Incase

This past weekend, Transmission Entertainment produced Austin’s finest outdoor music event of the year. If you’re the sort of person who loves independent music festivals, the 4th Annual FUNFUNFUNfest delivered it all: four stages + 90 artists + street meat & taco trucks + GZA’s Liquid Swords + Destroyer + All Leather + Les Savy Fav + hot chocolate chip cookies + hotter antelope/jackrabbit sausages from Frank Grocery + mini ramp + stand-up comedy + The Jesus Lizard + Growing + Health + extreme weather.

After three days of preproduction, Saturday gave us brilliant blue skies and perfect 78-degree weather. Real nice. We watched bands, ate sausages, shot photos, shot the breeze, skated a wildly sloping half-pipe, and gave away almost 5,000 iPhone & iPod cases, and doled out enormous boxes of Incase products to a wide variety of performing artists.

If day one was sunny and idyllic in every way, then let’s say day two was interesting. That’s if you consider TORRENTIAL RAINS interesting. Fortunately, we do. From 11AM to midnight, first a drizzle and then a downpour.

After this 13-hour pummeling Waterloo Park was a mud pit and everyone in attendance was soaked to the bone. Several wore garbage bags and walked around in socks. Just straight up threw their shoes away. Incredibly, the bands played on and the crowd stuck it out for Danzig’s headliner set. Understandably so. This was Glen’s first time in town in 15 years. Did not disappoint either. 100% awesome/hilarious.

Austin, Texas is a special place full of fantastic music, people, and food. We’d like to thank the city of Austin and everyone affiliated with Transmission Entertainment. Graham, Brendan, Rosa, Michael, Cory, Fish, and Daniel… thanks to all of you for a truly exceptional visit. We’ll see y’all in the Spring. Enjoy our Flickr photo set.

FYFest Productions, Videothing.com & Incase Present:
Crystal Antlers, Male Bonding, Let’s Wrestle, & Ninja Sonik
Cake Shop 152 Ludlow Street, NYC, 10002
Friday, October 23rd
12:30AM-4AM

The annual CMJ Music Marathon touches down in New York City this week, Oct 20-24th. Within a few short days thousands of bands, fans, and djs will be lurking elbow to elbow in every dank club and hipster hole throughout the city. As always, guaranteed to be mega spastic. Adding to the mayhem, Incase is sponsoring the FYFest Productions showcase at Cake Shop with Crystal Antlers, Male Bonding, Let’s Wrestle, and Ninja Sonik. Bring ear plugs and a change of shirt. GO!

MusicFest Northwest (a/k/a MFNW) is one of those regional music festivals that just sort of sneaks up and blows your mind. Sure, you could miss it and think to yourself, “No biggie.” But you’d be wrong. Yes, you could pass it by in favor of some mega-fest somewhere. But that’d just be unwise. While the faithful horde busily attended, recapped, lauded and/or guffawed their way through several of spring and summer 09’s biggest events, MFNW 2009 quietly shaped itself into one of the best booked independent music festivals of the season. For the third year in a row, (and for almost a week straight!), promoter Trevor Solomon and the Willamette Week newspaper hosted 25,000 attendees and more than 100 national and local performing artists around the greater Portland area. Logistically, my friends, this was no small fete.

On any given night at any one of the fest’s 18 participating venues, you could see artists like Om, Eluvium, Chairlift, Bad Brains, Avi Buffalo, Brother Reade, Modest Mouse, Dirty Three, Beach House, Explosions In The Sky, Love As Laughter, as well as the recently reunited Sunny Day Real Estate and the mighty Team Dresch… to name but a few…. As a principle sponsor of MFNW 2009, Incase hand-delivered product requests to participating festival artists and MFNW community participants (Hi Fasil!). As well, we sponsored the stage at The Holocene and community radio station KEXP’s remote broadcasts from the stage at The Doug Fir.

From the city’s coffee shops to its dedicated bike lanes to its positive neighborhood vibes to its great food and vital independent music scene, Portland always feels like a home away from home.Trevor, thanks again for putting on yet another great music festival. You and everyone involved with MusicFest NW should be proud. See you again next year. Enjoy the photos!

For the second year in a row Incase is sponsoring Portland, Oregon’s MusicFest NW.

That Trevor Solomon puts on one helluva festival. Though I can’t quite recall the exact figure, he’s booked somewhere in the realm of 200 bands to perform at roughly 18 venues around the Rose City.

Last year’s standouts included sets by Awesome Color, TV On The Radio, Red Fang, Love As Laughter, and the reunited Polvo. This year? God only knows.

But this much we do know, the Bad Brains will be strappin’ it back on, which is more than enough reason to go. As well, you can see Dillinger Four, Frightened Rabbit, Frank Black, Avi Buffalo, Brother Reade, Crom (holy crap!), Eluvium, Om, Team Dresch (wow!), and dozens more.

We hope to see you there.

MusicFest NW
Sept. 16-20th, 2009
Portland, OR

FYeahFest Productions & Incase Present “Save Our State Parks” Outdoor Music Festival
Saturday, Sept. 5th, 2009
LA Historic Park, Los Angeles, CA

Despite the ominous cloud of smoke and ash rising out of the Angeles National Forest just seven miles north; despite the sun’s punishing rays and dust bowl winds; despite the long waits at the ticket window and food court; despite an extremely limited advertising budget and few sponsors; and despite the naysayers and the haters, the FYF production duo of Sean Carlson and Phil Hoelting ONCE AGAIN pulled off the seemingly impossible. This past Saturday, Sept. 5th, our friends produced arguably one of the best independent music festivals of the summer. From 1PM to 1AM, with performances by more than 30 acts spread across three stages, FYF’s Save Our State Parks outdoor concert at LA Historic Park quickly turned into the event of the city’s Labor Day Weekend.

Though they’d long crossed their fingers and hoped for 6,000 attendees, by the end of the night the box office had doled out more than 10,000 tickets. Think about that for a second and then think about how much loot goes into advertising other music festivals and sub-cultural gatherings. 10,000 people at a homegrown, independent punk fest supporting state parks? Seriously. Given that most people learned of it via word of mouth, (and Sean wearing a sandwich board at local shows, I am not kidding) this was a major and most unexpected coup. From the bands to the fans to the stage crews to the bartenders and production volunteers, Save Our State Parks came together through true community effort. As a principle sponsor of FYF, we are very proud of our friends and our community. Thanks to everyone who volunteered, attended and spread the word. And thanks most of all to the California State Parks Department for having faith in FYF’s vision for the event. A day spent inside LA’s Chinatown to Downtown corridor never felt so good. See you next year.

Well, friends, if your bicycle event is gonna get upstaged, at least be glad its Mother Nature doing the upstaging and not some dude poppin’ wheelies on a lame sport bike, wearing one of them full-face helmets with a purple mohawk. What? Exactly. As some of you may be aware, in the last few days the raging Angeles National Forest fires have shrouded the entire northeastern portion of Los Angeles County in a haze of smoke.

From Incase’s distro center in Irwindale/Azusa to our homes in Echo Park and beyond, the air is ashen and the daytime sky has taken on an ominous orange tint. The State of California & City of Los Angeles have both issued public service announcements telling citizens to not to breathe when they’re outside. Good luck with that! No sports, no jogging, no dodge ball. It is SKETCHY out there.

Why are we telling you all of this? Keep reading, here’s why!

This past Wednesday, on the eve of the calamity, the Bicycle Film Fest held its much anticipated Bikes Rock event in the quaint little foothills neighborhood of Eagle Rock. [To give you some geographic context, this is less than 3-miles (as the crow flies) from the impending chaos]. Upon arrival I spied a mega-herd of bikes locked to the racks and railings of the Eagle Rock Center. Good sign! I even saw a few homemade bicycle/motorcycles and motorized scooters.

Live music sets were provided by experimental crooners Blank Blue, afro-poppers Extra Golden, and the deep dark garage drones of Deerhunter at its most lugubrious. Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks & Black Flag played intermission DJ sets while Sir David Scott Stone delivered ambient blips & bloops on his mighty Moog synth. It was by any measure a perfect show. The line up was rad, the venue was beautiful, the turnout was mighty and the assembled audience was excited. Nevertheless, it all had a really weird, subdued vibe. Like, a sleepy vibe. Even the photos say so.

The whole night just sort of felt calm. And not calm as in boring, but calm as in ‘calm before the storm’ calm. Despite being a nice summer night, few pedestrians walked the hood and even fewer cars cruised Colorado Blvd. The streets were dead, the air was humid and still. And then, as I departed the show, it hit me—I noticed a windshield in the Bank of America parking lot accumulating a thin film of greasy ash. Spooky. It was the sort of calm that comes before a 160,000 acre raging fire storm.

Thanks to the BFF for hosting the evening’s musical score for catastrophe! And remember, for the next several days if you’re gonna ride your bike—wear a mask or a bandana over your face. You do not wanna get this stuff down your lungs!

Be well.

We’ve got a real doozy of an announcement to make today. Being late summer, if you live in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles and…

1. love punk rock
2. enjoy stand-up comedy
3. just like lurking around community-based independent music festivals
4. or all of the above

…you’re probably thinking to yourself, “Hey, isn’t F Yeah Fest # 6 supposed to be happening soon?” Yes, you’d be right.

Indeed, if you’re in one of hundreds of bands from around the world that has played FYFest over the years, you’re probably wondering, “What has that wily Sean Carlson conjured up this time? And, will I be roped into playing it?” Yes, you probably will be.

At 23 years old, to already have six festivals under his belt is either a testament to Carlson’s vague genius and gargantuan will power or its an ode to our collective powers of mass amnesia. Every year he manages to add more bands, more venues, more comedians, more contests and more mayhem… and yet, he always pulls it off. Everyone goes away having had a great time and at least one transcendent musical moment— if not five—if not fifty.

So, after many months of planning, Incase Music & Events is very excited to announce we’ve come aboard as the main sponsor of this year’s F Yeah Fest. However, things are waaaay different this time around. Instead of simply throwing an indie music fest here in the hood, Sean and his cohort Phil Hoelting (tour manager/Crystal Antlers) have decided to make F Yeah Fest a celebration with a purpose. Namely, drawing attention to Govenor Schwarzenegger’s multi-million-dollar budget cut to the California State Parks Department. In a show of solidarity, FYFest is gonna spend the day outside!

Renamed Save Our State Parks, the fest happens Sept. 5th at the beautiful Los Angeles State Historic Park situated between Chinatown and Downtown LA. This all-day concert will feature more than 25 independent bands on two massive stages, loads of stand-up comedians, endless trailers of taco carts & other food vendors, and thousands of indie rockers & hipster lurk-logz all coming out to enjoy music and celebrate California’s beloved State Parks.

Bands not to miss: F*cked Up, Black Lips, Lightning Bolt, No Age, Glass Candy, and Cold Cave. More to be announced in coming days! Guaranteed to be a good time for a great cause. *And we haven’t even mentioned FYF’s upcoming Walk-a-thon for Charity (Sept 19th), the Annual LA Scavenger Hunt (Sept 26th!) or the Fall ‘09 FYF Tour across North America and Iceland. So much music & events, our heads are caving in.

FYF & Incase Present:
‘SAVE OUR STATE PARKS’
Outdoor Concert & FunFest
Los Angeles State Historic Park
Sept 5th, 2009

This past Sunday & Monday, August 23-24th, Incase was at CalTopia screening Tony Mech-illustrated tote bags and discussing our range of Fall 09 products. What is CalTopia you ask? Good question. It is the biggest student orientation fair in the known universe and it happens every year on the UC Berkeley Campus. For two days 37,000 students + their families & friends show up to learn about California schools and sample food and other products. All kinds of stuff…. Mountains of free giveaway products, miles of food, oceans of beverages, piles of pamphlets…. The fair is designed to let incoming college kids know about all the many things awaiting them in the California university system—good and bad.

Our onsite production manager for CalTopia was none other than celebrated rock photographer & epic rager Michelle Pullman (a/k/a The Shellzbot). Here’s her recap of the event. Take it away Shellzbot!:

The Incase booth at Cal Topia was by far the most exciting. The event took place in a gymnasium and many of the vendors worked the crowd with noisemakers and ring toss games. Whereas our booth had a colorful onsite screen-printing activation, a bin-station full of free product, and an excellent group of five fun people to talk to. Kids lined up and waited 2 hours for our tote bags. They were very excited about watching the screen-printing as it took place.

Throughout the two days I overheard people say many times that the wait was worth it. It was a good opportunity for students to get to know each other better before the first day of school. They didn’t stick around to hang out at any of the other booths. Not everyone enjoyed the wait though. One kid curled his index finger at me, urging me over to the farthest quietest corner of the booth and offered to “help me out” (with cash) if I could hook him up with a tote bag. I smiled sweetly and said, “Sorry dude!” The students loved our free bin station and couldn’t get enough, really. Every time they went for the plunge and were thrilled with their new iPhone and iPod cases, Notebook Sleeves and Incase stickers!

At the beginning of our second day we already had a line out the door. Wild. People said they’d heard about our booth from friends that had been there on the first day. Many people asked me about our range of products. They wanted to buy them off of me but I directed them to the Student Store. One girl wanted a Notebook Sleeve from us because she said she liked the simplicity of our designs over other vendors. Several people proudly waved their iPhones at me, already sporting Incase covers! We were definitely the life of the party. The Target people even came over and told us so. They were a little jealous, but they couldn’t help but love us. They got Incase totes too.

Ohhhh, sigh…. four months of free barbecue & mellow buzz action has now come to a close. So sad. Last Wednesday marked Finger On The Pulse’s final Summer BBQ Blow Out at the Hope Lounge in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

From May through August ‘09, come rain or shine, brothers Greg & Darin Bresnitz provided the neighborhood with the mellowest mid-week lurk in town. Friends + FREE BBQ + free beer + legendary chefs + good tunes + free Incase products. Everybody just lazin’ around with full bellies…. Summery Wednesday nights at an indoor/outdoor lounge…. Sounds pretty good. And now, sniffle… sniffle, it is over.

Here’s what Greg Bresnitz had to say about the final BBQ (note—the reference to 250 people eating “pork belly” makes his email recap an instant Incase blog classic).

“We had great weather and one of the best turnouts for the final BBQ. 250 people came through and ate more pork belly than was humanly possible. The Dap-Kings spun throughout the night and kept the crowd moving with deep soul cuts. People grabbed up the Incase products as soon as they came in and were showing them off to each other. It was a great night.” —Greg

Thanks again to the Bresnitz Brothers, no doubt Incase & FOTP will cook up another Music & Food series again together quite soon. Stay tuned.

Sometimes a dude just has to get out of town and play motorcycle soccer for a few days. So last weekend we had our friend Baby Kelley, (a/k/a The Bubba) shoot photos for us at the Standard Hotel’s Swimming With Sharks rooftop pool party. If you don’t know The Bubba, here are a few qualifications worth noting:

1. She outfits hot lurkers & human babies with hand-drawn sloth bear t-shirts.
2. She recently recorded the rap track “Shake It Like a Single Mom”.
3. Via her legendary LA public access variety show, she wrecks minds with The Mystical & Magical Show Show
4. She plays boingy noise guitar in God’s Gang
5. And last but not least, she runs three super brilliant blogs:
   • BUTT BLOG
   • INSTANT CLASSIC
   • YE OLDE SLOTH BEAR BRROGGG

And her three favorite things are kitty paws, PBR and minimalist industrial design. Basically, Baby K is a one-woman exercise in takin’ it easy, gettin’ weird and havin’ the right ‘tude for the job. Asking her to shoot half-cocked, blurry event photos at the Swimming With Sharks pool party worked out great! It appears a fine lurk was again had by all— lots of splashin’ and spazzin’ out with Incase water guns and Slider Cases for iPod and iPhone. Thanks to the Standard Hotel and MFG Productions (JMZ Outlaw, Matt & Mahtab). Enjoy the photos! Thanks, Bubba.

Be on the lookout for future guest photog & brog-log from our heavy bro—The Shellzbot.