Get your CrowdFire collage here!
We've created an awesome mashup of select Outside Lands artists on our CrowdFire Windows Live SkyDrive.You can download multiple sizes big enough to be any computer desktop's wallpaper.
Click here where you'll find the following large sizes available for download:
Widescreen:
1920x1080
1280x720
Regular screen (4:3 aspect ratio):
1600x1200
1280x1024
1024x768
Take our survey for a chance at some prizes!
If you take this survey about CrowdFire, we'll award 4 participants with $25 Amazon.com Gift Certificates at the end of October in a random drawing. On the very last page of the survey, you'll be asked for your email address so we can notify winners via email. Good luck!Free MP3 from Galactic!
Galactic has been gracious enough to provide a free MP3 of their song "Go Go." You can find the link to download it from Galactic's Windows Live Spaces page by clicking here. Then click on the link under the "free tune" section where you can download the MP3 from a Windows Live SkyDrive folder.Have you taken the Outside Lands survey yet?
So, you loved Outside Lands (or you hated missing it), and you want a voice in shaping the next one? Here's your chance!Take a moment to click on this link, and tell us what you think!
Outside Lands artists' Windows Live Spaces pages
Take a look at these artists' Windows Live Spaces to learn more about some of the great bands who performed at Outside Lands! While you're at it, check out the hi-res photos we've got of select artists on Windows Live SkyDrive folders.Exclusive content from BoingBoing TV!
If you missed Outside Lands or attended the festival and want to see some of the back stories, check out the interviews that BoingBoing TV (BBtv) conducted with Los Angeles-based band Carney, David Hinds from Steel Pulse (which includes some bonus performance footage), as well as a tour BBtv did with Superfly's Rick Farman of the festival grounds and his story of how the CrowdFire concept got started.As time goes on, we'll continue to update our bbtv page with killer content from our friends at BoingBoing TV to keep this CrowdFire burning!
Carney caps off their Outside Lands with 2 final videos
If you checked out this CrowdFire blog during the Outside Lands festival, you probably saw the blog entries from LA-based band Carney. They close out their Outside Lands experience with two more videos.This video includes one of the songs they performed at Outside Lands, along with their participation in a 'performance' in Santa Barbara on their way up to San Francisco for the festival.
This video includes their final sign-off done in their customary "skit" style.
Thanks for putting so much time into these vids!
The first Outside Lands Survey!
So, you loved Outside Lands (or you hated missing it), and you want a voice in shaping the next one? Here's your chance!Take a moment to click on this link, and tell us what you think!
Up-close artist photos from CrowdFire guest photographers
If you're short on time but want to take a glimpse at some of your favorite Outside Lands artists, take a look some of the pics from some of CrowdFire's guest photographers: Jay Scherer with Windows, Jeff Kravitz from InsideCelebPics.com, Heather Armstrong of Dooce and her husband Jon Armstrong, Tim Mosenfelder of LiveDaily.com, and Jean Aw of NOTCOT.Windows photographer Jay Scherer has in his CrowdFire media set Bon Iver, John Bell, the Black Keys, Galactic, Jackie Greene, Widespread Panic, Mike Gordon, Benevento/Russo Duo, Donavon Frankenreiter, Drive-By Truckers, Primus, Ben Harper, Toots & the Maytals, Ben Harper, Grace Potter, Stanton Moore, Dave Schools, Steel Pulse, and crowd shots.
(Click on the mosaic below to be taken to all of Jay's photos)
Jeff Kravitz's CrowdFire media set has the following from each day of the festival:
Day 3: The CrowdFire tent, Jack Johnson, Los Amigos, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Little Brother, Sharon Jones, Vienna Teng, Toots & the Maytals, Sila & the Afrofunk Experience, Jackie Greene, and crowd shots
Day 2: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals, Donavon Frankenreiter, Steve Winwood, Russ Bennett, Galactic, The Coup, Thriving Ivory, and crowd shots
Day 1: Beck, Lyrics Born, Charles Walker, Manu Chao, Radiohead, Steel Pulse, and crowd shots
(Click on the mosaic below to be taken to all of Jeff's photos)
The CrowdFire media set of Heather Armstrong includes photos of one of her favorite all-time bands Radiohead, as well as The Walkmen, Cake, and Regina Spektor.
(Click on the mosaic below to be taken to Heather's photos)
Jon Armstrong's CrowdFire media set include Regina Spektor, Cake, M. Ward, The Walkmen, Radiohead, Manu Chao, Wilco, and crowd shots.
(Click on the mosaic below to be taken to Jon's photos)
LiveDaily's CrowdFire media set include Regina Spektor, Jack Johnson, Sharon Jones, Nicole Atkins, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Wilco, Toots & the Maytals, Grace Potter, Tom Petty, Devandra Banhart, Ben Harper, Primus, Lupe Fiasco, Kaki King, Black Mountain, Manu Chao, The Felice Brothers and crowd shots.
(Click on the mosaic below to be taken to LiveDaily's photos)
Jean Aw's photos in her CrowdFire media set include many subjects that caught her discerning eye:
(Click on the mosaic below to be taken to Jean's photos)
The festival may be over, but CrowdFire is still burning!
If you went to any of the 3 days of the Outside Lands festival, you may be bummed that the good times can't continue to roll, and it's time to get back to work or school. But you can keep those awesome memories alive here on CrowdFire!If you've got photos, video or even thoughts in your head about your experience at the festival - or just music in general -- UPLOAD THEM HERE or get them to us through other cool and easy ways. Then use our "send to a friend" feature to share them, or embed them on other sites you may also use (like Myspace, etc.).
Of course, continue to check out this home page for more Outside Lands coverage and browse all media as more cool pics and videos continue to stream in from people like you, or read our blog that covers all the news from the festival. Or check out the amazing art created by our Graffiti winners. And don't forget to take part in the Intel contest and express how much you ROCK IT!
Blogging O.L.. (Sunday): Jackie Greene, Wilco, Jack Johnson, more
Tjames MadisonCourtesy LiveDaily.com
The sun shined at last on Golden Gate Park and Outside Lands, and on a laid-back crowd that tossed frisbees, caught some rays, and in generally just soaked up the festival's final (and by far mellowest) day with a sort of gratitude.
