Oliver Peck is not only a bad ass tattoo artist and host of TV’s Ink Master, he  also happens to be one of the only Republicans that I get along with. After spending the last seven weeks in NYC filming season three of Ink Master Oliver is headed back home to Dallas. Last night with the help of Sailor Jerry he threw an insane going away party at Arlene’s Grocery.

Back in Dallas, Oliver and his friend Josh Hammertimez host Good Luck Karaoke, which is pretty much like regular karaoke except Josh and Oliver cause a ruckus on stage while you are performing your song. They brought the party to NYC last night and did karaoke until everyone was too drunk to sing anymore. I have seen a lot of karaoke in my life but never as out of control as last night. The Alkaline Trio showed up and Matt Skiba got wasted on Sailor Jerry and decided to play the drums during about ten people’s karaoke sets. It was pretty amazing/ hilarious.

Oliver also brought his friend and co-worker at Elm Street Tattoo, Carl Hallowell, to tattoo Sailor Jerry flash on people while the karaoke madness was going on in the other room. Skiba got a death head moth on his hand, my dude AK Murda got a hinge, Steve Lewis got a pin up, etc. Lot of rad tattoos all around.

Oh, I should probably mention that everyone was wearing wigs all night. Why you ask? I have no idea actually, but it probably has something to do with Oliver’s drag queen Ramones tribute band The Ramonahs. They played a set in the middle of the karaoke party and it was fucking awesome. Oliver does a pretty good Joey Ramone impression only with a mustache and fake tits. Seriously it was wild.

Enough with the story let’s get to some pictures. It was a wild night…

Click here to see all the pictures from Oliver Peck’s Wig Party at Arlene’s Grocery featuring Good Luck Karoke and The Ramonahs!

Last night I went out to the Roseland Ballroom with almost no idea what I was going to see. I knew my friends from Trouble & Bass were DJing and I knew it was part of the massive month long Red Bull Music Academy. Other than that I didn’t know much, I really just wanted to get out of the house and shoot some photos. I’ve been so busy working on a bunch of random project that I haven’t had  much time to do any actual work.

So it turns out the event was “Culture Clash” a battle between four NYC DJ crews hosted by Miss Info. Trouble & Bass were squaring off against the reggae  crew Federation Sound, the “Global Bass” duo Que Bajo and hip hop producers/djs Just Blaze and Young Guru. I am not gonna lie, I was pretty psyched for Just Blaze and Young Guru even though I was rooting for my T&B fam.

The contest works like this: There are four rounds and the winning team gets a point for rounds two and three and two points for round four. The first round is just 15 min to do whatever you like to get the crowd hyped and no one wins. The second round is more of the same but it the crowd votes on it. In the third round each crew has to play another team’s type of music and the fourth round is all originals and live performances.

I am not gonna talk a ton about Federation Sound or Que Bajo too much because this post is going to be way too long as it is and they don’t really play music I am into. I am a massive Jimmy Cliff fan and I fuck with some other reggae stuff but dub reggae is just not my jam. Que Bajo plays some sort of mix of reggaeton, moombahton and other latin and island stuff that is pretty interesting but again, not really what I am feeling.  I will say that Federation Sound really brought it to the competition, handing out whistles and noisemakers, doing a ton of original stuff written just for the Culture Clash and as you can see in the photos basically went to war with the other groups. Que Bajo put on a fun show with dancers and MC’s and some funny disses but their photo pit was way too small so I didn’t focus on them as much as the other groups.

Just Blaze and Young Guru killed it all night. They have produced for everyone in hip hop and brought most of them on stage with them at some point in the night. They had guest appearances by Raekwon, 2 Chainz, Wale, Jadakiss, Memphis Bleek, Pharoahe Monch, Syles P and a ton of others. It was pretty wild. Just Blaze brought a t-shirt cannon and was giving away stuff all night. At one point he filled it with money and made it rain on the audience. Unfortunately I was on the other side of the room taking to a friend and I left the event just as broke as when I walked in. They killed it all night and I am a way bigger hip hop fan than I am any of the other genres so I was psyched for their sets.

But as awesome as Blaze and Guru were, Trouble & Bass brought it even harder. They were a late edition and had only a few days to get ready. Despite this they had really dumb/funny signs and Ninja Turtles prepared. They won every single round and walked off stage Culture Clash champs after calling their shot with fake NY Posts that declared them the winners after the third round. Speaking of the third round, they were the only ones who did a great job DJing another genre, but they had a ringer. They had to imitate Que Bajo, so they brought out Dave Nada who actually invented moombathon and he clearly killed it. They had some awesome special guests as well. Aside from their host all night Teli from Ninjasonik they also had Flatbush Zombies and Nina Sky perform. They brought out the big guns in the last round with an amazing performance by Robin S doing her early 90′s hit Show Me Love. Everyone lost their minds instantly. She killed it so hard. They ended their set with a great dis, bringing out Cam’Ron doing tracks that Just Blaze produced. It was amazing and they deserved the win. I jumped on stage and hung out with them while they DJ’d everyone out of Roseland. It was a special moment. So proud of those dudes.

I took SO many damn photos so if you want to get into it there are nearly 400 images in this gallery. It’s gonna be hard to pull my favorites below but I am gonna try my best.

Click here to see the HUGE gallery of pictures from the Red Bull Music Academy Culture Clash.

Hi kids. I am out in LA hanging out with my brother who turns 30 this month. I am pretty much just vacationing and eating food and not working too much (although I did shoot Alysha Nett again today). I wanted to get SOMETHING up for you guys and I just happened to have some photos ready to go from when I was in Austin for SXSW.

One of my really good friends Mike lives in Austin and he told me he would drive me to the airport if I took some photos of his band New Noys. I kinda hate shooting band portraits but I really like his band and he had some really dumb/hilarious ideas for the shoot so I was down. We shot in this warehouse that he works out of he shocked the shit out of himself with a Telsa Coil that was just hanging out and he shot off a fire extinguisher and had a crazy old man throw confetti on his band. It was a quick, weird photo shoot but I had fun and got some funny photos. The one with the confetti is pretty much the greatest band photo of all time. That old guy looks like a Scooby Doo villain. Amazing.

New Noys just recorded three songs so go listen to them right now. They are seriously awesome.

Now click here and see all the other photos I took of New Noys!

Trying to take it easy today given that nothing is open and no one responds to email on Easter but I had to get up these photos from last night. I got hired to shoot this super weird party at Spike Hill called Famous Hill II. I didn’t go to the first Famous Hill but I heard good things so I was looking forward to the party. When I walked in this punk-rap group named Animal House was fucking up shit and the hosts were dressed up like low budget Game of Thrones characters and there were gold spray painted “dragon eggs” hanging from the ceiling. It only got weirder from there with a super melodic pretty band named Redfoot playing in between DJ’s B-Tips and Longarms. Longarms actually did a Game of Thrones remix and then these rad Canadian women named Diamond Bones played some rock and roll.

Nothing made sense and there were some technical difficulties which host/rapper MH The Verb blamed on them “getting high and painting dragon eggs” but the party was still fun and I got to talk to cute girls about punk rock. Speaking of MH The Verb, he and B-Tips at one point beat boxed which only added to the “what the hell is going on here” vibe.

And speaking of punk rock, my punk cover band Fucking Bullshit is playing tomorrow at the Flat and you should go. (More on that tomorrow.) Now where was I? Oh right, the party also had live painting by Jason Borbay and I missed  the last band Empty Chairs because I had to run to another thing but I am sure they were awesome anyway.

So yeah! Happy Easter and party forever!

Click here to check out all the pictures from Famous Hill II at Spike Hill!

In the last of my SXSW posts I bring you The Black Lips live from Hotel Vegas. Their show was packed but I managed to get in the back. I have photographed the Black Lips a few times and it’s always a crazy show but the combination of dust and silly string and beer led to an extra wild show. At one point I tried to photograph Cole crowd surfing only to get trapped with my legs smashed between bodies and the stage while my back actually lay on the stage and I just shot looking straight up at Jared while he played. The light was so harsh and weird that it didn’t make for great photos but there is some pretty awesome stuff here anyway. Fun show.

And that’s it! SXSW photos are done. We get back to your regularly scheduled Driven By Boredom program tomorrow! But until then…

Check out all the pictures from the Black Lips at Hotel Vegas at SXSW.

Vice’s Andy Capper went to Jamaica and filmed a documentary called “Reincarnated” about Snoop Dogg’s transition into Snoop Lion. Snoop got in touch with his Rasta side and spent a lot of time in the islands and recorded a Reggae album with Diplo. To promote the release of the film Snoop Lion played at Vice’s pop up SXSW party “Viceland”. He did an all reggae set including many of his old hits with a new reggae vibe.

The show was so packed and I couldn’t get any where near the stage despite having a press pass, but on my way out I ran into Snoop’s publicist and she delivered me to the most packed photo pit I have ever seen. It was crazy. We were packed in like lobsters and somehow had to get great shots in two songs. I think I managed to get some okay stuff anyway. It was the third time I have photographed Snoop and it’s always a good time (check the old photos here and here).

So check out these Snoop Lion photos and I will be back in 30 with a bunch of Black Lips photos that will end my SXSW photos for 2013 and we can get back to naked girls and New York madness!

Click here to see the Snoop Lion photos from Lion Fest at Viceland!

We are in the home stretch! We just have two more South By Southwest updates! Today I bring you the rest of the Sailor Jerry take over of the Gypsy Lounge. This update is a mix of three parties plus a few other shots in between. We start with the opening night party which featured my homies White Mystery and a ton of other bands. The next day Natural Child Family Band headlined and Sailor Jerry’s own Justin Pittney’s band the Residuals played their first of three SXSJ shows. They killed it so check them out. On Thursday during the day Shannon & The Clams headlined a big show featuring the Jacuzzi Boys and a ton of other bands.

Aside from the bands there is a ton of photos of people getting dart board tattoos from “Downtown” Terry Brown. He tattooed all day, every day and gave people more shark and anchor tattoos than you could ever imagine. He also tattooed some of the bands with some different Sailor Jerry designs that weren’t picked by throwing darts. He even hooked me up with a tiny bird! Pretty rad.

Anyway this update has so many pictures, so many bands, so many tattoos and so many cute girls and rocker dudes drinking Sailor Jerry… Also that dude from the Counting Crows. At the very least you should scan through the pictures because there is a lot of South By Sailor Jerry madness inside!

Click here to see the rest of the photos from the Sailor Jerry takeover of the Gypsy Lounge!

The first time I saw Tyler The Creator perform it was with Odd Future at Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans. During the show two photographers were attacked and I came away excited that there was a rap group performing with the energy and insanity of a punk band. The next weekend I got to see them again at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin. This time photographers were banned from the show but I was given access after my blog went viral and I ended up being quoted in the LA Times and several other major media outlets defending their actions against the photographers. It caused a lot of drama in my professional life but I still love the energy of these kids.

So when Tyler went on a solo tour I put his NYC date on the calendar. He played to an intimate sold out crowd at the Williamsburg Hall Of Music and he brought some of his Odd Future crew with him. I can’t keep track of them all but I know Earl Sweatshirt, Taco, Jasper Dolphin and Mike G were there. The vibe was much friendlier than at the big music festival shows I saw. This crowd were all fans and the few photographers there photographed from safe distances. I was in the middle getting crushed by a bunch of high school kids losing their shit but I was having fun. A young punk kid saw a Black Flag patch on my jacket and told me that these guys were the most punk band around and I gotta agree with him. Tyler and his crew bring high energy, friendly agression, crowd surfing, moshing, an element of danger, belonging and a whole lot of fun.

Click here to see all the photos of Tyler The Creator at the Williamsburg Hall Of Music in Brooklyn.

My South By Southwest updates are still going strong but I think after this one there will only be three more. Of course I am shooting two events tonight that I am going to want to get up so you could still be getting SXSW stuff into next week. Let’s see how it goes. The Sailor Jerry coverage continues with the party that Castle Face Records and CMRTYZ hosted together. The line up was top secret but included all sorts of rad bands like Night Beats, Wax Idols, Pharmacy and two different bands with Time in their names (Pony Time & Heavy Times), but the highlights were the headliners The Mallard and Thee Oh Sees.

I had seen The Mallard play earlier and I thought they were pretty good but they didn’t really stick into my brain. When they played this night show I was totally unprepared for the end of their set when their front woman hung her guitar from a banner and jumped into the crowd throwing dust on herself and everyone. It was pretty fucking awesome but as soon as I started taking photos, random people from the crowd started photo bombing her performance and it became this weird photo shoot with the crowd. It was pretty amazing and I ended up with some great, if not super weird, photos.

Thee Oh Sees are a band that I catch at least once every SXSW. They are fucking amazing and always put on a great show. The first time I ever saw them they were playing on a bridge and playing every other song with another band. I saw a girl with two black eyes and it turns out she got them from getting kicked in the face during a Thee Oh Sees show the night before. The madness did not disappoint and I actually ended up getting attacked in the mosh pit by some drunk guy who had tried to start a fight with me earlier in the night. I saw him coming and I grabbed him by the shirt and smashed my camera into his face. I was pretty upset that I lost my shit like that but my camera was fine. The next night he came up to me and sort of apologized but he really just wanted to know what happend because he didn’t remember anything of the night before. We were all good after that and he let me take a photo of his camera wound. Oh yeah, and Thee Oh Sees killed it.

Now click here to see all the pictures from the CMRTYZ/Castle Face Records Face-Off at the Sailor Jerry at the Gypsy Lounge!