What better way to get warmed up for this year’s performances at the North Coast Music Festival, than with a sick playlist to get you ready and amped up? Well we cut the work out for you, by putting together our official warm up playlist on Soundcloud. Together we have 25-tracks, from Steve Aoki, Stefan Ponce, Chromeo, Knife Party, Phoebe Ryan, Wale, Skizzy Mars and many more, all so you know what you can expect at Chicago’s Union Park next month (September 4-6). And if you haven’t got your passes yet, we are giving away a pair for you to win here, but you might want to buy some now before it’s too late! You might want to also check out this year’s official afterparty lineup!
For the third Friday in a row, Chicago’s Vic Mensa has release another new record. This time around Vic dropped his track, titled ‘I Been’, which is produced by Smoko Ono and the legendary Mike Dean. This one is three minutes of straight fire, so don’t wait around, check it out now (especially if Vic continues dropping new music at this rate). Also be sure to stay tuned for more information on Vic forthcoming and debut album, Traffic.
Los Angeles singer-songwriter Phoebe Ryan is an artist on the rise. Being widely considered as one of this year’s biggest breakout artists, Ryan is setting herself up for a very promising career. With less than a year under her belt, Phoebe Ryan has successfully released her first EP Mine, signed a record deal with Columbia Records, has over 25 million plays on Spotify, performed at Bonnaroo & Firefly (and is set to hit the stage in Chicago at the North Coast Music Festival), and is also keeping herself busy this fall with a North American tour with Say Lou Lou.
We first got turned on to Ryan with her impressive rendition of R. Kelly’s ‘Ignition’ & Miguel’s ‘Do you’. Her unique spin of the mashup received high praises from the likes of many, including R. Kelly himself. Since then Ryan’s original music has taken over her growing popularity. Ryan held an intimate showcase in Chicago last night at The House of Blues’ Foundation Room. We were able to catch Ryan’s show which included songs from her Mine EP and of course her ‘Ignition/Do You’ cover.
Ryan’s intimate show was the perfect setting to really capture her pure talent. Although she is new to the music scene Ryan’s stellar performance could have been seen as one done by a seasoned veteran. Pulling off both a shy and powerful performance, Ryan’s down to earth lyrics set a mood that only she herself could set. Ryan’s soulful voice effortlessly captured her persona as a rising star.
We were also able to catch up with Ryan right after her performance. We talked about her fast track path to success that has led her to music stardom. “I still don’t even understand what is going on,” Ryan said in a humble disbelief. “In the beginning of the year I was independently releasing music that I had been working on for months. As far back as a year I had been holding on to that ‘Ignition’ remix before I decided to put it out. So that was the top of the year, just putting stuff out, then all of a sudden responds just started happening. It was crazy. It felt amazing.” Ryan explained at what point in her career she noticed a huge turn:
“When Columbia stepped in things got real. Now (I’m) doing stuff like this. (I’m) also going to radio promo showcases because they want to push my single ‘Mine’. Plus I’m about to go on tour for two months, it’s crazy!”
If you weren’t there last night, don’t worry! Ryan will be returning to the Windy City in less than a month, as she performs at the North Coast Music Festival in Union Park on Saturday, September 5th (single day tickets for Saturday are still available here). Meanwhile watch the music video for Phoebe Ryan’s single ‘Mine’ below.
Chicago’s North Coast Music Festival is less than a month away and if you haven’t got your passes yet, don’t wait too long and get them now because the festival is returning to Union Park just as big as ever. With headlining performances from Widespread Panic, The Chemical Brothers, D’Angelo and The Vanguard, Knife Party, Chromeo, The Glitch Mob and many more, the top of the festival lineup is stacked. That’s not to say that this year’s undercard isn’t great as well! With sets from Stefan Ponce, Skizzy Mars and Pheobe Ryan just to name a few, the earlier performances will surely get the Windy City fans hyped.
In anticipation of next month (September 4-6), we compiled our list of the 10 Most Anticipated Acts that you need to see at North Coast 2015, which you can check out at the jump below. And if you haven’t yet, make sure to enter our giveaway, to win two 3-Day passes to North Coast this year!
This month we wrapped up our second straight year at Lollapalooza. And while we already shared some of our favorite moments from the Windy City festival, we wanted to share more photos of some of our favorite performers at Lolla this year. In total we saw a number of great performances from The Weeknd, Sam Smith, Metallica, Kid Cudi, Paul McCartney, A$AP Rocky, Tyler The Creator and Marina and the Diamonds, just to name a few.
Check out our eighth Lollapalooza Photo Series piece of Metallica’s performance.
Lana Del Rey teased her fans on Instagramtoday as she shared what many expect is the album cover art and release date, for her forthcoming LP Honeymoon. If the post indeed shares the release date for Lana’s highly anticipated follow up to her Ultraviolence album, you can expect her album on September 18th, only about a month away. Time to get excited people!
This month we wrapped up our second straight year at Lollapalooza. And while we already shared some of our favorite moments from the Windy City festival, we wanted to share more photos of some of our favorite performers at Lolla this year. In total we saw a number of great performances from The Weeknd, Sam Smith, Metallica, Kid Cudi, Paul McCartney, A$AP Rocky, Tyler The Creator, Father John Misty and Marina and the Diamonds, just to name a few.
Check out our seventh Lollapalooza Photo Series piece of Metallica’s performance.
If you are familiar with Childish Gambino’s record ‘No Small Talk’ (or it’s original version ‘Gahdamn’), then you know Kari Faux has bars. While she is steadily climbing up the ranks of female rappers that you need to know, the Donald Glover co-signee has now dropped her new music video, for her track ‘Supplier’. In a message to fans, Faux wrote “If you’re (watching this video), you’re probably a really cool person. I appreciate you for watching my videos and listening to my music. I hope you enjoy this video and continue to follow me on this journey.”
If you haven’t checked out The Internet’s new album, Ego Death, do yourself a favor and give it a listen (and give our review a read as well). And in support of their new LP, the group will be traveling the country on a massive tour this fall. Kicking off at the El Rey in Los Angeles, The Internet will be hitting stops in Chicago, DC, New York, Canada, and more, until they close their tour off at Odd Future and Tyler The Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival this October. If you are a fan of their album, which you should be, you will definitely want to get your tickets now!
There is no better male female team in hip-hop right now than Chicago’s Chance The Rapper and Noname Gypsy. Everytime the two get on the same track, it’s fire. Noname had a stand out verse on Acid Rap, the project with introduced Chance to a lot of his current fans. Then Noname also held her own with all the rap giants who contributed features on Surf. Most recently too, the two also teamed up on one of Chance and Lil B’s tracks (check out our review of that mixtape here). This time around, the two rapping poets have again linked up, for Chance’s new track ‘Isreal’. And if you couldn’t guess, it’s another amazing collab.
The Early Registration 