March 1st

Top 5 Albums of 2015
1. Jamie xx – In Colour
Acclaimed London-based producer and half of electronic powerhouse The xx, Jamie Smith (aka Jamie xx) broke the mold this past year with his stunning solo debut In Colour. Earning top accolades within the music industry, including a 2015 Mercury Prize nomination and a Grammy nomination for “Best Electronic/Dance Album”, In Colour featured both individually conceptualized strokes of production ingenuity as well as many of the biggest contemporary-crossover hits this year. Smith explored his dubstep, house, garage and trip-hop influences on In Colour to deliver a genre-spanning masterpiece, highlighting his illustrious career as an electronic composer while setting the standard for the current and future state of EDM.

2. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
3. Tame Impala – Currents
4. The Weeknd – Beauty Behind the Madness
5. Lord Huron – Strange Trails

Top 5 Songs of 2015
1. Jamie xx – “Loud Places”
As part of a track list that included some of 2015’s most groundbreaking and genre-defining hits, “Loud Places” holds its own as a standout cut on Jamie xx’s monumental solo debut In Colour. It comes in toward the latter half of the UK producer’s LP and enlists the gorgeously haunting vocals of Romy Madley Croft, one of Jamie Smith’s partners in The xx and a longtime collaborator of his. Amid a packed roster of acclaimed vocalists, emcees and iconic samples, Croft’s contributions, while paired with a full choir, help manifest the lyrical content of the song while evoking a near-religious experience for its listener.

2. Tame Impala – “Let It Happen”
3. Robyn – “Love Is Free”
4. Kendrick Lamar – “King Kunta”
5. FKA twigs – “In Time”

Tame Impala at Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival // Photo by James Nagel

Brett Ruffenach // San Francisco

Top 5 Shows of 2015
1. Four Tet b2b Floating Points at Public Works SF – San Francisco, CA – May 3rd
Sparked by their set at Plastic Peoples in London earlier in the year — a set, coincidentally, that was named “Best of the Year” by THUMP a few days ago — SF’s own DJ Dials was kind enough to bring Kerian Hebden and Sam Shepherd, better known as Four Tet and Floating Points, to Public Works last May. Starting early in the evening, the two well-established English producers put on a scorching, non-stop, six-hour, vinyl-only DJ set. Kicking off the evening with over an hour of early-70’s Brazilian samba and steadily moving from there to all forms of funk, big band, soul, jazz and of course their own eclectic catalog of music, the two DJs seamlessly moved between tracks, bringing up and down the energy at just the right point to keep you guessing what’s going to happen next. After dozens and dozens of shows and DJ sets this year, I always keep thinking back to this one because it wasn’t only a chance to see an artist I like play their music — it was a chance to see two artists I like play the music that they love, and do it on an absolutely killer sound system.

2. Kendrick Lamar at Fox Theater Oakland – Oakland, CA – November 10th
3. Tame Impala at Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival – San Francisco, CA – August 8th
4. Jamie xx “In Colour” album release show at Church of St John-at-Hackney – London, England – July 16th
5. Nicolas Jaar at Symbiosis Gathering – Oakdale, CA – September 19th

Top 5 Albums of 2015
1. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
Kendrick wins. No contest. At this point, there’s nothing I can say that will be new or not already over-analyzed by the blogosphere over TPAB. All I can say is that TPAB is one of those rap albums that, just like Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010, expanded my understanding of what a rap album can be. From the very start you hear Lamar’s voice in the genius, FlyLo-produced “Wesley’s Theory” — a track that I think is among the greatest album openers ever — to the closing conversation with 2Pac in Mortal Man, TPAB is among the most ambitious and thoroughly conceptualized productions I have had the pleasure of hearing (and seeing) in my life.

2. Tame Impala – Currents
3. Nicolas Jaar – Nymphs I-IV
4. Jamie xx – In Colour
5. Beach House – Depression Cherry

Top 5 Songs of 2015
1. Pumarosa – “Priestess”
“Priestess” is a seven-minute, punk-meets-disco dance party that starts as an observation and ends as a declaration. Its declaration? To dance. Its lyrics (for instance: “Cut from clay and stone / Electricity flows through your spine and shoulders/In the night when we’re alone”), its visceral rhythm and undeniably entrancing, three-minute instrumental closing out the track (DAT SAX) are what make it an easy choice for my favorite of the year. In a culture engulfed in consumerism, celebrity and over-consumption, “Priestess” reminds us all that dancing is free. Dancing can be a protest. Dancing can be a celebration. Dancing is whatever you make of it. “Priestess” is a track that reaches into your soul and forces you to do one simple thing: dance. That’s something we all need in our lives every once and a while.

2. Kendrick Lamar – “Wesley’s Theory”
3. Jamie xx – “Gosh”
4. Tame Impala – “Eventually”
5. Nicolas Jaar – “Swim”

High Sierra Music Festival 2015 - The String Cheese Incident

The String Cheese Incident at High Sierra Music Festival 2015 // Photo by Benjamin Wallen

Benjamin Wallen // San Francisco

Top 5 Shows of 2015
1. Greensky Bluegrass at The Independent – San Francisco, CA – November 1st
Many bands get bigger and play bigger shows. Every now and then, you get to see them in a smaller venue with a more “intimate” feel. This was that show. Following a crazy night at the Fox Theater Oakland celebrating Halloween, the band crossed the Bay Bridge to play a birthday show for its dobro player Anders Beck at The Independent. It was a “Greatest Hits” setlist of all the songs I loved the most: past, present and future. The show was definitely intimate and filled with energy, and Greensky ended the night with some acoustic tunes. I think it says a lot about a band that can pack a big venue and then play a smaller venue and still the heat. This is my favorite band these days. They are consistently great and just too much fun.

