Tag: fyf

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                    [post_content] => My bones are still rattling and recovering from Capn’ Jazz’s sold out set at The Echo Thursay night. So much so that I limp across the edges of Exposition Park, and marvel at the crowd as I walk into my first FYF fest. The festival has grown dramatically since it’s early days as a showcase for DIY and up and coming local punk acts in 2004. It’s so comfortably warm walking through the LA coliseum on the outskirts circling the festival that I skip my normal routine of stealing water bottles and go straight to the pit.
Related Content: FYF Presents: The Glorious Return of Cap'n Jazz At The Echo
In an impromptu pow wow we map out our weekend and get ready to go watch Badbadnotgood- a band I’ve been following since their second album BBNG2 began getting the well-deserved buzz it received nearly five years ago. The band has carved a niche identity as mainstays in these large festivals.  The crowd sways through their set, flexing their youthful energy that will be gone by day’s end but for now the band invites special guest Denzel Curry onto the stage and finishes the set with people pogoing to Trap Jazz (or whatever the kids will call it soon).  Badbadnotgood have managed to attract that young twenty-something hip hop/beat culture fan that has been well groomed equally by the type of sounds emitting from Low-End Theory to the mushrooming numbers of contemporary jazz journeymen such as Kamasi Washington, Thundercat and the digi-jazz man and Brainfeeder label founder and finder, Flying Lotus in L.A.- and make no mistake- FYF Fest is undeniably L.A.  


			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		

related content: FYF 2015- Surviving Their Own Legacy
We take a break in the shade momentarily, and laugh at the spectacle of stoned teens staring at their festival maps trying to decide who's worth their time and make our way to the main stage to see Bjork’s highly anticipated return to Los Angeles. Accompanied by a small string section and a very composed DJ, Bjork gracefully enters the stage in a rose-like-confetti costume with a lime green mask covering her face. The audience immediately roars but unlike the typical rock-fest crowd, nobody pushes forward.  I would go so far as to say people were still.  Bjork’s set consisted of songs from a three-decade career with highlights including "Stonemilker", "Joga", "Bachelorette" and "Wanderlust", complete with hypnotic visuals displayed on the digital screens behind her. Though Bjork’s fan base and legacy remains massive, their demure applause will be deafened by the uproar and crowd of Missy Elliott, several hours from now.
related content: FYF 2016- Everything You Never Wanted to Know And More...




I leave Bjork and hustle to the Trees Stage area to view Hannibal Buress, a comedian I have been following for over ten years, and someone I have seen both slay and silence aud in very small rooms. I am completely dumbfounded by the lone inclusion of Buress as the only comedian on the festival’s lineup, especially due to the extremely large crowd he drew. There was undeniably both room and a desire for more comedy on the larger stages, and I hope that FYF continues to add more next year. Buress receives howling laughs from the audience, as well as grim moments of awkwardness, especially when he shares a story about his recent funeral attendance and how he plans to release a series of video clips of himself postmortem. He then previews some of these clips to the audience, accompanied by his DJ’s songs and audio clips.



I tend to build up an appetite at these events and I often have to look for ways to keep food going down my gullet.  One of the only negative things I will say about FYF Fest 2017 is that buying food was no spontaneous stop and swallow when some smell would stop me in my tracks- long food lines and fifteen dollar snack plates. However, I did find a Cold Brew loving team at a Poke bowl tent who fed me in trade all weekend.  And when I ran out of coffee to trade my currency changed to Vitamin Water and even offered an exchange rate equal to cold brew.
related content: The Secret Journal of a Pizza Spy at Coachella 2017
We made our way back to the Trees Stage to watch Slowdive whose captivated audience swayed and gazed and whose eyes glazed from a catalog that has spawned over twenty-five years-worth of British Dream Pop. "Alison", "Slowmo" and "Star Roving" kept the crowd satisfied long enough, and their recent single "Sugar for the Pill" echoed through the night, as we watched thousands funnel into sea of people ready for Missy Elliott.


			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		




Before we joined the crowd, I stopped by the Fingerprints of Long Beach record tent, and bumped into my favorite punk frontman, Mr. Ketih Morris, who was taking some time off from the fest to dig Missy Elliott and her large supporting cast.  My memory was jogging throughout Missy Elliott's set.  There were so many songs I knew but hadn't attributed or even know she was a part of. The recent addition to nineties hip hop that is happening around the festival circuit has invigorated a genre that for me had gone sour for some time but seems to be heading into it's next golden era. But still- none of these kids ever had to live through hearing singles such as "Get Ur Freak ON!" and "Ching A Ling", play simultaneously through four different radio stations at the same exact time. Though the performance had technical issues, it was well-received and Elliott demonstrated she still has that energy that helped make her music infectious and a fanbase that have stuck with her since her mega-celebrity presence nearly twenty years ago. The set was shared by the old and the young, and Elliott’s radio hit filled set bridged the crowd together unlike any performer had earlier in the day.



The final set of the evening was from Flying Lotus, whose 3D light show was to debut and did not disappoint the huge swath of cardboard glasses wearing electro and hip hop fans that had saved their drugs all day to enjoy the visuals at their greatest potential. Flying Lotus has been collecting fans in Los Angeles for over ten years and has (mind) expanded across the world for the past couple- both for his own material and for the Brainfeeder record label that is home for many artists that play FYF year after year.  But when it came to HIS set at the festival, Flying Lotus raised the bar with psychedelic optical entertainment, and his tripped out beats fueled the crowd through the end of Day 1 at FYF 2017.




			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		

Note: Some notable sets I regrettably missed this weekend were Oh Sees, Frank Ocean, Anderson Paak, Blonde Redhead, Chicano Batman and many, many more.  Jessica Moncrief and Rob Shepyer were able to catch some of these in image and video.

DAY 2: SATURDAY




I arrived back at FYF early enough on Saturday to catch a glimpse of Thundercat, who I had caught this year at Coachella. Thundercat’s popularity has skyrocketed since releasing his album Drunk this year- making the time he spent as a member of LA punk/crossover thrash legends Suicidal Tendencies a footnote in his career. Thundercat’s jazz-fusion bass guitar licks and G-funk slow jams, have drafted nicely off his collaborations with Kendrick Lamar and Flying Lotus and others too numerous to mention and is to be positioned prominently on the forefront of the trap-jazz scene.

Following Thundercat’s appearance we went to the club stage to watch Princess Nokia before Cap’n Jazz arrived. Princess Nokia was by far the weekend’s most impressive newcomer set at FYF, and was a total surprise for me. Though I had heard P Nokia’s singles over the past year, I had no idea she had the connection to her fans like she did, and the crowd’s energy was stronger there with the kids than any set I witnessed all weekend. When she began playing we watched teens cram into the club stage tent at full speed, as Nokia blasted through songs "Tomboy", "Kitana", "Brujas" and set closer "Dragons" which caused a frenzy among female fans.
Related Content: Low End Theory Festival Wobbles The Shrine Auditorium


Following Nokia’s show, we hung backstage while the crew prepped for Cap'n Jazz. This would be one of the band’s largest attended shows ever- and one of their only LA appearances in nearly twenty years. Though I hoped the show would be equal to Thursday’s performance, I looked around the audience and knew they would never match it. The set was still enjoyed by most, and very appreciated by the crowd of American Football T-shirt wearing fans, but lacked Thursday’s charm and overall vibe. Set highlights were opener "Oh, Messy life", and again "Little League", this time with the band joined by Devendra Banhart. Singer, Tim Kinsella kept the wolves at bay for the bulk of the set but he appeared distracted and at one point gave the mic away for almost the entirety of cover song, "Take on Me". The kids in the crowd who attended the festival solely for this band seemed fulfilled and Kinsella did spend a lot of time in the crowd with his adoring fans. Drummer, Mike Kinsella showcased his talents as well but it didn’t seem like the performance had the cohesiveness that Thursday’s had, despite a much larger audience.



What followed was a lackluster performance from MGMT, whose singles such as "Kids" and "Time to Pretend" still get people excited, yet can’t add a new spark to their set past their winning material from 2007’s Oracular Spectacular. From what I saw, the group fell flat, and no one who I spoke to over the weekend mentioned anything special regarding the performance.

We left MGMT and checked out King Krule’s set, which was laced with punky jazz and darkwave, coupled with saxophones and mellow riffs and would often change to heavy distorted guitars. Krule’s set was entertaining but the energy was low for this time-slot at the festival.


			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		


Following Krule’s performance I attended some of Built to Spill’s set, which played well with the 90's nostalgia much of the youth was hoping to catch but the songs didn’t seem to resonate like many of the other throwback bands on the weekend’s roster. Most of the crowd was compiled of older guys than me in Nine Inch Nails t-shirts and small packs of younger indie fans who were avoiding the electro-centric crowd.

A Tribe Called Quest took the main stage to a roaring applause after a four year absence from an LA festival and they flaunted the continuing dominance of hip hop at FYF. The trio (RIP Phife) provided the crowd with a lyrically flawless rendition of many classics including "Common Ground", "Bonita Applebum" and "Check the Rhyme", inter-spliced with solo career singles such as Q-Tip’s "Vibrant Thing". Their encore’s performance of "Can I Kick It" was one of the weekend’s biggest surprises and best performances.


			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		





related content: The Faint Get Freaky w/ Janky Smooth Sessions Interview


Before I headed to check out Sleep on the Club Stage, I stopped by



The Faint’s set, as they blasted through indie dance punk hits like "Take me to the Hospital", "Agenda Suicide" and "Glass Danse", and kept the audience moving through their 45 minute performance. I didn't realize how much love LA still had for the band and their crowd was truly impressive- dancing and singing with Todd Fink and Dapose. I ended my Saturday watching Sleep, whose sludgy stoner metal buried the swarms of longhairs in the Club Stage as smoke clouds filled the tent. Sleep was an unlikely addition to the festival, as one of the lone metal performers at FYF, but left the crowd deaf wishing there were more like them.
Related Content: Ascending The Holy Mountain: Sleep At The Fonda Theater
DAY 3: SUNDAY




By Sunday my legs were detaching from my body, and I contemplated shaking down a pair of tweaked out looking vagrants for speed to make it through the day’s final stretch. I instead stuck with my Poke Bowl, and went to check out Ty Segall on the Lawn Stage. Segall drew a huge audience and played singles such as "Candy Sam", "The Crawler" and "Finger". The Freedom Band seemed to enjoy playing as loud as their amps could handle and the crowd didn’t complain. Segall has become a mainstay at FYF, and has reached idyllic status as the benchmark for Southern California’s Garage Fuzz Sound.

Following Segall’s set, I continued to the Trees Stage to check out Mac Demarco and his legion of Beach Gothers. His mellow songs kept lovers holding hands and laughing at the banter between him and his band. His performances of "Salad Days" and "Freaking out the Neighborhood" were





Iggy Pop stole the show Sunday, as many knew he would. His set never lost energy and neither did Iggy, often diving off stage to be closer with his fans in the pit. His set was warmly received by one of the festival’s largest crowds and was filled with a songbook of a nearly fifty year career including: "I Wanna be Your Dog", "Gimme Danger", "The Passenger" and "Repo Man". He also played the proto-punk classic "Search and Destroy", and his most commercially celebrated anthem "Lust for Life", which kept the audience dancing for its entirety. Even at his age, Iggy Pop still moves and interacts with the crowd, and shows no signs of slowing down.
Related Content: Burger Boogaloo 2017: The Ballad Of John And Iggy

			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		


Run the Jewels’ performance of RTJ3 material like "Call Ticketron" and insta classics such as"Blockbuster Night" kept the crowd engaged as one of the weekend’s final hip hop performances, and had an extensively diverse crowd, both in age and race in their 3rd straight appearance at FYF.




			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		

related content: Run The Jewels Taking Hip Hop Back at The Echoplex
Nine inch Nails appearance was their first proper LA show in three years, complete with classics such as "The Frail" and their radio dominating single "Closer", as well as classics "Head Like A Hole", "The Hand that Feeds" and "Hurt", which the entire audience wailed in unison with Reznor for the song’s extended duration. Reznor looks healthy and his liveliness is still fascinating as a performer. The band’s fans are some of the most dedicated in modern rock and Reznor still seems connected to developing new music and retaining the intensity people have come to expect from his performances. They were a perfect choice for a headliner this weekend, as they captured the audience’s full attention by packing their set with a mixture of timeless classics and newer material.




			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		


I left the park late Sunday barely standing and snagged a water bottle for the walk to the car, ice cream in hand. FYF has expanded to a rarely achievable status in the sea of festivals jockeying for prominence in the ether, now drawing a lineup of elusive artists who don’t make a habit of touring frequently, as well as a laundry list of must see up & comers who are breaking out of buzz status. FYF’s inclusion of Electro and Hip Hop acts have changed the festival to appeal to multiple scenes of audiences from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and I hope they continue to bring this much of an eclectic array of talent next year. I’d like to see some better set times for some of the veteran bands and artist’s but overall the festival seems destined to remain Los Angeles’s premier Summer music event and rival the increasingly pop music headlined Coachella by showcasing both superstar artist’s and new young talent. I arrived excited for the performances of MGMT, Cap n’ Jazz, and Sleep, and left most impressed by the young hip hop performers, and their connection with their fans. It took 13 years to get me to go to FYF, but I will definitely be in attendance next year.
related content: The Year Coachella Jumped The Shark



			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		



			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		



			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		



			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		



			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		



			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		



			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		




 

Words: Dave Unbuckled

Photos: Jessica Moncrief
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                    [post_content] => The Marked Men are a band of Texan punks from the early 2000's that FYF managed to lasso into a show at the Regent Theater. To some, the news of this show was of the same magnitude as Jawbreaker's upcoming reunion for Riot Fest. The Marked Men's sound is traditional power punk with an unrelenting 3-chord assault reminiscent of bands like The Spits. It's the perfect soundtrack to youthful debauchery and even though the ages of the crowd were mixed from teenagers to geezers, the energy of everyone in the audience was young and crazy when the Marked Men took the stage. It trips me out to think that the 00's were so long ago that bands from that era are considered icons and veterans now. Perhaps I'm getting too old for this shit.
related content: The Spits at Union- Trash and Glamor United in Los Angeles
Flat Worms were the first band to open up this can of worms. They were a speedy and fun power punk trio but as their set progressed their performance started feeling droll- not because of the small early turnout, but because the vocals lacked dynamism and they didn't move with as much spirit as they could have. They were a good lubricating band for the dildo that was the music to come.

As far as I'm concerned, one of the biggest highlights of my night was hearing Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher" play full blast over the speakers before Audacity. Seeing which punks were going crazy and which didn't care for the song really helped me understand who were my people and who's moves were weak.

Fullerton's Audacity is a party/power punk five-piece that often gets the garage label but I consider them too nuanced for that. I think the world of this band's music. Few groups are as in sync together and they probably complete each other's sentences. Their riffs are thick but fast and their songs give you the feeling of winning, perhaps by dirty and degenerate means but in the end, you're the good guy and you get the girl.

Related Content: Midnight Mass 2- Dystopian Themed X-Mas Fest In An LBC Warehouse
I wish this article was all about Royal Headache. This may have been one of the best performances I've seen all year. Hailing from one of the most understated punk haven's in the world, Australia, Royal Headache left every ounce of themselves on stage. I thought they had gone way over time by their finish, thinking perhaps that they were given an extra half-hour. But no, they played 40 minutes and packed in the energy of a 2 hour show.

Some call them garage-punk-core and I would agree with that when it comes to listening to their records but live, I felt like I was watching the best kind of 90's alternative band but with a hardcore ethos. They're a five piece: Vocals, guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards that lay reverie beneath the punk intensity. Their songs are the perfect pub rock. Whatever Australia's version of the Short Stop or the Cha Cha are, those bars are spinning this band. I wish I was drunker for their set but my Jim Beam double did me well. Royal Headache made me wish I knew all their songs so I could be singing along with the die hards that were jumping in the pit.

Their performance had various stages: the singer with his shirt on, with it off, the band under blue and red giallo lighting, and the finale after they kept playing past their time. When u notice a structure like that, you know the band is doing live music right.

Royal Headache has so much variety in their catalogue that they can play uproarious punk or vintage garage or heart-bleeding ballads that could bring a punk to tears. They have songs about needing your girl, partying with your friends, leaving your girl, fighting, being an asshole, drinking, pretty much anything you and your mates could ever want out of a band. They were nothing short of amazing.
related content: Thou Demonstrate the Blackest Doom At The Echo for FYF Club Show
The Marked Men were given the difficult task of following Royal Headache and as cool as their punk rock is, I think they were outshined. They played a powerful set with songs that had every member sharing vocal duties, songs that should set the example of how punk should sound but if you aren't a die hard, you just couldn't identify the memorable moments of their performance. If you drew a wave depicting their set's vibe it would be a flat line on an incline, where as Royal Headache was an inclining line of upward slopes and downward troughs- troughs where the band slowed down and showed nuance, not when they fucked up.


My coldness toward the Marked Men isn't really coldness, it's just awe for Royal Headache and you HAVE to respect a band that is willing to headline after bands that are in the prime of their live shows.
 
Words and Video: Rob Shepyer
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Doom metal only keeps evolving and engrossing the current metal scene, drowning all the lesser genres in the tar pit of its sound and forcing the future icon bands to rise up to the surface. Thou are the inheritors of Louisiana's rich sludge-metal heritage and they take that sound to a place no doom band has ever taken it before. With ten minute songs that feel like hell itself, Thou blends doom and black metal into a sound that brings together doom and stoner fans, black metal fans, noise fans, and grindcore fans.

When a promoter like FYF Presents gives you the blessing of playing a show under their banner, you know you're part of a brewing musical storm, if not the whole storm. But for a band as brutal and against the grain as Thou to be awarded that blessing at The Echo just 5 days before their annual festival, it's indicative of how mainstream tastes are being pushed into a very extreme corner and FYF, at the center of it all has helped to move the status quo- even while being criticized for softening and being "less punk" themselves in the way that they book the festival.  Poppycock.
related content: Janky Smooth Presents: FYF Janky Mixtape III & Download For 2017
The bill began with Cloud Rat, a grind band from Detroit, Michigan. What separates these mental and emotional ravagers from the rest are the mathcore and jazz elements that play underneath the grind. Their frantic and frenzied sound is spearheaded by blitzkrieg babe Madison on vocals. She rips through various vocal ranges that make this bass-less trio sound as pummeling as the streets of Detroit. With as much love for anarcho as grind, one of their songs played the Subhumans' "No" as an intro.
related content: Subhumans on Sunset: young, Old, Punks, Posers Pay Homage at Los Globos





UK band, Moloch, took the evening into doom/death-doom/blackened-doom. Slow and churning, every fuzzy, droning note slowly descended us down the circles of hell. The band distorts and feedbacks noise in between their slow, heavy riffs to create songs with jagged edges. The singer screams like an actual demon which urges me to breakdown the different vocal style within extreme metal. The higher pitch of black metal vocals spawn the idea of some kind of demon singing the lyrics, a demon with a bleeding throat, maybe... Death metal on the other hand, sounds like a much fatter, grizzlier monster, not a demon per-say, but a destroyer.



From grind to doom to black metal, False was the second band to front a female singer. By the sound of the band, you'd imagine they were all covered in corpse paint and animal bones but when you see the band they look like a harder edged metal band with a singer you could introduce to your parents. The Minneapolis sextet played with American and traditional black metal style, utilizing frosty, medieval sounding riffs.


related content: 1 Fest-Los Angeles at Los Globos: Noise As Music As Force Is Farce






Graf Orlock is a grindcore anomaly of sorts, something different and special and strange. The first time I had seen them was opening for Horse The Band at Union and even though they played early on the bill, they shined brightly to everyone that bore witness.





			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		



related content: Risking Life and Limb to Cover Horse The Band At Union Los Angeles
Each Graf Orlock song begins with a sampled voice-over intro to give the whole set the gestalt of satire, even though their insanity is no laughing matter but rather, a matter of life and death. No one matches this kind of intensity these days and the band's synergy together is something to behold and be inspired by. The drumming was vicious, the guitarist who also sang back-up vocals was always on point and brutal, and the singer was an absolute madman, letting some schizophrenic flow in his mind pull the strings on his stage antics, leading him to stretch every limb and surf every inch of crowd.









Once the speed and brutality of Graf Orlock had settled, Thou came on stage to slow things down to the pace of a God-denouncing, church-burning snail. Their music is a state of perpetual descending, down to where? No one knows, there is certainly no evidence of a bottom. By the end of their set, Thou's Doominance discharged Doomarrhea upon us all.




Keeping his back toward the audience for the majority of the performance, Bryan Funck's vocal style is too pained and intense for him to show his face to the audience the entire set. Beneath those vocals is a style of metal that is experimental, noisy, and brutal, mixing the atmosphere of black and the slow, brooding pace of doom metal. This set saw Thou playing new material and revisiting their back catalogue, going backward into their albums with every song.

related content: Pallbearer And Gatecreeper Remind Us - Guitar Solos Matter
Much of Thou's current sound is a result of collaborating with The Body on the album "Released From Love/You, Whom I Have Always Hated ". Having their sound tempered by that experience into a rusty, crude, and killing steel, Thou incorporates noise rock elements into their music. What I found interesting to learn about Thou was the anarchist sentiments they hold in both lyrics and the DIY style of their performing and touring. They closed their set going as far back into their catalogue as returning to the very creators of doom metal, who just happen to have created metal in general. Black Sabbath's "Into The Void" never sounded so grizzled and visceral and with it, Thou closed the casket on their L.A. set, letting us loose into the night.





 





Words: Rob Shepyer


Photos: Dillon Vaughn


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It’s hard to believe FYF is just around the corner- again. It feels like yesterday I was stumbling out of the downtown Metrolink station, asking a stranger with a festival wristband on for a ride home (gas money included, of course) because my phone was completely dead. After getting enough power in my phone from home, proceeding to the Lyft waiting outside my door to the filthy Overpass where I watched Father John Misty saucily put moves on any girl who would look at him... oh, and of course, THREE YEARS SINCE MY FIRST FYF MIXTAPE FOR JANKY SMOOTH?  Jesus fuckin Christ, where does the time go?
Stream The Janky Smooth FYF Mixtape III Now
related content: Janky Smooth Presents- FYF 2016 Preview & Mixtape




FYF has always been one of my favorite parties of the year and I’ve been attending for almost 10 years in a row. I’ve worked the festival, snuck in, bought tickets an hour before deciding to go – it’s a world class event in our own backyard. The recurring acts on the lineup are like distant relatives I get to reconnect with every year. The headliners jump out of my old iTunes library and onto the top billed lines. Electronic, rap, rock and the sticky stuff in-between, these bookers kill it every single year. The dust gets kicked up, the drugs kick in and the dancing never stops. From the modest beginnings of East Sunset Blvd clubs, to the scaling of Sean Carlson's dream at LA Historic Park to the massive migration and the growing pains of moving to Exposition Park, FYF survived and thrived while even the L.A. Sports Arena met it's demise through that time.  Each location is artfully mapped out and logistical issues handled with the music fan in mind, sending the unmistakeable message that this is the people’s festival.


			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		

related content: FYF 2016- Everything You Never Wanted to Know & More...
I had the pleasure of putting together another FYF fest mixtape for Janky Smooth – but this year we trimmed the fat instead of including the entire lineup. Danny B and I collaborated on a playlist – he picked most and left me to my own devices on some of the 20 hand picked artists, to get you pumped and familiar with some of the best acts on there. See you out there!
related content: FYF 2015- Surviving Their Own Legacy

Stream Janky Smooth FYF Mixtape III
Download Janky Smooth FYF Mixtape III by DJ Justin Cornwall







              Track Listing


 	
1 Award Tour by A Tribe Called Quest
 	
2 Carry The Zero by Built To Spill
 	
3 You're the Doctor by Ty Segall
 	
4 Let's Go Surfing by The Drums
 	
5 Told You I'd Be with the Guys by Cherry Glazerr
 	
6 Passed You By by Chicano Batman
 	
7 Hunter by Björk
 	
8 Neptune Estate by King Krule
 	
9 TheRightThing by Kirk Knight
 	
10 Captain Stupido by Thundercat
 	
11 Oh Messy Life by Cap'n Jazz
 	
12 Call Ticketron by Run The Jewels
 	
13 Desperate Guys by The Faint
 	
14 Sierra Leone by Frank Ocean
 	
15 Sin by Nine Inch Nails
 	
16 Gimme Danger by Iggy & the Stooges
 	
17 HI-FIVE by Angel Olsen
 	
18 Turned Out Light by Oh Sees
 	
19 Star Roving by Slowdive
 	
20 Khmlwugh by Homeshake
 	
21 Holy Mountain by Sleep





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If art imitates life then isn’t a local music or art scene the most accurate reflection of life in that city? The sound of the music and the meaning of the lyrics, the images created by the brush and the musings, whether etched in pencil or poked in on a keyboard, all are inspired by an artists’ surroundings- and the crowd that supports it represents that the artist has connected with the collective experience; something true and authentic. And if you can accept that premise then you can also accept that Sean Carlson’s once fledgling music festival, Fuck Yeah Fest, continues to represent and imitate life in Los Angeles. FYF 2016 has gone from the twinkle in the eye of a dreamer to the crown jewel of Goldenvoice in Los Angeles. Wait, what’s that you say? You hate festivals? Oh, you hate on Los Angeles too? How original. I understand you spent those 6 months living in Chatsworth and Ubering to auditions and that spending all your time around low level industry wannabes has skewed your perception of the landscape and the denizens of my city. People often project all their shortcomings, failures and low self esteem onto the city of Los Angeles because it’s the place in which their dreams died or they picked the wrong part to live in this expansive city of never ending districts. And certainly, the same can be said of a music festival that continues to scale year after year. But there are millions of people in L.A. that have ZERO to do with the entertainment industry and with FYF, it’s a matter of seeing the forest for the Trees Stage.


related content: FYF 2015: Surviving Their Own Legacy
Yet another FYF Fest is in the books and I would find it difficult to point out another festival of it’s size that cares about making attendees happy as much as Sean Carlson and crew do. Not only that but this year’s lineup connected the dots of bringing big names to big stages but also managed to remain true to it’s original purpose of showcasing the greatest music scene in the country and right now, FYF and L.A. are both the belle of the ball. Now did the lineup make everyone happy? Of course not- Super fans can always say there wasn’t enough punk rock or there wasn’t enough EDM or metal but FYF was never concerned with making EVERYONE happy. Like most galleries, venues and open mic nights, it was meant for Just those who connect with what they curate and the thing that made me most proud of my city was the size of the Rock and Roll crowds for the more indie sized bands like Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and The Black Lips.



It’s not that I couldn’t come up with a list of issues I could cite to highlight the areas in which they fell short this year. Much like Los Angeles itself, the price has become restrictive and many active, local scene kids have been displaced by a more well heeled patron. But other than logistical issues that seemed geared towards influencing more VIP ticket sales next year, the people who organize FYF seem more concerned with fan fun that any other major festival I’ve attended.

FYF started out as a bunch of obscure and local bands playing small clubs in Echo Park. It rose to festival glory in a relatively unknown, dusty park in Chinatown where I once saw Thee Oh Sees, Death Grips, The Locust, Black Flag and The Melvins all play the same stage, one after another. With all that street cred, the ascension of the festival into the upper echelon of massive musical undertakings has been handled with as much grace and care as possible for a huge business venture attempting to cater to the 10’s of thousands of people that attend the festival every year. I don’t think most people noticed all the micro gestures that were made for a macro undertaking like FYF. From security guards handing out waters as people entered the line to get in on day 1, to letting people in through side gates that weren’t meant to serve as an entrance, just to thin out the critical mass of building angst amongst attendees standing in line who were about to miss a band they wanted to see. The truth is that an opinionated ass like me who has attended MOST FYF’s can be easily disappointed, as I was when the event moved to Exposition Park, but as a lifelong Angeleno that doles out as much criticism of LA as praise, I'm proud to call this “our festival”. Let’s enjoy it while it lasts because eventually, all great festivals turn into vapid, mainstream celebrity-stalking clusterfucks but at this moment, FYF seems to be at the height of it’s run.

FYF tinkered with the layout of the stages as it has every year since it moved the festival to Exposition Park. It was obvious that this needed to be done since one of them stages called the L.A. Sports Arena is set to be demolished to make way for a new soccer stadium, of all things. So they added the "Club Stage", refined the "Woods"  stage where the club vibe was and added a small village that included a pop up House of Vans tent that was arts and crafts heaven.  House of Vans HOOKED me up with a free pair of custom vans that I just ordered now online and a choice of 4 tote bags that had drawings of our recently fallen brothers; Bowie, Lemmy, Prince and Phife.  I chose Lemmy but now have a bit of Bowie envy.  But the most solid move of the Main Stage area to a right angle from the previously isolated Lawn Stage made navigating lineup wish lists much more realistic than the dead end street that led to the “Lawn” in previous years.

The magic of any festival is in it’s lineup, though. A lineup is such a delicate balance. One thing can throw the entire thing off. Frank Ocean (born in Long Beach) was the single name I was most excited for at last year’s FYF and while most people would be entirely happy with Kanye as his replacement, true music snobs saw the sacrifice that occurred to the balance of the 2015 lineup. It would’ve been like Kendrick Lamar being replaced by Beyonce or Jay-Z. 90% of those in attendance would’ve been happy or high enough not to care about that thing they were really looking forward to being removed at the last minute but some want to bear witness to legends being made, not just the well established and widely adored collecting another fat paycheck on their way down fame mountain. And yes, this year we watched the ascension of KDot unto the throne of Rap while his predecessors were busy watching something else.
related content: It's Better Than Drake: Kanye Becomes Filler at FYF Fest
I used to look at Kendrick Lamar much like I looked at LeBron James. They called LeBron, “King James” before he ever even scored a point in the NBA just like critics called Lamar the future of hip hop before he had even dropped one full length album. Besides, Tupac and Biggie get props and what Ice Cube did on his first few records is completely underrated but I’ve seen obscure battle rappers that would eat Kanye’s lyrical lunch so for me, the argument of “greatest ever” always expanded beyond just rappers that had gold records- or the decade of the 90’s, for that matter (I see you Rakim and KRS-1). Now that Kendrick has a body of work under his heavyweight belt for which to be judged on, he is the undisputed, reigning champion of record industry rap. His mind blowing performance at The Grammy’s this year showed me that when everything is said and done in the career of Kendrick Lamar, he will go down as the best rapper in the mainstream.



Saturday is the first time I had seen Kendrick Lamar live and a festival isn’t always an ideal place to judge someone on their performance but he has “it” and “it” is what allows a performer to completely control the stage; no matter how big it is. He spit rhymes on beats, rhymes with his band and a capella raps. He brought Jay Rock and Isaiah Rashad out during his set which included 22 songs off To Pimp a Butterfly, m.A.A.d. City and the juxtaposition of having projections of Kendrick’s eyes on the massive screens, scanning all of L.A. with intermittent flashes of Ronald Reagan and Bill O’Reilly, among others.



Saturday also highlighted more fast rising L.A. rappers like Boogie and Vince Staples. Staples has been making the festival rounds for more than a year now and seems like he is on every lineup I see, nowadays. But it’s not hype. Kid gets down and he knows how to bring the heat live. I’ve seen him do smaller clubs like El Rey and festival stages from Outside Lands to FYF. He dropped his brand new EP, Prima Donna just last week and performed a couple tracks this past weekend including the song “War Ready” which gave me chills because I heard the future of hip hop. The production of the hook in the beat is all underground club banger and the verse is cypher style lyricism. There were a couple different moments in the verse that seemed like Staples really let go and channeled his rage because his voice was more gravely than usual. He actually sounded like MCA at couple different points in the verse. The second time it happened it blew my mind. I put the track on the next day and it doesn’t sound like that at all in studio but it’s just a hallmark of a great performer.

I had planned to split time between Head Wound City and Vince Staples since their sets overlapped and I have seen both of them on multiple occasions in the past year. But something happened to me during this weekend that I don’t think has ever happened before. I was unable to pull myself away from a moment to go experience another moment. It happened to me on both days. It happened to me with Shellac vs Grimes. It happened to me with Peter, Bjorn and John of all bands. It happened to me with Black Lips vs Father John Misty. It happened to me with Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats, (although I was able to catch the last 20 mins of Charles Bradley). It happened to me with Beach House vs Young Thug . It happened to me with Air vs Ty Segall and The Muggers; my biggest conflict on the schedule even though Ty Segall plays a secret show in L.A. it seems like once a month but I might not ever get a chance to see Air ever again. And I regretted nothing. No FOMO. No sense of loss.

Tame Impala’s first two albums might’ve been two of my favorites of the past few years. And even though it felt like I might’ve been the only Tame Impala fan in America to publicly rip Currents in print, their gig at Hollywood Forever Cemetery last year in support of that album was exceptional. Since then, the album hasn’t grown on me much aside from the 7 minute saga of “Let It Happen” and I fear that Lady Gaga’s brief appearance and concert equivalent of a photo bomb during Tame Impala’s Saturday night set, along with news of her and Kevin Parker’s collaboration signals the end of the Tame Impala that I love. That didn’t stop me from being incredibly moved when the band opened their show with “Let It Happen”, rolled directly into Mind Mischief and then proceeded to piss me the fuck off by playing only half of “Music to Walk Home By”. They made up for it quickly by unleashing the only song they played all night off the Inner Speaker album, “Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind”. It wasn’t until then that they played just their second song off Currents, “The Moment”. There were some things about the production which incorporated new plugins, effects and pedals that made the sound incredibly lush and expansive but when they worked an 808 into "Apocalypse Dreams", it completely drowned out the entire dynamics of a song that has moved me so much that I use it as my alarm every single morning. I love fat, bottom end bass and I’ve loved Tame Impala but the two don’t mix. At least not in the ways they used the two on Saturday night.


related content: Tame Impala: Tie Dye In The Sky At Hollywood Forever Cemetery 
I drowned my sorrow in Bud Light on tap, split time between Hot Chip and Wolf Parade and finished Saturday night with Mr. Kendrick Lamar.

