Lollapalooza: why the Chicago music festival is a cut above the rest

When it comes to lineups, this summer there's not much that separates UK festivals from those taking place stateside. Most big acts who've put out an album in the past 12 months and who don't have either a) a pathological fear of tour buses or b) mind acquiring a stonking carbon footprint thanks to their 50-odd flights during the season, can be seen on bills from California to Southwold.

Fitting neatly into that bracket are the likes of Mumford & Sons, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, Haim, Two Door Cinema Club, Foals, The xx, James Blake, Palma Violets, Deap Vally and a host more artists who you've likely given a cursory Spotify sampling.

So when the global circuit is so samey, what makes a particular festival stand out? By our reckoning, the best-looking of the US fests is this weekend's Lollapalooza in Chicago - founded by Jane's Addiction man Perry Farrell and formerly a touring festival - which seems to have hit the nail square on the head with its lineup exclusives and ultra-accessible, urban-yet-picturesque location.

Coachella in California might be a swanky superstar playground, but for normal folk who don't fancy wandering around wearing little more than a bikini and a glazed expression all weekend, its sanitized atmosphere and weird alcohol rules - you can only drink in a handful of officiated areas - mean that many feel lost on its fastidiously tidy polo lawn. Especially Brits, who are used to boozing where they damn well please.

That said, Americans are just as often overwhelmed by the sprawling Glastonbury, in terms of sheer scale and the seemingly unstructured mayhem that goes along with a wild weekend on Worthy Farm, where people think you're odd if you don't participate in the site-wide, dusk-til-dawn-til-dusk-again drinking. Meanwhile, Washingston's Sasquatch and Tennessee's Bonnaroo are difficult for anyone who's not a student or a surprisingly loaded freelancer, with their protracted four-day bills and out-of-the-way locations.

The latter's notorious sticky southern climate also means that heat exhaustion and dehydration are a constant issue.

Since 2005, Lollapalooza has taken place in Chicago's Grant Park, which snuggles up right next to the striking Lake Michigan. Situated in The Loop - the city's business district - it's a shockingly easy festival to get to. There are no winding country roads to tackle. No nightmarish parking situations. No overwhelmed small town train stations. Instead you just take the L and hop off a short stumble from the park. This also means Lollapalooza is a no-camping event, meaning every night you return to the comfort of your overpriced AirBnB apartment while its usual inhabitants crash with friends and chuckle to themselves about the fact that you've just paid their rent for the whole month.

For the most part this year's Lollapalooza lineup fits the generic mold, but it has a fair few special shows to set it apart from the pack, including the first US performance from Nine Inch Nails since their gig at Los Angeles' Wiltern way back in September 2009. They've also secured The Cure's only US festival appearance this summer, with Robert Smith and co's next stateside show set for Austin City Limits in October. Then there's the chance to see up-and-coming locals like garage-teens The Orwells and hip-hop's newest hope Chance The Rapper playing on home turf. Queens of the Stone Age also bring '...Like Clockwork' to a North American festival for the first time, and we're certainly not going to complain about the stately presence of The National and New Order.

Every day, the event finishes at 10pm. At first this might seem like the work of a sinister festival killjoy, but in practice it's a brilliant idea as post curfew, bands from across the bill skip the site to play shows in venues all across the city, such as Schubas, Lincoln Hall, Empty Bottle, House of Blues and Park West. This year the gigs actually start the Wednesday before the festival, with Queens of the Stone Age, Lana Del Rey, Alt-J, Father John Misty, Jessie Ware, Death Grips, Kendrick Lamar, Diplo and The Postal Service amongst the acts putting in double time.

In practical terms, the ante has also been upped in case of weather based drama. Last year's festival saw a last-minute evacuation after a thunderstorm rolled onto the site on the Saturday afternoon and punters poured out of the park into stores and under bus stops. This time around if the wind and rain are repeated, festival promoters C3 have pledged to better communicate the locations of the three underground car parks that have been set aside for fans to hide out in, lest they end up in 20-deep in the nearest Starbucks fighting over the last blueberry muffin.

Rock it Out! Blog: “How To Survive A Music Festival!”

Heading to a musical festival for the very first time can be an exciting yet terrifying experience. Just ask Rock it Out! Blog host Sami Jarroush, who will be heading to his first Lollapalooza this weekend. Mile long walks between main stages, excessive heat, excessive bros, and packed trains to and from the park. Oh, and did we mention it poured this morning? The mud, oh, the mud!

On today's episode of Rock it Out! Blog, Sami along with Consequence of Sound Editor-In-Chief Michael Roffman offer up a few tips to help you make the most of your first time festival experience. Feel free to offer up your own survival tips in the comment section down below.

Make sure to follow Rock it Out! Blog on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to its YouTube channel. Also, stay tuned for a series of videos from Lollapalooza 2013.

PreemiePalooza music festival to help parents of premature babies

- After trying to conceive for over two and a half years, Keira and Richard Sorrells were finally ready to welcome triplet daughters into the world in 2006.

But only 25 weeks and five days into her pregnancy, Keira was diagnosed with preeclampsia, causing her blood pressure to skyrocket, kidneys to shut down, and threatening the possibility of a stroke.

