Lollapalooza 2016: Our Top Takeaways [Event Review]

lolla-1

As with any music festival, after Lollapalooza is over, it always takes us a few days to digest everything and snap back to reality. For locals, the festival serves as an escape within our own city. For outsiders, it provides them with a completely unique way to experience Chicago. The magic of Lollapalooza is simply unmatched, and despite a weather scare early on, Lollapalooza 2016 turned out to be just as memorable as years past. This year in particular will most likely stick out in the minds of many as it marked the 25th anniversary of the festival. Because of this, much of the weekend was filled with nostalgia as artists reflected on some of their past memories of playing the festival or of their ambitions to take the stage in Grant Park while growing up. For the first time ever, this year also added an additional day of festivities, kicking things off early on Thursday to commemorate the festival’s legacy. On the next few pages we’ve broken down some of our lasting impressions from Lolla 2016.

Continue reading

Related items:

[Podcast] Music Ninja Radio – Episode 46 (Recap)

Music Ninja Radio
Episode 46

Music Ninja Radio is a weekly podcast broadcast live on San Francisco’s BFF.fm — Best Frequencies Forever. You can tune in here every Friday from 4-6PM PT / 7-9ET. 

Last Friday’s show marks the one year anniversary since we took our talents to the airwaves of BFF in San Francisco’s best kept secret(alley). From deep in the Mission District, through the port of a pirate ship, we’ve been bringing the best of the best to your ears – Best Frequencies Forever wasn’t voted ‘Best Radio Station‘ in the Bay Area for nothing!

With that in mind, now seems as good a time as any to start providing our fellow Ninja readers with a weekly recap of our show, Music Ninja Radio aka Dojo by the Bay. Curating the best releases each week, themed shows coinciding with specific artist releases, and a fair amount of throwbacks sprinkled throughout, Music Ninja Radio has something for everyone.

The full show’s playlist can be found on the website’s archive here.

Related items:

[Hip-Hop] Big Grams (Phantogram x Big Boi) – Fell In The Sun

Big Grams
Fell In The Sun

When we interviewed Phantogram a couple years back, one of the most exciting points of conversation was their rumored EP with Outkast‘s Big Boi, who they’d already worked with a few times with great success at that point. As of late, both have been sharing images from the studio bringing the hype to an all-time high for the long-anticipated project. Today, we get the first single from the Big Grams EP and it’s the perfect track to round out the summer.

With Josh Carter’s grandiose, Dilla-esque production and Sarah Barthel’s soaring pop vocals driving the vibe, Big Boi delivers perfect bars to match Phantogram’s enormous sound with his one-of-a-kind ATLien flow. “Fell in the Sun” truly embodies their irresistible collision of styles. Soak it in above–the Big Grams EP drops on September 25th and can be pre-ordered here.

Related items:

[Electronic] Phantogram – Never Going Home (Thom of Alt-J Remix)

Phantogram
Never Going Home (Thom alt-J Remix)

Alt-J and Phantogram have both been on killing it on tour non-stop since the release of their most recent albums–we’ve had the chance to catch both and they’re not acts you want to miss. In what promises to be one of the largest performances in either of their careeers, Phantogram will be opening for Alt-J tonight at the legendary Madison Square Garden. To celebrate the occasion and help fans prepare, Phantogram just DM’d Twitter followers with an exclusive remix of “Never Going Home” by Thom of Alt-J. It’s a sultry, brooding take on the original that’s available for free download as well. Enjoy above and check out interview with Phantogram from last year.

Related items:

[Hip-Hop/Electronic] Phantogram – Black Out Days (Remix) (feat. Danny Brown & Leo Justi)

Phantogram
Black Out Days remix ft. Danny Brown and Leo Justi

Given hip-hop’s influence on their sound, it comes as no surprise that emcees are drawn to the music of Phantogram. Aside from their work with Big Boi, the electro pop/rock duo have seen a number of rappers flip their songs into instrumentals–Ratking‘s take on “Fall in Love” is maybe the best example. Today, we get another stellar hip-hop re-work as Phantogram enlists Danny Brown and Brazilian producer Leo Justi to take on one of their many hits, “Black Out Days.”

Justi does an absolutely amazing job keeping the original in tact while picking up the tempo with 808-percussion and layering of portions of the vocals. At about the 1:45 mark, the beat takes a brief backseat as Danny Brown steps in. When the instrumental returns, the talented emcee hits his stride demonstrating his hard-hitting delivery. Lyrically, this might be one of our favorite verses from Brown so we recommend giving it a close listen. You can check out our interview with Phantogram here if you haven’t already.

Related items:

Phantogram Talk Psychic Connections, Childhood Memories and Musical Influences at Sasquatch! 2014 [TMN Exclusive Interview]

Phantogram1

PHANTOGRAM
Black Out Days

Experimental-pop duo Phantogram have continued their incredible run of the last few years with the February release of their second album, Voicesa project incepted in the midst of a seemingly never-ending string of quality sold-out shows and festival appearances. Band members Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel have a knack for melding deeply emotional undertones with euphoric melodies and hip-hop inspired rhythms resulting in a larger-than-life sound. Nowhere is this style more pronounced and evolved than on Voices, their major label debut, which serves as an organic progression that takes their music to a new level of intensity.

I was lucky enough to sit down with Josh and Sarah shortly before their performance at this year’s Sasquatch! Music Festival to learn about their journey thus far. Phantogram’s show at the Gorge’s Bigfoot Stage truly embodied their collaborative artistic growth with a perfectly synced, powerful and mesmerizing experience. Check out the conversation below and make sure to catch Phantogram on one of their upcoming tour dates–it’s definitely not a show you will want to miss.

TMN: I know that you two have known each other since middle school, growing up together in New York. Were you guys already involved in playing music at all back then? Was there any indication that you might be in a band when you were older, or was that not at all in your minds yet? 

Josh: When I was a teenager, I was just really into skateboarding a lot. I was skate or die. Music was always a huge part of my life, and when I think back at growing up, I didn’t make music or anything, but I was always kind of writing songs in my head and thinking up beats. When I wasn’t skating around with headphones on, I was always kind of making beats in my head. So I should’ve known better that maybe I would start doing it, but music came into my life later. When I was in my late teens/early twenties was when I got really into it. I learned how to play guitar, drums and piano.

Sarah: For me, it was the same kind of idea. When I was a kid, I would always sing along to songs, but I didn’t think that I was going to sing. And not even close to being in a band and writing, producing and creating music until Josh and I met up together.

TMN: Does having that friendship for such a long time play a large role in your dynamic as musicians? 

Josh: Yeah, I mean, we are like brother and sister. And kind of like psychic twins artistically and emotionally too, which has a huge role in how we make music because we’re very connected and in-tune with each other’s emotions and experiences in life. Without that, I don’t think we’d make music that is so personal and emotional. I really do think that our music has a certain emotion behind it that would be lacking if we weren’t so connected.

TMN: Talk a bit about the formation of the band because I know you both were working on some music of your own at the time you joined forces, and had a band under a different name at first. How did Phantogram come to fruition?

Josh: I was playing in a band with my brother in New York and then I decided I just wanted to work on my solo career, which was basically working on my own stuff at home. Sarah and I started hanging out a lot when I moved from NYC to upstate New York, closer to where we grew up. She had finished college and came back to our home area and I was playing her a lot of my demos and solo stuff. I just asked her if she wanted to sing on some of them and she did and I think we kind of looked at each other and were like, “this sounds awesome. let’s start a band.” And then we just did it. Continue reading

Related items:

[Funky] Big Boi – Objectum Shalamar (Feat. Phantogram)

Big Boi feat. Phantogram
Objectum Shalamar

While a new album from Outkast seems like nothing more than a pipe dream at this point, we can at least count on Big Boi to always deliver some quality material. For the fifth installment of his “Mashup Mondays” series, Sir Lucious Left Foot brings back the funk, with an 80’s inspired remix that blends the disco stylings of Shalamar‘s “A Night To Remember” with the Phantogram assisted single, “Objectum Sexuality.” The end result is a groovy revamp that may even trump the original. We’d even go so far as to say that this remix–along with its equally impressive visuals–is the best in the series so far. We’ve still got more four more entries to go though, before we can make a full judgment on that.

Related items: