BeachLife Festival ups the ante again this May with The Black Keys, Gwen Stefani, The Black Crowes & more booked for fourth edition

BeachLife Festival - 2023 lineup

BeachLife Festival //
Seaside Lagoon – Redondo Beach, CA
May 5th-7th, 2023 //

It’s the first week of the new year, and you know what that means … it’s almost festival season!

No, the Coachella lineup hasn’t dropped yet — although we’ll be sure to cover it here whenever that day comes soon — but in the meantime, another Southern California music festival has already revealed its plans for this year.

Taking over Redondo Beach’s waterfront for a fourth time, BeachLife Festival has put together another quality roster this May that once again leans heavily in the direction of rock ‘n’ roll but also incorporates pop, reggae, jam, funk and punk. And all things black is certainly back in 2023, as The Black Keys and The Black Crowes will bookend the three-day event that has three-time Grammy winner Gwen Stefani set to take the stage Saturday after a special performance from Sublime with Rome of 1992’s 40oz. to Freedom, marking more than 30 years since Sublime released their seminal debut album.

Despite only debuting in 2019, BeachLife has continued to up the ante and its latest roster once again boasts plenty of talent as Pixies, John Fogerty (performing the music of Credence Clearwater Revival), Modest Mouse, Band of Horses, CAAMP, Tegan & Sara, Iration, The Head and the Heart, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Dispatch, Noah Cyrus, LP, Sugar Ray, Mavis Staples, The Aiborne Toxic Event, Aly & AJ and Trampled by Turtles round out an excellent undercard. The inclusion of Modest Mouse is especially noteworthy given that Jeremiah Green, the band’s longtime drummer and one of its founding members, passed away at the age of 45 last week. Check out the poster above for the rest of the acts scheduled to take the stage.

The festival, as it did in both 2021 and 2022, will offer guests the unique opportunity to sit on the main stage and eat a four-course meal while being only a few feet away from the action as part of its DAOU SideStage Experience. So if you’re looking to get a little extra bougie for a weekend, that could be just the experience to make BeachLife a very memorable one this spring.

Speaking of tickets, they’re already on sale here! Three-day GA and GA+ passes can be purchased for $379 or $419, and VIP is available for $849 as well as single-day tickets for $159 (GA), $179 (GA+) and $339 (VIP). Of course, there’s always the three-day Admirals pass for $995 or Captain’s pass for $2,999 and $1,250 (single-day) as well if you’re looking to make a big splash so get ’em while they’re still hot.

Gov’t Mule pay tribute to list of legends at Orpheum

govt-mule-postBy Josh Herwitt //

Gov’t Mule //
Orpheum Theatre – Los Angeles
September 26th, 2014 //

Warren Haynes may be leaving The Allman Brothers Band for good after this year, but that doesn’t mean the future of Gov’t Mule is in jeopardy. The Southern rock outfit has been going strong for 20 years now, becoming a staple in the jam scene and a household name at music festivals across the country.

But for as many gigs as they’ve tallied over the past two decades, the well-oiled machine of Haynes (guitar, vocals), Matt Abts (drums, percussion), Danny Louis (keyboards, trumpet, guitar, vocals) and Jorgen Carlsson (bass) hasn’t slowed down, releasing their 10th studio album Shout! just a year ago.

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Hitting LA on a Friday night for their “20 Years Strong” tour, the quartet ripped through a 19-song, two-and-a-half hour performance at the historic Orpheum Theatre that saw Haynes and company pay tribute to a long list of music’s biggest legends — Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Al Green, Ann Peebles, Maynard Ferguson, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, The Allman Brothers, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Police were all represented in some shape or form over the course of the night.

With Gov’t Mule only playing three songs from Shout!, it was clear that this night was more about their appreciation for those who had come before them than what their own music embodies. When it was all said and done, Mule left their loyal LA fan base eager for the next U.S. tour — whenever that may be.

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Set 1:
Mule, Game Face (with “Birdland,” “Mountain Jam” and “Norwegian Wood” teases), Little Toy Brain, Funny Little Tragedy (with “Message in a Bottle” lyrics), Kind of Bird (with “When the Wind Cries Mary” tease), Banks of the Deep End, Captured, Broke Down on the Brazos

Set 2:
Done Got Wise, I Believe to My Soul (Ray Charles cover with Jimmy Vivino and Jeff Babko), Brighter Days, Fallen Down (with “Gimme Shelter” lyrics), The Other One Jam (Grateful Dead cover with “Gimme Shelter” lyrics), Drums, Drums & Bass, I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home (Ann Peebles cover with Jimmy Vivino and Yoshi Yanagi with “Let Me Have It All” lyrics)

Encore:
Effigy (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover), Folsom Prison Blues Jam (Johnny Cash cover) > Effigy, I’m a Ram (Al Green cover)

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25 of the best cover songs ever

It’s pretty hard to proclaim the best cover songs of all time — there have been so many great covers performed in the studio and in a live environment. So that’s why we’re framing this as “25 of the Best Cover Songs Ever”. This list is not as hyperbolic as we prefer to be, but our top 10 is pretty damn solid.

Some prescribe to the theory that a cover song has to be better than the original to be great, or considered one of the the best. I don’t believe this to be true. There are cases in this list where the cover song does not surpass the original in greatness (see #25 for example). But if a cover song attempts to be different and successfully recreates a track to make it original and timeless in its own way, credit should be granted.

What did we miss? Leave us a comment with a YouTube link.

25. Chromatics – “Into the Black”
Originally by Neil Young

24. Guns N’ Roses – “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”
Originally by Bob Dylan

23. Bob Dylan – “Train of Love”
Originally by Johnny Cash

22. Johnny Cash – “I’m on Fire”
Originally by Bruce Springsteen

21. Bruce Springsteen – “Trapped”
Originally by Jimmy Cliff

20. Birdy – “Skinny Love”
Originally by Bon Iver

19. Sublime (featuring Alex Grenwald) – “Scarlet Begonias”
Originally by the Grateful Dead

18. Grateful Dead – “Morning Dew”
Originally by Bonnie Dobson

17. Alison Krauss & Robert Plant – “Trampled Rose”
Originally by Tom Waits

16. Santana – “Black Magic Woman”
Originally by Fleetwood Mac

15. Sharon Jones – “It’s a Man’s World”
Originally by James Brown

14. Radiohead – “The Headmaster Ritual”
Originally by The Smiths

13. Eric Clapton – “Coccaine”
Originally by JJ Cale

12. Tina & Ike Turner – “Proud Mary”
Originally by Creedence Clearwater Revival

11. Creedence Clearwater Revival – “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”
Originally by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles

10. The White Stripes – “Jolene”
Originally by Dolly Parton

9. Joe Cocker – “With a Little Help from My Friends”
Originally by The Beatles

8. The Beatles – “Twist & Shout”
Originally by The Top Notes, made famous by The Isley Brothers

7. Nirvana – “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”
Traditional song; arranged by Lead Belly

6. Janis Joplin – “Me and Bobby McGee”
Originally by Kris Kristofferson

5. Phish – “Remain in Light” LP in it’s entirety
Originally by Talking Heads

4. Talking Heads – “Take Me to the River”
Originally by Al Green

3. Aretha Franklin – “Respect”
Originally by Otis Redding.

2. Jimi Hendrix – All Along the Watchtower
Originally by Bob Dylan.

1. Johnny Cash – Hurt
Originally by Nine Inch Nails.