15 Must-See Acts at Riot Fest 2016 Douglas Park Chicago
Riot Fest 2016 is this week! Aren't you excited? Lace up those Docs, put on your favorite NOFX shirt, and remember not throw 'bows in the pit. Are you heading out to Douglas Park but still can't figure out which acts to spend your valuable time skanking and moshing to? Ruby Hornet has you covered as we'll share the 15 must-see acts at Riot Fest this weekend!
[Review] Lollapalooza celebrates 25 anniversary in a big way
The Chicago staple of music festival excellence brought forth yet another unforgettable weekend of music and stellar performances. Lollapalooza celebrating it’s 25th anniversary in the biggest way possible. Extending the festival to four days created a marathon of incredible musical moments.
Lollapalooza had many highlights that came from inside and outside the music festival. Chicago transformed from the city with broad shoulders into, during for the four-day festival, music mecca.
The first two days had rain showers that spanned over a few hours. The temporary muggy start didn’t effect the mega celebration of the 25th anniversary. In fact, the only set backs to the festival were the uncontrollable rain and that the festival is already over.
Over the years Lolla grew not only in size but it also grew in multiple genres. It first started as an alternative rock festival in 1991 as a farewell tour for Jane’s Addiction. Now with over 170 acts and an extended four-day festival, Lollapalooza provided many history making moments.
It was announced by Lollapalooza that next year’s music festival will also be a 4 day festival.
Thursday, July 28 (Day 1)
Lollapalooza fixed up this problem from past years. The clear winner to the first night was hip-hop. Hip-hop actually had a deeper impact throughout the festival but it made a bold statement the first night with performances from Chicago’s own Towkio, G-Eazy, and J. Cole. Danny Brown also gained many fans with his energetic performance. Towkio brought out Chicago’s Joey Purp and Vic Mensa in a complete Chicago music takeover. Towkio from sneaking into Lollapalooza before his musical break to now setting the stage definitely was a crowd pleasure.
Another Chicago artist made headlines closing off the Perry’s stage this time from the electronic music duo Flosstradamus. They didn’t disappoint bringing their signature non-stop thrill ride of electric beats. They also brought out surprise guest Chance The Rapper, Michelle Williams, and Dwyane Wade.
From “Wet Dreamz” to “Work Out”, J. Cole stole the show with non-stop performance of hit after hit. With no back track, fans matched Cole jumping and rapping along with the Dreamville rapper. It’s important to note that Cole was the only rapper to close off the Samsung stage throughout the weekend. The others were Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and LCD Soundsystem. The biggest stage at Lollapalooza was the perfect fit for J. Cole’s unforgettable set.
[Review] 'Green Room' an unforgettable punk rock horror film
Independent director Jeremy Saulnier brings this twisted unforgettable tale of a momentous punk rock attitude crashing into the world of shock and uncertainty in Green Room.
Inspiring and struggling hardcore punk rock band members Pat (Anton Yelchin), Tiger (Callum Turner), Sam (Alia Shawkat), Reece (Joe Cole) are delusional punk rockers named the Ain’t Rights.
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Low on funds with an itch to perform, the Ain’t Rights make their way to a back of the woods hardcore punk rock club. Unaware of its usual crowd the Ain’t Rights find themselves performing in front of REAL hardcore punk rockers who just so happen to be Nazi skinheads.
Leaving the show, Pat sees something he wasn’t supposed to see. Caught in the middle of a bad situation turned worse Pat and his band mates are thrown into a dark world of drugs and murder from the hands of the ruthless club owner and his no moral limit henchman.
Green Room
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Rating: R
Release Date: April 22, 2016 (Chicago), April 29 nationwide
In Green Room we see these young inspiring punk rockers go through hell trying to make it out alive. This real human reaction leaves a unsatisfying feeling of unpleasantness because of the unfamiliar future of what may happen next.
This in your face cut throat style of story telling leaves urging questions of what’s going to happen next. Focusing and centering the green room located backstage of the bar they just performed in visual director Saulnier uses every inch to paint a haunting picture of no escape.
Amber (Imogen Poots) and Pat (Anton Yelchin) stood out as both unsuspecting untraditional figures. All the characters in the film go against what we’ve seen in past horror thrillers which also creates a surprising momentum of story telling.
Music fans will also enjoy this film for it’s taste and showcasing of music from artist like Corpus Rottus and Battletorn as well as original music from the films band the Ain’t Rights.
A huge standout moment of the film is how Patrick Stewart emerges as a complete terror and haunting villain with no human remorse. As the leader of white skinheads, Stewart’s soft spoken portrayal is truly menacing.
Stewart’s portrayal alone is reason enough is see this film but definitely not its only one. In Green Room we see a captivating story that leaves us wanting more every second. This thriller is one that many will talk about for years for it’s original take and its brilliant delivery.
Check out the interview with producer Jeremy Saulnier.
[Review] Antarctigo Vespucci: "Leavin' La Vida Loca"
At first, Leavin’ La Vida Loca by the indie folk-inspired punk duo Antarctigo Vespucci seems less reminiscent of Chris Farren and Jeff Rosenstock’s main projects (Fake Problems, Jeff Rosenstock) and more of Antarctigo Vespucci’s first EP, Soulmate Stuff. Establishing Antarctigo Vespucci as their own, vibrantly disparate sound than their alter-egos, the duo have proved to be just as a part of one act as they are another. That’s especially true with their sophomore record, Leavin’ La Vida Loca via Really Records and Quote Unquote Records.
I'll admit, the record wasn’t much to bump a pulse as far as the two’s wide range of projects go at first; oh how wrong can a person be. After a few plays, I realized the record is beachy, warm, mature and melancholy. It’s like watching the finale of your favorite show - it’s bittersweet. While the two have always been keen on bad breakups and lost love, this record is set apart because of their acceptance of the bad. The songs, “Hooray for Me,” “Save Me From Myself” and “Losing My Mind” show the two are more comfortable fighting with their own inner struggles (or lack thereof) in a lighthearted way.
“Crashing Waves” strengthens the aforementioned beachy element of the record (this would be the soundtrack to a montage of two punks walking along the beach) with lines like, “I was ready to go as soon as I arrived,” accurately describing the duo’s social anxiety they address in their various musical endeavors, and Antarctigo Vespucci is no exception. “No Bad Memories” is the most upbeat song with brash electric guitars and a folky twist, while “I See Failure” holds the summary of the record as the closer. The lyrics describe a failing relationship and resonates through younger audiences by the line “When I pretend I’m not feeling well so I don’t have to hang out with your friends in a crowded bar of idiots” as the melancholy couple grow apart - or more so, one partner away from the other. Relatable and rough, Anarctigo Vespucci has definitely established their own sound with Leavin’ La Vida Loca.
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Riot Fest Chicago 2015 Day Lineups Available
The day lineup for Riot Fest Chicago 2015 is now available! You can find out which artists are playing on which day so you can begin to tentatively prepare your schedules. In addition, Riot Fest will be releasing single day passes, VIP passes, and 2-day passes on Thursday, July 23rd at 10am CT here. In addition, Groupon is currently running a special pre-sale on single day passes for $69.98 here.
Check out the day lineups below!
FRIDAY
No Doubt, Faith No More, Motörhead, Ice Cube & Special Guests (performing Straight Outta Compton Remix), Alkaline Trio, Coheed and Cambria, Flogging Molly, Slightly Stoopid, Thrice, Dirty Heads, Anthrax, Eagles of Death Metal, Against Me!, Bayside, MEST, Atreyu, Lee Scratch Perry, The Expendables, Living Colour, Fishbone, Death, Mariachi El Bronx, Civ, Every Time I Die, Real Friends, 88 Fingers Louie, Mustard Plug, Into It. Over It., Post Malone with FKI, Chef’Special, Marmozets, Barb Wire Dolls, The Coathangers, Prayers, Speedy Ortiz, White Mystery, Main Attrakionz, Ground Up, Skinny Lister, Alex Wiley, Heems, Psalm One, Dreamers, Faulkner
SATURDAY
System of a Down, Iggy Pop, Rancid (performing …And Out Come The Wolves), Billy Idol, Taking Back Sunday, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Drive Like Jehu, Merle Haggard, Alexisonfire, The Academy Is… (performing Almost Here), The Lawrence Arms, Echo & the Bunnymen, Bootsy Collins’ Rubber Band, The Damned, Pennywise, The Devil Wears Prada, Mayday Parade, Babes in Toyland, Desaparecidos, The Joy Formidable, The Dead Milkmen, FIDLAR, Millencolin, American Nightmare, Swervedriver, GWAR, Lifetime, Joyce Manor, The Movielife, Steve Ignorant and Paranoid Visions, The Dear Hunter, The Ataris, Modern Life Is War (performing Witness), Fit For Rivals, Flatfoot 56, Teenage Bottlerocket, Chon, Counterpunch, Direct Hit!, Dirty Fences, Sleep On It, The Brokedowns, Meat Wave, Elway, Indian Handcrafts, PEARS, Gateway Drugs, Clowns
SUNDAY
Modest Mouse, The Prodigy, Snoop Dogg (performing Doggystyle), Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, Tenacious D, L7, Stephen “Ragga” Marley, Kongos, Cypress Hill, Yelawolf, The Airborne Toxic Event, Manchester Orchestra, De La Soul, Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness, New Politics, Jimmy Cliff, Andrew W.K., Less Than Jake, The Thurston Moore Band, Morgan Heritage, Doomtree, Hum, Tarrus Riley, The Dwarves, Tommy Stinson, Kevin Devine, Jo Mersa, Alvvays, The White Buffalo, Black-Am-I, Skip Marley, Knuckle Puck, Jazz Cartier, Have Mercy, Superheaven, Foxing, Beach Slang, Cayetana, Blis, Northern Faces, Souvenirs, Skating Polly, Signals Midwest, Modern Chemistry, Tasha The Amazon, Foxtrott, Twin River, Indian School
New 33 1/3 Books on Devo, Dead Kennedys, and Super Mario Bros Are Criticism Done Right
There's an old, dismissive joke about music criticism: "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture--it's a really stupid thing to want to do."
