Alex Hersh

Inside Sweetlife Music Festival feat. VibeRotation 20 /  by Alex Hersh

The only thing as unique as the wide assortment of food options at the Sweetlife music festival this year was its set list. For the first time, Sweetgreen booked the Merriweather Post Pavillion in Columbia, MD for two days as opposed to the one of past beats. As a volunteer with the production team, I was lucky enough to cop a general admission ticket and attend the festival for free as long as I put in my hours volunteering as Artist Concierge, toting some dank munchies backstage for the performers.  With this write-up I hope I can capture the view of the cogs in the machine I witnessed, and show you all how I felt about one of the youngest and criticized festivals of our day.

Lineup

Many critics were left with a bitter taste in their mouth that the rise in ticket price from the event last year didn’t correlate to a better, more relevant lineup. While I got my ticket for the price of a few sweltering hours running between D.C.’s gourmet food trucks, I was more than happy with who I was going to see. As an altogether hip hop fan, XXL Freshmen of the 2015 class Raury and Goldlink, along with Vic Mensa, Bishop Nehru, Kendrick, and D.C. native Lightshow are standout, fitting acts that found a comfortable niche among the non hip hop talent of the lineup, of which there was plenty. That being said, this experience brought me to the forefront of indie and pop music culture, giving me the opportunity to see wonderful and energetic performances from artists I hadn’t heard of such as Allen Stone, Sinkane, and San Fermin.   

Food and Activities

Between bites of lobster rolls and pork belly Vietnamese tacos, festivites meandered through the grounds during set downtime, experimenting with all the different flavors of Sweetlife. While no less expensive than the classic hot dog from concessions to hold you over, the variety of options gives concert-goers a different form of art to appreciate and indulge in. This is an example of the dedication Sweetlife has for the holistic nature of the experience, in providing the customer with a memory that is much greater than just a destination for live music. Along those lines were tents from Alex and Ani, Flashtat, an arcade, and even a charging station where you can plug your phone into a bicycle which chargers your tech as you pedal. I don’t hold these peripherals against Sweetlife, and I don’t believe that it takes away from the musical experience at all, but rather innovates it in a way that other music festivals have yet to really do on the same scale.

Intimacy

When I tried to grade Sweetlife as a music festival, my review felt flawed, incomplete. I was looking at each arm of the festival separately, leaving me only with seemingly unrelated fragments. When I saw the full scope, understanding what I believe are Sweetgreen’s goals with the event, it reshaped the significance and impact on me. In every possible way, Sweetlife commands its patrons to challenge themselves and what they’re comfortable with. The fried chicken BLT sandwich with a donut for a bun feels like an unholy compromise between rule makers and breakers, but I’ve never before seen anything like it. More than half the acts were unrecognizable to my mental music collection. The spectacular and almost enchanting part of the weekend was that at all times I was comfortable and uncomfortable, satisfied and hungry, lost and found. But so was everyone else there. We were all on this journey of discovery together, and it connected me to everyone else there in a way I haven’t felt since I was a curious kid with my classmates on a field trip. There were no scene kids or hipsters, because there was no definitive “scene”, but rather a Pollock inspired hodge-podge of genre and culture that wriggles out from underneath the thumb of anyone who tries to pin it down to one category.

It wasn’t flawless. Because the concert didn’t sell out as predicted, the tickets were too pricey for the target demographic. Along with food and transportation, it’s incredible to me that college and high school kids were able to scrounge up enough scratch to get to the pavilion and stay well fed. In my opinion, however, that was the only design flaw that actually hurt the company, and took away from our experience as guests. Intermittent but obligatory (place was low-key designed for profile picture backgrounds) social media interruptions slightly tainted this new, organic form of art consumption we were all experiencing, but that doesn’t reflect on Sweetgreen but rather our own generational vice. Having no prior background in music festival culture, I’ll never forget my time at Sweetlife, and I’m pleasantly surprised and thankful at the in depth thought and procedure that went into planning the event. Hopefully I’ll be there for lucky number 7 next year. Check out the gallery with different pictures from the festival, and also the corresponding VibeRotation (#20) made up of a bunch of songs from the artists who performed.

VibeRotation 17 /  by Alex Hersh

Sorry for the delay folks. Hope VibeRotation 17 will set you up for the week despite it's tardiness. That being said, my goal with this set was to match some of the sentiment of spring, encompassing vibes from those clear sunny days to the cloudy yet serene rainy ones. There is something special about the seedlings of spring. A new energy is in the air as people shed their winter jackets, and are hungry for the summer sun. These songs, to me, best capture that spectrum, starting with some new releases and features from Yeezy, venturing on to some soulful Ratatat, and ending with a beautiful score to match the pep in everyone's step this time of year. Shout out to the outro instrumental of the playlist created by student-producer Jordan Williams of the George Washington University. A very talented musician and student of the arts, check out his Soundcloud for more of his melodious work. 



