Tag: festivals

Thee Oh Sees at Berserktown II by David Evanko

Berserktown II: Music Fringe Binge at The Observatory

Danny Baraz August 18, 2015

Last year at around this same time, the first annual Berserktown Festival was in the midst of a filthy, sweaty, hardcore but successful mess at club Los Globos in the Silverlake district of Los Angeles. A harder edged alternative to Echo Park Rising, Berserktown was successful enough for a sequel this year. With ambition in his heart and dollar signs in his eyes, Church on York captain, Graeme Flegenheimer decided to take some risks in an attempt to expand and grow his vision. The result was one of the most interesting festival lineups I have seen in quite some time. It was a buffet of musical delicacies and rarities such as Dead Moon, Royal Trux, Lust for Youth, No Hope for the Kids, Destruction Unit and Total fucking Control. When it was announced that the second annual Berserktown would be held at The Observatory in Orange County I thought to myself, this could either be genius or it could be a disaster- like a football coach deciding to go for it on 4th and inches, late in the game, backed up deep in their end zone. The Church on York venture has been disturbing the music scene’s status quo in

Lolipalooza Reloads for it’s Second Year at The Echo

Danny Baraz June 30, 2015

This time last year, I attended the first annual Lolipalooza at The Echo and The Echoplex. I was blown away by the amount of cool, young bands that are coming to and out of L.A. It’s the most amount of fresh, young new music I’ve seen in this city in my entire lifetime, (I wasn’t around for the late 70’s/early 80’s). In the 365 days that have passed since attending their inaugural event, Lolipop Records have not slowed down one bit. The buildings which house The Echo/Echoplex and Lolipop Records have turned into an incubator of fresh, young talent. In this small corner of Echo Park, bands are discovered, recorded, showcased and packaged, all within a 100 yard radius and are subsequently dispersed throughout the globe to show why Los Angeles is the epicenter for music. Wyatt Blair, owner of Lolipop and accomplished musician saw an immense opportunity and took it upon himself to execute his vision and Los Angeles and indeed, the world are a better place for it. I passed through the gates and through the Echoplex driveway early on in the day. It was muggy and nasty out. The sky opened up a couple times during festival

FYF 2015 Mix and Free Download by DJ Justin Cornwall, Ya Heaarrd??

Danny Baraz May 7, 2015

What did you think about the FYF lineup announcement? Here is a free download and mix of all the artists that are playing FYF 2015 by Justin Cornwall and brought to you by Janky Smooth. n This will help you come to grips with your feelings about the lineup. I was already stoked when the lineup came out but after listening to this mix my stoke was put into context. Love, Janky Smooth BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – I WANT THE WORLD TO STOP DEERHUNTER – HELICOPTER LAURA MARLING – GHOSTS BLOC PARTY – RATCHET BATTLES – ATLAS DEATH GRIPS – I’VE SEEN FOOTAGE BLACK DEVIL DISCO CLUB – TO ARDENT FT. NANCY SINATRA (HORSE MEAT DISCO REMIX) DJ DODGER STADIUM – LOVE SONGS ANDREW JACKSON JIHAD – LOVE IN THE TIME OF HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS FKA TWIGS – WATER ME JOY ORBISON – DONELL NICOLAS JAAR – MI MUJER FRANK OCEAN – LOST HOP ALONG – TIBETAN POP STARS TOBIAS JESSO JR. – HOLLYWOOD THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN – JUST LIKE HONEY LOVE OVER ENTROPY – TONII (DIXON RETOUCH) COLD CAVE – LIFE MAGAZINE CANYONS – SEE BLIND THROUGH (DJ HARVEY REMIX) NEON INDIAN – SHOULD HAVE TAKEN ACID WITH

Desert Daze 2015: The Festival for the 21st Century

Danny Baraz May 5, 2015

It was 4:30am on Saturday morning. I pulled the Janky Smooth RV into a dusty parking lot. I had been driving this carbon spewing behemoth since 1am, after the hour it took to load it up with instruments, sound equipment and beer- The essentials that would push me through a crazy 36 hours in the Mojave Desert for Desert Daze 2015. There were hints of blue shading the dark desert sky at the edge of the horizon that peaked over some sleepy mountains. A sense of dread washed over me at the sight of this beautiful event. It meant I only had a few hours to get a little bit of sleep before setting up the DNA Vapor sponsored, Janky Smooth Jam Lounge in preparation for our open jam after party. I knew I shouldn’t have taken that dab before loading up all that gear. After being led to our lakeside cabana by a sleepy eyed angel named Art, it became clear that we were the first ones to plant our flag in this particular patch of land. By the time I woke up a few hours later, the deserted road I parked our camper on was swarming with

Coachella: No Sense of History in your Hate

Danny Baraz April 23, 2015

Words: Danny Baraz It’s funny how hating Coachella is the cool thing to do now. Every year, almost everyone you know talks trash about the Coachella lineup, patrons and prices and every year the festival sells out two consecutive weekends. Countless articles are written about how the people who attend Coachella are the worst kind of people and other such dick-ish, click bait non-sense yet, almost every music lover you know attends either weekend 1 or 2. The festival commentary is filled with more hate each and every year and the reasons for the hate are as diverse as the musical lineup and the attendees of the festival themselves. I could just as easily make this a standard review about the performances that took place on weekend 2 of the biggest festival in America. I could talk about what an amazing year for hip hop this was- how Run The Jewels steals the show of every festival they play. How standing between the two stages that hosted Lil B and Ab-Soul playing the same time slot revealed a huge discrepancy of talent between the two men. It deepened the Based God mystery to me and why that dude has

Burgerama 4: Burger Food Poisoning

Danny Baraz April 2, 2015

Almost every place in the world now breeds the type of angsty teens that pick up guitars to butcher some out of tune power chords. What is it about Orange County, California that continuously, for the last three generations in a row, forms and re forms these amazing scenes that surround dozens of good local bands? Many bands that eventually rise to international fame or at least, notoriety. Decade after decade the youth of Orange County reject the status quo, vandalize their strip malls, piss in their pools and rock the fuck out. Once the music industry crashed and burned, you would think that those kick-pedal-carrying kids would remain in anonymity in the solitude of their own bedrooms, never to move out of their parents homes. Rising from the smoke and the ash of a music industry unwilling to adapt to the digital age comes Burger Records bearing, of all things, cassette tapes. They are here to service this generations’ insatiable thirst for angst, sex and adolescence. Burger Records was formed in 2007 by Sean Bohrman and Lee Rickard. They allowed all their artists to retain complete control of their works and primarily, all of their releases have been on cassette.

Air + Style Saved by Hard Rain Washing Away the Crowds

Danny Baraz February 24, 2015

Air + Style, the Austrian based travelling snowboard and ski competition/ music festival made it’s first ever stop stateside at The Rose Bowl in Los Angeles this past weekend. The event came off like a karmic disaster for event organizers and attendees alike. Maybe it was the $6 bottles of water or $10 cups of Pabst Blue Ribbon which angered the festival gods enough to have Saturday nights’ headliner, Kendrick Lamar storm off half an hour before the scheduled end of his set, furious over the fact that the festival grade sound system sounded no louder than a car with a booming sound system that had it’s windows rolled up. Or maybe it was Saturday’s hour-long wait to get food, beverage or bladder relief that caused the sky to open up with a torrential downpour on Sunday’s audience of only a couple thousand people. Even though the table was set for Air + Style to be a one of a kind type of event that could thrill and entertain all ages of snow-sport and music enthusiasts, a few logistical and pricing mistakes made Air + Style a dud for everyone involved, including it’s majority owner, Shaun White. The biggest mistake