2. String Cheese Incident at High Sierra Music Festival – Quincy, CA – July 3rd
3. The Sam Chase at High Sierra Sierra Music Festival – Quincy, CA – July 3rd
4. Jeff Austin Band at Great American Music Hall – San Francisco, CA – April 26th
5. The Devil Makes Three at Fox Theater Oakland – Oakland, CA – February 3rd

Top 5 Albums of 2015
1. Della Mae – Della Mae
These girls are damn talented as much as they are cute. I stumbled upon these five girls from Nashville while at The Chapel a few years back, and they were just damn good. Then, I heard that they were nominated for a Grammy and only beaten by the legendary Del McCoury Band. These ladies can pick and tick and get the crowd jumping. For Della Mae, powerful songs and epic throw-down jams are just par for the course. This album was Kickstarter-funded, which I was happy to contribute to, and continues the revival of bluegrass for the younger generation and modernizing the sound with the energy of youth. I find myself playing this album more and more each day from start to end — it’s just that good.

2. The Dustbowl Revival – With a Lamp Shade On
3. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
4. Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers – Loved Wild Lost
5. Jackie Greene – Back to Birth

Top 5 Songs of 2015
1. Jackie Greene – “A Face Among the Crowd”
I have been a Jackie Greene fan since I moved to SF almost 10 years ago. This song I heard a number of years ago when Greene was uploading hotel room solo tracks on the road. This song was put up on Father’s Day for Greene’s dad and was a touching song. Creepily sitting in a hotel room, you can feel the emotion. Hearing it on a record in my home is just heaven. After some of those really tough days in life, I come home, put this song on while listening on my best pair of headphones and zone out — let all the crap from the day that doesn’t mean shit just fade away. This song does that for me, and as a music lover, finding this type of song is like finding gold on the street.

2. The Dustbowl Revival – “Standing Next to Me”
3. The California Honeydrops – “When It Was Wrong”
4. Father John Misty – “I Went to the Store One Day”
5. Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers – “Mr. Saturday Night”

Father John Misty at Treasure Island Music Festival 2015 // Photo by Marc Fong

Andrew Pohl // San Francisco

Top 5 Shows of 2015
1. Father John Misty at Treasure Island Music Festival – San Francisco, CA – October 18th
Of all of the performers on Day 2 at the festival, Father John Misty held my attention the most. A stellar performance, hitting all of the right points, which gave me good reason to believe that he may in fact be one of the best frontmen of the last 10 years.

2. Hum at Slim’s – San Francisco, CA – September 18th
3. Fat Wreck Chords 25th Anniversary at Thee Parkside – San Francisco, CA – Aug 22nd & 23rd
4. Refused at Great American Music Hall – San Francisco, CA – May 28th
5. alt-J at Greek Theatre – Berkeley, CA – April 16th

Top 5 Albums of 2015
1. Tame Impala – Currents
From top to bottom, this is an album that I can listen to over and over without feeling burnt out (and believe me, I have). I appreciate the fact that on this album, they steer clear of too much “jam” and keep it straight forward. I can’t help but move my feet when I hear some of the tracks on Currents.

2. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
3. Failure – The Heart Is a Monster
4. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
5. God Is an Astronaut – Helios/Erebus

Top 5 Songs of 2015
1. Tame Impala – “The Less I Know the Better”
From the first time I heard this track, I knew it was the best song of the year. Infectious as hell, you cannot stop your body from getting into that groove.

2. Grimes – “Kill V. Maim”
3. Father John Misty – “Bored in the USA”
4. The Velvet Teen – “All Is Illusory”
5. Viet Cong – “Continental Shelf”

Viet Cong at Rickshaw Stop // Photo by Diana Cordero

Kevin Quandt // San Francisco

Top 5 Shows of 2015
1. Viet Cong at Rickshaw Stop – San Francisco, CA – March 5th
Viet Cong were easily one of the most brilliant bands in 2015 as they shook up South by Southwest (even when their drummer had a broken arm), generally not caring about the whole band-name fiasco and releasing a stellar debut LP. The brooding studio work from this Canadian outfit turned out to be way more accessible on the live stage as bassist/singer Matt Flegel bounced between playful banter and pile-driving post-punk.

2. Caribou at The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA – March 1st
3. Todd Terje (Live) at Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Weekend 1 – Indio, CA – April 10th
4. Kendrick Lamar at Fox Theater Oakland – Oakland, CA – November 10th
5. BADBADNOTGOOD at FYF Fest – Los Angeles, CA – August 22

Top 5 Albums of 2015
1. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
No surprises here, as truly this was objectively the best album of the year. With expectations high from his growing fan base, Lamar delivered an LP that had it all: crushing singles, a bold concept and a clear message. The smorgasbord of genres and vibes TPAB lays out for the listener further shows that K-Dot’s bag of tricks has no end in sight.

2. Protomartyr – The Agent Intellect
3. DJ Paypal – Sold Out
4. Tame Impala – Currents
5. Archy Marshall – A New Place to Drown

Top 5 Songs of 2015
1. Tame Impala – “Let It Happen”
This track was our first taste of Currents, and it got fans salivating in no time. “Let It Happen” was the perfect amuse-bouche with Kevin Parker’s vision shifting a bit toward synths over his trusty Rickenbacker guitar, which slightly became the resounding chatter behind the LP. Oh yeah, and there was the “record skip” in the middle of the track that we all went mental over.

