Pat Mahoney. James Murphy. Swoon.

I write this while still in recovery mode…and worth every second of it! HARD presented the Special Disco Version Pool Party at the Roosevelt poolside bar Sunday afternoon and we had the great pleasure of being involved. The photos below should speak for themselves. Truly a memorable occasion.

Geeking out in the presence of GREATNESS.

Skinny B. Nope, that’s not a cigarette kids…

Look ma, no hands!

Plumley holding it down with the ever-charming, semi-clothed Gray Kid.

If you need me, I’ll be at the pool dah’ling.

If you’ve been wondering why it’s been a little quiet at The Ink Tanker as of late it’s because we’ve been up to our eyeballs gearing up for the HARD Summer Music Festival, which took place July 19 [hey, sorry, but as we get older it takes a bit longer to bounce back]. Now, that the all-night rager has come and gone, we can now catch our breath and revel in the memories of a truly epic night.

The first-ever event was held at the Shrine Expo Hall in downtown L.A. and headlined by scorching sets from N*E*R*D and MSTRKRFT. Over the course of 7 hours, Spank Rock, Steve Aoki, Jason Bentley, Mr. White, Destructo, Felli Fel, LA Riots, DJ Momjeans, Squeak E. Clean, Kill the Noise and Miles Dyson performed unbelievable sets to thousands of dancing die-hards. Italy’s The Bloody Beetroots closed out the bonanza with a full-throttle set that never let up from the first amped-up BPM until the clock struck 4 a.m. Meanwhile, Terry Kennedy and crew tore it up on the skate park throughout the night. We were blinded by the amount of bling in TK’s mouth and had to wear sunglasses just to watch him rail slide…

A special thanks to Eric, Meghan, Reba, Bill and all the others at Bill Silva productions, everyone at the Shrine and all those who helped in any way to make this a huge success. We could not have done it without you.

Stay tuned for details about the HARD Haunted Mansion, coming Halloween night 2008.

[A scene from the indoor stage]

[If you love Pharrell, say I!]

[The Bloody Beetroots killed it! Way into the night...Or morning? Is 4 a.m. night or morn?]

[Who are those masked men? HINT: 4 a.m.]

["Hey look, it's a bigger me!" MSTRKRFT - we heart you]

[MSTRKRFT: Sponsored by Crown Royal]

[Nice cardigan Pharrell]

[What on earth is going on here with Spank Rock?]

[Jam Master Jamal - our favorite DJ and friend, with a sleepy and apparently snarky Juliana]

[Jason Bentley rocking the decks]

[Squeak E. Clean opened the festivities]

***ALL PHOTOS BY TIMOTHY NORRIS***

[Juliana showing the pony who's boss]

Last night the Echoplex in Echo Park was ever so gracious to let us take over the place for six hours of dancing, drinking, Twister and more drinking. With “Sixteen Candles” projected on the wall, DJs Jamal Dauda and Jason Bentley spinning on the decks and a ginormous purple pony pinata, Juliana celebrated her birthday with tons of her closest friends.

Thanks to everyone for coming out and making it an unforgettable night. A big shout out to Bryan from Dewars, Matt from Tito’s Vodka and Heidi Richman for the distilled spirits and wine that kept the booze a flowing. And of course a HUGE thank you to Mitchell and Liz at the Echoplex and their amazing staff. Nic, Scott, Sarah - we couldn’t do it without you.

Here we provide you with sorted scenes from June 24th’s festivities:

[This cake tasted even better than it looked]

[Juliana celebrates with some of her closest friends]

[Ink and Tank toast to another birthday]

[Ana - thanks for everything]

[DJ Jamal Dauda provided the perfect soundtrack for the dance party]

[An awesome gift, DJ Jason Bentley stopped by to spin some jams for Juliana. Big ups to Mr. Gary Richards on the right.]

[Rosie Fuentes, the glamour queen, and Juliana]

[Steve Nice maintains the 12 inches rule at the Echo Park prom]

[Darker My Love's Rob Barbato grew this beard just for the party]

[Puma man Ryan Ayanian gives the birthday girl some love]

The music, the fashion. The hippies, the hipsters. The sun, the parking lot. All these words seem to equate to one thing: Coachella.

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been more than a week since one of the best music festivals (arguably) in the world has come and went. Now that our muscles are back to normal, the sun burn has faded and our hearing has returned, we can look back fondly and remember our three days in the desert. Despite losing our car for an hour and the horrendous parking situations, this year’s fest ended up being one of the best yet.

As the sun set over the polo field Friday evening, we strolled in as Tegan and Sara took to the main stage. With margarita in hand and the air getting cooler by the minute, their infectious indie pop went down as smooth as the tequila in our cups and it was official: spring break had begun. Over the course of the night, we raged to Diplo and Santogold, took a nostalgia trip with the Verve, who sounded better than ever, and visited wonderland with Fatboy Slim.

We saw far more music that we can possibly write about and frankly there are people that get paid to do that so we’ll leave that to them. However, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention our highlights (in no particular order).

