Aahh! Fest at Union Park (9/21/2014)
Finally, a music festival that tailors very specifically to hip hop heads in Chicago. The inaugural Aahh! Fest in Union Park will take place on September 21st. Curated by Rhymefest himself, Aahh! Fest is a celebration of both established Chicago rappers, but also the local Chicago music and arts community. The festival will be split into two halves: From 10am - 1pm, Union Park will be host to a community showcase where talent from across the city will represent the Chicago music and arts education programs. This early show will feature a performance by Diggy Simmons and was put together with help from Donda's House, Inc.
The late show, which will go from 4pm - 10pm after the park closes for cleaning and maintenance, will be hosted by none other than Dave Chapelle and will feature Common, Lupe Fiasco, De La Soul, MC Lyte, Jennifer Hudson, Twista, Jay Electronica, Lil Herb, and "a very special surprise guest" who may or may not be Kanye West.
Tickets are still on sale for Aahh! Fest, which can be purchased here.
[RH Photos] Riot Fest 2014: Day 1 (9/12/2014)
Photos by Geoff Henao.
After a long year, Riot Fest finally returned to Humboldt Park last Friday, and with it was an unseasonal chill and rain that attempted to damper the good mood that spread across the crowd. The move to the Northern end of the park was necessary for the festival to grow, adding a couple more stages to the festival grounds. Unfortunately, this also meant trampling through muddier grounds that weren't covered by baseball field dirt. Nevertheless, the fatigue and callouses that formed on Riot Fest attendees' feet were more than justified by the amount of talent that performed at the three day event. Here is my recap of Riot Fest 2014: Day 1.
I started Day 1 off by checking out one of my favorite surprise performances from Riot Fest 2013, GWAR. As I mentioned in our "Bands to See" list, GWAR added a new vocalist following Dave Brockie/Oderus Urungus' death earlier this year. In his place was a platoon of vocalists, including ex-GWAR bassist Mike Bishop. GWAR has quickly become one of my favorite bands to photograph thanks to their elaborate costumes and stage theatrics that include beheading politicians and pop culture icons (Barack Obama was this weekend's victim) and spraying endless amounts of "blood" on the audience.
Following GWAR's set, I headed out to the Root Stage to catch Stiff Little Fingers' set. With my luck, they opened their set with their most popular song, "Suspect Device," following that up immediately with "Wasted Life." The crowd mostly consisted of older people, which made sense given the band's longevity. However, that's not to say their set was lacking energy; far from it. On a cold September afternoon, Stiff Little Fingers delivered a performance worth braving the mild drizzle for.
Afterwards, I soon made my way out to see NOFX. I'm not the biggest NOFX fan (or of pop-punk, for that matter), but my curiosity and cursory knowledge of the band led me to check them out. The band's singer and bassist (as well as Fat Wreck Chords founder/owner) Fat Mike is known for his sense of humor and open-mindedness. Sure enough, just as the band was preparing to take the stage, he began to berate and insult Failure, the band playing just before them on the stage directly across the field from them. If you're a fan of NOFX, especially Punk in Drublic, their Riot Fest set must have been magical for you. For myself, they were just a band to take photos of. Meh.
Unfortunately, I called it a night just after I shot NOFX due to the impending rain and not wanting to risk being sick for the rest of the festival. You can check out my photos of GWAR, Stiff Little Fingers, and NOFX below. We'll have more from Days 2 and 3 throughout the week!
You can find more of my photos from Riot Fest 2014: Day 1 here.
The Weekly Swarm: 9/8 - 9/14
As I write this, it's only a few hours before gates for Riot Fest Day 3 open. The weekend has been wet, cold, and all types of amazing all at once. Of course, we'll have our full Riot Fest recap this week, but I'll say this: for the second year in a row, Riot Fest has proven to be Chicago's best annual music festival. On a more personal level, I got to see Descendents perform Milo Goes to College in full last night. That alone was enough to make Riot Fest so great.