2. Ought – “Beautiful Blue Sky”
3. The Weeknd – “Can’t Feel My Face”
4. DJ Spinn – “Dubby” (feat. DJ Rashad & Danny Brown)
5. Deerhunter – “Snakeskin”

Filed Under: Best of, Best of 2015, Editor's Picks, Featured Tagged With: Archy Marshall, BADBADNOTGOOD, Best of 2015, Caribou, Coachella, Coachella 2015, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2015, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2015, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2015, Deerhunter, Della Mae, DJ Paypal, DJ Spinn & DJ Taso, Father John Misty, FKA twigs, Fox Theater Oakland, FYF Fest, FYF Fest 2015, Great American Music Hall, Greensky Bluegrass, High Sierra Music Festival, High Sierra Music Festival 2015, Hollywood Forever, Jack White, Jamie xx, Jeff Austin Band, Kendrick Lamar, Kishi Bashi, Lightning in a Bottle, Lord Huron, Modest Mouse, My Morning Jacket, Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers, Nicolas Jaar, Ought, Outside Lands 2015, Outside Lands Music Festival, Outside Lands Music Festival 2015, Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, Protomartyr, Rickshaw Stop, Robyn, Santa Barbara Bowl, Silversun Pickups, String Cheese Incident, Symbiosis Gathering, Symbiosis Gathering 2015, Tame Impala, The California Honeydrops, The Chemical Brothers, The Dustbowl Revival, The Fillmore, The Independent, The Weeknd, Todd Terje, Todd Terje and the Olsens, Viet Cong

RAC is more than just a master remixer

November 19, 2015 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

Photos by Jon Duenas // Written by Josh Herwitt //

André Allen Anjos remembers what it was like to be an undergraduate unsure of his future.

More than a decade ago, he left his home in Portugal to attend Greenville College, a private, Christian liberal arts school in southern Illinois with an enrollment of only 1,100 students. It was there that Anjos would pursue his love for music, learning about the ins and outs of the business after spending his teenage years studying piano and guitar in his home country.

But it was during his sophomore year in college that he also started to become worried about the career path he had chosen for himself.

“I was starting to freak out because I was applying to all these internships — any kind of position in a studio or at a record label that I could find — and I just couldn’t get anything,” he says by phone one day last month. “I applied for everything I possibly could.”

While Anjos was hoping to get a foot in the door any way he could, he realizes now that his résumé was likely just one among a stack of thousands. So, rather than filling out more job applications, he started to focus his efforts on something else: remixing.

At the time, remixing had largely been associated with electronic dance music, a world where both DJs and producers are regularly known for putting their own unique spin on their fellow colleagues’ work. But Anjos’ remixing interests didn’t lie with EDM. Rather, they aligned more with bands that fit under the indie-rock umbrella.

“I’d love to say I had some grand vision, but it was really me just trying to get by,” Anjos says.

What started as a “very casual thing” between Anjos and a couple of online friends quickly took off three months later when their remix of The Shins’ “Sleeping Lessons” went viral. With an upbeat, electro feel to it, the track would go on to earn a spot on the band’s B-side single release for “Australia” and immediately caught the collective ear of other established indie-rock bands like Tokyo Police Club, Bloc Party and Ra Ra Riot.

It wasn’t long after that Remix Artist Collective, or RAC for short, was born out of Anjos’ dorm room as he worked tirelessly over the next several years to expand his remix portfolio, which nowadays includes some of indie rock’s biggest names, whether it be Phoenix, Death Cab for Cutie, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Two Door Cinema Club or Lana Del Rey.

“I never thought that this would still be going,” Anjos admits as he thinks back to his initial goals and aspirations for the project. “It has sort of morphed into something completely different.”

Today, RAC is much more than simply a remix side project. With a full-length album to his name and his own set of touring members, Anjos has turned RAC into a legitimate band over the last few years. He has been releasing original material ever since 2012, when he dropped his first song “Hollywood” on the Mountain Dew-sponsored label Green Label Sound, and even more, he’s turned RAC into a commercially successful act with high-profile festivals stops at Ultra and Coachella — two large-scale U.S. music festivals with very different vibes — this past spring. For Anjos, who just entered the fourth decade of his life this year, playing both festivals is already one item he can cross off his bucket list.

“It’s been a bit of a goal to be in the middle of those two worlds,” he adds in discussing RAC’s appeal to both the electronic and indie crowds that Ultra and Coachella each foster.

Yet, after years of making a living on remixing some of his favorite artists, what made Anjos want to start writing his own songs?

“It felt like the right time,” he says. “I had been writing original music for a while. It wasn’t necessarily foreign territory, but it just felt like the right time.”

Released on Interscope Records, RAC’s Strangers came out in early 2014 with singles featuring Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke and Matthew Koma, but what fans might not know is that most of the album’s songs were written in 2011 by Anjos, who employed many of the techniques he had learned from remixing to his songwriting process.

“The two go hand in hand,” he explains when it comes to creating remixes versus writing original songs. “When I sit down to write something, whether it has a vocal (part) or not, it’s still a very similar process for me.”

But in many ways, Strangers, which also includes tracks with Tegan and Sara, St. Lucia, Penguin Prison and Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, has additionally served as Anjos’ musical coming of age, one that continues to offer him new and exciting opportunities much like this Friday night’s headlining show in LA at Club Nokia that boasts openers Big Data, Geographer, filous and Karl Kling.

And with new material planned for the performance and his backing band clicking on all cylinders after playing together for the last two years, it’s a chance for Anjos to not only show RAC fans what’s next for the group, but also to prove how far he has come as an artist since his early remixing days.

“I feel really lucky,” he says while reflecting on his career so far. “Hopefully it continues.”

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Interviews Tagged With: André Allen Anjos, Club Nokia, Coachella, Coachella 2015, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2015, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2015, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2015, RAC

Was FYF Fest 2015 the ‘best weekend of summer’? Here are 10 highlights from this year’s festival

August 27, 2015 by Josh Herwitt 4 Comments

By Josh Herwitt //

FYF Fest //
LA Sports Arena & Exposition Park – Los Angeles
August 22nd-23rd, 2015 //

The 12th annual FYF Fest returned to the LA Sports Arena and Exposition Park last weekend, and from everything we witnessed over two action-packed days, it felt like a major success. For starters, we didn’t have to wait in a three-hour security line and it didn’t take 20 minutes to walk from one end of the festival grounds to the other (it was more like 10 minutes), which already made this year a huge improvement compared to last year.

It should also go without saying that FYF has come a long way since its early beginnings as a punk fest, and teaming up with Coachella promoter Goldenvoice back in 2011 hasn’t hurt its rep by any means. If anything, it’s only made it more accessible for mainstream music fans (though there are still plenty of “indie” acts to come by). That couldn’t have been any more apparent than this year with Kanye West replacing Frank Ocean as Saturday’s headliner less than two days before the gates officially opened. And yet, somehow FYF didn’t end up selling out. We’re still not sure how that didn’t happen.

But the festival’s well-publicized slogan has long been that it delivers the “best weekend of summer,” and such a proclamation certainly sets the bar pretty high, especially in Southern California, where there is no shortage of ways to keep oneself preoccupied on a late-August afternoon. So, whether FYF was or wasn’t (it was one of our eight California music festivals you won’t want to miss before the end of 2015), here are our top 10 highlights from its 2015 edition.

10. Battles

New York City trio Battles have been creating some of the most interesting rock music in the business for more than a decade, bordering on prog while throwing a heavy dose of math rock into the equation. With their third full length La Di Da Di due out September 18th (and thanks to Ableton, fans can get a behind-the-scenes look at the band’s writing and recording process for the album here), Ian Williams (guitar, keyboards), Dave Konopka (bass, guitar, effects) and John Stanier (drums) debuted some new material on Sunday evening for their Southern California fan base, most notably “The Yabba”, which gradually navigates its way through sonic peaks and valleys over the course of seven minutes. Meanwhile, Stanier, the glue that holds it all together for Battles, is still proving to be an absolute beast on the skins at age 47.

9. FKA twigs

British singer-songwriter Tahliah Debrett Barnett, better known as FKA twigs, has been all the rage lately after performing at Coachella in April, and she closed out FYF in style, donning an elaborate burgundy- and gold-colored robe for her Sunday night set. Just the week before, the 27-year-old fiancée of actor/musician Robert Pattinson released her brand-new EP M3LL155X, and with it receiving high marks from a number of music outlets, there were quite a few fans who stuck around after 11:30 p.m. on a “school night” to watch her perform some of them, including the opening track “Figure 8”, “In Time” and “Glass & Patron”. FKA twigs might be one of the most compelling live acts out there right now, and after scheduling Purity Ring to close out The Lawn the night before, FYF seemed to make a point of letting women rule that stage in the late-night hours this year.

8. The Arena

While there hasn’t been much use for the LA Sports Arena these days with The Forum and Staples Center serving as LA’s two primary large-scale music venues now, FYF made sure to utilize the 56-year-old stadium as best it could in conjunction with Exposition Park — and surprisingly enough, it actually ended up being our favorite stage this year. With space to roam on the floor — except during Flying Lotus’ DJ set from what we were told — and the seated area upstairs providing a nice respite from more standing, The Arena felt very much like a different world when you walked inside its doors. Plus, it had one of the most visually stunning stage backdrops and lighting setups that we’ve ever seen at a music festival.

7. Unknown Mortal Orchestra

After capitalizing on the success of their 2013 sophomore album entitled II, UMO have been trending upward as one of indie rock’s buzziest bands this summer thanks to the release of their third full length Multi-Love in May. Led by singer and guitarist Ruban Nielson, the New Zealand/Portland, Ore., quartet creates an intriguing mixture of lo-fi, psychedelic rock with garage, funk and R&B elements thrown in for good measure. After a long and tiring first day at FYF, UMO served as an uplifting way to start Day 2, and the turnout was pretty impressive with a large crowd arriving at The Lawn on Sunday for their 4:30 p.m. set.

6. BADBADNOTGOOD

Instrumental jazz/hip-hop trio BADBADNOTGOOD was high on our list of artists to catch at FYF this year, holding down a relatively early slot in The Arena on Saturday. Evoking almost a free-jazz spirit at times, Matthew Tavares (keyboards), Chester Hansen (bass) and Alexander Sowinski (drums) put their chops on display for close to an hour. Within minutes of arriving at the festival’s only indoor stage, it was fairly easy to see just how talented they are when it comes to playing their instruments, and together their sound had us wanting to hear more the next time these three Torontonians come to town.

5. Chet Faker

When we saw Chet Faker perform in LA following the release of his debut album Built on Glass last year, we were underwhelmed by Nicholas Murphy’s stage presence and a cast of sidekicks who didn’t add much to his overall sound. But a lot has changed since that early June night at The Roxy Theatre, and Murphy’s live show has grown leaps and bounds from 2014 to 2015, in part because he’s surrounded himself with some very skilled players lately. Though Murphy didn’t drop his newest single “Bend” into a nine-song set on Saturday, the FYF mainstay gave us every reason to believe why he belongs on the festival’s main stage.

4. Special guests

Ever since FYF founder Sean Carlson teamed up with Goldenvoice, his festival has felt more and more like a mini Coachella each year. That trend continued in 2015 on a number of levels, with one of them being the fact that quite a few artists introduced special guests during their sets, something that has become rather synonymous with Coachella over the past few years. Chet Faker brought out BANKS, Travi$ Scott joined Kanye, Flume handed the mic right over to Miike Snow’s Andrew Wyatt (pictured above) and then later danced with Lorde, and Run the Jewels gave Zack de la Rocha and Travis Barker their moment to shine onstage, too. If that doesn’t sound like a typical weekend at Coachella, then we don’t know what does.