Sunday started with an epic fail as I missed seeing one of the acts I was most curious about, Banks and Steelz- the collaboration between RZA and Interpol’s Paul Banks. I also missed Denzel Curry, dream pop outfit Wild Nothing, Blood Orange and the fearful of confrontation band once known as Viet Cong, now Preoccupations (isn’t rock and roll all about confrontation?). This felt like a heavy loss of quality musical experiences. Yet another thing that sets FYF apart from other major festivals I attended this year such as Outside Lands is the quality of the bands in “small print” because I DID make it in time for Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats who played the brand new “Club Stage” and that’s when my heart once again swelled with pride for my city because everyone else at the festival seemed to make it to that set too.
related content: Headliners Rule at Outside Lands
Uncle Acid aren’t your run of the mill psych rock band that is so prominent in L.A. right now- not that I dislike the genre. They are a sludgy, bluesy, distorted prototype of soul selling Sabbath-esque rock and roll. And the turnout to their set confirms that Los Angeles is welcoming rock and roll back into it’s warm embrace outside of it’s many, small safe houses in the city. And booking a band that played the doom metal, sludge, psych rock fest called Psycho Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel just the day before helps FYF keep the street cred that was called into question over the past couple years. I was able to catch Uncle Acid’s entire set and still catch 20 minutes of Charles Bradley who made me cry with his soulful cover of Black Sabbath’s “Changes” for yet another ode to rock and roll.

And that trend continued onto the Trees Stage a bit later in the evening when The Black Lips caused a ruckus and kicked up the dust that causes those music festival dirt boogers that I had managed to avoid altogether during this FYF. I love you and fuck you. I wasn’t crazy about the Black Lips set list but they sounded incredible. In fact, the sound at The Trees stage this year might’ve been the best festival sound I’ve ever heard. The’ve added some new compression that really separates each instrument and it honestly might’ve been the most dialed in set I’ve ever heard the Black Lips play, who have a reputation for playing as loud as possible.  It was also the first time I've seen the Black Lips play in which none of them puked on stage.
related content: Ariel Pink and Black Lips Bend Minds at Teragram Ballroom
I realized on Sunday that I have some kind of psychological block against Mac DeMarco that prevents me from ever catching one of his festival sets in the case that I am somehow drawn in by his teeny bob, indie pop. I really had ever intention of catching a part of his set but got stuck at the much buzzed about set of Anohni, whom I didn’t really connect with either. But the disconnect I had during those two sets prepped me for the Grace Jones experience that I had no clue would move me so much. I didn’t particularly like her music as a kid in the 80’s and never really revisited it since but not only is she a top icon of an unusual decade like the 80’s but her musical performance at FYF left an unforgettable impression of showmanship and imagery. The songs summoned a time which swaddled my inner child and Grace Jones put on a performance clinic of epic proportions.



Onto the mesmerizing live performance of Beach House at The Trees stage where the band has embedded themselves into my consciousness ever since. It’s incredible how Beach House is able to transcend the simplicity and robotic feel of the cold drum loops that are the skeletons of almost all their songs and the simple yet tasteful tones of Alex Scally’s guitar licks create a lush compliment to the layers of Victoria LeGrand’s organ, keyboard bass and haunting vocals. Beach House were the perfect, brooding pit stop to transition to festival closers, LCD Soundsystem.



Someone told me the other day that LCD Soundsystem used to travel with a spare disco ball that is smaller in size to the massive boulder of mirrors of reflecting light that typically adorns big festival stages. That way, they would never be without their disco ball when playing smaller venues where the massive, internationally recognized symbol of party people wouldn’t fit. Can you imagine the type of fun LCD Soundsystem had at the peak of their popularity? Aside from the stereo typical pretentiousness that is associated with artists that originate from the snooty and snobby heir of superiority of that classic New York that doesn’t even exist anymore, the beautiful and above average intellect of the LCD Soundsystem fan base is the pitch perfect prototype of your more sophisticated druggee. I have reviewed LCD and the noteworthy reunion which started in Pomona, California a couple weeks before their big Coachella payday and continued through the summer and into my first Outside Lands experience this year and right into the final stretch that is near conclusion at FYF this past weekend. Once again LCD Soundsystem proved that they haven’t missed a beat since their hiatus and that even with all the new options available and that they do also leverage in concert lighting, there are few new technologies that can dethrone the disco ball as the preferred visual marvel of party people worldwide. They are the perfect festival closers and they are their reunion comeback shows are what you hope for from bands that have passed the pinnacle of their careers. But who knows? They are writing and recording new music again so let’s hope they don’t fuck this up.
related content: LCD Soundsystem Skirt City of Los Angeles in Return to West Coast

			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		


As Steve Albini stated during one of his typical rants during the song, “The End of Radio”, “I apologize for all of Radio. Except Vin Scully. All of Radio except Vin Scully”. Go L.A. Go Dodgers and Go FYF. You make our city proud.

Photos: Josh Allen Words: Danny Baraz


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                    [post_content] => It's that time of year again in L.A.  FYF is OUR festival and the evolution of a fledgling, independent, local event in Echo Park called Fuck Yeah Fest organized by some local scene kid named Sean Carlson, has transformed into a world class festival with world class talent in a world class setting in Exposition Park.  To all our faithful fans and haters; please enjoy streaming or downloading our annual FYF 2016 mixtape by DJ Justin Cornwall and festival preview by our very own wordsmith, Brent Smith.

Love,

The Jankiest, Danny Baraz


 



It’s 2016. Bowie and Prince are dead. Reality T.V. has assimilated the political sphere, summer fires are stoked and well-fed, and trigger fingers seem itchier than ever. This is Fuck Yeah Fest’s moment. On August 27 and 28, FYF looks to put on a hell of a clinic, going with moxie over showmanship. Headliners feature Kendrick Lamar, Tame Impala, LCD Soundsystem and Grace Jones—four acts that inhabit a paradoxical interzone between indie and mainstream.

FYF has all the cred of Coachella or EDC without the obnoxious baggage or neon-gaudy self-importance. FYF’s reputation now is one of coveted, cunning formidability; like a million-person kill count it’s almost too big to conceive. How else could you get Kanye West to headline last minute for Frank Ocean at FYF 2015? It’s come a long way from its Echo days, having only grown at L.A. Historic Park, and now come into its own, anchored in Exposition Park among the shadows casted by the Coliseum torch—a new ritual spark in the last days of summer before the days get shorter, nights grow longer (and we all look forward to Desert Daze sshhh don’t tell the others).



Will FYF provide much-needed solace from our current social/political/spiritual malaise, or will it be some ugly reflection of it, riddled with unforeseen logistical nightmares, pulsing with spiteful political fervor, and magnified within a rectangular area bounded between Vermont and the 110?



Though with this year’s lineup, it’s hard not to be optimistic. It’s definitely a bill with bite, a good balance between David and Goliath curated from all dark corners of the indie scene, not just in L.A., but worldwide. FYF’s small print bands include Black Lips, Beach House, Chelsea Wolfe, Grimes, Kelela, and those with new tunes in 2016 like Ty Segall & the Muggers, Young Thug, Head Wound City, Blood Orange, and DIIV, making for an ambitious intersection of rock, rap, R&B, electronic and everything in between (that hopefully isn’t trying too hard to please everyone).

I pondered whether FYF would be solace from our current woes or ugly reflection, but I know better than to ask either/or questions. No doubt it’ll serve as great escape for a cruel, bright summer, a trapdoor into a darkly indie dimension, but don’t be surprised by any topical overtones from the outside world, i.e. Father John Misty’s notorious trolling, Anohni’s recent “Drone Bomb Me,” and of course L.A.’s own Kendrick Lamar, whose talent (not only inspired Bowie’s swan song Blackstar, but) made both a Reebok endorsement and a gig playing POTUS’s 55th birthday look the opposite of lame.

Grace Jones is killing it at age 67, as those who were at Afropunk Brooklyn can attest, and the only artist who could make me stoked on disco. It shouldn’t matter that her last album Hurricane came out in 2008 (“Corporate Cannibal” didn’t get enough play), she’s officially deified as ultimate actor/musician/supermodel crossover and overall badass (fun facts: she played an Amazonian Bond villain in A View to Kill and had Dolph Lundgren working as her personal bodyguard before he hit it big.) Known BFF to Andy Warhol, she was no stranger to partying. She had her baby shower in 1979 at the Garage disco in NY with an A-list guestlist (when she was pregnant with her son Paulo Goude), and her first time taking ecstasy was with Timothy Leary. In her 2015 memoir, I’ll Never Write My Memoirs, she cleared up a few preferences, “Coke was never my drug, although there are some who might be surprised by that. By being so closely associated with Studio 54, the assumption is that I was a complete cocaine fiend. If I had taken as much cocaine as it is rumored, I wouldn’t have a nose. Actually, I preferred to put a rock up my ass rather than snort it.” Basically what I’m trying to say is that it seems impossible for a Grace Jones set to not be epic (and that my friends complaining about ‘being old’ because they’re pushing 30 need to shut the fuck up already).



LCD Soundsystem is coming off of a five-year hiatus with a new album that I’m sure many are anticipating, especially when they’re coming off of the high at Outside Lands; and when it comes to Tame Impala, like it or not, it doesn’t really get any bigger in the current revived eon of psych rock.

What’s great about FYF is that there’s still a relatively merciful day pass ($125; Saturday is already sold out). Its $219 two-day pass is redeemed only by a lineup bursting at the seams with dark energy. Grooving and moshing are inevitable.

Stay hot, fest-frenzied (and job-free), L.A.

Connect with DJ Justin Cornwall:
http://www.facebook.com/justincornwall.dj
http://soundcloud.com/jstin
http://www.instagram.com/what_justin/
FYF 2016 Mixtape Track List
Denzel Curry - Knotty Head
ANOHNI - 4 Degrees 
Mac DeMarco - Passing Out Pieces 
Grimes - Genesis
Head Wound City - Scraper
Jagwar Ma - What Love
Vince Staples - Nate Feat. James Fauntleroy
Boogie - Man Down
Charles Bradley - Stay Away
Gold Panda - You
Alex G - Brite Boy
Todd Terje - Preben Goes To Acapulco (Single Edit)
Saves The Day - At Your Funeral
Kamaiyah - How Does It Feel
air - cherry blossom girl
DIIV - Under The Sun
Preoccupations - Degraded
KELELA - The High
Ty Segall - You Make the Sun Fry
SHEER MAG - Can't Stop Fighting
Banks & Steelz - Giant
Explosions In The Sky - Trembling Hands
Shellac - Prayer To God
Julien Baker - Something
Wild Nothing - Shadow
Peter, Bjorn & John - It Don't Move Me
Andy Stott - Selfish
Grace Jones - I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango)
LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations
Chelsea Wolfe - After The Fall
Floating Points - Nespole
Rae Sremmurd - No Type
Museum Of Love - In Infancy
Body Language - Falling Out (Honey Soundsystem Remix)
Tame Impala - Elephant
Hop Along - Tibetan Pop Stars.mp3
The Black Madonna - We Can Never Be Apart
Bicep - Just
Hot Chip - Over and Over
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - I'll Cut You Down
Blood Orange - You're Not Good Enough
Junior Boys - In The Morning
Beach House - Norway
Young Thug - Pacifier
Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
Benjamin Ball - Flash A Flashlight (Gerd Janson Vocal Mix)
Wolf Parade - What Did My Lover Say_ (It Always Had To Go This Way)
Corbin - Worn.mp3
Father John Misty - True Affection
Julia Holter - In The Same Room
Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta
Classixx - Bird Of Prey (Ft. Joe Keefe)
Black Lips - Bad Kids
Moby - Honey
                    [post_title] => Janky Smooth Presents: FYF 2016 Preview And Janky Mixtape
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We here at Janky Smooth love the Sacramento born experimental hip-hop outfit Death Grips. We love that they announced their break up on a coffee diner napkin back in 2014. We also love that they announce an extensive world tour just a few months after that stunt. We just love that they don't really give a fuck, and they don't have to write a song to tell us all about how very little fucks they give, they show us. They do everything a band should not do and yet they have one of the most loyal fan-bases in arguably the most obscure genre right now. They play to this role very well, not just with their music but with their attitude towards the big machine us simple minded individuals know as the music industry.



