As humans, we often separate ourselves from other organisms on Earth. We forget that, like other living things, we play an integral role in our ecosystems. Ecosystems can be massive (thinking of the solar system) or tiny (microscopic biota in one drop of water).
The ecosystem occupied by Northern Nights Music Festival is a combination of both the living and non-living elements, from the redwoods to the rocks to endangered salmon and steel head trout. Keep an eye to the sky and you may see a bald eagle, great blue heron or osprey. Explore the river and you might encounter a family of river otters or invasive pike minnows. Needless to say, Northern Nights Music Festival at Cook’s Valley is part of a very sensitive ecosystem.
Northern California’s premier 3-day dance and yoga festival, Northern Nights Music Festival (NNMF), returns to the banks of the Eel River July 18-20. Held at picturesque Cook Valley Campground, on the Humboldt/Mendocino county line in Piercy, CA, NNMF will once again be presenting internationally renowned artists and DJ’s on four stages, yoga, hiking, and river activities.
This year’s festival will feature performances by…
BEATS ANTIQUE: Growing like wildfire under the canopy of live electonica and world roots music comes a masterful merge of modern technology, live instrumentation and seductive performance, built of brass bands and glitch, string quartets and dubstep: the musical Oakland based trio Beats Antique. Since the group’s inception from the eclectic underground of San Francisco’s performance art scene, Beats Antique has been notorious for making it nearly impossible to sit still. The trio creates a unique collage: an animalistic, raw musical event that blurs the lines between the provocative, the spiritual, and the artistic, while still maintaining an allegiance to the muses of class and beauty.
GIRAFFAGE: With a robust early following and organic online buzz, Giraffage offers a fresh, sample-rich sound of dreamy pop beats, sensual synths and lush experimental electronica. The creation of 23 year-old Charlie Yin of San Francisco, Giraffage is an exciting new producer with an intuitive grasp of modern music manipulation, delivering beats that are dripping with vibes and accessible to all. Inspired by such pioneers as Daft Punk and Boards of Canada, Giraffage is a true bedroom producer that started playing out only after gaining solid traction for his music online. Sending out his first album for free to various music blogs and online publications, Giraffage quickly found an ardent fan following for his hazy and seductive style.
THE FLOOZIES: Born in funk and bred in the digital age, live electronic duo The Floozies have burst onto the scene at a time when the industry needed them the most. Brothers Matt and Mark Hill share the stage just as easily as they share a musical brain. Without a set list, and without a word between them, Matt’s guitar is in lockstep with the thud of Mark’s kick. Endless looping and production builds the raw scenery upon which palm muted chugs, searing solos, and wobbling bass paint their dazzling array of colors. These two are bringing their fresh approach to electronic music and live performance to venues and festivals all over the country. The duo’s combination of cutting edge electronic production and party rocking funk energizes crowds and turns venues into epic dance parties.
VICEROY: Arriving out of seemingly nowhere, he’s one of those names that you could have easily slept on. One day he’s off at school playing local parties under a different moniker, and the next he’s off earning his way to the forefront of the nu-disco world. With little to no outside help, this success story has found himself stapled to the top of the ever so powerful Hype Machine charts with a genre of “summertime disco” that is unparalleled by none. Viceroy has found himself being featured in nearly every publication in existence including the famed Vice Magazine, MTV, Nylon Magazine, Fresh New Tracks, Gotta Dance Dirty, All Things Go, This Song Is Sick, and many more. In 2012, Viceroy released a slew of chart topping releases on various labels including his well-received original pop-gem’s “Chase Us Around”, “While We’re In Love”, and “Dream Of Bombay”, along with the dance floor filling, “Only Takes”.
EPROM: One of the vibrant West-Coast scene’s most colorful characters and an important cog in the international Rwina machine. He’s a consummate post-millennial producer, and his sound varies from toxic hip-hop to searing garage mutations to bizarre concoctions somewhere in between. His beats jiggle and drip and contort wildly, always in some perpetual state of melting, churning, and mutation.
He’s had releases on Warp, Surefire, and Bristol-based Bad Acid, but it’s his Rwina releases that have been the most visible and enduring, whether it’s the timestretch torture and fierce melodic geysers of “Humanoid” or deconstructionist mayhem of his “Pipe Dream” EP, where dubstep and grime collide for a staggering beast that shakes off heavy blotches of radioactive fluorescent sludge with every beat that lands. His live sets are something to behold as well, emphasizing the hip-hop roots that lurk underneath his sewer beats, and an hour of EPROM is bound to turn your brain into to the same sort of goo that gums the gears of his distinctive beats.
FORT KNOX FIVE: They have the Midas touch for producing heavy hitting records. Since 2003, they have released an arsenal of floor rocking singles and remixes from their Washington DC based label: Fort Knox Recordings. Sid Barcelona, Jon Horvath, Rob Myers and Steve Raskin are the masterminds behind the Fort Knox Five. Their signature ‘Fort Knox Sound’ seamlessly interweaves live instrumentation with funky electronic breakbeats. In 2006 they released the critically acclaimed ‘The New Gold Standard’ to showcase the groundbreaking sounds from their premier funk and soul label. The Fort Knox Five has coined the term ‘reminted’ to represent their signature remixing style.
Also announced: Plastic Plates, Dimond Saints, Deejay Theory, Kingdom, Egyptrixx, Nasty Nasty, Sabo, Pumpkin, Jobot, J Boogie, DJ Dials, Lafa Taylor, DOV, Traviswild, Oro11 Wu Wei, plus many more artists and attractions to be announced in the coming weeks.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