It was an older crowd that showed up Sunday (8/24), for the most part a decidedly less hip crowd, and one probably more interested in sitting down than locating a mosh pit: there were so many folding chairs present at Jackie Greene's 1 p.m. main stage opener that festival staff had to enforce a "chair line" beginning at the back of the sound booth. In front of that line, no seats would tread today.
Greene's genre-bending set--he fully incorporates elements of jazz, blues, rock, soul and country into his music--paid homage to his adopted San Francisco, featuring a long Dead cover and several shots from the live video man of the stuffed Jerry Garcia doll perched on the performer's keyboards.
With sun threatening to sweep in across the previously frozen tundra of the Polo Field, beer lines swelled precariously as the afternoon wore on and fans got scorched---yes, I said scorched--while listening to the likes of Drive-By Truckers, Andrew Bird and Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings.
Heineken is the main beer supplier here, and they make you present them with ID so you can earn the privilege of walking around with a wristband that says "Heineken" all around it, so you can go to the beer stand and purchase a Heineken in a plastic cup that says "Heineken" on it. I believe this is called "saturation advertising."
In addition to beer (most of it brewed by Heineken), there are plenty of food choices here, almost all of it local (although I think claiming Santa Barbara--300 miles to the south--as local is kind stretching it) and almost all of it delicious. At Woodstock they ate bean soup and, maybe, bugs. Things are probably better now.
Now that we've eaten and tipped a couple of beers, it's time for Canadian indie-pop collective Broken Social Scene, who represent up on stage with 10 or 11 members of the band's 357-strong full lineup (rough count). The hosers have a great time, bouncing up and down and exhorting us to "Vote Canadian! Vote for everybody!" The crew on this day features a special appearance from ex-Pavement guitarist Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg.
Over on the other side of the park, Widespread Panic is already scheming ways to exceed their allotted performance time. Lots of hacky-sack is going down.
Old-school rap trio The Cool Kids is busting rhymes on the solar-powered Panhandle stage (now running directly from solar! Screw battery arrays!) They also appear to be proficient at putting a cap in the ass of some sucka MCs who dare play them. Did I say that right? Word. Up.
Quick question: pushing around little babies in strollers at a big rock-and-roll festival? I'm thinking no, but apparently San Francisco disagrees with me, because I'm seeing more tots today than you could shake a stick at, even if that stick were the size of a redwood tree. There are so many little ones around I grow increasingly paranoid about accidentally squashing a little tyke every time I make a bathroom run. Which, by the way, is a hugely difficult process on this crowded finale day; nobody's leaving because of the cold, so lines for everything--but especially the porta-johns--grow in some sort of exponential manner that would require math skills to understand.
Speaking of math skills, back to Speedway Meadow, where Wilco, heroes of White People everywhere, are making their OL appearance, second-billed today to Jack Johnson, but try telling that to the crazy giant crowd here that swoons to every motion or shudder or wink from singer Jeff Tweedy or uber-guitarist Nels Cline.
I come not to damn the Wilco with faint praise, but halfway through the performance I understand something important, I think. These guys picked up the rope that the Grateful Dead dropped and ran with it. They almost transcend music at this point, having created a tangible connection point for millions of people all over this country, a nexus point for fans of wildly different backgrounds, with different sets of experience, and only one real thing in common: they all love Wilco, with all their hearts, and the band loves them back. Without reserve.
Only Dave Matthews and, in a very different kind of way, Insane Clown Posse, in this nation, anyway, currently share this sort of connection with their respective fans, I believe. While I don't fully understand the appeal in any of these cases, I respect the hell out of a musician who can forge this kind of bond.
Which is why I have to go full tip o' the lid to America's Least Offensive Rock Star, Jack Johnson, who brought Outside Lands to a close as the sky blazed red from the sunset and the lights slowly flickered to life across the most beautiful urban park in the world, maybe.
I have underestimated Johnson's appeal in the past. I will not make that mistake again. Hundreds--thousands--of fans ran across the long stretches of the Polo Field, some flinging themselves at top speed to make certain they didn't miss a second of Johnson's deceptively simple repertoire. Jack Johnson hit himself on the head and became the single mellowest person in the world. There is no one more sanguine than Jack Johnson. Try to make him upset; you'll sooner boil concrete.
His music reflects this utterly. On the cover of The Cars' "Just What I Needed," Johnson steadfastly refused to raise the song's tempo beyond his normal lope. Anything quicker than "chill" on the menu would be dishonest. The Cars sang it all fast and herky-jerky; Jack Johnson scans it like he's reading the back of a box of cereal at breakfast time.
And this is what people like in Johnson. They want someone who won't bend, won't change his habits for the sake of fashion, or popularity. In fact, he becomes more popular in spite of the rest of us. He eats our criticism and swallows it whole.
Thirty or forty thousand people running at top speed just to be close to him would be proof.
Outside Lands is done. Now go home. There are MUNI buses lined in a row all down Fulton and up Lincoln, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem.
(Or you could just drive home, like me, but don't tell the organizers.)
Additional Outside Lands coverage:
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 1: Black Mountain, Carney
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 1: Radiohead, Beck
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 2: Devendra Banhart plays! Natalie Portman seen!
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 2: Tom Petty, M. Ward, Steve Winwood
Outside Lands coverage from L.A. rockers Carney:
Video Blog: Carney at Outside Lands in San Francisco (No. 1)
Blogging Outside Lands: Carney arrives
Video Blog: Carney at Outside Lands in San Francisco (No. 2)
Blogging Outside Lands: Exit Carney
Blogging O.L. (Saturday, Part 3): Exit Carney
Courtesy LiveDaily.comHey everyone!
CARNEY here... We've had a pretty wild past 24 hours... We were interviewed by a ninja!... Saw some pretty amazing music for free! AND even had our van trapped down a muddy embankment well into the wee hours of the morning!... But we've survived to tell about it and tonight we'll be posting an epic blog documenting the whole thing... Or at least the bits that won't have to be edited out for the purposes of censorship! ;)
JD now has the worst sunburn of his life, and Zane has been feverishly editing all of our latest footage together so that we can bring it all to you, our curious viewers! anyway, I'd better get back to it, but check back with us later today to see what kind of shananigans we were able to get into, and out of in the past day and a half! :)
--Reeve, Zane, Jon and JD
Additional Outside Lands coverage:
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 1: Black Mountain, Carney
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 1: Radiohead, Beck
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 2: Devendra Banhart plays! Natalie Portman seen!