Their latest puzzle - The I.L.Y.'s -is a Death Grips side project consisting of Death Grips’ very own Zach Hill on vocals, Andy Morin on production, and Tera Melos’ Nick Reinhardt on guitar. 'Scum With Boundaries', The I.L.Y.'s second album, was released via a post on Death Grips' Facebook page. They kindly warned us of the release 2 hours before they dropped us this heavy hitter on their Facebook time-line as well.
Screenshots:






 

The 11 track, 40 minute album dropped out of nowhere,  just like their last. I think that we are probably going to see a few more later this year, or not. They might just break up and announce an intergalactic tour a few months after, you never really know with Death Grips.

Track List:
01 Disastrous Looks
02 Peace and Quiet
03 Stop Yelling in the Museum
04 Starts with a C ends with a U
05 She's a Genius
06 Hey Mind Reader
07 Doing Things That Artists Do
08 Scum with Boundaries
09 Roll Your Eyes
10 I'm Gonna Have Sex
11 Spiral to Me

Listen on Youtube or Download the entire stream for free on Soundcloud.

 

Words by Johann A. Ramos.
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By Danny Baraz

Death Grips are like that beautiful woman that won’t fuck you. The more she says no, the more you want her. At some point, (if you have any self respect at all), you must decide you can’t love a girl who won’t love you back. You stop texting her. You stop calling her. You stop liking all her posts on IG. When that happens, she has to decide how she really feels about you and lay all games aside. This is a defining moment in the relationship between two people. I personally prefer crazy women but not too crazy- intellectual, complicated and unpredictable women who aren’t like anyone else. Those also happen to be my criteria for musicians and artists. Death Grips were the perfect girl. I had never met anyone like her. Her relationship with the world was almost satirical. Over the years, I have watched her stand other guys up with bemusement and curiosity. I have seen her defy her bosses at work. I have seen her “give away the milk for free”. I have seen her thumb her nose at fame. Sure, she seemed crazier than most but I’m not the trophy wife type. I don’t give a shit what other people think about my girl.


I was a huge fan of how the Death Grips handled their popularity. The anticipation of seeing them live for the first time at FYF in 2013 was palpable. The 50/50 chance that they wouldn’t show up for that gig made it twice as orgasmic when they did. They were amazing and now that I had gotten a taste, I just wanted to see her all the time. The thought of seeing them open a show for Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden was strange and exciting but there was the very real chance that seeing them in that setting would completely turn me off. When she stood ME up for the first time, I started to feel differently about the whole thing. 2 days before my birthday on July 2nd 2014, they wrote a Dear John letter on a napkin and posted it on their Facebook page. I was done. What seemed like such a punk rock approach to thumbing their nose at corporate music started to seem like publicity stunts and a total disrespect for their fans and business associates. The latter could be forgiven and forgotten and even respected, to some degree but the former could not.



But love is love, even in an abusive relationship. When you realize that the woman you love is NEVER going to treat you right, it’s not like you can just turn the switch off. 4 months after receiving the breakup letter, she came calling in October. Since then, she’s been pouring it on. The promise of Jenny Death, the second installment of The Powers That B double record was finally fulfilled in March of this year after much teasing and game playing. Also in March, a tour was announced and she was back in my life like nothing had ever happened. No explanation. No excuses. No apologies.



What is it about Death Grips that not only attracts me to them but allows such rampant disregard for my needs? Outside of the innovation and raw power and culture of the music, it is the unknown that shrouds the band in such mystery and desire. With Hill and Morin (Flatlander) releasing music under the moniker “The I.L.Y.’s” in June, I was starting to think that “the issue” is with M.C. Ride. His lyrical and vocal style suggests a deeply tortured individual that is plagued by the shackles of society, which is only exacerbated by expectations of the legions of disenfranchised youth that worship him and the Death Grips. That somehow, if they had actually gone on tour with Soundgarden and NIN, the mystery, suffering and torment would all be for naught. That some blogger out of L.A. speculating on his motives and dissecting the recent performances that have been witnessed by so many, trivializes the suffering and the blood, sweat and tears that has molded this uniquely original persona. That I may suggest that it’s all an act for publicity completely undermines what the Death Grips are all about. Or does it? I don’t fucking know anymore.

All I have wanted to do since I first saw them live in 2013 is to see them live again. Now that I’ve seen them twice in one week and total of 3 times, I have a concrete opinion of their performances. What works and what doesn’t work. Why their headlining show at The Glass House earlier this week was nowhere near as powerful as the two times I’ve seen them at FYF. And as I type this out, I feel like I’m beginning to understand what might be one of the motives behind all the games and back and forth the band has put fans and critics through the last couple years. Now that I’m able to give an opinion based on fact, rather than speculation, it is almost like they are no different than any other band and I think that might be what they were trying to avoid.

Their set at FYF this past weekend was the most buzzed about set I can remember in a long time- both before AND after. One thing I noticed over the last year is that people who would never have liked the Death Grips are suddenly super fans. People whose favorite band is Mumford and Sons. You fucking second rate hipsters better stay away from my Death Grips. I can almost guarantee that all the manic behavior can be attributed to this- they don’t want some 50 year old Soundgarden fan chanting “I’m in your areaaa”.



The Death Grips set at FYF was scheduled for exactly 9:05. The Death Grips took the stage at 8:59. The band proceeded to butt fuck the festival for 56 minutes. Huge plumes of dust and dirt kicked up by dancing demons floated above fans for the entirety of their time on stage. MC Ride’s tortured bellows of anger and sadness rang out across Exposition Park. He flailed his arms with his signature waving wings, conjuring violence in the crowd like some twisted wizard. Flatlander was bouncing up and down in front of his console as he manifested and triggered all the electronic dissonance he has created since 2010. It didn’t take long for Zach Hill to transform into a dripping mess of sweat and hair as he pounded on his drum kit like a muppet having a bad acid trip. It was by far the craziest I have ever seen an FYF crowd. I couldn’t help but laugh as I remembered Earl Sweatshirts set from 2014 and how he berated the audience and the festival for being so passive. Earl shouldn’t have felt bad or so angry since that is was the status quo for an FYF crowd. There is something about my girl that unleashes all the angst inside when she sings her song. One thing that bummed me out, but only a little is that they only played one song off the newest, double album- Inanimate Sensation.


I left the last day of FYF already obsessing on the Death Grips sold out show at The Glass House. It was only 2 days away. If these last two shows at FYF were any indication, there should be a wave of violence sweeping Pomona on Tuesday night. Death Grips would be the only band that night, which meant that there would be no mix of Morrissey fans coming to check out the Death Grips set in this medium sized music venue. Finally, an intimate moment with the woman I loved.

I got inside the Glass House about 5 minutes prior to Death Grips taking the stage. I was surprised to find that the venue did not look sold out. I had been scanning setlist.fm to see if I could put any patterns together and it appeared that Death Grips essentially play two setlists- 1 for festivals and 1 for headlining shows. No variation. For the past couple of months, headlining shows have opened with “Runway E” and “Takyon (Death Yon)”. Ride, Flatlander and Hill took the stage and immediately, everyone on the floor crammed in tighter, making The Glass House look even less full. To my complete and utter surprise and satisfaction, Death Grips opened with “The Powers That B” off of Jenny Death. The floor started swirling, my head started spinning and my elbows started swinging. Everything was working out perfectly. It appeared as if this relationship was finally being reciprocated. Death Grips were taking care of my needs. I felt loved and wanted.

The show started out perfectly chaotic. A few songs into the set, I felt MC Ride starting to pull away. Angry yells turned into reciting lyrics under his breath. The energy started to slip away from the room. Even though Ride seemed tired and distant, Zach Hill was in a form I had never seen before. Perfectly tight. Perfectly powerful but Stefan Burnett never came back to the overwhelming form that I had seen on every previous occasion.

I wasn’t too disappointed and I didn’t feel cheated. The Glass House show was about half the energy of every other Death Grips show I had seen to date but for the Death Grips, this was a very long tour. After all the abuse I’ve endured in this relationship, I just felt great that this band I loved so much was finally showing up for our dates. Was I fooling myself? Could this ho really become a housewife? Only time will tell but I feel extremely positive about the direction this relationship was heading.
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When people refer to FYF Fest as the “Urban Coachella”, it’s not a compliment. After last years move to Exposition Park from LA Historic Park, I was inclined to agree with them. There were some SERIOUS growing pains in the move to Expo Park. The main problem was that FYF 2013 was one of the best festivals I had ever been to. There was a stretch that year where Thee Oh Sees, Black Flag and Death Grips played consecutively, on the same stage, with a metro train passing every 15 minutes that was so surreal and incredible, that no amount of drugs, liquor or sexual release could ever compare to it. Flash forward to 2014- It took some people 2 hours to get into the festival on the first day. It was almost impossible to get into the Sports Arena. There was quite a sizeable new amount of land to get from the “Lawn Stage” to the “Main Stage”. It was quite the comedown from the year before.  Would FYF Fest 2015 be able to recover from greatness of it's own legacy and the logistical nightmares that plagued FYF 2014 with it's move to Exposition Park?



Even with all the extra money FYF Fest spent and adjustments they made in 2014 for Day 2, I didn’t want to come back in 2015. The previous year was just TOO much work to have any fun. But of course I would end up going. I’m born and raised in L.A. and this is OUR festival (those of us who have pride in this city). Also, Death Grips.

This years line up was far from their strongest (clearly this is all subjective). I only had one conflict on the schedule- Thee Oh Sees were playing at almost the exact time as Morrissey. Typically, this wouldn’t be a conflict at all. Dwyer is God but history is history and I wanted to see how Morrissey threw down. As frustrating as festival scheduling conflicts can be, they are one of the main indicators of a festival that is stacked with quality acts I want to see. Two major acts pulled out prior to the festival- Deerhunter and Frank Ocean. That would be a lot for ANY promoter to overcome. I almost never look to the headliners to pre determine how good a festival is going to be but I had never seen Frank Ocean live and I personally think the kid is a genius. It appeared as if FYF was in some trouble. Crunching some numbers, they immediately added Kanye West as the Saturday headliner to replace Frank Ocean. I’m a huge hip hop fan. The times I’ve seen Kanye live he absolutely crushed but I’m not the biggest fan of Kanye West. They also threw in Flying Lotus and Bonobo at the last minute, presumably to placate fans that were attending to see Frank Ocean. The people at FYF care more about the fan experience than any other, for profit concert promoter I’ve ever seen and that is plainly obvious to anyone that is paying attention.

Those were just some of my thoughts leading up to FYF 2015. I’m not a guy who shows up after the sun goes down to see the headliners. I judge festivals based on the quality of the bands in small print.

