All this weekend from noon to 11pm there is a big anti-war festival happening at The Firehouse (map ) downtown.

LA vs WAR highlights the travesty of a senseless war now going into its 6th year, giving LA artists a platform to exercise their freedom of speech. Hundreds of artists representing our diverse communities unite in delivering a universal message of peace and understanding, and offering resistance and opposition to the US government’s war policies.

With print and graffiti exhibitions, live djs, film events, and plenty of anti-war info – this should be a pretty positive and interesting event.

Link

Two of the men above are the artists behind one of the most progressive alt.noise rock and roll bands playing music today – the other two are the goofy duo leading the Kiwi comedy.folk revolution happening across America (can you tell who is who?). What do they both have in common? They are both on the bill for this year’s Sasquatch Music Festival taking place at the Gorge Amphitheater this Memorial Day weekend.

Full Lineup:

Saturday, May 24th
R.E.M. / Modest Mouse / M.I.A. / The New Pornographers / The National / Ozomatli / Beirut / Dengue Fever / Fleet Foxes / The Breeders / Okkervil River / Crudo (featuring Mike Patton & Dan The Automator) / Destroyer / Dead Confederate / Grand Archives / David Bazan / Joshua Morrison / Vince Mira with the Roy Kay Trio / Throw Me The Statue / The Shaky Hands

Sunday, May 25th
The Cure / Death Cab For Cutie / Michael Franti & Spearhead / Blue Scholars / Cold War Kids / Tegan & Sara / Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks / The Kooks / Mates of State / Rogue Wave / White Rabbits / The Heavenly States / 65daysofstatic / Sera Cahoone / The Blakes / The Cops / J. Tillman / "Awesome"

Monday, May 26th
The Flaming Lips U.F.O. Show / The Mars Volta / Flight Of The Conchords / Rodrigo Y Gabriela / Built To Spill / The Hives / Matt Costa / Ghostland Observatory / Jamie Lidell / Battles / The Cave Singers / The Little Ones / Thao Nguyen with the Get Down Stay Down / Pela / Kinski / Dyme Def / Say Hi / Siberian

Pretty freakin amazing.  I bought my tickets – anyone else want to roll.

Cont. – More thoughts and pics of The Gorge

South By Southwest Film and Music fest cranks up this Friday. Although I will not be attending, I took a quick look at the film lineup. A lot of good flicks – some of the best of Sundance, a few premieres, a ton of documentaries, and a whole lot of very indie films that fly under the radar. Here’s the full list and here’s what caught my eye:

American Teen Nanette Burstein’s docu about a group of high school seniors in Indiana was one of my favorite films at Sundance. The film raises interesting questions about the line between documentary and reality programming – but what really stands out is the incredible personalities of the kids Nanette follows. I am dying to find out what these kids do in their lives.
Site

Nerdcore Rising A look into the hottest form of hip hop music (at least for nerdy white kids) and the movement’s figurehead, MC Frontalot.
Trailer/Site

Assassination of a High School President Another fave from Sundance, this hilarious high school genre mashup turned out much better (and funnier) than the script. It isn’t Brick, and it isn’t Rocket Science, but it is a pretty good flick.

Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet A docu about artists who use old videogame hardware to create new music.
Great Trailer

Lots more after the jump