So I got back from Reggae Rising 2008 (previously Reggae On The River) on Monday night and I barely live to tell my adventures! Took what we were told was a “shortcut” from Chico to Garberville, California. The 36 is the most treacherous route I have ever taken in my life. After the four + hours of driving around windy curves, almost crashing during blind turns and no lines in the middle of the road we came down the hill into Garberville and the blew the transmission. F the Ford Taurus.

Got towed only five miles because I don’t have some kind of premium AAA card. Randomly met the nicest, most non-creepy guy ever on the side of the road who took us and ALL of our stuff to the festival in exchange for some herb. Dropped us off inside the festie with our huge pile of camping gear where I managed to talk some recycling dudes into putting all our stuff in their truck and hauling us to our friends site for a warm Coors in a water bottle.

Met a man named “Prophet Mark” who decided he would find some local tweaker for us to fix the tranny. BAD IDEA. The guy had no tools or teeth. Went to the shows and had fun anyways and decided to leave the car on the side of the road. Luckily no one works in Humboldt during Reggae so we weren’t towed. Some asshole stole our cooler with all our food and our table but it was cool because we camped with the BBQ King.

UB40 disappointed me because the singer wasn’t let into the country. They had a replacement who wasn’t nearly as good and were pretty cheesy with terrible facial expressions and coordinated dance moves. I have to say, Junior Reid killed it. Black Uhuru reunited and played a short set with Sly & Robbie. Don Carlos may be old but he can still bust out the hits. He looked fly in a red leather jacket and the gnarliest beard of my life. Every dancehall artist had serious swagger with full silk suits and Mr. Vegas threw down some mad lyrical skills and hyped up the crowd despite the heat. Collie Buddz performed for his second year, with a band this time, and his song “Blind To You” had everyone going crazy. His “riddims” were off the hook as he blends hip-hop and dancehall. Sizzla played every song I wanted to hear and his set was super high energy. He is Jamaican dancehall. I’ve always loved Turbulence’s vocal style and he was definitely shown tons of love from the ladies. There are a few videos up on YouTube already so keep checking back for more!

Took our essentials home and left the rest for dead because we had to carry everything to the bus. Took the bus and found our car, which no one would work on until the next week. Had it towed, hopefully, to some dealership 60 miles away and convinced my boy’s mom to come from Berkeley to Garberville and then drive us to Chico. Got stung by something weird and my foot is double the size of my other one so I had to get a shot and it royally sucked. I felt incredibly dirty and tired by the time we got home and found out my hot water doesn’t work so I couldn’t shower. I am now a dirty hippie trying to sit in the sink and wash my feet. Ew. It was still amazing and I had a blast floating down the river all day on the “Mega Station” fully equipped with two coolers, couches and little docks. By far the craziest trip I’ve ever been on but I can’t wait for next year!

I got back from camping at the Bobolink Festival on Monday and I still haven’t been able to wash the hippie out of my hair. Shit, at least I didn’t come back with dreads…

This weekend I threw down the traipsing of indie rock and reverted to the 19 year old Spencer who traded ’70s Pink Floyd bootlegs with other longhairs; the one who found neither the smell of patchouli oil nor the color scheme of tie-dye totally atrocious. And I’m supposed to be writing about it for the Synthesis Weekly right now. But for some reason, the only thing i want to do is watch Jake and Amir videos and get stoned.

See this cat? His name is John Staton, he plays the skins for On The One, formerly of Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe. Staton stole the show for me, even after The Living legends’ Grouch and Eli tore it up the night before. On The one laid it down. God, I really should write this fucking review… Jake and Amir? Save me.

San Francisco’s Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival recently announced single-day tickets are now available. This is great news if you’re tight on cash and can’t afford the $225 plus fees for the 3-day pass. General admission 1-day tickets cost $85 and a percentage of this will go towards SF Parks and local chartiable organizations. Now the hardest part - picking a day. Radiohead will headline Friday August 22nd, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers on Saturday and Jack Johnson on Sunday. Other artists recently added include: The Coup, Lupe Fiasco, Steel Pulse and ALO. For the full line-up & any new artists added to it check: http://www.sfoutsidelands.com/artists/.

Ah, Spring! Blossoms! Bikinis! AND BLOCK PARTIES!!! Here is the lineup for Seattle’s Capitol Hill Block Party 2008:

Friday July 25
Vampire Weekend
Les Savy Fav
Girl Talk
USE
The Dodos
Jay Reatard
Akimbo
Pwrfl Power
Past Lives
Black Eyes And Neckties
Champagne Champagne
Plus many more!!!

Saturday July 26
Surprise Guest!!
The Hold Steady
Chromeo
Kimya Dawson
Darker My Love
The Builders & The Butchers
The Hands
Velella Velella
The Physics
Man Plus
Little Party And Bad Business
Plus many more!!!

Special presale tickets went on sale yesterday (sorry we’re late!) and the password is BLOCKPARTY. Get a 2-day discounted pass here.

Beck, the Foo Fighters and Alison Krauss with Robert Plant will be among the headliners for this year’s Austin City Limits Festival. Also performing will be Silversun Pickups, festival mainstay Manu Chao, N.E.R.D., flavor-of-the-week Vampire Weekend, The Mars Volta, Gnarls Barkley and Conor Oberst with the Mystic Band. There are also a whole bunch more signed on the play the three day fest, but it’s early and I’m not going to list them all.

Bottom line is, if you think of a band you’d want to see live, you can probably find them here. Last year’s ACL brought in over $11.3 million and hosted over 225,000 people, ranking as the fourth largest festival in the world.
If you’re the environmentally conscious type — and who isn’t nowadays — you can counterbalance all the waste you and your fellow festival goers are going to create for just an extra $5 over your ticket price. BeGreen is asking those attending ACL and this year’s Lollapalooza to go green and purchase a BeGreen Fan Tag.

Each Fan Tag is equal to offsetting 500 kWh of energy usage and will be used to purchase renewable energy credits from sources, such as solar, wind and biomass. Purchasers receive a unique, double-sided BeGreen Fan Tag sticker that can be displayed at the event to show off their environmental consciousness.

“Music has always been a great outlet for drawing attention to social issues and spurring change. We are very excited to partner with the organizers of these two major musical festivals to raise environmental awareness and do our part for Mother Earth,” said Gillan Taddune, chief environmental officer of Green Mountain Energy Company. “By giving concert-goers, through the Fan Tag, easy ways to decrease their impact on the environment, these festivals are showing a true commitment to fighting global warming.”

Through a partnership with the events’ organizers, C3 Presents, BeGreen also worked with the Austin City Limits Festival and Lollapalooza to make the two events 100 percent carbon neutral in 2008. This purchase of carbon offsets made from clean technologies like renewable energy credits balances out all of the show’s electricity usage, generators, staff travel and office-based emissions.

If you go to Austin, please be nice to the locals. They’re really cool, and they have infinite patience when putting up with outsiders, even if they do enjoy talking about you when you’re gone.