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 2: Tom Petty, M. Ward, Steve Winwood
Outside Lands coverage from L.A. rockers Carney:
Video Blog: Carney at Outside Lands in San Francisco (No. 1)
Blogging Outside Lands: Carney arrives
Video Blog: Carney at Outside Lands in San Francisco (No. 2)
Blogging O.L. (Saturday, Part 2): Tom Petty, M. Ward, Steve Winwood
By Tjames MadisonLiveDaily Contributing Writer
Courtesy http://www.livedaily.com/blog/2512.html
The sun, which emerged briefly around 2 p.m., darted not 10 minutes later back behind a thick cover of cloud and fog (of the "stinging, cold" variety), and the temperature dropped accordingly. I'm no weatherman, but anyone headed out to the Lands for the remainder of the weekend, one bit of advice: wear layers.
Which leads me to a question, which I'll get to in a minute. The festival's Eco Lands area seems to be more than the token "greenwashing" effort you see at a lot of events along the lines of Outside Lands. The Panhandle Stage, for instance, is fully solar, running a 4-kilowatt system to power all the equipment onstage. Which is pretty neat, but wait: there's more.
There are compost bins everywhere. When the need rises to dispose of whatever you have in your hand at the moment, you're confronted with a set of choices: recycle, compost, or landfill. There is no lecture attached, and no penalty for contributing to the landfill, you just get a fairly linear multiple choice option, and you have to think about the thing that you're trying to get rid of, maybe just for a second or two, but you do think about it. Especially when there's a guy from the Clean Vibes trash and recycling crew hollering "Don't toss that beer cup! Compost it!" at every station.
They're 100% biodegradable and made from corn, if you didn't know.
Whoops, I promised a question and then promptly forgot about it. So, when the sun goes away and doth refuse to shine, like it did for a few glorious moments this afternoon, what happens to the solar-powered music from the solar-powered stage? Is this thing being run on batteries, or did they just keep a spare extension cord handy? I'll check with somebody and get the answer later.
I would do that sort of fact-checking sooner, instead of later, except that right around the time Steve Winwood was finishing up a powerhouse set in front of a huge main stage crowd (including several note-perfect versions of his old Traffic songs, including "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" and "Mr. Fantasy"), my laptop decided to give up the ghost. The "live" portion of this blog has now been moved to the "file after the show" category.
Earlier, before the Great Laptop Tragedy of '08, M. Ward delivered a tight, soulful set in front of an enthusiastic Lindley Meadow crowd, many of whom no doubt said to themselves something like "I really should get me some M. Ward albums!" This reporter included, shamefully. And man, does he sound like mid-'70s Dylan, or what?
Hey, what's that enormous circus tent in the middle of the Polo Field?
Answer: Crowdfire is this enormous circus tent in the middle of the Polo Field; it is also this website (that you're now reading) where people can upload video mash-ups and photos and whatnot, and people inside the big tent at Outside Lands can watch them projected all over the place. You can add your own contribution while you're there at the festival, as a matter of fact; lots of people sprawled inside on big blankets and pillows watching the shifting content, which acted sort of like an instant feedback response to whatever was going on outside the tent or, really, anywhere else on the 'Net.
Radiohead's up on stage right now? Here's some bootlegged video from a European festival earlier this summer. Here's Thom Yorke's voice put through a pitch-changer, and "Karma Police" coming out like Alvin & the Chipmunks. What about Beck from last night? Here you go. Blink and you'll miss it.
I don't know if any of this is actually useful, but the Crowdfire tent is, at the very least, a nice place to spend an hour or two while waiting for Ben Harper to come on.
Speaking of which, the nice lady who runs the hand-painted light bulb concession (and who let us pet her awesome dog, Rainbow) would like to know why you have too much good stuff going on, Outside Lands organizers.
"Ben Harper, Primus and Cake are all happening at the same time," she complained. "Why can't they stagger them out?"
While I agreed with her, I personally wouldn't have made the decision to sit behind a booth selling hand-painted lightbulbs all weekend long, but different strokes....
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers closed out Day 2's festivities, no doubt to the delight of Devendra Banhart, who spent plenty of time during his Saturday set bemoaning the fact that he couldn't play the guitar part in "Breakdown" the same way Petty can.
Practice, son; the answer is always: practice.
(Oh, and the other answer: batteries. Big, honkin' batteries.)
Additional Outside Lands coverage:
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 1: Black Mountain, Carney
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 1: Radiohead, Beck
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 2: Devendra Banhart plays! Natalie Portman seen!
Outside Lands coverage from L.A. rockers Carney:
Video Blog: Carney at Outside Lands in San Francisco (No. 1)
Blogging Outside Lands: Carney arrives
Video Blog: Carney at Outside Lands in San Francisco (No. 2)
More incredible artist photos from Day 2 of Outside Lands
Check out some of Jeff Kravitz's amazing photos from Saturday's performances at Outside Lands!
Tom Petty
Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
Donavon Frankenreiter
Steve Winwood
Galactic
The Coup
General atmosphere around the festival grounds
Click here to see tons more of Jeff Kravitz's photos from Outside Lands!
Tom Petty
Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
Donavon Frankenreiter
Steve Winwood
Galactic
The Coup
General atmosphere around the festival grounds
Click here to see tons more of Jeff Kravitz's photos from Outside Lands!
Blogging O.L. (Saturday): Devendra Banhart plays! Natalie Portman seen!
By Tjames MadisonLiveDaily Contributing Writer
http://www.livedaily.com/blog/2511.html
Before we launch into the next exciting round of "name that jam-band," let me attempt to describe how completely freaking huge the layout around here is. Here:
It is really freaking huge.
