Odds & Ends: Major Lazer, Kanye West, Mumford & Sons

Backstage at last weekend’s Boston Calling Festival, Major Lazer’s Diplo and Jillionaire commented on the drug-related issues that have plagued EDM events. Most recently, a fan died of an apparent overdose after a Zedd concert in Boston and NYC’s Electric Zoo festival was forced to cancel its last day because of the deaths of two attendees.

“It’s going to sound weird, but we need to teach kids how to do drugs, the same way we teach them about drinking responsibly and having safe sex,” Jillionaire told Rolling Stone. If you’re going to go to a festival, drink water for six days before you get there; don’t drink no alcohol. If you’re going to do a pill and a half, don’t do four more and then pass out, overheat, and die of cardiac arrest. Instead of acting like drugs don’t exist, acknowledge that drugs will be at a festival and address them.”

Diplo agreed with Jillionaire’s advice, saying, “Orlando was one of the first places to have rave culture, and we learned how to do drugs. It’s going to happen; you can’t control it. Persecuting a festival is not going to help it because kids are going to do them regardless.”

The Konnexion Music Festival held in Kasota Park in Heyburn, Idaho, in late August didn’t result in any fatalities – but locals who live near the venue were still not pleased with the event.

Locals recently met with the Minidoka County Commissioners in hopes of convincing the county to create a mass crowd and noise ordinance. Complaints ranged from the festival’s noise affecting their sleep to the number of times performers said “the F word,” according to the local Weekly News Journal.

“It was basically an orgy and a drugfest,” Pat Gebauer said. “The marijuana was so thick. The things I saw – I won’t even tell you here. I will not have someone bring that type of activity into my backyard and profit off of it. This is not something Minidoka County needs in our backyard.”

Featuring over 30 acts including Soultronic, Beauflexx and Wolfman Fever, the Aug. 23-25 festival attracted hundreds of fans.

An attorney for the commissioners is writing a mass gathering ordinance and will present it on Sept. 16 for review. The Journal reported the commissioners asked the attorney to also consider a noise ordinance.

Apparently camouflage is back in fashion – but that doesn’t mean Kanye West has to like it.  

During an album listening party Wednesday in Brooklyn for Pusha-T’s My Name Is My Name, Kanye took the mic to go off on one of his signature Kanye rants – including his thoughts on camo. The rapper warned attendees that he had enjoyed a drink or two, saying he was “off that [Grey] Goose right now, I might get loose right now.”

Oh, and he doesn’t like corporations. Or sell-outs. Or when companies have T-shirt lines with numbers on the back of T-shirts. Just remember – it’s all about the music for Kanye.

“We make good music, we make good music. We don’t give a f**k about how much god damn money you make, we make good music,” Kanye declared, according to Huffington Post.

Atlanta’s Clermont Lounge is one strip club that treats all patrons the same – even the members of Mumford & Sons. The band was kicked out Tuesday night, just like any other group of guys, after they tried to film inside the club.  

Following the band’s performance at Centennial Olympic Park, the band stopped by Clermont Lounge for karaoke night. According to TMZ, Mumford & Sons got in trouble when the musicians tried to use their camera phones to film Ben Lovett singing.

The gossip site’s sources claim that after the DJ asked the band members several times to put away their cameras, the musicians cursed out the staff. After that, the group was reportedly kicked out.

Clermont Lounge posted an image of TMZ’s story on its Instagram account (via New York Daily News) along with a caption saying, “No camera rule applies to everyone!”