On Thursday I checked out the launch party for Audi’s new A3 over at SIR Stage 37. Audi is apparently going after a younger demographic and they had M.I.A. perform. My dad’s mid-life crisis car was an Audi and I remember giving him a hard time for spending so much money on a tan sedan that might as well be a Honda Accord although in his defense I got it up to 140mph when he let me borrow it. But still, I understand why Audi would want to rebrand a little bit…

The party was pretty cool with a lot of free food and cocktails provided by Dobel Tequila. The space was pretty cozy so it was a cool experience to see M.I.A. perform for such a small crowd. She also performed with a hologram which theoretically would have been cool except to project the hologram there was a large clear plastic sheet hung at a 45 degree angle between the crowd and the stage which meant the crowd had to be about 30 feet from the stage. The last time I saw M.I.A. she was pretty much in the crowd performing so I am sure it was weird for her to have to be so far away from the audience. She made a joke about it being a really intimate show except she was separated from us by a huge condom. And all that for one half of one song where a hologram Janelle Monae did one verse of Bad Girls (Monae performed at the LA launch party with an M.I.A. hologram). It was kinda cool but I think it would have been a lot cooler without a giant plastic sheet. It certainly would have made for better pictures.

After the performance people stuck around for the free Dobel and there was a pretty good dance party. All in all it was a great event and I am glad I got a chance to check it out. I just don’t think I can quite afford an Audi yet…

Click here to see all the pictures from the Audi A3 NYC Launch party featuring M.I.A. at SIR Stage 37.

A few months ago I went to see a very interesting screening of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. The screening took place inside the lair of the Foot Clan. There were breaks in the movie where actors dressed as TMNT characters came out and interacted with the audience. I thought it was amazing and I said so in my write up.

Shortly after Gabriel Rhodes, founder of BBQ Films who put on the screening, contacted me saying how much he loved my photos and the write up. I told him that I loved what BBQ Films was doing and that I would love to be involved in future events. We ended up getting coffee and I got invited to one of the first planning sessions for the next movie: Back To The Future.

On Saturday and Sunday night (I only attended the Sunday screening) BBQ Films brought a few hundred people Back to the Enchantment Under The Sea dance. This dance is where Marty McFly’s parents kiss for the first time so Marty needs to make sure this happens or he will have never been born!

BBQ Films turned St. Patrick’s Gymnasium in Nolita into The Hill Valley High Gym complete with not one but two DeLorians! They had the fantastic Postmodern Jukebox perform before the screening and of course they came back on during the epic moment where George and Lorraine McFly finally kiss. Marty McFly came out and played Johnny B. Goode and then they played the rest of the movie. Finally Doc Brown came out and started a dance party. It was all pretty perfect.

I only made one of the BBQ Films planning meetings because I was out of town for the rest but my one suggestion that made it to the final production was an important one. They ended up raising several thousand dollars for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for parkinson’s research. People were very willing to donate a little extra to help “save the clock tower” and hopefully make a little bit of difference in the world.

Anyway, the whole event was amazing and I hope I can be involved in future BBQ Films events. If nothing else I will keep photographing them! The photos are pretty awesome so click the link below!

Check out all the super fun photos from BBQ Films Back To The Enchantment Under The Sea movie screening and dance party!

The last day of the Sailor Jerry House SXSW takeover of Gypsy Lounge was about two things for me. 1) Trying to make it through the day without dying and 2) Getting good shots of the Dum Dum Girls getting tattooed. I had been a few hours of sleep for 10 days at this point and was losing my mind. I didn’t know how I could look at another band much less photograph them. The next day I ended up getting really sick and taking a nap that ended up lasting 13 hours. I was done.

BUT the Dum Dum Girls were headlining the day party and getting tattooed after and I knew that was my money shot. My friend and Spin told me they wanted shots of them getting tattooed and I thought Noisey was going to come by. They didn’t but still wanted photos. I ended up getting shots of them on Spin, Noisey, Rolling Stone and Examiner.com. So It was in fact my money shot. Personally my favorite Dum Dum Girls shot was of Dee Dee taking a selfie even before I knew she was in the Dum Dum Girls (even though I have met her and photographed them twice – I just have a horrible memory). But yeah, cool girls, fun show and their photos made Sailor Jerry super happy with me and that’s the whole point of all of this right?

The highlights of the rest of the day involved finally seeing my pals White Mystery, getting to see Cheetah Chrome of the Dead Boys play Sonic Reducer, plus performances by Youth Code, Cosmonauts and the Residuals who I hung out with all week long. King Dude headlined but after I took like five photos of them I got the fuck out of there, edited photos and was about to go to sleep when everyone from Sailor Jerry came home and I ended up staying up all night anyway. Oh well, eventually I slept and the whole week was a blast! Can’t wait to do it again next year!

And that’s it! All of my 2014 South By Southwest coverage is done! I did shoot a bunch of 35mm stuff which will be making appearances on my Tumblr starting as soon as I pick up the 10 rolls of film that are currently being developed.

But until then click here to see all the photos from the final day of the Sailor Jerry House SXSW takeover of Gypsy Lounge! 

Ps. RIP Dave Brockie. You will be missed Oderus!

Sailor Jerry House day four! I wanna get through the rest of this SXSW stuff quick so that I can move on to some new stuff I have ready to go up! Gonna try to get day five up later today so be on the look out this evening!

Okay so yeah, another long crazy day! The fantastic Alysha Nett and her crew came by early to get tattoos. She got a pin up dagger thing on her shin by Oliver Peck and her boyfriend Mike Fuentes of Pierce The Veil got a spin the wheel Sailor Jerry tattoo by Phil Larocca. Big Freedia came by after that and got swallows tattooed to her shoulders. They looked pretty bad ass. Musically the day highlight was Fat White Family who put on an insane show as you can see below.

The night time party was the Cultist Zine/ Blundertown showcase which featured another set by the lovely ladies the Coathangers and one of the most fun sets ever by the Coachwhips. The first time I saw Coachwhips frontman John Dyer’s other band Thee Oh Sees they were playing on a bridge in Austin at SXSW years ago. It was such an amazing show but I think this Coachwhips set might have that one beat. They played in the crowd so I got to shoot from behind them on stage, often helping make sure that speakers didn’t fall on top of them. It was a blast and afterwards they went and played on the same bridge. I was home editing their photos but I am sure it was epic.

So that’s it for now but look for another update tonight and some fun, non SXSW, tomorrow. In the mean time…

Click here to see all the photos from Day 4 of the Sailor Jerry House SXSW take over of the Gypsy Lounge!

On day three Sailor Jerry House was taken over completely by Black Bell Records. Pretty sure 150 bands played in 14 hours but I could be off slightly with that number. Black Bell is Ayad from Passion Pit’s passion project and I have been to a few of his SXSW parties and they are always a good time. This year was no exception.

Before I get into any music I should mention that the day started with me getting a big Oliver Peck tattoo, TJ Miller showed up and we also tattooed these rad fashion blogger babes Christina Caradona and Bonnie Barton. Oliver and I played a trick on Bonnie where I drew her tattoo and Oliver put my stencil on her and she kinda freaked out about it but she was super polite. I kinda think that she would have gone ahead and got this crooked ass tattoo because she didn’t want to be rude to Oliver. Fortunately he put the real stencil on her and she got a (straight) arrow on her bicep.

The day time highlight was Ayad’s own band Team Spirit. Those kids killed it and set the tone for the wild night a head. The night party really went crazy about the time the The Lovely Bad Things went on. Their “frontman” was sort of their bassist who didn’t sing but played in between the two singers and played like a maniac getting the crowd involved. By the end of the set the rest of the band was going crazy too and as you will see below I got some rad shots of guitar playing, beer drinking stage dives.

The next band to really impress me was The Garden. They are a two man band made up of weirdly dressed male models who played loud aggressive rock and roll before launching into a weird rap break before returning to the rock shit. They were so weird, put on a great show and filled the crowd with tons of hot babes. Loved that shit. One of the two headliners was Brooklyn’s own So So Glos. They played manageably poppy punk rock  and the crowd fucked shit up along side them.  I wasn’t expecting to like them nearly as much as I did. They are playing Mishka’s 350 Broadway 5 year anniversary on Thursday and I am excited to see em again.

The night ended in totally insane fashion with a incredible performance by Diarrhea Planet. As much as I hate their name I love their live show. They have four guitar players which would seem really pretentious and awful if they weren’t all dedicated to rocking the fuck out. There was nothing pretty or masturbatory about their sound and they just put on a fucking amazing show. They started out by bringing the Lovely Bad Things out with them and throwing a shit ton of ball pit balls into the crowd and ended by bringing up the So So Glos for a cover of Fight For Your Right To Party. In between it was constant stage diving and crowd surfing and amazingness. They couldn’t hear themselves play because all their monitors got unplugged during the show but it didn’t really matter because everyone had an amazing time and I got so many good pictures…

So click here to look at all of the rad pictures from the Black Bell Records party at the SXSW Sailor Jerry House takeover of the Gypsy Lounge in Austin!

The second day of the Sailor Jerry House SXSW event featured two different parties. The day party was hosted by the management company Grandstand Media and the night party was hosted by She Shreds Magazine.

The Grandstand party featured a headlining set by the loves of my life the Coathangers and a particularly great performance by a band called the Soft White Sixties. They also brought out the Third Man Records rolling record store which led to absurd rumors that Jack White was going to play. That was kinda great. The whole party was a really good time but I can’t really trust anyone who alphabetizes their music clients and lists all the “The” bands under T.

The night time event was hosted by She Shreds Records and my girl Alex White from White Mystery. Lot of ladies playing rock and roll which I am always 100% about and I was totally psyched about the whole night. I actually missed White Mystery and took off a little early so I could get some work done but I have photographed them like 100 times and got to shoot them two days later. I did get a chance to check out the super weird band Yamantaka // Sonic Titan which is a great/terrible band name and they discribe themselves  as “Asian Diasporic psychedelic noh-wave opera”. Perfect.

