Taking a cue from the success of last year’s Rocklahoma, several new 80’s themed festivals have been popping up all across America this summer. Most notably, Rock on the Bayou at the summers’ end and the South Texas Rock Fest which happened to fall the same weekend as Rocklahoma and featured almost the same line-up without the AOR inspired Friday night theme.

While I entertained the idea of Rocklahoma, growing up in the actual city of Philadelphia I am not one to be into camping or staying at lovely motels located along a dirt road that feature settings resembling something out of a b-horror film from days gone by. I can take the crack heads and sirens that fill the soundscape at night but when I hear crickets, honestly, I’m a little scared. So when I saw the advertisement from the South Texas Rock Fest in San Antonio, a real-life city with nice hotels and restaurants, I was all about it.
Read more…

Monday night I finally got to see one of my favorite bands in concert: The Raconteurs. After a long time obsession with Jack White’s music and many close calls as far as making it to concerts, I finagled my way to the Greek Theatre in L.A. to catch them, along with British band the Kills for a great outdoor show.

If you’ve heard anything about the Raconteurs live show, I doubt it’s anything bad and I will confirm that they do live up to expectations. Jack White takes his signature sound, that mixture of old blues and new rock to make for what can only be described as an exceptional set. He plays a bunch of different guitars (I forgot to count how many exactly, I want to say four, but I could be off) and even switches it up on the microphones. For several songs he sang on one of those old-school 1950s studio mics that put an “old record” effect on his voice.
Read more…

This video was shot on September 6, 2008, the day before the MTV Video Music Awards. I was working on site during the show, and popped into the venue where the show was to relax for a bit because it was the coolest (temperature wise) building around on a very hot day.

I sat down behind the pit where the house band was supposed to be set up for the show which was Travis and AM. Soon after they came in to start rehearsing. I was sitting right behind them as you can see in the videos. I recognized Lil Chris (Chris Baker, Travis’ friend and asst) who was walking around, but it wasnt until recently when I saw a picture of his security guard who died in the crash, Charles Still, that i realized he was the person sitting directly to my right the whole time. Sitting next to me was Charles, Travis’ kids, and another person or two.

I distinctly remember Charles smiling, playing with the kids, and laughing a lot. As you can see in the video, Travis pulled his son down to sit on his lap to play with him during the rehearse l. As soon as that happened Charles and I looked at each other and said “that’s pretty cute huh” and both of use shot video of it. Charles filmed all of it while I just filmed a few seconds.

What I remember most about the events that transpired during those few minutes was how close Charles seemed to be with Travis and his family, how much of a devoted and caring dad Travis seemed, and to be honest how much of a good guy Charles was. Again, I only spent a few minutes sitting next to him but you often can get a vibe of how someone is even in the quickest of moments, and Charles was definitely one of those people that radiated happiness and caring. They all seemed like good guys and I’m glad I was there to catch this impromptu and genuine moment.

Last night I caught British electro band Hot Chip’s show at the Wiltern in Los Angeles and although it was my third time seeing the band, it was the first time I could really appreciate their sound. Prior to last night, I had only seen the band at the hot, sweaty mess of fun that is Coachella music festival.

As wonderful as huge musical gatherings like that are, sometimes a band like Hot Chip can get lost in the multiple-stage mess that can be the most important day of a major festival. Although I had only caught bits and pieces of their set, I had always really enjoyed what I had seen from way back in the crowded mess so my expectations were high for the band’s LA show.

Read more ….

Some L.A. residents go on weekend trips to San Francisco or Palm Springs; I spent this weekend at the Hollywood Bowl.

The sold-out Beck show was Saturday, and this season’s final installment of the KCRW World Festival was Sunday. If you had asked me before the weekend which concert I was most looking forward to, I definitely would have said Beck’s. And while the eclectic rocker put on a great show, the World Fest concert was one of the most high-energy and just plain fun shows I’ve ever been to.
Read more…

With nine albums since his breakthrough LP, Mellow Gold, Beck’s biggest song still has to be 1994’s “Loser.” So what better way to kick off Saturday’s hometown show at the Hollywood Bowl than with that track, pre-empting the potential exodus of fair-weather fans who only came to hear the songs they knew.

