The summer concerts season will soon be in full swing and the South Bay is playing host to big-name acts from May through the fall.

Some of the top acts on the summer concert schedule:

Mountain Winery
Between the usual Baby Boomer-bait reunion tours coming through the Mountain Winery this summer are a few bands on the lineup that remain relevant in today’s market.

Eclectic queen of neo-soul Erykah Badu shows up on June 29, seemingly dedicated to nonstop touring since the release of her fifth album three years ago. Despite this, she’s already managed to pop up on Tyler, the Creator’s new album and Janelle Monae’s new single this year.

In July, acoustic guitar shredders Rodrigo y Gabriella bring their trademark quick-picking percussive patois of guitar styles to the winery along with pianist and arranger Alex Wilson. On July 20, Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and indie rocker St. Vincent will play tracks from their new joint album, Love This Giant. Michael Franti’s aggressively positive “rebel rock” arrives Aug 13. To close the season, melancholic warbler Conor Oberst performs on Oct. 3 before heading to San Francisco for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.

Shoreline Amphitheatre
Shoreline will see its fair share of big-name acts roll through this summer, including Ke$ha and Pitbull on a co-headlining tour June 14. Wiz Khalifa and A$AP Rocky bring their “Under the Influence of Music” tour through on July 17, and Kid Rock makes a blue-collar campaign stop on July 28 with a $20 flat rate (plus fees) for tickets. Bob Dylan headlines the Americanarama Festival of Music Tour with support from Wilco and My Morning Jacket on Aug 4.

HP Pavilion
Expect a high concentration of tweeners around HP this summer starting with Justin Bieber on June 26 with his Believe album tour and its accompanying cash-grab acoustic-remix edition. New Kids on the Block and 98 Degrees, OGs in the boy-band business, perform July 7, followed by their Ken Doll variety-pack spawn, One Direction, on July 30. The biggest HP show of the summer arrives with the return of Beyonce on July 2 for her “Mrs. Carter” tour and Bruno Mars rounds out the pop music lineup on July 25.

Beyonce performs at HP Pavilion on July 2.

Music Festivals

Fountain Blues Festival
The 33rd Annual Fountain Blues Festival, presented by Metro, brings Girls Got the Blues, Roy Rogers and the Delta Rhythm Kings, Ruthie Foster and John Mayall to the stage for 2013. It takes place July 20, noon-8pm, in St. James Park, San Jose.

Composed of local San Jose blueswomen, Girls Got the Blues is fronted by “Empress of the Blues” Lara Price. Venerable slide guitarist Roy Rogers returns for a seventh time with his band, followed by vocalist Ruthie Foster, back by popular demand after a standing ovation last year. First-time Blues Fest performer (though longtime player) John Mayall, whose Bluesbreakers band was a leading talent pool for the British blues scene in the 1960s (Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor and others) closes out the evening.

Mayhem Festival
Perennial prince of darkness Rob Zombie headlines the Mayhem Festival coming to Shoreline June 30. Though the title of his recently released fifth album, Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor, might not indicate any drastic aesthetic changes, the heavy metal legend is slated to direct his first nonhorror film in 2015, The Broad Street Bullies.

Other major acts include Five Finger Death Punch, Mastodon and Amon Amarth, along with Machinehead, Children of Bodom and City in the Sea, among others.

Rock the Bells
Perhaps as a sign of things to come, two of the biggest names at this year’s Rock the Bells festival are dead. Holograms of both Wu-Tang Clan member Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Eazy-E of N.W.A. are scheduled to play alongside their still-living counterparts. Bone Thugs n Harmony will include their mentor Eazy-E in their show, and ODB will turn up with the rest of Wu-Tang. Other throwback acts include Jurassic 5, Tech N9ne and E-40.

Odd Future members Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt are slated to play, along with other contemporary rappers Danny Brown, Kid Cudi and Dom Kennedy. Rock the Bells unfolds Sept. 14-15 at Shoreline.

Outside Lands
High-profile throwbacks Paul McCartney, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nine Inch Nails are set to headline this year’s Outside Lands, but even these guys might get outshone by the younger acts. French indie rockers Phoenix appear, as well as hipster heavies Vampire Weekend, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the National, Grizzly Bear, Band of Horses, Yeasayer, Matt & Kim and many more. A few electronic acts are in the mix as well, including Kaskade and Pretty Lights. Former R&B recluse D’Angelo will make an appearance, though no word yet on whether his eternally forthcoming new album will be out in time. Outside Lands takes place in Golden Gate Park, Aug. 9-11.

While LL Cool J might not be knocking out hits like he did early in his career, the veteran emcee has orchestrated one of the biggest hip-hop shows of the summer concert season with the Kings of the Mic Tour, also featuring Ice Cube, Public Enemy and De La Soul.

Stopping at Shoreline Amphitheatre on May 25, it’s a tour far removed from the lean and molly scene found in popular rap music today, but just as relevant for the role each act had in shaping the genre and their diversity of styles. LL Cool J was its first sex symbol, Ice Cube and his partners in N.W.A introduced gangster rap to the world, Public Enemy brought revolutionary rhymes and political assassinations to the mix and De La Soul added depth with their brand of NYC bohemian hip-hop.

While some might know LL Cool J more recently for headlines from his cringe-inducing collaboration with Brad Paisley, “Accidental Racist,” acting roles or the beat down he served on an intruder at his L.A. home that blew up on TMZ, his role in bringing hip-hop into living rooms across the United States and the world can’t be understated.

LL Cool J emerged from Queens, New York, in 1985 and quickly became a national star after the release of Radio on Def Jam, part of a trifecta with label mates Run DMC and the Beastie Boys that grabbed headlines with one of rap’s first riot-inducing national tours in 1986.

What set Cool J apart early in his career, and even now, was equal appeal among men and women. His early hits “I Can’t Live Without My Radio,” “Going Back to Cali” and “Mama Said Knock You Out” had enough swagger to keep the guys interested while tracks like “I Need Love,” “Round the Way Girl” and “Doin It”—and his suave persona—had the ladies loving Cool J and screaming for more.

After 28 years and nine certified gold or platinum singles, LL Cool J is still doing it—and doing it fairly well—with Authentic, his first album in five years and his 13th release to break the Top 10 on Billboard‘s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts.

“It’s like one of those things when you are born to do something you feel it calling you,” LL Cool J said during a phone interview about his return to music after five years of mostly working in TV with his role on NCIS: Los Angeles. “I thought if I don’t do it, I might never get around to doing it. There was no reason to do a record other than to just do a record for the love and passion that I have for music and hip-hop.”

While that passion is still there for his own music, LL Cool J doesn’t feel as strongly about the current state of the genre that he has championed for almost 30 years.

“The current state of hip-hop, a lot of it, with all due respect, sounds like everybody is trying to make the same song,” he says. “Don’t get me wrong, I know they are very successful, but a lot of it sounds like the same thing over and over and the same people making the same songs together.”

With Authentic, he rejected advice to connect with younger rappers who could help introduce him to new audiences. Instead, we find two appearances from ’80s guitar hero Eddie Van Halen with another guitar performance from Tom Morello, features from rappers Snoop Dogg and Chuck D and cameos from ’70s throwbacks Earth, Wind & Fire and Bootsy Collins.

“What I’m not going to do is follow the rules that are laid out by people that say you have to have every current rapper on the album and you have to pretend to still be a teenager,” he says. “I said I’m going to do what I have to do as an artist and explore all different genres and do music that I think kind of pushes the envelope.

“Tactically, I guess it would be a lot easier to go get a guest appearance from whatever current rap artist is out and use his producer and just do a verse on it and be done, but then I haven’t made an LL record; I’ve made a song with crutches.”

As a result, there are no big radio singles from Authentic (in fact, no airplay that we’re aware of in the Bay Area), but that seems fine for Cool J. He says he made the album for the fans that have been with him from the beginning.

“Everybody else obviously is invited,” he says. “If you make music, the more people that hear it the better. I want the whole world to love it, but the album really is for people who grew up on my music who will understand the vibes and the movements happening on this record.”

And for the new fans?