See what I mean? First you have the Polo Field, which is about equal to four football fields end-to-end in length. Right next to this is Lindley Meadow, which is also about four football fields long. And next to this is Speedway Meadow, which is around five football fields lengthwise. And if you want to see Band A play at the Land's End stage in the Polo Field, and then see Band B play the Twin Peaks stage in Speedway, you're going to be walking the equivalent of nine or ten regulation size football fields to get there. And you're going to have about five or (if you're lucky) ten minutes to do it, in most cases.
There is almost nothing here that doesn't take 10 minutes to walk to from any other thing.
Now back to the music. After a first day that mainly revolved around a pair of megastar acts (Beck, Radiohead), Saturday showed Outside Lands flexing its diversity muscle with an eclectic schedule that featured everything from avant-garde banjo players (Bela Fleck, backing Abigail Washburn with the Sparrow Quartet) to local Marxist rappers The Coup, along with natural man Devendra Banhart expanding his basic hippie repertoire into something resembling Frank Zappa playing surf music.
If that's not enough vive la difference for ya, noise-rockers Liars are due up next on the solar-powered stage in Speedway Meadow. Earplugs not included.
PS: Devendra's "special friend," Natalie Portman, sat five feet behind me during his set. She likes chocolate-covered pretzels and "beer-soaked marshmallows," apparently, and yes, her dog is pretty cute.
Additional Outside Lands coverage:
Blogging Outside Lands, Day 1: Black Mountain, Carney Blogging Outside Lands, Day 1: Radiohead, Beck
Outside Lands coverage from L.A. rockers Carney:
Video Blog: Carney at Outside Lands in San Francisco (No. 1)
Blogging Outside Lands: Carney arrives
Video Blog: Carney at Outside Lands in San Francisco (No. 2)
Exclusive CrowdFire interview with Two Gallants!
A couple of days before Outside Lands started, the CrowdFire crew interviewed Two Gallants based off questions YOU asked us through Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail.In this video interview, Two Gallants talk about touring, James Joyce, musical influences, badminton, passport poetry, Saddle Creek, and more! Two Gallants plays Saturday on the Presidio stage at 6:05pm.
Carney video blog update #2
Check out this funny behind-the-scenes video from L.A. band Carney and their experience Friday at Outside Lands!Get up close to the O.L. action through CrowdFire photographers!
CrowdFire has some of the best photographers on hand at Outside Lands, feeding our fire with amazing photos of artists front-and-center, as well as perspectives from throughout the festival grounds!For photos of artists and bands, we have highly acclaimed photographer Jeff Kravitz on board. Check out his incredible pics of Beck, Lyrics Born, Radiohead, and more!
We also have close-up shots from Heather Armstrong (a HUGE Radiohead fan who also authors the blog Dooce) and her husband Jon. Click here for Heather's pics and here for Jon's.
Soak in the atmosphere of Outside Lands through the lens of NOTCOT, a network of sites dedicated to the visual filtration of ideas + aesthetics + amusements.
Keep checking these pages throughout the weekend as these great photographers' pics continue to stream in!
Blogging O.L. (Friday, Part 2): Radiohead, Beck
By Tjames MadisonLiveDaily Contributing Writer
Courtesy LiveDaily.com
As the sun--or really the snowy-white perpetual cloud cover--begins to fade, turning this chilly afternoon into an even chillier evening, the illusion of this joint as a pleasant outing filled with calm and gentle folk, the sort of people who like nothing more than sitting on blankets in meadows and sipping Napa Valley's finest wines (which there's plenty of opportunity to do here), crumbles and blows away like so much dust.
The after-work crowd has arrived, and they are thirsty, and they want to dance.
I know this because they've bumped into me about 300 times, and every one of them seems to be holding a beer. Also: they're wearing ugly hats that tend to advertise mediocre products, and they're wearing them all crooked-like. And yes, I am Grandpa Simpson.
A highly amped crowd greets long-haired freaky hippie person Beck Hansen, who--despite being badly in need of a haircut--swiftly launches volley after volley of his most easily identifiable hits in rapid-fire fashion, which gets the crowd rushing way forward to the front of tight and narrow Lindley Meadow. There might be 20,000 people just right here, right in front of this one stage. The stampede watch is in full effect.
Beck, perhaps sensing catastrophe, throws out a bunch of his lesser-known songs. Most of the party crowd up front reverses polarity and heads to the beer stands. Once most of these people are gone, Beck launches into an earth-shaking "Where It's At." Score!
Up next on the big stage, it's a bird, it's a plane... it's the Thom Yorke Superfriends Party! Early technical glitches plague Radiohead's first handful of songs (including a couple minutes of total silence, which prompts Yorke to wonder who spilled their beer on the power cord), but the remainder of the set is sensational.
It would be easy to take Radiohead for granted at this point. They are sort of everywhere, in a psychic sense, and they belong utterly to this generation. They are our Beatles. Twenty years from now you will realize this and it will make you smack your head that you didn't pay better attention when you had the chance.
Friday night in San Francisco, with the gorgeous strains of "Airbag" rising up to meet the mysterious fog blowing in from the ocean, up and over the enormous stage, and into the first nighttime concert ever held in Golden Gate Park, they were simply magic, like something that doesn't fully belong to this planet.
Yes, they're that good.
Blogging O.L. (Friday, Part 1) - Black Mountain, Carney, more
Blogging Outside Lands: Black Mountain, Carney, moreBy Tjames Madison
LiveDaily Contributing Writer
Courtesy LiveDaily.com
The outdoor festival returned to its roots Friday night, with San Francisco's Outside Lands Fest bringing rock music back to Golden Gate Park after more than 40 years of absence.
Howling Rain, Carney and Steel Pulse hit three of the event's six stages at approximately the same time, launching three days of music from more than 60 bands.
A young and giddy crowd jammed the long and narrow runways between the park's three performance areas, rushing past a staggering array of porta-potties and booths selling everything from Heineken beer to art made out of recycled candy wrappers, and practically stumbling over itself to get to the music.
LA's Carney accommodated, charging up a small but appreciative crowd at Lindsey Meadow's Presidio Stage with a few lengthy tunes, including a hard-hitting cover of The Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)."
"They only gave us 25 minutes, and most of our songs are really long," the band's lead singer sheepishly explained.
