The Roots Picnic 2014

A$AP Ferg

Headlined by Snoop Dogg backed by the legendary Roots themselves, the seventh annual Roots Picnic brought artists from across all genres to Philadelphia. Chill Moody, Rudimental, A$AP Ferg, Jhené Aiko and Janelle Monae performed.

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Dillinger Escape Plan at Union Transfer, Philadelphia

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The Dillinger Escape Plan is a band that will intimidate you and on Friday night, they did so in spectacular fashion.

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Interview with Signal Hill

From left: Rishi Arora, Tim Cooper, Brian Vasallo, Dave Masters

From left: Rishi Arora, Tim Cooper, Brian Vasallo, Dave Masters

Interview conducted after Signal Hill’s show on Thursday, April 25, 2013 after their show at the North Star Bar, Philadelphia PA.

Tell me how you wrote ‘Corners’. Walk me through that again.

Dave Masters: So, Corners was initially going to be a 45 second interlude. It’s really actually pretty funny, Rishi and I wrote it one day and sent it over to Tim and Brian. Tim actually made the comment and said, ‘dude, I could listen to that riff over and over again for hours.’ And so, when they came out to finish working on the record, Brian was out getting a tattoo and we played through a couple songs, and we were like ‘let’s play riff for Tim and get him excited,’ and then some inspiration was drawn after everyone was in the room and we ended up making a 7 minute song out of what was going to be a 40-second interlude.

Tim Cooper: Which song?

DM: Corners.

TC: Oh yeah, that’s right.

DM: Brian was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to get a tattoo.’ Like…

TC: Like, ‘yo you’re in town for like a day and we have practice and you’re going to get a tattoo?’

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Human BBQ XXXV

Norwegian Arms.

Human BBQ XXXV

The 35th annual Human BBQ at Pi Lam in West Philadelphia was held on Saturday, April 6, 2013.

The lineup of bands ran from noon till midnight and featured the acts Cold Fronts, Norwegian Arms, DRGN King, Delicate Steve, Plates of Cake, Laser Background, Total Slacker and Banned books.

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SXSW Schedule

Screen Shot 2013-03-08 at 2.19.27 PM

This is my Friday, March 15th from 12pm to 8pm when I arrive at SXSW in Austin, TX.

Here’s a list of my tentative schedule:

Friday, March 15, 2013

noon—Cold Fronts @ Maggie Mae’s

or

noon—Norwegian Arms @ J Black’s

or

noon—Toro Y Moi @ House of Vans

12:15—Bleeding Rainbow @ The Hype Hotel

1:00—June Divided @ Chugging Monkey

2:00—DRGN KING @ SXSW Waterloo

or

2:00—Vacationer @ Clive Bar

3:00—Cheers Elephant @ Wardenclyffe Gallery

4:00—Bleeding Rainbow @ Bar 96

5:00—DRGN KING @ West 6th Street Block Party

or

5:00—Vampire Weekend @ Radio Day State Austin Convention Center

6:00—Heartless Bastards @ Patagonia Austin

7:00—Bleeding Rainbow @ The Grackle

8:00—The Flaming Lips @ Auditorium Shores Stage (Lady Bird Lake)

or

8:00—Green Day @ ACL Live

8:20—TJ Kong and the Atomic Bomb @ The Aquarium

9:00—Grandchildren @ Meduse Lounge

10:10—Weyes Blood @ The Hideout

10:15—Dawes @ Mohawk Outside

or

10:15—Riff Raff @ Haven

10:30—METZ @ Bar 96

10:40—Thee Oh Sees @ Hotel Vegas Patio

10:50—Hunters @ Scoot Inn (Theresa recommended)