3. Kanye West

Yeezus was all the talk less than two days before the festival kicked off, and we must say that we were pleasantly surprised by the last-minute Kanye-West-for-Frank-Ocean trade that FYF was able to pull off in the end. The headlining performance, nonetheless, delivered on all fronts, as Kanye ran through a career full of hits, eventually playing one every minute as his set went down to the very last second. We won’t go as far as to say that it was the best show of the weekend, but an impromptu performance from Rihanna on “Four Five Seconds” and “All of the Lights” after she was pulled onstage by Yeezy himself will have us remembering that moment for quite some time.

2. D’Angelo & The Vanguard

One of the most anticipated sets of the weekend was none other than D’Angelo’s — and for good reason. The R&B/neo-soul singer-songwriter hadn’t released an album in 14 years (yes, really) until he suddenly dropped his 2014 masterpiece Black Messiah last December, so you knew that getting the rare opportunity to see Michael Eugene Archer work a crowd, much like the one that assembled for his set at FYF, would be something special. Sounding more like a youthful James Brown than a wannabe Prince (we still don’t totally understand where those comparisons are coming from), D’Angelo and his eight-piece backing band that he now calls The Vanguard took the audience for a ride as they doled out new and old hits such as “Really Love” and “Brown Sugar” over an eight-song setlist.

1. Run the Jewels

It’s hard to find a more entertaining and raucous show in hip-hop right now than Run the Jewels’. Yes, El-P and Killer Mike have been making the festival rounds this year much like Outkast did in 2014, but one actually released an album last year and the other hasn’t since 2006. Never ones to hold back, RTJ’s post-sunset show on the festival’s main stage was both highly provocative and hilarious, getting the adrenaline pumping within the first few minutes and setting the tone for the rest of Day 1.

FYF Fest 2015 - Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Festival Reviews, Festivals Tagged With: Alvvays, Andrew Jackson Jihad, BADBADNOTGOOD, Battles, Belle & Sebastian, Bloc Party, Bonobo, Broncho, Chet Faker, CHK CHK CHK, Coachella, Coachella 2015, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2015, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2015, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2015, Cold Cave, D'Angelo and the Vanguard, Death Grips, Deerhunter, Dinosaur Jr., Dixon, DJ Dodger Stadium, DJ Harvey, Evian Christ, FKA twigs, Flume, Flying Lotus, Frank Ocean, FYF Fest, FYF Fest 2015, Girlpool, Goldroom, HEALTH, Hop Along, Horse Meat Disco, Jon Hopkins, Joyce Manor, Junk, Kanye West, Kaytranada, Kevin Morby, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, La Femme, LA Sports Arena & Exposition Park, Laura Marling, Leon Vynehall, Lower Dens, Mac Demarco, Melody's Echo Chamber, METZ, Mikal Cronin, Morrisey, Morrissey, Neon Indian, Nicolas Jaar, Purity Ring, Run The Jewels, Savages, Shlohmo, Simian Mobile Disco, Solange, Spiritualized, Tennis, The Drums, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Thee Oh Sees, Title Fight, Tobias Jesso Jr., Toro Y Moi, Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Django Django are still their own kind of weird

August 11, 2015 by Josh Herwitt 1 Comment

By Josh Herwitt //

Django Django with Beat Connection //
El Rey Theatre – Los Angeles
August 6th, 2015 //

What is it about Django Django that makes them such an intriguing band to see live? Is it their hand-clapping melodies or their strange, unconventional way of writing songs?

Those were the questions I was left pondering as I walked out of the El Rey Theatre just before midnight last Thursday following an exhilarating performance by the London four-piece and a feel-good opening set from Seattle electropop outfit Beat Connection (read our interview with the band here). On a night when a large percentage of LA music fans could be found at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery to see Australian neo-pysch rockers Tame Impala play the first of two sold-out shows, the boys in Django Django were winning over fans with their own brand of neo-psychedelia less than four miles away.

Formed at Edinburgh College of Art in 2009, Django Django have captivated U.S. audiences in a relatively short amount of time, but more interestingly is the way they’ve done it. The band, for all intents and purposes, is really led by drummer and producer David Maclean, who is the brother of musician and director John Maclean (formerly of The Beta Band) and the cousin of singer/keyboardist Lindsey Leven (member of the Scottish band Gulp). While lead singer and guitarist Vincent Neff may be the face that fans most often connect with due to his onstage charisma, it’s Maclean who has served as the leading force and backbone of the artsy band, producing its self-titled debut album, which was nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2012.

Fast forward to 2015, and Django Django were finally back in LA for their first appearance in more than two years, this time touring in support of their sophomore LP Born Under Saturn. The album, with five of its 13 tracks becoming singles, reached No. 15 on the UK Albums Chart this past May, ultimately serving as a strong follow-up for Maclean, Neff, bassist Jimmy Dixon and synthesizer operator Tommy Grace, who also spent several songs behind Maclean’s drum kit assisting with the band’s percussion.

It’s no secret, after all, that Django Django are a heavily percussive act, with a large number of shakers, scrapers, cowbells and other hand percussion instruments in their arsenal. Maclean, meanwhile, had essentially two drum setups on stage, with one being a wooden box — almost reminiscent of a cajón — that he played during acoustic versions of “Love’s Dart” and “Slow West”, a track the band wrote for the indie Western film that came out earlier this year. A few minutes before, the crowd had let out a collective roar as it heard the opening notes of “First Light”, the initial single from Born Under Saturn, and the energy returned to peak level when it was time to hear “Default”, still arguably the group’s most popular song to date and maybe no better indicator of the weirdness that Django Django exhibits sonically both in a recording studio and in a live setting.

