Photos by Marco Torres

Action Bronson
Numbers
September 22, 2012

After working hundreds of concerts over the last three years, most of them being rap and hip-hop shows, I feel like if I've seen one rap show, I've seen them all. The rapper arrives late, takes the stage past midnight, gives respect to Pimp C and DJ Screw, smokes a blunt, performs tracks from his mixtape(s), ends the show with his biggest hit, then gets the fuck outta there.

On Saturday night at Numbers (300 Westheimer), Action Bronson did start by arriving late, and end by getting the fuck outta there, but it was his movements in between that will enshrine this show as one of the wildest and best shows of the year.

If you haven't heard about Action, and many of you have not, here's the scoop:

He's white. He's hefty. He's from Queens, N.Y. He used to be a professional chef. His nasal voice reminds us of Ghostface Killah's. Oh, and his beard is magnificent.

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Photos by Marco Torres

Jay-Z and Beyonce

Day two of the first-ever Made In America music festival felt considerably less hectic and crowded than day one. The blazing heat of the previous day was replaced with scattered showers, and the humidity that follows, making for a sticky and slippery situation on the Ben Franklin Parkway. The crowd decided to sleep in, showing up much later in the afternoon.

There was an equal smattering of Run-DMC T-shirts as Pearl Jam tees amongst the fans, and a smaller group of kids wearing OVO attire. Newcomers Rita Ora and Santigold kicked off the fun with upbeat and danceable pop music. The Hives moved the crowd in front of the Liberty Stage with driving rock jams. They told the crowd that although they are from Sweden, their music is a result of American rock and roll.

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Photos by Marco Torres

Rewind: #MadeInAmerica: Translation's Steve Stoute Talks Diversity, Honesty, and The Digital Revolution

See Jay-Z, Kanye, Rick Ross' crew, Passion Pit, Gary Clark Jr. and lots more from Made In America's maiden voyage in our slideshow.

"If you put on a festival full of good music, people will find you". That was advertising executive and Jay-Z inner circle member Steve Stoute's answer to my question regarding the who/what/why of the inaugural Made In America Music Festival taking place in Philadelphia this Labor Day holiday weekend. Adjectives such as "historic" and "one-of-a-kind" were used in the promotion of the event, which boasts a lineup that is both multi-genre and multicultural.

Fans lined up along the Ben Franklin Parkway several hours before the gates opened at noon, hoping to secure a spot near the front barrier. Many donned red, white, and blue attire and face paint, adding to the patriotic undercurrent displayed on every Budweiser bottle, sign, and video screen.

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Photo by KierDuros via Flickr

Signs outside the grounds of Woodstock 99

This week marks the 13th anniversary of Woodstock 1999, the iconic festival's much-maligned third iteration that kinda dissolved into rape and looting towards the end. As 200,000-strong anarchic gatherings go, everything went off rather pleasantly for much of the festival, but the bonfires, looting and Fred Durst's goony mug quickly became the dominant images in the media. Conveniently pegged by some as the "Death of the '90s" or proof that music and culture had changed for the worse, the truth about Woodstock 99 is a little more complicated.

This was no spontaneous '60s "Happening" miraculously devoted to music and peace (and drugs). It was a three-day, corporate-funded Rock Concert designed to make very large sums of money. Ticket, food and water prices were considered obscene for the time, and portable toilets started filling up and overflowing on the first day. As it turned out, wallowing in their own filth was one of the few ways that concert-goers could beat the heat on the treeless airstrip that served as the festival ground.

That said, until the SWAT teams were called in at the end of the third day, Woodstock 99 looked like a pretty fun place to be. And there was some great music performed that's been mostly forgotten in the wake of the scary, sensational finale. That's why on this anniversary, Rocks Off will leave aside the violent, lawless image that clouds our collective memory of Woodstock 99 and try to focus on the top 10 performers who made Rome, NY, the place to be 13 years ago.

