Fischerspooner, 2010

Fischerspooner

Photo: Steve Mack/Getty Images

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Fischerspooner, Cedric Gervais & More: ULTRA 2018 Announces Phase 2 Lineup

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Even more electrifying headliners and legacy acts have been added to an already stunning bill of performers as ULTRA 2018 unveils its Phase 2 lineup announcement
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Feb 26, 2018 - 6:00 pm

Go time for ULTRA 2018 is fast approaching, and if there was already more than enough to get excited over from the long-running electronic/dance festival's previous announced Phase 1 and RESISTANCE Miami lineups, the event's promoters have now unveiled the Phase 2 lineup for the festival's 20th anniversary installment.

Inside Miami Music Week with top DJs

Rounding out the list of live headliners for ULTRA 2018 are electroclash performance art supergroup Fischerspooner and hard-hitting electronic rock/dubstep fusion act Modestep. Additional support acts announced as part of the Phase 2 lineup are GRAMMY-winning DJ/producers Benny Benassi and Cedric Gervais, GRAMMY-nominated tech/tribal house wizard Danny Tenaglia, big room electro house heroes Laidback Luke and Oliver Heldens, future house chart-topper Jauz, and many, many more.

With the festival's 20th anniversary now less than a month away, ULTRA have also released the first two episodes of their five-part 20 Years Of Ultra documentary detailing the early development of the festival, role of Miami in the American dance scene, and Ultra’s unique incorporation of both DJs and live bands in their yearly lineups.

General admission tickets for ULTRA 2018 are now sold out, but a very limited number of VIP tickets are still available. VIP tickets and more information are available from ULTRA's official website.

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Carl Cox, 2016

Carl Cox

Photo: Future Music Magazine/Getty Images

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Carl Cox, Adam Beyer: ULTRA Music Festival 2018 Drops RESISTANCE Miami Lineup

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The official lineup for Ultra's RESISTANCE stages – the Carl Cox Megastructure and Arcadia The Spider – has been announced
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Feb 1, 2018 - 1:55 pm

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the massive three-day ULTRA Music Festival.  Held in Miami annually during Miami Music Week since 1999, the festival has grown into one of the world's premiere electronic dance events.

Inside Miami Music Week with top DJs

The phase one lineup for ULTRA 2018 has already been announced, and just this week the festival promoters have followed-up with the official lineup for their house and techno stages, branded jointly this year as RESISTANCE.

11 Must-Attend 2018 Music Festivals: SXSW, Coachella, Lollapalooza & More

With an exciting stable of some of the biggest names in underground dance music, the RESISTANCE stages – the Carl Cox Megastructure and Arcadia The Spider – will be helmed by legendary DJ Carl Cox and dark techno visionary and Drumcode label boss Adam Beyer.  Along for the ride with Cox and Beyer, house heads at the Carl Cox Megastructure will be treated to a special joint b2b2b set featuring Dubfire, Nicole Moudaber and Paco Osuna, as well as the minimal techno stylings of Pan-Pot, the bouncy crossover U.K. vibes of Jamie Jones, and the special brand of ethereal melodic ambience always brought to the table by Maceo Plex.

Dancers at the Arcadia The Spider stage – a fan favorite spider-shaped staging structure from previous years that is making a welcome comeback in 2018 – will be treated to a series of supergroup sets, courtesy of J.E.S.u.S. (Jackmaster, Eats Everything, Skream, and Seth Troxler) and Better Lost Than Stupid (Davide Squillace, Matthias Tanzman, and Martin Buttrich). The stage will also play host to the live synthesizer wizardry of Stephan Bodzin, the patented tech-house of Patrick Topping, Technasia, Matador, and Hot Since 82, as well as the inimitable track selection prowess of Pete Tong, Nic Fanciulli, and Friday night headliners Sasha & John Digweed.

GRAMMYs

ULTRA Music Festival will take place in Miami on Mar. 23-25. General admission tickets are still available, but will likely sell out before the forthcoming release of the festival's phase two lineup.

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M.I.A., 2018

M.I.A.

Photo: Dominique Charriau/Getty Images

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MIA, Gucci Mane, Jhené Aiko: AMF Fest Announces Inaugural Headliners

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The first edition of Gary Richards' new Los Angeles festival boasts a strong bill of headliners
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Apr 19, 2018 - 11:55 am

Former HARD Events founder and new LiveStyle majordomo of North American activities Gary Richards has announced the slate of headliners for his new downtown Los Angeles-based multigenre music festival All My Friends L.A.

Set in downtown L.A.'s ROW outdoor venue near the former American Apparel warehouse, the two-day, three-stage event will feature landmark headlining sets from RL Grime, Gucci Mane, and Jhené Aiko on its opening day, and M.I.A., Jamie XX, and Armand Van Helden to close out the weekend.

The full lineup of supporting acts for the weekend remains forthcoming, but this initial headliner tease promise big things to come.

Prior to launching his new flagship festival, Richards has been slowly teasing the rollout for the AMF brand with a series of activations and smaller events, first teeing up the inaugural voyage of Friend Ship cruise festival – which has already sold out almost a year before the event dates – then hosting a marathon day party during Miami Music Week under the "All My Friends" banner that kicked off at 5 a.m. and ran until midafternoon.

All My Friends L.A. is set to rip up downtown Los Angeles Aug. 18 – 19. The first tier of Early Bird tickets have already sold out, but tier 2 tickets are still available. Tickets and more information are all available from AMF's official website.

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Swedish House Mafia at the GRAMMY Awards, 2013

Swedish House Mafia

Photo: Steve Granitz/Getty Images

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Swedish House Mafia Shock Ultra 2018 As Surprise Headliner

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The legendary trio resurfaced as Ultra 2018's surprise closing headliner, their first official gig together in five years
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Mar 26, 2018 - 12:18 pm

The five years since Swedish House Mafia closed out Ultra Music Festival 2013 – capping off the final show date of their "One Last Tour" and closing the chapter on what was ostensibly to be their final show together as SHM – have seen vast changes in the landscape of dance music.

