With Jam bands dominating the bill, my biggest question entering the ROTHBURY music festival was how outliers like Modest Mouse and Of Montreal would be received by the tens of thousands of fans.

But the biggest question mark clearly belonged to Snoop Dogg.

Remember, this is a festival built around the concept of sustainable energy and social responsibility. And Snoop is the same guy who proudly hawked Girls Gone Wild and said he’d “never hesitate to put a N***a on his back.”

Of course, I had nothing to worry about. As Snoop slowly pedaled his way on stage on a chrome, low-riding tricycle, he knew exactly how he was going to connect with this audience.

“Anybody here smokin’ some weed?” he shouted to deafening applause. They belonged to him.

Even he seemed surprised by the crowd’s enthusiasm. “You guys are havin’ too much fuckin’ fun.”

Happy Fourth of July everyone! As you can see, it didn’t take long for me to make friends at ROTHBURY. After a continually delayed flight and a four hour drive, it was nice to arrive to the soothing sound of the Wailers.

This is lead singer Elan belting out his rendition of “Stir It Up” (startlingly similar to Bob Marley’s vocal timbre).

Snoop Dogg is up next. I’m off to get pics! Stay tuned…

We’re very excited to announce Squid as our latest Grand Prize winner. They’re from Tel Aviv, making them our first international winner (we’re going global!).

Big thanks to all you crazy kids who dropped in on the Finals Week PartyLine last Friday. I was hoping for it to be crowded, but I could never have predicted the massive turnout we ended up with. Hundreds of you showed up and made more than 3,000 comments in two hours(!). Here’s how it looked from my office…

3:01pm- General excitement as dozens log on to PartyLine

3:07pm- When I click “next track” it skips ahead six songs. When I click “last track” it goes back three. Did I mention PartyLine is still in Beta? Ok, my pre-made playlists aren’t going to work. Gotta adjust on the fly…

3:41- Rachel, my intern who spent countless hours making pre-made playlists, gets way stressed and turns into Emo Kitten (Read Rachel’s blog to get her side of things).

4:45- I narrow it down to 3 finalists for the free 10,000 Lakes Festival tickets.

4:55- Before I can decide on one winner… PartyLine A Splode!

That’s right. The PartyLine shut down because so many of you came to the Party! It’s like the cops shut us down for being too loud. Awesome.

Now, because I never got a chance to announce ONE winner for 10KLF tix, I did a little digging (with special help from Stephanie our marketing all-star) and found three pairs of tickets! So all three finalists (Megan Nicole, April Start, and Matt from gogoPilot) are headed to Detroit Lakes, Minnesota to see the Flaming Lips, George Clinton, Michael Franti and many more at the 10,000 Lakes Music festival. Everyone wins!

Here’s a playlist of all the songs I can remember playing during the PartyLine, created by a much-less-stressed-out Rachel.

BTW, the majority of songs played in the PartyLine made it to Semifinals(!). And many, including Squid*, Sarah Tollerson and Philadelphia Slick, landed #1 in their respective channels and are battling it out today for the $5,000 grand prize. Congrats!

Now all of you who were there: Go forth and start your own PartyLines. Invite your friends and fans. Invite ME! I will definitely try to show up. Click here to see how to start a PartyLine.

And please, in the comment section below, let me know how the PartyLine went for you. What did you like? What would you like us to change? Did you discover and love any artists during the party? Any bugs that we need to fix (be kind: we’re still in beta)? Did you just have a good time and want to share? Let me know. Thanks.

-Quinn

*Update: Squid, who showed up to the PartyLine, won the grand prize for June for their song “Junky” which I played that afternoon. Congrats Guys! Did the PartyLine attention give them an extra boost? We’ll never know, but it didn’t hurt! Check out this video where I announce them winning.

It’s not like I was expecting a bad show.

If anything, The Prigs are one of the more fun and original bands I’ve come across on OurStage, with a Pogues-meets-Men-At-Work combination of raw, horn-laden punk/pop.