Oh, and as always there was free tattooing! Keith Underwood and Phil Larocca kept doing the free spin the wheel tattoos and Oliver Peck was tattooing VIPs! He tattooed my artist pal Buff Monster, gave the Coathangers matching “Wild At Heart” tattoos and tattooed several other people as well. Good times.

Now click here to see all the photos from the Grandstand/She Shreds parties at the SXSW Sailor Jerry House at Gypsy Lounge in Austin, TX!

Once again Sailor Jerry Rum took over the Gypsy Lounge in Austin for five days of madness during South By Southwest. Cheap rum, free tattoos and a LOT of rock and roll. Shit kicked off Tuesday night for a SXSW Music kick off party.

The Residuals, Cosmonauts, Destruction Unit and a bunch of other bands played plus Kurt Vile as a secret guest and set the tone for a really fun week. Keith Underwood and Philip Larocca from Austin Tattoo Company gave out free Sailor Jerry flash tattoos all night. You had to spin a wheel and get whatever tattoo that came up. It’s amazing that the line was out the door to get tattooed.

I had a ton of fun and got a couple of girls numbers and it really set shit off for the following four days… Check out the photos and then get ready for four more updates from the SJ House!

Click here to see all the photos from the Sailor Jerry House at Gypsy Lounge in Austin, TX!

I am back in Brooklyn! My insane South By Southwest is over! I slept on average about three hours a night for 11 straight days and I started to lose my mind. After SXSW was over I still had a couple days in Austin so I checked into a hotel and took a nap. I woke up 13 hours later. Since then I think I have been asleep more than I have been awake, but I think I am finally recovered and now it’s time to start getting up photos! Today I am going to get up the stuff from SXSW Interactive and tomorrow I am going to post my SXSW Film gallery that I am really proud of. Friday I will start in on my photos from the Sailor Jerry House. I shot nine parties there during SXSW Music week and I have a ton of cool stuff. Hopefully by this time next week everything will be up… and I will try to break it up with a little nudity… Let’s see how it goes.

So yeah, today I have not one but TWO galleries for you. Admittedly they are both pretty small.. but still. SXSW Interactive is notoriously hard for me to photograph. A tech conference is pretty boring to look at. In the past I have covered the trade show, photographed branding, and shot nerds on their cell phones, but it’s all a little tedious to look at. This year I hit up two SXSW Interactive parties instead.

The first party was IHeartComix first ever Interactive party. Franki Chan and crew always throw great SXSW events and this year was no exception. I was working during music week so I missed all their serious parties but their Interactive party was nothing to sneeze at. AraabMusik and Just Blaze DJ’d and there were a ton of babes mixed in with nerdy tech dudes so it was a pretty good look. I was only there for an hour or so because the after party for the movie my brother edited was also that night, but I think I got a few fun shots anyway.

Click here to see all the photos from the IHeartComix Interactive party at Empire Garage.

The second party I hit was the Mobile Movement party that AT&T threw with Motherboard. Vice put me on the list and I saw that Reggie Watts was playing so I clearly had to go. I have been a Reggie fan since I saw him do stand up a few weeks after I moved to NYC almost a decade ago. So glad to see that dude so successful. He performed on a giant soundboard called a Keezy. It’s a giant version of an iPhone app.  He also performed on the main stage as well. I left after Reggie was done because I wanted to get food with an old friend, but evidently Lady Gaga showed up later or something. I think I have taken enough photos of her to last a lifetime so I didn’t regret my dinner move.

Click here to see all the shots from the Mobile Movement party!

I spent my Valentine’s Day hanging out with hip hop artist MH The Verb. I met him at this weird Game of Thrones themed dance party he and his DJ B-Tips hosted a while back. He just came out  out with a new album called The Balloon Guide and hit me up about shooting his album release party.

The night started out at the secretive bar Larry Lawrence which I haven’t been to in nearly 10 years despite being in walking distance from my apartment. I actually don’t think I’ve been there since I have lived in NYC. I always thought it was a cool spot with a deceptive entrance and an outdoor smoking patio thing that was a big deal when New York outlawed cigarettes in bars. B-Tips and DJ Longarms were spinning the pre-party (Longarms was actually wearing the same shirt from the first time I shot him, which is probably a pretty weird coincidence unless he only owns one shirt.) and there was a bunch of Valentine’s candy floating around.

Once everyone was nice and drunk the party moved over to the Knitting Factory where MH and his band threw it down playing songs of the new album plus old classics. Aside from the full band there were several guest appearances and more free candy. It was a great show and I found 35 cents so it was pretty much a win-win for me.

After the show I headed home to watch House of Cards until 7am when I went to watch the US beat Russia in men’s hockey and eventually went to bed at 2pm. Probably explains why I didn’t get these photos up yesterday. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Click here to see all the photos from MH The Verb’s Album Release party at Larry Lawrence and the Knitting Factory.

And click here to download MH’s new album the Balloon Guide.