With the last six songs of their set coming from Django Django, the band walked off stage for a brief moment, only to return for a two-song encore that was quite unique after a closer look. Wrapping up with the final tracks from both of their albums, Django Django left the crowd yearning for more, even if there wasn’t a whole lot remaining in their catalog to play at that point. While they’re not expected to perform in California again anytime soon, especially with the band members in the next phase of their lives after declining an appearance at Coachella this year, it may be a while before Django Django are back performing in The Golden State. And if so, it certainly felt good to at least catch them this time around.

Setlist:
Introduction
Hail Bop
Storm
Shake and Tremble
First Light
Reflections
Love’s Dart (acoustic)
Slow West (acoustic)
Firewater
Waveforms
Skies Over Cairo
Default
Life’s a Beach
WOR

Encore:
4000 Years
Silver Rays

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Beat Connection, Coachella, Coachella 2015, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2015, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2015, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2015, Django Django, El Rey Theatre

Are Built to Spill indie rock’s most important band?

July 21, 2015 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

By Josh Herwitt //

Built to Spill //
Troubadour – West Hollywood, CA
July 15th, 2015 //

Long before the word “indie” became a trendy term for casual music fans to throw around here and there, an independent music scene was on the rise in the U.S. At the time, record companies still maintained a tight grip on the industry, making it all the more difficult for lesser-known bands to climb the ranks without the backing of a major label.

But those days have come and gone since the DIY age, with record labels no longer holding the overwhelming power they once had due to the accessibility and convenience that the internet has come to offer up-and-coming artists. That doesn’t mean the word “indie” has reached near-extinction levels yet, though. With the talent across today’s music business spanning far and wide, it’s being used even more now, except as a descriptor for a band’s sound rather than strictly for its label status. These days, there are a number of artists on independent record labels who have gained all sorts of commercial success while others who are signed to much larger labels have soared thanks to their “indie” sound. In many ways, the lines have become increasingly blurred, and attempting to define what “indie” actually means when describing a band has become an arduous feat.

Yet, if there is one “indie” band that revolutionized the gritty, lo-fi sound before most even had a chance, it’s Built to Spill. For more than 20 years, the Boise-based outfit has served as one of the most important indie-rock acts to this day. With no Grammys or gold hardware to flaunt, lead singer/guitarist Doug Martsch and company have flown largely under the radar despite serving as a major influence for indie heavyweights like Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie and The Strokes — all bands that have gone on to garner a lot more commercial success than the Pacific Northwest five-piece. That’s not to say that Built to Spill never got the respect they deserved, but you won’t find them selling out arenas or headlining 1,000-person venues. Rather, despite signing with Warner Bros. Records more than 15 years ago, they’ve continued to maintain a relatively small, yet loyal following, understanding their audience and where they stand in the marketplace. So, it was no shock to see them book three straight nights last week at the diminutive Troubadour — a place that they’ve become quite familiar with over the years — while touring North America this summer in support of their eighth and latest full-length record Untethered Moon.

Selling out their third and final show in LA, Built to Spill still know how to keep their fans guessing. Their carefully crafted setlist showcased the breath and depth of a catalog that has stood the test of time, as they kicked things off with “The Wait”, the final track off their seminal 2006 album You in Reverse, before turning to their newest single “Living Zoo”. In a matter of 90 minutes, Built to Spill performed cuts from almost every one of their studio albums, from 1997’s Perfect from Now On to 1999’s Keep It Like a Secret to 2001’s Ancient Melodies of the Future to 2009’s There Is No Enemy to 2015’s Untethered Moon, of course. They even closed out their set with the title track from their 1999 EP Carry the Zero. But the biggest surprise just might have been seeing them honor some of LA’s musical past with a cover of The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High”, a song that was written nearly 50 years ago.

For their two-song encore, Built to Spill went way back in time to tap into another album of theirs, reminding us of their 1994 LP There’s Nothing Wrong with Love with “Stab” — a piece of music that’s more than two decades old at this point. And in watching Built to Spill play recently, including this past spring at Coachella, it’s become more and more apparent that Martsch, for all intents and purposes, is the brains behind the band. In fact, when he first formed Built to Spill in 1992, his plan was to change the group’s lineup for every album, using a rotating cast of musicians to record and tour while keeping himself as its only permanent member. Some fresh faces have entered the fold in more recent times, with bassist Jason Albertini and drummer Steve Gere replacing Brett Nelson and Scott Plouf, respectively, but even after Martsch signed the band to Warner Bros. Records back in 1995, the deal he inked allowed Built to Spill to maintain much of their creative control. At the time, many could have seen that development as the end of Built to Spill’s “indie” days. Instead, it’s only proved to be of no consequence for one of indie rock’s pioneering bands.

Setlist:
The Wait
Living Zoo
The Plan
Planting Seeds
Never Be the Same
Wherever You Go
Liar
The Weather
Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
So
Eight Miles High (The Byrds cover)
Stop the Show
On the Way
Carry the Zero

Encore:
Stab
Randy Described Eternity

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Built To Spill, Coachella, Coachella 2015, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2015, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2015, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2015, Death Cab For Cutie, Modest Mouse, The Strokes, Troubadour

Skipping FYF Fest? You can still see all these shows

July 8, 2015 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

FYF Fest returns to the LA Sports Arena and Exposition Park this August for its 12th edition with an amalgam of trending indie in tow. It’s also one of our eight music festivals taking place in California that you won’t want to miss before the end of 2015.

