Tonight in L.A. (October 26, 2012)

Halloween Weekend is on like Donkey Kong in Los Angeles with plenty of costume parties on the bill for tonight.  No costume party will rage harder than the Collaborative Media extravaganza at Vanguard.  The bill features not only a live performance from The Presets - but DJ sets from Australia's Miami Horror, members of The Rapture, Etienne De Crecy, Foster The People, Guns in The Sun and more.    Get tickets here.   You can also dance in a costume at clubs downtown with Sex Panther at Belasco Theater or in the O.C. at Yost Theater or Detroit Bar. 





To move to some filthy beats - go to Club Nokia for Flying Lotus, The Gaslamp Killer and Jeremiah Jae or - if you want lyrics and posses - go to A$Ap Rocky, Schoolyboy Q and Danny Brown at Hollywood Palladium.  Downsize for some more intimate hip-hop at The Roxy with Dilated Peoples, Fashawn, LMNO and DJ Mishaps.





Punk out for a homo-ween event at Los Globos with SSion.  Go for free by winning tickets through us - just tweet out @iheartcomix @clublosglobos and @supergoodmusic in the same tweet to enter.  If you want to be spooked by guitar play - Jon Brion at Largo could be your jam.  



Other notables include Macklemore & Ryan Lewis show at The Observatory, Matthew Dear live at El Rey Theatre, Bone Thugs N Harmony at City National Grove of Anaheim, and an M83 DJ set at Lure in Hollywood - with opening sounds provided by Jason Bentley!

• The Presets, Miami Horror (DJ Set), Foster The People (DJ Set) , Etienne De Crecy, The Rapture (DJ Set), Guns in the Sun + More @ Vanguard

• A$AP Rocky, A$ap Mob, Schoolboy Q, Danny Brown @ Hollywood Palladium

• Claude Vonstroke, Justin Martin @ Avalon

• Diamond Lane, Lonely Drunks Club Band, Future Villains, Delta Rose, Trick Pistol @ The Viper Room

• Dilated Peoples, Fashawn, LMNO, DJ Mishaps @ The Roxy

• Mike Taylor, Abstract Funky People, The Local Weather, The Lucky Lonely, DJ Kid Peace @ On The Rox

• IAMEVE, Tyler Conti, Jessica Fine, Sarah Pigion @ WitZend

• Chris Pierce, Big Joe Hurt @ Harvelle’s

• Matthew Dear (Live Band), Light Asylum, Survive @ El Rey Theatre

• Jon Brion @ Largo

• K,noup & Kelly, Cromwell, Downtown Attraction, Ceasefire, Red 9, Lido Beach @ Troubadour

• Rusted Root, Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk @ Key Club

• Snacktime and Creeps @ Lot 1 Café (FREE)

• Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders @ Origami Vinyl (FREE)(7 PM)

• James Supercave, M31, Jack Littman, Snow White @ Pehrspace

• Gary War, Purple Pilgrims, Night Control, PROTECTME @ The Smell

• Lucha VaVoom Halloween: Aztec Horror @ Mayan Theater

• Kyau & Albert, Ashley Walbridge @ Exchange LA

• Sex Panther @ Belasco Theater

• Tiger Army, EXENE, Suedehead @ Fonda Theatre

• Joel Osteen @ Staples Center

• Flying Lotus, The Gaslamp Killer, Jeremiah Jae @ Club Nokia

• War Tapes, Jutty Ranx, Last American Buffalo, Strange Tongues @ Bootleg Bar

• Church Sessions w/ Lost In Trees, Midtown Dickens, Dan Buoy @ First Unitarian Church

• Beyond The Witching Hour in Crystal Vision w/ Peaking Lights, Lumerians, Dahga Bloom, Guy Blackslee, Golden Animals, Juju, Supertall Paul, Diva Dompe, Blackfeet Braves, Mr. Elevator & The Brain Hotel, Runson Willis, Cosmonauts @ The Echoplex

• Pangea, The Shrine, Meat Market, DJ Neil Schield (Origami Vinyl) @ The Echo

• St. Lucia, Night Terrors of 1927, Beat Club @ The Satellite

• Storm Large, Nataly Dawn, Taylor Greenwood, Sonnet @ The Hotel Cafe

• Zigaboo Modeliste, Carnival Dogs, Liam Gerner @ The Mint

• Alesana @ House of Blues - Sunset

• EEK! At The Greek, Symphony in the Glen @ Greek Theatre

• Bob Dylan, Mark Knopfler @ Hollywood Bowl

• Travis Mersola, Rodello’s Machine, Denny White, Lily Elise, Garrett Lee Robinson @ Room 5 Lounge

• Ssion, House of Ladosha, Ab Soto, DJ Josh Peace @ Los Globos

• Chris Malinchak, James Del Barco, J99, Calcat @ The Central SAPC

• Black Rainbow + Zane @ Amoeba

• DJ Paul V @ King King Hollywood

• Barry Zweig Trio @ Del Monte Speakeasy (FREE)

