Oliver Scherillo / OC Weely

Orbital at Nocturnal Wonderland

See Also:
*Nocturnal Wonderland: Our Recap From A to Z
*Nocturnal Wonderland Day Two @ NOS Events Center
*Boys Noize Talks New Album, Working With Snoop Dogg and Skrillex

Phil and Paul Hartnoll, also known as the electronic band and DJ duo Orbital, have been pioneers in the dance music scene since the early 90s. Balancing the electronic sounds with live band elements, Orbital took American house music and made it their own in the UK scene. After achieving success, playing all over the world and producing hit after hit they took a five year hiatus to rejuvenate their sound and work on side projects. The result was their Orbital 20 album which produced their hit "Halcyon" and pushed them into super stardom. Now, three years later, they are on a highly anticipated tour to promote their latest album Wonky. Headlining festivals in the United States and playing shows in select cities we got to catch up with these EDM legends backstage at Insomniac's Nocturnal Wonderland right before their incredibly unique, melodic and eerie set that had people talking about it for days after.

OC Weekly: How has the electronic dance music changed, grown or evolved from when you first started touring in America almost 20 years ago?

Phil Hartnoll: When we were touring in 1992 whatever city we went to had little pockets of ravers that went to warehouse parties and listened to electronic music. Now when we come here it's gone national. All these pockets of people have gotten bigger and bigger. Younger generations are being brought up on electronic music. The whole scene has grown much more organically here.

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John Gilhooley / OC Weekly

Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, lead vocalist for The Hives

The Hives
The Observatory
September 11, 2012

See Also:

*FIDLAR On What It's Like To Party With The Hives
*The Best Of Coachella: Sunday, April 22, 2012
*Ceasefire - House of Blues Anaheim - 6/16/12

When we first learned the The Hives were stepping out of their American touring hiatus and coming to Orange County, we couldn't wait to hear their signature audience engaging, garage rock/punk band sound. Currently promoting their self-produced studio release Lex Hives, the title coming from the Roman term meaning "Law of the Hives," we were anxious to join this Hives Nation and channel our inner punk rocker, crowd surfing fan who just doesn't give a fuck!

The Observatory, known for being an intimate venue with a quality sound system and security that lets performers and audiences engage each other pretty unrestricted, was the perfect place for one of rock's best live acts to unleash all their greatness. Lead vocalist Howlin' Pelle Almqvist leaped onto speakers, jived as he thrusted his mic stand and shouted into his microphone with jokes and banter in typical Hives fashion. His brother guitarist Nicholaus Arson followed suit - literally as all band members were dressed in penguin like tuxedos with top hats and shiny shoes - with similar stage antics which lasted throughout the entire 90-minute set.

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Bloc Party

Matt Tong, Russell Lissack, Kele Okereke and Gordon Moakes

See Also:

*Remix Exclusive: Boys Noize - XTC (MMM REMIX)

*HARD Summer vs. Nocturnal Wonderland--Which One is Better?

*Shockingly, Bloc Party's Kele Okereke Enjoys Being In a Wildly Successful Rock Band

British indie rock band Bloc Party has specialized in showing American practitioners of dancey post punk how it's done since the release of their 2005 debut Silent Alarm. Kele Okereke's distinct deep voice was the soothing soundtrack to many teenagers and twenty somethings just discovering themselves and their music tastes at the time. After a hiatus and overdue break in 2009, the London quartet came back on the scene last year more ready than ever to produce their highly anticipated fourth album, aptly titled Four, to be released  August 20th.

It comes as no surprise that the band who bridged the gap between guitars and electronic sounds back in '06 would be headlining tonight at the fourth annual HARD Summer Music Festival, a mostly electronic dance music festival at the Los Angeles State Historic Park. Since most of the acts are mostly DJ sets it caught our attention and interest in the new album and their evolving style. Gordon Moakes, or Gordy, the bands bass guitarist, synths player, backing vocalist and even glockenspiel player (it's kind of like a xylophone but out of metal) was nice enough to answer a few questions for our inquiring minds.

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Longtime Orange County ska outfit and Disneyland's favorite choreographed band-with-horns Suburban Legends have been looking for locals to open for them at their album-release show tomorrow night at Chain Reaction. Day Job, the latest from these fun-loving guys, is nearly four years coming, and its entirely self-recorded, straight OC-ska sound is breathing new life into a scene that, by all accounts, peaked 15 years ago.

We sat down with Suburban Legends guitarist Brian Klemm to ask for his and his fun-loving bandmates' thoughts on building their own recording studio, experimenting with pop music and comic-book geekery.

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Jack's Mannequin today dropped the video from the upcoming People and Things record, "My Racing Thoughts." Directed by Anders Rostad with Jesse Springer as the director of photography, it's a pretty catchy way to spend four minutes of your time.

There's also a super cute Q&A from Buzzfeed after the jump; find out what frontman Andrew McMahon's favorite kitchen utensil is!

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Funk pioneer Sly Stone announced in the New York Post this week that he's homeless. Fans are lamenting Stone's predicament, but we see it as karmic retribution for the annoying omnipresence of his music (those who have heard "Everyday People" 90 times during a morning commute can relate).

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UPDATE, Sept. 7, 9:44 a.m.: And what do you know, there's a 20th anniversary edition of Pocket Full of Kryptonite that features the album "as you remember it."

Original post, Sept. 6, 10:36 a.m.: Nostalgia for the 1990s has been surging lately, spurred, as nostalgia often is, by a yearning by simple people for simpler times.

Last week, Rolling Stone blew the trend to noxious proportions with a story on the 20th anniversary of Pocket Full of Kryptonite, the debut album by the Spin Doctors.

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If you haven't seen Lady Gaga's latest video, "You and I", in which she transforms to look like a dude, then you were probably confused by last night's opening of the VMAs. Yes, Lady Gaga can play a convincing roughed-up guy, but her chameleon skills aren't easy to come by. It doesn't matter how many stylists you have, how many producers work for you, or how much dough the record label throws your way, because ultimately if you don't have the chops don't bother changing your look (it won't help). With out a doubt real iconic artists, like Lady Gaga, Madonna, and David Bowie, have the talent to pull off different styles and branch out to different genres. Some pay off and some definitely don't.

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Reel Big Fish

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Andrew Youssef/OC Weekly

​Tom Morello, Rage Against the Machine's guitarist, continues the LA Rising video series with a heavy dose of nostalgia: he talks about the beginnings of Rage Against the Machine 20 years ago in a small rehearsal space in San Fernando Valley, in August 1991.

When they started making the music that would become the first Rage Against the Machine record, he said, "we had no idea anyone would hear these songs...I was just happy to be in a room with guys getting off on playing this heavy, roaring, hip-hop, punk riff rocking music.

We really thought that given the lyrical content and ethnic makeup and the genre smashup of the band, there was no home for it. There was certainly no home for it on radio, on record labels, indie or otherwise, and certainly no place for it in clubs."

He goes on to talk about their relationship with Tool and the grunge bands of the era, plus how they developed their sound. Watch it after the jump.

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