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With the announcement that Stick Figure is the final headliner for the 2018 ARISE Music Festival (Aug. 3 to 5, Loveland, CO), the line-up is now final.  Here is a run-down on the headliners:

Slightly Stoopid

Slightly Stoopid, is touring to promote their most recent musical experiment Meanwhile… Back at the Lab through the band’s own Stoopid Records.

“We’re a touring act, and we’ve been on the road pretty much non-stop over the last decade,” explains Doughty, offering that the band’s own local recording studio and rehearsal clubhouse “The Lab at Stoopid Studios” (within the warehouse district of Mission Valley just inland of Ocean Beach), is a key ingredient of what keeps the band’s sound fresh. In fact, the title and album cover reference the band’s collective escape from touring where they have been working on numerous creative and collaborative projects.

Nearly two decades into their artistry, Slightly Stoopid continues to progress into new musical territory, defining their signature sound while creating a contagious feel-good vibe that has its own lifestyle and subculture… and it’s been done entirely on their own terms.

Thievery Corporation

How many highly successful musical artists do you know that have thrived for 20 years without a radio hit, a big budget video, or major label backing? Moreover, have managed to do high-profile TV appearances, own and operate their own independent label since day one, sell several million albums and continue to expand their fan base across the globe each year. They’ve collaborated with such uniquely famed artists David Byrne, Perry Farrell, The Flaming Lips, Anushka Shankar, Femi Kuti, Seu Jorge, Bebel Gilberto, and been featured on major film soundtracks such as Garden State. They’ve headlined top music festivals, such as Coachella and Lollapalooza, and have influenced a whole generation of electronic producers and DJs. If you add these elements together, you can arrive at only one conclusion: Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, aka: Thievery Corporation.

Few musical artists are as diverse as Thievery Corporation, moving from space rock, hip-hop, Indian trip-hop, dub, French torch songs, and shoe-gazer blissfulness with remarkable cohesive ease. Boundaries and following trends have never been part of Garza and Hilton’s agenda.

OPIUO

OPIUO is Oscar Davey-Wraight. Born in the festival paddocks of rural New Zealand, he packed his bags and headed to Australia at the youthful age of 20 to find meaner, greener party pastures. Landing in the grimy, colorful streets of Melbourne, he built an emphatic fan base amongst club and festival goers across the great red land of Australia. Using his positivity as a catalyst for mighty musical enjoyment, he captivated audiences with his extremely unique funkadelic bass heavy creations.

2018 will see the release of a ton of new music, as well as playing some of the biggest headline shows of his career. This is down to the beautiful support of his die-hard fans throughout the planet, who share in his vision of a positive, fun filled world of love, family, and supporting your friends. It’s not what we got, it’s what we give.

Stick Figure

From the musical imagination of Scott Woodruff emerges a vibrant sonic soundscape, revealed in the newest Stick Figure release, Set in Stone. As with his previous releases, Set in Stone was written, produced and recorded by Woodruff, a self-taught musician.

An intuitive and accomplished producer, Woodruff crafts authentic artistry from the foundation of roots-dub reggae. Cavernous grooves, sparkling electronic orchestration and thick rhythms; songs and sounds that have incubated in a studio cabin in the woods near Santa Cruz, CA, where Woodruff found solace excavating a foundation and constructing a studio, all in preparation for his most ambitious recording to date. When completed, a brotherhood of hard-jamming musicians delivers this widescreen soundtrack in concert performances of consciousness-altering emancipation.

With Woodruff as the genial on-stage figurehead, Stick Figure concerts are gatherings distinguished by extended improvisational interludes, the mind-manifesting hues of a light show, and the much-anticipated entrance of the band’s canine mascot, a rescued Australian Shepherd, Cocoa The Tour Dog. The release of Set in Stone is a culmination of a journey that has seen the producer go from a mysterious figure to becoming a major player in the scene, virtually inventing a melodic subgenre, at a time reggae is reaching new heights of popularity.

Trevor Hall

Hall’s music, a blend of roots and folk music with hints of inspiration from India, has led him to a series of sold-out tours and collaborations with artists such as Steel Pulse, The Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, Matisyahu, Michael Franti, Xavier Rudd and Nahko & Medicine for the People.

Trevor Hall’s Chapter of the Forest (2014) and KALA (2015), debuted at #3 and #2 on the iTunes singer/songwriter chart respectively. He is currently touring around the US and Australia. While on tour, Hall collects donations to support children’s education in India.

Hall’s latest album, The Fruitful Darkness, became the #1 Kickstarter Music campaign of 2017 (#30 of all time out of 53,000 Music projects) and is being released in three song installments on specific lunar dates, culminating in a 14-song deluxe edition release, June 1st 2018.

Pepper

For Pepper paying homage to their roots is essential over a decade in to their celebrated career. The Southern California trio, who formed in 1997 and moved to the mainland from the three musicians’ hometown of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii in 1999, know that where they come from should always be infused in the music they create. On Ohana, the group’s seventh full-length album), Pepper embraces the feelings and sounds that encouraged them to become a band in the first place.

The resulting album features Pepper’s surf rock songs, showcasing the upbeat, positive vibe elements that make the band so beloved by their fans. There is, as usual, an ever-present sense of sunshine throughout the tracks, bolstering the music’s sense of optimism. The party anthems, the beach hang melodies, the boisterous rhythms are all there, each song carefully crafted to best express sunny moments by the ocean. “Vacation,” a fun, upbeat reggae-tinged number, was co-written by Bret and production duo Diji Parq and seems, to the band, like “the Beach Boys at their goofiest.” The soulful “Never Ending Summer” is about taking full advantage of something before it ends while “Wait” evolved throughout the writing process and eventually became a propulsive crooner that feels like signature Pepper.

Over the years, Pepper have toured extensively with groups like 311, Slightly Stoopid, Flogging Molly and Sublime With Rome, and spent several summers on Warped Tour – and this live sensibility shows on the album, released on the group’s own LAW Records. The band’s music – both live and on their releases – is really about enjoying life and being grateful for each experience. They want to give their all to every performance and share their passion with their fans and with younger artists.

ARISE Information

Following the successful and sold out 2017 ARISE Music Festival, the annual gathering will return again to gorgeous Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, Colorado on August 3-5, 2018. ARISE has become Colorado’s fastest growing summer music festival, anchored in the love of live music. The multi-genre music festival offers 7 stages of world class performances ranging from funk, reggae, bluegrass, jam, hip-hop, rock, electronic, folk to conscious roots music. This year’s eclectic lineup will feature sets from Slightly Stoopid, Thievery Corporation, Trevor Hall, Pepper, Living Legends, Ott., Quixotic, Everyone Orchestra, The Lil Smokies and Dumpstaphunk along with a long list of other talented acts that offer amazing performances live. Other primary attractions include all day offerings of yoga, workshops, art, film, activism, a renowned Children’s Village, and all the fun and co-creative excitement that can be packed into a 3-day camping festival. All told, ARISE will feature well over 200 scheduled performances and presentations throughout.

With a long-standing commitment to planting one tree for every ticket sold, and an unwavering leave-no-trace ethos, the ARISE Festival’s core values are grounded in a mission to serve as a vehicle for community-building and creating a festival experience which inspires positivity, joy and active engagement in issues of social justice.

Click here for the full ARISE Music Festival 2018 Lineup.

For ticket information click here.  Use Promo Code STUDENT for $20 off a 3-day General Admission Ticket.