Fun Fun Fun Fest 9's Day Lineups Announced
Less than a month after the lineup for Austin's Fun Fun Fun Fest 9 was revealed, the organizers have both revealed the daily lineups for the festival's three days and have made opened up sales for individual day tickets. You can head over here to purchase tickets for each day (or to simply buy a 3 day pass).
The day lineups are fairly balanced with each day offering not only a wide selection of artists, but also an eclectic lineup that will make festival goers want to go every day rather than target one specific day as the "best" day. Friday's lineup highlights include Blood Brothers, Death from Above 1979, Radkey, Peelander-Z, 2 Chainz, Atmosphere, Run the Jewels, and Dinosaur Jr. Saturday's lineup highlights include Glassjaw, Nas, Girl Talk, The Internet, Death Cab for Cutie, The New Pornographers, and Guided by Voices. Sunday's lineup highlights include Death Grips, Wiz Khalifa, Flying Lotus, Sky Ferreira, Freddie Gibbs and Madlib, and Neutral Milk Hotel.
You can see the full day lineups below.
[RH Photos] X Games Austin 2014 Recap
Photos by Virgil Solis Last week, the X Games kicked off their Summer competition in their new home of Austin, Texas. The event started Thursday evening with a skate demo right in the middle of downtown Austin with the Capitol Building as the backdrop with Friday representing the full day of X Games action. Lizzy B and I headed out to the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) late afternoon on Friday while the Texas heat was already at 90 degrees to collect our press badges and get our bearings at the festival-like camp grounds. As we walked through the massive track and amphitheater, we headed to the Moto X WHIP competition. Tom Parons, who eventually takes the gold, lets the crowd and X Games fans know that he had a broken leg and, up until a few days prior, wasn't going to compete. After a short break of walking the ground, we made our way over to the Skate Big Air competition. The massive drop/ramp dwarfed everything around it. Legendary skater Bob Burnquist was one of the competitors alongside Rony Gomes, Edgard Pereira, 13-year-old Trey Wood, and 14-year-old Tom Schaar. Placing in second, Burnquist celebrated with Tom Schaar as he took the gold that evening. Events started earlier on Saturday, and the heat felt like 100 degrees all day. We hit the Skate Park finals as Pedro Barros, Grant Taylor, and Aaron Homoki won the medals for that competition. We took a break from the heat and hydrated before we headed over to the Moto X Speed & Style final. After watching some high flying Moto X skills, Lizzy B and I took another break from the unbearable heat and sun. Only other photographers can sympathize with how it feels to carry gear in brutal, 95 degree Texas heat all day. As Lizzy B and I separated to make a food run, things took a sudden turn. Apparently, after some security breach and demands from the music headliner Kanye West, many of the areas press and others had access to were closed, pretty much creating chaos and confusion in many parts of the park. At this point, as I tried to make it back to Lizzy, I wasn't able to do so as security told me I was no longer allowed in an area where I had been a few minutes prior. After a few hours of confusion and many people at the stadium not knowing what was really going on, things began to clear up. By this point, music acts Mac Miller and Kanye West were gearing up to come on. Both Mac and Kanye rocked the stage, playing good sets that made the Games crowd happy. After an exhausting day, we called it in halfway through Kanye's set as getting some rest for Sunday became a priority. Sunday was a whole different tune compared to Saturday. The day was overcast with a breeze as we headed straight to the BMX Park final competition. With great runs from Daniel Sandoval and Drew Bezanson, local Austinite Chase Hawk took the gold with a great run on the course. One of the events many people were excited for was the new Stadium SUPER Trucks Finals. 19-year-old Apdaly Lopez from Mexico took the gold as he held the lead the majority of this race. With a few crashes and one that stopped the race for more than 20 minutes, the Stadium SUPER Trucks quickly became a fan favorite. Due to some strong winds, a couple Moto X competitions and demos were canceled; instead the COTA crowd made their way to the Street Skate finals. With a huge crowd looking on, Nyjah Huston, Luan Oliveira, Alec Majerus, Ryan Sheckler, Chaz Ortiz, and more skated for the gold. Huston ended up being triumphant, taking the gold in the last competition of the Games. Looking back on the weekend, X Games Austin was great. Despite a few bumps in the road, it was an amazing experience, and I was happy to be able to shoot some photos of some amazing athletes. Check out the full results of all the competitions here and a ton of my photos below. Also, check out the RH Instagram for videos and more photo coverage from the weekend.
X Games Austin to Offer Festival Experience
X Games will be making its debut in Austin TX in just a few short weeks, and they're doing everything they can to make sure their first event in the city will be a memorable one. While the main attraction to this year's X Games will be on the sports, ESPN has decided to expand on the entire experience for patrons by introducing a huge festival village-like setting full of various attractions for everybody in attendance. In addition to the extreme sports competitions, other attractions include a galleria, gaming shack, music stage, go-kart racing, and more.