Ty Segall’s bass player, Mikal Cronin has been busy making a name for himself lately, and entering the festival to his set on Saturday was a warm welcome. His music is nowhere near as fuzzed out and hard as Segall’s but his set was notable. Broncho frontman Ryan Lindsey embraced the moment and filled the Trees stage up with musically induced, rhythmic spasms and pitch perfect performances of their



two album catalog. Canadian Indie Pop band Alvvays were the first band on the main stage and had a thick crowd to witness the charm of vocalist Molly Rankin and the tight, commercially accessible songs they played throughout their set. French, indie dance punk band La Femme blew me away at a show at The Echoplex last year. I’ve since seen them twice at festivals including this one and their set just does not translate as well in the daylight hours, early in a festival- even with the energy and enthusiasm coming from the double fronted members of the band, Marlon Magnee and Clémence Quélennec.

I had just seen Canadian hardcore/noise rock band Metz headline an incredible show at The Echo two days prior to their performance at FYF and I thought that



there was no way their early set at The Trees stage could come anywhere near the club show I had just witnessed. I was wrong. They hammered the early bird audience with their songs and the audience responded with kicking up the type of dust that is synonymous with a successful set at the Trees stage at FYF.

Melody’s Echo Chamber, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Cold Cave Joyce Manor and Bloc Party all had notable sets Saturday at FYF 2015. Dinosaur Jr were as tone-alicious as always. In my vivid imagination, I imagine Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin to become what J. Mascis and Lou Barlow are now.

The Jesus and Mary Chain, Psychocandy and The Art of Noise at The Fonda

But the two stand out’s from Saturday were Savages and Run The Jewels.



Run the Jewels, in my opinion are quite simply the best, pure hip hop group in music today, (I don’t consider Death Grips pure hip hop). Musically, lyrically and socially, they are maybe one of the most important groups in all of the mainstream. El-P is not only just as significant an M.C. as Killer Mike but he is my favorite producer in hip hop. Kller Mike will end up in political office one day but until then, he will continue to touch people with not just his lyrics but his activism. Run the Jewels took the stage to the now standard introduction of Queen’s “We are the Champions”. Once they busted out into the title track of their first album, the sea of people that littered the concrete parking lot, turned festival dance floor, started bouncing in unison and didn’t stop until Run The Jewels vacated the premises. Everyone you’d expect as special guests showed up. Travis Barker, Zack De La Roca and Gangsta Boo.


Run The Jewels- Taking Hip Hop Back at The Echoplex

Run The Jewels Take Over and Spit Fire at The Regent Theater in LA.



Savages put on one of the most high energy, quintessential post punk performances at FYF this year. It is almost unavoidable albeit, predictable to compare lead singer Jehnny Beth to Siouxsie Sioux. There is also a hint of Eurythmics era Annie Lennox. Beth is tireless in her performance. In constant motion, she squats down low when placing an exclamation point on a verse and into an androgynous head banging that is terrifying and sexy. Wide and clear eyed gazes locked with members of the audience as the band trampled the Trees stage and left it smoking.  Drummer, Fay Milton placed herself firmly in the upper echelon of female drummers.  Sexist? Maybe, but true, nonetheless.

Kanye, of course, delivered. Big time. If the only mark of a successful performance is the energy in the audience then Kanye delivered the most successful performance of Saturday which included appearances by Rihanna on songs “FourFiveSeconds” and “All of the Lights” as well as Travi$ Scott on “Upper Echelon” and “Antidote”.     Even Kanye Super Fan and music journalist Ziv Biton who wrote a disappointed review of the Kanye announcement for Janky Smooth, had to concede that what he saw on Saturday was amazing. Read what he wrote about the announcement here.

It's Better Than Drake: Kanye West Becomes Filler at FYF Fest



I missed two early acts on Sunday that I wanted to see. Girlpool and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard were circled on my schedule but I was not on time. Andrew Jackson Jihad, Lower Dens, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Spiritualized and Battles were my most notable performances early in the day on Sunday. I heard Mac Demarco put together his prototypically crowd pleasing set but I could not wrestle myself away from the prodigiously grooving sound of Battles.  Taylor Wong also informed me that Flume's set was packed with guests, including Andrew Wyatt from Miike Snow. The infamous DJ Harvey also packed the "dance area" for a multiple hour, DJ set.  A lot going on.



My only real disappointment of the weekend was the performance by Los Angeles’ own, HEALTH. Everything was fine until some technical issues plagued their show midway through the set. What was starting out to be an incredible performance was stopped dead in it’s tracks and the band wasn’t able to engage the audience enough during this time to stop the momentum from slipping through their fingers. They never recovered.

HEALTH at The Echo:  First LA Show in Three Years Delivers



For me, Sunday was all about Death Grips. After disavowing myself of them and all their games and sudden break up, when they started showing up to the gigs on the tour that preceded FYF, I started to get optimistically excited about their arrival in Los Angeles. There is no one that sounds like Death Grips. As much as Kanye tried with Yeezus, the grainy, dystopian and crunchy sound produced by Flatlander is unparalleled in music today. MC Ride is a towering, cultural figure that is resonating with the youth of America. Zach Hill is a beast on the drums. His traditional, acoustic drum kit is not only a compliment to the 808’s and decoded sounds in the production, it’s irreplaceable. Death Grips opened with Come Up and Get Me from NO LOVE DEEP WEB and instantly the entirety of the audience was bouncing, singing the lyrics, word for word. Instantly, a cloud of dirt and dust formed over the area. When Death Grips broke out into Inanimate Sensation from the post break up double album, The Powers That B, it was an all out free for all. The pit for Death Grips was reminiscent of an old school, 90’s punk rock festival with multiple pits, all bleeding into each other and expanding and retracting like an asexual, single celled animal reproducing itself. Ride’s howls rang out across Exposition Park like a Pavlovian alarm and mild mannered hipsters transformed into salivating sociopaths right before my very eyes. It was the best performance of FYF 2015 and I'm so excited to write about them more in depth after their show at The Glass House this week.




With dust in my lungs and bad intentions in my heart, the rest of the festival was a bit anti climatic. I mistakenly skipped Thee Oh Sees for Morrissey and even though Morrissey was nothing but pitch perfect, I wanted something I knew I wouldn’t get- a majority of Smiths songs. The imagery on the big screens showed instances of animal cruelty and police brutality for what felt like a majority of the performance. It was very powerful for about 25% of the performance but I found myself becoming bored and a bit depressed. I cut the festival short and headed home in spite of my desire to see the FKA Twigs set. I left Exposition Park completely satisfied with the entire weekend.

All in all, FYF 2015 was MUCH better than 2014. The flow between bands was easy to manage. All the logistical nightmares of 2014 were addressed and alleviated. I hung out with many good friends and made new ones. Sean Carlson and the rest of the folks at FYF left me feeling that they cared about my experience. I left the festival completely enamored with the new, permanent location of FYF Fest. The lit torch of the Coliseum made the mood. The lights shining on the trees and the roof of the Sports Arena was vibey and comfortable. I have almost completely let go of the fact that FYF will never be at the LA Historic Park ever again and after FYF 2015, I'm completely stoked on Exposition Park as a location for major music festivals.

Words: Danny Baraz

Photos: Taylor Wong


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                    [post_content] => When I think of metal bands I have loved throughout history, I think of mullets, Dungeons and Dragons, short busses, bad hygiene and full rooms, void of any feminine presence. My how times have changed. On Friday night, FYF Presents continued to display why they are one of the most diverse talent bookers in town when “super group”, Head Wound City played The Echoplex along with Loma Prieta and Crime Desire. Today’s Metal, no less intense in it’s impact, yet the crowd was filled with beautiful people and so was the stage when Head Wound City played their set.

Grindcore, mathcore, thrashcore, noise rock, and noisegrind. Call it what you will but it all stems from Thrash/Speed Metal. There were no soccer moms wearing Slayer t-shirts in the 80’s and 90’s but now, H & M actually have a line of clothing that features bands like Slayer and Metallica on them. I wonder if those particular consumers know that Slayer stands for Satan Laughs As You Eternally Rot. Metal has evolved into many things, most of which I’m not a fan of but Justin Pearson along with his label, Three One G are one of the most creative group of musicians in hardcore music today. Mix The Locust with The Blood Brothers and throw in a dash of Yeah Yeah Yeahs? Only on Three One G.

FYF did a great job booking this show. It would’ve been kind of easy to book Head Wound City and not put much thought into the opening acts. Afterall, Head Wound City, unto themselves, with their one and only 2005 EP are a rarity and the personal differences between The Blood Brothers contingent keep them from performing very often, nevermind getting into the studio. So for many promoters, that would’ve been enough. But one of the things that makes Fuck Yeah Fest such a great festival is the thought put into the lineup and Crime Desire along with Loma Prieta were a perfect compliment for this FYF Presents lineup. Crime Desire reminds me of D.R.I. or Madball while Loma Prieta definitely have a similar sound to Three One G artists.

The opening bands gave way to Head Wound City. Finally, I would be able to see them live. Frenetic but impossibly precise machine gun drumming with grinding, rhythmic guitar cords interlaced with intricate guitar licks. The shrieking but effortless vocals that emit from Jordan Billie are remarkable. Watching his face, there is very little evidence of any type of strain, which is not consistent with the sound that emits from his throat. I first noticed that last year when Blood Brothers played FYF. Amazing what Sean Carlson has done to get that band back together, even if it’s nothing more than offering the right sum at the right time. That gig is probably the reason why Head Wound City is testing the waters with this short, 5 date, west coast tour. The show seemed like it was over rather quickly even though the band played all the new material from their upcoming album as well as all 10 minutes it took to play their debut EP in it's entirety... and the crowd went wild!

The term Supergroup is a word that was probably made up by some suit. A quarter of the bands on the Three One G label could be considered such. What I find remarkable about these so called “supergroups” and the Three One G label is the character of these musicians. Musicians who have experienced any sort of success inevitably form an outer, protective layer of ego which might normally prevent these type of colossal collaborations- the type of ego that probably broke up the Blood Brothers in the first place, (although, I have been known to read too much into things). Three One G is full of cross pollinating bands and musicians who respect each others art so much that the art supersedes any sort of self importance and creating becomes the primary purpose.

Words: Danny Baraz

Photos: David Evanko


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            [post_content] => My bones are still rattling and recovering from Capn’ Jazz’s sold out set at The Echo Thursay night. So much so that I limp across the edges of Exposition Park, and marvel at the crowd as I walk into my first FYF fest. The festival has grown dramatically since it’s early days as a showcase for DIY and up and coming local punk acts in 2004. It’s so comfortably warm walking through the LA coliseum on the outskirts circling the festival that I skip my normal routine of stealing water bottles and go straight to the pit.
Related Content: FYF Presents: The Glorious Return of Cap'n Jazz At The Echo
In an impromptu pow wow we map out our weekend and get ready to go watch Badbadnotgood- a band I’ve been following since their second album BBNG2 began getting the well-deserved buzz it received nearly five years ago. The band has carved a niche identity as mainstays in these large festivals.  The crowd sways through their set, flexing their youthful energy that will be gone by day’s end but for now the band invites special guest Denzel Curry onto the stage and finishes the set with people pogoing to Trap Jazz (or whatever the kids will call it soon).  Badbadnotgood have managed to attract that young twenty-something hip hop/beat culture fan that has been well groomed equally by the type of sounds emitting from Low-End Theory to the mushrooming numbers of contemporary jazz journeymen such as Kamasi Washington, Thundercat and the digi-jazz man and Brainfeeder label founder and finder, Flying Lotus in L.A.- and make no mistake- FYF Fest is undeniably L.A.  


			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		

related content: FYF 2015- Surviving Their Own Legacy
We take a break in the shade momentarily, and laugh at the spectacle of stoned teens staring at their festival maps trying to decide who's worth their time and make our way to the main stage to see Bjork’s highly anticipated return to Los Angeles. Accompanied by a small string section and a very composed DJ, Bjork gracefully enters the stage in a rose-like-confetti costume with a lime green mask covering her face. The audience immediately roars but unlike the typical rock-fest crowd, nobody pushes forward.  I would go so far as to say people were still.  Bjork’s set consisted of songs from a three-decade career with highlights including "Stonemilker", "Joga", "Bachelorette" and "Wanderlust", complete with hypnotic visuals displayed on the digital screens behind her. Though Bjork’s fan base and legacy remains massive, their demure applause will be deafened by the uproar and crowd of Missy Elliott, several hours from now.
related content: FYF 2016- Everything You Never Wanted to Know And More...




I leave Bjork and hustle to the Trees Stage area to view Hannibal Buress, a comedian I have been following for over ten years, and someone I have seen both slay and silence aud in very small rooms. I am completely dumbfounded by the lone inclusion of Buress as the only comedian on the festival’s lineup, especially due to the extremely large crowd he drew. There was undeniably both room and a desire for more comedy on the larger stages, and I hope that FYF continues to add more next year. Buress receives howling laughs from the audience, as well as grim moments of awkwardness, especially when he shares a story about his recent funeral attendance and how he plans to release a series of video clips of himself postmortem. He then previews some of these clips to the audience, accompanied by his DJ’s songs and audio clips.



I tend to build up an appetite at these events and I often have to look for ways to keep food going down my gullet.  One of the only negative things I will say about FYF Fest 2017 is that buying food was no spontaneous stop and swallow when some smell would stop me in my tracks- long food lines and fifteen dollar snack plates. However, I did find a Cold Brew loving team at a Poke bowl tent who fed me in trade all weekend.  And when I ran out of coffee to trade my currency changed to Vitamin Water and even offered an exchange rate equal to cold brew.
related content: The Secret Journal of a Pizza Spy at Coachella 2017
We made our way back to the Trees Stage to watch Slowdive whose captivated audience swayed and gazed and whose eyes glazed from a catalog that has spawned over twenty-five years-worth of British Dream Pop. "Alison", "Slowmo" and "Star Roving" kept the crowd satisfied long enough, and their recent single "Sugar for the Pill" echoed through the night, as we watched thousands funnel into sea of people ready for Missy Elliott.


			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		




Before we joined the crowd, I stopped by the Fingerprints of Long Beach record tent, and bumped into my favorite punk frontman, Mr. Ketih Morris, who was taking some time off from the fest to dig Missy Elliott and her large supporting cast.  My memory was jogging throughout Missy Elliott's set.  There were so many songs I knew but hadn't attributed or even know she was a part of. The recent addition to nineties hip hop that is happening around the festival circuit has invigorated a genre that for me had gone sour for some time but seems to be heading into it's next golden era. But still- none of these kids ever had to live through hearing singles such as "Get Ur Freak ON!" and "Ching A Ling", play simultaneously through four different radio stations at the same exact time. Though the performance had technical issues, it was well-received and Elliott demonstrated she still has that energy that helped make her music infectious and a fanbase that have stuck with her since her mega-celebrity presence nearly twenty years ago. The set was shared by the old and the young, and Elliott’s radio hit filled set bridged the crowd together unlike any performer had earlier in the day.



The final set of the evening was from Flying Lotus, whose 3D light show was to debut and did not disappoint the huge swath of cardboard glasses wearing electro and hip hop fans that had saved their drugs all day to enjoy the visuals at their greatest potential. Flying Lotus has been collecting fans in Los Angeles for over ten years and has (mind) expanded across the world for the past couple- both for his own material and for the Brainfeeder record label that is home for many artists that play FYF year after year.  But when it came to HIS set at the festival, Flying Lotus raised the bar with psychedelic optical entertainment, and his tripped out beats fueled the crowd through the end of Day 1 at FYF 2017.




			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		

Note: Some notable sets I regrettably missed this weekend were Oh Sees, Frank Ocean, Anderson Paak, Blonde Redhead, Chicano Batman and many, many more.  Jessica Moncrief and Rob Shepyer were able to catch some of these in image and video.

DAY 2: SATURDAY




I arrived back at FYF early enough on Saturday to catch a glimpse of Thundercat, who I had caught this year at Coachella. Thundercat’s popularity has skyrocketed since releasing his album Drunk this year- making the time he spent as a member of LA punk/crossover thrash legends Suicidal Tendencies a footnote in his career. Thundercat’s jazz-fusion bass guitar licks and G-funk slow jams, have drafted nicely off his collaborations with Kendrick Lamar and Flying Lotus and others too numerous to mention and is to be positioned prominently on the forefront of the trap-jazz scene.

Following Thundercat’s appearance we went to the club stage to watch Princess Nokia before Cap’n Jazz arrived. Princess Nokia was by far the weekend’s most impressive newcomer set at FYF, and was a total surprise for me. Though I had heard P Nokia’s singles over the past year, I had no idea she had the connection to her fans like she did, and the crowd’s energy was stronger there with the kids than any set I witnessed all weekend. When she began playing we watched teens cram into the club stage tent at full speed, as Nokia blasted through songs "Tomboy", "Kitana", "Brujas" and set closer "Dragons" which caused a frenzy among female fans.
Related Content: Low End Theory Festival Wobbles The Shrine Auditorium


Following Nokia’s show, we hung backstage while the crew prepped for Cap'n Jazz. This would be one of the band’s largest attended shows ever- and one of their only LA appearances in nearly twenty years. Though I hoped the show would be equal to Thursday’s performance, I looked around the audience and knew they would never match it. The set was still enjoyed by most, and very appreciated by the crowd of American Football T-shirt wearing fans, but lacked Thursday’s charm and overall vibe. Set highlights were opener "Oh, Messy life", and again "Little League", this time with the band joined by Devendra Banhart. Singer, Tim Kinsella kept the wolves at bay for the bulk of the set but he appeared distracted and at one point gave the mic away for almost the entirety of cover song, "Take on Me". The kids in the crowd who attended the festival solely for this band seemed fulfilled and Kinsella did spend a lot of time in the crowd with his adoring fans. Drummer, Mike Kinsella showcased his talents as well but it didn’t seem like the performance had the cohesiveness that Thursday’s had, despite a much larger audience.



What followed was a lackluster performance from MGMT, whose singles such as "Kids" and "Time to Pretend" still get people excited, yet can’t add a new spark to their set past their winning material from 2007’s Oracular Spectacular. From what I saw, the group fell flat, and no one who I spoke to over the weekend mentioned anything special regarding the performance.

We left MGMT and checked out King Krule’s set, which was laced with punky jazz and darkwave, coupled with saxophones and mellow riffs and would often change to heavy distorted guitars. Krule’s set was entertaining but the energy was low for this time-slot at the festival.


			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		


Following Krule’s performance I attended some of Built to Spill’s set, which played well with the 90's nostalgia much of the youth was hoping to catch but the songs didn’t seem to resonate like many of the other throwback bands on the weekend’s roster. Most of the crowd was compiled of older guys than me in Nine Inch Nails t-shirts and small packs of younger indie fans who were avoiding the electro-centric crowd.

A Tribe Called Quest took the main stage to a roaring applause after a four year absence from an LA festival and they flaunted the continuing dominance of hip hop at FYF. The trio (RIP Phife) provided the crowd with a lyrically flawless rendition of many classics including "Common Ground", "Bonita Applebum" and "Check the Rhyme", inter-spliced with solo career singles such as Q-Tip’s "Vibrant Thing". Their encore’s performance of "Can I Kick It" was one of the weekend’s biggest surprises and best performances.


			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		





related content: The Faint Get Freaky w/ Janky Smooth Sessions Interview


Before I headed to check out Sleep on the Club Stage, I stopped by



The Faint’s set, as they blasted through indie dance punk hits like "Take me to the Hospital", "Agenda Suicide" and "Glass Danse", and kept the audience moving through their 45 minute performance. I didn't realize how much love LA still had for the band and their crowd was truly impressive- dancing and singing with Todd Fink and Dapose. I ended my Saturday watching Sleep, whose sludgy stoner metal buried the swarms of longhairs in the Club Stage as smoke clouds filled the tent. Sleep was an unlikely addition to the festival, as one of the lone metal performers at FYF, but left the crowd deaf wishing there were more like them.
Related Content: Ascending The Holy Mountain: Sleep At The Fonda Theater
DAY 3: SUNDAY




By Sunday my legs were detaching from my body, and I contemplated shaking down a pair of tweaked out looking vagrants for speed to make it through the day’s final stretch. I instead stuck with my Poke Bowl, and went to check out Ty Segall on the Lawn Stage. Segall drew a huge audience and played singles such as "Candy Sam", "The Crawler" and "Finger". The Freedom Band seemed to enjoy playing as loud as their amps could handle and the crowd didn’t complain. Segall has become a mainstay at FYF, and has reached idyllic status as the benchmark for Southern California’s Garage Fuzz Sound.

Following Segall’s set, I continued to the Trees Stage to check out Mac Demarco and his legion of Beach Gothers. His mellow songs kept lovers holding hands and laughing at the banter between him and his band. His performances of "Salad Days" and "Freaking out the Neighborhood" were





Iggy Pop stole the show Sunday, as many knew he would. His set never lost energy and neither did Iggy, often diving off stage to be closer with his fans in the pit. His set was warmly received by one of the festival’s largest crowds and was filled with a songbook of a nearly fifty year career including: "I Wanna be Your Dog", "Gimme Danger", "The Passenger" and "Repo Man". He also played the proto-punk classic "Search and Destroy", and his most commercially celebrated anthem "Lust for Life", which kept the audience dancing for its entirety. Even at his age, Iggy Pop still moves and interacts with the crowd, and shows no signs of slowing down.
Related Content: Burger Boogaloo 2017: The Ballad Of John And Iggy

			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		


Run the Jewels’ performance of RTJ3 material like "Call Ticketron" and insta classics such as"Blockbuster Night" kept the crowd engaged as one of the weekend’s final hip hop performances, and had an extensively diverse crowd, both in age and race in their 3rd straight appearance at FYF.




			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		

related content: Run The Jewels Taking Hip Hop Back at The Echoplex
Nine inch Nails appearance was their first proper LA show in three years, complete with classics such as "The Frail" and their radio dominating single "Closer", as well as classics "Head Like A Hole", "The Hand that Feeds" and "Hurt", which the entire audience wailed in unison with Reznor for the song’s extended duration. Reznor looks healthy and his liveliness is still fascinating as a performer. The band’s fans are some of the most dedicated in modern rock and Reznor still seems connected to developing new music and retaining the intensity people have come to expect from his performances. They were a perfect choice for a headliner this weekend, as they captured the audience’s full attention by packing their set with a mixture of timeless classics and newer material.