To save her life and the babies' lives, Keira was forced to give birth to daughters Lily, Avery, and Zoe in Atlanta, Ga., on Dec. 20, 2006 – far earlier than their March 29, 2007, due date.

Collectively, the triplets weighed just over four pounds, designating them as "microbabies."

Immediately, the girls were rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and connected to oscillators, feeding tubes, nasal cannulas, and IVs. The doctors quickly stabilized Lily and Avery, but it took much longer to care for Zoe.

Lily and Avery spent four months in the hospital.

After five and a half more months, Zoe finally joined her sisters at home -- transformed into a medical environment, with feeding tubes in the living room, monitors in the crib areas, and oxygen tanks throughout for Zoe. But a few months later Zoe caught a secondary infection due to MRSA and on Feb. 16, 2008, she died. She was 14 months old.

Helping other parents

Today the Sorrells run The Zoe Rose Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps parents facing the challenges that come with premature babies.

"We're providing information in various ways that parents can understand and take in," said Keira Sorrells, who said she and her husband sometimes felt alone in managing their triplets' medical conditions. "Many times parents get so overwhelmed by the very clinical nature of the information given to them by the providers."

The Sorrells work with hospitals in their home of Jackson, Miss., that notify them of parents with preemies. They also visit the NICU to meet parents personally.

In 2010, they received a government grant to found the Preemie Parent Alliance, which helps organizations that support parents of premature babies across the country to collaborate.

"We saw people doing great work, but it was great isolated, individual work within communities, not from a regional or national perspective," said Richard Sorrells. "One thing that came out of our first summit is that everyone agreed that there was a great lacking, even in the greatest institutions in America, in the parental support standpoint."

Jennifer Flippin, nurse manager in UNC's Newborn Critical Care Center, agrees that information eases parents' anxiety.

"We find that the best support system for parents is other parents who have gone through something similar and can understand where they are right now in their lives, who understand what a hard time they're going through," she said.

Benefit music festival

In August, Lily and Avery start first grade. Lily has minor health problems including kidney reflux and slight sensory issues requiring monthly occupational therapy.

"They're just your typical 6-year-olds," said Keira Sorrells.

On Saturday, the Sorrells will bring their passion for preemies to the home of Jerry Levit, Keira's father, in Graham when they host a music festival, PreemiePalooza.

Held on Windy Meadows Farm in Alamance County, PreemiePalooza will seek to raise $5,000 to establish NICU resource libraries for River Oaks Hospital, Baptist Hospital and St. Dominic Hospital in Mississippi along with a hospital to be selected in the Triangle.

Venable Rotisserie Bistro in Carrboro is catering, and Top of the Hill in Chapel Hill is providing beverages.

Drew and Vanessa Moore, Venable's owners, have a history with the Sorrells family. Vanessa and Keira became friends while attending Chapel Hill High School together.

Drew Moore said the menu for PreemiePalooza includes grilled vegetable platters, a Sicilian eggplant relish, watermelon, and pork shoulder on rotisserie, among other plates. They are providing the food at cost.

Gates open at 5 p.m., and music will begin at 5:30. Guests should bring picnic blankets and lawn chairs to sit under the oaks and listen to the music played on the porch of Levit's home, built in 1895.

Levit watched his daughter and son-in-law go through the most difficult experience parents can face.

"For them to be able to transmit their grief and worry into action, support and compassion for other people, it's awe-inspiring to me," he said.

To learn more about the Zoe Rose Memorial Foundation or the Preemie Parent Alliance, go to zoerose.org or preemieparentalliance.org.

Grady: laurenbgrady@gmail.com

Flood City is on fire: Music festival grows with high

In 2009, the Johnstown Folk Fest got a name change and a new focus. Since then, the crowds flocking to Peoples Natural Gas Park have grown, and the musical lineups have gotten more high profile. It can't be denied that Johnstown's Ameriserv Flood City Music Festival is on a hot streak.

This weekend, the festival caters - as it usually does - to fans of Americana, blues, jazz and country. The artists on the bill, however, are all but eager to push those genres out of their comfort zones.

Greensky Bluegrass, of Kalamazoo, Mich., has gained acclaimed for utilizing bluegrass instrumentation in non-bluegrass contexts. Many of the quintet's original numbers situate contemporary song structures within a bluegrass framework. Cover songs by bands includingthe Talking Heads and Bob Marley are subject to interpretations.

Bass player Mike Devol credits Greensky's strong musicianship to a sort of "lateral leadership" within the band.

"I really loved playing in stringed quartets," said Devol, a classically trained cellist. "I loved the way the music moved without the outright leadership of one person. I feel the same way making music with my (Greensky) bandmates. No one person is dictating the tempo or energy of the music. Instead, we all come together in our playing to make one greater thing - the sound of a whole band playing together as a marriage of all our different contributions."

Greensky Bluegrass will perform two sets during the festival.

