With the jungle as it’s backdrop, Envision Festival is one of a kind. The 2015 aftermovie will have you booking the next flight to Costa Rica. Envision offers a unique blend of musicians, workshops, art and yoga classes all set amongst the stunning tropical oasis of Uvita, Costa Rica. Unforgettable performances from The Polish Ambassador, Emancipator and Random Rab, all with crimson beach sunsets as the background, its hard to not start planning your trip immediately.
The video also showcases the wide array of activities geared towards health, education and rejuvenation. Witness the exhilarating performance art, live art installations, and monumental visionary stages utilizing natural materials that round out the life-changing Envision Festival experience.
The four day festival returns to the sandy shores of Costa Rica February 25-28, 2016 – Tickets are on sale now click HERE to get your 4-day passes before they’re gone!
Check out their epic aftermovie and start planning your trip for 2016.
Category: Music
Riot Fest 2015
Chicago, IL
Sept 11th- 13th
Riot Fest 2015, this summer, stood as an homage to that sacred fight against the “Establishment” over the past 50 years. There were key faces, reunions, and debuts much like they have had in years prior, but something this time was different. Now, it very well could be the change in overall scenery since the venue moved, although, the 12th and 24th ward held its own. Somehow it just felt like something was missing. Even with a more accessible and simple lay out of Douglas Park, celebrated by the crowd over all, the tragically scenic bottle neck passages between stages in Humbolt were missed. There was something else though; something almost a bit more elusive. It felt like passion wasn’t fully there. Not from the festival itself, per say, or the organizers really, they dealt with quite a bit to keep it in the city, but more so from the city itself. As a whole the masses felt somewhat benign, due to what I wonder, in a way that contradicted the theme of the whole event to “Riot!”
Now ironically this is the type of crowd that would bring their kids to a carnival while System of a Down was raging in the background on a Saturday night. (I mean I know I would. Start ‘em young). But, children sometimes don’t always know how to play nice with others, as was the case with Steve Sneider during that set. “At least he’s still breathing.” I mean it’s a rock show, but really they were only ones that I could see getting anyone pumped. System carried what looked like to me as one of if not the largest crowds of the entire festival. To get across field took over 20 min when earlier in the day it took 3. That’s cool. That’s how it’s supposed to be. But, what with the rest of the fest? I mean the line up was sick. The acts are all world class, having left their mark on music history for decades beyond their inception. How is it that the city just seemed so distant?
Let’s look at the positives No Doubt was a treat giving us the sound and style we all anticipated. Tenacious D was for sure entertaining. Rancid killed it though you could just barely tell from the crowd (This one kind of threw me off)…
Flogging had a fun little mosh pit circulating but rocking just like I remember in high school.
Alkaline was definitely making moves.
Coheed and Cambria destroyed the stage, looking like a real life version of “Blanka” from Street Fighter. (His sounds revitalized the reasons why I am a fan.) Rodrigo y Gabriella took a minute to get off the ground, but as soon as they hit their Megadeath cover it felt right on track.
Alexisonfire, Ice Cube, Damian Marley, Billy “fucking” Idol, I could rattle them all off, but you get it. This is why we go. We dance, we thrash, we cheer, drink beer and all the while we bond with the people around us, kind of. See this is not a festival like all of its other psychedelic peers. Oh there were party favors; let’s be real, it’s a festival. But, not the type you see more and more of now a day. No, this is the Whiskey slamm’n, joint flick’n, beer mongers that we all know and love. Just this time it felt like they were ready to call it a night by the time the cops shut down Snoops set. And, when I say shut down I mean on the DOT.
