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The Movie Life. All photos by Samantha Nakhoul.
“The last time I saw you act like this, we were kids.”
A couple weekends ago The Masquerade entertained thousands of Atlantans with a dream lineup of 60 punk and hardcore bands. The name was fitting, given the recent selling of the venue to a multi-family developer who plans to turn the land into a mixed-use development. Its proximity to the BeltLine, a former railway corridor turned linear park, made the acquisition inevitable. It remains to be seen what will happen to the building, but early plans call for the former Du Pree Manufacturing Company Excelsior Factory to be repurposed as part of the massive development. Though the old mill hangs in a poetic state of purgatory, one thing is for sure: the days of concerts at the iconic venue are numbered.
The recent headlines made the inaugural Wrecking Ball music festival that much more compelling. With a ridiculous lineup that included Descendents, The Get Up Kids, Coheed and Cambria, Desaparecidos, Thrice, Glassjaw, Appleseed Cast, American Nightmare, Modern Life is War, Braid, Pianos Become the Teeth, and Foundation among others, the only way it could’ve been any better was if they brought in an actual wrecking ball after Coheed and Cambria closed it out on Sunday and literally tore the place down. So many of these bands started their careers in Hell and slowly worked their way up to Heaven and eventually out to the Music Park. Part of what made the weekend so great was hearing the artists share their personal experiences playing these stages. The Get Up Kids recalled their first trip here 20 years ago touring with MxPx and even played the first song they ever wrote as a tribute. Conor Oberst mockingly seemed into purchasing a condo on the land, and Descendents had to be yanked off the stage, though probably not in protest. It seems every band that has ever passed through this city has played at least once at The Masquerade, and that is what makes this place so special. Yeah, the sound isn’t very good, and it feels like the floor will collapse at any second sending everyone in Heaven to their death, but there’s something about this musty old clap trap that keeps us coming back. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Public Enemy, Nine Inch Nails, the list goes on, but this weekend was a celebration of punk.
I’ll admit this lineup would’ve been much more exciting to me 15 years ago, and maybe I was in attendance solely to keep my 16-year-old self from coming back and murdering me in my sleep. Many of these bands have slipped into “guilty pleasure” listening status while others serve as a consistent reminder of who I am and how I got here. Each one reminds me of riding around on hot southern nights with the windows down and five friends singing at the top of their respective lungs. It was a throwback, and I’m okay with that.
For my personal tastes, Saturday was the reason I was there. The Music Park stage got things rolling with The Coathangers, The Lawrence Arms, Title Fight, and The Movielife. The latter putting on an energetic set during which they thanked the crowd for making this “the best show (they’ve) ever played in Atlanta.” They even commented on the amount of lyrics being shouted back at them – apparently the New York of the South has never been so welcoming of this actual New York band. Inside, Braid, Small Brown Bike, and Samiam lit up the Heaven Stage to round out the afternoon.
As night fell, everyone moved out to the Music Park for main attractions: The Get Up Kids and Descendents. This was the first time I got to see The Get Up Kids, which were amazing. I know they’ve been doing this for a long time and have been involved in several other big name and solo projects over the years, but I was so impressed with their sound. Nothing against the other bands, but Matt Pryor and the boys were the most professional sounding band of the weekend. They went through all the classics including Red Letter Day, Ten Minutes, Shorty, Action & Action, Holiday, and Mass Pike, among others. I forgot just how many catchy songs they had written and was genuinely surprised how many of the lyrics I could still belt out.
The night came to a close with Descendents, who have made perhaps the biggest impact of any band on punk music over the course of their 38 year career. Most of the musicians at this festival probably had at least a couple of Milo’s songs on their earliest mixtapes or playlists, and many were on stage taking it all in. They went through a crazy long set of about 30 songs before the PA system was cut, and everyone was told to go home, proving just how punk rock these old guys remain.
The outdoor vibe on Sunday was a little more laid back with Yuck, Basement, and Cave In paving the way for a rather subdued Thrice set. The harder hitting acts like Foundation, Glassjaw, and Blacklisted were pushed indoors where multiple hangovers were sweat out in front of the Heaven Stage. Back outside, Desaparecidos, and Coheed and Cambria finished off the weekend. Not much to say about them except that Conor was Conor, and Coheed was much less epic than usual, only playing around a dozen songs.
Overall, it was a great weekend to be a punk, and I’m glad the organizers of Wrecking Ball were able to put together such an amazing group of bands as part of The Masquerade’s farewell concert series.
A few things I found curious:
Purgatory wasn’t Purgatory – it was a merch-sized tent out in front of the venue. The real Purgatory was roped off as an artist’s lounge – kind of a bummer.
Thrice and Glassjaw were scheduled in overlapping time slots, making it impossible to see each of their sets in entirety. I wasn’t the only one upset about that flap, as Dustin Kensrue even felt compelled to comment on the obvious mistake during their set.
The discovery of the weekend came in the form of the band Somos who shut down the Purgatory Stage on Sunday night. The Boston based quartet are playing a refreshing brand of catchy emo throwback tunes. They have a full length titled Temple of Plenty that I highly recommend giving a listen. Be on the lookout for a recently finished record in the coming months.
Up until fairly recently, music-lovers in the Atlanta area had to pack up their campers and travel to Georgia’s neighboring states to see their favorite bands all together on one turf. But since the revival of Music Midtown in 2011, Atlanta has played host to dozens of other music festivals catering to a wide-reaching span of genres. At this, the hip-hop, EDM, country, pop, and rock lovers in Georgia’s biggest metropolitan city said “Thank you.”
