Extravanganza Music Festival

On May 16th UC Santa Barbara’s Harder Stadium filled with thousands of college students for the annual free Extravaganza music festival. The festival, which began in 1979 as a way to showcase local talent, altered its format to celebrate its 30th anniversary, dropping its usual 11am- dusk schedule in favor of a 3pm start time that saw headline act Ludacris finishing his set at midnight.

As well as Ludacris, the line-up featured Girl Talk, The Cold War Kids, The Cool Kids, Rebelution, Willy Northpole, Boombox Orchestra, and Deejay Raph. Festivalgoers were also treated by a short surprise set by Asher Roth, who came on after Girl Talk’s set to sing his college anthem “I Love College”.

The line-up provided a blend of rock, dance, reggae and hip-hop that the festival has built its reputation on, but unfortunately had too many hip-hop acts to cater to all tastes. The Cold War Kids provided a good break performing their hits “Hang me up to dry” and “Something is not right with me”. Girl Talk played a great set but to a much less enthusiastic audience than Coachella (the lightshow was also not quite as impressive, but this is to be expected as it was a free festival).

Asher Roth performed 4 songs, but the audience failed to show interest in any other than novelty song “I Love College”, the lyrics of which have been known to frequently appear on Facebook statuses America-wide after every weekend since its release earlier this year.

Despite the downfalls, the festival was a great event and a good way to spend a night in Santa Barbara.

Coachella Part 2: The Sahara Tent

American act Girl Talk drew a large crowd with his set, despite competing against Morrissey for audience members. Girl Talk had everybody dancing with his seamless set of mash-up remixes, created with samples from well known pop, rap, rock and R&B songs. The set partially followed the progression of his latest album ‘Feed the Animals’, but also had a lot more to offer, with samples ranging from ACDC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ to Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’.

Girl Talk further entertained with an impressive light show and a stage full of dancers. The highlight of the set, however, was his finale in which he surfed over the crowd standing in an inflatable boat to the uplifting melody from Journey’s ‘Faithfully’.

Australian electro duo The Presets also had the Sahara tent overflowing with fans, despite sharing a timeslot with headline act Paul McCartney. Girl Talk proved a hard act to follow, but The Presets’ unique sound pleased the crowd and the light show was just as spectacular. The audience danced wildly as the duo performed familiar hits such as ‘Talk Like That’ and ‘Are You The One?’, and although they closed predictably with ‘My People’ the set was far from boring. The Presets deviated as usual from the radio-friendly recorded versions of their songs, adding extra elements and extending the songs to make them more suited to the dance frenzy of the festival crowd.

Coachella Part 1

The Coachella festival kicked off on Friday April 17 featuring big-name acts such as Paul McCartney, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, and many more.

Paul McCartney hushed those who were skeptical about his inclusion in the Coachella line-up, drawing an enormous crowd comprised of people who had been reserving their places on the grass all day, those who liked The Beatles’ music, and others who simply dropped by for the novelty value (or because their parents would kill them if they hadn’t).

For those who bought their Coachella ticket purely to see McCartney the wait proved worth it, as he belted out a set of 33 songs including ‘Hey Jude’, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Let It Be’. He also spoke to the crowd between songs, making dedications to late band members John Lennon and George Harrison, as well as to late wife Linda McCartney, who had passed away 11 years ago that day.

McCartney was preceded by Morrissey, former front-man of legendary indie rock group The Smiths, who impressed fans between meat-related tantrums and briefly removing his shirt.

Franz Ferdinand found that Coachella was perhaps not the best festival for audience participation, failing to get the audience singing, despite their clear enthusiasm for the band.

Other notable acts of the day included Girl Talk, The Presets, The Hold Steady, The Ting Tings, Conor Oberst, The Airborne Toxic Event and Leonard Cohen.

Some big names in music teamed up on Saturday, March 14 to play two Sound Relief festivals in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. The festivals were held to raise money for victims of the February Victorian bushfires, which killed over 200 people, and left approximately 7,500 homeless.

The Sydney show was held at Sydney Cricket Ground, and attracted more than 50,000 people, despite heavy rainfall throughout the day. The concert was headlined by international acts such as Coldplay and Barry Gibb from the Bee Gees, and featured some of Australia’s most successful artists, including Wolfmother, The Presets, Marcia Hines, and Eskimo Joe.

The Melbourne show was held at Melbourne Cricket Ground, and attracted 73,000 people. The line-up featured Kings of Leon, Jet, Jack Johnson, Midnight Oil, and eight- time ARIA award winner Gabriella Cilmi, who at 17 was the youngest performer of the day. Wolfmother traveled from Sydney in time to also appear at the Melbourne show.

The event raised over AU$7.5 million (US$4.8 million) between ticket and merchandise sales, and donations. The proceeds from the Melbourne show were donated entirely to help the bushfire victims, while the Sydney profits were split 50/50 between bushfire victims, and the victims of the Queensland floods.

"What kind of tea is this? This is scotch tea! What are they going to do? Kick me out?"

Lagwagon's Joey Cape headlined two nights of acoustic punk rock on Feb. 18 at the Los Angeles Knitting Factory, and Feb. 19 at Alex's Bar, Long Beach. He was joined by the Foo Fighters' Chris Shiflett, Drag the River's Jon Snodgrass, and Patrick Carrie and Robb MacLean of Limbeck.

Joey Cape took to the stage sporting his iconic "beard of shame", pleasing fans with acoustic renditions of Lagwagon's "Violins" and "May 16", as well as some of his solo hits, including “The Ramones Are Dead”. He made no secret of what could be expected of the Long Beach show, telling the Knitting Factory audience "you should all come tomorrow, I'll be playing a completely different set... That's a lie. This is all I know how to play.”

Chris Shiflett surprised fans by opening with a cover of Anti-Flag’s hit “Die For Your Government” and later singing Buddy Holly’s “Rave On”. Joey Cape joined him on stage to sing a song about their time living together in San Francisco with NOFX’s Fat Mike.

An admittedly drunk Jon Snodgrass worked his way self-consciously through an unprepared set, taking requests from the audience of both his solo music and Drag the River’s songs. Robb MacLean and Patrick Carrie also impressed fans with acoustic renditions of Limbeck’s songs, including “Sin City” and “Honk + Wave”.

Despite all performers being somewhat self-conscious about their acoustic abilities, the imperfections in their performances added to the experimental atmosphere. Joey Cape summed up the show saying, “we didn’t really know what to expect tonight, but we’ve had a lot of fun, and hope you have too.”

Reunions

Pop-punk band Blink 182 have confirmed rumors of a reunion, much to the joy of fans the world over. It seems that drummer Travis Barker’s horrific plane crash in September, 2008, has been enough to help front-man Tom Delonge get over the God complex that caused the band to go on “indefinite hiatus” in 2005.

The announcement sparked a sigh of relief from die-hard fans, who previously held little hope of the band getting back together. This was partly due to the lyrics “No It Isn’t” by +44-- Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker’s new band. They made their feelings towards Delonge clear with the lines “This isn’t just goodbye/ this is I can’t stand you”.

Tom Delonge also had fans scratching their heads as he attempted to shed his light-hearted and slightly immature image. The singer/ guitarist made claims that his new band, Angels and Airwaves, would bring about a musical revolution.

It seems that thankfully the band has put this all behind them now. All it took was a near death experience.

Fans of punk band Jawbreaker are keeping their fingers firmly crossed for a reunion, which has been rumored since early 2008, when the band admitted they had played together during the filming of a documentary. The reunion would be a dream come true for Jawbreaker’s fans, who have been waiting since the band broke up in 1996.

For now, however, former singer Blake Schwarzenbach has fans excited touring with his new band, Thorns of Life, who formed in October 2008.