Campfires are the best part of summer for a few reasons. They make for good photo ops; they make you smell FABULOUS; and, most importantly, they repel mosquitos. But to make your next campfire even better, you need some mellow, vibey tunes wafting through the smoke. We’ve got you covered with this chill playlist.
Gathering of the Vibes has a rich history, a strong family, and a visionary as a leader. Over the past 20 years the festival has developed into a musical experience that is built on community and a deep love for music.
The festival that many have come to love today started out as a weekend of remembrance and celebration. It was August 1995 and the recent passing of Jerry Garcia was weighing heavy on the Grateful Dead community. Mourning fans on the East Coast planned to pay their respects to the late Garcia with a formal Central Park service scheduled by the Parks Department, much like what had taken place in San Francisco. After being postponed per request of the Grateful Dead, the gathering was ultimately cancelled by the Mayor’s office.
“Mayor Giuliani cancelled the official memorial in Central Park so we got together and did it ourselves,” shared Ken Hays, Founder of Gathering of the Vibes. “It all happened very organically. We went up to SUNY Purchase and spoke with the director of Performing Arts. They have a beautifully facility up there and they allowed camping, as they had held some family camping events on their campus in the past. Sure enough, we were going through and planning all of the logistics, we put up a small stage, invited some bands, and Deadhead Heaven – A Gathering of the Tribe was born. It turned out to be a beautiful weekend celebrating the life of Jerry and The Dead that following May in 1996.”
What began as a memorial to facilitate some sense of closure for East Coast Deadheads, this initial gathering of The Tribe was just the beginning of something beautiful for Hays and fellow music lovers. “I was with Bob Kennedy and were looking over a sea of tents during the sunset the first night of Deadhead Heaven and we knew that we had to keep this going,” said Hays. “This was something incredibly meaningful for people in attendance and it was one of the few ways to get everybody together. Every year when The Dead came to town we would hang out and party, and with Jerry gone we knew that opportunity to get together with our friends would be limited. Everyone got along so beautifully that weekend so we decided to do it again the next year- we changed the name and doubled in size.”
From the very beginning, this event was started out of love; a love for The Dead, a love of the community, and a love of music. It’s this type of affection that keeps attendees coming back to Gathering of the Vibes year after year. “Today, the festival is very similar to the seed from which it began: love of music and community. Those things never change and that is what is so unique about Vibes and the family it brings together,” shared Hays.
The “tribe” Vibes brings together over the course of the weekend goes far beyond your average festival family. Gathering of the Vibes is welcoming to children and prides itself on being a family-friendly festival.
“When there are children around, it heightens that sense of community and it seemed like the right thing to do,” shares Hays. “We’ve made sure we have activities to entertain the kids, we have designated family camping, and we have special security measures in place for children. Last year we had around 2,300 children and that continues to grow. I personally love going to the family area and the kids area and see all the smiling faces.”
For Hays, those smiling families and attendees are one of the most rewarding aspects of producing Vibes year after year. “Looking out from the stage and seeing so many smiling faces, and then going over to the kids corner and seeing parents playing with their kids, that is what is rewarding about this festival,” Hays explains. “It’s an incredibly meaningful role I play here. It’s those smiles and exposing people to new bands and art they have never experienced before that makes it worth it. My job is to help set the stage for thousands of people with their positive vibes to come and celebrate. Those positive vibes are contagious and hopefully they will go home and spread the positivity to their communities and people who couldn’t join in the weekend.”
Hays has been at the helm of the Vibes ship since the very beginning and has faced and overcome many obstacles along the way. Looking back on the past 20 years, Hays shared with Vinyl Mag one of his biggest learning experiences throughout this journey: “I’m incredibly lucky that I have an amazing group of people that surround me and support me. And I think I’ve learned that I’ve always been hands on and continue to be hands on. I’ve been able to let go and trust those who have my back more now more than ever. And I think that’s one of the things I’ve learn over the years; it’s to be able to let go and trust that the people in key positions have things covered. Micromanaging has been my thing for a long time and to be able to let go and know everything is going to be handled properly is huge, and I am lucky to have an amazing group around me.”
As we approach the milestone celebration for Vibes, this team Hays speaks so highly of is hard at work preparing for the momentous weekend. With community always at the forefront of Vibes’ mission and goals, teams are in place supporting green initiatives, non-profits, food drives, and other programs that give back to the local community. Additionally, the festival boasts a stellar lineup that includes the likes of Wilco, The String Cheese Incident, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Weezer, Gregg Allman, and Warren Haynes. “I’m excited about our Friday night with String Cheese doing a couple sets, and welcoming Wilco, Ben Harper, and Weezer to Vibes for the first time,” said Hays. “We also have a bunch of up and coming artists that are really great artists and I think people are going to be excited when they see them. I think we have a really have something for everybody”
Back in 1996, Hays may not have known what his gathering would ultimately turn into and look like 20 years later, but Vibes has truly turned into something remarkable. When thinking about the future and the next 20 years for Gathering of the Vibes Hays has a list of musicians he would love to invite to come out and play but most of all, he would just like to see the festival and Vibes community stay relatively the same as it’s been. “Honestly, I’d like to see more of the same,” Hays said. “At Vibes people are just stronger and more united as a community and family. I want to see more of that; more love that can be expressed and a desire from all to leave the space at Vibes better than how we found it.”
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.
Coachella 2014. Photo by @rachaeltension.
A photo posted by CHVRCHES (@chvrches) on
Most of their pictures are live shots copped from their professional photog, but if you’re a fan of live music pics, you’ll adore their posts.
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Sylvan Esso are known for their funky fashion choices, and there’s no better place to broadcast their outfits than Instagram.
Sweet boat, Lyon. #weplayedabarge #gnarbounty
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This is a band that prefers industrial and landscape shots over selfies, and knows how to do it well.
These guys are great at offering up humorous and epic snapshots of their busy touring life, so it’s ALMOST like being on tour with them…almost.
https://instagram.com/p/1glw3uwwWV/?taken-by=kishi_bashi
Kishi Bashi is like the quiet but brilliant friend you have – his posts are friendly but also smart.
A photo posted by HOLYCHILD (@holychild) on
These guys are absolute masters of perspective and use of natural lines – their grams are immensely aesthetically pleasing.
No pants til Brooklyn #hifashion #soldout
A photo posted by The Bright Light Social Hour (@tblsh) on
These absurd Austinian jokesters like to post funny pictures, but are also masters of making bright colors brighter.
A photo posted by St. Vincent (@st_vincent) on
Sure, we’re not the first pub to remark upon her Gram game, but her dry wit and eye for finding unusual in the mundane make her account a must-follow.
There are always those families who make you question where on earth your own genes got lost. The one with four kids in college sports or the squad with two successful actors in movies. So much so, that the families with one successful sibling? Eh, could’ve done better. Here’s to some of the first born siblings that found the itch and passed it on to their younger brothers or sisters – topped with a load of opportunities. We’ve thrown together some of the pairs, or groups, who didn’t just manage to impress their parents, or their high schools, or their Instagram followers–they found a larger platform to showcase just how much family matters.
[/tps_header]Gigi and Bella Hadid
They’re the sisters of the moment. The daughters of Yolanda Faster, a member of the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and the social media movement, the pair have walked up and down runways for Karl Lagerfield and Michael Kors. Anna Wintour calls them up regularly for cameos in Vogue, and V Magazine just recently photographed them for their cover, sprawled on the streets in matching gear.
Kids these days. They don’t appreciate musical history and they’re all glued to their bright blue mobiles. Except it’s not just the kids who are screen addicts anymore. Folds’ latest offering from his upcoming yMusic collab So There is “Phone In A Pool”, and it’s basically about exactly what it sounds like. Ben is back to his old tricks – quirky 123-123-12 piano rhythms, infant orchestral instruments popping in and out of the mix, and goofy weird-kid-in-class phrasings like “y’all knows what I means.” But in standard Foldsian fashion, the song isn’t as simple as what meets the ears.
It’s easy to hate on technology; we’re dependent on the communication that it makes so easy. For a musician, it doesn’t take too many shows to get frustrated looking into an audience and seeing only a sea of passive, omnipresent recording devices in place of rapt fans. That frustration is made doubly tricky because social media is a key ingredient to musical success in the quarter-life aughts. Further, we make it possible to broadly blame failed relationships, in part, on the short attention spans and emptiness that tech has gifted us. But technology isn’t actually controlling us – we simply choose to keep calm and keep using it. Folds’ discography is full of songs about responsibility and blame, and where it should be placed, and why it ends up getting placed elsewhere. In “Phone In A Pool”, Folds does just what the title bluntly states, in Mardi Gras country no less; but when he breaks down and ends up “back on your sofa in a puddle in a couple of weeks” and continues scrolling, glazy-eyed, through clicky content, he knows it’s on him: “I won’t / I won’t / I won’t / I won’t blame New Orleans.”
So There is being released by New West Records on September 11. Listen to “Phone In A Pool” on the label’s SoundCloud, here (and there are simpler ways of disconnecting that won’t cost your parents hundreds of dollars, so, you know, be safe with your motherboards.)
Modest Mouse released their newest album “Strangers to Ourselves” March 2015 with hit singles such as “Lampshades on Fire” and “Coyotes.” Now, a new music video accompanies one 0f the most familiar tracks, “The Ground Walks, with Time in a Box.” The video opens slow and dramatic, strange creatures in straw hoods walk across what seems to be a landfill; lead singer, Isaac Brock is king of the wasteland. The video is hard to grasp with a gray tone and Brock’s energetic facial expressions, almost unsettling and a little bit mind boggling. Brock rules the junk in a crown made of scrap metal and almost nothing but an animal pelt on his back. Geometric shapes wave across the video in true Modest Mouse form. Plastic bag angels and dark lipped maidens are his followers, and Brock oversees them all with a maniacal grin on his face. Pops of color bring life to the scene and coincide with the upbeat track. I guess one man’s trash is Isaac Brock’s treasure.
Yuck is one of those hidden gems from the UK because of it’s unique sound combination of rock and pop, along with subtle surfer and punk vibes. The band, manned by Max Bloom of Cajun Dance Party, Mariko Doi, Jonny Rogoff and Ed Hayes, has been compared to the likes of My Bloody Valentine and Dinosaur Jr. Among their various singles, the band has only released two studio albums, Yuck (2011) and Glow and Behold (2013). Their debut, self-titled album put them on the map with tracks like “Shook Down” and “Get Away,” which found popularity in the States. Their most recent short album, Southern Skies (2014), features 4 tracks, all very ethereal, very pop-rock, very Yuck. Now, their website allows you to listen to their newest single “Hold Me Closer.” The single opens with a rhythmic guitar riff and follows high pitched guitar scales that give it a classic rock sound. At about 3:10, the track slows to a more romantic melody.
Though The White Stripes helped to pioneer the garage rock renaissance of the early 2000s, their bizarre aesthetic often (intentionally) distracted from the ingenious minimalist blues pumping through their Sears amps. Frontman Jack White has often stated that the color scheme and childlike mannerisms of the band were meant to juxtapose the music they played, and to reinforce blues as the people’s genre, interpretable in literally any way. Whether due to freakish sonic experimentation or unintelligible riddles for lyrics, here are their ten quirkiest songs.
Jack’s lyrics are often aimed at hypocrisy and entitlement, and that’s probably what this song is about too. That or the White residence had a pest issue.
The Stripes mostly outgrew their weirdness after Elephant, so you can be damn sure their first record was full of it. “Little People” imagines random, somewhat disturbing vignettes of what children do in their downtime – like playing with spiders or sleeping with tigers.
The super catchy power chord riffage in “Black Math” often distracts from the anti-STEM message at its core. We know Jack hasn’t always been the biggest fan of K-12 – he was brought up in Catholic school and almost went to seminary – but this is a little much!
Otherwise known as “the White Stripes song from that one episode of The Simpsons.” Besides the awesome dabbling in bass and righteously furious cymbal bashing, “The Hardest Button To Button” pretty casually glosses over the topics of kidnapping, voodoo, and space-age technology.
Some have posited that “Astro” is also about hypocrisy, given the disdaining nod to Thomas Edison (#TeamTesla). But it could just be a weird dance move that only Detroitians know about.