Elsewhere Canadian sludge rockers Black Mountain brought the '60s back in full force, entertaining a rapidly massing crowd at Speedway Metal with several songs that sounded like Black Sabbath covering Sunny Day Real Estate,
"Is this really entertaining?" asked one club kid, rapidly heading the other direction in search of better vibes.
Hells yes! Canadians making serious-like with the whammy bar are always good G-rated fun, I say. And with Beck and Radiohead on the way, Outside Lands got off to a clean start.
Welcome to OL 2008. Come by and check out the CrowdFire Pavilion!
If you're out on the Outside Festival grounds......take a break from the elements
...share your camera pix with the rest of the world
...kick back on some cushy couches
...imbibe at our bar
...listen to some jammin' tunes
...watch a mashup on big screens of all that's going on throughout the festival grounds
...and much more...
...then come into the CrowdFire Pavilion! It's like a club in here! How does 'Club CrowdFire' sound?
Blogging Outside Lands: Carney arrives
The members of Los Angeles rock group Carney [ tickets ], who released their debut EP, "Nothing Without You," in May, are writing and video blogging about their experiences at San Francisco's Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival for LiveDaily. Here's the band's latest dispatch!
Hey everybody!
463 miles, 1 dilapidated surrey, 90 minutes of sleep, and 2 dead Gerbils later... We finally made it to Outside Lands!!! Turns out we were never technically on the bill... But our management has assured us that they are currently "working on it..."
Nonetheless, we are a resilient bunch and are confident that we will be taking the stage in the next 2 hours regardless... Whether by grace or by force! On a positive note, when we rolled up on our surrey, 2 and a half people recognized Reeve as Radiohead's Thom Yorke, and a fleet of majestic Bison threw a suggestive glance at Zane that blatantly stated "those tight pants really accentuate your personality!"
Right now we are preparing as though we are certain to perform, but we're realizing that security is a lot tighter than we had initially anticipated... If, and WHEN ;) we do take the stage however, we will be updating you with some VIDEO blogs chronicling the whole Shabang, so stay tuned!!!
--CARNEY (live from The Outside Lands Festival, San Francisco)
In conjunction with LiveDaily.com
Cool tweet app is now up on the site!
Check out this new application we just rolled out! You can see all the tweets on Twitter about Outside Lands and CrowdFire almost in real-time! New posts show up every thirty seconds. And of course, you'll have a good chance of seeing your OWN tweet displayed on the site, in addition to digital screens at the CrowdFire pavilion. All you need to do is add any of the keywords to your tweets:#outsidelands
#crowdfire
#osl
To see this application in action, you'll need Microsoft's Silverlight installed. But if you don't, no worries. You'll be prompted to install it, then you'll be able to see this tweet app in action!
Rock on! Tweet on!
Carney voyages to Outside Lands!
Check out Carney's video that shows some of their journey to Outside Lands! Carney's set starts at 5:00pm Friday at the Presidio stage!Entertainment Weekly's Popwatch using CrowdFire to cover O.L.!
In the name of citizen journalism, the popular blog "Popwatch" on Entertainment Weekly's web site (EW.com) is asking its readers to use CrowdFire to cover the Outside Lands Festival. Check out their plans here!Outside Lands ticket give-away: Twelfth and final winner announced!
Congratulations to Zameese! Zameese, you have won a ticket for Sunday at Outside Lands!
Sunday's lineup includes Jack Johnson, Wilco, Widespread Panic, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Broken Social Scene, Andrew Bird, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, the Drive-by Truckers, Toots & the Maytals, Stars, and more!If you'd like to be the next winner, start uploading photos and videos. See the contest details HERE.
Previous winners include the following CrowdFire kindlers:
Saturday, August 9th - Emilio Grijalva
Sunday, August 10th - xanderboy
Monday, August 11th - misscouey
Tuesday, August 12th - M0rey
Wednesday, August 13th - moji
Thursday, August 14th - FHirtzel
Friday, August 15th - lexxx
Saturday, August 16th - landshark
Sunday, August 17th - jpo1526
Monday, August 18th - tubescape
Tuesday, August 19th - ruvalcaba
Feed CrowdFire from the Festival...and beyond!
If you're going to the Outside Lands festival (or even if you're not), you're going to have check out how you can submit photos, texts, and videos into CrowdFire from your phone. Find out how, including how to get your content from Twitter, Flickr and YouTube into CrowdFire!Graffiti contest winners announced!
We are pleased to announce the winners of the CrowdFire Graffiti contest on Facebook!The judges had their work cut out for them after voting ended for the top 150 art submissions. The quality of work was incredible.
Drum roll please....
The winner in the "Best Overall" category is Sarwar Z. Khan!
(Click to see the Graffiti page where you can see it 'replay')
Sarwar has won a Samsung 42" Plasma HDTV!
The winner in the "Best Musical Instrument" category is Caleb Mild!
(Click to see the Graffiti page where you can see it 'replay')
Caleb has won an 80GB Zune!
The winner in the "At the Concert" category is Christian Stromqvist!
(Click to see the Graffiti page where you can see it 'replay')
Christian has won an XBox 360!
The winner in the "Abstract Portrayal of Music" category is William Ross!
(Click to see the Graffiti page where you can see it 'replay')
William has won a Sonos Multi-Room Music System!
The winner in the "Band Reference" category is Kim Dowsett Taylor!
(Click to see the Graffiti page where you can see it 'replay')
Kim has won an AT&T Blackjack II!
Last but not least, the winner in the "Best Overall Submitted to CrowdFire" category is Nick Tustin!
(Click to see the Graffiti page where you can see it 'replay')
Nick has won a Dell XPS One (Product) RED All-in-One Desktop!
Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to all the contestants for your submissions, and the entire community for helping to make this contest a success!
These prizes have been generously provided by Windows who have offered some of the best contest prizes ever! All prizes (except for the Samsung television) will be on display in the "Ultimate Living Room" in the CrowdFire pavilion at the Outside Lands Festival.
Outside Lands ticket give-away: Eleventh winner announced-- Last winner announced tomorrow!
Congratulations to ruvalcaba! Ruvalcaba, you have won a ticket for Sunday at Outside Lands!
Sunday's lineup includes Jack Johnson, Wilco, Widespread Panic, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Broken Social Scene, Andrew Bird, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, the Drive-by Truckers, Toots & the Maytals, Stars, and more!If you'd like to be the next winner, start uploading photos and videos. See the contest details HERE.
Previous winners include the following CrowdFire kindlers:
Saturday, August 9th - Emilio Grijalva
Sunday, August 10th - xanderboy
Monday, August 11th - misscouey
Tuesday, August 12th - M0rey
Wednesday, August 13th - moji
Thursday, August 14th - FHirtzel
Friday, August 15th - lexxx
Saturday, August 16th - landshark
Sunday, August 17th - jpo1526
Monday, August 18th - tubescape
An interview with Sean Hayes
Special to CrowdFire.net
Sean Hayes stands out in a genre cluttered with clones and sound-alikes. A folk singer/songwriter based in San Francisco, Hayes defies expectations with his eclectic instrument choices and vocals consistent with the "ambient" genre he's classified himself as belonging to on his MySpace page. His voice is reminiscent of Jeff Buckley's and Brett Dennen's. His lyrics are tender and telling, and he took some time to talk with CrowdFire in advance of his set at Outside Lands.
CF: Tell me about your fan community. What is your relationship with your fans like? How do you interact with them?
SH: It's changing all the time because with the Internet there's an incredible amount of access, and because I'm doing it myself, I'm taking care of my MySpace page. People can e-mail you and ask you questions. There's a very real community in San Francisco because of all the years I've been playing.
CF: Where do people discover you?
SH: I don't know. People who have covered my songs. Pandora-- like 10 people a month will tell me they found the music through Pandora, so right now that's one of the best ways.
CF: Where do you want them to discover you?
SH: I love it when people hear me live and are surprised by it, but that's not at all the way they usually do. I sometimes leave CDs randomly in places. I would leave them in books in bookstores, but that was years ago.
CrowdFire: How would you describe your sound?
Sean Hayes: Kind of lyrical and round. I kind of go round and round in my music. It's not too polished rough around the edges. Musically I'm very simple with my harmonies and chord progressions. There are not too many parts to it. But very lyrical and emotional. The recording of it is rough around the edges. I don't airbrush it much or at all.
CF: Tell me about the instruments you used on the song Elizabeth Sways.
SH: I'm very open in the recording process. This song comes from this beat up banjo that has fishing wire on it. It's and incredibly soft instrument. I love the baritone horn (clarinet). We threw some things in to see how they sounded. That incredibly high, mystical tone on it was the drummer's doing. It was very accidentally really.
CF: What is the process you use in choosing the instruments on a song?
SH: I spend very very little time in the studio. It's almost about seeing if the players I really like are available and inviting them in. The accordion on that record came in at the last second. It came together very quickly and organically.
CF: What instruments will you have during your outside lands set?
SH: There will be more of a traditional set up. Two guitars and bass and drums. There will not be any horn players.
CF: Who are you excited about seeing at the show?
SH: Radiohead definitely. They are out there. Really they're just so epic, it's amazing. I'm also excited to see Devendra play, but I might not be able to see him because I'm playing right after him.
CF: Any parting thoughts?
SH: See you at Outside Lands!
Sean Hayes plays the Presidio Stage on Saturday, August 23 at 3:00 p.m., in-between Everest and Kaki King. For the full schedule, click HERE.
After Outside Lands, he'll be touring with the Cold War Kids. Tour details are available on his official Web site, www.seanhayesmusic.com.
Outside Lands ticket give-away: Tenth winner announced!
Congratulations to tubescape! Tubescape, you have won a ticket for Sunday at Outside Lands!
Sunday's lineup includes Jack Johnson, Wilco, Widespread Panic, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Broken Social Scene, Andrew Bird, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, the Drive-by Truckers, Toots & the Maytals, Stars, and more!If you'd like to be the next winner, start uploading photos and videos. See the contest details HERE.
Previous winners include the following CrowdFire kindlers:
Saturday, August 9th - Emilio Grijalva
Sunday, August 10th - xanderboy
Monday, August 11th - misscouey
Tuesday, August 12th - M0rey
Wednesday, August 13th - moji
Thursday, August 14th - FHirtzel
Friday, August 15th - lexxx
Saturday, August 16th - landshark
Sunday, August 17th - jpo1526
Outside Lands ticket give-away: Ninth winner announced!
Congratulations to jpo1526! Jpo1526, you have won a ticket for Sunday at Outside Lands!
Sunday's lineup includes Jack Johnson, Wilco, Widespread Panic, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Broken Social Scene, Andrew Bird, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, the Drive-by Truckers, Toots & the Maytals, Stars, and more!If you'd like to be the next winner, start uploading photos and videos. See the contest details HERE.
Previous winners include the following CrowdFire kindlers:
Saturday, August 9th - Emilio Grijalva
Sunday, August 10th - xanderboy
Monday, August 11th - misscouey
Tuesday, August 12th - M0rey
Wednesday, August 13th - moji
Thursday, August 14th - FHirtzel
Friday, August 15th - lexxx
Saturday, August 16th - landshark
Get text updates on your phone during all 3 days of O.L.!
Get Outside Lands Festival Days updates on your phone during all 3 days of the Outside Lands festival!If you're going to Outside Lands anytime between August 22nd thru 24th, we can notify you of festival news on your phone via text messaging, making your festival experience even better!
Note: these mobile festival updates are different than the alerts you can get from the other non-"O.L. Festival Days Updates" categories on the CrowdFire Blog, and will not exceed more than 5 alerts per festival day.
Steps to get O.L Festival Days Updates text messages on your phone:
Part 1: Setting up a Windows Live ID
1) Click on the "Windows Live Alerts" button in the upper right-hand part of this page you're reading to start the sign-up process, which will launch a new window (as shown below) so you can refer to this page during the process.
2) Click on the sign-in button from the screen above, and you'll get this page to either sign-up for Windows Live Alerts, or sign-in if you have a Windows Live ID (which is either a Hotmail, MSN Messenger, or Passport account):
3) If you have one of the accounts mentioned above, go ahead and sign-in. This is also known as your "Windows Live ID." If you don't have one, click on the Windows Alerts sign-up button, and you'll be taken through a process where you can quickly sign-up. Note: You can even use your existing email account, even if it's not a Microsoft account.
