Tag Archives: Kamasi Washington

[Festival Review] Outside Lands IX : Revisiting the Most Memorable Acts of the Weekend

OSL7In continuing to build on the foundation laid nine years ago, Another Planet Entertainment has once again outdone themselves; the final product being yet another successfully executed Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival. The 2016 version – keen on replicating the successes of previous iterations – was calculated in its approach, careful not to break the trends and quirks that have made it such a mainstay to the community.

Cover-749x500

Instead, APE kept what has worked and improved upon it; meaning deeper lineups, aesthetically more impressive sound and lighting productions, finally allowing payment via RFID-enabled festival wristbands, and a fair amount of side stages to keep all wandering pseudo-bohemians well occupied. Unfortunately, along with the quality improvements also came a pretty substantial price adjustment – putting on a nationally recognized festival is big business, after all.

Those willing to stomach the uptick were treated to an especially diverse lineup ranging from saxophone playing acts like Kamasi Washington and GRiZ, nostalgia-inducing pop rock outfit Third Eye Blind, platinum (and featureless) hip hop artist J.Cole, EDM prodigy Zedd, the Jack-of-all-trades Garratt, and rags to riches rapper Anderson .Paak.

Continue reading

Related items:

Outside Lands 2016: 13 Acts To Catch Before 4 [Event Preview]

As Outside Lands approaches every year, there’s a unique buzz around San Francisco. Between those frantically searching for tickets, hashing out set conflicts, proclaiming excitement or proudly boycotting, the City’s biggest festival is on locals’ minds this week. For the last 5 years we’ve watched Another Planet Entertainment’s crown jewel grow along a similar trajectory as the Bay Area–rapidly rising in popularity (and price). Even with the ever-changing landscape that surrounds it, Outside Lands maintains a dedication to quality music, comedy and food in 2016. The lineup sticks to the tried and true formula of local / up ‘n coming acts, the years’ current headliners and a rare performance from a star of the past.

While we’d be happy to harp some more on how awesome Anderson .Paak, Rufus Du Sol or LCD Soundsystem are, we thought we’d take this opportunity to introduce all our Bay Area Ninjas to some acts they might fall in love with for the first time this weekend at Outside Lands. We know how hard it is to get your crew moving, particularly in SF, but we think these artists make accelerating your pre-game well worth it. Hope to catch some of you Ninjas out in Hellman Hollow!

Day 1

Make It Funky DJs (Heineken House, 12-1:30PM)
For the most prompt attendees, we’d recommend kicking off your weekend at the Heineken House with our friends from Make It Funky. Over the last 3 years, the DJ collective have established themselves as a staple of San Francisco nightlife. If you haven’t yet been to one of their events, their set in the Heineken House should serve as the perfect introduction to their funk/disco vibes and get you dancing from the jump. – Ash

Marian Hill (Twin Peaks, 12:45-1:30)

’Marian Hill – One Time’

Marian Hill is the cleverly titled Philly-based band consisting of Jeremy Lloyd and Samantha Gongol. While they haven’t been on the scene long, the band makes up for short-term fame in their long-term chemistry – having performed together since middle school. Since gaining notoriety behind the catchy “One Time” in early 2014, Marian Hill has been putting together jazzy-electronic tracks at a solid pace. Their debut album, ACT ONE, is out now and well worth a listen. – Dom P.

Wet (Sutro, 2:30-3:20)

’Wet – It’s All in Vain’

While riding the wave to fame behind a hipster following, Wet has taken the back roads to success, allowing their vast internet following to shower them with (well deserving) praise behind early bedroom productions. Since putting out the 2013 melodic “I Don’t Wanna Be Your Girl”, the Wet trio has signed to a major label and toured nationally. Recently reemerged from their production studio in the wooded thickets of Hadley, Massachusetts, Wet dropped their debut album Don’t You and will be certainly gaining even more followers after their OSL performance. – Dom P.

Vulfpeck (Panhandle, 2:55-3:35)

’Vulfpeck – Back Pocket’

It’s unlikely you’ll see any performance quite like Vulfpeck’s this weekend. The funk/soul band take a fully improvisational approach to songwriting resulting in a catalogue of epic, at times comedic, jams that are morphed and built on during live performance. Don’t let their light-hearted approach fool you, though, Vulfpeck are truly gifted musicians who involve the audience in their show at every opportunity. – Ash Continue reading

Related items:

Noise Pop 2016: 7 Acts We Loved–SF, 2/19-2/28 [Festival Review + Playlist]

DNP_1039

All photos by Dom Powell except for photos of DIIV, which are by Ash. 

Over the last few years, San Francisco’s Noise Pop Festival has grown into our favorite week for music in the Bay Area. Taking place at venues across the city, the logistics can get tricky, but the venue hopping and set-time speculation is completely worth the broad variety of music the lineup offers. As is true for any festival. there’s no way to catch everything and there was plenty of FOMO to go around between the surprise guest filled late night Cafe Du Nord shows to the various events at Noise Pop’s home base, Swedish American Music Hall. With a couple years of experience under our belt, we definitely feel like this was both our best go-around thus far as well as the festival’s. The one great thing about the staggering number of events is that every publications experience is slightly different, each choosing different favorite takeaways based on their schedule. Take a trip back with some of our favorite sets, songs and moments from the week below. Continue reading

Related items: