Door ill & Lauw | Isidoor van Esch

Carnage at TIKTAK Eclectic Music Festival

There are some artists who are destined for the lime-light. Even their names offer some insight to their future and Carnage is no exception. Born Diamante (which means "Diamond" in Spanish) Blackmon, the big "black man" from Guatemala was like a rare diamond in the rough who moved to Maryland at six years old to live with his mother. She encouraged him to start producing beats and dance tracks since he was in high school in his hometown of Frederick. Hollywood and hip clubs that played electronic music were nothing but a distant dream though, so he became a self proclaimed "computer nerd" and was making beats with his rap friends after school. It took him five long ass years to perfect his producing game, but eventually he nailed it.

Carnage also learned early on that he could make a living out of being a super-star DJ through his friendship with Niles from The Cataracs who stumbled upon his music through Myspace. He later realized he would have to leave his country home "which smelled like manure," he says to move to LA and make that dream a reality. Eight months after his move to the City of Angels, his "Festival Trap" remix of Hardwell's "Spaceman" went viral and now he's headlining his own tour all over the world and playing major festivals like Ultra in Miami and EDC. Carnage's "I'm Fucking Pumped Tour" rolls through the Yost Theater tonight as part of White Rabbit's Havoc Thursday so we caught up with the Chipotle loving guy to chat about playing in Europe and his bromance with Borgore.

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Jack Beats, Carnage and Whiiite at CONTROL's 4 Year Anniversary - Avalon - Friday, Feb. 22, 2013

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Sometimes it takes the demise of a semi-successful band to spawn a hugely successful one. That's what happened to Youngblood Hawke. The principal members of the Iglu & Hartly, Sam Martin and Simon Katz, used the lessons learned from their first band in order to propel Youngblood Hawke to heights they never saw coming.

The Los Angeles-based, San Antonio-bred group, named after author Herman Wouk, fuses elements of catchy indie pop and rock, and have caught on with the music listening public on the strength of their surprise hit, "We Come Running." "We love touring and playing shows, it's our favorite thing to do," lead singer Simon Katz says. "We're also writing at every chance we get. If you keep pushing and keep working at it, you're just going to get better. It's a seize the moment sort of thing."

They recently released their debut album, Wake Up, and just returned from a three-week east coast run and are in the midst of their West Coast run before zigzagging the country to begin the first of many festival dates that will keep them busy through the end of the year. Before their show at The Observatory, we spoke to Katz as the band headed down to San Diego, where we talked about "We Come Running," how his experience in Iglu & Hartly helped strengthen his resolve and his thoughts the championship prospects of his hometown San Antonio Spurs.

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During the 1990s, the Skeletones used to play every friggin' show from the Inland Empire to Orange County. After search the Internet, you might assume that the 10-piece ska group from Riverside still maintains a busy schedule.But look closer and you'll notice that a few newer bands have also taken the moniker since the original band's heyday. A Google search for "the Skeletones" comes up with three acts -- the Riverside band and two others from Michigan and England.

These days, the original Skeletones -- Jonas Cabrera, Paul Hampton, Mark Cummings, Chris Miles, Kip Wirtzfeld, Rick Bonin, Woody Diaz, Bob Alvarado, John Alvarado and Jared Palazzolo -- perform between 12-24 times a year, which is still a lot considering the group has been around for approximately two decades. That said, don't think frontman Jonas Cabrera has gotten too old to rock a stage because he says he will "out-skank anybody who dares to try" to beat him in a dance-off.

The Skeletones play Saturday as part of Long Beach Sound Society's fourth annual "We Are The Mods Celebration" at Madhaus. The event includes performances by Suedehead and the Savoys and features an array of DJs, food trucks and a horseshoe pit. With so much mod in one area, let's hope Cabrera has a new pair of dancing shoes cuz he's gonna need them.

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Michael Charlson

In the day of the Internet-made superstar, Andy Grammer is a rarity. The 29-year-old has made a name for himself the old fashioned way: through hard work. For every YouTube sensation, a guy like Grammer is being lost in the shuffle. The son of singer-songwriter Red Grammer, Andy started playing guitar in his teens before continuing on LA's open mic circuit, even busking on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica before catching on with a wider audience. These days, Grammar is playing to packed mid-sized theaters.

Despite having released his debut on S-Curve Records in 2011, the singer is still touring behind that release while mixing in a few new songs that he's been working on. Ahead of his sold out show at the House of Blues in Anaheim on Thursday (if you still want to see him, there a few tickets left for Friday's gig in L.A.), we caught up with the singer who had a rare day off at home in Los Angeles to discuss touring, his struggles as an artist and The Office character that most resembles himself.

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Kirk Franklin at the House of Blues Dallas

Kirk Franklin is easily one of God's greatest hype men. On stage, his ball of ad-libs, inspiration and intensity breaks through the angelic roar of every choir he's ever put together. Not an easy task, considering he's surrounded himself with some of the world's greatest vocal talent since since he started "The Family" choir in the early '90s. It's a pattern that's earned him 12 albums and five Grammys. But mostly it's his boisterous energy and raspy howl that gives the 43 year-old Ft.Worth, Texas native the star power to lead the modern gospel scene.