Put simply, this is the greatest spoken word Jack has ever put to tape (yes, even considering “Old Mary”). He and Meg go on a thrifting adventure that would put Macklemore to shame, and Meg learns a valuable lesson about the line between stealing and borrowing.
Few things in life are as ~quirky~ as children’s poetry, as demonstrated by the short intro to “Let’s Build A Home”. Other than that it’s a pretty straightforward chunk of Stripes randomness, but to write a song about a kid’s poem is pretty cool in and of itself. Plot twist: the kid at the beginning is a young Jack, whose family members are prompting him to sing a song about putting the Devil in a box. Is it any wonder he turned out the way he did?
Speaking of architecture, this is a 30 second song about rooms of varying sizes and is probably a metaphor about the band growing in popularity. But it’s also a 30 second song about rooms of varying sizes.
No self-respecting musician hasn’t, at one point or another, sung into a Wurlitzer. So here is proof that the White Stripes are self-respecting musicians: “Aluminum” consists of Jack and Meg yelling “AAAAHHHH” over a distorted freakshow riff. It is abstract to say the least.
My personal favorite Stripes song of them all, “Lafayette Blues” simply has Jack singing all of Detroit’s French street names over a manic punk beat. This is the embodiment of the band’s quest to mix the absurd with the fist-pumping, and it works perfectly.
Oh, the ’90s. A full-on Johnny Depp with Kate Moss (pre-Wiona), Cory with Topanga, Rachel with Ross extravaganza. The relationships were unforgettable (the TV couples even more so), but we must fixate our focus entirely to the fashion. And not just any Ked’s-wearing, flannel-rocking ’90s gal, the t-shirt kind of chick. It’s back. It’s here. The graphic t-shirt is officially a trend. Wear the t-shirt. You’re trendy! Especially if it’s cropped. Or Moschino. The the trend has happily marched its way back into our lives in 2015.
Whether it’s under overalls, on top of high-waisted jeans, or completely cropped, you saw the basic piece on Clueless, channeled it from Drew Barrymore, and admired it on Jennifer Aniston in Friends. In Spring 2015, it’s taking over the runways and the streets as a classic concept with endless options. The graphic tee has been through it–from dancing on David Letterman’s desk (if you’re Drew) to making the front row of the Moschino show (if you’re Miley)–and this timeless piece isn’t merely a ’90s revelation. So for the moment, scroll through below and get acclimated to some of the highlights. Give it just a few seconds—and you’ll find yourself wanting to shop for your own take on the graphic, with a personal twist on the tees.
The thrill of a concert comes with the experience to hear and (more importantly) feel your favorite music live and to see your favorite artist in the flesh. Still, there’s the barrier that separates an audience member and the artist from individual, face-to-face interaction. Although we can relate to an artist on a personal level through song, we’ll never get to have a conversation with them, or at least it’s rare.Now on Netflix, Austin to Boston (2014) closes that gap with honest interviews and a look at what goes on off-stage. And, although we can’t ask the cast of Austin to Boston any questions, James Marcus Haney brings us closer to them in his second music documentary, his first being No Cameras Allowed, which followed Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and Mumford & Son.
Gill Landry of Old Crow Medicine Show narrates the documentary in his fluid, Louisiana tone. 5 Volkswagen camper vans carry the cast, among which are producers Ben Lovett and Ty Johnson, as well as director James Marcus Haney, along with 4 bands: Ben Howard, The Staves, Nathaniel Rateliff and Bear’s Den. Leaving from Austin, Texas, the gang travels in a zigzag across America, playing at venues along the way. Their final destination: Boston. Landry introduces each band. Ben Howard, a singer songwriter from the UK, not as well known in the States but still his songs are familiar and his performances energetic; The Staves, a trio of sisters also from the UK, whose voices are hypnotic in their simple harmony; Nathaniel Rateliff, his music an open door to his heart; finally, Bear’s Den, a group of fun-loving guys playing great music.
Each band is different, but talented in their own ways. Although 3 thousand miles takes a toll on even the best of friends, the bands find common ground and friendship in their art, and eventually grow to be a family, all for the sake of memories and music.
Austin to Boston is now streaming on Netflix.