			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		


I left the park late Sunday barely standing and snagged a water bottle for the walk to the car, ice cream in hand. FYF has expanded to a rarely achievable status in the sea of festivals jockeying for prominence in the ether, now drawing a lineup of elusive artists who don’t make a habit of touring frequently, as well as a laundry list of must see up & comers who are breaking out of buzz status. FYF’s inclusion of Electro and Hip Hop acts have changed the festival to appeal to multiple scenes of audiences from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and I hope they continue to bring this much of an eclectic array of talent next year. I’d like to see some better set times for some of the veteran bands and artist’s but overall the festival seems destined to remain Los Angeles’s premier Summer music event and rival the increasingly pop music headlined Coachella by showcasing both superstar artist’s and new young talent. I arrived excited for the performances of MGMT, Cap n’ Jazz, and Sleep, and left most impressed by the young hip hop performers, and their connection with their fans. It took 13 years to get me to go to FYF, but I will definitely be in attendance next year.
related content: The Year Coachella Jumped The Shark



			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		



			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		



			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		



			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		



			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		



			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		



			

				
			
				

			

				
			
				
		




 

Words: Dave Unbuckled

Photos: Jessica Moncrief
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FYF Fest 2017 Steals Coachella’s Throne As So-Cal’s Premiere Festival

Dave Unbuckled August 1, 2017

My bones are still rattling and recovering from Capn’ Jazz’s sold out set at The Echo Thursay night. So much so that I limp across the edges of Exposition Park, and marvel at the crowd as I walk into my first FYF fest. The festival has grown dramatically since it’s early days as a showcase for DIY and up and coming local punk acts in 2004. It’s so comfortably warm walking through the LA coliseum on the outskirts circling the festival that I skip my normal routine of stealing water bottles and go straight to the pit. Related Content: FYF Presents: The Glorious Return of Cap’n Jazz At The Echo In an impromptu pow wow we map out our weekend and get ready to go watch Badbadnotgood- a band I’ve been following since their second album BBNG2 began getting the well-deserved buzz it received nearly five years ago. The band has carved a niche identity as mainstays in these large festivals.  The crowd sways through their set, flexing their youthful energy that will be gone by day’s end but for now the band invites special guest Denzel Curry onto the stage and finishes the set with people pogoing to Trap Jazz

Read More

FYF Presents: The Marked Men & Royal Headache Tearing Regent To Shreds

Rob Shepyer July 31, 2017

The Marked Men are a band of Texan punks from the early 2000’s that FYF managed to lasso into a show at the Regent Theater. To some, the news of this show was of the same magnitude as Jawbreaker‘s upcoming reunion for Riot Fest. The Marked Men’s sound is traditional power punk with an unrelenting 3-chord assault reminiscent of bands like The Spits. It’s the perfect soundtrack to youthful debauchery and even though the ages of the crowd were mixed from teenagers to geezers, the energy of everyone in the audience was young and crazy when the Marked Men took the stage. It trips me out to think that the 00’s were so long ago that bands from that era are considered icons and veterans now. Perhaps I’m getting too old for this shit. related content: The Spits at Union- Trash and Glamor United in Los Angeles Flat Worms were the first band to open up this can of worms. They were a speedy and fun power punk trio but as their set progressed their performance started feeling droll- not because of the small early turnout, but because the vocals lacked dynamism and they didn’t move with as much spirit

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Thou Demonstrate The Blackest Doom At The Echo For FYF Club Show

Rob Shepyer July 18, 2017

Doom metal only keeps evolving and engrossing the current metal scene, drowning all the lesser genres in the tar pit of its sound and forcing the future icon bands to rise up to the surface. Thou are the inheritors of Louisiana’s rich sludge-metal heritage and they take that sound to a place no doom band has ever taken it before. With ten minute songs that feel like hell itself, Thou blends doom and black metal into a sound that brings together doom and stoner fans, black metal fans, noise fans, and grindcore fans. When a promoter like FYF Presents gives you the blessing of playing a show under their banner, you know you’re part of a brewing musical storm, if not the whole storm. But for a band as brutal and against the grain as Thou to be awarded that blessing at The Echo just 5 days before their annual festival, it’s indicative of how mainstream tastes are being pushed into a very extreme corner and FYF, at the center of it all has helped to move the status quo- even while being criticized for softening and being “less punk” themselves in the way that they book the festival.  Poppycock.

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Janky Smooth Presents: FYF Janky Mixtape III & Download for 2017

Justin Cornwall July 7, 2017

It’s hard to believe FYF is just around the corner- again. It feels like yesterday I was stumbling out of the downtown Metrolink station, asking a stranger with a festival wristband on for a ride home (gas money included, of course) because my phone was completely dead. After getting enough power in my phone from home, proceeding to the Lyft waiting outside my door to the filthy Overpass where I watched Father John Misty saucily put moves on any girl who would look at him… oh, and of course, THREE YEARS SINCE MY FIRST FYF MIXTAPE FOR JANKY SMOOTH?  Jesus fuckin Christ, where does the time go? Stream The Janky Smooth FYF Mixtape III Now related content: Janky Smooth Presents- FYF 2016 Preview & Mixtape FYF has always been one of my favorite parties of the year and I’ve been attending for almost 10 years in a row. I’ve worked the festival, snuck in, bought tickets an hour before deciding to go – it’s a world class event in our own backyard. The recurring acts on the lineup are like distant relatives I get to reconnect with every year. The headliners jump out of my old iTunes library and onto

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FYF 2016: Everything You Never Wanted to Know And More

Danny Baraz August 31, 2016

If art imitates life then isn’t a local music or art scene the most accurate reflection of life in that city? The sound of the music and the meaning of the lyrics, the images created by the brush and the musings, whether etched in pencil or poked in on a keyboard, all are inspired by an artists’ surroundings- and the crowd that supports it represents that the artist has connected with the collective experience; something true and authentic. And if you can accept that premise then you can also accept that Sean Carlson’s once fledgling music festival, Fuck Yeah Fest, continues to represent and imitate life in Los Angeles. FYF 2016 has gone from the twinkle in the eye of a dreamer to the crown jewel of Goldenvoice in Los Angeles. Wait, what’s that you say? You hate festivals? Oh, you hate on Los Angeles too? How original. I understand you spent those 6 months living in Chatsworth and Ubering to auditions and that spending all your time around low level industry wannabes has skewed your perception of the landscape and the denizens of my city. People often project all their shortcomings, failures and low self esteem onto the city

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Janky Smooth Presents: FYF 2016 Preview And Janky Mixtape

Brent Smith August 10, 2016

It’s that time of year again in L.A.  FYF is OUR festival and the evolution of a fledgling, independent, local event in Echo Park called Fuck Yeah Fest organized by some local scene kid named Sean Carlson, has transformed into a world class festival with world class talent in a world class setting in Exposition Park.  To all our faithful fans and haters; please enjoy streaming or downloading our annual FYF 2016 mixtape by DJ Justin Cornwall and festival preview by our very own wordsmith, Brent Smith. Love, The Jankiest, Danny Baraz   It’s 2016. Bowie and Prince are dead. Reality T.V. has assimilated the political sphere, summer fires are stoked and well-fed, and trigger fingers seem itchier than ever. This is Fuck Yeah Fest’s moment. On August 27 and 28, FYF looks to put on a hell of a clinic, going with moxie over showmanship. Headliners feature Kendrick Lamar, Tame Impala, LCD Soundsystem and Grace Jones—four acts that inhabit a paradoxical interzone between indie and mainstream. FYF has all the cred of Coachella or EDC without the obnoxious baggage or neon-gaudy self-importance. FYF’s reputation now is one of coveted, cunning formidability; like a million-person kill count it’s almost too big

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Death Grips Side Project “The I.L.Y.’s” Release New Album – Listen Here

Johann A. Ramos July 16, 2016

We here at Janky Smooth love the Sacramento born experimental hip-hop outfit Death Grips. We love that they announced their break up on a coffee diner napkin back in 2014. We also love that they announce an extensive world tour just a few months after that stunt. We just love that they don’t really give a fuck, and they don’t have to write a song to tell us all about how very little fucks they give, they show us. They do everything a band should not do and yet they have one of the most loyal fan-bases in arguably the most obscure genre right now. They play to this role very well, not just with their music but with their attitude towards the big machine us simple minded individuals know as the music industry. Their latest puzzle – The I.L.Y.’s –is a Death Grips side project consisting of Death Grips’ very own Zach Hill on vocals, Andy Morin on production, and Tera Melos’ Nick Reinhardt on guitar. ‘Scum With Boundaries’, The I.L.Y.’s second album, was released via a post on Death Grips’ Facebook page. They kindly warned us of the release 2 hours before they dropped us this heavy hitter on their Facebook time-line as well. Screenshots:

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I’m In An Abusive Relationship With Death Grips

Danny Baraz August 28, 2015

By Danny Baraz Death Grips are like that beautiful woman that won’t fuck you. The more she says no, the more you want her. At some point, (if you have any self respect at all), you must decide you can’t love a girl who won’t love you back. You stop texting her. You stop calling her. You stop liking all her posts on IG. When that happens, she has to decide how she really feels about you and lay all games aside. This is a defining moment in the relationship between two people. I personally prefer crazy women but not too crazy- intellectual, complicated and unpredictable women who aren’t like anyone else. Those also happen to be my criteria for musicians and artists. Death Grips were the perfect girl. I had never met anyone like her. Her relationship with the world was almost satirical. Over the years, I have watched her stand other guys up with bemusement and curiosity. I have seen her defy her bosses at work. I have seen her “give away the milk for free”. I have seen her thumb her nose at fame. Sure, she seemed crazier than most but I’m not the trophy wife type.

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FYF 2015: Surviving Their Own Legacy

Danny Baraz August 26, 2015

  When people refer to FYF Fest as the “Urban Coachella”, it’s not a compliment. After last years move to Exposition Park from LA Historic Park, I was inclined to agree with them. There were some SERIOUS growing pains in the move to Expo Park. The main problem was that FYF 2013 was one of the best festivals I had ever been to. There was a stretch that year where Thee Oh Sees, Black Flag and Death Grips played consecutively, on the same stage, with a metro train passing every 15 minutes that was so surreal and incredible, that no amount of drugs, liquor or sexual release could ever compare to it. Flash forward to 2014- It took some people 2 hours to get into the festival on the first day. It was almost impossible to get into the Sports Arena. There was quite a sizeable new amount of land to get from the “Lawn Stage” to the “Main Stage”. It was quite the comedown from the year before.  Would FYF Fest 2015 be able to recover from greatness of it’s own legacy and the logistical nightmares that plagued FYF 2014 with it’s move to Exposition Park? Even with all

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FYF Presents Head Wound City at The Echoplex: Pretty Boy Hardcore

Danny Baraz June 29, 2015

When I think of metal bands I have loved throughout history, I think of mullets, Dungeons and Dragons, short busses, bad hygiene and full rooms, void of any feminine presence. My how times have changed. On Friday night, FYF Presents continued to display why they are one of the most diverse talent bookers in town when “super group”, Head Wound City played The Echoplex along with Loma Prieta and Crime Desire. Today’s Metal, no less intense in it’s impact, yet the crowd was filled with beautiful people and so was the stage when Head Wound City played their set. Grindcore, mathcore, thrashcore, noise rock, and noisegrind. Call it what you will but it all stems from Thrash/Speed Metal. There were no soccer moms wearing Slayer t-shirts in the 80’s and 90’s but now, H & M actually have a line of clothing that features bands like Slayer and Metallica on them. I wonder if those particular consumers know that Slayer stands for Satan Laughs As You Eternally Rot. Metal has evolved into many things, most of which I’m not a fan of but Justin Pearson along with his label, Three One G are one of the most creative group of musicians

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