He's bringing an extra dose of that contemporary flair to the House of Blues venues across the country this Sunday for Kirk Franklin's Gospel Brunch, a curated revamp of the venue chain's monthly Gospel Brunch, which celebrates its 20th anniversary on Mother's Day weekend. We got a chance to talk to Franklin about his new show, the future of the gospel music and his thoughts about the woman who raised him.

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Jorge Meza / OC Weekly

Armin Van Buuren at The Palladium

If you consider trance music a religion, then Armin Van Buuren is God. The DJ, producer, remixer, composer, musician, pianist and songwriter has taken trance to world renowned heights through his A State of Trance radio show, Armada Music record label and vast discography which spans over the course of a decade. He has dominated the DJ Mag Top 100 poll at number one for a record five times and holds 27 International Dance Music Awards which include everything from "Best Global DJ" to "Best Global Record Label." With the release of his highly anticipated new album Intense, Van Buuren kicked off his album tour at The Palladium in Hollywood where we got to talk to him about Intense, Armin Only, fatherhood and where trance is headed in 2014.

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Courtesy of Oh Dag Yo Photography

Dirtyphonics at Coachella

Charly, Thomas, Pho and Pitchin--four french dudes who have been making heavy bass music for well over a decade now--are currently on tour in support of their full-length album IRREVERENCE out on Dim Mak Records. They celebrated their album release on Tuesday at Dim Mak Studios in typical LA fashion with lots of high profile friends and peers in attendance, played at Voyeur in San Diego last night and tonight they are about to blow the lid off the Nokia Theater. We got to chat with the quartet backstage in their trailer at Coachella straight off their debut appearance at the famed Sahara Tent about their musical influences, dirty girls and what to expect tonight and this weekend at week two of their Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival set.

Charly and Thomas met back in 2000 while in design school and Pho joined the group in 2004 bringing his electro-inspired sound to their already eclectic drum & bass beats. "When we were teenagers we used to play in metal bands and then we got into the 90s hip-hop," Charly says. "Then we got into house music and techno through the French scene. It wasn't until the drum & bass that we all gathered together." In 2008 Pitchin jumped on board and they saw success after their debut single "French Fuck" was released on AudioPorn records. Reaching number one on the Beatport charts they joined the ever-changing electronic music scene and put their own stamp on "drumstep" with an intense energy and unpredictability in their tempos.

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Frazer Harris/Getty Images

Hardwick makes "nerd" culture BEYOND cool.

For those of you who think that "geek culture" isn't hip or cool, Chris Hardwick over at Nerdist.com is making his mark by taking what some label as "nerdy" and parlaying it into super stardom. In-between bringing in some of the most notable guests in podcasting history on the Nerdist Podcast along with his boys Jonah Ray and Matt Mira, Hardwick splits his time holding down a successful career doing stand-up, writing, acting, hosting "Talking Dead" on AMC, and traveling around to conventions to immerse himself in the culture that he truly loves whether you think it is "cool" or not. This Friday March 29th the boys from Nerdist are heading to the City National Grove of Anaheim to record a live podcast and before it all goes down, we talked to Chris about the ins and outs of convention life, why Bill Murray is so awesome, and why his podcast stands apart from the rest.

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After falling in love with electro in his native Miami, Eric Estornel began deejaying in the early 90s. Like most EDM enthusiasts he later got into techno and began making house beats in 1996. He moved his family to Dallas where he made a name for himself as a local DJ, but it wasn't until he fled to the European dance music scene that things started to take off for him four years ago. He released an LP on the infamous Crosstown Rebels label and his appeal has since skyrocketed. Tonight, going by his DJ moniker Maceo Plex, the soulful, underground producer is headlining the official Insomniac Beyond Wonderland pre-party alongside Maya Jane Coles at Exchange LA and playing the Crosstown Rebels Rave stage at Beyond Wonderland Saturday only to make his way back to Miami for his Ultra Music Festival debut on Sunday!

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BRONCHO

First and foremost, it's pronounced Braun-cho. Secondly, the capitalization is purposeful. And thirdly, this is a band, not a Mexican pony (important!). It's a band that plays gritty, straightforward punk songs a la The Replacements and Iggy Pop. It's a band that calls Oklahoma home (which is impressive in its own right). It's a band that self-released its debut album and gained International praise all on it's own.

This dedication and persistence paid off, and the quartet recently signed with Fairfax Recordings, which will be re-releasing 2011's Can't Get Past The Lips before dropping BRONCHO's anticipated sophomore release. In the meantime, the punk rockers are touring the States, including a stop at Costa Mesa's Detroit Bar on March 9. While en route to Oakland from Portland, bassist Jonathon Ford chatted with us about BRONCHO's origins, and how the new album will still be loud, but a little more sophisticated.

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