IMPORTANT: After you complete the registration form, you will be sent a confirmation email where you will need to click on a link to complete the process of creating your Windows Live ID. Tip: if you don't see the confirmation email in your inbox, check your SPAM, JUNK, or BULK folder.
After clicking on the link, you have now completed Part 1 where you have set up a Windows Live ID, and you can close that window. Part 2 is where you create an MSN Mobile account:
Part 2: Setting up an MSN Mobile account
After you register, go back to the page where you left off, which should look like the one below. If you don't see this page, then login with the Windows Live ID you created, and you should get to that page.
Proceed by clicking on the "Set up an MSN Mobile account" hyperlink:
1) You will then be taken to a screen as depicted below where you will pick your wireless service provider in the dropdown box:
2) ...and then enter your mobile phone number:
3) ...then agree to the terms by clicking on the user agreement button, at which point a confirmation text message will be sent to your phone.
4) ...then enter the confirmation text code you received on your phone...
5) ...and click on the "Done" button
6) You'll then either be asked to login using your Windows Live ID, or be taken back to the Delivery Preferences screen if you're already logged in. If it's not already checked, check the "My mobile device" as well as any other option you'd like, then click on the "Finish" button at the bottom of the page, and you're done!
Starting Friday, August 22nd through Sunday, August 24th, we'll start sending festival updates, not to exceed more than 5 per day.
Outside Lands ticket give-away: Eighth winner announced!
Congratulations to landshark! Landshark, you have won a ticket for Sunday at Outside Lands!
Sunday's lineup includes Jack Johnson, Wilco, Widespread Panic, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Broken Social Scene, Andrew Bird, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, the Drive-by Truckers, Toots & the Maytals, Stars, and more!If you'd like to be the next winner, start uploading photos and videos. See the contest details HERE.
Previous winners include the following CrowdFire kindlers:
Saturday, August 9th - Emilio Grijalva
Sunday, August 10th - xanderboy
Monday, August 11th - misscouey
Tuesday, August 12th - M0rey
Wednesday, August 13th - moji
Thursday, August 14th - FHirtzel
Friday, August 15th - lexxx
Black Keys go on the 'Attack'
Originally published May 14, 2008 07:05 AM, at LiveDaily.com
By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski / LiveDaily Contributor
Within the last year, Ohio duo The Black Keys worked with Gnarls Barkley's Danger Mouse on its own album, as well as iconic rock star Ike Turner on his project. Both collaborations allowed the band--whose feet are firmly planted in blues-rock--to expand its sound.
"I think that Pat [Carney, drummer] and I knew we wanted to use lots of instrumentation on this new record," said guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach of "Attack & Release." "We brought all the instruments from home, all the weird s--- that we had.
"We always use different instruments on records, but never to this extent. We've always experimented in the studio. Pat and I listen to all kinds of music. It didn't feel like we were forcing ourselves to do anything. It seemed like a natural progression, obviously."
On The Black Keys' first record, 2002's "The Big Come Up," the album was stripped down, though the duo dabbled in synthesizer, Auerbach said. By the third album, "Rubber Factory," "we had all kinds of s--t."
"The natural progression was sped up a little bit with Danger Mouse being there to lend support," Auerbach said.
The duo further credited Danger Mouse (born Brian Burton) for making the "Attack & Release" sessions "productive."
"It was sweet working with Danger Mouse," Auerbach said. "He's a cool guy. Above everything else, we got along as friends. It was really easy to work with him when we got into the studio. Everybody had their equal say and could throw out ideas. It's just really productive. There was no ego involved with anyone. It just made it really easy to keep things rolling. Danger Mouse was just another guy to bounce ideas off of. If we'd get stuck in a rut, he could keep us moving forward, keep us focused. When we were just doing fine on our own, he would just stand back and let us work. It was perfect."
The album features guest appearances from guitarist Marc Ribot and multi-instrumentalist Ralph Carney (Patrick Carney's uncle), both of whom have spent time in Tom Waits' band. The album also features vocal contributions on the closing track from 18-year-old bluegrass singer Jessica Lea Mayfield.
As for the Turner project, Auerbach said he and Danger Mouse wished they could have finished the project before Turner's drug-related death last December.
"We were going to finish our record and then get back to it," Auerbach said. "A month or two after our record was done, we found out he passed away. It kind of sucked. [The material we were working on with him] was really cool. What we were getting accomplished was pretty awesome. It really was."
Outside Lands ticket give-away: Seventh winner announced!
Congratulations to lexxx! Lexxx, you have won a ticket for Sunday at Outside Lands!
Sunday's lineup includes Jack Johnson, Wilco, Widespread Panic, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Broken Social Scene, Andrew Bird, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, the Drive-by Truckers, Toots & the Maytals, Stars, and more!If you'd like to be the next winner, start uploading photos and videos. See the contest details HERE.
Previous winners include the following CrowdFire kindlers:
Saturday, August 9th - Emilio Grijalva
Sunday, August 10th - xanderboy
Monday, August 11th - misscouey
Tuesday, August 12th - M0rey
Wednesday, August 13th - moji
Thursday, August 14th - FHirtzel
CrowdFire: The Creation Myth
by John Battelle
Back in June of 2007 I had the pleasure of attending my first Bonnaroo, one of the most mind-bending music festivals on the planet. Anytime you get nearly 100,000 rabid fans together with scores of the best bands in the world, there's bound to be magic. And for me, a lapsed fan just re-engaging with the world of live music, it was a revelation.
I don't want to age myself here, but I'm not exactly in Bonnaroo's core demographic, if you know what I mean. But so many bands I loved were playing there - the Flaming Lips, Ziggy Marley, Spoon, Bob Weir, Fountains of Wayne - and so many bands I'd heard of but never really heard - Kings of Leon, Lily Allen, Mavis Staples, Paolo Nutini, Brazilian Girls, Mute Math, Ween - the list went on and on and on. And oh, yes, I'll admit, the band I loved when I was in the demo was also playing: The Police.
And I was fortunate enough to not only see most of these bands, but to also see how a festival like Bonnaroo gets created - from the backstage load ins to the incredible ballet of literally hundreds of staff and volunteers who create, in three days, a mid-sized city in the center of a 700-acre farm in the middle of Tennessee.
