[RH Photos] North Coast Music Festival 2014 Recap
This post was originally published by our affiliates at Chicago Music. Photos by Alex Lapenia and Jesse Pizano of Three Card Photography. Recap by Kevin Baker.
North Coast Music Festival 2014 took over Chicago Union Park last weekend as thousands of people came to see some of the world’s best EDM and hip hop acts perform their greatest hits. Labor Day weekend set the perfect stage for festival goers as the 5th Annual North Coast was looking to be a big success. Friday was a beautiful day as the sun came out from the cloudy skies to drench the stages waiting for the likes of Keys N Krates, ProbCause, Showtek, Alesso, Bassnectar, and many more to perform. Saturday and Sunday continued the party with performances from Adventure Club, Nicky Romero, STS9, Talib Kweli, Little Dragon and Kid Cudi on Saturday, and Porn and Chicken, Riff Raff, Ookay, Zeds Dead, and Snoop Dogg closing on Sunday.
North Coast Music Festival 2014 was a huge success, and we look forward to seeing what 2015 has in store. If you missed out this year, make sure you get your tickets early for next year’s festival, as North Coast Music Festival will only get bigger and bigger. Read on as we share our recap from North Coast Music Festival 2014.
[NCMF Interview] Keys n Krates
This post was originally published by our affiliates at Chicago Music.
With North Coast Music Festival 2014 beginning tomorrow, we'll be providing all types of coverage from the Chicago festival's fifth anniversary. This interview with EDM group Keys n Krates comes from our partner Three Card Photography's very own Jesse Pizano. Read on to familiarize yourselves with Keys n Krates, the amazing year they've been having, what to expect from their live set this weekend, and what's on the group's plate following North Coast Music Festival 2014!
You guys are about to hit the stage at North Coast Music Festival. How are you guys feeling?
Matisse: Great! Chicago is one of our favourite places to play and North Coast is such a great festival.
How has the year been treating you guys so far?
Flo: Pretty incredible. We've really seen our fan base grow exponentially over the last six months and it's been pretty surreal to be honest.
For those that have never heard of Keys N Krates, can you describe your sound?
Tune: Weird rap beats that evoke emotion but still make ya wanna have a dance party. Lots of emotional chord progressions, pitched up vocal samples, synths, weird chopped up samples and bangin rap drums.
What track off of your new EP, Every Nite, took the longest to make?
Tune: "Understand Why" took a long time. We did three to four different actual versions of the tune with at least five mix downs per version. It was a nightmare, but we are stoked on the final version we came up with.
Top Artists to See at North Coast Music Festival 2014
Preview written by Alex Lapenia and Jesse Pizano of Three Card Photography. Post was originally published by our affiliates at Chicago Music.
Summer is coming to an end on Labor Day weekend, and with that comes the end of summer’s official music festival season. I’d like to share a few reasons why you should join the thousands of people who will descend upon Union Park located in Chicago for the fifth anniversary celebration of North Coast Music Festival, summer’s official last stand. Whether you are into hip hop, dance music, or electronica, North Coast has music for everyone to enjoy. With Bassnectar as heavy bass hitters, Snoop Dogg and Kid Cudi bringing hip hop vibes, and STS9 as one of the headliners, the lineup of artist features an impressive spread of acts, with a wide variety of DJs and producers including Zeds Dead, electro soul GRiZ, dub-step sensation Adventure Club, and house’s finest talent Dada Life, Wolfgang Gartner, Showtek, and W&W. There will be some amazing indie bands Little Dragon, Future Island, Wild Belle, and Dr. Dog, as well as more hip hop sounds from Riff Raff, Action Bronson and Chicago locals Probcause and Sabu. Some acts I am most excited for are EDM headliners Alesso and Nikky Romero who are sure to be hot. With 50 more acts over the three-day festival, this without a doubt is going to be the most fun weekend of the summer. See you at North Coast! Read on as we go into more detail about who we're excited to see at NCMF this weekend.
[RH Photos] North Coast Music Festival 2013 Day 2
Photography by Geoff Henao
Day Two of North Coast Music Festival in Union Park went off much smoother than the 2013 debut a day earlier. With the sun finally shining down and the heat pounding festival-goers, things got off to a fast start. Chicago's own Porn and Chicken got things going with their 2:30 set at the Last Stand Stage, picking up where frat-dance kings Milk n' Cookies warmed up the stage earlier.
After floating through the following sets and checking out a truly inspired set from Conspirator, I found myself torn between the silky smooth tones of Aloe Blacc, the rough-edged hip hop of Flatbush Zombies and the endearing DJ sounds of Thibault. I ended up making the rounds to each briefly, unfortunately missing most of Flatbush due to simply not being able to navigate the festival properly. Between Bondax, Gramatik, Future Rock and the smattering of EDM/Dance acts on the Tent Stage, the Saturday afternoon air was soon completely inundated with the glitchy sound of digital music. Being a big fan of both Gramatik and Bondax, it was disappointing that organizers pushed so many similar acts together and brought about memories of monotonous EDM festivals of earlier months.
Emerging from the dense electronic jungle, Nas took the North Stage to close it out for the day. The New York MC showed precisely why he is one of the most decorated hip-hop acts in the history of the genre, filling his hour-long set with tracks from his entire discography. Dipping back to Illmatic for timeless hit ("The World is Yours", "Life's a Bitch", "Memory Lane") and peppering more recent work from several albums (God's Son, Stillmatic, Life is Good), Nasir Jones put on a show that won't soon be forgotten at North Coast.
EDM made it's way back to the stage in two forms to close out Saturday, with Big Gigantic and Afrojack bringing up the rear as the day's headliners. Jeremy Salken and Dominic Lalli continued their string of impressive Chicago shows by performing their instrumental take on the genre that includes live drums and saxophone, drawing one of the biggest crowds of the weekend. A meet and greet organized through Thissongissick.com kept the pair standing stage-side for hours. For his part, Afrojack held things down, giving fans a grittier dance experience from the other side of the festival grounds and closing out what was easily the biggest day at North Coast for anyone trying to dance.
[RH Interview] North Coast Music Festival 2013: U-God
Photography by Geoff Henao
Like most anyone involved with hip-hop music or pop culture in general, I grew up listening to Wu-Tang Clan and vividly remember ODB crooning through the speakers of my Mom's Ford Explorer when I was a kid hijacking the radio. So, waiting on the elevator with two photographers to meet and interview U-God during North Coast was one of the crazier moments I've had in my life. The two of us said hello, settled in and enjoyed the view from the 29th floor of the Hard Rock Hotel, check out the conversation below.
Jake: Tell me a bit about coming to Chicago after being overseas for a minute.
U-God: Well man you know, Chicago's one of the hometowns that gave us our first little bit of love out here as Wu-Tang and shit so it's a good market for us you know what I'm saying? We had to do a lot to get in this market and it's a hard market to crack so back in the days we put our work in out here and it paid off man, people out here, they like us man.
Jake: What's the ride been like coming up with Wu-Tang?
U-God: Its been a roller coaster man. It's always been a roller coaster to me because I always feel like someone is trying to be our demise. I always feel like there's someone out there trying to stop us, some force or a hidden hand that's always trying to stop us or pull us apart or just some shit like that. But it feels awesome, after all this time we're still putting out good music-I put out a dope record this year, you know what I'm sayin'? I'm just happy to still be here you know? Still being able to tour, run around and still see people like y'all coming through to check me out.