"Greensky is capable of performing in a lot of different ways," Devol said. "Our sets aren't only made up of our 'jammy' numbers but also some traditional bluegrass numbers, a cover or two and mostly our original songs. We try to give our audience a little bit of everything. ... We mix it up for ourselves as much as we do for our fans' varied tastes."

Meanwhile, State College's favorite sons, the Kalob Griffin Band, headline the Spangler Subaru side stage Aug. 3.

Affectionately dubbed "KGB," the Philly-based quintet features four Penn State graduates: singer/guitarist Griffin, guitarist Rob Dwyer, pianist John Hildenbrand and drummer Eric Lawry. Jonathan Davenport, a Berklee School of Music alum, rounds out the lineup on bass.

"(The Americana) genre is all over the place, but we're aiming to carve out our own form of it," Hildenbrand said.

The KGB frequently deviates from their country-folk roots sound with ease; "Oh Good Woman" has touches of '60s psychedelic garage-rock, while the sprawling, moody jam "Ricky Tick Tack" could be a distant redneck cousin of Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond."

The quintet has a self-itled EP and one full-ength record, "June Found A Gun," to their credit. Hildenbrand said new music is on the horizon.

"We are very close to releasing three new songs. ... 'June' took a lot of time, and doing a full-length album isn't easy. This time around we were able to focus on the details much easier than before."

The Roxy's Nic Adler On The Sunset Strip Music Festival, Politics And Social ...

Nic Adler of The Roxy.

On paper, Nic Adler is one of those LA kids that should have ended up as daily fodder for TMZ. His father is Lou Adler, the Grammy Award-winning music producer who opened The Roxy in 1973 (now most often seen on TV sitting next to Jack Nicholson courtside at Laker games). His mother is model-actress Britt Ekland. In 1991, at age 18, Nic and pals actor David Faustino, Dan Eisenstein and Robert Gavin opened Balistyx, the premiere under 21 hip-hop club on the Sunset Strip for a couple years.

After several years of band management, promotions and even as a restauranteur, Nic took over The Roxy's operations in 1998. If that weren't already enough, he decided to open Adler Integrated-a full-service marketing firm last year-now working with clients like the Staples Center and Austin City Limits. In his spare time, he also produces the Vegan Beer Fest and helped create the Sunset Strip Market.

So we didn't know quite what to expect when LAist caught up with Adler on a recent Saturday afternoon at The Roxy to talk to him about the Sunset Strip Music Festival (SSMF), which he co-founded in 2007. It turns out that Adler is good peeps: A down-to-earth guy whose passion in music, social media and civic duty was palpable.

Our conversation meandered from the SSMF to the dark, lean days on the Sunset Strip and how social media has helped revive the scene. He also talked about getting involved in WeHo community issues (he's currently the Vice President of the Business Association) and even about possible future political aspirations. And of course, we had to ask him about his favorite shows he's seen on The Sunset Strip.

What's new and different this year at the Sunset Strip Music Festival, which is now in its sixth year?

We've grown every year, not only in the amount of people that come, but I think in the way that we build out the street. We're not in a field somewhere, so we have this interesting layout of this long street with a parking lot here and a parking lot there and a bunch of businesses and the neighbors, so we have to work with the space like a puzzle. It's all about the balance between having enough entertainment value and having the right bands to also having the right food and the right activities. Art is something that we gonna see a lot more this year than we've seen in other years. We're working with Ethos Gallery [and graffiti artist RISK], and we're gonna have three or four live art installations going on throughout the festival. One of them are those big 10-foot Gibson guitars we have lining The Strip. We put those together with Gibson, and we're actually going to be painting one live in the street

So you'll be concentrating more on art this year?

Well, for us, that's where we're growing, and we're also growing by getting bigger bands. Last year, we had Marilyn Manson and The Offspring, so we split the headliner, which is an interesting thing to do. We thought we would get more people with two headliners, but it doesn't always work that way, so we went back to getting one dominant headliner with Linkin Park. That is a change from years past because I think before it was a little bit more about the top three or four bands, but there's no doubt that linkin park is the headliner of this festival.

And also this year, what's different is that we usually fell on the same day as the Rock the Bells festival for the past three years, so that's really limited us on how much hip hop we can do. So if you look at the lineup this year there's a lot more hip hop than we've ever had.

Did I see Doug E. Fresh in the lineup?

Yeah, and that's what we always do. Whether it was Public Enemy two years ago and De La Soul last year, we like to bring back classic hip hop, one because I myself am a big hip hop fan and i grew up on the sunset strip during a time-and I know this sounds weird-but there was a lot of hip hop on the strip.

How have you seen not only The Roxy, but The Strip evolve?

Any place that has been around for over 50 or 60 years, especially in entertainment, is going to have amazing years and not so amazing years because things come in fashion and out of fashion. We're really dictated by music, so, when you are, you're only good as the music you put into your venues.

I think we've battled a little bit, and we didn't understand on The Strip that there could be other places where there was music. And I think we almost fought against the idea, and we hurt ourselves. Once we realized that the more music there is from different parts of LA, the better it's going to be. It was almost like rising tides lifts all boats. I don't know we've always thought about that in terms of music and music communities...So once we got past that The Strip was the only place to go, things started to come back to us. It was almost like 'get humble, stop talking about how great the '80s were; stop retelling stories and start telling new stories.'

How did social media play a role in telling new stories? Reviving The Strip

We weren't good listeners on The Strip. Until you listen, you can't make real change. and social media gave us the opportunity to start listening again. Once we started listening, we realized that we're not the only game in town, and we can get better and we can stop talking about the past and start talking about who played last night...and who's playing next week...and who our new favorite band is that's coming through-whether they're from the Eastside or the Westside-and once we took that approach I think things started to change for us.

You've talked about keeping things relevant while respecting the history of The Strip and that had to do with the attitude shift?

It did and now we're seeing a new wave of restaurants and bars coming in. We have Rock and Reilly's. We have Pearl. We have Everleigh. We have the State Social House...but we also want to smell the history and know that this ground was not poured last week. I'm standing where Jim Morrison once stood, but I'm also at a bar that has TVs and has dance music playing, and that wasn't always accepted here. So finally we found this amazing balance between our history, and what the people want and the atmosphere they want to be in. The people don't always want heavy metal music blasting in their faces. They might want to hear pop music while they drink their martini...

I think in the late 90s you had a bunch of business owners who started sometime in the 70s, and they had an amazing 80s where they didn't even know where to put the cash...and then the 90s come along and things start to move in different places-Third Street Promenade started opening up, Universal City opened up, LA Live...it wasn't the only game in town and a lot of them didn't know how to deal with that. They all got very competitive, and the competition really hurt us, we were fighting our neighbors. I was trying to get that band from the Viper Room because I did not want the Viper Room to succeed. But now I know, the more the Viper Room succeeds, the more I succeed, the more the Rainbow succeeds. We're only as good as our neighbor on the strip.

What are the other venues that are involved in the music festival and is there some sort of friendly competition when you're not collaborating on the festival?

I call it co-opetition. We [The Roxy] jumped on social media the minute it was there, we were like this is our tool this is our time. And then the viper room came on and up to that point we would do anything. we didn't let them pass out flyers we didn't let their employees come here.

This was 2006, it was right when social started to come in. So we see the viper tweet, 'Hey we're on Twitter everyone follow us.' And i was in the office and I said, 'Hey what if we told all of our fans to follow the Viper Room?' [Adler hit that Tweet button, telling everyone to follow the Viper Room.] So that one interaction almost broke it...it broke this kind of 'that club this club' stalemate.

You're involved in a lot of civic activities here in WeHo...

It's just about 'where can I get involved?' If there's a parking task force, I want to be on that. Do you live in West Hollywood? I don't or I would run for city council-which I think I might eventually run. But I would have to move here to run. [Adler and his wife Alison currently live in West L.A.]. I really like politics a lot, but then I realized that I love changing things more than I love politics. I love the fact that I can help change things, bring people together or change people's perceptions. But I do want to go down that [political] path. I think I can bring something really different, too. I think I'm part of that next generation. My ideas aren't so set in stone...it's like 'How can we work things out?'

What are your top five most memorable shows either here at The Roxy or on the Sunset Strip?

In any order? Well, I used to do that hip hop club called Balistyx (at the Whisky), and NWA had the number one record in the country, and as a little white kid from Malibu, I could never dream that NWA was going to play something that I had something to do with....and Eazy-E was onstage....just seeing NWA up there was one of my favorite shows. Jane's Addiction, I'd seen them a couple times here at The Roxy, but their show-I think it was in '98-was one of my favorite shows.

I managed a band called Snot. They were a hard rock band and they played at The Key Club. I saw STP at The Roxy [around 1999], and it was about 120 degrees and you couldn't move...and Weiland was playing in his underwear. That was an amazing show. I think [number five] would have to be Ozzy on the Sunset Strip. [He played the second Sunset Strip Music Festival-the first one where they shut down the boulevard.] I'd lived here my whole life. I'd never seen The Strip-except for a riot or a car accident-with no cars on it. So walking The Strip, and seeing trucks unloading gear and seeing these stages rise up. And then to have 10,000 people out there and have Ozzy Osbourne come out on stage....that was a dream come true.

The dream continues tonight when the 6th annual Sunset Strip Music Festival opens with a tribute to Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. The Street Fest with headliners Linkin Park is on Saturday.

Related: Linkin Park, Joan Jett, Warren G & More at 6th Annual Sunset Strip Music Festival.

Music Picks: Hard Summer, Sunset Strip Music Festival and Bob Dylan

Kitten

THE TROUBADOUR

Kitten, local kids born in the '90s yet channeling the '80s, are an A&R exec's dream. The group is a collision of vibrant youth and timely nostalgia for a decade that seemingly has been in vogue for, well, a decade now. Above and amongst pulsing, New Order-ish synths, front gal Chloe Chaidez's detached, dreamy delivery recalls a slightly more intelligible Liz Fraser, albeit yelp-flecked like Siouxsie Sioux or Björk. Yet for all of Kitten's techie bleeps and bloops, the quintet's expression is rooted in the organic, as their frequent acoustic performances demonstrate, and onstage they are every bit the rock band, replete with insistent electric guitars and occasionally epic drumming. Personified by the effervescent Chaidez, Kitten's animated concerts wonderfully reimagine rather than faithfully re-create the group's more intimate, introverted recordings. -Paul Rogers

Blackalicious, Busdriver

ECHOPLEX

Words will be flying fast and furiously tonight at this hip-hop summit featuring the Sacramento duo Blackalicious and local rapper Busdriver. Both acts are distinguished by brainy, rapid-fire tongue twisters that provoke the mind at the same time they get you moving. In Blackalicious, it's Chief Xcel who lays down the infectious array of beats over which the aptly named Gift of Gab layers his thoughtful insights, which veer more toward the personal than the political. Considering how brilliant they are together, it's a bit surprising that Blackalicious haven't released a full-length album since 2005's The Craft, although The Gift of Gab has been busy making excellent solo albums like The Next Logical Progression. Busdriver's busy raps are more wide-ranging, commenting on racism and inequality with a poetically searing and rabidly sarcastic vision on such madcap albums as Jhelli Beam and last year's provocatively pun-laden Beaus$Eros. -Falling James

sat 8/3

HARD Summer

LOS ANGELES STATE HISTORIC PARK

"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger." HARD Summer is taking that sentiment to heart. On its sixth go-around, the electronic-music event stretches over Saturday and Sunday from noon to midnight. Spreading its formidable stable of talent across four stages, one has no choice but to attend both days to get the full experience. Among the artists you can catch only at HARD Summer are the multifaceted Ed Banger lot, who are bringing a posse, including Justice DJing, to celebrate their tastemaker label's 10-year anniversary. Day one has the slick machinations of the youthful Disclosure, Duke Dumont's feel-good house (previewed on HARD Summer Mixtape #2), Flying Lotus' glitchy experiment-hop and fan favorite 2 Chainz. Day two has Empire of the Sun presenting their Pixar-inspired, sci-fi/fantasy live set and the fearsome Rudimental offering up their zany, happy hits. -Lily Moayeri

Bob Dylan & His Band, Wilco, My Morning Jacket

VERIZON WIRELESS AMPHITHEATER

The Americanarama Festival of Music rolls into the Southland tonight, led by a 72-year-old Pied Piper from Duluth, Minn., who should be settling down into an easy retirement but instead finds himself in the middle of a decade-long creative peak. This guy doesn't play much guitar these days, preferring to stand behind his keyboards like a pulpit preacher, and his voice is so filled with a lifetime of sediment and sentiment that it's now gruffer than Tom Waits'. He's unlikely to bother ingratiating himself to the audience with between-song pleasantries, and he tends to drawl so far behind the beat, some of his phrases don't show up until the next tune. But Bob Dylan, bluesier than ever, is still writing great songs of soulful wanderlust ("Duquesne Whistle") and plain old lust ("Thunder on the Mountain"). He challenges himself further by following the electric, elaborate guitar constructions of My Morning Jacket and, speaking of guitars, the spacey, Nels Cline-infused ramblings of Wilco. -Falling James

Linkin Park, Awolnation, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, et al.

SUNSET STRIP MUSIC FESTIVAL STREET FEST

Back for its sixth annual edition, Sunset Strip Music Festival is a three-day, multi-venue celebration of this storied stretch of rock & roll history, which lately centers around a Saturday street festival between San Vicente Boulevard and Doheny Drive. SSMF Street Fest headliners traditionally include artists who cut their performing teeth on the Sunset Strip (including Mötley Crüe in 2011 and Slash in 2010), so Agoura Hills' electro-speckled rock juggernaut Linkin Park, which debuted (as Xero) at the Whisky A Go Go in 1997, make apt poster-toppers this year. Members of fellow 2013 highlights Awolnation also did their time on Strip stages while performing in Under the Influence of Giants and Hometown Hero, while Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, though originally from San Fran, also played the Whisky back when. -Paul Rogers

sun 8/4

Engelbert Humperdinck

STARLIGHT BOWL

Engelbert Humperdinck, the steamy British belter whose intense 1967 version of "Please Release Me" stopped cold The Beatles' bid for a 12th consecutive U.K. No. 1, surfs in atop a tsunami of gloriously cheesy hits ("Quando Quando Quando," "After the Lovin' ") and some legitimately brilliant performances of old-school country weepers ("Am I That Easy to Forget?" "There Goes My Everything"). It's a patented combination that always makes for a boffo pop TKO. Humperdinck, born Arnold Dorsey, actually began his musical life as an aspiring rocker, but after his chum (and Tom Jones' manager) Gordon Mills hung the hijacked-from-an-19th-century-composer moniker on him and remade him as a balladeer, the formula proved to carry universal appeal. Humperdinck's pipes are still marvelously lustrous and, taken with his set list of certifiable classics and the fact that the Starlight Bowl is a BYOB-friendly venue, one would have to be nuts not to celebrate the occasion. -Jonny Whiteside