Not to be outdone by their more civilized musical counterparts, Wrecking Ball Music Festival came into fruition…turns out Atlanta’s hardcore underground community was feeling a little under-represented. Cue the Masquerade, one of Atlanta’s trademark venues, which is conveniently celebrating their 25th anniversary this year (with most of the lineup nearing that milestone as well). What better place to raise hell than on a stage with the same name? Sixty of punk’s most raucous bands will perform on the Masquerade’s other aptly named stages Heaven and Purgatory, as well as their outdoor venue Masquerade Music Park, starting August 8th. If that’s not enough to tempt you, it’s important to note that this may be your last chance to get your mosh on (always particularly stressful in Heaven when you feel like the floorboards could collapse at any moment) at this iconic venue – looks like Masquerade will soon be demolished to make way for apartments and corporate offices. Looks like The Man won this round, punkers.
Wrecking Ball boasts an unprecedented lineup that will satisfy even the most angsty fans, ranging from the grand artistic scope of Coheed and Cambria to the highly-anticipated abrasive stylings of Conor Oberst’s Desaparecidos. The most exciting part of Wrecking Ball’s lineup is their focus on bands who either haven’t played in Atlanta recently or who haven’t been playing at all in quite some time. The Descendents, one of punk’s most significant and influential bands, will be returning to Atlanta after a near two-decade hiatus. Then there will be reunion shows of both American Nightmare and Get Up Kids to conjure up late 90’s/early 2000’s nostalgia in the crowd.
But if you’re looking for something a little more contemporary, Wrecking Ball has you covered. Chumped and Atlanta’s own Coathangers will make an appearance, among many others. Who says punk is dead?
Wrecking Ball will kick off with a Punk Rock Karaoke Night on Friday, August 7th with all-star guests like Greg Hetson of Bad Religion and Derek O’Brien from Social Distortion to name a few. Don’t miss out on the anarchy; you can still get your tickets here.
As Pitchfork recently pointed out, Instagram is a fascinating social platform because it offers streamlined, intimate snapshots into a person’s life – which can get especially juicy when the user is a famous musician. But not all gram games are created equal. Here are eight artists you should maybe, probably, definitely be following on the ‘Gram.
There is really no other way to put it…every return to Electric Forest feels like coming home. The Forest is a place where attendees come to be themselves, leave the outside world for a couple of days, become part of a family and be free.
In its fifth year known as Electric Forest, the festival set out to make 2015 its biggest year yet. With a venue expansion and a noticeable increase in capacity, the demand for admittance into these hallowed festival grounds was immense with an estimated attendance of over 45,000, compared to that of 35,000 in 2014. While the overcrowding, overlooked camping logistics, and other issues of the weekend created somewhat of a challenge to many, Electric Forest was still “home” and we were able to share four magical days with our Forest Family.
No two experiences at Electric Forest are a like. Each person comes to the Forest with varying expectations, seeking different experiences, and ultimately walking away with memories of a weekend that was unique to them. Days after we have departed the Double J Ranch, leaving our friends and just our footprints, we are still taking in every aspect of our Forest adventure.
While we could talk about Electric Forest for days, it still wouldn’t be enough to fully describe our festival experience. We may only be scratching the surface here, but we’ve comprised a list of Vinyl Mag’s favorite Electric Forest moments of 2015.
Unexpected Collaborations: Friday night near the close of The String Cheese Incident’s second set, we received a Snapchat of Skrillex (Sonny Moore) backstage at the Ranch Arena with guitar in hand. Could it be true? Was Skrillex going to come out with Cheese and not womp-out on a collaboration? Sure enough, encore time comes and Moore walks out on stage with that guitar and Cheese begins to jam out to The Doors’ “Break On Through.” The song feeds into “L.A Woman” where Moore shares vocals with Bill Nershi (SCI) and then rounding back out again into “Break On Through.” Are we really surprised about the song selection? Not really, considering Moore worked with the remaining members of The Doors on a collaboration project and documentary called Re:Generation. We were surprisingly impressed at witnessing Moore’s musical talents and grateful for his thank-you shoutout at the end of the performance, thanking everyone from the fans, to The String Cheese Incident, to security, and even the people who clean the bathrooms.
While there were other collaborations like Dominic Lalli of Big Gigantic playing sax with Cheese on Sunday, Macy Gray fronting Galactic, Michael Kang sitting in with Bassnectar for “Dubuasca,” and Big Gigantic raging with Cherub during a surprise sunrise set ontop of an RV in GA Camping, Skrillex busting out a guitar and jamming out with Cheese was definitely our favorite collaboration of the weekend.
The Forest: One of the best pastimes of Electric Forest is wandering and getting lost within Sherwood Forest. In it’s own right, the Forest is a festival headliner. Whether day or night, the Forest provides hidden treasures and experiences at every turn. As the festival grew in attendance and size this year, along with it grew Sherwood Forest. The Forest’s expansion created more secret spaces and surprises to discover. While wandering around the general store, we stumbled upon a small mailbox that was simply placed outside of the rustic structure. Next to letterbox was a bunch of blank postcards inviting attendees to write a message to their future selves. Electric Forest would provide the postage and after placing the postcard in the Forest Mailbox your future self would receive your message someday. This was just one of the many things we happened upon in the Forest that made us smile.
Hammock Zones: If you have attended Electric Forest in past years, especially in 2014, you know just how crowded Sherwood Forest became with hammocks; so much so it became almost impossible to navigate through the Forest at times. This year EF Headquarters implemented a roll out of Hammock Etiquette and Hammock Zones. While this was met with some grumblings, during the festival majority of people seemed to respect the new guidelines. EF Headquarters continued to stress that Hammocks are part of the soul of Electric Forest, and they are not going away. This new plan for 2015 was to create Hammock Zones in restful areas to help solve traffic problems, and to give some of the beloved pines in Sherwood a chance to rest. From what we saw, these zones did in fact help with traffic issues, but still allowed for hammocks to be a major part of festival.
The Hanger: The Hanger is one of our absolute favorite additions to the Forest. The Hanger, resembling a 1940s aircraft hanger, became a place to take a break from the rest of the festival, enjoy a quality cocktail (I mean, Moscow Mules with Titos, who knew that was our favorite?), and interact with a variety of characters who were keeping up with the 1940s theme.
In addition to a main craft beer and cocktail bar and a main stage area, The Hanger was home to a massage lounge with a 40s mechanic theme where you could get “buffed out” by pin-up girls, an actual barber shop, tattoo parlor (fake tattoos of course), a cuban style bar/lounge and many more surprises. Professional dancers, Cigarette Girls and Candy Dolls walking around with neck strap trays, and stilt walkers were all seen under the massive vaulted ceiling of The Hanger throughout the weekend.
From The String Cheese Incident’s infamous Saturday set, to exhilarating covers by various artists, to the mystical Tripolee stage, to Bluegrass Sunday, to the new circus tent that is Jubilee…the list of unforgettable moments and sights at Electric Forest 2015 is endless. Once again, Vinyl Mag is so grateful to have been a part of such a magical weekend.
Nestled along the Connecticut shoreline, surrounded by historic Bridgeport, lies 325 acres of lush stretches of lawn, towering trees, beautiful beaches and spectacular views of Long Island Sound. Not only is Seaside Park a summer destination for beachgoers, it is also home to Gathering of the Vibes.
In its twentieth year, Gathering of the Vibes will return to Seaside Park this summer (July 30-August 2) and celebrate this momentous year with a lineup that includes the likes of Wilco, The String Cheese Incident, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Weezer, Gregg Allman, Warren Haynes, and many many others.
While the festival boasts a stellar lineup year after year, the true headliner of the weekend is Seaside Park. There are not many festivals where your campsite is situated in a beautiful park along a waterfront. While the park makes for an incredible backdrop, festival attendees also must take extra care of the environment around them.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), trash and litter along our coasts and in our waterways can be harmful to our health, the environment, and the economy. Most marine debris that ends up in the water is man-made and begins its journey on land; this is trash that is not recycled or properly thrown away on land. For example, litter left behind by festival goers at Gathering of the Vibes could be picked up by the wind or washed out by rain and end up in the ocean. Any debris that finds its way into coastal waters not only affects the appearance of the surrounding waters, but also has potential to harm many kinds of animals and wreak havoc on the ecosystem.
As the festival has grown over the years, so has the consciousness of festival sustainability and the local marine ecosystem. We chatted with Harry Moran, Sustainability Director for Gathering of the Vibes, to talk about Vibes’ green initiative, Green Vibes, the festival’s annual beach cleanup, and tips for helping keep the festival eco-friendly.
“With my passion for sustainability, I’ve always been thinking about ways to minimize our onsite footprint and harness the power of our community for positive change,” said Moran as he talked about the creation of Green Vibes. “The event has always had a very real commitment to this but with the ongoing support of Ken Hays [Founder of Gathering of the Vibes], I was able to put together a dedicated Sustainability and Outreach program to coordinate and expand all of the different components.”
The goals of Green Vibes are simple: reduce negative human impact on the ecosystems and encourage responsible stewardship toward the land, air, sea, and renewable energy resources. Green Vibes looks to harness the power of our musical community and the Vibes family and transform the world by going beyond “leaving nothing but footprints.”
Each year, with the help of the Green Vibes program Vibes makes further strides towards reducing their eco-footprint at Seaside Park.
“After every year, I do a recap to see what’s working, what can be improved and identify new ideas for the following year,” Moran stated. “We’ve been at this a long time now but there’s always room to improve. One of our successful additions to our awareness and outreach work is the brief talks related to sustainability between bands on the Green Vibes Stage. We’ve had major experts come in and share ideas in a really loose and fun setting which really engages and energizes the crowd.”
Other notable successes of the green program include:
22,000 pounds of recycling was gathered and kept out of landfills.
12,516 lbs of non-perishable food,hygiene goods, and clothing was donated to local food banks, including vendor donations of unused food to local food banks and soup kitchens.
The Green Vibes Carbon Cutters, Green Vibes’ carbon reduction team, is now almost 900 members strong and has prevented close to 2 tons of CO2 from going into the atmosphere.
Food and beverage vendors used compostable products.
Environmental & social action awareness opportunities for attendees through Green Vibes Stage workshops.
Activation of a solar-powered cell phone charging station.
While 2014 was an extremely successful year, Green Vibes is already looking towards 2015 and hopes to have the cleanest and greenest Vibest yet. The program will continue to focus on reducing the festival’s carbon footprint and will be expanding the recycling program. For the sixth year in a row, Green Vibes will partner with the Terrapin Foundation to host an annual beach clean up day a couple of weeks prior to the festival. Last year, volunteers cleaned up a local beach area, loading dozens of garbage bags with glass, plastic bags, aluminum cans, barbed wire, large pieces of wood and metal and many other objects.
The Green Vibes program and strides like the beach clean up help make sure Seaside Park remains in pristine condition; keeping neighboring beaches and the environment of Seaside Park safe and clean is one of the most important parts of the festival and the Terrapin Foundation’s mission.
If festival goers cannot make the beach cleanup, they can still play a positive role by being consciously aware of items that are brought into the festival and personal trash that is created during the the four day weekend.
“Whenever possible, bring food from local farmer’s markets or your own gardens. Repackage any food into reusable containers,” Moran suggested. “Bring reusable cups, plates, etc. to minimize what goes into the waste stream. Our food vendors use eco-friendly materials too so that’s another great option.
Green Vibes offers some great pre-festival packing tips to help lighten the environmental impact:
Carpool: the less stuff you stack, the more people you can pack!
Bring reusable water bottles
Avoid bringing food that spoils easily and/or is individually wrapped
Think reusable before you buy disposable
Bring bags for garbage and recycling
Avoid styrofoam coolers
If you have to buy new, recycle the box before you arrive on-site
Avoid bringing unnecessary items that become pesky waste: silly string, confetti, glow sticks, packing peanuts, etc.
