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!

A few months ago my friend Jenna Valentine over at Gods Girls recommended I check out a model named Alaina Fox next time I was in LA. I was headed there after my trip to Vegas for the AVN Awards and Alaina and I talked about shooting. Well it turns out that Alaina was going to be in Vegas too AND she was on the cover of Hustler Magazine that month and I happened to be working for Hustler at the AVNs. It all seemed to work out nicely and I shot Alaina along with Sovereign Syre and Ela Darling for a “AVN behind the scenes” feature for Hustler.

Well I just got sent the layout for this very exciting Hustler feature and there are several photos of Alaina in it, but none of the photos were from the mini photo shoot we shot in the middle of the group photo shoot. I shot her and Sov really quickly by themselves and Hustler didn’t use any of that stuff which means I get to show it to you!

I am headed back to LA next week and I hope I get to shoot Alaina again because she is totally adorable and is a rad lady (we spent a lot of time wondering around the floor of the Adult Entertainment Expo looking for girls to get her naked with). But in the mean time you get to look at this mini photo shoot that we shot in seriously less than 5 minutes mid photo shoot. If you look carefully you might find hints of the photo shoot we did for Hustler… okay maybe not THAT carefully…

Now click here to see all the NSFW photos of the beautiful Alaina Fox!

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 Whorehouse NYC/ Gold Whistle/ Bury Me In Brooklyn super party is back at 35 Beadel St. and it’s as insane as ever. Few parties can mix super gay shit with super ratchet shit and I mean that in the very best way. Add to that some awesome guest DJ’s (Lil Internet & Jubilee) and a kid in a pig shirt with a hula hoop and you have a party that can really only exist in NYC. Actually, I take that back, Whores N Gold is a party that can only exist in Bushwick. I don’t fuck with the after hours shit any more so I left around 4 but the party was still completely going off when I left. I am sure it was wild til 8am. Oh did I mention that one of the promotors got arrested on some unrelated shit in the middle of the questionably legal party where people were smoking blunts and drinking from bottles of booze and the cops left without shutting down the party? Only in Bushwick…

I don’t have much more to say about the party except “when is the next one?” so I am gonna leave you with a mission: look through these photos and ask yourself “Why the fuck would these people be in the same room each other?” If you can’t answer that question you know it’s a good party.

Click here to see all the photos from Whores N Gold at 35 Beadel St.

PS. These photos are mildly NSFW thanks to the insane Cuntmafia who performed one of her “trap metal” songs live for the first time.

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.

I shot two events last night and I am gonna try to get them both up tomorrow and then get the rest of the SXSW Music stuff up on Tuesday and Wednesday. Sunday is a slow traffic day so I bring you my most half assed SXSW gallery… the SXSW Interactive gallery. SXSWi has become a huge part of SXSW. When I first started going SXSWi was barely part of the festival, but now it’s probably the biggest tech conference in the US. CES is boring and stodgy compared to the huge parties and branding events at SXSWi. But the big problem with SXSWi is that it’s really photographically boring. No one wants to see nerds partying so it’s hard to make look interesting.

I hit up the SXSW Trade Show which isn’t specifically just Interactive but it seems to be very tech and web heavy even when it comes to the music side of things. Not much film stuff is represented so I am counting it as SXSWi. I also photographed a Nerdist event that my friend Seth Herzog was hosting. It was a cosplay contest which means a bunch of nerds dressed up as video game characters and stuff. It’s pretty awesome and is worth looking at if you are a) into cosplay b) into making fun of people who are into cosplay. Either way there are some awesome costumes.

And that’s that. Enjoy and I will see you guys tomorrow with some crazy non-SXSW photos!

Click here to see all my photos from the 2013 SXSW Interactive Festival.

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!