“The challenge is to get people into what I’m doing by introducing them to something new, but be myself while I’m doing that and stick to my truth.”

LL Cool J
Shoreline, Mountain View
May 25 7pm
$38.50 & up

The McEnery Convention Center hosted hundreds of comics fanatics who dressed up as their favorite super heroes and villans for the Big Wow! ComicFest over the weekend.

Metro photographer Geoffrey Smith II was there for an action-packed day.

LIVE 105 has been on the forefront of the EDM movement for years, promoting it even back when it was still a niche genre. In recent years at the BDF festival, the Subsonic Tent—an extension of Aaron Axelsen’s electronic music show—has become a bigger part of the festival, encompassing a bulk of the festival’s more interesting bookings.

In fact, even on the other stages this year, the strongest bands were the ones who stylistically could just as easily fit on the Subsonic Tent. Below are some of the highlights from this year:

Capital Cities
By far the strongest act to play the Festival Stage this year. Capital Cities, a new duo from LA, brought disco-infused synth-pop beats to BFD with a live guitarist, bassist and a trumpet player. Two vocalists, one tall with a mustache and the other short with a bushy beard, both equally shared vocal duties with a fun, somewhat goofy stage presence.

Midway through their set they taught the audience the “Capital Cities Shuffle,” which was simple enough for anyone to execute. They played a bizarre, slow-downed rendition of the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” and an upbeat dance-version of Sinead O’Conner’s Prince-penned “Nothing Compares 2 U.” They closed with their buzz single, “Safe and Sound,” a catchy dance-pop song.

PHOTOS: Check out the Metroactive photo gallery.

Wallpaper
It’s incredible the attention Wallpaper have been getting the past year considering that it’s basically an ironic pop act with elements of R&B, hip-hop, all done through a weird performance-art lens. But now it seems the ridiculous character known as Ricky Reed is becoming an actual pop star. What has been their biggest selling point is how strong of a performer Reed is and his ability to engage the audience and get them moving, but the entire band has become a theatrical spectacle.

At the Subsonic Tent, where they played this year, their three drummers pulled out some amazing synchronized moves, including the final breakdown of “Fucking Best Song Everrr” when the drummers stood up, shook the audience’s hands and returned to their kits at the same moment and jumped back in on the beat. They are one of the best live acts going right now.

Passion Pit
LIVE 105 couldn’t have booked a better main stage headliner this year. Passion Pit have really blown up this past year with the success of their brilliant sophomore release, Gossamer, which infuses synth-pop with elements of indie rock. At BFD, they played cuts from their debut, but the highlights were the tracks from Gossamer, including “Carried Away,” “It’s not my fault, I’m Happy,” “Cry Like a Ghost” and the breakout single “Take a Walk.” The evening was particularly special for Passion Pit as lead singer Michael Angelakos celebrated his 26th birthday.

DJ Shadow
DJ Shadow’s set at BFD featured obscure and often brand new tracks that he continued to assure the audience they’d probably never heard before. It was a strange, mind-melting juxtaposation of songs, mixed and blended by the iconic Bay Area producer. Every once and a while he’d lower the music and make a comment, like, “Just to let you know, there’s no laptop on stage with me” or “If you’re confused about what’s going on, look at your neighbor and do what they’re doing.” Some of the beats we danceable, others were just weird, slow trance beats, while others were loud, bass-filled outer space soundscapes. He cut songs together so fast, and with so much skill, it was hard to do anything but stare, amazed.

San Jose
This was the year for San Jose at BFD. There were more bands from the South Bay to play BFD than probably any year before with four bands on the Soundcheck Stage and the Limousines on the Subsonic Stage. Over on the Soundcheck stage, the Trims, Anya and the Getdown and Picture Atlantic all played excellent sets, but it was a particular pleasure watching Curious Quail’s set. Their music probably least resembles LIVE 105’s format of all the local bands, but they fought hard to get there with an online vote.

Their excitement of being on stage at Shoreline was palatable, understandably so. Over at Subsonic, the Limousines put on an intense, mostly serious set that, with the exception of two songs, were all tracks off their new album, Hush.

The organizers behind the annual Rock the Bells Festival at Shoreline Amphitheatre are making big moves for their 10-year anniversary with the announcement that Eazy E and Ol’ Dirty Bastard will perform in hologram form this year.

The announcement, made last night during a press conference at House of Blues on Sunset Strip, arrives just over a year after Hologram Tupac stunned fans with a surprise appearance at Coachella 2012 during Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s headlining set.

At the festival, September 14-15 at Shoreline, Eazy E’s hologram will join Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and the Ol’ Dirty Bastard hologram will appear during Wu Tang Clan’s set.

The Complete Lineup:
Big Krit
Black Hippy
Bodega Bamz
Brother Ali
Chase & Status
Common
Currensy
Danny Brown
Dilated Peoples
Dizzy Wright
Dom Kennedy
E-40 & Too Short
Earl Sweatshirt
Flatbush Zombies
Hit-Boy
Hpsin
Immortal Technique
Jhene Aiko
Juicy J
Kid Cudi
Lecrae
Mimosa
Prof
Rakim
Snow The Product
Supernatural
Talib Kweli
Tech N9ne
Tyler the Creator

Since 1994, LIVE 105′s BFD festival has been a staple for exposing new artists to the Bay Area. The Killers, Imagine Dragons, MGMT and Foster the People all played the festival before they were well known. Even AFI performed—on the local-band stage—well before they hit the national spotlight.

In fact, the purpose of BFD, with the exception of presenting a couple of big-name headliners, has always been to treat music consumers to emerging artists at a reasonable price. Aaron Axelsen, the assistant program director/music director at LIVE 105 is heavily involved with booking BFD. He likens the station’s booking strategy to that of the Oakland A’s in Moneyball.

“We’re trying to find acts at a reasonable cost that we’re anticipating are going to pop, like a Robert DeLong, or a C2C or a Diplo, or even Capital Cities, Neighbourhood, Atlas Genius. These are bands that are going to blow up. It’s using our instincts to find them, and not charging $200 a ticket,” Axelsen explains.

As the festival has matured, the Subsonic Tent, which focuses on electronic and hip-hop, and the Soundcheck Stage, with Bay Area bands, have become an increasingly important part of the festival. For Subsonic, a lot of it has to do with the growing popularity of electronic dance music.

“It was more of an underground niche back in the day, but EDM culture has really caught on,” Axelsen says. “It’s not pigeonholed. The 23-year-old music consumer—you look at their iPod, they have everything in there; they have Of Monsters and Men, but they also have Diplo.”

This year’s Subsonic Tent includes an eclectic blend of bands: Wallpaper (hip-hop, electro-pop), C2C (French turntable artists), K Theory (hip-hop), as well as electronic-music legends Chemical Brothers and Bay Area-based turntable game changer DJ Shadow.

As the Soundcheck Stage has grown, local bands are seeing a boost long before BFD arrives. “It seems like the stage has intensified because of all those other components that go into it,” Axelsen says. “These bands are getting support on Soundcheck every week and on the website. They’re getting a lot of exposure. The bands can use it when talking to booking agents or labels—oh, look, we played BFD.”

This year, San Jose is the most represented city at BFD, with four out of the 10 acts, including Curious Quail, the winner of the local band contest, Anya and the Get Down, Picture Atlantic and the Trims.

BFD
Sunday, May 19; 11am; $39.50-$59.50
Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View

San Jose chanteuse Anya Kvitka is back with a new video for her track “Maybe.” Be the first to see it here.

Just in time for her appearance at Live 105′s BFD this weekend, the track features a sparse piano riff over a classic hip-hop beat as the visuals alternate with Kvitka floating among clouds and sepia-tone rose petals in a vintage bathroom.

Kvitka also recently dropped a cover of “Not Your Fault” from Awolnation (also, a headliner at BFD this year). Listen here:

Daft Punk delivers its first official album, Random Access Memories, in eight years after the Grammy award-winning electronic duo fanned the flames with endless teasers suggesting a return to music.

(This article appears courtesy of SFstation.com, an affiliate of Metro Newspaper)

With Random Access Memories, the most anticipated album of the year to date, French house musicians Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo set out to bring the human soul back back to dance music. To reach this altruistic goal, the two elected to produce the majority of the album using live instrumentation, innovative recording techniques and various collaborations with session musicians.

After dropping numerous hints of funky new material through media outlets, high-profile ads and a teaser at Coachella, the release arrives as a distinguished collection of robotic disco beats and mellow jazz fusion heavy on drum machines, modular synthesizers and vintage vocoder, and some surprisingly moody themes. The album pays tribute to music of the late 1970s and early 80s with help from pioneer Nile Rodgers, front man for multi-platinum hit R&B band Chic.

The album begins with “Give Life Back To Music,” a slow building digital guitar introduction climaxing with a familiar android voice droning prescriptive poetry. After a rocking instrumental guitar solo steers toward a slow fade out, “The Game of Love” leads us into melancholic cosmic journey that tailored more for a subdued VIP room than an all-night dance party.

“Giorgio By Moroder” begins as a musical monologue on the life of Italian disco musician and proficient synthesizer innovator Giorgio Moroder that unexpectedly turns into nine minutes of rhythmically pulsating star guitar. “Within” features android confessionals and self-reflection with a light metered beat, followed by similarly styled “Instant Crush” with Julian Casaablancas of the Strokes. “Lose Yourself To Dance” introduces adept hip hop creator Pharrell Williams, a welcome addition with simple soft chants paired with a steady funk beat, while “Touch” celebrates the half-way point of the album’s voyage with Paul Williams’ charming ballad vocals, vintage disco piano and trumpet decorated with whimsical noise effects.

Following a smooth transition, the instant the first single “Get Lucky” sneaks in eight tracks deep with the return of Pharrell’s money vocals. The pleasure-enduing song that broke Spotify streaming records to become the unofficial single of the summer clearly ranks as the brightest gemstone of Random Access Memories. “Beyond” starts the dilatory decline of fun, continued by “Motherboard” with odd space effects.

Todd Edwards provides one last lift with a reflective yet surprisingly upbeat melody on “Fragments of Time” but by the penultimate track “Doin’ It Right” featuring Panda Bear, the album’s energy dramatically begins to fade. “Contact,” the the only track that uses sampling on the album, serves as the epic orchestral conclusion with explosive drum beats .

Commendation for artistic merit feels warranted but not without slight confusion toward the generally downbeat and melancholy tone of
Random Access Memories. Dance enthusiasts patiently waiting for the release might wonder why their patience is rewarded with such somber vibes.

Although not structurally top heavy, it’s hard to believe that any tracks on the record other than “Get Lucky” will ever get steady play in clubs without a remix. Nonstop party seekers will have to look elsewhere for more inspirational rally music.

After first debuting a collaboration with San Jose Taiko at Subzero Festival in 2010, the Bangerz is working with the traditional Asian drumming performance group again for a joint performance in San Jose.

For the show schedule June 15 at the Montgomery Theater, the two groups want to expand on the original idea introduced at the Subzero Festival.

“I think a lot of people came out of curiosity, but it was kind of like the chocolate and peanut butter effect. It was an epic night,” says Bangerz DJ Aaron “Squareweezy” Aquino.

As of now, the show is mostly finished and will run approximately an hour and twenty minutes with new material.

“We thought it would be cool to merge forces one more time and extend on what we did,” Aquino says. “It will touch on San Jose Taiko’s 40th anniversary and It’s also going to the Bangerz’ 15 year anniversary.”

The plan is to do one show and potentially expand, depending on interest.

“A lot of our music is electronic, 808 drums and hard-hitting synths,” Aquino says. “I think it hits a different note in people when you hear those loud Taiko drums [and see] their choreography combined with the drums, both visually and sonically.”

A Kickstarter campaign, running through May 27, was launched to help offset production costs.

The Rave Run introduced glow sticks and EDM to Silicon Valley’s jogging scene over the weekend at Santa Clara County Fairgrounds for a fun run the culminated with a full-on dance party.

Photos by Metro photographer Alex Stover.