Love lazers from Lincoln’s heart, aliens and dancing for world piece… Things get a little weird when your hanging out with Ghostland Observitory and the Urban Nomad #teluwut. See for yourself and enter at your own risk.
This March, Las Vegas and South Padre Island, TX will be THE destination for music lovers during spring break as Red Bull Soundclash presents two unprecedented live music showcases featuring first-time ever match ups between Cee Lo Green and the Ting Tings in Las Vegas (outdoors at the MGM Resorts International property across from the Luxor on Las Vegas Blvd.) on March 12, 2011; and Snoop Dogg and Ghostland Observatory at Schlitterbahn Beach Waterpark on South Padre Island, Texas on March 17, 2011. Pre-sale tickets for each show are available now for $10 at www.redbullusa.com/soundclash. Tickets for the Las Vegas show will be $15 at the door.
Red Bull Soundclash is a totally unique clash of sounds, styles and creativity, where two bands don’t battle each other, but instead collaborate to create an innovative live music performance. The show features two bands with different music styles (e.g. Hip Hop vs. Electronic) facing off on two stages positioned on opposite ends of the venue with the audience in the middle. In a series of four rounds, the bands perform various tasks, some rehearsed, and some improvised, to showcase the array of their musical abilities.
2010 was a great year! A plethora of music, festivals, exotic art, discovering new bands, overcoming hatred of public transit, behind-the-scenes tours of freak shows and hanging out with 3-legged creatures, and meeting lots of great folks along the way. Check out the year’s highlights as seen by ChinaShop contributor Nicole Pajer after the jump.
Saturday and Sunday, the streets of Silver Lake were filled with hipsters, carnies, corn dogs, oversized stuffed animals, rides, and the sounds of ear-pleasing bands. This year’s 30th annual Sunset Junction Street Festival recruited tens of thousands of Angelinos to brave the heat, impossible parking, and intense crowds with the mission of shoving their way into the front of one of the 5 music stages. The must see acts were: Ghostland Observatory, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Big Daddy Kane, Sam Sparro, Mayer Hawthorne, Fishbone, Shiny Toy Guns Hybrid Digital, Ohio Players, The Whisperers, Bad Brains, and Lee Scratch Perry…just to name a few.
Saturday was the first day of Sunset Junction and I couldn’t have been more excited to get there. After a near impossible search for parking, it was decided that I’d park at Sidney’s and we’d make the half-mile hoof down the hill to the junction. On the way, we ran into some excited hipsters who clothed us in glow bracelets and geared us up for the evening ahead. When we finally arrived, we ran right to the Sanborn Stage to catch Fishbone. We walked up during the “All Together Free” chant that they had engaged the crowd in. It was a fun show and really feel-good music…well at least until the “Let Dem Ho’s Fight” song which seemed to be a favorite of the ornery members of the audience. Shortly after, the mood was back to jolly as the guys covered “Date Rape” by Sublime, which definitely went over well with the crowd. Fishbone poked fun at the parking situation in Silver Lake and complained of parking tickets before continuing on with the set.
“Sometimes, there aren’t a lot of people” at the show, explains Thomas Turner, the caped crusader behind the menacing electro-pop and rock of Ghostland Observatory, “but those people go off and tell their friends and it just keeps growing, you know?” As Austin, Texas-based Ghostland Observatory closed the Red Bull Music Academy on Sunday night, the word had spread to Movement 2010. Over 3,000-plus rabid festivalgoers refreshed themselves in the waves of guitar and synths working together to redefine just what “electronic music” means at the start of a new decade. Fueled by the classic rock theatrics of a laser lightshow and a barrage of smoke, lead singer Aaron Behrens brought his fierce, unfiltered energy to the Red Bull Music Academy stage (especially apparent on the duo’s raw cover of Prince’s “Darling Nikki”), turning the DJ decks into his own private catwalk. Meanwhile, Turner was lost in the fog manipulating an array of knobs and synths. “We’re never the average rock band,” laughs Thomas when asked how it felt to be performing at an electronic music festival built around mostly understated electronic deejays. “We always stick out like sore thumbs everywhere we go. After a while, people either get it or they don’t. Obviously, the people who do get it end up having a really good time.”