That's funny, sure, but good music critics can dance like motherfuckers. Dancing is fun, it's stimulating, it's potentially generative. When people can dance as well as they do in the 33 1/3 series, that's something that should be celebrated. (Here I am, dancing about dancing.)
The 33 1/3 series began publishing pocket-sized books of music criticism in 2003, each focused on a single album, each a sustained work of long-form criticism. The best entries in the series are exceptional culture writing. Some of the standouts include Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste by Carl Wilson, James Brown's Live at the Apollo by Douglas Wolk, David Bowie's Low by Hugo Wilcken, Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by Christopher R. Weingarten, and Television's Marquee Moon by Bryan Waterman. (Waiting on my shelf to be read: Big Star's Radio City by Bruce Eaton and a novella about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality by Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle.)
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Three of the recent 33 1/3 books focus on seminal works of the early '80s: Devo’s Freedom of Choice by Evie Nagy, Dead Kennedys’ Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables by Michael Stewart Foley, and, the first entry on videogame music in the series, Koji Kondo’s Super Mario Bros. by Andrew Schartmann. Each of the books are fine additions to 33 1/3. In other words, they dance like motherfuckers.
Form and content are the most basic aspects of aesthetic criticism, and while that's part of the discussion in each of these three new books, the authors also find ways of exploring the time and the place that gave birth to each album. If it's questions of form and content that determine the relative success of individual works of art, it's questions of time and place that help fashion the form and the content, and it's the intersection between the elements of form, content, time, and place that help determine the enduring legacy of the art.
Let's give each of these new 33 1/3 books a quick look. For more information on the books and the series, visit the 33 1/3 site.
Tom DeLonge and blink-182 Reaching Amicable Break-up
It's sad to see one of your childhood favorite bands publicly feud, yet that's what blink-182 fans have been dealing with since (former?) guitarist Tom DeLonge took an "indefinite hiatus" from the band this past January. Since then, DeLonge and the remaining blink-182 members Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker have released contradictory statements defining DeLonge's role/membership within the band, with Hoppus and Barker explaining a letter sent to them by DeLonge's lawyer and manager while DeLonge himself stated he never "officially" left the band and was blindsided by the statements released.
Nevertheless, Hoppus and Barker recruited Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba to take over singing/guitar duties for their Musink Festival this past March. The reception was very positive, leading to speculation that Skiba would join the band permanently. In fact, he's expressed mutual interest in replacing DeLonge, telling Alternative Press:
I think that’s a great idea and it’s something we have discussed. It’s something I would be very excited to do and I’ve known the Blink guys for about 15 years, and we’ve become good friends. Playing songs I haven’t written with Mark and Travis is a blast, so to go in and create music with them would be amazing.
It appears the band is moving towards that possibility with news that DeLonge, Hoppus, and Barker are reaching an amicable decision about the band's future. Despite DeLonge's aforementioned "hiatus," he hasn't yet officially left the band, leaving Hoppus and Barker stuck in limbo in regards to recording and touring - pretty much any movement or growth for blink. Hoppus recently told Das Process that they "are right now going through what so far has been a friendly divorce with our former guitarist. Hopefully things clear up and it doesn’t get all manager-y and lawyer-y and all that and we can move forward.”
blink-182 as we know it is dead, but it sounds like their future is close to being theirs to determine once more.
[via Yahoo! Music]