Music Festivals

The Economics of Music Festivals: Who's Getting Rich, Who's Going Broke?

By Chris Parker It's as though the sad, lamentable death of recorded music was accompanied by a kick-ass wake. Sure, label executives have had to sell their fancy homes and put their kids in public schools, but the rest of us have been feasting on a musical smorgasbord. Nothing better exemplifies ... More >>

The Biggest Sellouts at SXSW

SXSW is not a music festival so much as it is an experiment in excess. In honor of the world's most bloated city this week, we present the five biggest sellouts at SXSW. 1. Best Coast Psh, I remember when you were all cool and tweeting as your cat. Now look at this, all done up in fancy lights an ... More >>

Four Reasons Lollapalooza Needs EDM

By Ian Traas See Also:EDC 2012: The Underground Has Left The Building Dave Grohl: His Grammys Speech About Electronic Music Was Bullshit [Slideshow] Lollapalooza 2012: The PeopleJustice at Lollapalooza, 8/5/12Ten things your Lollapalooza outfit says about youWith every year that passes, it feels li ... More >>

25 Gorgeous GIFs From Lollapalooza

By Reed Fischer See also: *Ten Things Your Lollapalooza Outfit Says About You *Lovely Ladies of Lollapalooza This past weekend's running of Lollapalooza in Chicago was intense. The heat, the monsoon-like storm on Saturday, and even the lobster corn dogs all exceeded what the human body can take n ... More >>

Lollapalooza Suspended, Resumed After Dangerous Weather Conditions

BY ERIK THOMPSON The 2012 installment of Lollapalooza has thus far brought the requisite extremes, in terms of performances and potent weather. A two-hour delay cut through the middle of Saturday's entertainment at Chicago's Grant Park, and a good many people were wishing they had just the record h ... More >>

Coachella Wins Again: Councilman Drops Tax Proposal

See also: Coachella Organizers Threatening to Take 2014 Off and Move the Festival Elsewhere The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will remain in Indio, at least for now. City Councilman Sam Torres, who last month proposed an admissions tax that would cost promoters Goldenvoice an estimated $ ... More >>

James' Tim Booth On Why Coachella Kicks (The Old) Lollapalooza's Ass

See also: *Our complete Coachella coverage *Top Ten Awkward Coachella Dance Move GIFs For much of their 30 year existence, alternative Manchester Britpop rockers James have been severely underrated. Having toured across the globe and played some of the biggest festivals in the world, frontman Tim ... More >>

Five WTF Examples of Marketing at SXSW

See also: *The Worst Moments of SXSW 2012 *The Best of SXSW Music: Saturday 3/17/2012 By Audra Schroeder During SXSW, and especially in the last five years or so, Sixth Street turns into one long, strange sensory overload. People nearly give you eyeball papercuts trying to get their fliers in your ... More >>

Alert: SXSW Coverage Ahead

"What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area." -- Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive You don't have to spend much time at South By Southwest to know that all of the above building ... More >>

Le Butcherettes

Teri Gender Bender is the most volatile woman in rock

Whew! Coachella 2012 Back On As Planned

Mason Magruder​See also: Coachella Status Uncertain As Indio Delays Contract With Goldenvoice Following a vote by the Indio city council last night to approve the city's two year contract with festival promoter Goldenvoice, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is back on as scheduled. ... More >>

Warped Tour - Cal State Dominguez Hills - 8/10/11 (With Gifs!)

Andrew Courtien​Warped Tour, featuring The Devil Wears Prada, Gym Class Heroes, SHARKS, Yelawolf, and more Cal State Dominguez Hills 8/10/11 Warped Tour is the longest running touring festival in the United States, older than the now dead Ozzfest and the immobile Lollapalooza. Throughout its ... More >>

Urban Nomad Interviews Fitz and the Tantrums at Lollapalooza

Jeremiah Alexis Fitz and the Tantrums at Lollapalooza​Urban Nomad, the gregarious Jeremiah Alexis, shoots exclusive video for West Coast Sound. Check out the previous installments here. Urban Nomad caught up with L.A.'s finest hybrid rockers Fitz and the Tantrums at Lollapalooza this past wee ... More >>