But remember that band you liked in college? Your friend’s band that made loud music, wrote songs about cereal, and dressed up in superhero outfits? Do you remember how you felt about going to their shows? You looked forward to it because you knew you’d have a good time. And the music? Well that was just bonus.

That’s kind of how I felt heading to the Prigs show.

Everything I encountered at T.T. the Bear’s Place validated those expectations. The muffled sound system, the opening band blasting generic funk riffs, the complete lack of carbonation in my small plastic cup of High Life. This was going to be fun.

Of course, I was wrong.

Not about the fun. The Prigs were plenty of fun. The lead singer, sporting camouflage shorts and soccer socks, danced and screamed with the abandon of a 12-year-old. The keyboardist wore a blonde wig and rocked a glorious white keytar. At one point, the bassist abandoned his own instrument to play the guitar still strapped to the lead singer. And so forth. But as the show went on, it became clear these guys weren’t just a bar band. The lead singer was actually a really good guitarist, making rapid and complex chord changes with ease. The keyboardist and two saxophonists plowed through scales with surprising dexterity. The drummer and bassist were admirably precise, holding together what should have been a train wreck.

And the more I listened, the more I realized The Prigs are not your college friend’s band. Underneath the wigs and headbands reside a group of talented musicians who just happen to be looking for a good time. And though I hesitate to describe The Prigs as subtle, their songs were unpretentiously complex. Every drunkenly chanted chorus was matched by blistering horn riff, well placed harmony, or time signature I couldn’t figure out for my life.

So, with the baffled amusement of a baseball fan who showed up to a little-league game to find out the actual Yankees and Red Sox were playing, I raised my small plastic cup of flat High Life in the air. This was more than I expected or required. Looking for a good time, I stumbled upon a band worth telling the world about.

As the chorus of their song “TV Reporter” reminded me, “Life ain’t so bad at all.”

With raw, driving acoustic force, Fancy Trash serves as further evidence that Northampton, MA is a thriving hotbed of indie talent. After landing in the top 20 on the Acoustic charts for March, they established themselves as an OurStage band to watch. Gypsy/Folk/Indie Rockers DeVotchKa took notice and invited them to join them on four dates on their recent East Coast tour. I caught up with them at the final gig in NYC at Terminal 5:

A few notes:

1) Dave and Josh are two of the nicest, most humble guys I’ve come across in the past couple years covering OurStage bands. After awhile I had to tell them to stop thanking me, OurStage, and the fans. I reminded them that they EARNED this opportunity. It was very cool to see them play to a big audience at Terminal 5.

2) They’re also friends with fellow OurStage great Matt Hebert, who many of you may know better as Haunt. After he won an appearance at Paste Party last year, he told the guys from Fancy Trash to check out OurStage. Clearly, it all worked out!

3) It’s also worth pointing out that Fancy Trash were our east coast representatives on the DeVotchKa tour. But we also had two other artists open for DeVotchKa in the Midwest. Make sure to check them out:

Chicago singer/songwriter (and much decorated OurStage artist) Alain De Courtenay (accompanied by violinist TJ Callanta) opened for DeVotchKa in Minneapolis, Chicago, and Indianapolis.

And Wisconsin native Cedarwell opened the show in Madison.

After landing #1 on the ROTHBURY channel for May, the Adam Ezra Group earned a performance slot at the ROTHBURY music festival which also includes performances from Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Snoop Dogg, and Sam Beam (of Iron and Wine). You may remember AEG from our video on Earthfest. Like any band, we expected them to be excited for the ROTHBURY opportunity. But we did not expect this video:

All I can say is: Incredible.

Everyone here at OurStage is excited to be teamed up with Curt Smith of Tears for Fears. To celebrate the release of Curt’s latest solo album, Halfway, Pleased, we’re giving OurStage artists the chance to produce a video with Curt for a stand-out track from his solo album!

Here’s how it works: Filmmakers make a music video for “Greatest Divide” from Halfway, Pleased and upload it to the Greatest Divide Music Video Channel on OurStage. Online votes from fans will determine the finalists. The winner (chosen by Curt Smith) will receive $1,000 and work with Curt to produce the video’s final cut.

Click Here to Find Out More and Join.

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