The Electric Daisy Festival is quickly turning out to be the newest Coachella— a massive music extravaganza that has tapped the mainstream pulse of a nation’s youth, drawing in fans by more and more thousands each year.
But did you know it’s also likely to incite mass chaos and rioting in the streets – especially if those punk-ass raver kids ain’t happy?
Mexico City – Drake partakes in mezcal tasting, joins a mariachi band Plaza Garibaldi, forces down pulque at a pulquería, rides moto with Homero Diaz – Mexico’s top rider, explores witchcraft and gets a shamanic cleansing at Sonora Mercado and gets tossed around like a ragdoll in a lucha libre lesson. And this is just episode #1.
Drake’s Passage, a six-episode original travel series, premieres on Monday, August 15 at 10 p.m. ET/PT during FUEL TV’s “Raging Mondays” programming block. Produced by Red Bull Media House North America, Drake’s Passage takes viewers to iconic cities around the world and showcases them through the eyes of Drake McElroy, who is one of the most stylish, cultured and respected riders in the freestyle motocross world.
Foo Fighters: Back And Forth is released on DVD this week. If you’re a fan of music and a good story, then seeing Foo Fighters: Back And Forth is essential viewing. ChinaShopMag got to hang out with the film’s director James Moll on the Universal Lot where his office is tucked behind the legendary Phantom of The Opera soundstage (oh it’s legendary alright! And possibly haunted). Hearing him speak about the art of film, it’s clear that James Moll loves his job! Which is handy when you make movies for a living.
When he first started working on the lot, he told me he’d take his lunch up to the Psycho house on the hill and eat it sitting on the porch, watching the tourists roll by on the Studio Tram. It’s a lovely view from up there he tells me. Today on our impromptu walking tour of the Universal Studios lot, Moll is posing for photos in front of the CSI set on stage 24. A Tram rolls by, and they start snapping fervently perhaps mistaking the director for a star of the crime scene show. Moll is working on his EGOT, so far nailing a few Emmys and an Oscar. The former for Best Documentary Feature for The Last Days in 1999. EGOT stands for Emmy-Grammy-Oscar-Tony. Tracy Jordan has one on 30 Rock. If James Moll keeps it up, he’ll have his EGOT soon enough.
People can’t seem to stop talking about the Foo Fighters right now. Having been around for over 15 years, they still remain as relevant as ever. On Tuesday night at the closing of the SXSW Film Festival and Interactive activities in Austin the band premiered their latest endeavor, a documentary film called Foo Fighters Back and Forth.
After hearing about this project for the past 6 months I had some expectations. I knew the band was recording in Dave Grohl’s garage in his home on tape, with legendary producer Butch Vig at the helm. I knew that cameras where there for something like 3 months capturing the process. I also knew that they shot at least 5 hours of footage at the bands secret show at the Roxy Theatre last month. So my anticipation was that this film would focus on the latest and greatest antics and the making of a fresh but yet nostalgic process of writing a record.
Guess it was only a matter of time before the brain behind oxygen-sniffing sociopath Frank Booth, painting with ants, and professional furniture crafting made some (more) music. David Lynch has released a deluxe vinyl edition of both Good Day Today and I Know, new albums which feature both original tracks as well as remixes by Underworld, Sasha, Jon Hopkins, and others. And the video is one of the strangest and most haunting you’ll ever see.
Straying from the subwoofers and flickering halogen bulbs of his soundtracks, Lynch seems to have taken a cue from longtime accomplice/composer Angelo Badalamenti and actually gone melodic on us. The video is as trippy as the song, and Lynch fans wouldn’t expect anything less.
In a desperate move to get the live action AKIRA off the ground and recoup the serious $$$ they’ll be doling out, execs at Warner Bros. supposedly phoned Brad Pitt in a bid to get him as the lead.
Apparently there’s some serious sh*t brewing between the Hughes Brothers and Warner Brothers honchos in the pre-production stages for the film adaptation of what is arguably the greatest Japanese animated film of all time. The general consensus is that it’s also possibly the worst idea in a long time, even more than re-making Footloose.
At this year’s inaugural Los Angels Music Video Festival (LAMVF), a very interesting experiment took place. An event titled “Life’s a Pitch” provided aspiring music video directors with the opportunity to pitch their ideas for a video to accompany the new single of Los Angeles rockers Voxhaul Broadcast. The band, named one of LA’s best new indie bands of 2010 by LA Times, plopped on a couch and sipped beer while four participants took turns standing before them and presenting their video concepts for the song, “Leaving On The 5th.” The prize for the winning pitch was the opportunity to produce Voxhaul Broadcast’s new video with the use of a Sony HDW F900 camera, provided courtesy of Alternative Records.
After a lackluster holiday season, two films are in theaters that are worth checking out: The Green Hornet and The Dilemma. Surprisingly still, both have something in common. “But wait,” you’re probably thinking. “One is a remake from an old radio serial turned TV show about a crime fighter and the other is about couples.” Yes, on the surface the two seemingly have little to nothing to do with each other except for their shared release day. So am I trippin’ balls? Nope. At least, not yet.
We are firmly entrenched in awards season, though it could just as well be called Banksy season.
The famously incognito British artist is getting all sorts of accolades for his film “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” a documentary (or mock documentary, or neither) on a French filmmaker-turned-street artist, Thierry Guetta, aka Mr. Brainwash. The film is nominated for a BAFTA Award, and recently won the top prize at the Cinema Eye Awards.
And now it can add an Oscar nod.
Read the full story
The First Annual Los Angeles Music Video Festival (LAMVF) took place January 23rd at the Downtown Independent Theater in Los Angeles. To celebrate a communal love of music videos, guests spent the day watching screenings, listening intently to speakers, and participating in discussions.
Out of 200 submissions from directors in over 16 countries, the screenings for student and independent videos resulted in awards being offered to: