Lollapalooza 2013 Day One: The Killers, Atlas Genius, Rock & Recycle and more

By Hilary Gridley

Lollapalooza kicked off Friday with great music and great causes. Check out some of the highlights below and stay tuned for more coverage throughout the weekend.

The Neighbourhood
LA-based alt rockers The Neighbourhood may have had one of the first sets of the day, but they still attracted a large crowd of fans eager to see this quickly rising buzzband. The crowd favorite, “Sweater Weather,” set the tone for the whole festival and was worth the early start to the day.

Atlas Genius
The Australian (vegetarian!) brothers Keith and Michael Jeffery haven’t been on the festival circuit long, but expect to see way more of them in the future. “Trojans” might be the song getting the most radio play, but the rest of their recent album, “When It Was Now,” is just as catchy and translates perfectly to the stage.

Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles frontwoman Alice Glass knows how to fire up her fans. Her energy can’t be kept on the stage; throughout the set she walked across the crowd on her fan’s adoring hands. The songs blended together, in and out of each other, making Crystal Castles of of the most interesting and unpredictable sets of the day.

New Order
New Order hasn’t missed a beat. The iconic 80s band sounded as amazing as ever, delivering hits like “Temptation” and “Blue Monday” with the mastery and energy of a band at the height of their career. When they launched into “Love Will Tear Us Apart” for the finale, the crowd collectively lost their minds.

The Killers' Brandon Flowers

The Killers
The Killers have played at five different Lollapalooza shows, and there’s a reason for it. Friday’s headlining act started with a bang, launching immediately into “Mr. Brightside” and traveling through their entire discography, including a cover of “I Think We’re Alone Now,” two versions of “Human,” and ending with “All These Things That I’ve Done.”

Rock & Recycle Program
Want some free swag? Check out the Rock & Recycle booths around the park. They’re handing out plastic bags so fans can collect recyclables from the ground and help keep the park clean and green. Fans can then turn in the cans and bottles they collected for a free t-shirt.

Camelback filling station
Boxed Water, the official water partner of Lollapalooza. makes every effort toward sustainable packaging, but even they know that reusable water bottles are the best choice for a trash-free festival. That’s why Camelback set up water bottle filling stations throughout the park so fans can stay hydrated sustainably.

Tonight’s Do Something! Awards honor celebrities who give back

Catch the Do Something! Awards July 31 at 8:00 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on VH1.

By Hilary Gridley

What happens at the intersection of cause-driven celebrities and young people who are changing the world? The annual Do Something! Awards, a partnership between VH1 and the country’s biggest organization for young people and social good, DoSomething.org.

Tonight, Sophia Bush will host a night honoring celebrity “do-gooders” who donate money and time while inspiring millions of fans to get involved in the causes they care about. Viewers will get an in-depth look into how five influential superstars use their celebrity status to create change. Three of the honorees have held a place on the music charts: Jennifer Hudson, LL COOL J and Kelly Osbourne.

JENNIFER HUDSON
American Idol finalist Jennifer Hudson and her sister Julia Hudson founded The Julian D. King Foundation in honor of Jennifer’s late nephew “to be a catalyst for change in children’s health, education and welfare.” The Foundation provides stability, support and positive experiences for children of all backgrounds to help them become productive, confident and happy adults. Each year, Jennifer and her sister give away school supplies to underprivileged children in Chicago as well as an annual Christmas Toy Drive.

LL COOL J
Famed rapper LL COOL J knows that unlikely partners can join forces to create real change. That’s why he teamed up with New York State Senate President Malcolm A. Smith to found Jump & Ball, an annual basketball tournament and summer athletic camp. The tournament, which takes place in Queens, fosters community cohesiveness and is a place where young people can showcase and cultivate their athletic talent. LL has also supported Chrysalis, an organization that helps the homeless find employment, and was honored by them in 2012.

KELLY OSBOURNE
In June 2012, Kelly Osbourne’s brother, Jack, announced that he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Since then, the family has worked to raise awareness of the disease in hopes of finding a cure. At this year’s annual “Race To Erase M.S.” fundraiser, Kelly presented the charity’s Medal of Hope to Jack and her mother Sharon for their work toward finding a cure for M.S.

In addition, the awards will honor Patrick Dempsey, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and five amazing young people who are already creating positive change in their communities and beyond. Watch the Do Something! Awards tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on VH1 and follow the conversation on Twitter with #DSAwards.

Lollapalooza serves music with a side of social good

The Killers performing at Lollapalooza 2009

By Hilary Gridley

The Killers aren’t the only much-hyped act returning to Chicago’s Lollapalooza festival this year. Since its inception, the now Grant Park-based event has focused as much on giving back to the community as it has on securing stellar and diverse lineups. In addition to The Cure, Mumford & Sons, Nine Inch Nails, Phoenix, The Postal Service and Vampire Weekend, here are some of the nonprofits and other social good initiatives teaming up with Lolla this year.

Green Street

You can find all the nonprofits partners represented alongside local artisans and small business promoting social good on Green Street, a strip of booths inside the park that flank the entrance and exit. Want to get to know the organizations featured below or do some fair trade shopping? Stop by and say hi throughout the festival.

Love Hope Strength

Can a concert save a life? The team at Love Hope Strength doesn’t just think so–they’ve made it happen. Through their GET ON THE LIST campaign, they register bone marrow donors at shows around the world. In all, the organization has registered more than 35,000 people to the national marrow registry, resulting in more than 500 matches for patients in need of transplants. Twelve of these matches signed up at Lollapalooza!

ONE

It’s no surprise that Bono’s organization understands the power of music to create social change. The global grassroots advocacy organization will be rallying festivalgoers to sign petitions, make phone calls, and write letters to demand government solutions to extreme poverty, preventable disease and hunger around the world.

Oxfam
Oxfam envisions a just world without poverty and believes music can play a part in making this a reality, The organization develops long-term solutions to poverty, hunger and injustice in more than 90 countries. The Chicago Oxfam Action Corps will represent the team at Lollapalooza, engaging music fans who are interested in joining the fight against hunger and poverty. Oxfam also recently released a “Summer Jams” mixtape featuring artists like Wilco and Ra Ra Riot who support the nonprofit’s work. Download cards will bee available at their Green Street booth.

Rock The Vote

In its twenty-year history, Rock the Vote has registered more young people to vote than any other organization or campaign. By combining music, popular culture, new technology and grassroots organizing, they have engaged and mobilized more than 5 million young people to participate in democracy. The organization also aims to be the best-informed place online where young people can learn the facts before casting a ballot.

T.J. Martell Foundation

When Sony Music Entertainment label exec Tony Martell’s son was diagnosed with leukemia, he asked his father to raise a million dollars for cancer research so “no one else will have to experience what I am going through.” Martell vowed to do just that, and has since raised $250 million for leukemia, cancer and AIDS research. The T.J. Martell Foundation is the music industry’s largest foundation that funds medical research across the country.

HeadCount

HeadCount uses the power of music to register voters and raise political consciousness. Since 2004, they’ve staged voter registration drives at more than 2,000 concerts and signed up more than 200,000 voters.

Pee-powered sound system debuts at Brazilian Carnival

By Sarah Weiss

Millions of partiers flock to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to attend the legendary four-day-long celebration know as Carnival. The entire city shuts down to accommodate revelers living off a fiesta diet of non-stop samba, street foods and beer. Lots of beer. And although it may sound like paradise, it certainly does not smell like one.

Unwilling to wait in the long lines for the restrooms, party-goers sought relief on anything and everything, creating a city-wide stench leaving residents pretty pissed off. The situation became so dire that pee patrols were employed to issue fines to those caught urinating in public. Yet, despite these citations and a city-wide awareness campaign, the problem persisted.

That was when Afroreggae, a nonprofit promoting positive youth culture in Brazil, teamed up with advertisement agency JWT to create a campaign called “Xixi Electrico,” to turn urine into liquid gold. The campaign installed specially crafted urinals throughout the carnival that harnessed the flow of urine to power the NGO’s music truck. These unique urinals encouraged people to refrain from relieving themselves on the streets.

“This way, carnival fans had a real incentive to piss in the right place. The more they did so, the more music the party would have. The NGO turned urine into energy to change behavior,” according to a video on the JWT website.

Not only did this inventive campaign alleviate the pee problem, it also served as a model for future eco-friendly and utilitarian solutions.

Design a condom to empower women and see Alicia Keys and Kings of Leon for free — find out how!

Alicia Keys

By Hilary Gridley

Activism doesn’t always pay the bills, so here’s some good news for global changemakers: You can see Stevie Wonder, Kings of Leon, Alicia Keys and John Mayer for free in exchange for taking action around pressing international issues.

For the second time, The Global Poverty Project will host the Global Citizen Festival, a free ticketed concert on the Great Lawn of New York’s Central Park. Between now and the September 28 show, fans can earn tickets at Global Festival.com by taking online actions like watching videos, signing petitions, and sending emails to world leaders.

All the actions center on the festival’s four themes: education, women’s equality, global health, and global partnerships. As with last year’s event, the date corresponds to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where The Global Poverty Project aims to put pressure on participating world leaders to accelerate progress on these issues and help end extreme poverty by 2030.

“Since 1990, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty has been halved. We are working to see the end of extreme poverty in our lifetime,” said Hugh Evans, CEO of The Global Poverty Project. “We must continue to push our leaders to step up and commit to action in the areas we know are fundamental to ending extreme poverty. This is not just a concert – we are building a movement of yearlong action by thousands of citizens. World leaders respond when citizens call for change. The Global Citizen Festival is that call.”

One of the first actions asks fans to sign A World At School Initiative‘s Stand With Malala Petition, which demands emergency action to help the 57 million children without access to primary education. Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai, who earlier this year became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize nominee, addressed the UN on this topic last week.

Other actions include watching a video and taking a quiz on preventable and curable diseases, designing a condom wrapper that empowers women, sharing stories of entrepreneurs in South Africa, and more. The Global Poverty Project is pushing for one million actions by September. Continue Reading →

Switchfoot Bro-Am music and surf party helps at-risk youth

By Sarah Weiss

Before the days of platinum albums, Grammy Awards, and sold-out concerts, the members of Switchfoot were regular surfer guys in their hometown of San Diego. By combining their love of music and surfing, Switchfoot established their annual Switchfoot Bro-Am, a surf contest and concert with all proceeds going to benefit local at-risk youth.

This year’s event, presented by Hurley, is set to take place on July 13 on Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, California, and will feature a mixture of beachy activities including a surf contest and a “nerf surf jousting competition,” as well as a live concert with Switchfoot, and an after-party at their local hang out, the Belly Up Tavern.

To open Switchfoot’s Bro-Am weekend, an auction will be held on July 12, where guests can enjoy local fare from the tastiest restaurants in the area. Switchfoot will be there to give fans a sneak peak into their first feature film, Fading West, a surf documentary with behind-the-scenes footage of the band on tour.

Since the Bro-Am began in 2005, the event has raised more than $715,000 for children’s charities in San Diego. Funds raised from the auctions, vendors, and surf-team entries, are donated directly to the charities. Before last year’s fest, we caught up with Switchfoot drummer Chad Butler, who told us what motivates the band to throw such a huge charity bash each year.

The event also features the Rob Machado Bro Junior competition, open to youth ages 16 and under. To participate, they must donate “gently-used” surf gear, and the winner will be selected for having the most fun out of all the competitors.

Competitive surf teams can enter the surf contest with a sponsorship donation to the Bro-Am foundation. Professional riders in the past included teams representing Billabong, Surfer Magazine, and members of Switchfoot.

As in previous years, the Bro-Am is an eco-friendly event. This year, Bro-Am is partnering with San Diego-based Alternative Power Productions to provide solar-power staging and sound for the event.

“The Bro-Am has been the band’s favorite day of the year ever since we started it back in ’05,” notes Switchfoot Jon Foreman. “To see our hometown come together to help out a deserving group of kids is an incredible experience — surfing, music, and the San Diego scene at its best.”

Entrance to the July 13 Bro-Am is free and open to the public. To purchase tickets for the auction night soiree on July 12, click here, and grab your tickets to the after-party at Belly Up Tavern here.

 

From Coachella to Pitchfork Festival, revolutionary non-profit helps music fests go green

Coachella-goers get excited about recycling

By Hilary Gridley

Now that summer festival season is officially in full swing, we wanted to take a look at an organization that’s harnessing the energy and passion of music-loving festival-goers, and using it to promote a healthy environment. Eric Ritz founded Global Inheritance to inspire others to think creatively about solving world issues. Over the past 10 years, the nonprofit’s presence has grown to music festivals and other cultural events around the country. In addition to creatively encouraging people to recycle and preserve the environment at festivals including Coachella and Stagecoach in Indio, Calif, First City Festival in Monterey, Calif, and the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, they’ve also set up ride share programs to the Hollywood Bowl, and will have a presence at Maker Faire, a Bay Area gathering of artists, tech enthusiasts, crafters, engineers, science clubs, and other “makers.”

Global Inheritance’s programs include:

  • Energy Playground, where festivalgoers can bike, swing, hamster-wheel, seesaw and more to power concerts, snow cone machines, or their phones.
  • TRASHED :: Art of Recycling, where artists redesign recycling bins and then place them at high visibility events to encourage recycling, and
  •  Energy Battle Royal, where professional wrestlers take on the roles of different sources of energy to showcase the advantages and shortcomings of wind, coal, nuclear, natural gas and more.

We talked with founder Eric Ritz about his unlikely inspiration, the history of Global Inheritance, and what the future holds for creative activism.

Polar bears play on an energy swingset that powers cell phones

Music For Good: What inspired you to start Global Inheritance?
Designing campaigns built around educating people through untraditional mediums was a career I always wanted to pursue.  Avocado Productions/ Guacamole Fund was one major inspiration. They were one of the early pioneers in producing concerts that promoted worthy causes, committed to using music events as a medium to inspire/motivate individuals. The bands were a bit before my time but Avocado Productions seem to be always organizing amazing events year round.

Working the launch of American Legacy’s Truth campaign was another major inspiration. No NGO in history had ever launched a multi-billion dollar campaign to empower different types of individuals and develop micro campaigns to target each group.

How has the organization changed since its inception?
The core idea is still there — using creativity to inspire and teach while targeting the crowd and not the choir — but we’ve branched out into other areas. We originally called the organization Fashion Peace when we launched in 2002. The concept was that everyone was a walking billboard and that people should wear or design outfits that promote the issues important to them. We worked with a lot of major fashion brands, held workshops, fashion shows, etc.

As we started to talk with festivals, we needed to develop the organization in order to have a stronger impact on the festival grounds. Everyone at the office started brainstorming ideas for interactive programming and we came up with TRASHed Art of Recycling and the TRASHed Recycling Store. The first TRASHed Art of Recycling campaign took place at Coachella in 2004 and the first TRASHed Recycling Store took place at Warped Tour in 2004. Ever year now we look to introduce new programs and ideas so the organization continues to evolve.

You all run a whole suite of activities at Coachella and music festivals around the country to conserve energy and reduce waste in ways that are totally unlike other nonprofits. How do you come up with your program ideas?
Through the miracle of coffee and good genes, we are lucky to have a lot creative individuals who not only design great program concepts but have the ability to bring the ideas to life.

