Tag: flaming lips
Hell or High Roller: Psycho Las Vegas 2021
Rob Shepyer
August 26, 2021
There was a time when for me, going to Psycho Las Vegas meant budgeting only enough money to eat McDonalds for three days while I slept on a friend’s couch in some lawless Vegas neighborhood so far off the strip, Ubers wouldn’t dare travel to such unsavory corners. Now, in the post-pandemic world, I report on Psycho with new purpose. This year, I was staying in a Delano scenic suite high above the city and budgeted enough money to properly chase the American dream. Raoul Duke’s American dream in Hunter Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a metaphor for the limits of human consciousness. With freedom as the central American covenant, what greater expression of patriotism is there than breaking free of reality’s chains by dosing yourself past every threshold? Now though, as I take that same trip as Duke in 2021, my search for the American Dream is a futile attempt to connect with a time long gone. You might assume I mean the world before the pandemic but I also mean that beautiful era in music history where rock and metal bands could draw crowds as far as the eye can see. How do we recover
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The Road to Psycho Las Vegas
Rob Shepyer
June 12, 2021
Later this month, I’ll attend my first indoor concert since March 2020. People will not be wearing masks or social distancing. I’ll have dipped my toes into the cultural soup I’ve swam in the majority of my adult life, relearning all the in’s-and-out’s of concert going. Stage-dives and mosh pits have been relegated to my long term memory banks awaiting to be unearthed. Although most metalheads will be breaking their concert fasts soon (if they haven’t already), Psycho Las Vegas is the spiritual grand re-opening of the metal scene in the wild American west. As the first large festival to take place since the beginning of the pandemic, Psycho is a test much like the ones Hunter S. Thompson indulged in with Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters. Our senses may have been perverted, inverted, dulled and destroyed by lengthy quarantines but our imaginations are in better shape than ever and if I can imagine Psycho Las Vegas being the most insane heavy metal summit of my life, then I can will it into being. related content: A High And Beautiful Wave: Psycho Las Vegas 2019 Before the world shut down, Psycho’s 2020 lineup was one of the most anticipated slates of
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Take This: Win Two Tickets to Desert Daze
Janky Smooth Central Command
September 17, 2019
The time has finally come. The greatest festival of 2019 for Southern Californians is Desert Daze 2019 and we have been chosen by the gods of all psychedelia to bestow two tickets upon a lucky winner. This year’s festival is marked by even more expansion than last year both in magnitude and genre with hip hop legends Wu Tang Clan playing the same lineup as punk rock legends Devo. I for one am most excited about finally seeing the euphoric and climactic moments of the Flaming Lips’ set which will surely be a festival highlight. Other important artists on the lineup are Shinatro Sakamoto playing his first American show, Lightning Bolt, the return of The Locust, and of course, Ween. related content: Virtually No Dust: Desert Daze 2018 YOU CAN BUY TICKETS HERE OR: ENTER TO WIN 2 TICKETS TO DESERT DAZE OCTOBER 10TH-13TH AT MORENO BEACH, LAKE PERRIS, CA Step 1- Join Our Newsletter (look for pop up every time you arrive at jankysmooth.com) Step 2 – Tag a Friend in the comment section of our INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, or FACEBOOK Desert Daze Ticket Giveaway Post WINNER WILL BE SELECTED ON SEPTEMBER 30TH VIA EMAIL CONFIRMATION
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