If those “fans” did hit the exits, they missed “Girl,” “Devil’s Haircut” and other radio hits the eclectic rocker has racked up in the past 15 years. They also missed a melancholy-but-moving eight-song set with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra’s string section, led by the singer’s dad, David Campbell. The performance marked the first time the father/son duo have hit the stage together. The instrumentalists gave Beck’s slower songs — like “Modern Guilt,” the title track from his latest album, and Guero’s “Missing” — a shot of emotional depth and an instantly richer sound (or, as the guy behind me put it, the strings were “pretty tight”). Read more…

I have no idea how to justify the following statement, and I have this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach as I type, but I’m just going to go ahead and say it: MySpace, which in my opinion has recharacterized this generation’s definition of a misspent youth, has become an outlet for some of the most forward-thinking music in the scene today.

Whether this music is perennially “good” doesn’t matter — it’s new, it’s weird and you can dance to it. Whether it’s the screamo-techno fusion of Breathe Carolina, the three clearly underage girls rapping about getting wasted known as Millionaires, or whatever Jeffree Star is (look him/her up — Star defies description), all of the aforementioned artists have graced the MySpace “Top Artists” list at some point over the past summer. Like I said, musical substance is irrelevant; their unique style has earned them hundreds of thousands of friends (which, of course, is MySpace’s unit of measurement, superseding the old-fashion idea of “fans”).

My first real-life experience of this emerging scene was with Hyper Crush, one of the most prominent artists of the MySpace group (and yes, with Hyper Crush, they can be called artists — Millionaires … not so much). Their music is kind of electro, kind of hip-hop, kind of disco and fully decked out in neon colors. The best way to explain it is to just start at the beginning of the show: a sample from “Duck Hunt.” Yes, the video game. But their image couldn’t be further from their sound, as the band cleverly juxtaposes ’80s style with the newest wave of new-wave dance music (yes, I used the word juxtapose in a MySpace article), all directed at an audience who is young enough to think Devo is a Justice song. Read more…

Back in April, MTV News columnist James Montgomery claimed that Swedish singer Robyn — “one of the most dynamic, shape-shifting, forward-thinking artists currently making pop music” — isn’t popular in the U.S. because “we are a nation of narrow-minded nimrods.” It was the latest in our decade-long string of stump speeches for the pop star. See, Robyn has something of a fan club at MTV News. Every few years, when she puts out a new album, we ask, “What’s wrong with Americans? Why won’t they dance to Robyn?”

You’re probably sick of listening to us, so we decided to hand things over to the singer herself. The electro diva agreed to keep a video diary of her time spent opening for Madonna on the European leg of the Sticky & Sweet Tour. Enjoy the clips of Robyn and her entourage before, during and after her recent set before 72,000 fans at a former military airbase in Zurich, Switzerland.
Read more…

I couldn’t stop smiling at this show. There was so much excitement in the venue! The average age range of the audience had to have been 7 to 16, and majority of the crowd was there to see The Jonas Brothers. The kids loved it, and put a lot of work into their custom designed signs and t-shirts.

It was a fun show. I definitely felt out of place, and was way too old to be there without chaperoning a tween, but whatevz, I respect the artists and the positive impact that they have on their fans. Looking around, I wasn’t the only one over 18 enjoying myself. A lot of mothers were getting a kick out of it too.
Read more…

This past weekend the guys of Maroon 5 had a lot to smile about. They came to California and Cali was warm and waiting.

You could tell these west coast performances were different, starting with the mood backstage. On Friday night at the Irvine, CA pre-show Meet and Greet, the guys were as calm and cool as ever. But, this time, they looked especially happy and exclaimed “We’re home!” Some of the band members spent time with their families backstage, chatting with moms, dads, siblings and more. Adam Levine took to practicing riding his motorcycle around the concert grounds, loudly zipping by surprised fans who only realized it was him by the time he was far past them.
Read more…