We are in the home stretch! We just have two more South By Southwest updates! Today I bring you the rest of the Sailor Jerry take over of the Gypsy Lounge. This update is a mix of three parties plus a few other shots in between. We start with the opening night party which featured my homies White Mystery and a ton of other bands. The next day Natural Child Family Band headlined and Sailor Jerry’s own Justin Pittney’s band the Residuals played their first of three SXSJ shows. They killed it so check them out. On Thursday during the day Shannon & The Clams headlined a big show featuring the Jacuzzi Boys and a ton of other bands.

Aside from the bands there is a ton of photos of people getting dart board tattoos from “Downtown” Terry Brown. He tattooed all day, every day and gave people more shark and anchor tattoos than you could ever imagine. He also tattooed some of the bands with some different Sailor Jerry designs that weren’t picked by throwing darts. He even hooked me up with a tiny bird! Pretty rad.

Anyway this update has so many pictures, so many bands, so many tattoos and so many cute girls and rocker dudes drinking Sailor Jerry… Also that dude from the Counting Crows. At the very least you should scan through the pictures because there is a lot of South By Sailor Jerry madness inside!

Click here to see the rest of the photos from the Sailor Jerry takeover of the Gypsy Lounge!

The first time I saw Tyler The Creator perform it was with Odd Future at Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans. During the show two photographers were attacked and I came away excited that there was a rap group performing with the energy and insanity of a punk band. The next weekend I got to see them again at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin. This time photographers were banned from the show but I was given access after my blog went viral and I ended up being quoted in the LA Times and several other major media outlets defending their actions against the photographers. It caused a lot of drama in my professional life but I still love the energy of these kids.

So when Tyler went on a solo tour I put his NYC date on the calendar. He played to an intimate sold out crowd at the Williamsburg Hall Of Music and he brought some of his Odd Future crew with him. I can’t keep track of them all but I know Earl Sweatshirt, Taco, Jasper Dolphin and Mike G were there. The vibe was much friendlier than at the big music festival shows I saw. This crowd were all fans and the few photographers there photographed from safe distances. I was in the middle getting crushed by a bunch of high school kids losing their shit but I was having fun. A young punk kid saw a Black Flag patch on my jacket and told me that these guys were the most punk band around and I gotta agree with him. Tyler and his crew bring high energy, friendly agression, crowd surfing, moshing, an element of danger, belonging and a whole lot of fun.

Click here to see all the photos of Tyler The Creator at the Williamsburg Hall Of Music in Brooklyn.

My South By Southwest updates are still going strong but I think after this one there will only be three more. Of course I am shooting two events tonight that I am going to want to get up so you could still be getting SXSW stuff into next week. Let’s see how it goes. The Sailor Jerry coverage continues with the party that Castle Face Records and CMRTYZ hosted together. The line up was top secret but included all sorts of rad bands like Night Beats, Wax Idols, Pharmacy and two different bands with Time in their names (Pony Time & Heavy Times), but the highlights were the headliners The Mallard and Thee Oh Sees.

I had seen The Mallard play earlier and I thought they were pretty good but they didn’t really stick into my brain. When they played this night show I was totally unprepared for the end of their set when their front woman hung her guitar from a banner and jumped into the crowd throwing dust on herself and everyone. It was pretty fucking awesome but as soon as I started taking photos, random people from the crowd started photo bombing her performance and it became this weird photo shoot with the crowd. It was pretty amazing and I ended up with some great, if not super weird, photos.

Thee Oh Sees are a band that I catch at least once every SXSW. They are fucking amazing and always put on a great show. The first time I ever saw them they were playing on a bridge and playing every other song with another band. I saw a girl with two black eyes and it turns out she got them from getting kicked in the face during a Thee Oh Sees show the night before. The madness did not disappoint and I actually ended up getting attacked in the mosh pit by some drunk guy who had tried to start a fight with me earlier in the night. I saw him coming and I grabbed him by the shirt and smashed my camera into his face. I was pretty upset that I lost my shit like that but my camera was fine. The next night he came up to me and sort of apologized but he really just wanted to know what happend because he didn’t remember anything of the night before. We were all good after that and he let me take a photo of his camera wound. Oh yeah, and Thee Oh Sees killed it.