Your choice of food was either fried, fried, or triple fried anything. Not complaining when you’re drunk, but the badass food trucks were left tucked away by the Riot Speaks stage. Now, RIOT SPEAKS, this was cool. Getting some insight to the inner working of what’s going on around you is not something you get anywhere else. So, hell yeah to that! After getting some knowledge laid down, you could find a donation run Arcade just around the corner. That’s right they had Rampage! Winning! Then to top it off you got a sideshow circus. Legit freaky deaks! Um, Awesome! So, what’s the deal then? Why wasn’t the crowd beside themselves with child like glee from the sick and twisted carnival that they all came to see?
Well, if you paid for any of the levels of VIP then you may have had a reason since it was pretty lack luster for the price. You still had to by drinks and wait in long lines for food. But, you got a nice limited seating Lounge area to mellow or watch the bands from a live stream. (If that’s your thing) The top level Super VIP felt like something that I experienced at a North side Bar mitzvah. Easily expensive, so don’t get me wrong, but cookie cutter. It almost felt like a statement was being made about the price I could have paid. Sorry, Sean and Mike, gotta be real here. If you are gonna put massage chairs, lounges and short cut access out there for what you are clearing after over head, you gotta give some more love to the creative lay out of it. Press was ultimately not allowed in the VIP, so, technically I wasn’t supposed to me there but just goes to show you where you can find yourself when making new friends. Thanks Frank. Upon entering the forbidden zone with our newfound friends I realized very quickly, how luck we got, and that in order to maneuver the grounds freely you needed a combination of bracelets. Sixteen if remember correctly. Credentials for days! Every area was ruled by another bracelet. But, only “One to Rule them all!” Our locally hired crew from S3 controlled the flow of the population and made a valiant attempt to hold the lines but people were still jumping fences. Can’t shut a poor rocker down! They plugged that hole quick though, so, hats off.
If you were lucky to get back stage or even on the stage during the sets you had to have super special bracelets to make the cut, other wise you weren’t going up there and that’s that. Even the photographers were not allowed to have their allotted 15 min under the artist in the pit during the Headliner sets. No, those spots were then reserved for the uber special bracelets. I couldn’t understand this move, really; I chuckled to see iPhones instead of Pro-cams taking shots of the headliners so I thought it was slightly ridiculous, but who am I to judge? I didn’t have to pay $180,000 to prep and repair a city park, after getting kicked out of my home, and negotiating with a hospital board to let me move in next-door with ten’s of thousands of my friends. I have no clue what it takes to run a multi-million dollar machine. But, it was fun and I had a good time. One better be enjoying themselves at a fest, other wise go home!
All in all it was well done even though it was a quiet Riot compared to years past, but it held it’s own in its new home and I got to interviewed Gwar! Heck yeah!
Check out the entire photo album from Riot Fest 2015 here!
Burning Man pictures giving you serious FOMO?
Don’t want to wait a whole other year to dance your butt off at Robot Heart?
I present to you …. Further Future 002
Taking place April 29th – May 1st 2016, just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, this desert festival built by those who made Robot Heart what it it today, Further Future, brings together like-minded people to connect through music and art while encouraging a culture of mindful optimism, wonder and exploration.
Tickets on sale now Here
Still unsure? Check out the aftermovie from last year to seal the deal
Over the course of Chicago music’s history we have seen the rise and fall of several great clubs and venues. Some have risen high and quickly but at the end fell due to the changing times and economic down turns. Others have shown the staying power over the years. The truth of the matter is no one can tell what will stay or really anticipate why it goes. We’ve lost some legendary places just recently: Neo, Excalibur (kind of), The Congress, Crobar. But, with venues such as Metro, Aragon, Cubbie Bear, Legends, Green Mill, Schubas, The Abby, Concord we stay loyal because we know that at some point the music we love will find itself there and us with it.