But if you’re not keen on catching headliners Frank Ocean and Morrissey yet still want to see sub headliners like Bloc Party or The Jesus and Mary Chain without shelling out $175 for a two-day GA pass (single-day passes have already sold out, by the way), well then, you’re in a bit of luck.

FYF and Goldenvoice have announced a series of sideshows around the festival’s August 22nd-23rd dates, which include performances by Toronto experimental hip-hop/post-bop trio BADBADNOTGOOD, Northeastern legendary alt-rockers Dinosaur Jr. and even NorCal industrial hip-hop group Death Grips, who, if you can remember, broke up not all that long ago, reneging on an opportunity to tour with 90’s rock heavyweights Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden last summer.

The sideshows start later this month, with LA’s own HEALTH kicking things off at The Echo before London-based post-punk revival band Savages finish the run off with a headlining gig at The Roxy on August 26th. It’s worth noting, however, that none of the sideshows will take place over the weekend of FYF, much like what Goldenvoice does in April by booking high-profile shows in and around Coachella’s two weekends.

Tickets for the sideshows go on sale at FYFpresents.com this Friday, July 10th at 10 a.m.

Here is the schedule for the festival’s upcoming sideshows with links to purchase tickets:

July 24th: HEALTH at The Echo // BUY TICKETS

August 19th: The Jesus and Mary Chain with A Place to Bury Strangers at The Fonda Theatre // BUY TICKETS

August 19th: Bloc Party at Glasshouse // BUY TICKETS

August 20th: The Jesus and Mary Chain with A Place to Bury Strangers at The Fonda Theatre // BUY TICKETS

August 20th: Bloc Party at The Roxy Theatre // BUY TICKETS

August 20th: METZ at The Echo // BUY TICKETS

August 21st: BadBadNotGood with Show Me the Body at The Regent Theater // BUY TICKETS

August 21st: NAILS at Echoplex // BUY TICKETS

August 21st: The Drums with Froth at Glasshouse // BUY TICKETS

August 21st: Lower Dens with Empress Of at The Echo // BUY TICKETS

August 21st: Dinosaur Jr. at The Roxy Theatre // BUY TICKETS

August 25th: Death Grips at Glasshouse // BUY TICKETS

August 26th: Savages at The Roxy Theatre // BUY TICKETS

August 26th: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard at The Echo // BUY TICKETS

Filed Under: Featured, Festivals Tagged With: A Place to Bury Strangers, Alvvays, Andrew Jackson Jihad, BADBADNOTGOOD, Battles, Belle & Sebastian, Bloc Party, Bonobo, Broncho, Chet Faker, CHK CHK CHK, Coachella, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Cold Cave, D'Angelo and the Vanguard, Death Grips, Deerhunter, Dinosaur Jr., Dixon, DJ Dodger Stadium, DJ Harvey, Echoplex, Empress Of, Evian Christ, Exposition Park, FKA twigs, Flume, Flying Lotus, Frank Ocean, Froth, FYF Fest, FYF Fest 2015, Girlpool, Glasshouse, Goldenvoice, Goldroom, HEALTH, Hop Along, Horse Meat Disco, Jon Hopkins, Joyce Manor, Junk, Kaytranada, Kevin Morby, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, La Femme, LA Sports Arena, LA Sports Arena & Exposition Park, Laura Marling, Leon Vynehall, Lower Dens, Mac Demarco, Melody's Echo Chamber, METZ, Mikal Cronin, Morrisey, Morrissey, NAILS, Neon Indian, Nicolas Jaar, Purity Ring, Run The Jewels, Savages, Shlohmo, Show Me the Body, Simian Mobile Disco, Solange, Spiritualized, Tennis, The Drums, The Echo, The Fonda Theatre, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Regent Theater, The Roxy Theatre, Thee Oh Sees, Title Fight, Tobias Jesso Jr., Toro Y Moi, Unknown Mortal Orchestra

8 California music festivals you won’t want to miss before 2015 ends

June 17, 2015 by The Bam Team 3 Comments

Written by Josh Herwitt, Molly Kish & Nik Crossman //

Believe it or not, we’re already halfway through 2015. If you live in California and haven’t been to a music festival yet this year, don’t worry — you’re still in luck. Yes, Coachella and Lightning in a Bottle have come and gone, but summer is here and there are a number of music festivals in The Golden State that are quickly approaching. Here are eight that each offer their own unique experience and are sure to deliver before the calendar turns to 2016.

Northern Nights Music Festival
Location: Piercy, CA
Dates: July 17th-19th
Tickets: Buy them here!

Donning “A Greener Festival Award” for their 2014 presence, the three-day Northern Nights continues to prove itself to be one of the most sustainable, community-driven festivals in its third year. The electric lineup promises to set trends, debuting a wide variety of talent sure to appeal to many tastes. Beyond the music, NNMF sets itself apart with unique “floating stages” and engaging activities, including art installations, yoga, DIY and dream-decoding workshops, comedy and more, encouraging all festivalgoers to apply and contribute to the events. Festivals must deliver an experience beyond the music to stay relevant, and NNMF’s dedication to sustainability and community involvement demonstrates an understanding of this paradigm shift. -NC

HARD Summer
Location: Pomona, CA
Dates: August 1-2
Tickets: Buy them here!

HARD founder and CEO Gary Richards has toed the line between the EDM and mainstream music worlds over the past few years, starting in 2012 when bands like Bloc Party and Miike Snow were featured on the lineup. This year’s bill continues along that trend with alt-R&B artist The Weeknd serving as one of the festival’s two headliners alongside several other non-traditional EDM acts, including Schoolboy Q, Ratatat, Chromeo, Die Antwoord and Caribou. Yes, there will actually be plenty of instruments being played on stage this year. Who knew an electronic-focused festival could offer the best of both worlds? -JH

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival
Location: San Francisco
Dates: August 7th-9th
Tickets: Sold out!

Outside Lands has quickly risen from a SF summer highlight to one of the country’s top large-scale music festivals and a crown jewel of Bay Area production company Another Planet. Claiming the title as the “world’s only gourmet rock festival,” OSL has paved the way with its fairground food/music movement since 2008, setting the bar high with artisan experiences at its many “Lands” (wine, cheese, beer and choco) as well as its “Taste of the Bay Area” and “GastroMagic” programs. Although recognized as one of the premiere West Coast festivals, OSL still remains deeply ingrained in the rich culture of the Bay Area and continues to showcase some of the top talent in music, food, wine, beer, comedy, theater, art and culture on both a national and local scale. -MK

FYF Fest
Location: Los Angeles
Dates: August 22-23
Tickets: Buy them here!

With its eclectic lineup of indie rock, hip-hop and electronic-leaning acts, FYF Fest has become, in many ways, a Coachella offshoot over the years. That shouldn’t be all that surprising considering both are Goldenvoice-sponsored events at this point, but this year’s lineup feels underwhelming and repetitive in comparison to previous editions. If there’s one thing for sure, it’s that the Morrissey fans can finally rejoice. Other highlights include Bloc Party, D’Angelo & the Vanguard, FKA twigs, Run the Jewels, Mac DeMarco and Jon Hopkins, although it wasn’t that long ago that Chet Faker, Flume, Purity Ring, Dinosaur Jr., Toro y Moi, Simian Mobile Disco and Nicolas Jaar all played the fest, which will return to the LA Memorial Sports Arena and Exposition Park for its second time. And let’s also hope the FYF organizers have things figured out after last year’s epic line fiasco. -JH

Symbiosis Gathering
Location: Oakdale, CA
Dates: September 17th-20th
Tickets: Buy them here!

With 2015 marking Symbiosis’ 10-year “Re:Union”, the Northern California festival is set to impress. Born through a common vision of togetherness, Symbiosis encourages physical, emotional and social well-being through a vibrant community of artists, performers and creators. The lineup rivals other festivals in its class and compliments the unique multi-day “Immersion Workshops,” including Permaculture, Visionary Art and Yoga. In addition to complimentary camping, festivalgoers can upgrade to Reserved Car, RV or five-day “Ready, Set, Camp” glamping, aligned with the trend that festivals must deliver on the experience just as much as the lineup. As one of the older festivals around and their beautiful riverside venue, Symbiosis upholds its reputation as an experience you don’t want to pass up. -NC

KAABOO Del Mar
Location: Del Mar, CA
Dates: September 18th-20th
Tickets: Buy them here!

2015 has already marked a banner year for the greater San Diego area’s music scene. First, it was CRSSD Festival making a big splash in its inaugural year this past March, and now it’s KAABOO Del Mar making its debut on the final weekend of summer. With over 100 musical acts scheduled, including two VIP performances from Sheryl Crow and Ed Kowalczyk, as well as a comedy lineup that boasts Joel McHale and Lewis Black, KAABOO is primed to compete with the other large-scale, three-day California music festivals in Coachella and Outside Lands. But KAABOO is not simply a “music festival.” According to its organizers, KAABOO is a “new kind of arts and entertainment ‘mix-perience’ designed around comfort, quality and good times.” Well then, let the good times roll by the beach this September. -JH

TBD Fest
Location: Sacramento, CA
Dates: September 18th-20th
Tickets: Buy them here!

Beginning as a one-day festival in 2007, TBD Fest has grown into one of the major-market festivals in the country. With top-notch acts like Pretty Lights, Cut Copy, RATATAT, Chance the Rapper, Chromeo and Tycho, the now-three-day affair presents an all-star lineup along the Sacramento River. Although there’s no camping, TBD Fest touts a commitment to “all things creative” with artists, boutiques, chefs, craft beer, cocktails, wine and more. -NC

Treasure Island Music Festival
Location: San Francisco
Dates: October 17th-18th
Tickets: Buy them here!

Treasure Island, a joint effort from Another Planet Entertainment and Noise Pop, hails as one of the West Coast’s premiere boutique music festivals. Year after year, TIMF has become known for its diverse lineup by booking some of the biggest talent worldwide. With one of the most seamlessly designed layouts, TIMF takes place against the gorgeous panoramic views of the SF Bay on the historical landmark site of Treasure Island. The grounds allow for an easy commute between its two stages and facilitates the festival’s strict policy of no overlapping sets, while free shuttle transportation to and from SF as well as a host of after parties sets TIMF apart from the competition. -MK

Which of these music festivals are you going to? Which are you looking forward to the most?

Filed Under: Featured, Festivals Tagged With: Coachella, Coachella 2015, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2015, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2015, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2015, FYF Fest, GastroMagic, HARD Fest, HARD Summer, KAABOO, KAABOO Del Mar, Northern Nights Music Festival, Outside Lands 2015, Outside Lands Music Festival, Symbiosis Gathering, TBD Fest, Treasure Island Music Festival, Treasure Island Music Festival 2015

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The Bam Team’s 5 Favorite Shows, Albums & Songs of 2015

RAC is more than just a master remixer

Was FYF Fest 2015 the ‘best weekend of summer’? Here are 10 highlights from this year’s festival

Django Django are still their own kind of weird

Are Built to Spill indie rock’s most important band?

Skipping FYF Fest? You can still see all these shows

8 California music festivals you won’t want to miss before 2015 ends

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