Showing posts with label reggae. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reggae. Show all posts

Friday, September 14, 2012

Skrillex' Reggae Steeze

Skrillex combined with Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley to drop a bass heavy video for "Make It Bun Dem" to get those reggae vibes out before the 2012 heatwaves are all gone.  Enjoy....

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Rookie Festival Makes Splash - Pacific Festival a Relative Success




EC Twins

Mike Tunney - Pacific Festival Organizer

SUPERGOODMUSIC.com spent part of this past holiday weekend in the slightly warmer Orange County for the 1st ever Pacific Festival. Put together by Mike Tunney and friends and featuring two distinctly different days of music, one electro and one reggae-dub soul, I thought it was well worth my time.

Day 1 definitely caught the attention of more Los Angelenos. This should come as no surprise as it was headlined by Dim Mak's Steve Aoki, hosted by Mark The Cobransake, and featured a host of rising talent from the indie-electro-dance scene. From Classixx to Miami Horror to Dan Sena to EC Twins to all the fellas from Guns in The Sun - there was something new to be turned on to. The performances of Rob Roy and Chiddy Bang also brought in some much needed hip-hop downtime when the performances transitioned from outside to inside at the Sutra Lounge. In addition to Aoki, there were also heavyweights The Sounds and Alan Braxe, as well as a planned SILENT DISCO to ensure fans stayed until the end of the night.

Chilling w/ Kenya from Guns in the Sun

Chiddy Bang


And fans did stay. I exited shortly after Them Jeans came on at 1 am to a packed lounge of people barely capable of standing. The 21+ festival crowd was definitely in effect, especially in the VIP section, where the bar was all you can drink. For a mere $45, you could upgrade from regular admission to the inspiring black-out extravaganza that was VIP. While that unbridled access to alcohol may not have been the best way for the organizers to make money, it certainly gave the fans something to be excited about in addition to the music......and excited they were. The sloppiness went from about a 4 to a 9 or 10 between five and eight pm.


Intoxicated Concert Goers

Having agreed to provide press coverage (like this post), SUPERGOODMUSIC was able to catch some dope performances and snap some choice pics, all starting with Classixx on the main stage. The rising LA duo, who have released material on Dim Mak records, treated the crowd to a host of remixes including their excellent version of Listzomania which, in our opinion, should have been featured on the Wolfgang Amadeus Remix album (it is not).

Classixx

Miami Horror

After Classixx, Miami Horror made what I believe is their first festival appearance for a live band, or at least their first festival appearance anywhere remotely close to LA. The quartet brought a lot more energy to the stage than Classixx, in no small part because they play live instruments as opposed to computers. Benjamin Plant, the major brains behind Miami Horror, was all over the place - from playing wooden blocks to climbing the support beams and hanging off the side of the stage. They played their recognizable songs and then some other tunes that I'm hoping are on their album, Illumination, which was released on August 20th.

The Sounds followed before Aoki took stage, but I didn't catch much of their performance. I was scrambling around trying to figure out where other stages were, chopping it up with the Guns in The Sun crew and figuring out that press access did not include VIP admission. Although organization was not the festival's forte, at least they did realize that allowing press to get knee deep in booze probably wouldn't facilitate coherent or accurate feedback.


Steve Aoki


Nonetheless, SUPERGOODMUSIC negotiated their way into some free libations and took in Aoki's dance party from afar before moving in close for pictures and a potential champagne shower. With his mom and friends on stage, Aoki sprayed bottles of bubbly, facilitated crowd surfing and tossed around his signature long hair from behind the boards. Sporting a typical Aoki outfit of tanktop and hipster shoes - he paraded back and forth across stage inviting up a few carefully selected guests for their minute of festival fame, including this girl:


After Steve Aoki, the expected Skull Candy sponsored Silent Disco just never manifested. While that was extremely disappointing (silent discos are really f'ing cool), I was pleasantly surprised to find the Guys and Dollas party animals, EC Twins, throwing down in the Sutra Lounge. Their on stage excitement and enthusiasm definitely infected the crowd, and before you knew it, the room was at capacity for their blended dance anthems. The night continued with performances from Rob Roy, Chiddy Bang, Alan Braxe and Them Jeans, whose set we unfortunately missed.


Chiddy Bang


Unlike most Day 1 attendees, we returned for Day 2. The paradigm shift from indie-electro to reggae-dub-soul certainly did not offend SUPERGOODMUSIC's sensibilities because the headlining act for Day 2, Rebelution, is one of the hottest items on the reggae-dub soul scene. Although we didn't come down as early - we certainly were not going to miss Rebelution.

Boasting a tight young nucleus of talent (the band consists of four young to mid 20's charmers who met at UCSB), Rebelution has been putting on amazing performances long before and ever since their second album, Bright Side of Life, dropped in August 2009. Avoiding the sophomore slump, Bright Side of Life reached #1 on Billboard's reggae charts and obtained a #3 spot on i-tunes top albums downloaded, and has provided the fuel necessary to oil this band's touring machine. With spots at almost every festival this summer, from Summer Camp to Wakarusa to All Good to Lollapalooza, Pacific Festival was lucky to score them at the end of the tiresome run.