Well, boys and girls there’s a new joint in town that has the potential to make itself one of our new music mayhem stations and join the others in campaign to bring solid sounds to local clubs. It’s a little bit of motor city lined with a touch of LA and topped with a Chicago Pizza. HVAC (Heating and Cooling) deep in the heart of Wrigleyville, just doors away from the Cubbie Bear where last year David Grohl brought the Foo Fighters on the Sonic Highways Tour, has now, since they have been open, a few boasted chart appearing artists. Artists like Ryan Cabrera, Dee Snider from Twisted Sister, The Three Kings (Jason Aldine’s band) with School of Rock and slew of local talent. We were fortunate enough to catch BIG DATA pull a DJ set last month on July 3rd, and sat with him after for a few moments.
BIG DATA played to a half packed room until people on the street caught wind of who was spinning. By the end of a well-curated mix set HVAC was rocking out with people to the walls. Alan Wilkis gave the low down on his start in the music industry, coming out of Harvard with an English degree, his collaborations all the way to his rise to “Dangerous” heights on the charts.
I asked him pretty bluntly,” So… Harvard… What was that like?”
“A lot of studying…”
(Touché)
“Fair. So, how did the degree play into this project or did you just turn from it all together?”
Wilkis revealed, “Well, I graduated with a major in English language, so, it has some influence. Maybe not as much as I like but I am doing alright.” (under statement) I started to ask a bit more on what it’s like to transition to topping charts so quickly?
“It’s been kinda wild.” Wilkis mentioned, “There has been a lot of change and collaborations.”
Wilkis seemed pretty excited about the night commenting on the set at HVAC, “This venue’s cool. The crowd was pretty responsive. Really dig the art here (referring to the famous photographer Paul Natkin and the overall motorcycle chic). This was a nice stop to come to Chicago. I’m really happy Damon called me up and asked me to play.”
“Wait what? Called you up? Like come hang out and chill?” I said. “
“That’s right.”
Damon Ranger, Oscar/Grammy/Emmy artist, called him up, as friends usually do, and said “Hey come play at my new club.” So, it seems that Damon, a Chicago born resident, is the curator and part owner of this new take on Rock Club Pizza Joints. And his way of getting his friends to come play is by calling them up and having them over for beer and pizza. What a Concept! No brainer right? Well, with the company that Damon keeps, and it goes deep into the music world, I wondered what he had in mind when opening up HVAC. Damon stated, “I wanted to make a Chicago type of Viper Room.” I mean when you make a business of winning Grammys for collaborating with artists like Kanye West and taking stages at Riot and Lollapolooza what could you possibly anticipate? It seems Meat Puppets are set to play this week Saturday, August 29th directly after the Foo Fighters at Wrigley Field for an after Party. Catch my drift. This place has the legs and the backing to become a destination spot for greater music makers in a more organic way of drawing them to play Chicago. Not a lot of places like that here any more. Buddy Guy’s Legends is probably the only other one I can think of that has the same type of feel and way about it. Carmen Rossi and Adolfo Garcia restaurateur owners of a few other prominent clubs in Chicago like Pearl Tavern and Hubbard Inn, having been friends with Damon from years ago decided to all get together and bring their passions with them.
From the inception of this club HVAC has surrounded itself with strong talented friends, committed to bringing in big acts and support local music with talented high quality artist. Even though they are in their proving stages it seems like a recipe for success. Go check out the Meat Puppets if you can. But, even if you miss it make sure to stop through you never know who will show up.
This past weekend I got to sit down with Goldroom (Josh Legg) and chat about his new EP and experience at Wakarusa 2015. Despite some technical difficulties in the beginning of his set, he had the crowd dancing to his sunset disco set at The Satellite Stage, Friday evening with the beautiful setting sun as the backdrop. Here’s what he had to say,
So Josh, Did you get a chance to go out and explore at all today?
I didn’t, getting the chance explore festivals is my favorite thing. I love disappearing into the crowd and seeing bands I’ve never seen before and just hanging out and meeting people.
Are you staying tomorrow?
No I’m leaving for Little Rock in a couple hours, so I can fly to Europe to go to Greece
When did you start producing music and how did you get into it?