Nevertheless, we had a solid week last week at Ruby Hornet. We covered the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and Apple Watch announcements, shared our Riot Fest band recommendations with a full video playlist, I wrote about five actresses who would be amazing Ghostbusters, brought news of Kevin Smith's new film Tusk having a medical marijuana tie-in, and shared photos from Ukraine from photographer Kieran Kesner. Check out all this and more below!
iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus Ship on September 19
Apple Officially Announces Apple Watch
[Riot Fest] 20 Bands to See at Riot Fest Chicago
[Riot Fest] Riot Fest 2014 Video Playlist
Bill Murray Supports an All-Female Ghostbusters Reboot
[Trailer 2] Fury
Kevin Smith's Tusk Has a Medical Marijuana Promotional Tie-In
New Batmobile Fully Revealed for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
[Dream Cast] Five Actresses Who Should Be Considered for Ghostbusters
Venom Writer/Director Wants to Make a Darker Film Than The Amazing Spider-Man
[Weekly Netflix Fix] Bill & Ted Are Back... Kinda
[Trailer] Print the Legend
[Review] The Skeleton Twins
Photographer Kieran Kesner's Photos of Ukraine
SanDisk is Making a 512GB SD Card
[Riot Fest] Riot Fest 2014 Video Playlist
With Riot Fest starting in a mere few hours, I thought it'd be fun to compile a video playlist of all of our 20 recommended bands for this year's festival. For the most part, Brynn and I incorporated live videos of each of our selections. I feel that live videos give a way better representation of an artist, especially when you're preparing to see them. The playlist order goes chronologically based on when they hit the stage, so the flow is admittedly not as cohesive and smooth as a playlist normally would be. However, we can all overlook this, right? Anyways, enjoy some amazing footage from some amazing bands below!
[Riot Fest] 20 Bands to See at Riot Fest Chicago
The 10th Anniversary of Riot Fest is almost upon us. Can't you feel the excitement across the city? Just like last year, if you consider yourself a part of the hardcore, punk, ska, indie, or emo scenes, chances are there'll be at least a handful of bands you'll be interested in seeing. Also considering the commemorative 10th year and 10 bands are playing their most influential/essential albums IN FULL, this weekend is gonna be absolutely amazing for anybody that ever dreamed of picking up a guitar and learning their way through the same three power chords
Read on as we share our list of 20 bands you absolutely MUST SEE at Riot Fest this weekend in Humboldt Park.
Apple Officially Announces Apple Watch
Apple confirmed rumors today by officially announcing the existence of the Apple Watch. Much like similar wearable tech gadgets like Samsung's Galaxy Gear, the Apple Watch must be synced to an iPhone to work. As just announced, it'll be compatible with the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but also with the last generation of iPhones (iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C). The Apple Watch will start at $349 and will be available in early 2015.
As stated, the Apple Watch will work as a complementary device to users' iPhones. The Apple Watch has a built-in gyroscope to help with GPS and movement detection, a heart rate sensor for fitness fans, and a new "Taptic Engine" that will allow the watch face to read gestures, allow movement through screens and menus, and more (such as drawing quick doodles to send to friends).
The watch itself comes in two different sizes, three different finishes, and six different straps to further customize the device for users (some of which can be seen in the gallery below). Honestly, I see no point in wearable tech that are required to sync to phones; why not just pull your phone out of your pocket? Granted, using your watch to do things is pretty cool and secret agent-like, but really... is it worth the extra $350 on top of the $200+ you're spending on a new iPhone 6? We'll be hearing more about the Apple Watch from now until the device's release in early 2015.
[Images via Mashable]
iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus Ship on September 19
During Apple's keynote speech today, they officially announced the upcoming iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus as the successors to last year's iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. With a proper numerical upgrade, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are Apple's best iPhones to date. The biggest change to the iPhones are the sizes. Whereas the iPhone 5S had a 4" screen, the iPhone 6 features a 4.7" screen, with the iPhone 6 Plus going even bigger with a full 5.5" screen. The new iPhones are also thinner than ever, going from the 5s's 7.6mm to the iPhone 6's 6.9mm and iPhone 6 Plus's 7.1mm. The new iPhones also feature stronger cameras with 8 megapixels, 2.2 apertures, and new sensors that allow better focusing.
The iPhone 6 starts at $199 for 16GB, $299 for 64GB, and $399 for 128GB with a two-year contract; the iPhone 6 Plus starts at $299 for 32GB, $399 for 64GB, and $499 for 128GB with a two-year contract. We'll be back for more from Apple's speech today, including their official reveal of the Apple Watch.
[Images via Mashable]
Photographer Kieran Kesner's Photos of Ukraine
While the tumultuous tension across Ukraine has died down a bit over the summer, we all remember the unease that splintered the country during the first half of 2014. New York-based photographer Kieran Kesner was on location to capture some of the tension and unease across Ukraine, capturing photos from both protests and personal portraits of various Ukrainian citizens. I've selected a few from his series for the gallery below, but you can find the complete series and an exclusive interview with Dazed here.
[via Dazed]