Much of the melodic, up-tempo and trance-inspired sounds of progressive house that once universally dominated festival mainstages have been largely replaced by aggressive breaks, dissonant chopped vocals and hard bass drops more akin to turn-up trap music and American dubstep. "Raging" has fully replaced "raving," as some of us might say about the current state of the scene.

So when rumors of an SHM reunion began to quietly circulate about the industry over the past months, then more fervently throughout Miami over the past week as Miami Music Week and Ultra Music Festival 2018 began to kick into high gear, there were certainly questions of how the group's sound would stack up for a new generation of festival goers in an era when the sound of a scene can evolve dramatically in just five years.

Swedish House Mafia's Miami poster campaign, 2018

Posters teasing SHM's return on the streets of Miami
Photo: Nate Hertweck/Recording Academy

But as fans walking the streets of Miami this past weekend began to notice sly posters incorporating SHM's trademark three circles artwork interpolated with a variety of major brand logos, it became increasingly clear how much rising excitement there was among the gathered crowds over the possibility of seeing Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso, and Steve Angello once again standing next to each other onstage under the banner of Swedish House Mafia.

And on Sunday night, as the lights came up on the mainstage after an extended production break setting up the unbelievable displays of high-definition video, lasers and choreographed pyrotechnics, all doubts were washed away.

In an unbelievably high-energy set weaving through every major hit from SHM's remarkably deep catalogue, alongside key productions from all three members' solo careers, the trio also managed to deliver a lesson in deep-cut big room house that festivalgoers will very rarely see on modern mainstages.

From updated  renditions of classic SHM tunes like "Leave The World Behind" to a surprising nod to trap music courtesy of a bombastic new remix of the Knife Party-collab track "Antidote," the boys showed that they may have gone their separate ways over the past years, but they certainly have not gone away. In the hours following their closing set – complete with huge sing-alongs of their GRAMMY-nominated tracks "Save The World" and "Don't You Worry Child" and a final encore of the Pharrell Williams-featuring "One (Your Name)" – social media was afire with tweets and posts from DJs and fans around the world lauding the return of the sound of progressive house, and soon #SwedishHouseMafia was one of the top global trending topics on Twitter.

As Axwell proudly announced during the opening chords of "Save The World": "This is not just about Swedish House Mafia getting back together. This is three friends who have not seen each other in five years! …It's Swedish House Mafia for life this time!"

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Sophie Allison of Soccer Mommy, 2017

Sophie Allison of Soccer Mommy

Photo Courtesy Fat Possum Records

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SXSW 2018: Fader Fort Will Host Soccer Mommy, SOB X RBE, Debut New Location

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One of the premiere events at South By Southwest has announced its official lineup for 2018
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Mar 6, 2018 - 12:22 pm

South By Southwest is so close we can taste it, and that means it's time for the event lineups to start rolling in. Who will make a splash this year? Which acts will take that crucial step from hanging on the verge of fame and walk out into the spotlight?

Long known as one of the premiere events to see new acts break at SXSW, FADER magazine's three-day "Fader Fort" concert series has now revealed its 2018 lineup. It's packed with some names we've had our eyes and ears tuned towards lately, namely Soccer Mommy, SOB x RBE, Mozzy, Now Now, YBN Nahmir, and BbyMutha, with more acts still to be announced.

Soccer Mommy is the band project of 20 year-old Nashville songwriter Sophie Allison – a tight-knit four-piece whose sound belies their young age. Allison began playing music at the age of six, but largely kept her songwriting and recording a secret from her local friend group, choosing instead to release her songs online without publicizing them. As she got older, however, the recordings on her Bandcamp page caught an organic buzz that led to bookings for live gigs, eventually landing Allison a record deal the summer after she graduated from high school.

SOB x RBE meanwhile, have been riding a rocket all through the first quarter of 2018, thanks largely to their fantastic contribution to the No. 1 charting Kendrick Lamar-curated and produced Black Panther: The Album. Their track "Paramedic!" has managed to become one of the standout tracks on a soundtrack album packed wall-to-wall with hits. As a follow-up to their success as part of Black Panther: The Album, SOB x RBE were next tapped to join the lineup for Post Malone's huge 45-date summer world tour alongside 21 Savage, which kicks off next month on with a two-weekend stint at Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival. Tickets for the tour are still available; purchase links and additional show date details can be found on Post Malone's website.

Playing the Fader Fort at SXSW has proven to be a crucial step in the careers of some of today's biggest acts. Over the past 16 years has played host to the breakthrough moments for acts such as Odd Future (introducing the world to Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, and Frank Ocean, et al.), Kid Cudi and Amy Winehouse, meaning that its annual presence at SXSW is always a hotspot of activity for brand ambassadors, artist managers and industry reps of all kinds who are in Austin looking for the Next Big Thing.  The first 15 years of the Fader Fort will soon be documented in a new book called FADER FORT: Setting The Stage, which FADER will premiere at this year's event.

Goldlink at the Fader Fort, 2017

Photo: Roger Kisby/Getty Images

For its 17th annual installment, the Fader Fort has once again changed venues, moving up the street to 1501 East 7th St. in Austin, a joint indoor-outdoor space just three blocks from last year's venue.

"We wanted a little more space to be able to accommodate more fans at [the] Fort," explained FADER president and publisher Andy Cohn about the decision to change venues for the third time in three years. "We also wanted to enhance the experiences for artists with a larger stage, but still maintain the special, intimate experience with great sound quality that Fort is known to provide."

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