• Dj Alfred Hawkins @ Del Monte Speakeasy

• House of Nightmarez w/ Alex Dreamz, Kris P., Dirty Lou @ Yost Theater

• Halloween Horror Costume Party feat. Marc Crenshaw, Khoizilla, Menikmati, Simon lefisch, Dmctchr, Death House of Love, Audio-C, Clevergirl @ Detroit Bar

• Cash’d Out, Clownvis Presley, Sina and Josh Unpunked @ Saint Rocke

• Dammit Janet, The Fling @ Alex’s Bar

• The Cabin Project, Sound Cannon, Beau James @ Molly Malones

• White Fang, Cosmonauts, Burnt Ones, Guantanamo Baywatch, White Mystery, unnatural Helpers, Nude Sunrise @ Blue Star

• M83 (DJ Set), Jason Bentley @ Lure

• Earth, Fontanelle, Stebmo @ Center for the Arts – Eagle Rock

• Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group @ Constellation Room (The Observatory)

• Macklemore & Ryan Lewis @ The Observatory

• Motion City Soundtrack, Jukebox The Ghost, Now, Now @ The Glass House

• Hip Hatchet Maesa Vermouth Paulene @ El Cid

• Freak Star, The Dagons, Igor Spectre @ Redwood Bar

• H & S Band and Burlesque w/ Dan Mancini @ Harvard & Stone

• Japanese Horror Night w/ DJ’s Tense & Daniel Graves @ Das Bunker

• SciFiDie, Luciano Palacios, Wade Weston, Jounce, Beta Control, Frequency K, Camilo Rave, Hike, Baron JL, Skuzzo @ Bardot

• Neil Halstead @ McCabe’s Guitar Shop

• Bone Thugs N Harmony @ City National Grove of Anaheim

• Thee Oh Sees, Amplified Heat, Olneyville Sound System @ Pappy & Harriet’s 

Sunday Funday: The Do Over, Dub Frequency's Guess Event at Drai's and Miami Horror at Dim Mak Cannonball Sundays

Each year - I get uber excited to attend The Do Over - because it is hands down, the best music event in Los Angeles on most Sunday afternoons.   The tunes are always impressive - even though its often a mystery who will be performing - and the crowd 's always eclectic.

Today will be the first time I attend this season - because sadly, the SUPERGOODMUSIC train has not been able to make it yet in 2012.    BUT its a great day for boogying down in Hollyhood because on top of The Do Over, Treasure Fingers performs at Dub Frequency's Guess event at Drai's Hollywood from 12-6 too and then Miami Horror takes over for Dim Mak's Cannonball Sundays later that night.

You can RSVP for all the events - but arriving early is advised....which means, I got to stop typing and get in my ride.  DO OVER - here I come.

The Do Over happens every Sunday in Los Angeles in the summer from 2-10 PM at LURE (formerly Cabana Club) at 1439 Ivar Avenue.  RSVP at thedoover.net/la

Rookie Festival Makes Splash - Pacific Festival a Relative Success

EC Twins

Mike Tunney - Pacific Festival Organizer

SUPERGOODMUSIC.com spent part of this past holiday weekend in the slightly warmer Orange County for the 1st ever Pacific Festival. Put together by Mike Tunney and friends and featuring two distinctly different days of music, one electro and one reggae-dub soul, I thought it was well worth my time.

Day 1 definitely caught the attention of more Los Angelenos. This should come as no surprise as it was headlined by Dim Mak's Steve Aoki, hosted by Mark The Cobransake, and featured a host of rising talent from the indie-electro-dance scene. From Classixx to Miami Horror to Dan Sena to EC Twins to all the fellas from Guns in The Sun - there was something new to be turned on to. The performances of Rob Roy and Chiddy Bang also brought in some much needed hip-hop downtime when the performances transitioned from outside to inside at the Sutra Lounge. In addition to Aoki, there were also heavyweights The Sounds and Alan Braxe, as well as a planned SILENT DISCO to ensure fans stayed until the end of the night.

Chilling w/ Kenya from Guns in the Sun

Chiddy Bang

And fans did stay. I exited shortly after Them Jeans came on at 1 am to a packed lounge of people barely capable of standing. The 21+ festival crowd was definitely in effect, especially in the VIP section, where the bar was all you can drink. For a mere $45, you could upgrade from regular admission to the inspiring black-out extravaganza that was VIP. While that unbridled access to alcohol may not have been the best way for the organizers to make money, it certainly gave the fans something to be excited about in addition to the music......and excited they were. The sloppiness went from about a 4 to a 9 or 10 between five and eight pm.

Intoxicated Concert Goers

Having agreed to provide press coverage (like this post), SUPERGOODMUSIC was able to catch some dope performances and snap some choice pics, all starting with Classixx on the main stage. The rising LA duo, who have released material on Dim Mak records, treated the crowd to a host of remixes including their excellent version of Listzomania which, in our opinion, should have been featured on the Wolfgang Amadeus Remix album (it is not).

Classixx

Miami Horror

After Classixx, Miami Horror made what I believe is their first festival appearance for a live band, or at least their first festival appearance anywhere remotely close to LA. The quartet brought a lot more energy to the stage than Classixx, in no small part because they play live instruments as opposed to computers. Benjamin Plant, the major brains behind Miami Horror, was all over the place - from playing wooden blocks to climbing the support beams and hanging off the side of the stage. They played their recognizable songs and then some other tunes that I'm hoping are on their album, Illumination, which was released on August 20th.

The Sounds followed before Aoki took stage, but I didn't catch much of their performance. I was scrambling around trying to figure out where other stages were, chopping it up with the Guns in The Sun crew and figuring out that press access did not include VIP admission. Although organization was not the festival's forte, at least they did realize that allowing press to get knee deep in booze probably wouldn't facilitate coherent or accurate feedback.

Steve Aoki

Nonetheless, SUPERGOODMUSIC negotiated their way into some free libations and took in Aoki's dance party from afar before moving in close for pictures and a potential champagne shower. With his mom and friends on stage, Aoki sprayed bottles of bubbly, facilitated crowd surfing and tossed around his signature long hair from behind the boards. Sporting a typical Aoki outfit of tanktop and hipster shoes - he paraded back and forth across stage inviting up a few carefully selected guests for their minute of festival fame, including this girl:

After Steve Aoki, the expected Skull Candy sponsored Silent Disco just never manifested. While that was extremely disappointing (silent discos are really f'ing cool), I was pleasantly surprised to find the Guys and Dollas party animals, EC Twins, throwing down in the Sutra Lounge. Their on stage excitement and enthusiasm definitely infected the crowd, and before you knew it, the room was at capacity for their blended dance anthems. The night continued with performances from Rob Roy, Chiddy Bang, Alan Braxe and Them Jeans, whose set we unfortunately missed.

Chiddy Bang

Unlike most Day 1 attendees, we returned for Day 2. The paradigm shift from indie-electro to reggae-dub-soul certainly did not offend SUPERGOODMUSIC's sensibilities because the headlining act for Day 2, Rebelution, is one of the hottest items on the reggae-dub soul scene. Although we didn't come down as early - we certainly were not going to miss Rebelution.

Boasting a tight young nucleus of talent (the band consists of four young to mid 20's charmers who met at UCSB), Rebelution has been putting on amazing performances long before and ever since their second album, Bright Side of Life, dropped in August 2009. Avoiding the sophomore slump, Bright Side of Life reached #1 on Billboard's reggae charts and obtained a #3 spot on i-tunes top albums downloaded, and has provided the fuel necessary to oil this band's touring machine. With spots at almost every festival this summer, from Summer Camp to Wakarusa to All Good to Lollapalooza, Pacific Festival was lucky to score them at the end of the tiresome run.

Eric from Rebelution

Expendables

The band (Rebelution) definitely delivered on their hype - bringing their dub-soul fire for almost 100 minutes on Sunday night when they took the stage after Expendables (who were good - but not quite as good as their Sunset Strip Music Festival performance at The Roxy). Rory (keys) and Wesley (drums) played cleanly from behind their respective instruments, while Eric (vocals, guitar) and Marley (bass) provided the eye candy, energy and lyrics up front. The quartet served up crowd pleasers from both Bright Side of Life and their first release, Courage to Grow, to close down the festival, inviting pseudo-rastas to spark it up on songs like "Green to Black," before smashing it with their bass heavy encore of "Safe and Sound" (Marley brought it on SaS).

Eric & Marley of Rebelution

As most festivals due in their earliest years, Pacific Festival probably lost money. In a tough economy - it would be hard to expect major returns from a first foray into multi-day event production. The absence of massive corporate sponsors (no major brand sponsor although Skull Candy and a few other companies did appear to sponsor the event at some level) and the presence of unlimited drinks for VIP, also probably did not help the Festival's bottom line.

All that said, Pacific Festival has a lot of positives to take from their rookie year, including a good foundation to build on and a client base that seemed pleased with their experience.

We had a great time and hope the festival is back for year 2 :D

You can see more pictures of our experience here - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=498751&id=255784860346&ref=mf

Pacific Festival - OC: Day 1 Sample Pics (MORE TO COME)

EC Twins

The Sounds

Chiddy Bang

Miami Horro

We're about to head off for Day 2 to catch the Dub-aliciousness of Rebelution, Expendables and friends, but we thought we'd dose you fans with a little bit of the great pics we snapped yesterday at the wild Day 1.

From Classixx to Miami Horror to Steve Aoki (crowd surfing video on our youtube page!) to Braxe in the Sultra Lounge - the artists threw it down hard and the crowd ate it up. Here's some of what we saw....

Rob Roy

Classixx

Miami Horror

Steve Aoki