It depends on what your definition of producing music is – looking back I think it started when I was about 12. My cousin gave me a Task AM 4 track cassette recorder. With a 4 track recorder you can record instruments on side A and dub them to other instruments on the other side, like it is now but it was on cassette tapes. So I was writing from the moment I started playing guitar, I started writing songs on it, when I was 10 years old. So I was always writing songs and recoding them and I got really interested and excited about how to make the recording sound as good as possible, I didn’t really know it but that’s when I started learning about producing.
Do you only play guitar or do you play other instruments also?
I played Cello for like 8 years – I love cello, it’s my favorite. But a few years into that I started listening to rock and roll and forced my parents to buy me a guitar and then I started playing guitar and learning it and really fell it love with it. I play keys and bass also. When we play live with the band I play keys and guitar
So you just had an EP come out “It’s Like You’ve Never Went Away” – Tell me about that?
Yeah, it was kind of interesting. I’ve been an independent artist since I started and basically what happened with this EP was my label Dowtown Records and Snapchat came up with this idea for a collaboration that they wanted me to be apart of. So they pitched me on it and I thought it was really exciting. We shot four music videos vertically for phones and it’s really a short film that’s broken up into 4 music videos. So it’s kind of the first time that it ever happened before so the idea of getting the chance to do something that’s never been done before is pretty exciting.
Who are you inspirations and where did your influences come from for this EP?
My real influences and inspirations have always came from the same place, that’s classic song writing from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. I just want to write songs like Tom Petty, that’s all I care about doing and I just want to make classic Americana but put it over this really cool palate that I love. I’m trying to take classic folk music and Americana and write songs that are meaning full and lasting and that would work if I just played them on guitar and sang them but then placed them over this very narrow sliver of electronic music that I love
What would you like your listeners to take away from you EP?
Hopefully it can be an escape for some people. Music has always been an escape for me and when I was 14 and hating life I would just lie in bed and listen to music and imagine being somewhere nicer, warmer. I think I still make music coming from that place, so my hope is that I can make people feel something and want something more
Do you recommend any artists in your similar style to check out?
Most of my favorite artists don’t make dance music but I have a great community of riends that make the same music and come from the same background as me and kind of approach electronic music from a band and song writing perspective. And everyone should go check out guys like Poolside, The Knocks, RAC, The Youth. These are all people that I’m really close with Gigamesh – were all really close with each other and support each others music which is great and isn’t something that I really had until I started this project and found some kindred spirits and we all been approaching this style of music from the same perspective.
You’re playing a bunch of festivals this summer, which are you most excited for or that you already played?
Hangout fest in Alabama was really cool because it was literally on the beach and I’m going to be really happy about that any time it happens. I’m also really excited for Electric Forest, because everyone keeps telling me over and over again that it’s the greatest festival in the world and were going to spend a couple days there so I’m going to get to have my own adventure there and go out exploring. I’m really, really excited for that. I’m also playing a live set and a DJ set there, so that’s pretty cool. Then probably FYF Fest in LA just because that’s been a minute since I’ve played in LA, for LA fans, the hometown one is always big and FYF is a festival that I’ve loved for a longtime, it’s like Coachella’s little sister. So it’s going to be very cool to play that.
What can we expect from you for the rest of the year?
Working a lot with my band and like improving the live show and making it bigger and better and at this point I don’t have any more excuses, I have to finish my album. I think I’ve put out enough singles, I realized the other day I’ve put out an hour of original music but I’ve never released an album, so it’s time for me to finish my record, I’ve been writing it for 4 years now so that’s definitely the goal for the next new months.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I didn’t get a chance to explore today but I was very spiritually won over by the Ozarks, the drive in was so beautiful and you just feel like you are enveloped by nature then getting the chance to DJ in the middle of all that was very special, it was very cool.