The reason I had such access? A good friend (thanks, Martin) had hooked me up with the festivals' producers, an outfit called Superfly. As I got to know them and watch the fruits of their work, I came to realize I was watching something far larger than a music festival. In short, I was watching a new culture emerge, a culture fueled in equal parts by the timeless connection between musician and audience, on the one hand, and the breakdown of the traditional music business thanks to new technologies of personal media, on the other.
It's not like I wasn't familiar with these trends, in theory, anyway. After all, there's a reason I named my company "FM" - it was clear that on the web, "musicians" (talented folks who were creating independent websites) were connecting with their audiences in new ways outside traditional "top 50" distribution models (ie, outside the old school models of major media companies like Time Inc., Yahoo, Viacom, etc.). This mirrored the rise of the counter cultural music movement of the 60s and 70s, a movement that leveraged another new technology - the FM radio band. The rise of the album and the explosion of creative freedom which resulted - well, that resonated with me when I saw talent like Dooce, or Boing Boing, or Digg start to redefine the Web.
But as I was building FM (and even before, while I was working on a book and a new conference), I managed to lose touch with the visceral, emotional connection that live music represents. And live music, it turns out, was undergoing its own incredible evolution.
Then I spent those three days at Bonnaroo.
And there, well, BAM, it hit me. Everyone says the music business is in collapse, but that's not true at all. The old industry may be dying, but the connection between fans and bands is stronger than ever. Thanks to the web, more and more acts can find their audiences, more and more fans can find music they love, and together they are changing the world of entertainment forever. It's nearly impossible to make money as a musician using the old system of record labels and Top 50 hits. But if you tour, if you are smart about what festivals you play, and if you use the web to connect directly with your base, well, there's clearly a great living to be made, doing what you love to do. And new companies like Superfly and Red Light and Another Planet were springing up to help artists do exactly that. It felt a lot like what I was trying to do with FM, the only difference being the medium. One was live music, the other was the conversational web.
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Over the past year I began a conversation with the folks at Superfly about their business and ours, and we kept an eye out for a way to connect the two. Then Rick Farman, one of the partners at Superfly, called me and told me about Outside Lands, which they were doing in partnership with Another Planet. He said he wanted to figure out something cool to do there that had to do with technology and Bay area culture, and he thought FM might have some ideas. We agreed it could be some kind of digital campfire in the center of the festival, one informed by the same vibe that informs social/conversational media - something of and about the audience's experience of the festival. |
Now those of you reading this already know what an incredible event Outside Lands is going to be: the first ever nighttime concert in Golden Gate Park (and it's Radiohead, for goodness sakes) and three days of incredible music (Wilco, Jack Johnson, Tom Petty, Widespread, Beck, Broken Social Scene, Ben Harper, Jackie Greene, and about 40 others? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???!)
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Over the course of several brainstorming sessions, including with Marc Ruxin of McCann and folks at Microsoft, an idea began to take shape based on a single insight: personal media is changing how we all experience music. Remember, it had been a while since I had been to a concert. A lot had changed. Everyone there had a cell phone with a camera, for one. Or a Flip. Or a digital camera. And when an amazing moment occurred, more folks held up their digital devices than they did lighters. At Bonnaroo this past June, I took a picture that nails it for me - the image at left. A woman capturing an incredible personal memory of an incredible shared experience (in this case, it was Metallica literally blowing people's minds), the three screens reflecting the integration of physical, personal, and shared experiences. That image informed our logo, as you can see. |
Well, we're about to find out. Created in collaboration with some pretty visionary folks at Microsoft, our presenting sponsor, and Intel, a Platinum sponsor, today marks the launch of that idea realized: CrowdFire. The idea is pretty simple, really: Live music has always been a major production from the stage out to the audience: one to many, in essence. But with CrowdFire, we hope to provide all of us music fans a platform for doing with the experience of music what we're already doing with the experience of the web: a place where all of us can share and produce our experiences: a many to many celebration of live music, in real time, as well as as an ongoing, living archive of what has happened, and what might happen next.
Sound a bit...out there? It is. Today marks the launch of our beta, and I am sure there will be bugs, blips, and general screw ups. But that's how the web - and music - works. You get out there and you play. The more you play, the better you get. And the more folks you play with, the faster you get better. So join us today. Upload some of your favorite memories around music (images, blog posts, video.) Take a tour around, and help us make this thing really sing (you can email us at contact [at] crowdfire.net).
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You might have noticed we've already got some pretty cool "kindling" in the CrowdFire, including photos from Jeff Kravitz, an amazing talent who recently joined the blogging world (that's one of his many incredible images at left), as well as leading voices from the music, technology, and culture worlds.
But we need your input to really light this thing up. Browse and rate the stuff that's already up. Add your own (there'll be some pretty cool contests and prizes for stuff that the crowd rates as the coolest). And coming up very soon, in the next rev of CrowdFire, you'll be able to remix all the content in the CrowdFire database, creating your own feeds, videos, and mashups. |
Big thanks to the folks who helped realize this vision - Marc Ruxin and Matt Nessier of Universal McCaan, Bill Capadanno, Laura User and Aaron Lilly of Team Microsoft, the teams at Superfly Productions, Another Planet and Starr Hill, Martin Shore and the tireless FM Team.
Thanks for coming to check out our first version of CrowdFire. Now let's go make something cool together!
John Battelle is the Founder/Chairman/CEO of Federated Media Publishing.
Outside Lands ticket give-away: Sixth winner announced!
Congratulations to FHirtzel! FHirtzel, you have won a ticket for Sunday at Outside Lands!
Sunday's lineup includes Jack Johnson, Wilco, Widespread Panic, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Broken Social Scene, Andrew Bird, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, the Drive-by Truckers, Toots & the Maytals, Stars, and more!If you'd like to be the next winner, start uploading photos and videos. See the contest details HERE.
Previous winners include the following CrowdFire kindlers:
Saturday, August 9th - Emilio Grijalva
Sunday, August 10th - xanderboy
Monday, August 11th - misscouey
Tuesday, August 12th - M0rey
Wednesday, August 13th - moji