The fires have long since been put out. Let's show these consummate professionals a little peace, love and understanding, what do you say?

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Photos by Jay Lee

The Octanes

Rock Baby Rock It 12
Feat. The Octanes, Los Skarnales, Jesse Dayton
Continental Club
July 21, 2012

See the pin-ups and hot rods of Rock Baby Rock It in our slideshow.

Hot was the operative word at Saturday's Rock Baby Rock It hot-rod show/musical extravaganza. With temperatures in the high 90s, the parking lot filled with hot-rods was like a Lawrence of Arabia death march in the afternoon heat.

So hot, we thought the makeup might literally melt off all the ladies who had dolled up for the pin-up contest to be held later in the evening. Cutesy umbrellas were everywhere.

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If you ever look at music throughout time, along with a history book -- they kind of complement each other. Some of the greatest songs in rock, R&B and rap have chronicled history both social, major news events, sports, entertainment and political.

In my opinion, many times, the song is about what the artist thinks about some of these events, or it captures the mood of the country.

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photos by Marco Torres

Bun B & friends celebrate another successful Gumball 3000 rally in Hollywood

After leaving the Gumball 3000 afterparty in Las Vegas, I made it back to my hotel at about 4:30 a.m. The plan was to sleep for a few hours, then head to Los Angeles, where the rally was set to arrive at the finish line on Hollywood Blvd.

Originally, I was going to hitch a ride with one of the Gumballers, or rent a car, making the infamous 200-plus mile drive between the two cities of sin. Ultimately however, not wanting to be a burden to anyone, or pay the high gas prices, I decided take a cheap flight.

On the plane, I kept thinking about something that Bun told me the night before: "If you need anything, let me know."

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photos by Marco Torres

This year, Bun rode across the country in a Rolls-Royce Phantom with Team DeLaRon.

Bun B is a busy man. A quick search of this publication finds him supporting the local music scene, doing his duties as an associate professor at Rice University, rallying over social issues and even receiving an official proclamation from the mayor of Houston. He is active in the local food-truck scene, is an expert user of social media and now hosts his own television spot.

But as much as he loves his city and its people, sports teams, music and food...sometimes a guy just has to get away. Reboot. Refresh. For the past two years, Bun has used the Gumball 3000 road rally as his retreat.

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Photos by Craig Hlavaty

This past weekend was the last for this year's edition of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which started way back on April 27. The festival runs over two weekends, usually Thursday through Sunday. Obviously, since it is a uniquely Nawlins institution going back to 1970, it's not a festival that can be re-created just anywhere. Also, with that age comes experience.

My job means that I get to cover tons of festivals. Huge tentpoles like Free Press Summer Fest, Vans Warped Tour, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Fun Fun Fun Fest, Houston International Festival, Hangout Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and the new electronica-geared Identity Festival are some of my favorites. I would still like to see Chaos In Tejas in Austin, and finally hit up some of those crazy British countryside deals like Glastonbury and Reading.

Forgive my lateness, but Jazz Fest was a whole new animal to me, but I think I will be visiting this one more in the future.

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1992 was a pretty heady year for music in general, with the masses gobbling up all the gangsta rap, grunge, and pop-country they could. That year would see the release of not only R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People, Peter Gabriel's Us, Pantera's Vulgar Display Of Power, but also what is arguably The Cure's last great album, Wish, although 2000's Bloodflowers has it's champions.

This was also the year that saw not one, but two new Bruce Springsteen albums in Lucky Town and Human Touch. Let the Bruce fanatics fill you in on those, sans the E Street Band.

On the country front, only three artists, Garth Brooks, Wynonna Judd, and Billy Ray Cyrus, held the top slot on the country albums chart in 1992, dominating the list for 12 months. Brooks hit big with Ropin' The Wind, and it's follow-up, The Chase. His Christmas album, released in August 1992, Beyond The Season, was the best-selling holiday album of the year, but never made it to number one.

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