Mr. Happy /  by Alex Hersh

I stumbled on this video on accident. I wasn’t looking for it, so when I got a glimpse of Chance the Rapper’s face on a thumbnail of a Vice video, my jaw dropped from both confusion and excitement. To my surprise, on March 20th, Vice released a short film called “Mr. Happy”, which features Chano as a depressed and suicidal kid, who is ready to take the final step to his death. Chance’s genuine ability is beautifully showcased, and although it isn’t a full-length feature, he is able to offer at least a small dimension to his character. The storyline, although somewhat conventional, has quite a few unexpected turns, and enough intricate details and scenery that earned it a second watch in my book. The point is: watching one of my favorite musicians act was simply satisfying and comforting. I find solace knowing that in between those often depressing singles our man isn’t wallowing away in a studio, but finding other methods of expression that although are as, if not more, gruesome, reflect a healthy expressive process and creative development.   

It wasn’t until I already finished my first run through that I even made the connection between Chance and other rapper-actors like Childish Gambino, Kid Cudi, or Common. One after another, more and more musicians are taking roles on other creative expressive fronts, which paints in my mind a horizon filled with comprehensive artists that are multi-talented and faceted. This is something that as consumers and fans we should want, as those artists with experience in many mediums of creation can more wholly present new ideas and development. Art in all forms stimulates the mind, and promotes progression and creative process. I would rather have a Chance the Rapper who creates a variety of art, and is able to bring all of that experience outside of the music world back to the mic, than one who we as a population and consumer base, restrict to the music industry. It’s too static, and doesn’t properly reflect the culture we live in today where there is technology and social media that allows anybody to become anything. And while it seems as though it is out of our control as a population, it is our responsibility to remember that the industries that market art, music, and popular culture, do so to satiate our taste. When we show our support in these instances like Chance’s, more artists will be inspired and incentivized to step outside of the box, and seek that versatility that pop culture can have.  Enjoy the film.

Earl Sweatshirt - Grief /  by Alex Hersh

Joey did it, Kendrick did it, Lupe did it, now it’s Earl’s time. Due March 23rd, Earl Sweatshirt’s project “I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside” was announced yesterday after some controversy regarding his label and the announcement of his album on iTunes. Accompanying the minor twitter rant was a music video for a single from the album, “Grief”. The song is filled with anxious but pointed bars directed at other wack rappers and the industry, as well as the pitfalls of even the lesser-celebrity lifestyle. While this thematic content isn’t new territory for the Odd Future affiliate,  “Grief” and it’s lo-fi production sets our expectations for the content of this album to be focused around Earl’s experience so far in the rap world, and the choices he’s made in light of it. With some of the most creative and colorful lyricism in popular rap and Hip Hop today, Earl has set the bar high for himself, and we really look forward to whichever creative direction the young artist decides to go. However, as Hip Hop seems to be the focal point of the music environment in 2015, Earl’s success is directly dependent on how he sounds relative to his peers, such as Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Both of whom broke Spotify records for total streams in a day with their most recent projects, “To Pimp A Butterfly” and “If You’re Reading This It's Too Late” respectively. Whereas just last year fans were clamoring for the next track to bump, it’ almost difficult for listeners to keep up with the newest releases, and even more difficult for artists to make an impact and stay relevant. Check out the track below.

Kanye West-Wolves f. Vic Mensa and Sia /  by Alex Hersh

In a world where it means everything to be unique and different, people still criticize artists that push boundaries and use music as a mode of expression, regardless of what form that expression takes on. Kanye’s new drop, “Wolves” which features verses from both Chicago native and SaveMoney affiliate Vic Mensa as well as Sia was released yesterday in his adidas Originals Yeezy Season 1 promotional video. The song itself and its release are both examples of his artistic ability as an ode to his development and ambition to create something different. The stark contrast between the almost church-like accents of Sia’s melodic tone and verse, and the distorted auto-tune covering up both Kanye and Vic’s voices creates a sound that is directly representative of the lost and found nature of love that they are singing about. The composition of this lonely ballad is just as two-sided as it’s content: love is distorted and complicated and indecisive. Vic Mensa’s experimentation here shows that he understands the artistry behind the song, and it’s refreshing. Whether he was instructed by Kanye or not, his versatility and his obvious expansion of the spectrum of his own sound is a quality that doesn’t exist popularly in today’s commercialized music culture.

It’s easy for people to hear auto-tune and justify it as another 808s, or hear a grimy, overproduced drum line and think Yeezus. It’s harder for people to accept it for what it is. Kanye has no tenure here, he isn’t and won’t be perfect, but Kanye has earned our appreciation and respect for this song, along with the artists therein featured. Check it out featured below beginning at 8:30, and craft your own opinion.