Desert Daze //
Moreno Beach – Lake Perris, CA
October 10th-13th, 2024 //
In an ever-changing world that feels like it’s always moving at 120 mph, spending time away to reflect and recharge can serve as some much-needed respite.
That’s the course Desert Daze chose when the boutique music festival revealed it would be taking 2023 off after a 10th anniversary that saw King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Tame Impala and Beach House, the latter of which replaced Iggy Pop only a week prior due to unprecedented visa delays with his band, hold down headlining duties as the calendar turned from September to October.
But organizers also didn’t keep fans wondering when an official return to the 1,800-acre Lake Perris State Recreation Area, which has been home to the three-day event presented by Moon Block and Knitting Factory Entertainment since 2018, would happen. There was never a doubt, based on what Desert Daze told us, that it would be back in 2024 — and it’s back this fall in a very BIG way.
Missed you, let’s do this 🚀
Sign up at https://t.co/YGgYUStgR3 for early access to the best prices on passes, camping, travel packages, merch, and VIP. Presale starts tomorrow, Wednesday, July 24 at 10am. Public on sale starts Friday, July 26 at 10am pic.twitter.com/ONiRg8MFKw
— Desert Daze (@desertdaze) July 23, 2024
The lineup for the fest’s 11th edition might not skew as heavily in the direction of psych-rock as previous iterations, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t boast some considerable star power with Jack White leading the way. Detroit’s modern-day Renaissance man and rock hero dropped a surprise new album last week on vinyl that quickly found its way onto the interwebs, and his first appearance at Daze while occupying the top spot no less marks an important moment — and potential pivot point to bring more mainstream acts to Moreno Beach — in its history.
Also highlighting this year’s stacked bill are Cigarettes After Sex, Alex G, The Mars Volta, Thundercat, Fleet Foxes, 100 gecs, Sleep, Liz Phair, De La Soul, Marc Rebillet, Molchat Doma, The Kills, Floating Points, Power Trip, Beach Fossils, DIIV, Unwound, Shintaro Sakamoto, Danny Brown, Mount Kimbie, and Say She She, but Desert Daze has also leaned into the notion of having some bands perform their seminal albums in full for a live audience. That will once again be the case with Death from Above 1979 and Temples celebrating major milestones for each of their debut albums — 2004’s critically acclaimed You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine‘s and 2014’s Sun Structures, respectively — when they rock the stage in a few months.
Desert Daze tickets will be available to purchase here during the fest’s presale with three-day GA at a starting price of $299 and VIP going for $699 before the general public on-sale begins this Friday, July 26th at 10 a.m. PT. With an artist roster this strong, we won’t be surprised if passes sell out quickly so don’t snooze on what’s sure to be another memorable weekend in the desert!
UPDATE (August 20th): Well, look it at what we have here … daily lineups! That’s right — you can start planning ahead with less than three months to go. This year’s Desert Daze sees Alex G and Thundercat billed as co-headliners Friday before Jack White rocks out on Saturday and Cigarettes After Sex closes things out Sunday. Single-day tickets have also become available now, so grab them for $99-119 (GA), $199-249 (VIP) and $549-699 (VIP Plus) here while you can!
UPDATE (August 30th): Oh no!!! It comes with a heavy heart for us to also share that Desert Daze 2024 has unfortunately been canceled due to rising production costs and “the current volatile festival market.” All ticket holders will be refunded and contacted via their point of purchase. It’s a sad day for the festival’s organizers and the entire Daze community, but we hope that one day we will see another iteration of the event. Until then, keep your eyes peeled for future updates from co-founder Phil Pirrone.
“Desert Daze is more than a festival or business venture to us,” he said in a statement. “The community that we’ve cultivated together means so much to us and is the reason we will work to find a way to keep this beautiful thing going for many years to come.
Photo by 
Photos by 
Photo by 
Written by 
Written by 
Written by 
By 
So often sequels don’t deliver, but ascending hip-hop stars Killer Mike and El-P have simply progressed their brilliance as Run The Jewels one year removed from their first official collaboration. From the top of RTJ2, Michael Render manages to set a higher bar for pumped-up aggression, there’s more social activism laced throughout, more special guests that only add to the fuck boy-crushing populist mentality. And compared to RTJ1, there are more stand-alone gems that are primed for remixing and cultural integration. The sequencing is superb, and El and Mike are having more fun than ever as they tour the world and snowball momentum with their brand of hardcore, yet intricate rap that contains shades of weird. Like a championship baseball team, the songs in the two hole through cleanup hitter offer the biggest impact, wreaking instant classics upon us with masterful experimental production from El-P that emits new, subtle surprises the more you listen. As the album unfolds, tales of police brutality (“Early”), introspection and personal improvement (“Crown”), along with over the top raunch (“Love Again”) prove RTJ2 shines in every moment in a variety of ways through multiple lanes of success. -Mike Frash
When a truly inspired artist borrows from the past while looking to the future, the outcome can be something fully new and exciting, which is what we have here. The brilliance of Adam Granduciel lies in his delivery, both musically and lyrically, crooning about the sometimes-not-so-simple intricacies of existence. Life, love and everything else in between can be tricky, yet Granduciel calmly assures us that things can work out.