Which program is your favorite?
It’s difficult to say.  I truly enjoy all of our programs in different ways. I guess my favorite program is always our newest campaign. Maybe that’s because it needs the most love and time, and it’s too small to walk on its own.

Can you tell us more about the environmental impact your programs have had?
Global Inheritance was designing creative interactive environmental programming before anyone else in the major festival and event world.  We were fortunate enough to have a great design team in Eyerus/Matt Brady along with good ideas and a pit bull mentality to persuade festival goers to donate space, program promotion and sometimes a little money. The ideas were always good and they worked so we kept getting asked back or invited to other events. It’s a different animal now but it feels good to know that we helped inspire these festival and event producers to step up their game, educate and be responsible.

We hear this year’s TRASHed Coachella recycling bins are looking for new homes. Where have they ended up in the past?
Schools, museums, offices, music venues. We’ve gifted thousands of redesigned recycling bins over the years. In regards to Coachella, we only gift the TRASHed Coachella bins to schools in Southern California.

Can you tell us about what the future has in store for Global Inheritance?
We are currently working on developing the TRASHed program in Miami and Latin America. Last year we hosted an intimate event during Art Basel. We’re planning something much larger this year, including a pop up TRASHed Recycling Store. Gian Luca Brignone is leading the charge in Miami and we are expecting big things!

We’ve also already received approval to bring the Oasis Water Bar back to Coachella, which is very exciting. This summer we are working with a number of festivals including Outside Lands, X Games, US Open of Surfing, FYF Fest and many more. There are several other projects we’re currently developing so stay tuned.

Want to get involved with Global Inheritance? Learn about volunteering and partnering with the organization here.

First-ever Campus DJ champion spins for a great cause

Flaxo spins at the Campus DJ national finals at the Avalon

By Laura Ferreiro

Hordes of people crowded into the Avalon Hollywood on June 20 to experience the first-ever national Campus DJ competition. The uber-talented college DJ finalists spun in a hotly contested battle to be crowned the top college DJ in the nation after winning competitions in their local regions. The national champ was Nick Perloff, a 19-year-old sophomore at Columbia University, otherwise known as DJ Flaxo.

Not only did Flaxo get the whole club thumping and dancing, but he was also spinning for a great cause. Music for Good partnered with Campus DJ to arrange the Spinning for a Cause competition in which a generous cash donation from Chegg for Good and ticket sales proceeds were given to the cause of Flaxo’s choice, based on a list of four non-profits selected by Music for Good, Chegg for Good and the Electronic Music Alliance. Flaxo chose 826 National, a non-profit organization dedicated to giving students ages 6 to 18 the opportunity to improve their writing skills and offering free after school and in-school tutoring programs.

DJ Crank crowd surfs at the Campus DJ finals

As fate would have it, Flaxo attended his local 826 chapter, 826 Valencia, as a kid growing up in San Francisco. “When I was being read the names of the possible charities….I totally realized…I went there as a kid!” Flaxo says. “Before I was a DJ I liked writing – creative writing and short fiction, all that stuff. When you’re a kid in elementary school you don’t necessarily have an outlet for that because in school they focus on basic skills. But at 826 they focus on expository skills and creative writing, and they’re passionate about literacy. It also gets kids really excited about writing!”

Flaxo explains that he started attending 826’s free tutoring sessions when he was 10 years old, and he went there regularly over the next couple of years. “It was a very welcoming place, and a lot of the skills I learned there stuck with me,” he says.

Now, as a sophomore at Columbia University who plans to major in political science, Flaxo is able to put these writing skills to good use. Meanwhile, when he’s not busy studying or writing music on his laptop, he’s packing dance floors with his insane mixes. “A typical show of mine is fifty to eighty percent my own music,” he explains. “The rest is a reflection of my inspiration. My performance style is a very quick change and I’ll blend different genres or cut between songs so people don’t recognize what I’m playing.”

The panel of judges at the Campus DJ final, which included Ken Jordan of Crystal Method, EDM innovator DJ Reid Speed, and Damon Ranger, Academy Award-winning songwriter (“Life of Pi”), were impressed with Flaxo’s unique technique, and awarded him the top honor. In addition to winning a tour package from Live Nation, Flaxo went home with a 2013 MINI Cooper S Countryman.

Before driving off into the sunset, Flaxo told us he was incredibly excited not only because he won the national Campus DJ competition, but also because he was Spinning for a Cause. “It’s selfish of any artist to assume they go out there without anybody’s help,” he says. “I’ve been helped by an immense number of people. So it’s nice to take a personal accomplishment I reached with the help of others and give back to a support system that fosters emerging artists.”

Listen to Flaxo’s remix of Kendrick Lamar’s “Swimming Pool.”

Jack Johnson donates 100% of tour profits to charity & promotes green touring initiatives

By Hilary Gridley

It’s a rare treat when a musician who headlines massive festivals decides to perform at a series of smaller venues to give his fans a more intimate experience. Rarer still is a musician who gives the proceeds from ticket sales to a suite of charities across the US and Europe.

On the heels of his headline performance at the Life is Good Festival on September 22, Jack Johnson will celebrate the release of his forthcoming album, “From Here To Now To You,” with a tour through some of the most historic seated theaters in North America. These include Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Seattle’s Paramount Theatre and the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. What’s more, the famed singer-songwriter will donate a whopping 100% of his tour profits to charity.

Johnson’s tour will promote the All At Once campaign, which seeks to create global change through individual action. This year’s campaign focuses on engaging fans to take action in support of sustainable local food systems and plastic-free initiatives. Through All At Once, the tour will support more than 75 hand-selected community groups across Europe and North America with direct and matching donations. These include local chapters of Surfrider, Sierra Club, Buy Fresh Buy Local and Slow Food USA as well as San Francisco’s marine debris research non-profit Project Kaisei and Santa Barbara’s School Food Initiative.

In addition, Johnson has teamed up with Reverb to continue paving the way in green touring practices and community engagement initiatives. The crew has said goodbye to backstage single-use water bottles and hello to tour vehicles that run on domestic sustainable biodiesel. Fans can rest assured knowing mass transportation options will be available and that dining options will stock local food, fresh from farm to stage.

Even when he’s not touring, Johnson has long supported environmental and educational initiatives. In 2008, he founded the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation with his wife Kim to promote positive and lasting change within communities by supporting organizations that focus on environmental, art, and music education.

From Here to Now To You will be released September 17 through Johnson’s own Brushfire Records. You can hear the album’s first single, “I Got You,” here. Find tour dates leading up to the release, as well as his post-release intimate theater series, below.

Continue Reading →

Music for Good teams up with Campus DJ to present Spinning for a Cause

Block rockin’ beats, pulsating rhythms and non-stop strobes can only mean one thing – the Campus DJ competition is coming to town.

Music for Good is excited to announce its partnership with Campus DJ, Chegg for Good and the Electronic Music Alliance to bring you the first annual Spinning for a Cause Campus DJ competition.

Following a nationwide search and regional competitions in which college DJs spun and cut like there was no tomorrow, the Campus DJ finals will be held Thursday, June 20 at the Avalon in Los Angeles.

Not only will the DJs compete for prizes including a 2013 MINI Cooper and a touring package with Live Nation, but they’ll also be spinning for a cause. The DJs will choose from one of four charities to spin for, and a cash donation will be made to the winning DJ’s charity of choice.

The national finale will be headlined by The Cataracs, and will feature a guest appearance from Columbia Records “hip-pop” star T. Mills, and both will also serve as judges for the final competition along with Ken Jordan of Crystal Method, EDM innovator DJ Reid Speed, and Damon Ranger, Academy Award-winning songwriter (“Life of Pi”). Some surprise guests are also in store.

Tickets can be purchased here for just $10 and they’ll go toward a great cause, so come on down to support future superstar DJs and say hello to Music For Good!