Eric from Rebelution

Expendables

The band (Rebelution) definitely delivered on their hype - bringing their dub-soul fire for almost 100 minutes on Sunday night when they took the stage after Expendables (who were good - but not quite as good as their Sunset Strip Music Festival performance at The Roxy). Rory (keys) and Wesley (drums) played cleanly from behind their respective instruments, while Eric (vocals, guitar) and Marley (bass) provided the eye candy, energy and lyrics up front. The quartet served up crowd pleasers from both Bright Side of Life and their first release, Courage to Grow, to close down the festival, inviting pseudo-rastas to spark it up on songs like "Green to Black," before smashing it with their bass heavy encore of "Safe and Sound" (Marley brought it on SaS).


Eric & Marley of Rebelution

As most festivals due in their earliest years, Pacific Festival probably lost money. In a tough economy - it would be hard to expect major returns from a first foray into multi-day event production. The absence of massive corporate sponsors (no major brand sponsor although Skull Candy and a few other companies did appear to sponsor the event at some level) and the presence of unlimited drinks for VIP, also probably did not help the Festival's bottom line.

All that said, Pacific Festival has a lot of positives to take from their rookie year, including a good foundation to build on and a client base that seemed pleased with their experience.
We had a great time and hope the festival is back for year 2 :D

You can see more pictures of our experience here - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=498751&id=255784860346&ref=mf



Monday, May 31, 2010

Rebelution Ready To Rock The Festivals...


One of our favorite up and coming bands, and a California homegrown talent, Rebelution is kicking ass on the road this summer and will be getting dirty at two huge festivals coming up - Wakarusa and Bonnaroo respectively.


We've caught the fearsome foursome several times in various LA stomping grounds - from Saint Rocke to The Roxy to House of Blues to a house party - and each time they brought their smooth reggae dub sound to a higher level.

They are putting their fire into the late night party at Wakarusa, getting things going with a set this coming Friday night from 10:30 to Midnight in the Revival Tent. The reggae rockers will be competing with STS9 who are playing on the Main Stage, but they take the stage 15 minutes earlier after Supervillains and before Basnnectar.

The following weekend Rebelution brings their tour bus to Bonnaroo. Not sure precisely when they arrive and if they will be taking it in with the crowd, but Saturday is when they perform.
Festival goers can cure their first full day 'Roo hangover with Rebelution, who are playing from 11:30 am to 12:15 pm on Saturday morning at the Which Stage.

If you haven't heard these amazing youngsters who have more reggae soul than you'd expect from a quartet of white guys, you MUST check them out. Their website is www.rebelutionmusic.com and their MYSPACE is www.myspace.com/rebelution. Also do some digging around for their facebook page and their recently released remixes by Amplive, Zion I and a few others (they had been circulated for free by the band)

Be sure to call out for some of their choice songs - I'm a big fan "Courage to Grow" from the album titled by the same name...it is a gem; "Safe & Sound" is often a closer of theirs and one of my favorites too and "Other Side" is also a good song from that album. From 2009's Brighter Side of Life, I'm hoping for "Outta Control."

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

SUPERGOODMUSIC Festival Preview: May Kicks Off The Season


Summer is fast approaching as music festivals galore are just around the corner, from L.A.’s very own UCLA’s Jazz Reggae Festival on Memorial Weekend, to the esteemed (and much larger) Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza Festivals, all the way through to the San Francisco’s mid-August Outside Lands Festival (whose line-up will be announced June 1st) and the young, but hip, Sunset Strip Music Festival at the end of August.


SUPERGOODMUSIC is already gearing up for the festive summer with planned stops at Wakarusa, Bonnaroo, and potentially Electric Daisy Carnival, Reggae on The River, Outside Lands, Sunset Strip Music Festival and more. That said, there are a few new or recently minted festivals that we don’t think you should let fall below your radar, so we wanted to give you a full rundown on festivals we think might be worthy of your attendance. Over the next week or so we will be giving you month by month breakdowns of where the hottest, most action packed festivals are. This installment brings you our take on the May events that really kickoff festival season.


As previously mentioned, May is when UCLA’s Jazz Reggae Festival takes place and this year they are really bringing the heat with a line-up that includes headliners Nas & Damian Marley, as well as Raphael Saadiq, Q-Tip, Bilal, The Foreign Exchange, Zion-I, Declaime, Nneka, Barrington Levy, The Lions and more. Tickets are not too expensive, just $26 for a single day and $45 for a two day pass, but if you are on the super strict budget, apply to be a volunteer by filling out the application at http://jazzreggaefest.com/ and sending it to volunteers@jazzreggaefest.com .


Up the coast, but still in the same state at Angel’s Camp, CA is Furthur Festival taking place May 28th to May 30th headlined by the Grateful Dead reincarnation Furthur featuring Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, as well as the former lead from Dead cover band Darkstar Orchestra and Joe Russo on drums from the always amazing Benevento-Russo Duo. The band will be joined by Galactic, The Mother Hips, Carney, Jackie Greene, Electric Hot Tuna, Common Rotation with Dan Bern and more. Tickets can be purchased at http://www.furthurfestival.com and camping is included in the cost of the ticket.