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other: Our Off-the-Beaten Path Guide To Summer Festivals

​ One of the best parts about being at a festival are those moments you walk by a stage and have that "what the fuck" moment. It's when you hear something that just doesn't fit. It's the feeling some people probably had at Chaos In Tejas this summer when, coming from Unbroken's set, they stumble ... More >>

Coachella Festival to Be Held on Two Consecutive Weekends in 2012

Colin Young-WolffSounds like twice the fun.​ Big news for fans of desert music: Next year the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will be over two consecutive weekends. Tickets go on sale this Friday. That's right. Almost a full year away. The reason for both the expansion and the early ... More >>

Lollapalooza Lineup: L.A. Bands Make a Strong Showing!

​ Is it already time to think about summer music festivals? Indeed, with SXSW and Coachella firmly behind us, we must now turn to the upcoming festival of festivals that has come to mark every summer. First major fest to reveal its lineup is Lollapalooza, which celebrates its 20th anniversary ... More >>

Sex Crime and Violence During DJ-Driven 'Ultra Weekend' in Miami -- And, Yes, Californians Were in the Thick of It

YouTubeHeadquarters, we have a wedgie.​The just-wrapped "Miami Music Week/Ultra Weekend" in South Beach was marred by violence, and allegations of rape. Our sister publication Miami New Times reports that three Californians were arrested on suspicion of gang raping a college student at the Fon ... More >>

If You Can't Join 'Em, Block 'Em: "There Is No SXSW" Twitter App

​Judging from the chorus of preemptive groans heard (RT!) round our Twitter timelines this weekend, many of you not going to SXSW are dreading the takeover of Twitter by those who are. But thanks to Lanyard, a directory of conferences, now you don't have to make like a kindergartener and squ ... More >>

NPR Claims Electric Daisy Carnival Rave Was Bigger Than Coachella in 2010

Timothy NorrisBigger (and more rollin') than Coachella?​ NPR's blog The Record just published an interesting end-of-the-year survey of the current rise of dubstep, and it's frattier doppelganger "bro-step" (read the comments thread for that post for a kinda pointless debate about the nuanced d ... More >>

Beat Scene Babe Tokimonsta Remixes TAKE (MP3), Low End Theory to Invade Eagle Rock Music Festival

Tokimonsta remixes TAKE; Low End Theory hits the Eagle Rock Music Fest.​The world-famous Low End Theory club will host a stage at the Eagle Rock Music Festival this Saturday. That's the reason for the season, but do we really need an excuse to debut a track combining the talents of two beat sc ... More >>

What Exactly Is A Rave? $1 Million Lawsuit Against City Of L.A. By 'EDC' Promoter Claims Trance Show Is Not A Rave

​Among some of the more interesting points of a rave promoter's $1million-plus lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles for canceling a planned Halloween weekend show featuring superstar DJ Tiesto at the Convention Center is the argument that the event is a concert rather than a rave. The suit ... More >>

7 Questions with @ScrewYouSXSW

​There's a new tweeter in town and she's mad as hell. In the last week, @ScrewYouSXSW, the self-proclaimed pissed off wife of a SXSW attendee, has been tweeting about happenings she's been learning about from her husband via text. A number of people at SXSW think this enigmatic person is of ... More >>

Louis Armstrong: Good Evening Ev'rybody

Yo, Procrastinator! SXSW 2010 Application Due Tomorrow Night

Sid Vicious never filled one of these​Tomorrow at midnight is the deadline to submit your application for you and/or your awesome LA band to play at the 2010 South By South West conference/festival/music-biz-clusterfuck. Yeah, we know. Part of the reason you got into music was because you don ... More >>

Promote This: The Adler Effect

On the eve of the Sunset Strip Music Festival, Lou Adler and his son Nic talk about the concert business

Festivals Then and Now: Lou Adler and Nic Adler Talk Monterey Pop and the Sunset Strip

The Adler posse knows a thing or two about the concert business. Lou Adler, the patriarch, is responsible for some of the great American cultural touchstones of the past 40 years, and a few of these moments are showcased on the wall of his home office in Malibu. There's the movie poster for The ... More >>

