Day 1: Underwear and sun, at the same time

We came, we saw, we sweated. San Francisco Outside Lands attendees were gifted with a heat wave, sans rash, for the first day of the weekend-long festival, and never before have we seen people more confused (the natives knew this was an oddity). Also, all the indie boys who decided to take off their shirts only upped the hotness factor, considering their torsos served as a light deflector and blinded everyone in sight. Holy whiteness, Batman.

With seven stages situated on two meadows and the main polo field in Golden Gate Park, we have to say that this year’s experience toppled last year’s (you know, where I cried a bunch and then scraped my elbow), with a million tents set up for food, photobooths, prizes, massages, wine tastings, free hugs, trampolines, and even a phone charging station. And while the smaller stages boasted a very impressive knit of indie, electronica, and even hip-hop acts, the main stage line-up felt slightly too 90’s. I do own Pearl Jam’s “Ten” on cassette tape though, so maybe I’m not one to judge.

Highlights include:
- the choice people watching we were afforded as we wandered around the site
- Silversun Pickups and Los Campesinos! slaying their sets
- running around San Francisco at night with no jacket on
- remembering how much we were in love with Incubus’s Brandon Boyd in 11th grade
- Throwing blue lacey underwear at Tom Jones

Day one, you ain’t so bad.

Autolux

Akron/Family

Los Campesinos!

The Dodos

Silversun Pickups

Tom Jones

While you are drinking Coronas and pretending you remember what Cinco de Mayo is really all about (and no, it is not actually about sombreros and cheap beer), you might want to pick up a copy of Akron/Family’s new album, Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free, which is due out tomorrow on Dead Ocean Records. In preparation for the anticipated release, we decided to give you a blast of the band’s new track, “River” (just in case you are one of the few who didn’t already hear the album when it was leaked).
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The line-up for San Francisco’s second annual Outside Lands Music & Arts festival has been announced. The three-day festival will take place in late August at the Golden Gate park, and headliners include Pearl Jam, Beastie Boys, M.I.A. Dave Matthews Band, and… Tom Jones. (If that’s not enough to make you want to go by itself, than we don’t know what to tell you.)
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It’s hasn’t even been two years since Phil Waldorf left Misra Records to form Dead Oceans alongside Secretly Canadian and Jagjaguwar, and in the past six months Dead Oceans has added four bands to its growing and increasingly impressive roster of artists. The latest to jump on board is Akron/Family, who previously recorded for Young God.
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