Afro Monk

Lightning in a Bottle took place this year from May 27th-30th in Silverado, California. This was the second year where it was held at Oak Canyon Ranch. The layout of the festival was improved dramatically to allow campers easy access to the three immense stages. Last year one of the biggest issues was going up and down the mountain to reach the main camp area and stages. This year it seemed like The Do Lab figured out all the little kinks out and made for one of the greatest events I’ve ever attended.

Right when you drive into the venue an incredible force and vibe takes you. The community unites for this giant gathering of music, art, workshops, and more. People from all over the world unites and creates a small city made up of tents, RVs, renegade sound, shaded areas, grills, and beautiful people. There are three main stage areas that host some of the biggest and rising stars of underground music.

The Wookie stage is one of the first stages you see as you enter the festival looking for camp ground. It was an incredible sight to see. I heard the stage was rocking a FunktionOne sound system but to be honest I stayed clear of that stage. The Wookie stage is generally known for playing House music and too be honest I’m not a huge fan and there was way too much going on to even step onto that dance floor but it definitely was going off every time I came back to camp.

The Lightning stage is where the a lot of the big boys played. The area was massive with an enormous amount of room. This clearly was the main stage area. The production value on this stage was incredible with stunning pyrotechnics during Kraddy’s set. They also brought in giant LED screens for big acts like Pretty Lights and Mimosa. The vibe during the day was more of relaxed journey. I had great memories listening to Invisible Allies during the day on Sunday. I will say many of the opening bands were quite disappointing such as Metal Mother which almost made me wonder what was going on or if this all was just a sound check. The biggest crowd I saw was during Pretty Lights. The place was slammed and had to resort to going backstage to catch his set. Despite Pretty Lights set crashing and having dead air for about 2 minutes kids were still ready to party. Mimosa surprised me with his set as he is known for raging out and playing heavy popular brostep he kept it quite tame and one of the best sets I’ve seen from Tigran. It’s always a surprise though to see such a talented producer not play all originals or even more than 4-5 for hour and half set.

The Bamboo stage is practically where I lived. All my favorites and close friends were playing in this area. The first act I caught at LIB 2011 was Sex Pixels. They won the slot for the mixtape contest and wanted to see who these guys were considering I couldn’t find anything about them on the internet. Turns out they are a duo act and played mainly house music which I thought was odd they were placed on the Bamboo stage vs the Wookie stage considering the style of music they played. Going back to my initial shock of openers were Pussy Monster. I almost felt embarrassed for them as it was one of the worst sets I’ve seen on a major stage. Granted I don’t expect to love everyone but I was just shocked to see such a booking for the opening slot. The rest of the week-end everything I caught on the Bamboo stage was absolutely breath taking for the most part. The vibe and feel of the music being played in this area was clearly geared to more of my style and taste. Friday night NastyNasty stole the show for me. There was nothing that was going to top his set. Having a full 90 minute journey by Jasper was heaven. The way he flowed and broke his set into 30min pieces from dubstep to slow jams to 808 hiphop beats made his set my personal favorite of the entire week-end. A few of my friends also played on the Bamboo stage such as: Stephan Jacobs, Goldrush, Gladkill, ill-esha, Love & Light, Mimi Page, and Joey Mousepad. All of them did such an incredible job up there! Other notable acts were Emancipator, Phutureprimitive, Lynx, and Paper Diamond (which I only heard about and upset I missed Alex’s set).

Lightning in a Bottle doesn’t only cater to the people who are interested in the music but many other things. Many of the workshops I heard were incredible. The art and live painting going on all around the festivals created a real unique experience. Thousands of people dancing, hoola hooping, spinning fire, and sharing each others presence makes this festival one of the better communities to be around. All the vendors and food was excellent. I couldn’t get over how tasty the pizza was. Everything was done with thought and consideration. I never ventured up the mountain this year as it was something I didn’t need to relive. I heard it was gorgeous up there this year but I decided to pass and stay close to camp and others things going on.

Lightning in a Bottle truly encompasses everything you’d want in a festival. It changed my life for the better going last year and this year was nothing short of amazing. The community and people make this festival. The line up may change every year but what doesn’t change is the passion, love, and dedication put into everyone who is involved including you.

The Do Lab presented us with their LIB 2011 line up upon us!
May 27th through May 30th will mark the festivities this year!
I’ve been looking forward to see what this year might bring and boy is it sweet.
The diversity of this line up is sexy.

This time there are so many familiar names that I have no idea what to do!
I was in NYC with Gladkill when I saw this and wow! We both freaked out and had our mouths on the floor. Instead of posting the image with the line up I’ve decided to break it down by day and bold my suggestions. Expect Glitch.fm & Bwomp to be forming another camp this year! I’ll be somewhere running around in a complete daze. I can’t wait to go back to California for this one. The community and love out there is unmatched at these festivals. This festival is the one thing that totally shifted everything in the right direction for me in 2010 and know that it will do the same in 2011. I’m going to say that I highly suggest getting tickets for this now! I have no idea if this event can sell out but something tells me if it’s possible it will. Grab your tickets and make travel plans because this is the one festival not to miss out on!
BUY Lightning in a Bottle Tickets

Much Love and Respect goes out to The Do Lab!
Enjoy this video that is only a small glimpse into what Lightning in a Bottle is…

Friday, May 27th

Lucent Dossier Experience
MiM0SA
Nick Warren
PANTyRAiD
Random Rab and the Infinidroid
Claude VonStroke
Dub Kirtan Allstars (feat. Freq Nasty & David Starfire)
Emancipator
The Malah
The Great Mundane
Stephan Jacobs
NastyNasty
duckbutter
Flook
Mark Zabala
Kaminanda
MAV3N
Metal Mother
The Mowgli’s

Saturday, May 28th

Pretty Lights
Beats Antique
Kraddy
Eskmo
Jay Tripwire
Virtual Boy
Low Riderz
Y La Bamba
Android Cartel
Sammy Bliss
Octopus Nebula
Cohen
Heyoka
Jupit3r
ill-esha
Dj Maggie
Gladkill
Wobs
Lulacruza
Joe Rodriguez
Melanie Moore
Russ Liquid
Phutureprimitive
Desert Dwellers
Joplin

Sunday, May 29th

Thievery Corporation
Bonobo
Lee Burridge
Paper Diamond
Fools Gold
John Kelley
Baths
Invisible Allies
Idiot Savant
LYNX
Syd Gris
El Papachango
Pumpkin
Shawna
Brad Moontribe
dela Moontribe
Love in the Circus
Matt Xavier
Inspired Flight
GoldRush
Brutus

Lightning in a Bottle Pre-sales are available TODAY only (Monday 2/28)!

If you’re not familiar with Lightning in a Bottle you might have heard people calling it LIB. It’s a festival hosted by The Do Lab in California and promises some of the best music related in the Glitch-Hop, Whomp, Dubstep, Live Electronica, and Bass. This year the event will take place May 27th – 30th.

I am constantly asked about festivals and if I ever recommendation any it’s going to be LIB every time. Imagine top quality production with some of the freshest producers and DJs featured along with tons of breathe taking art, workshops, speakers, and more!

Pre-sales are $175 and will be at that price for only 24hrs. This post is a little late but JUMP ON THIS ASAP!

Official ticket sales begin tomorrow and will be priced at $195. The final price at the door if it doesn’t sell out will be $225. I’ll be honest with you, it won’t surprise me if this year it sells out.

For more information please visit their website at Lightning in a Bottle 2011.

BUY: Lightning in a Bottle 2011 tickets.

Last year it changed my life entirely and highly recommend this event to any first time festival goers!

Stephan Jacobs

As one of my favorite artists of 2010, Stephan Jacobs has churned out one addictive track after another over the past twelve months. With a decade of experience already under his belt, Stephan continues to sharpen his skills to deliver some of the most ear-catching glitch-hop tracks coming out of the West Coast right now. He just finished up some fresh magic with his remixes of Samples’ Drop Bombs and +verb’s Cough (to be released Feb. 1 on Addictech via Muti Music) as well as a collaboration on Level Attack with Sugarpill and Naada (links at the bottom of this feature). Here Stephan talks a bit about his goals, reaching his creative peak and his ultimate message to fans.

TGD: Looking into the new year, what would you say your artistic goals are? Were there any particular turning points or notable moments in 2010 that helped to shape these goals?

SJ: Well, My primary goals are to keep making music and continue to refine my personal sound. I would also like to consistently release new music and travel more with my music. Basically continue to improve doing what I am doing.

2010 had some really good highlights; Playing at Coachella was a huge turning point for me. I was really happy when we made it to #1 on soundcloud’s “What’s Hot”  for my collaboration with +Verb – “Blind Dreams”; seeing that so many people were listening only pushed me harder and forced me to raise my standards for myself.

All in all 2010 has been a big year for me in all ways. My personal improvement and passion for music has never developed so rapidly as it did for me last year.

The Do Lab presents Lightning in Your Ear! The album is finally out and is completely free or pay what you like. Anything you give as payment is given to http://criticalbeats.org. There’s a ton of quality tracks off this release so be sure to download this. It really does take me back to the festival. Much respect and love to everyone who is part of this.

The Confluence is doing big things and have quite some amazing releases due out in the near future. Check out this fresh video showing some fresh previews of what they have in store. Big ups to The Confluence and what they are doing.

The Do Lab is one of the most recognized orginizations in the music scene on the West Coast and spreading around the world. The Do Lab’s headquarters is located in downtown Los Angeles and is comprised of some of the best event producers, artist, lighting designers, DJs, constructors, welders, costumers, and many musicians.

The Do Lab hit its 10 year mark in 2010 and has been part of some of the most memorable events on the West Coast. Their annual Lightning in a Bottle festival has become one of the largest festivals around. I had the pleasure of going for the first time this year and it’s completely changed my life.

Lightning in a Bottle isn’t the only event they are part of. The Do Lab also has ties with Coachella Music Festival, Ford, Audi, Red Bull, The Virgin Music Festival, Speakercraft, Esquire Magazine, AIDS Project Los Angeles, Stop Aids Organization, and more! Many of their events give back to the community and supply funds to charities such as CriticalBeats.

The Do Lab: Album Release – Lightning in Your Ear

I have just received word that The Do Lab will be putting together a collaboration album which features tons of artist highlighted at Lightning in a Bottle. All the proceeds from this album will be going to CritcalBeats which is a charity that is supporting the preservation of the rain forest and indigenous culture all around the world. Artists featured on the “Lightning in Your Ear” Compilation include: The Glitch Mob, Beats Antique, The Very Best, MartyParty, Nico Vega, Adam Freeland, and many more…! I’m proud to present a 100% exclusive track on the upcoming release from none other than Beat Antique!

Beat Antique – Les Enfants Perdus

Big Thank You to The Do Lab, all the artist who make this possible, and all those who help support the music and arts!

MartyParty is Marty Folb and is originally from South Africa. Marty came to the States 15 years ago and has been on a mission ever since then! The music that is produced by this man is breathe taking! The amount of rhythm and groove that is put into is stunning. His high synths are clearly recognizable and layered with the perfect amount of bass. I recently just played a show in NY and dropped 2-3 tunes of his and every single person in that room felt each one of them.

He has taken the west coast by storm with his electric energy live. This man truly is one of my biggest role models. Never have I seen anyone with such power play a crowd. Every single show I preform at I think of the videos of Marty at Cervantes in CO and the quick glances I got front center at Lightning in a Bottle 2010 with all the women dancing on top of the subs blocking the view. You can see on his face and his movements that he truly loves what he does and loves feeding from everyone around him as every engulfs every inch of the dancefloor.

I’m proud to announce MartyParty is due out with a release in the near future. The new release is called Skukuza EP being put out by The Confluence. Marty is about to start a tour around the States. He is about to go on tour all around the US with legends The Glitch Mob. The tour begins here in Fort Lauderdale on August 30th! I can’t wait to rage! South Florida has never experienced a sound like MartyParty before and I can’t wait to look back and be proud to know that this sound and energy is making its way to the East Coast.

Get Ready For MARTYPARTY!

Lightning in a Bottle 2010 was THE Greatest experience in my life so this maybe extremely bias =)

LIB is a festival that goes on for three days in Irvine, California. The location is outside of civilization so majority of people who attend camp for the week-end. Luckily I have such great friends I was able to fly in with just clothes and a sleeping bag. As soon as you drive into the parking lot you’ll realize how serious this thing is. People of all ages, colors, shapes, and mindsets are flooding in, carrying essential supplies. Once you’ve entered the parking lot you’re great with a spectacular view of the lake with mountains surrounding it. Shuttles await you as you carry your needs to the line. Shuttles take you to all the four camp sites. I was surprised how efficient the shuttles were considering most people were taking a crap load of things. Thankfully a few friends had already arrived earlier Thursday to setup camp. Arriving early and picking out a good campsite is key! You’ll be coming back from the festival at night and a close location when it’s pitch dark helps!

The music couldn’t have been any better. The Do Lab out did themselves with the line up this year! The main highlights of the festival without looking at the line up are: Nosaj Thing, Stephan Jacobs, MartyParty, Mimosa, Vibesquad, Lucent Dossier, Jupit3r, Daddy Kev & Nobody, Eliot Lipp, Heyoka, & Daedelus. I’d go into detail of each of these magnificent performances but this post would end up being pages upon pages long. Please ask for any input out of these. It was asked numerous times who was my favorite of the festival. I’ve thought long and hard and decided that I came up with my favorite, NOSAJ THING! The man was completely live the whole time and on point. The music was absolutely amazing incorporating many of his own tracks with many others. The amount of skill and talent was clearly shown. He had no shame to hold back and tweak and glitch everything on the fly. After Nosaj I’d probably say it was Stephan Jacobs, MartyParty, and Mimosa. You might notice that I never mentioned The Glitch Mob in all this… I might just have an entire post about what I thought of the NEW Glitch Mob. Another name I didn’t mention was Kraddy. The reason for this was because since he was on the first night and much later on I ended up making a serious mistake of not wearing warm clothes since it was so furiously hot during the day. The cruelest joke of the trip was how insanely hot it was during the day and beyond a comfort level of cold at night. I ended up missing half of Kraddy’s set because I had to go to camp to change.

The experience of camping was something completely new to me. I had never gone camping in my life. I have to admit I was quite intimidated by going to a festival alone and be outside camping. Thank God I had one of the best group of people around me. If you are new to festivals I highly recommend going with someone who has been or has experience. Be warned there are TONS of hippies which can be a good or bad thing depending how you look at it. I was raised in very comfortable living situation and too be honest camping wasn’t that bad. Many even say camping at a festival isn’t really camping at all. Keep in mind that many festivals are in the dessert or remote locations so it can get insanely hot and become unbearably cold at night within a couple hours. The major experience of camping was in the community of people around you. It’s a very hospital environment where everyone is sharing and looking out for each other. Having a solid group makes a huge difference. It’s almost a barter system. I’ll tell you I spent so much less money than I could have imagined. Most of the money I spent went into buying food that I didn’t really have to have and merch. Having free running water all over the festival helps tremendously. The Do Lab clearly made camping quite easy. The one catch that everyone couldn’t help but notice was the whole leave the camp ground as if we were never there. It’s a great mentality to have BUT there weren’t enough trash cans. You would think that there would be more so this was possible. It truly surprised me how much people cared about this when it came to leaving the camp grounds. You would find people walking around with trash bags cleaning up.

The last thing I want to talk about is the amount of stores and shops available. The amount of art and merch areas was impressive. You could find all sort of fun exotic clothes and memorabilia at the festival. Everyone around was expressing themselves in the way they dressed, danced, or even communicated. A conversation came up on how some people go completely all out and look insane. We concluded that it might just be us that the joke is on and those people who do go all out truly get it. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t mind the beautiful outfits that people were wearing but you have to wonder where all the these people hide during regular life.

All in all the festival was the greatest experience of my life and I’m hooked! Everyone speaks of Burning Man but considering I’m in Miami and work during the week it won’t be possible. Lightning in a Bottle is a perfect festival to start. It’s a long week-end and it’s not as harsh conditions as some of the other festivals out there. The music is absolutely top notch and so are all the performances. Festivals is a great place to meet new people who share your same interest and taste. Let’s not forget the amount of partying and networking that goes on. Thank You The Do Lab! Lightning in a Bottle changed my life.

Another thing I’d like to mention is that there are camps specialized for families and quite camp. This is to all the people camping around us who kept complaining about us staying up all night talking and making noise. If you have kids in your camp and actually want to sleep when it’s night time… GO TO THE SPECIFIC CAMP FOR THAT! =D

If you are looking for photos or have any photos feel free to post them on the Flickr group:
Lightning in a Bottle 2010 Photos

Here is a great video that was posted that has some photos of the festival this year:

Bwomp Camp Memories:
HOOOOTTTT SAAAKKKIIII
The Apparatus
Spacedust
Jesus
Nibbler
Pirate Flag
Mirror Shot
Skirt Beetle
Vagina Crystal Necklace
It will find you
That EP better be coming out soon
BAACCOOOONNNN
Heat Exhaustion
Stupid Ugly Girls
Go
Space Hawk
Atari
Bachard
Spaghetti

I havn’t done a fire friday mix in awhile but this week it’s quite easy to think of a mix that I want posted for this. Stephan Jacobs has been making a name for himself and boy did he explode on this mix! I wish I could of been at Coachella this year for the DJs alone. The Do Lab out did themselves this year with a stellar line up.

Friday Night of Coachella the man the future legend stepped up on stage at 7:15 and started off with a hypnotic mellow trippy mood moving into a straight up crunk massive. This mix is labeled “fuck genre’s” in the genre field for a reason. What a journey this must of been to hear live.

Much respect goes out to The Do Lab and all their artist!
Be sure to check out the festival they have put together for Memorial Day Week-end… LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE!

Much love goes out to Stephan! Be sure to look out for dates because I’m bringing this champion into Miami over the summer =D