Now click here to see all the pictures from the CMRTYZ/Castle Face Records Face-Off at the Sailor Jerry at the Gypsy Lounge!

Blundertown is company that books rad rock and roll shows in LA. They helped book two of the day parties (Friday and Saturday) at the Sailor Jerry takeover of Gypsy Lounge. On Friday they teamed up with the skate clothing company Altamont and thew a party with King Tuff and Hanni El Khatib headlining. There were a lot of great bands (check out their recap) but my personal favorites were White Lung and the bad ass band Hunters who I got to see at CMJ.

On Saturday Blundertown teamed up with LA Record for some punk rock awesomeness. They had NoBunny open the madness and The Spits close it out with a bunch of insane band in between. Cole from the Black Lips DJd and tons of rock and roll fun was had by everyone.

On Friday Keith Underwood tattooed anyone who was willing to throw a dart at a dartboard to pick their tattoo. It was all rad Sailor Jerry flash so you weren’t gonna be screwed but it’s still funny to see people getting a tattoo based on a dart throw. My man Terry Brown did the dart tattoos on Saturday and everybody’s favorite TV reality show host, Inkmaster’s Oliver Peck, tattooed bands and VIPs both days (like my home girl Alysha Nett). Oliver is fucking hilarious and not a bad tattoo artist, so it’s always fun to have him around. Terry tattooed a little bird on me when we were fucking around and I love doing events with him. Good times.

Anyway I have so much more SXSW stuff to get up so we are going to try to speed these right along. Check out the pictures from both parties and get ready for more “SXSJ” stuff tomorrow!

Click here to see all the pictures from the Blundertown/ Altamont party on Friday at Sailor Jerry x Gypsy Lounge!

Click here to see all the pictures from the Blundertown/ LA Record party on Saturday at Sailor Jerry x Gypsy Lounge!

I still have a ton more photos from the Sailor Jerry South By Southwest madness, but let’s take a break before we get back to it. On Thursday Check Yo Ponytail, Mad Decent and Fool’s Gold all threw a huge party at two venues in Austin. Part of the show was at Emo’s East and the rest was a parking lot away at Emo’s Annex. Tons of bands, tons of DJ’s and a ton of fun.

I got a quick break from the Sailor Jerry party so I ran over to the Super Party and in about two hours I got to shoot Trash Talk, Wavves, Brooke Candy and Andrew WK. I was psyched to shoot Trash Talk because last year my flash got broken during their very first song so I couldn’t take any pictures. I saw Wavves for the first time last year and they were awesome so it was good to see them again. I am kinda obsessed with photographing Brooke Candy and I hope I get to do it again soon. I have shot Andrew WK a number of times but he always makes for good pictures. On the way back to the SJ party I got stuck in traffic and abandoned my rental car up a hill in the middle of bumper to bumper traffic. Somehow the ticket was only $30. God I love Austin.

Later that night I was waiting on friends and I had some time to kill so I went back to the parties. I hit Flosstradamus, Pictureplane and then A-Trak right as my friends arrived. I only shot about 30 seconds of A-Trak but I have photographed him maybe 200 times so I think it’s okay. The whole party was a good time and I am glad I got to check out a little bit of it. I hope you guys the pictures.

Click here to check out all my photos from the Check Yo Ponytail, Mad Decent, Fool’s Gold SXSW Super Party!

Thank god South By Southwest is over! Not that it wasn’t amazing, it was, but I am exhausted. I think I broke my foot and I think I have slept a total of 7 hours in the last ten days. Good times! I am very ready to head back to NYC and sleep in a bed but my 10th SXSW was a fantastic time. The big finally for my SXSW trip was the Thrasher party, Midnight Massacre, at the Sailor Jerry Lounge. Hours of metal and cute skater girls and lots of rum. Oliver Peck tattooed some bands and there were a lot of people walking around with injuries and skateboards. Today Is The Day and Mondo Generator headlined. You can check out the rest of the line up here. I got a ton of shit to do today so I gotta make this short. Tons more SXSW photos to come when I get back to NYC, but until then enjoy these shots. See you guys soon. Skate or die or just look at  photos.

Click here to see all the pictures from the Midnight Massacre Thrasher Magazine party at the Sailor Jerry Lounge.