Further north, all the way in Quincy, WA at The Gorge is Sasquatch Festival! The 3 Day Event with an uber eclectic line-up kicks off on Saturday with performances by My Morning Jacket, Vampire Weekend, Deadmau5, Ok Go, The Hold Steady, Miike Snow, The National, Brother Ali, Z-Trip, Fool’s Gold, Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Nada Surf, Dam-Funk, Dawes and more. Sunday is just as good if not better with my festy faves LCD Soundsystem, as well as Kid Cudi, Massive Attack, Pavement, The xx, Dirty Projectors, They Might Be Giants, YACHT, Simian Mobile Disco, Girls, Public Enemy, Tegan and Sara, A-Trak, tune-yArDs, Los Angeles’ own Local Natives and Avi Buffalo, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Fruit Bat and more. Monday is good too – although the least exciting day in my opinion – with performances by the still disappointing in concert MGMT and Passion Pit, but also the always enjoyable Band of Horses, Mayer Hawthorne & The County, Ween, Dr. Dog, The New Pornographers, She & Him, as well as newcomers like Neon Indian and Yes Giantess. Check out more at http://sasquatchfestival.com/


Over in the Midwest, there is a festival for all hip hop lovers that my high school only wishes he could attend. The line-up includes Atmosphere, Method Man & Redman, Heiroglyphics featuring Del The Funky Homosapien, Murs, Freeway & Jake One, People Under The Stairs, Yelawolf, Casual and Pep Love, Eyedea & Abilities, Souls of Mischief, Busdriver, DJ Revolution, BK One, Wiz Khalifa, P.O.S. and many many more. Tickets can be copped at http://www.soundsetfestival.com




Also on Memorial Day Weekend is Summer Camp, now in its 10th year. The line-up includes over 60 bands on 5 stages, with three days of performances from both Umphrey’s McGee and moe. Adding to the jamband vibe are other jam veterans – STS9, Gov’t Mule, Yonder Mountain String Band, Keller Williams, Victor Wooten, Dumpstaphunk, Railroad Earth, Cornmeal, ALO, The New Mastersounds, Zach Deputy, Hot Buttered Rum, Kyle Hollingsworth Band, Backyard Tire Fire, Dweezil Zappa Plays Zappa and other jambands you just haven’t heard of yet. On top of jambanders, there are reggae sensations Steel Pulse and Rebelution, and hard to define, but nonetheless stellar acts like G Love & Special Sauce and Slightly Stoopid. The festival is also cutting a bit more in the electronic generations direction, with performances by Pretty Lights, Bassnectar, EOTO, Future Rock, Boombox, The Hood Internet, That 1 Guy, Groovatron and more. Having attended this festival in the past, we can’t recommend it enough – the vibe and the people are fantastic and, since it is in Illinois in late May, you know it won’t be too hot. You can get tickets and learn more about the festival here – http://www.summercampfestival.com/2010/


However, those Memorial Weekend festivals are not the first festivals we think are worthy of your attendance.


This weekend, what really looks like the kickoff for festival season to us is the very first Hangout Beach, Music and Arts Festival in Alabama. Not only is the line-up absolutely stellar for a festival in its inaugural season, including performances by The Roots, Ben Harper & Relentless7, Trey Anastasio and TAB, John Legend, Zac Brown Band, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Funky Meters, Matisyahu, Girl Talk, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, OK Go, Orianthi, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Gov’t Mule, Ray LaMontagne and more, the festival also set-up special late night performances where the proceeds go to designated non profit organizations. Friday the 14th, Alex B, Gift of Gab and Big Gigantic are performing and donating all profits to Mobile Baykeeper; Saturday Keller Williams Electronica performs a very special and cheap show (only $5, but tickets must be purchased in advance) where profits are being directed toward The Rex Foundation and Mobile Baykeeper.


The following weekend, on May 22nd and 23rd, in Dana Point, CA at Doheny State Beach – a host of musicians break it down over 2 days on 3 stages for a slightly older set – including Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Black Crowes, Taj Mahal & The Phantom Blues Band, Booker T. Jones, Eric Lindell, Jackie Greene, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Big Sam’s Funky Nation and more to be announced soon. You can snag tickets to that event at http://www.omegaevents.com/dohenyblues/



For our international readers, in late May (27th – 29th), Barcelona plays host to the amazing Primavera Sound Festival. Although no SUPERGOODMUSIC representatives have ever attended, the line-up to this international event is too good to ignore. It feels like everyone under the sun is playing from Wilco, Spoon, Florence and the Machine, Grizzly Bear, The Pixies, The xx, The New Pornographers, Yeasayer, Beach House, Pet Shop Boys and Pavement to Diplo, Major Lazer, The Bloody Beetroots, Delorean, Orbital Sleigh Bells, Matt & Kim, Boy 8-Bit, Big Pink, The Antlers, Les Savy Fav, Fuck Buttons and more. If SUPERGOODMUSIC was in the E.U., we would be sure not to miss this event.


June brings arguably the heaviest month to our festival calendar, so heavy, you’ll have to wait a few days for our June Festival recommendations….