The Henry Clay People to Convene A "Mustache Circus" Featuring Fol Chen, Flying Tourbollin Orchestra

Timothy Norris Last Thursday we got a note from Andy Siara, he of the Henry Clay People, to inform us of an upcoming HCP show at the Echo and Echoplex that has the potential to be a great event: A Mustache Circus, slated for Friday, August 14. Says Siara: We're callin it the "Rock n Roll Mustache ... More >>

Over the Weekend: SXSW Music, Metallica's "Not So Secret" Show, Mad Tea Party, Puppet Up! Uncensored For Adults Only

After 10 long days (and nights) we can finally say South by Southwest 2009 is a wrap. Though we still haven't unpacked, we've dragged our road weary and hungover bodies out of Austin, Texas and back into the office to bring you a play-by-play of this year's SXSW Music and Interactive. But just becau ... More >>

SXSW Snapshot: Kosha Dillz Choked by Boa Constrictor

Last night I posted a "SXSW Notes from the Road" update courtesy of rappers Yak Ballz and Kosha Dillz who are keeping me updated on their SXSW experience via e-mail. Today Dillz sent in this SXSW snapshot of him walking down what appears to be 6th Street with a boa constrictor around his neck. Yes, ... More >>

SXSW Design of the Day: The Periodic Table of Twitter

SXSW Design of the Day: The Periodic Table of Twitter Victor Broadley We've stumbled across some cool gadgets thus far at SXSW Interactive (like the Poken) but this Twitter avatar design, created by Interactive and Film participant Victor Broadley, is our pick of the day. We LOL'd and wished we wer ... More >>

F Yeah Fest Releases Partial List of SXSW 'Mess With Texas' Day-Party Line-Up

Last year one of the most buzzed about parties at South By Southwest was the big-ass Mess With Texas party at Waterloo park. Organized by Sean Carlson and Keith Morris of the F Yeah Fest, along with Austin promoter Transition Transmission Entertainment (which does the great fall Fun Fun Fun Festiv ... More >>

Havana Comes to Hollywood

SXSW Flashback: Even Jandek is a SXSW whore

It's quite possible that Jandek -- more than any artist in history -- has milked the obscurity thing for all that it's worth.

Add three more SXSW bands from L.A. to the list

Last week we offered an extensive list of L.A.-based bands hitting South by Southwest in Austin this year (March 13-16). Alas, we missed three of them, all from the beautiful township of Midcity, Cali. This from Brian Miller: Noticed on the la weekly sxsw blog that 3 la acts are missing. I have a ... More >>

Detour 2007

LA Weekly's Detour Music Festival returning to Downtown LA on October 6th, 2007

Siren Music Festival in NYC

The Village Voice's Siren Music Festival took place over the weekend with performances from M.I.A., New York Dolls, Elvis Perkins, The Black Lips and a lot more. Click here to visit the Voice's music blog Sound of the City and read more about it. Or go straight to all the photos. M.I.A. actually ... More >>

Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Loads of BBQ

Stagecoach Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Fields, Indio, May 5-6

Coachella And the Cure for the Common Festivalitis

Super Fun Music Hour Podcast #11

Southern (Cali) Comfort

I passed on South By Southwest this year, but that doesn't mean I'm not there in spirit... and apparently some minds. I've already received 5 text messages from fellow music heads asking if can get them into this or that party and one asking for a promoter friend's cell #. SOS: band missed flight! ... More >>

Festivus Maximus

Do you enjoy crowds, music and exhaustion?

Nightranger at SXSW

Snakebites

A Small New Future

ALEC HANLEY BEMIS on the casualties and survivors in the war between the Cynics and the True Believers

Viva la Revoluçion

Sound and sedition at the LAMC

Perry Farrell's Mystical Musical Tour

The hedonist at 42

From Lollapalooza to IPO

Festival founder Marc Geiger bets on online music

Tribal Gathering

Coachella festival: It's all in the mix

Good Friday

Mob Rule

Swept away in New Orleans