Written by Allyce Andrew

Coinciding with Halloween weekend, Voodoo Fest's 13th anniversary took place in New Orleans' City Park, but despite the major headliners, Voodoo attracted small crowds for the duration of the unusually chilly October weekend. The festival itself seemed under-produced compared to last year with fewer restrooms, a much smaller electronic stage and a small carnival to make up for the loss of said stage.  

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Written by Lindsay Williams

They just made their network television debut on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, are currently on tour with Taylor Swift and released their self-proclaimed “career album” two weeks ago. Life is good for NEEDTOBREATHE—but the journey hasn’t always been easy.

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Written by Allyce Andrew

A glimpse into the music festival, minus the sweaty crowds.

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Written by Alyce Gilligan

Very few indie-rock bands will claim their music as "pop," no matter how upbeat and popular it may be. But The Kooks have spent the last five years proudly producing sunny Brit-rock with a distinct retro bent. Their third album, Junk of the Heart, came out last week and is yet another collection of polished, catchy tunes. RELEVANT recently sat down with lead guitarist, Hugh Harris, to talk about their new album, their international audience and the youth culture of England.

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Written by Mike Hogan

[Be sure to read Part 1 of Mike's reflections on his time in The David Crowder Band.]

From the very beginning, a couple of us in the David Crowder Band have had a ritual whenever we would get on a plane. The flight attendant would have everyone turn off their various electronic devices. Then, after they would roam up and down the aisle looking for transgressors but before the plane actually took off, we would proceed to sneak our iPods out and pick the song we would like to die to.

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Written by Mike Hogan

In a way, the summation of a band is not unlike writing a eulogy. You face the same general problem set: that of compressing a number of years, the lives of the members themselves, the lives of their families, the lives of the folks who have worked with/for them, etc., down to a few paragraphs.

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Written by Ryan Hamm

One of the best and worst parts of Lollapalooza is that it takes place in Chicago in late summer. That fact often means you’ll get amazing sunsets just as the headlining bands are taking their stages, and the breeze from Lake Michigan cools off everything a little bit.

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Written by Ryan Hamm

Day two of Lollapalooza began with some heavy showers, offering momentary relief from a muggy Chicago morning. The rain didn’t dampen the spirit of the crowd—if you’ve ever been to a festival, you know that (for some reason) some people love to play in the mud.

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Written by Ryan Hamm

Bands who perform at giant outdoor festivals (like Lollapalooza) have some unique challenges—the wind can bat sound around (especially at stages that aren’t equipped with towering speaker columns), and they’re often dwarfed by the massive sets. Which means your band has to be: a) really good at making music both noisy and catchy and b) interesting enough to watch that they don’t look weird/bored under a 100-foot awning.

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Written by Wes Jakacki

In an era where you can stream music from a thrash-punk band from Zimbabwe or a reggae trio from Des Moines at the click of a button (via Pandora, Spotify or the drowning MySpace Music), everyone has discovered their own favorite bands. On top of that, there are thousands of radio stations (satellite and FM), music publications and music blog sites each pushing their slew of favorites. While there is some consensus found among the hipsters that read Pitchfork or those listening to Top 40 radio stations, one’s music library has become highly personalized, eliminating much of the unity that music brought in earlier times.

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