In order to help you make your choice we gathered here the most unique and popular music festivals around Europe for summer 2010:

1. Dance Valley Festival, Netherlands- 7th of August

This mind blowing open air festival is definitely worth attending. The main theme for this year is: ”Where Fantasy Meets Reality” – sounds pretty promising, don’t you think?  4 different main stages with pumping house progressive and trance music, more than 200 brilliant D.J’s from all over the world, sexy dancers and exceptional decoration- all is part of the program. Put on some colorful cloths, get your old shoes from the closet- and get ready for a wild day!

Official site

2. Boom Festival, Portugal- 18-26 August

The Boom festival’s main aim is to inspire people to engage with each other and be free spirits for only a few days. The location is deep inside a magical forest where you will soon forget where you came from and who you are. What is planned in the program? Psychedelic Goa trance music, stimulating art objects as part of the setting, healing area where you will be able to recharge yourself and many more surprises.  It is also nice to know that the festival is welcoming everybody- from an older couple who come to enjoy the live act to little children who will get ecstatic by the music and colorful surroundings.

Official site

More after the jump…

3. Pukkelpop Festival, Belgium- 19-21 August

This is by far one of the biggest and most attractive alternative festivals in Belgium. Upcoming and well known exceptional artists, progressive music, beautiful people and brilliant vibe- this is what you can expect to see. The Prodigy, Limp Bizkit, Groove Amanda, Blink 182, Snow Patrol and many more- what are you waiting for?

Official site
4. Vintage at Goodwood Festival, West Sussex 13-15 August

This fashionable festival is extremely loved by celebrities and all cool people out there. What makes it to such a unique event is the fact that the music is old and so as the surroundings- old vintage clothes are offered for sale all over the area.  Famous artists from all over the world have joined the line up and they will include some vintage tunes in their set. Borrow some dazzling outfit from grandma or grandpa, get into the Woodstock feel and have fun!!
Official site

5. Rock En Seine Festival, Domaine National de St Cloud, France 27-29 August

This festival is more than good music and happy people celebrating together- it is one of the most important music events in France. Massive Attack, Underworld, Cypress Hill, Blink 182, 2 Many DJ’s, Beirut and many more- all join together and participate in this massive music social event.

Official site

This list sums up the best 5 music festivals for the coming summer- try to book you ticket as soon as possible as these events tend get packed quickly! In order to book your hotel in one of these areas please visit www.easytobook.com

ENJOY THE SUMMER!

Just today I heard of Maximum Balloon, TV On The Radio’s David Sitek’s side project. Since last month he has released a couple of singles under Maximum Balloon, with the debut album due for August 24th under Interscope records.

“If You Return” features Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano. The track has toxic, funky electronic buzz with overlapping bleeps and a hard to resist synth bass. This is a type of song I would imagine robots would love to dance to. Or even humans. Yukimi’s mysterious, eccentric vocals graces the vivid electronic sound from Sitek.

The debut album will also feature other artists like Karen O, David Byrne, and Theophilus London. Will Sitek’s solo debut be stronger and more successful than Kyp Malone’s Rain Machine, who is his TVOTR bandmate? Only time will tell.

Check out the splendid video clip of this song below. It’s either a sneak peek at the music video or a promo for the album. The danseur glides across the rooftop so elegant and light, it’s beautiful.

Cults, the anonymous band (not anymore, although they still don’t have a Myspace)  we were all awing about because of the release of “Go Outside” are releasing a free single called “Oh My God” for the Kia x Adult Swim singles project.

The song starts off with a drum beat accompanied by people talking in the background, then comes Madeline’s sweet voice (did you know that she used to be in a punk band?). Listening to this song I quickly realized their signature: a xylophone being played in the same tome as each syllable that she sings.

The Cults 7″ EP is sold out but you can still download it here, and see their tour dates here.

Cults – “Oh My God”

“Erase Me” is the newest track to be heard from Kid Cudi’s ‘Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager’, from his Man on The Moon chronology. It just debuted on KIIS FM earlier today.

This very radio-friendly song is sure to be a hit, and adding Kanye West to the formula sure helps. It’s definitely not Kid Cudi’s best song, and doesn’t sound like the Kid Cudi we all knew. The song is way too poppy and mainstream, but it is catchy. Listen and download the HQ radio rip, courtesy of 130BPM:

Kid Cudi – “Erase Me” (feat. Kanye West)

I never knew who Lissie was until her cover of “Bad Romance” was a blogging phenomenon. I guess she likes to cover songs, and she does it well. She covered Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness” at Brighton’s music festival The Great Escape back in May, but now there is an official, HD video of it.

She’s great. Based on the covers I’ve heard from her, I know I love her already. Let’s just hope her debut album ‘Catching A Tiger’, which came out yesterday, is as great as what I know from her already.

[via WAWSTSF]

Lissie – “Pursuit of Happiness” (Kid Cudi Cover)

Kele Okereke from Bloc Party is exploring his ranges and is releasing a solo debut album on June 29th, called ‘Boxer’. The first single from it is “Tenderoni” a massive dance electro track with a hint of Bloc Party. Kele spells out the track title like in Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” but in a more seductive way. (Thanks for spelling out the track Kele, I kept writing Tenoroni instead or Tenderoni) This song is produced by XXXChange of Spank Rock.

Kele – “Tenderoni”

Somehow I feel this sounds kind of dated. Just like ‘jeggings’ in the fashion world, I’ve heard a lot of music just like this many times before and it doesn’t sound very 2010. It’s a good song, but it’s not going to get very many plays by me.

Watch the video below, which insists of dancers, boxers, and ripped bodies.

Last time we brought you the first track with Santigold to surface from David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s concept album about Imelda Marcos, and now the music video has arrived for “Please Don’t”. It’s a compilation of clips of Imelda, although we wish we could’ve seen Santigold in it.

Sorry for the slow updates, I have a lot of mid-terms and final exams right now in school, and swamped with work so my time on the computer has been decreasing significantly. I’m almost done with exams though so expect a lot more posts.

Over the weekend, Hot Chip’s album, “One Life Stand” leaked over the internet if you haven’t known already. I’ve listened to it a couple times and it’s definitely an album that takes time to appreciate and grows on you instead of hitting you hard in the ears.

I was particularily interested in the 2nd track, “Hand Me Down Your Love”. I definitely really like the contrast between the drums and the piano. The repetitive lyrics that Alexis sings is great as well. The use of violins blends is also great to listen to. Overall, probably one of my favorite tracks from the album.

Hot Chip – “Hand Me Down Your Love” Stream

After a 4 year hiatus, Swedish electronic duo The Knife is going to be returning back with more material. Just last year, Fever Ray (Karin from the band) released her self-titled solo debut album.

They announced that within the next few days we will be hearing new songs by them which will be premiering on Soundcloud. Check out Soundcloud’s twitter status.

I’m soooo glad right now. I love The Knife and Fever Ray both, so I am happy with what they do next.

[via We All Want Someone To Shout For via Sheena Beaston]

Hey guys! Merry belated Christmas, I hope you’re enjoying your holidays. I want to incorporate some of my personal life stories/latest findings/my outfits to this blog to make it more of a personal blog, and not just “the blog that reposts what other blogs post”.

So, my Christmas day was pretty boring, I woke up at around noon and went to a boring family friend’s dinner potluck. Even so, this year I haven’t been feeling up to par with the Christmas spirit. Nothing seems that special this year. My cousin from Montreal visited us for a week though, so i spent all week with her (which is probably why posts have been lacking, sorry about that).

My mom told me she didn’t want to put our Christmas tree this year (it’s fake), so I was bummed. But when she and my dad went to some party my cousin, my brother and I decided to bring it out and set it up as a surprise. I then found a mini Santa made out of pipe cleaners (is that what they are called? I haven’t said that term since I was a kid!) and since we didn’t have a star or anything cool like a star to put on the top of the tree I decided to wrap its legs around the top of the tree, making it look like it was humping it. I found that hilarious!

Now, what I got for Christmas…

An external hard drive from my dad! Finally! I really needed one because I only had like, 500 MB of space left on my computer and couldn’t download any more albums or anything. My old one crashed in the summer, losing basically everything. I hope this one doesn’t fail me. It’s black, shiny, light, and holds 1 terabyte.

What I got my dad: A personalized pen, a table clock, and a photo frame.

What I got from my mom was a pair of fake leather gloves. I have been saying that I wanted the perfect leather gloves for winter and haven’t found any amazing ones that are affordable yet, so I guess she did a good job of thinking of what I want. The only problem is: I’m really picky, and these are ugly. So I’m returning them in a couple of days.

What I got my mom: A really expensive candle and soap.

A Starbucks gift card from my brother. Yay!

What I got my brother: 2 graphic H&M tees.

A Zara long-sleeve shirt from my friend Jessica. I knew what it was the minute she gave it to me. She works at Zara and I was visiting her when she was working one day and tried a bunch of shirts on and really wanted this shirt (but in black) but ended up not buying it. Turns out they ran out of black when she bought it for me so she bought me a gray one instead. When I tried the gray one on I didn’t really like it anymore, plus it STILL was a bit tight (it was a Medium, and I’m usually an XS-S). The Zara sizing is fucked up. I mean, how do regular people that are size Large fit into their clothes? THEY CAN’T.
I’m sorry Jessica, I love the present but I don’t like it as much on me. I’m returning it!

What I got Jessica: A really cool fashion coloring book, and a candle in a teacup (that can be detached)

(special shoutout to Roni, she sent me these amazing cookies and other treats!) Merci beacoup!

I’ve also more presents to give away and to receive, I just haven’t got the time to meet up with them to exchange presents. I’ll post what I end up getting and giving after I give it away!

I am also in a desperate need of a DSLR camera as well – I want to take pictures of my daily outfits but the only actual digital camera I have access to is my brothers camera that I steal from him sometimes (the pictures turn out decent, all the ones posted are taken from it) or my dad’s video camera. I have a million film cameras that I still don’t know how to use properly though!

For the past months there have been rumors that the avant-garde Antwerp designer Martin Margiela will leave his fashion house Maison Martin Margiela and retire. Turns out the rumors are true, as Enzo Rosso confirmed just a couple of days ago. Margiela has only been working for 2 decades under his name, and he has worked with Rei Kawakubo from Commes Des Garcons and Jean Paul Gaultier before releasing his first collection in 1989.

His team of 25 people will continue to work under the direction of Giovanni Pungetti who has worked with Margiela for 19 years, which is basically most of Martin’s career.

His 2010 collection wasn’t really that good, but why quit now? He’s only 52 years old so there is still room for a few more collections. Hopefully his team and Giovanni will raise the bar!

source: Vogue Paris