If you haven’t noticed I am in Austin for SXSW. My main gig down here is working for my favorite client Sailor Jerry. They are doing a TON of events down in Austin to promote their spiced rum and I am shooting all of them. I am working around the clock so I don’t have much time to work on the website but I wanted to get some pictures up from a pretty fun party that happened on Wednesday.

Sailor Jerry took over the Gypsy Lounge all week and throws two parties a day. The night party on Wednesday was thrown by SJ,  CMRTYZ Dolce Vita, and shoes who gave a way and insane 500 pairs of their shoes. The line was down the block for a free pair of shoes and a bunch of awesome bands played. The Coathangers are one of my favorite new bands and they totally killed it as always. I was pretty into Slutever’s Hole cover and we talked a bunch about the other Slutever and how they should t-shirts together and split the cost. They gave me a 7″ so I was psyched. The Jacuzzi Boys are playing a bunch this weekend and they fucked some shit up and Shannon and the Clams were so weird but yet so awesome. They are pretty much the soundtrack to a John Waters movie in every conceivable way. Summer Twins, Colleen Green, The Mallard and Audacity also played but I have to go take more photos now so let’s keep it moving!

Click here to see all the photos from the CMRTZ/DV8 OMG Free Shoes party at the Sailor Jerry at Gypsy Lounge!

As we speak (or as I type) I am on an airplane headed to Austin, Texas on my way to South By Southwest. This is not just any SXSW for me; it is my 10th straight SXSW. I started out traveling to Austin when I managed a dance pop band called The Gaskets. After the Gaskets broke up I started going as a member of the media, covering it for the last six years with a camera in hand. This year I am going to be EXTREMELY busy and I will be on the road for at least two weeks. I have a feeling that I won’t be able to update this site as much as I would like to so I wanted to put this post up. I WILL be updating my Twitter, Instagram and most importantly my Tumblr. I will be posting highlights from every day on Tumblr so check over there if I am slow to update this site.

Anyway, in honor of my 10th at SXSW I wanted to give you a little break down of some of the highlights of the last 10 years. Austin is crawling with musicians and celebrities so this list is going to sound a little (okay, a lot) name droppy, so I apologize for that in advance. Just don’t read it if that sort of thing is as grating to you as it is to most people. I am going to include some links and photos to keep you guys entertained while I am busy taking photos 14 hours a day. And if you are going to be in Texas over the next two weeks hit me up! See you guys in a food truck line! (Read the article)

My dude Hannibal Buress turned 30 years old yesterday and decided to throw a party at the Knitting Factory. Last time I was there was for the premiere of Hannibal’s Comedy Central  special Animal Furnace. This time there was less comedy and much more hip hop. The night started out with hip hop legend Prince Paul DJing. After that things got real weird with Hip Hop Karaoke NYC taking over. I am not a big karaoke fan but when I do it I am always tempted to do some old school hip hop classic but I have seen people fail miserably when trying to do songs they think they know every word of. Now try that while holding the lyrics in your hand instead of timed out on a screen and you are in for a disaster. It was a pretty amazing train wreck although some people certainly stood out.

Halfway through the hilarious hip hop karaoke Hot 97’s Cipha Sounds showed up. He was DJing after the karaoke but he rolled in with Action Bronson and Questlove. Quest very begrudgingly did a song at Hannibal’s insistance and he kept slowing down the track. “This is why I am a drummer. I stopped trying to rap 20 years ago.” It was pretty epic. Action Bronson enjoyed himself a bit more and did two songs including A Tribe Called Quest’s Scenario with Cipha, Hannibal and Hannibal’s insane cousin Percy. As you can see if you click that link it was epic.

After that Cipha Sounds DJ’d and although he properly killed it the crowd began to thin out as you might expect at 1am on a Monday night but the jobless people who stuck it out were in for a rare treat. Hannibal really upped the weirdness game of his 30th birthday and did a 15 minute version of his 70 second “Gibberish Rap” and invited Mario, Alvin of the Chipmonks fame and Spongebob Squarepants to join him. It was in the top 10 most surreal moments of my life. Oh, did I mention the ballet dancers? Yeah, that too. It was a supremely weird and awesome way to end the night.

Click here to see the bizarre photos from comedian and gibberish rapper Hannibal Buress’ 30th birthday party at the Knitting Factory.

Ps. I gave Hannibal a $5 Arch Card for his birthday. Never say I am not a good friend.