You could start your day watching BMX Vert, wander over to the Sound Factory and partake in some karaoke, head out to the ESPN Clubhouse to catch the baseball scores, catch an Alamo Drafthouse showing at the Texas Ranch, get a haircut at the Galleria, race a couple of Go-Kart laps in The Garage, stock up on some water for your bottles at the Green Planet, conquer the obstacle course at The Playground, set a high score in Pac-Man at the Gaming Shack, practice your kickflips at the Next X Park, then head back out to catch some Skateboard Vert. Sounds like an amazing itinerary, doesn't it?
You can read the full summary of each individual "village" on the X Games Austin's official website. The full map can be found below. X Games Austin will take place from June 5th to June 8th. Expect some amazing photos from the weekend in the near future.
[RH Photos] Vampire Weekend at Stubbs in Austin (4/24/14)
Photos by Tim Fraga
Last week, New York's Vampire Weekend hit Austin for back-to-back sold out shows in Stubb's backyard. The first time I had seen Vampire Weekend perform live was last year during ACL 2013. It might have been the beer or the rotation of joints being passed around that had me in such a good mood, but vibing out to Vampire Weekend perform to a massive crowd in Zilker Park couldn't have been any better. When I heard I would be able to see them in a smaller setting like Stubb's, I was pretty excited to get back to that happy place. Unfortunately, due to some last minute change of plans, I wasn't able to attend the show. Lucky for us, however, we have photos from Tim Fraga to gives us a glimpse of what went on.
[RH Photos] Baths at Mohawk in Austin (4/17/14)
On a drizzling Thursday night, electronic artist Baths hit Mohawk in Austin. The semi-full venue was feeling the opening act, but most were waiting for Baths to hit the stage. When Baths took the stage for his set, fans were excited and ready for him. Diehard fans sang with and vibed out with Baths throughout his set. It was on the fence fans, however, that were not sure what to make of his set. He seemed to really try and get the crowd going, but most just hung back and watched. I'm not sure if it was the drizzly weather or the material, but it seemed like only a a few people were really feeling him. Baths is one of those artists that you can argue might be better on headphones or vibing out on your own in your bedroom instead of at a live performance.
My first experience with Baths was last year at Pitchfork Music Festival. I wasn't familiar with his music, but I really respected his fan base. This time around, I came in with a positive mind set and ready to see how he had developed over the last year. Unfortunately, like most people at Mohawk thought, the performance lacked something I really couldn't put my finger on, other than the fact that some material doesn't translate the same live as it does on headphones. Not to turn anyone away from Baths, but check out some photos from the performance below.
[RH Photos] Deltron 3030 at Emo's in Austin, TX (3/27/14)
Photography by Virgil Solis
Last Thursday, super hip hop group Deltron 3030 hit a packed Emo's in Austin. Kid Koala fit in as the opening act along with playing with the group, also playing during a small intermission. I was somewhat familiar with some of Kid Koala's work (mostly the Deltron 3030 stuff), but I was really impressed by his work ethic that night. The guy pretty much played the whole show. As with any Deltron 3030, show the crowd was packed with fans who knew every song from their catalog. I hadn't seen Del perform in over five years, and he did not disappoint. Del is what I would consider a real rap professional. Dude has been putting out music and performing for over 20 years. The super cool Dan The Automator also did not miss a step with playing a few instruments and beat pads. Dan kept his cool the first half of the show, walking back and forth on stage until he finally cracked a smile and showed his excitement, returning the energy back to the crowd. If you haven't seen Deltron perform, I suggest you do so next time they are in you town. Until then, check out some of my photos from the show below.
[SXSW Interview] Cheers Elephant, SXSW Veterans
Photography by Andrew Zeiter
Watch Cheers Elephant for even a fraction of a sogn and you can tell they've been doing this for awhile. The majority of the upbeat, indie rock from Los Angeles by way of Philadelphia has been playing together since grade school, plenty of time to get to know one another and smooth out the rough spots in any performance piece. Unlike most somewhat-traditional four piece bands I caught throughout the whirlwind that was SXSW, Cheers Elephant (which may have one of the best band name-backstories there are) had life, excitement and personality lost amongst many 'rock' bands today. Frontman Derek Krzywicki, who has a name only I can truly appreciate, is a breath of fresh air onstage, playfully moving his hips in a faux Elvis impression, gliding across the stage, managing to not interrupt a guitar solo while carefully executing yoga-like moves. If he is the hook then the music is the sinker as the rest of the band backs up his front-of-stage heroics with a general aesthetic that perfectly lent itself to a mid-afternoon day in Austin, Texas. Before they got onstage I was able to link up with the guys from Cheers Elephant and chop it up about their packed schedule of twelve shows in a week, how the world has treated them and everything in between just before they took the stage at the Big Picture Media showcase at the Thirsty Nickel on Wednesday March 12. Read the full conversation here.
[SXSW Photos] Music Festival 2014
Photography by Kristen Wrzesniewski
Now that most of us have recovered from the madness that is South by Southwest. We sent our good pal Kristen Wrzesniewski out with her Lumix GX7 and a music wristband to cover the music festival portion of the festivities. Check out some of her shots and below.