Hot Chip. One word… Wow. They took it to a WHOLE new level of Hot Chip-ness. At that moment, we did not care that we were being trampled by 15k other people, nor did we care that the sun was literally setting ON US making us feel like a piece of chicken on a skewer….

Prince - Arguably one of the biggest acts to ever grace the Coachella stage, Prince proved he is one of the greatest entertainers alive today. The sassy showman welcomed us into “Prince’s house” for the night as he performed hits like “Little Red Corvette,” “Cream,” “7” and dozens more with the help of Sheila E, Chaka Khan and Morris Day. His slowed down cover of “Creep” is sure to go down in Coachella history.

Justice - The French duo absolutely destroyed us over an hour-long set, which was easily one of the most fun performances of the weekend. It’s amazing that at the 11th hour, the festival was as strong as ever. (Photo courtesy of SweatPantsMoney)

Kraftwerk - As the sky turned dark Saturday night, the four men of Kraftwerk positioned themselves behind their laptops, appearing oddly enough like an Apple commercial, and went through an impressive set that spanned their revolutionary career. Their robotic beats and vocoder vocals were juxtaposed by rudimentary images of countrysides, bicycle races and autoways and robots took their place for the finale. This was the real robot rock.

Honorable mentions: Portishead, MGMT, Simian Mobile Disco, Roger Waters.

We made the Metromix page! Check out more photos from our friends here:

Some of our favorite moments of Chella ella ella ‘08…

Juliana and Jenius Entertainment’s Jen Ross get ready to loose it to Hot Chip

Los Angeles Times’ Bronson currently offering lots of dough (ok, drinks) for anyone who can NAME THAT SHIRT.

UMMM, REALLY?

The Gray Kid chilling and relaxing…chillaxing.

Mr. Roboto himself: Steve Brodsky

We came, we saw, we rocked! How could you not, with Jane’s Addiction reunited in front of our very eyes – for the first time since 1991! We feel extremely fortunate to have been amongst a mere several hundred people to witness rock history – and yes, it was a doozy!

After a train wreck of an awards show that saw Kelly Osbourne go head to head with comedian host Jim Jeffries for some zingers, Sienna Miller plant one on Mick Jones and the Klaxons accept an award meant for the Arctic Monkeys, the LA alt-rock veterans received the Godlike Genius Award before launching into an explosive four-song set. Perry Farrell took to the stage dressed like a black stallion (literally, he had a tail people!) but the real highlight, proven by the deafening applause he received, was O.G. bassist Eric Avery. Eric circled the stage like a bull, and pounded out the iconic rhythms of “Stop,” “Mountain Song” and “Ocean Size” before grabbing an acoustic guitar for night-closer “Jane Says.” As the audience sang back in unison and danced to the steel drum, the band looked happy as ever.

Meanwhile, that very Eric Avery just released his first-ever beautifully dark solo effort, Help Wanted. Here’s a clip for his video… Then read on for more about last night.

It was a fitting end to a surreal night that also included an inspiring speech by Mick Jones of the Clash/Big Audio Dynamite who entertained the crowd with a story he saw on the news about kittens taking to a female dog after their mother died. He told the industry-laden crowd there should be a movie about it called “The Dogmother” before strapping on his guitar and rocking two songs with his new band Carbon/Silicon. All hail rock ‘n’ roll.

We leave you with a glimpse into our night:

Eric Avery laying it down like it’s 1989.

Believe it or not, Datarock was not posing.

Ink Tank’s very own Tim Plumley & Randall Roberts of the LA Weekly.

Guess who?

Fashion stylist to the stars Danny O!

Last night, the Ink Tankers made their way into the depths of hell, i.e. Hollywood Blvd. Ok, to be fair, the spot - newly opened 86 Dining House & Cabaret - was impressive. Also, all our friends there are quite nice – that means you Matt Goldman and Gary Richards!

So there we were, with all the fabulous people awaiting the arrival of our new fave obsession, Santogold. We waited. We drank. We danced. We drank some more. And then some more.

At 1:30am, she showed up but how do we say this politely? Look, we really LOVE Santo’s record on Downtown Records, and we truly love our friends, and we were even liking (let’s not push it) the Hollywood hang….

But we were sad. She only played 2 songs! It’s no one’s fault, we know…. I guess we were just a little too amped for this. So it looks like Coachella this weekend will be the spot to catch a real set… Or maybe she’ll come back through LA soon after.

But we have to give a big shout out to our fave DJ Diplo, who kept us dancing and made the wait worthwhile.

We leave you with a Santi song we can’t get enough of, enjoy:

First things first, it’s baseball season once again and our veins run Blue for the Dodgers. We recently caught the hometown heroes playing the Padres last Friday and while the Dodgers lost, no thanks to Jeff Kent, just being at the game with the enthusiastic crowd and the calorie-infested snacks made us realize how good life is. Note to the veggies - veggie dogs are behind home plate at the kiosk, not the counter.

Check out this snapshot of us coming through the gates. Who needs an overpriced commemorative picture when you have screen capture?!?