While at the festival, campers should make sure their campsite belongings are secured to reduce wind blown trash and litter. Most importantly, at the close of the festival, pack up everything you brought with you and leave the area as nice or better than you found it.
Every attendee of Gathering of the Vibes has an opportunity, and even a responsibility, to demonstrate leadership in this area. Not only is taking care of the environment an important topic, it is also vital to be consciously sustainable at Vibes to maintain the thriving ecosystem that is Seaside Park.
Festival sustainability does not start with being handed a garbage bag upon your arrival at the campgrounds. While that supplied garbage bag plays a vital role in encouraging all attendees to pick up after themselves at their campsites, efforts to make Electric Forest the cleanest and greenest it has ever been starts long before attendees walk through the festival gates.
Making the choice to reduce one’s waste footprint starts days and weeks prior to the festival with environmentally conscious purchasing and packing, but it also begins with education. The driving force behind necessary “eco-cation” (ecology education) prior to the start of this year’s EF has been the unique and very successful sustainability program Electricology.
Returning for its fourth year, Electricology is back with greater opportunities than ever before to get more attendees involved and make an even larger positive impact.
Last year Vinyl Mag not only highlighted the program in an interview with Rachel Wells, representative of Electricology and The High Five Program, but we actively participated in the program by bringing our recycling and trash to designated EcoZones throughout the grounds of Electric Forest, earned EcoPoints from our participation, and eventually redeemed our points by visiting one of the Electricology Stores.
As an active participant, the program seemed to make an impact on the festival as a whole. With our return to the Forest this year, we caught up with our good friend Rachel Wells to talk about the successes of Electricology 2014, new and exciting additions to the program, packing tips, green education, and glitter. Yes, glitter.
“Last year was extremely successful and we are growing along with the festival,” Wells said. “The festival has expanded its footprint over the years and we are going to keep growing to accommodate the congestion and waste produced by 40,000+ festival attendees.”
At EF 2014, the Electricology team helped collect 22 tons of compost, 8 tons of cardboard, 125 tons of recycling and 19 tons of steel and aluminum.
“People started organically creating piles of broken EZ ups, tents, and chairs on their own and that is a huge part of our labor, gathering that up. We collected and recycled over 20 tons of that stuff, so to have campers build these massive 30 foot mounds on their own on Sunday was really awesome.”
Everyday of EF there will be people on site working the fields and grounds picking up litter; but just because there are volunteers in place to pick up the trash, that doesn’t mean attendees can’t do their part in the clean-up process.
“If every person who attends Electric Forest leaves their waste tied up, in the appropriate bags, just sitting there in a nice little pile at their campsite, we could be out of there in 24-48 hours. We really could. That is our goal,” said Wells. “Everything we’re trying to do here is to cut down that cleanup. Not because we want to get done early, but because it’s going to save money for the festival and in return invest in other amazing opportunities for people to participate and it’s really going to make a statement to the community that we care and we want to come back every year.”
While one of Electricology’s goals for 2015 is to significantly cut the cleanup, the program also hopes to increase participation and educate all while having fun.
“This year our message is a little stronger,” Wells said. “The message is Rise to the Challenge. We feel like we’ve had a few years, so we know we’ll be having a lot of attendees who will be returning to the festival and I feel like this message will help EF veterans to teach the younger generation coming in and new attendees, and I think we can really make an impact. I think it’s absolutely possible to engage everyone and get everybody to set a standard for how we leave a music festival.”
Electricology started setting the eco-standard for this year’s EF by taking over the festival’s Facebook and Twitter pages one month out from the event. In addition to providing EcoTips, Electricology also talked about some of this year’s program engagements. Electricology is always experimenting with new ways to encourage participation and distribute prizes to increasing amounts of supporters. Each contest has hidden goals to increase waste diversion or reduce the post festival cleanup time, while still being a fun activity for guests.
Returning to the program is the Electricology Leaderboard Contest where EF’s top EcoPoint earners will compete for secret prizes and two tickets to next year’s festival. Additionally, Electricology has instated the Electricology Prize Cart, a mobile solution to crowd litter and instant gratification for the masses. The Prize Cart will circulate the entire festival footprint, inspiring random mass litter pickups wherever it goes, in exchange for a variety of instant prizes.
“Basically if you see our prize cart, they’ll be in areas where there is the most litter and we’re going to be inspiring these flash mobs for litter picking up and anyone who participates will get instant prizes,” Wells said. “So, for example, we might say that the first five people who can help us pick up an area by the food court will win an awesome cool prize and we might even end up taking them on our cart with us and head off to some place awesome!”
Also, for the first time this year, Bell’s Brewery will present the EcoPoints Party for top participants with pizza from Spicy Pie. The EcoPoints Party will include a special performance by the winner of Plug In’s Instrumental Forester Competition, KC Roberts & The Live Revolution. This invite-only party will take place on Sunday, to celebrate the greatest contributors to Forest Greening.
During our chat, we also asked Wells if she had any tips for this year’s festival and if she had any suggestions for things we should just leave at home.
“As renewable energy becomes more and more available and affordable, I would love to see people using LED flashlights, and coming up with some different kinds of reusable chargers and batteries. It would be great to see some alternative energies being used.”
Wells once again stressed the importance of leaving packaging home. Bought new camping gear? Unwrap it and take it out of its cardboard box, and recycle the packaging at home. Ultimately, leaving the packaging at home isn’t just going to cut down the clean-up time, it’s also going to cut down on the labor. As Wells explained last year, “Sometimes, there’s a few extra days of post production clean-up there that could have been cut if people had just left some of that stuff at home.”
In addition to items attendees should think twice about bringing, one surprise is glitter. While Wells would never tell anyone they can’t bring glitter to the festival she did explain how the Electricology team takes care in cleaning up all the leftover glitter found on site.
“Glitter is extremely hard to pick up and it goes everywhere, and there is only so much we can do to pick it up. We go around to where the campsites used to be and we’ll use a Shop-Vac to vacuum up the leftover glitter piles. Sometimes we’ll actually have to shovel out a part of that dirt and throw it away. All year round horses roam in the field where the GA camping is, so it’s important to us, that even those tiny little pieces of glitter get picked up. Within a month after the festival a horse is going to be grazing over that area and it’s very import that all those tiny little details are taken care of. Every little speck of glitter means just as much as the giant tents left behind.”
Wells also suggested leaving home plastic water bottles and bringing reusable water bottles. Hydration is a hot topic at this year’s EF and the festival will be installing 20 water stations throughout the Forest.
Festival sustainability starts and ends with each attendee. In order to keep our Forest clean and thriving, we must all be responsible with the things that we bring with us. Through Electricology, it is possible to inspire and motivate people to do the right thing and Rise To The Challenge. Of course the prizes and incentives are great, but as Wells stated, “It’s not just about getting a prize, it’s about doing what you’re supposed to be doing at Electric Forest and that’s something we’re abiding by. If you’re member of the Forest Family then this is something that you do.”
Television has always been a great medium for exposing viewers to new music. A pivotal scene can become instantly classic when paired with the right song, and it can elicit the right emotions from fans – joy, despair, or even fear. Here, in no particular order, are some of the best songs that have been featured in a TV show.
“Where The Colors Don’t Go” by Sam Phillips on Gilmore Girls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Koh-wPyQvA
Gilmore Girls is first and foremost an offbeat comedy about mothers and daughters, but beneath the surface are commentaries on American privilege. The show became beloved for its underground-leaning soundtrack, especially once Lane decided to pursue her rock dreams. A third of the way through the pilot, “Where The Colors Don’t Go” begins playing as Lorelai realizes the only way to provide her daughter with a private high school education involves asking her wealthy, estranged parents for money. “In a white room / In a white head / In a cobweb of enterprise” sets the tone for the sharp juxtaposition between Lorelai’s small-town bodega life, and the Mayflower mansion she gave up in its stead.
“I Feel Alright” by Steve Earle on The Wire
Every of The Wire‘s five seasons ends with a deep-digging montage showing where relevant characters ended up by season’s end. Creator David Simon used these crucial scenes to drive home his points about corruption and power, and season two’s is particularly powerful. As the Baltimore PD continue to investigate the local drug rings from season one, unionized dock workers are introduced to the mix. Unshockingly for a Simon production, everything goes wrong and your favorite characters end up dead or internally destroyed (whaddup George R.R. Martin!). As “I Feel Alright” plays ironically, out-of-work shoreman Nikki reflects on his less than stellar decisions, and the viewers are left with a profound sense of understanding and emptiness.
“Far From Any Road” by The Handsome Family on True Detective
True Detective can be described as ‘creepy.’ I mean, it’s a show about a cult of child killers who live in the swamp. So naturally, its theme song should give one the heebie jeebies, and the Handsome Family’s “Far From Any Road” certainly fits this bill. The minor key finger picking and güiros give it the feel of a Mexican murder ballad, and it features the killer and appropriate line “the poisoned Creole soul.”
“Boom, Boom, Boom” by The Iguanas on Homicide: Life On The Street
Before The Wire, David Simon helped with the creation of another high-quality show documenting the daily lives of Baltimore’s finest. Homicide had less grandiose character webs, but was still just as emotionally impactful. Each show deals with the sisyphean task of keeping a lid on the murder rate. Facetiously, season five’s 11th episode has the department celebrate the new year, only to have the phone immediately alert them to a fresh body.
“Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)” by Irma Thomas on Black Mirror
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raQ2WguE37A
The BBC’s recent sort of Twilight Zone remake generally centers around the dystopian future we’ve set ourselves up for. So it was a jarring treat when “Fifteen Million Merits”, series one’s second episode, featured this classic from the Soul Queen of New Orleans. In the episode, one of the characters tries to change her fate by singing the song on a twisted iteration of American Idol, only to be coerced into pornography.
“Bouncin’ Back (Bumpin’ Me Against The Wall)” by Mystikal on Treme
Hey look, another David Simon show! Treme was Simon’s The Wire follow-up, and in similar fashion, it scrutinized race and class relations in a post-Katrina New Orleans. Main character Davis comes from a wealthy French Quarter family, but (tries to) reject his privilege by moving into the musically storied but poor neighborhood of Treme. When an affluent gay couple moves in next door, he fears gentrification and tries to drive them out by turning this song up to 11.
“Dead Fingers Talking” by Working For A Nuclear Free City on Breaking Bad
One of the best items in Breaking Bad‘s bag of tricks was the cooking montage. Though not detailed enough for an enterprising fan to figure out Walt’s recipe, they still managed to make chemistry interesting. (Sidenote: what if this show was just Vince Gilligan’s attempt at increasing STEM participation?!) Our first glimpse of the scary science game early in season one, when Walt and Jesse ventured to the desert in a ramshackle RV. “Dead Fingers Talking” has a squiggly, grimy vibe that works perfectly for the first of many cooks these star-crossed friends would embark upon.
“Fresh Blood” by Eels on The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst
HBO’s supreme new docu-series examines how a wealthy, disturbed man could manage to get away with murder on at least three separate occasions. The Jinx is often, nay, almost always described as Serial for TV, and it’s certainly not afraid to lay on the cliffhangers. As each episode sets up which aspect of these effed-up cases it’s going to focus on, the tension builds until Eels comes to the forefront. The lyrics don’t completely fit – the song seems to be written by a serial killer (“I’m so tired of the same old crud / Sweet baby, I need fresh blood”) whereas Robert Durst seems like a desperate sociopath backed into a corner by the falling dominos of his terrible decisions. Nonetheless, the song is synced perfectly with the surreal images of Durst and his various victims, and it’s chill-inducing every time.
In recent years it seems like every day is some sort of national day of celebration. Everything from National Doughnut Day, to Put a Pillow On Your Fridge Day (say what?), to Bloody Mary Day (we’ll drink to that), the monthly and daily observances are endless.
Among these fun, quirky, and bizarre days of recognition, there is one day that is worth our attention: May 31st, National Save Your Hearing Day.
Save Your Hearing Day is a yearly reminder to turn down the the music and the loud noises in our lives. It is best celebrated in peaceful environments while abiding by the 60:60 rule: listening to music at 60% of volume capacity for less than 60 minutes (this applying to concerts as well). 1
With festival season upon us, there is no better time than now to honor this day and our ears. We sat down with our good friend Katie Carmody, founder of We’re hEAR For You, to talk about hearing loss and prevention, and to gain an understanding of “how loud is too loud.”
Carmody speaking at SXSW 2015 on the panel Be Hear Now: Hearing Protection Is the Future of the Music Industry
Noise exposure accounts for much of hearing loss in adults and has been noted as a primary factor in hearing loss in young adults and adolescents. Recreational and community noise exposure can lead to high frequency hearing loss and tinnitus. Damage from noise exposure can often be traced to listening to amplified music through headphones or sound systems, while playing music, attending concerts or dance venues, or other noisy activities.
We’re hEAR for You (WHFY) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase the awareness of noise-induced hearing loss, hearing loss prevention, and the use of earplugs among the music community. The organization promotes the prevention of noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus by educating individuals about the risks of noise exposure and the importance of of using hearing protection. WHFY provides free earplugs at a variety of music venues in Georgia and at a growing number of music festivals nationwide, and also offers free hearing screenings through the University of Georgia Speech Hearing Clinic.
“Hearing conservation has been a passion of mine because I have always been a huge music fan, mostly due to my father,” said Carmody. “I grew up listening to music nightly at home, and going t concerts with my family. I always knew that my father had tinnitus, or constant ringing in your ears, which developed after seeing a concert in his earlier years. Knowing this, and as an avid live music fan, I knew the importance of protecting your hearing. Now, working in the music industry, and being around live music on a daily basis, it is my crusade to educate music lovers of all kind about using hearing protection and the science that supports it.”
The constant ringing of the ears that Carmody mentioned is one of the many effects of noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). NIHL can be caused by a one-time exposure to an intense sound or by continuous exposure to loud sounds over an extended period of time (The louder the sound, the shorter the time period before NIHL can occur). The severity of the hearing loss depends on the level, duration, and frequency content of the exposure. Exposure to dangerous levels of noise can often be traced to listening to amplified music through headphones or sound systems, while playing music, attending rock concerts or dance venues, and other everyday noisy activities. Short term effects of NIHL can include auditory fatigue and possible ringing the following day, and can even lead to long term effects such as hearing loss to the point of needing hearing aids.
So how loud is too loud? According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), both the level of noise and the length of time you listen to the noise can put you at risk for noise-induced hearing loss. “Sound is measured in decibels (dB). The higher the decibel level, the louder the noise, and the louder the sound, the shorter the time period before NIHL can occur,” Carmody said. “Normal conversation occurs around 60dB. Exposure to sound over 85dB for more than 7 minutes without hearing protection results in noise induced hearing loss. Concerts can run 120+, the same for Sporting events.”
For those who attend concerts/festivals and have never thought about hearing protection, Carmody offered a few points to consider:
Noise induced hearing loss is 100% permanent and 100% preventable. It is essential you use hearing protection.
When your ears ring after a show, it is your ears telling you your hearing is damaged, and you will not hear at that frequency again.
If you have to raise your voice/scream to communicate with someone next to you, its too loud! Wear earplugs, take a break & move farther away from the speakers.
Carmody also had a message for individuals who may believe they can deal with the consequences at a later date:
“Hearing loss is gradual. Many times you may not know you have hearing loss, unless you get your hearing checked by an audiologist. Here’s a great example of our logic: When you go in the sun, say at a music festival, you take many precautions to protect yourself; sunscreen to protect your skin, shoes to protect your feet, sunglasses to protect your eyes, what about your ears? It is as simple as that, especially at a live music event! Noise exposure is damaging, and we should be more considerate of our ears, and the role hearing has in our lives. To be smart about your hearing now will save you a lot of trouble in your later years. Hearing loss is gradual, therefore you may not notice that you have hearing loss, until it is too late! Take action now, to prevent irreversible damage down the road.”
Interested in protecting your ears? There are several different forms of hearing protection to choose from:
Foam earplugs – ideal for casual concert-goers: It’s the starter earplug and WHFY provides these in mass at festival & concerts nationwide.
High Fidelity reusable earplugs – We recommend all live music fans to invest in a pair of high fidelity reusable plugs, like Earlove, that are high quality and provide a flat response decibel reduction. Also, reusable = less waste! The preserving our environment, like preserving our hearing, is important to We’re hEAR For You. Using reusable (and higher quality) earplugs helps reduce the amount of waste generated at live music events.
Musicians Earplugs – For musicians! Yours ears and ability to hear are your life, your love and your career! See your local audiologist for more details.
Children’s Hearing Protection Earmuffs – Not only are they adorable, but the earmuffs provide superior hearing protection for those little ears.
We’re hEAR for you has partnered with Headcount this festival season and will distribute earplugs at these upcoming festivals:
“Do not be afraid to live and smile more. Life is too short.”
“I remember how I felt, and I remember how beautiful everybody was and how I literally had gone from seeing existence as a curse to realizing it’s the most incredible gift that we have.”
It was in this moment at Electric Forest 2012 when Pat Hawco began his mental healing process.
On his final patrol as a minesweeper in Afghanistan, Hawco stepped on a land mine and lost his leg. Like a lot of veterans, he returned home with an anger that surrounded the fact that he would be handicapped for the rest of his life; a hurdle unto itself. While recovering from his injury in Southern California, Hawco had the opportunity to attend a music festival that boasted a lineup with some of the biggest names in electronic music today. From this experience, Hawco ended up falling in love with the electronic scene and the people he met, and he began using this music to replace his anger.
“Even before the military I was an angry person,” Hawco said. “I remember the years leading up to going into the military, I was this rotten angry person and I had never really given myself a chance to smile and be a happy person. There was some kind of block I had towards the ‘it’s better to be positive’ attitude.”
Hawco was still caught up in the mindset of Afghanistan, the ethos of the Marine Corps, and his own resentment when he accepted an invitation to join his friends at Electric Forest in 2012.
“I didn’t know what to expect. I showed up and literally those four days changed my life. It turned the entire idea I had towards humanity on its head. I entered with the anger and hate and left with love and compassion. It also showed me the appreciation for life that I was looking for.”
This self-realization, along with a chance encounter and interview with a reporter the following year at Electric Forest in 2013, opened the doors to the creation of Electric Forest’s Electric Forces Program. A collaborative effort, the Electric Forces Program is inspired and led by veterans with the support of members of the Electric Forest production team and the Electric Forest family. Launched in 2014, the program is a unique onsite festival activation where U.S. Military Veterans and Electric Forest festival-goers shared their stories of transformation and community in music.
When Hawco’s interview started gaining attention and made its way back to the Forest HQ, the team knew they wanted to do more for veterans.
“From the beginning, we got in contact with Pat and asked ‘what can we do?’” explained Electric Forest’s Plug In Program Director Lia Holland. “His reply was that he and his fellow veterans wanted to serve the community, and we were taken aback that they flipped our question on its head and wanted to know what they could do for us! Since then, we’ve been challenging our internal teams to find places for as many veterans as possible to join us to build and run the festival. This is a collaboration – as much as possible, we encourage veterans to speak for and represent themselves in their work on the event with the Electric Forces Story Project.”
The Electric Forces Story Sharing Initiative is returning for its second year and invites the Forest Family to share their tales of change and renewal through the festival experience on camera. This year, StoryCorps, a nonprofit that has created the largest single collection of human voices ever gathered, will make all stories available to be digitally shared with friends, family, and the future. These stories will also be preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. The dream of Hawco and StoryCorps is to capture the collective wisdom of humanity through this creation of oral history.
“Last year, it was more about me telling my story. This year, my goal is to let everyone else tell their story,” explained Hawco. “There is this big lesson you can learn from everybody and I want to take those lessons and transfer them to real life.”
While the festival activation itself is based on individuals and their stories, this year, in collaboration with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the program includes two new additional opportunities to involve even more veterans: The Electric Forces Workshop Program and The Electric Forces Veterans Building Crew. The workshop program invites veterans to share the inspirations and interests that have helped them in their healing process. From yoga to sustainable agriculture, a wide variety of interests are combining to offer opportunities for service and learning to all. A team of veterans will be of service behind the scenes of the festival as The Electric Forces Build Crew and they will join the Electric Forest community as builders and creators.
“The program has grown much larger in its first year than we ever imagined,” said Holland. “We received over 100 applications, and our crews scrambled to find more work with the festival so that we could invite every single veteran who applied to join a team. After a huge effort on the part of our operations crew, we sent out job offers to all of the veterans to join everything from the medical staff to campground hosts. During this process, it was jaw dropping how skilled our veteran applicants are – I think we’re going to have the best crew ever this year with them on it!”
Through these activations, Electric Forces aims to coordinate community building and bridge the gap between veterans and civilians through healing. “I want to melt the gap between everybody,” Hawco said. “I don’t want there to be anymore groups, especially veterans and nonveterans. I don’t want anyone to think about it like that anymore. I know there is that separation, but I feel like there doesn’t need to be as much as one as there is.”
“With each interaction that takes place between military and non-military Forest Family, so-called ‘veterans issues’ become problems that we share, and that we face together. We want to create as many opportunities for that connection as possible,” Holland explained.
Over the course of the festival weekend, Electric Forces will bring people together from all walks of life. Although these connections, along with all of the other opportunities for veterans and civilians, are the main focuses of the program, something greater is at work here. Beyond these new connections, beyond the collecting of stories, beyond the employment opportunities, this program will not only provide life lessons, but Electric Forces will ultimately change lives.
“The greatest lesson from this program is a lesson that life teaches every time you learn deeply about someone different from you – don’t make assumptions about people, their motivations, or their circumstances. Each person is unique, and what is healing for one may seem strange to another. We all have to find our own paths toward healing and happiness, and embrace our differences on that journey,” shares Holland.
Every single person has their own struggles. We all have our individual paths to walk down and we must find our own ways to discover healing and happiness. Hawco’s mental healing process began and continues at this music festival. It was here that his perspective on life changed and where he began to view his situation as a gift rather than a detriment. His work with Electric Forces has been an outlet for his own personal healing and he shared the insight that, “There is no room for hate when you give back.”
From a person full of anger and rage to an individual that loves life and has compassion, Hawco’s transformative story is one of hope. For anyone still searching for their new beginning in life, Hawco offer’s these simple words, “Do not be afraid to live and smile more. Life is too short.” While this may be easier said than done for some, participation in this year’s Electric Forces has the ability to open the doors to personal healing.
Over the years, many Electric Forest attendees have experienced the pure magic of this festival; they have found comfort, healing, and protection within the Sherwood Forest, they have received unconditional acceptance from the Forest Family, and they have never been freer to be themselves. With Hawco has an incredible example, many who have walked through those festival gates have rediscovered their true selves and have been able to begin their own personal journeys towards healing from their festival experience.
