Colossal heat, tornadoes“this week serves as proof that NOTHING stops Warped Tour. After a much needed break, the OurStage.com Stage was back in action at the Darien, Scranton, Mansfield, and Camden stops of the tour, which included performances from regional winners Stateside, Jonas Sees In Color, The Organ Beats, and Mirk, Grand Prize Winner Larry g(EE), and national acts Junior Doctor, Patent Pending, Avion Roe and more.
Check out the week’s best Warped Tour moments, on and off the OurStage.com Stage, in our exclusive recap below. Make sure to check out ourstage.com/warped for the full Warped Tour scoop.
Patent Pending rocks big crowds in Burgettstown, PA
Boo! For tips on how best to repurpose your Edward Scissorhands halloween costume, consult Motionless In White
Phone Calls From Home crowd surf, bust out the water guns for Mansfield fans
Imagine an alternate reality where rock ‘n’ roll and hip-hop come of age simultaneously, and greasers blast fat beats from vintage car stereos on their way to the sock hop. This is the world of G-Eazy, a New Orleans-bred emcee and producer whose been on a precipitous rise to the top of the rap game for the past few years. After a string of mixtape releases culminating with The Endless Summer, which demonstrated his pitch-perfect blend of doo-wop and hip-hop, G is poised to take over the national scene. He’s opened for Lil Wayne and A$AP Rocky, and is currently one of the few hip-hop artists on the Vans Warped Tour. We recently caught up with G about the tour, his upcoming album, and what he’d really do with a trip back in time.
OS: You’re playing on every date of the Vans Warped Tour this summer. What has it been like so far as a hip-hop artist on a mostly punk tour?
G: Well, it totally feels like I’m an outsider, but it’s all working out just fine. I think that having Mod Sun and T. Mills playing the same stage that I’m playing helps a lot because we have a lot of crossover fans that we share. But other that that it’s been fun. It’s been interesting being the outsider and not always fitting in, but there are a ton of cool people here and a ton of cool bands. It’s not really my scene and I wasn’t even into this as a kid, so it’s definitely strange, but it’s really awesome in its own way. There’s a lot of fans here that straight up look like actors from a Tim Burton movie.
OS: But you’re also kind of an out-of-the-box hip-hop artist yourself, with the ’60s doo-wop vibe that you bring to your tracks. What if you could go actually back to the era that you emulate in your music? Which artist would you want to collaborate with?
G: The obvious answer would be The Beatles, but that’s not really a possibility. I feel like they wouldn’t collaborate with anybody. They were kind of in their own world. But if it would be possible to squeeze into one of their sessions and find a way to work with John Lennon, that would be really unbelievable. Also, I mean, if I could go back in time and I could get Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers to the studio and have them lay parts down, I think that would be kind of awesome.
It’s officially summer, and Warped Tour has begun! In case you haven’t heard, we’re sponsoring our own stage for twenty-two dates and bringing over twenty-three artists out to perform on it. We decided to catch up with these artists to get the scoop on their summer plans.
Over the past few years, Phone Calls from Home have become a pop rock staple in their local scene. These boys will be bringing their exciting live show to Warped Tour all month long, with hopes of bringing feel-good vibes to fans new and old. Read on to find out how the band met, what they’ve been doing this year, and what they hope to accomplish on Warped Tour.
OS: How did you guys all meet and start the band?
PCFH: Dave, Zack, and Jason met in high school and they met Danny when they were on tour and played a show in Alabama.
OS: Like OurStage, Phone Calls From Home is a Boston-bred operation. What’s your favorite local venue to play?
PCFH: We played at the Brighton Music Hall recently with Paradise Fears and it was great! Definitely a new favorite for us.
Once upon a time, people used to listen to this thing they called ˜punk rock’, and they would put safety pins in their noses, get funny haircuts, and advocate anarchy in the streets. Nihilistic rebels and apathetic outcasts lurked in the back alleys and dark basements of a few select cities for the better part of the ˜70s, all the while building an empire before anyone even knew it was happening. However, after a brief detour through new wave, post-punk alterations, this sudden uprise seemed to fade away as rapidly as it began. But where did punk rock go? Where are the mohawks, the plaid pants, and the wayward misfits of the golden years we all used to know and love? Have they been lost into the dark abyss of what used to be, never to be seen again?
Yes. Well, mostly, anyway. However tragic it may be that the traditional Punks and Skunks are no longer bombarding the music scene with stripped-down, chugging guitar breaks and monotone shouting, the punk rock nucleus still lives on. Despite what the old-school anarchy stalwarts may claim, punk is by no means dead. It’s alive and kicking, with more teenage angst bursting at the seams than ever before. It just looks a little different and, of course, depends on how you choose see it.
So where is it, you ask? It’s blowing up all over the mainstream rock scene. Bands like Four Year Strong, A Day To Remember, and Rise Against, who have all made appearances on the Billboard charts, are leading the way for the contemporary punk movement. Granted, these groups aren’t ˜punk’ in the traditional sense, but they’re the product of years of development and evolution as punk rock has absorbed different trends and influences over the years. (more…)
With summer right around the corner, we can’t help but be totally stoked for Warped Tour. In case you haven’t heard, we’ll be sponsoring our own stage for twenty-two dates and bringing twenty-three artists out to perform on it. Twenty-two acts will snag a performance at their local tour stop, and Dallas native Larry g(EE) will be rocking the stage at each and every date. In addition, there are a handful of other OurStage artists already booked to play various dates of the tour. We decided to catch up with them to get the scoop on their summer plans.
Shreveport, Louisiana’s iwrestledabearonce don’t take themselves”or the metal scene”too seriously, and that may be one of the best things they have going for them. Sure, they may not be for the faint of heart, and you probably wouldn’t expect any less from a band with song titles like “Tastes Like Kevin Bacon” and “Karate Nipples.” Even so, the group is refreshingly fearless on stage and in the studio, mixing grindcore, electronica, screamo and just about every other genre into their musical melting pot. Led by formidable lead vocalist Krysta Cameron, the band battled sterotyping early on in their career, but have since proved that they can hang with the most metal dudes around. We caught up with guitarist Steven Bradley to chat about what they’ll be bringing to Warped Tour, the horror movie they just finished filming, and what they’ll be doing when summer ends.
OS: You guys love to mix a lot of different genres and styles in your music. How would you describe your music to those who have never heard it before?
SB: Terrible…beyond that, I don’t know. It’s heavy music that’s not quite as serious as maybe other straightforward heavy bands. Dance, grind, jazz, electronic, terrible…as long as the word terrible is in there.
At last, we’re happy to announce the final batch of regional Warped Tour winners.These five acts will join Larry g(EE) on the OurStage.com Stage for select dates of the 2012 Vans Warped Tour. You can view the winners below, stream their music, and find out which dates they will perform.
For a full stage lineup, ticket information, and tour dates, be sure to follow the OurStage.com Stage official Tumblr page.
Squid The Whale
Performing at: First Niagra Pavilion
City/State: Burgettstown, PA
Date: July 12
Lights Resolve
Performing at: Farm Bureau Live
City/State: Virginia Beach, VA
Date: July 25