Chris Schlarb's Psychic Temple

PEHRSPACE

Long Beach-based composer/producer/multi-instrumentalist (and truck driver) Chris Schlarb is a man of what you'd call diverse tastes. For his albums, he assembles the dream bands (of his wildest dreams) and comes up with new, non-genre-specific music by juxtaposing the players' disparate aesthetic worlds. This formula made for accessibly iconoclastic results on his 2010 album, Psychic Temple, where Schlarb's 29-member cast included Minutemen bassist Mike Watt, vocalist Julianna Barwick and pianist Mick Rossi of the Philip Glass Ensemble. Schlarb's quest for total meltdown music continues on his new LP, Psychic Temple II (Asthmatic Kitty), which brings together another eclectic cast from the progressive jazz, art-pop, rock and metal spheres. The crew this time includes Sufjan Stevens, Castanets' Ray Raposa, Devin Hoff of Xiu Xiu and Ikey Owens of The Mars Volta; dig their radically reconceptualized covers of Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out," Frank Zappa's "Sofa No. 2" and Brian Wilson's "'Til I Die." -John Payne

mon 8/5

Kiev, The Fling

THE BOOTLEG

Orange County's Kiev have been laying low for a moment, but bands deserve a rest once they've brought their music into the fourth dimension! Well, technically, it was the third dimension: At two shows in 2011, Kiev deployed such unprecedented and futuristic CGI 3-D projected visuals - demanding glasses and everything - that they blew minds and won awards all at the same time. (Surely Kanye will be asking them how to do this soon.) Now, they're re-emerging with a Bootleg residency to celebrate their new album. Their earlier songs are scrupulously detailed and proggy pop that is fearlessly chasing giants like Radiohead. It's deep and endlessly engaging stuff, even without the post- Tron-a-delic light show. They play tonight with Long Beach's able Fling, who have a new album of their own on deck and who deliver an extremely complementary indie-by-way-of-the-'70s-Beach Boys sound. -Chris Ziegler

The Janks, The Herbert Bail Orchestra

THE SATELLITE

The Herbert Bail Orchestra's lead singer and guitarist Anthony Frattolillo credits his mentor, Juan, a janitor and apparent musical genius from Chile, for his ax-playing skills, and for instilling the need to put true life into his songs' expression. Juan taught the young Frattolillo that his music ought to tell stories that come straight from the heart, and that if he's gonna play it all, he's gotta be really feeling it. Evidenced by his band's recent album The Future's in the Past, Frattolillo learned his lessons well, as he and accordion player/trombonist Andrew Katz deliver their wryly humorous narrative soundscapes with fervid glee and, better yet, painterly detail, aided by an ensemble of violin, trumpet, trombone, banjo, keys, bass and drums. Also tonight: rustic-rock in CinemaScope, courtesy L.A.'s Janks. -John Payne

tue 8/6

Joe La Barbera Quintet

CAP THEATER

Joe La Barbera first came to prominence as the last drummer for pianist Bill Evans, whose trios remain the gold standard in the world of jazz. La Barbera went on to support leading artists including Tony Bennett and John Scofield, while also developing his own groups and teaching at CalArts. His quintet tonight includes veteran saxophonist Bob Sheppard and Grammy-winning pianist Bill Cunliffe. The CAP (Complete Actors Place) Theater in Sherman Oaks is hosting La Barbera as part of a new Tuesday-night jazz series under the direction of onetime Frank Zappa drummer Sinclair Lott. CAP features a large stage, theatrical lighting and a funky ambience seen in few jazz venues around L.A. Check it out. -Tom Meek

wed 8/7

Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers featuring Edie Brickell

HOLLYWOOD BOWL

While he's one of the funniest men in show business, Steve Martin's music is no joke; but then, the best comedians are deadly serious about their craft. Transcribing riffs from old Earl Scruggs recordings as a teen, Martin made the banjo a lifelong passion, a hobby that has finally morphed into a bona fide musical career. Celebrity notwithstanding, one has to be excellent to earn a Grammy in bluegrass music, a discipline noted for its exclusive perfectionism. Martin's new album, a collaboration with Edie Brickell, has reintroduced her beautifully slippery vocals into exquisite, modern bluegrass songs (imagine Bill Monroe singing "When you get to Asheville, send me an email"). Live, Brickell delivers with an elegance befitting her years of maturation from New Bohemian to eloquent songstress. Also on the bill: Madeleine Peyroux and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. -Gary Fukushima

thu 8/8

Hanni El Khatib

SANTA MONICA PIER

Remember when L.A.'s Hanni El Khatib was making cut-to-the-bone, rhythm 'n' rock 'n' roll songs with just a guitar, a drummer and a lot of songs exploring disaster and what comes after? Because now that man has transformed into this monster, possibly after being bitten by Stooges guitarist James Williamson in the dead of night, and the result is the full-band-going-berserk album Head in the Dirt. Recorded with The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, Head is an experiment in, "How much rippery can we pull off in a single song? That much? Can I use that guitar pedal with the skull and bones on it?" There's cute pop in here, of course - like "Penny" - but it's the smashers that make this work. Truly a record by a guy who's here to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and who never really had the bubble gum in the first place. -Chris Ziegler