Through her work with the festival, Holland has been fortunate to see how Electric Forest has evolved into not only one of the best music festivals in the country, but a place of healing: “Electric Forest has become a place of healing through the intentions of everyone who is involved with the event. Once a space is created to encourage strangers who share a love of music and art and life to slow down and find each other, relationships blossom. When that seed of connection was planted, and the space was created, the Forest Family itself became the greatest curator of the festival’s capacity to be a place of healing and inspiration. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve had the fortune to see.”
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Vinyl Mag would like to take this moment to thank and recognize all who have served our country. We honor the brave men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in order to preserve our freedom and our way of life.
Ted Leo, widely regarded as the cool uncle of punk rock, has been around the scene for a while. It makes sense given that he spent his formative music years in the hardcore scenes of New Jersey and New York, and in the late 1980s and early 1990s that was the place to be. Despite his musical output, he had a pretty unpunk upbringing – after graduating from Seton Prep, he went on to get an English degree from Notre Dame.
But given the material he’d later put to tape, one wonders if he was actually doing undercover research for his eventual anti-capitalism reportage. It would take a hot minute to cull his entire discography, so here are some particular highlights for Leonine novices.
Chisel – 8 A.M. All Day (1996)
Chisel’s excellent debut set the precedent for what Leo would do with the Pharmacists a few years later, featuring his signature yelping and hypocrisy-shaming lyrics. The record is a lengthy 14 songs long, unlike the usual tracklisting brevity of the group’s contemporaries. Only the uber catchy “The Dog In Me” clocks in over four minutes. The power-punk sound, occasionally interspersed with dissonant guitar licks, is well-rounded thanks to recording help from Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto and his home studio. (This D.C. connect would come in handy later.) The record was released on New Jersey’s Gern Blandsten Records, also home to the Van Pelt (Ted’s brother Chris’ band) and eventually the Pharmacists. Their 1997 followup Set You Free was darker, less hook-focused, and more polished (plus ever so slightly dub-informed). After their supporting tour ended in May, so did the group, which gave way to Leo’s next project.
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – The Tyranny of Distance (2001)
Ted Leo’s Pharmacists work began as a post-Chisel 1999 solo project, based in D.C. His first record tej leo(?), Rx / pharmacists was a heady collection of stream of consciousness sampling, and 2000 saw the five song EP Treble in Trouble. But The Tyranny of Distance was the band’s first ensemble effort and bears little resemblance to the half baked stuff preceding it. If anything these songs are overcooked, if you’ll forgive the extended kitchen metaphor. They’re longer, jammier, and more thoughtful. Though not as honed as what was to come (as with most bands), this record is a road map for what they were trying to do – creating a sonic scrapyard where punk could mix freely with classic rock riffs and lengthy pop narratives, and the political could be personal.
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Hearts of Oak (2003)
Hearts of Oak is TL/Rx’s requisite weird album. Given the group’s D.C. headquartering, it makes sense that they would emulate Q and Not U at some point, like the eponymous “Hearts of Oak”. “The Ballad of the Sin Eater”, perhaps named in remembrance of Leo’s previous band the Sin-Eaters, is a fuzzy drone spazz punk number that may be the only other song besides Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1000 Dances” to reference the Watusi. None of this is to say it’s not a worthy record. It’s full of as many catchy musical ideas as any of their other albums – it just comes with a heaping side of experimentation. It’s also where the group’s rhythm section begins to come into its own, the final variable in their fresh equation.
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Living With The Living (2007)
To be sure, 2003’s Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead and 2004’s Shake The Sheets were fine releases. But they tended more toward straight punk than the quintessential Pharmacists sound. Living With The Living was a return to form and an ambitious, perfectly-executed anti-war concept record. It also continued to showcase Leo’s pro-unity, anti-colonialism sentiments in songs like the filler opener “Fourth World War” and “La Costa Brava”. On the dark end of things are martial tunes like “Bomb. Repeat. Bomb.” and “C.I.A.”, which would sound like paranoid ramblings in the hands of someone less intelligent and clearheaded than Leo. For such heavy lyrical material, it somehow plays like a beach roadtrip playlist, and it’s all catchy as hell. But what else would you expect?
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – The Brutalist Bricks (2010)
This critical and fan darling of a record plays like a Ted Leo Greatest Hits collection. It starts with a bang on “The Mighty Sparrow” and doesn’t let up in intensity or brilliance. Like Living With The Living, there are dissenting liberal opinions slathered all over each verse and chorus. “Mourning In America” is a pretty brutal assault on historical revisionism, “Ativan Eyes” sort of promotes communism, and the phrase “red, white, and bruised” gets tossed around. More broadly, “One Polaroid A Day” calls out the absurdity of experiencing life through a smartphone lens. The Brutalist Bricks cements Leo’s reputation as a chord progression genius and an underground voice for the discontented majority.
The Both – The Both
Leo’s most recent project is the Hüsker Dü-influenced The Both, a wonderful pop collab with Aimee Mann, the rad indie aunt to his cool uncle. They released their self-titled debut in 2014 to general acclaim. Crunchy guitars, jaunty drums, and funky bass ensue, but the real star is their blended vocals. Aimee has a lower voice than the average gal, and Ted has a higher voice than the average dude, so their duetting is pretty compelling. Both have been involved in a crap ton of projects and it’s quite evident how much respect and love they have for each other, and the record is just utterly enjoyable to listen to – especially its lead single “Milwaukee” which takes the approximate beat of “Reelin In The Years” and puts an anthemic Cheap Trick spin on it (which, incidentally, bears a striking resemblance to TL/Rx’s “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone”). But this time Leo isn’t quite as political incensed, instead playing on themes of reflection and reminiscence.
The Both are gearing up for a (short) string of tour dates over the next couple of months. Check out their dates below!
Tour Dates:
5/10/2015 Central Park Atlanta, GA
5/11/2015 Cat’s Cradle Carrboro, NC
7/18/2015 The Crocodile Seattle, WA
7/19/2015 Project Pabst Festival Portland, OR