There’s an intentional off-kilter spontaneity and cohesive force at the center of D’Angelo’s first album in 15 years, Black Messiah. The percussive and vocal syncopation here makes the off-beat feel natural — layered vocals get treated with filters and are multi-tracked to lend an unfamiliar presence to the back-and-forth vocal pitch shifts D’Angelo employs from line to line.
Singles jumps right out of the gates, showing its cards early, presenting the listener with Future Island’s trademark new-school, new-wave sound. Samuel Herring’s vocals are stunning as he pitches and growls through tales of the tougher side of love. It’s pretty, gripping and powerful while also holding certain pop sentiments, lending to an overall lightness while being arresting. “Seasons (Waiting On You)” is a quintessential slice of the emotion this band has become well known for both onstage and in the studio. “Doves” balances all the elements nicely, shining a light on the top-notch production featured on Singles. -KQ
Richard D. James has been practically an enigma for the last decade plus, hiding out in a small Scottish village of 300 and releasing no new music as Aphex Twin since 2006. But the long layoff hasn’t changed the fact that he remains one of the most unique and influential electronic producers in the game today. Some of James’ best material on Syro comes early on, from his club-oriented mixes like “minipops 67 [120.2]” to the techno funk he crafts on the ensuing “XMAS_EVET10 [120]” and “produk 29 [101].” These aren’t beats designed to make you sweat your ass off — if anything, the cerebral nature of James’ work makes him the ultimate antithesis of the current EDM scene. -Josh Herwitt 
On Flying Lotus’s latest record You’re Dead!, the Los Angeles producer forgoes the acid kool-aide test for a cyanide kool-aide dive straight into a fourth dimensional confrontation with the afterlife. You’re Dead masterfully trips through the journey of the soul into the next episode with sun-scorched psychedelia, 8-bit snapshots of g-funk and gorgeously redemptive jazz. The cold transition between the frantic jazz freak out of Kendrick Lamar featuring “Never Catch Me” and the cooled-out West Coast bounce of Snoop Dogg and FlyLo alter-ego Captain Murphy’s “Dead Man’s Tetris” highlights the producer’s prolific ability to craft varying hip-hop textures. FlyLo fully buries his new album’s death aesthetic through ecstatic, free-form layers of acid jazz and sprawling EDM planes of sound. -John Venanzi, Community Review
Annie Clark ups the electronic ante on her fourth studio album. Branching out of her experimental indie-pop compositions, she embraces more cohesive arrangements that ironically focus her creativity on deconstructed production and sound obstruction. Both equally impressive in sound quality and sass, the opening tracks “Rattlesnake” and “Birth in Reverse” set the tone for the rest of the records’ exciting stylistic shifts and the intriguing unveiling of Clark’s gritty rock goddess persona. “Digital Witness” is a spot-on snapshot of our brave new 21st century day-to-day reality. Unapologetic, raw and sonically genius, St. Vincent is Clark’s breakthrough moment, and she appears to be doing it all with ease. -Molly Kish
Mac DeMarco’s signature style is here. It’s still fresh and in ways stronger than ever; it’s more pointed, focused and accessible. DeMarco is able to write in a way that allows the listener to easily empathize with him, as he turns his issues into ones that most of us have dealt with at some point. In “Chamber of Reflection”, it’s easy to really feel a sense of solitude. “Goodbye Weekend” sounds like a stoney Sunday afternoon coming to a soothing end. Every track has a personality of its own while holding up the overall ethos of the album. This album is lighthearted enough for multiples listens in a row with its breezy beach vibe, but also easily induces deep thoughts with its many lyrical gems. -Steve Wandrey
What we have here is one of the most addictive albums of 2014. Our Love keeps deep house in its front pocket with steady beats per minute and an introspective mantra-centric lyrical conceit, but it’s also exploratory in nature, finding success in consistently building toward intense, euphoric plateaus. A steady flow of pleasant sounds ascend into impacting transcendence with “Can’t Do Without You”, “Silver” and “Your Love Will Set You Free”, and you must give Snaith extra credit for the masterful pacing and song-to-song flow — there is never a “skip ahead” moment. Like many classic albums, it opens up if you give it more time to radiate around your head, and listening to it becomes more pleasurable over time, even though it is mostly presented in poetic simplicity. -MF
Benji must be interpreted as a concept album about death, but more importantly, it’s about the importance details related to memory. For example, the title is taken from what seems like a throw-away line toward the end of the breathtaking “Micheline”. It’s powerful, visceral storytelling that is self-reflexive and biographical, yet so relatable that it compels personal introspection from the listener’s own experiences. Mark Kozelek’s lyrics are the centerpiece of the listening experience — they are so deep and resonant that the instrumentals and production are absorbed secondarily, although the stripped-down approach is intentional and noteworthy. Built around obsessing about the state of human demise — and the randomness of it — it’s easy to join Kozelek’s dire state of mind hours or days after listening. -MF
Photos by 
Photos by 
Top Tracks:
Top Tracks:
Top Tracks:
Top Tracks:
