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Cali Vibes — the West Coast’s biggest reggae, roots music and hip-hop festival — returns to Long Beach this weekend with one of its strongest lineups yet, including headliners Gwen Stefani, Stick Figure, Slightly Stoopid, Rebelution, Ice Cube and more.
For the third year in a row, Cali Vibes will include the Boomyard stage curated by Leslie Cooney, a longtime A&R rep at Delicious Vinyl specializing in Jamaican and Caribbean dancehall, reggae and soca artists. This year’s Boomyard stage will include Jamaican rapper and reggae artist Kabaka Pyramid, Jamaican reggae artist Protoje, rasta reggae singer Lutan Fyah, Ghana artist Stonebwoy Delicious Vinyl Island’s own Blvk H3ro and Yaadcore; with DJ sets from DJ Delano of Renaissance Sound, Krossfayah Sound, DJ Daneekah and Mysta Crooks
Goldenvoice’s own Nic Adler got his start working in the mailroom at Delicious Vinyl, the West Coast hip-hop label that was home to the Pharcyde, Tone Loc, Young MC, The Brand New Heavies and other acts in the late 1980s and ’90s, says label co-founder Mike Ross, who also hired Cooney around the same time to bring reggae artists to the label. In 2018 — the same year reggae imprint Delicious Vinyl Island was launched — Cooney and Ross created a regular showcase and party for Jamaican artists called Boomyard at Delicious Pizza on West Adams in L.A.
“The idea behind it was to create a place to commune and celebrate the records we were putting out,” says Cooney. “I was putting out records by a lot of these young Caribbean acts and Boomyard became a way to play those records and meet up with DJs and dancers in the community. I used my relationships with all of my friends like Shaggy, Protoje and Mr. Vegas and all of these big artists that would just come touch the mic because they were friends of mine and the Party just took off.”
Jamaican DJ and singer Yaadcore, who performs at Boomyard, was the first producer Cooney worked with at the Delicious Vinyl Island imprint, although Delicious Vinyl’s ties to Jamaican music go back to the hip-hop-reggae group Born Jamericans, whose debut record Kids from Foreign was released on the label in 1994. As the record business changed, Cooney shifted focus to managing acts including Mr. Vegas and Trinidadian soca star Machel Montano and building up the Boomyard brand.
“It’s an extended community and everybody that I put on my stage is friends or family with a lot of other Jamaican people in the community,” Cooney explains. “So the stage is kind of like a meeting point. We’ll have the Marleys on the main stages, but their kids will be performing on the Boomyard stage or DJing.”
Cooney expects Protoje’s Sunday set to be among the biggest draws for the Boomyard stage, telling Billboard that “fans are going to get the real culture there because they’re going to see Protoje perform the way he might at home at a sound session. It’s DJs, playing his tracks live, mixing them live, flying in sound effects and all sorts of fun. It’s going to be insane.”
Learn more at www.calivibesfest.com and www.boomyardla.com
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“I received plenty of comments saying it was far too soon to ‘go solo’,” Geese frontman Cameron Winter told NME last year while reflecting on how people initially reacted to his decision to branch out on his own. “Most likely because a lot of folks assume that ‘solo albums’ only happen once a band has passed its peak and that they usually feel like uninspired cash grabs.”
Honestly, everyone is trying to earn a living however they can these days, yet no one expected a Geese side project to generate any real financial payoff in 2024. “Just so you know,” he went on, “my solo album is different: because barely anyone knows my band, I am young and comfortable living with my parents and I have the freedom to follow any ideas that interest me.”
Brooklyn indie followers and former NME cover stars Geese were gaining real momentum when their second album ‘3D Country’ mixed cowboy psychedelia with a jazzy, art-punk energy that had already captured the attention of many UK 6 Music dads back in 2023, but who could have predicted what came next? Geese have become one of the most talked-about bands of 2025 and are expected to dominate multiple end-of-year lists with the ambitious and full-range rock of ‘Getting Killed’. Yet the moment that set the stage for this rise was Winter’s Lou Reed-inspired debut solo record ‘Heavy Metal’.
A handful of late-night US television appearances and a spot on Jools Holland acted as a welcoming doorway for the world to see what this 23-year-old can do far beyond what many twice or three times his age are capable of. Now the sold-out Roundhouse audience made up of indie teens, art school regulars, fans who traveled across Europe and seasoned listeners reacts with a collective breath as a slight opening in the stage curtain reveals the silhouette of Winter seated at a piano. First comes a spark of excitement, then a sudden hush.
There is no flashy social media moment, no chatter overriding the music and almost no sea of raised phones. There is a sincerity to how the night unfolds. The Geese singer barely turns toward the audience. “Turn around!” someone calls out from the balcony at one stage. “Is this not enough for you all?” Winter teases back. For some, maybe it was more than enough. At least four people appear to faint around the warm and crowded Roundhouse while the room stands in absolute focus as Winter moves through the dreamlike storytelling of ‘Try As I May’, the emotional swirl of ‘The Rolling Stones’, the bright lift of ‘Love Takes Miles’ and the sermon-like stomp of ‘Nausicaä (Love Will Be Revealed)’. When he reaches the intense and spiritually charged ‘$0’, even the most skeptical hipster might be convinced that “I’m not kidding, God is actually real”. In that moment, it feels as though we all understand.
The entire performance can be summed up in how ‘Drinking Age’ unfolds. It starts softly with a gentle touch on the keys before erupting into a thunderous attack on the Steinway that could echo into next year, followed by a long, open cry aimed toward the sky. Winter somehow manages to blend something minimal with something enormous, something grounded with something cosmic, a delicate approach that hits with staggering force as he reaches toward ideas of existence, heaven, hell and everything surrounding them.
Winter could recite the phone book and still leave a crowd stunned. He carries the spirit of a post-punk Rufus Wainwright you can play alongside The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys, a Gen Z Tom Waits for listeners exhausted by TikTok overload, a new Nick Cave who arrives at exactly the moment he is needed. His voice feels older than his years yet perfectly suited to express the concerns and emotions of his own generation.
We will continue praising Geese endlessly because they deserve it. They are an extraordinary burst of musical creativity that goes far beyond what their lineup would ever imply, and along with Fontaines D.C., they are poised to become one of the decade’s essential bands. Still, tonight offers something quieter and more intimate. Cameron Winter stands completely on his own power, talent and magnetism, proving himself a rising force who can hold an entire room with only his voice, a piano and an entire future waiting for him.
‘Try as I May’
‘Emperor XIII in Shades’
‘The Rolling Stones’
‘Love Takes Miles’
‘Drinking Age’
‘Serious World’
‘Nausicaä (Love Will Be Revealed)’
‘If You Turn Back Now’
‘Vines’
‘Nina + Field of Cops’
‘$0’
‘Take It With You’
‘Cancer of the Skull’