Bang Sugar Bang, The Dollyrots, Midway, The Randies

THE SATELLITE

Once upon a time, in a city quite like this one, there was a bunch of cool pop, punk and indie bands who were sick of trying to get shows at expensive pay-to-play clubs, so they started their own little scene, named Kiss or Kill, after a lyric in the X song "We're Desperate." The dozen or so groups often played on the same bills, usually for $5 or less, and their noble efforts to counteract the prevailing mainstream mentality of rock careerism would seem merely quaint except that so many of these bands were disparately remarkable. Bang Sugar Bang idolized X and The Gun Club, yet their homages had a hard-rocking Runaways-style power, while The Dollyrots and The Randies evolved from Muffs-inspired pop-punks into memorable performers in their own right. Everybody was living happily ever after - until the blue meanies in what's left of the band Kiss got heavy and threatening, claiming that the term Kiss or Kill might cut into their market share. That was the end of this cheery DIY confab, or would have been, except that everything's been marvelously documented in a new film about the scene, In Heaven There Is No Beer. For one evening, at least, ongoing and reunited Kiss or Kill bands, including Midway, Get Set Go and Silver Needles, will rock & roll all night and party anyway. -Falling James

PopMatters at Pitchfork Music Festival 2013 (Day One: 19 July 2013)

Friday morning broke in Chicago with the air primed like a pre-heated oven. After half a day of scalding sunshine, the heat wasn't so much a temperature as a physical force. It permeated your body, irradiating you to your very essence. However, for tens of thousands of music lovers, hipsters, fans of facial hair, and other oddballs, there was little time to worry about the oppressive heat. This was day one of Pitchfork.

Huddled in a tiny corner of greenery on Chicago's Near West Side known as Union Park, Pitchfork has managed to become an international destination festival despite its miniature size. The festival may only offer 46 artists (other major fests might offer three times that) but, drawing on the prestige (or at least undeniable conversation-starting power) of its hipper-than-thou website, Pitchfork's reputation for well-chosen lineups and approachable experience allows it to keep up with the megafests.

With three roughly thematic days and one of the strongest lineups in years, the 2013 incarnation of Pitchfork offered ample reason to brave the searing July sun and gaggles of ridiculously attired scenesters. With Sunday focused on rap and R&B and Saturday boasting a plethora of indie guitar bands, Friday was left as something of a grab-bag day with everything from soft folk-pop to angular post-punk to a genre that can only be described as Björk. With eager anticipation for the day's eclectic lineup and a full bottle of water, PopMatters strode into the musical cauldron that was the ninth annual Pitchfork Music Festival.

Frankie Rose Given the already-challenging atmospheric conditions, choosing to start things off with Frankie Rose at the shady Blue Stage instead of Daughn Gibson's electro-psychedelic miasma in the hot sun was a no-brainer. The Brooklyn singer's hip-tugging guitar pop was indeed a perfectly pleasant, if uninspired, way to kick off Pitchfork 2013. Rose was sporting a new bottle blonde hair color and seemed to be doing her best to make her songs match the brightness of her follicles. Her set revealed a level of sunniness in her songwriting that I'd previously missed. She seemed a little nervous playing even in front of the relatively modest early-day crowd, joking about "Pitchforkers" before awkwardly asking "why does that sound so dirty?" Fortunately, most people's expectations for the set were limited and I doubt anyone walked away disappointed.

Trash Talk Hardcore punk is a genre that rarely plays well with others, which makes festival bookings of hardcore bands a risky proposition. Without a guaranteed audience of furiously earnest teenagers, a series of brutally fast and hard songs can easily fall flat. Fortunately, as a multi-racial hardcore band signed to Tyler, The Creator's record label, Trash Talk had a lot of things to recommend them to this crowd. Also working in their favor is the fact that these Sacramento punks are neither genre purists nor novices to winning over new audiences. Playing songs that shared DNA with both lo-fi late '70s punk and trashy metal, Trash Talk's music immediately grabbed the attention of the impressively-packed Blue Stage crowd. But what rewarded all that attention were the antics of lead singer Lee Spielman. With a feral rhythm section thundering behind him, Spielman was a wild man, screaming lyrics and jumping into the crowd during songs, then joking, cajoling, and otherwise provoking audience reactions in between them. A mosh pit quickly formed with delirious under-18s throwing their bodies into harm's way, soon to be joined by crowd members who looked like they hadn't seen the inside of an all-ages matinee in over a decade. Weed smoke mixed with dust kicked up from frantic music fans enjoying one of the most gripping hardcore shows you'll ever see in blazing afternoon sunshine.

The set reached a dramatic conclusion during "Birth Plague Die" when Spielman crowd surfed his way well into the crowd and decided to sit Indian-style during an interlude. As he perched atop the crowd, it quickly became obvious that he was planning to dramatically relaunch himself into the crowd for the end of the song. It also became obvious that, given the relative sparseness of the audience this far from the stage, it was unlikely that there were quite enough people behind him to accommodate a sudden return to crowd-surfing. It was almost comic watching Spielman build up to his dramatic moment, throw himself backwards, find nothing there and tumble ass-over-teakettle onto the sun-baked ground. The moment wasn't complete, however until the visibly disoriented (possibly concussed?) singer stumbled his way back onstage, looked angrily out over the audience and growled the song's coda - "Never again!" Scene.

Mac DeMarco After cleansing myself of sweat and mosh pit dust from Trash Talk's set, I decamped for Red Stage to take in Woods and ended up stumbling into the end of Canadian slacker-rocker Mac DeMarco's set. With no previous introduction to his music, I was without context as I saw him march through a medley of piss-take covers including a "can you believe we're playing this?" version of BTO's "Takin' Care Of Business", a lame half-attempt at a metal version of "Blackbird", and what I was later told was a Limp Bizkit song. All I could think before turning away was, "this is what people are talking about when they make fun of ironic hipsters."

Woods Every music festival in a park needs at least a few jam bands. Actually, let me rephrase that - every music festival in a park needs at least a few bands that can jam. The distinction is important because, while Woods kicked out a set of impressively mind-blowing extended guitar showcases, it managed to avoid the aimless noodling and lackluster songwriting that the words "jam band" bring to mind. The name of this Brooklyn band says it all: listening to their 12-string riffing, harmonica solos, and often rustic lyrics can feel like a flannel shirt mandatory experience. Their noisy yet melodic guitar workouts provided a perfect opportunity to cool down and luxuriate in a well-constructed solo. Given the prospect of a storm of punk deconstruction from Wire in an hour, it proved to be the perfect palate cleanser.

Wire It's pretty amazing to be able to say that, throughout its over three decades of existence, Wire is a band that's never stood still. While most bands, especially one whose most famous albums were released during the Carter administration, treat festival sets as a chance to blow through 50 minutes of their greatest hits, Wire was having none of that. The elder statesmen of post-punk blitzed through an impressive set comprised almost entirely of newer songs (save for the classic "Map Ref 41 N. 93 W.", which was played because "it's about the Midwest"). Though the band's musicianship could have put men half their age to shame, the set also had something of a museum-piece air about it. Although a lot of people in the crowd were clearly appreciating the music, few looked like they were really feeling it. I guess there's nothing wrong with people standing in a hot field on a Friday evening while old British men play guitars at them as they stand motionless, but it does give the whole enterprise an oddly staid vibe that undercuts the vicious musical haze that's being created.

Joanna Newsom The pre-headliner sunset set is a rough place for light acoustic balladry-just ask Neko Case and Thurston Moore, both of whom are great artists who've put Pitchfork crowds to sleep in previous years as their feathery balladry fell flat in the roiling mess of the main stage. The festival loves putting its stamp of importance on more idiosyncratic artists by giving them surprisingly prime slots, but it's always a risky proposition. Although Newsom looked as lovely as her songs can sound, a lone harp and tremulous mewling don't exactly play well in a festival setting. I did enjoy the dewy-eyed whimsy of her opener "Bridges and Balloons", but I quickly realized that there was no way to effectively translate Newsom's delicate intimacy into such a large setting. After a few more minutes of straining to hear her light plucking from behind the sound booth, I acceded to the fact that this was a lost cause and decided it was time to sample the new craft beer station (more on that later) before decamping for the Green Stage for a date with Icelandic enchantment.

Björk OK, let's get this out of the way upfront - yes, Björk did use a Tesla coil to create basslines during her set. I start with the fact because A) it's objectively awesome and B) it illustrates just the kind of weird, disorienting, what's-going-on-here headspace that the Nordic pop innovator and artiste wants to put her audience in when she performs. Joined onstage only by a chorus of robed women and a single drummer, Björk relied on a background full of psychedelic projections and her own bizarrely alien appearance (she appeared to be wearing a full silver dress and had her head covered in some sort of spikes) to provide visual disorientation. It was a truly arresting display but sadly one that only about a third of the massive crowd could see in any meaningful way.

Before Björk's set could begin, clouds started rolling in from the north and west with ominous lighting visible in them. The weather at least provided a fitting backdrop for her witchy vocals to bend and ululate over the crowd. Most of her set was devoted to lolling atmospheric songs off Biophilia, which seemed appropriate at first. As she sang, clouds swirled around Union Park, first passing north and then east of the festival, as if her voice alone was keeping the storm at bay. But there's only so long that 20,000 people can ignore song after plodding song before getting restless, no matter the meteorological backdrop. Things picked up in the middle of the set with songs like "Army Of Me" bringing in some dancier beats (not to mention bringing down the Tesla Coil Of Funk from the roof of the stage), but this proved to be short-lived. With nearly 25 minutes left to play, Björk announced that her set was being cut short due to imminent extreme weather and, after a second of complaining, quickly left the stage. Though there was some grumbling among the crowd, most made a beeline towards the exits, the desire for dryness outweighing the desire to see the singer's sure-to-have-been-memorable closing songs.

Less than twenty minutes after the last song, Chicago was assaulted by whipsawing sheets of rain that got anyone caught out in it cleaner than their last three showers. Not sharing that experience with thousands of strangers was the right way to end Day One at Pitchfork.