Huge thank you again to Josh for taking the time out of his schedule to meet with us at Chicago Music Festivals this past weekend
Check out his new EP “It’s Like You Never Went Away” below
Categories
"Orcas" New Album by Lulacruza
Electronic folk duo, Lulacruza, composed of Alejandra Ortiz and Luis Maurette, releases their fourth full-length LP titled “Orcas” rightfully named after the beautiful Orcas Island where they recorded the album. Orcas is not like anything you have heard before. Inspired by the nature and wild life around them Lulacruza sets out to tell a story which embodies South American ritual and folklore. The lyrics are inspired by both sublime love and the calmest, darkest hour before sunrise, as well as ancient forces like the feeling of reuniting with what feels like a twin soul from a past life.
Orcas is Lulacruza’s most intimate body of work to date and also their most acoustic. By using instruments native to South America like the 4-string cautro and bombo, along with modern day electronics, Lulacruza was able to blur the lines between reality and fiction. On tracks such as “Comandante, (Commander)” Ortiz’s vocals float through the song like a soft blowing Colombian breeze. Lulacruza is a combination of Ortiz’s pen name “Lula” and the Spanish word “cruza,” which translates to “combine,” which is exactly what Orcas accomplishes; a perfect combination of ancestral music with modern technology.
“We wanted to keep the intimacy of acoustic folk music and combine it with the physical experience of big deep bass lines that can only be achieved with electronic processing,” explains Maurette. The experience of the album changes with the setting at which it’s listened to. Small speakers yield a more intimate feel, where as a large system will give a more deep, hypnotic feel.
Orcas was recorded, mixed and mastered by sound engineer Vance Galloway, noted for this work with Nicolas Jarr. Available through The Polish Ambassador’s boutique label JUMPSUIT RECORDS and Fertil Discos as a name-your-own-price download. The album is also available for purchase through MUSIC.LULACRUZA.COM, iTunes, Amazon and Spotify.
Come, take the journey and listen to Lulacruza’s new album ‘Orcas’ below
Tracklist:
01. Callar, Llorar, Gritar (Shut up, Weep, Shout Out)
02. Comandante (Commander)
03. El Agua Abarca (Sandal Water)
04. Estrella del Alba (Alba’s Star)
05. Lagunita (Hollow Pond)
06. Señor de Fuego (Lord of Fire)
07. Subterraneo y Estelar (Underground and Stellar)
08. Uno Resuena (One Resonates)
Chicago natives LWKY release a new future album “No Fear’ with live instruments to the mix. Members Derek Outson, Zack Harper, and Kevin Moze combined live guitar and keys to create electro-soul, future funk, and chill bass. LWKY recently performed live along with IndigoSun at Chicago Music Festivals event.
We highly recommend checking these guys out live and listening to their new seven-track EP ‘No Fear’. Featured on TheUntz.com free to download.
To find out when LWKY perform live next check out their website and social media:
Website: www.LWKYmusic.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/LWKYmusic
Youtube: www.Youtube.com/user/lwkymusicofficial
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/LWKYmusic
Just announced! Chicago Music Festivals proudly presents IndigoSun, LWKY, Caveman, Bronson Rock,R34L, and Surrounded by Owls on Saturday, March 28th!
EUPHORIA MUSIC & CAMPING FESTIVAL added more acts for its 4th annual blowout event returning toCarson Creek Ranch in Austin, TX from April 10-12, 2015. Joining the already star-studded lineup are RL Grime,EOTO & Friends, Thomas Jack, Gigamesh, G Jones, Freddy Todd, and D.V.S*, among others.
These acts join Pretty Lights, Ghostland Observatory, STS9, Adventure Club, Thievery Corporation, The New Deal, SunSquabi, SuperVision, Herobust, Manic Focus, The Werks, Savoy, Vibe Street, Zoogma, The Geek x Vrv, Black Tiger Sex Machine, and more. This is the biggest lineup in four years!
More acts will be added in the coming months, and all sorts of on-site activities will be revealed a we hurtle towards#EMCF15. Visit euphoriafest.com for more info!
Sources: Theuntz.com