11:00—Cold War Kids @ Stubb’s

or

11:00—Andrew WK @ Clive Bar

or

11:00—Pusha T @ Austin Music Hall

11:15—Murder by Death @ 1100 Warehouse

11:35—Bun B @ Austin Music Hall

11:50—Mystikal @ The Main

12:00—Chiodos @ Dirty Dog Bar

or

12:00—Talib Kweli @ The Pandora Porch

or

12:00—Wolfgang Gartner @ Speakeasy Kaberet (until 1:50)

or

12:00—Fitz and the Tantrums @ Lustre Pearl

12:15—Ghostface Killah @ Viceland

12:30—Wavves @ Bar 96

or

12:30—Flosstradamus @ Republic Live

12:40—Kendrick Lamar @ Austin Music Hall

1:00—Talib Kweli @ Empire Control Room

or

1:00—Toro Y Moi @ The North Door

1:45—Dirty South Joe @ Haven

Saturday March 16, 2013

10:30—Dawes @ W Hotel Austin

11:00—Vacationer @ Hype Hotel

12:00—Norwegian Arms @ J. Black’s

or

12:00—Waxahatchee @ The Liberty

12:20—Eshon Burguny @ Carver Music Boyd Vance Theatre

12:45—Foxyjen @ Corner of 6th and Red River

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2

3:45—Jukebox the Ghost @ Uncorked Wine Bar

4

5:00—TJ Kong and the Atomic Bomb @ J. Black’s

or

5:00—Surfer Blood @ Cedar Street

6:00—Thee Oh Sees @ Clive Bar

7

8

9

9:45—Trinidad James @ VICELAND

10

12

12:30—Kendrick Lamar @ VICELAND

1:00—DRGN KING @ Shakespeare’s Pub

My goal is to cover the Philadelphia music scene at the largest music showcase in the world. I wouldn’t plan a vacation any other way.

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Made in America Festival

No press passes to be had last minute, so here are the results of sneaking in my camera and fighting through 50,000 at the Made in America Festival.

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Los Angeles

I don’t normally mash together themes, but I think it’s fitting that I put in a gallery of some of the images I took in LA. You can’t blame a tourist for wanting to take landscape shots.

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Occupy LA

EDIT: AUGUST 17, 2012

The messages I’ve received have asked me to make clear that the people fighting in these images were not affiliated with Occupy LA, nor did the group wish for them to be there. As a journalist I covered Occupy Philly from the first days at Dilworth Plaza until the night they were evicted. I lived among them and talked to many of the people on a personal basis. Many of these stories and more can be seen at Occupy215.net. For Occupy LA, I merely wanted to see in what shape the group was still in, and within these images is what I found.

The large African American man was loud and boisterous from the moment I arrived and was presumably in the same mood before then. He was amped up beyond the point of control. I had no way of knowing if he was a part of the group or not. The small Hispanic fellow finally approached and said “why don’t you just shut the fuck up, man?” and then slapped him in the face. The big fellow came at him with a huge right haymaker, and then a strong left, but the swift little man ducked under both. All available bodies jumped on top of the large man, while the smaller one got free and started punching him in the back of the head.

Around this time those who wished to meet and actually have a discussion gathered the people and swiftly made their way away from the park without the company of the two fighters. In the last image, the group in full can be seen outside the Los Angeles Community Action Network Headquarters, which advertise on its website campaigns of: civil and human rights, share the wealth, women’s issues, anti-violence, food access, community events and civic participations. If the group continued on a march from there, I do not know. The police on bikes had not followed, but at the entrance to the parking garage from which I had taken the shot was an undercover police officer keeping a close eye on them.

I realize I’m perpetuating the negative stigma of the movement by showing only these photos and nothing more. But, as I said, I had seen online that they were planning a march and this is what I arrived to. For me, it was just the same old shit I had seen when the movement in Philadelphia had begun to collapse. I didn’t come to this rally for financial gain, I just want to be there and see for myself. But, when I being to feel uncomfortable in an unnecessary situation, there’s no reason for me to stay. This may be shitty journalism, but this “democracy” that Occupy exemplifies is no better.

More pictures after the jump.

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