Coachella A-Z – Part 1
Introduction
I’ve never been to a desert, but I will be in one at the end of April. So will roughly fifty thousand other crazy people, all from around the world. On April 30 and May 1, there will be a concert in the California desert just outside the small town of Indio. It is called the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, and it will change my life. I can feel it already. It will be one of those events that I will remember forever, and I can safely assume this is a feeling shared by many, many other people.
When I read testimonials on the message boards of past concert goers, I feel as if they are retelling a grand epic. It isn’t simply the music or the heat or the excitement. It’s the feeling of bliss, uncut and genuine. These people are happier people after going to Coachella. They almost sound as if they have been saved.
This column will feature previews of every band, artist, and DJ billed to play the show. I will do my best to describe all the individual and (very often) completely unique sounds that will be showcased. Sounds easy, right? What does the number Eighty Four mean to you? To me, it means the number of profiles that I have prepared myself to write for this column. Yeah, Eighty Four. That’s a whole hell of a lot of music. I thought of several ways of presenting this list, be it top down, A-acts to D-acts, per genre, number of records sold, which movement they belonged to, and so on. The list of artists is simply too varied to be categorized in any way. There are some bands that sound sort of like other bands, but then there are bands like The Arcade Fire. It would be silly to do it in any way that didn’t give fair time and energy to every band, because Coachella is really a showcase of unique talent. It would be a disservice to that idea to write this in any complicated way. The list of bands, artists and DJ’s will be presented in Alphabetical order.
Still with me? Excellent. Now that I’ve got through the preliminaries, lets kick off with the official list, shall we?
Saturday, April 30th: Coldplay, Bauhaus, Weezer, Cocteau Twins, the Chemical Brothers, Wilco, Keane, Snow Patrol, Rilo Kiley, Cafe Tacuba, Doves, Sage Francis, Armin Van Buuren, the Raveonettes, Bloc Party, Mercury Rev, Fantomas, Hernan Cattaneo, Zap Mama, DJ Peretz, the Secret Machines, Jamie Cullum, M83, Ambulance LTD, Four Tet, MF Doom, Josh Wink, Amp Fiddler, Tiga, the Kills, Donavon Frankenreiter, Spoon, Boom Bip, Katie Melua, DJ Marky, Immortal Technique, Jean Grae, Razorlight, Swayzak, Radio 4, Buck 65, Eisley, the Sexy Magazines, k-os.
Sunday, May 1st: Nine Inch Nails, New Order, Bright Eyes, Gang of Four, Prodigy, Black Star, the Faint, Roni Size, the Arcade Fire, Roots Manuva, DJ Krush, Thrice, Junkie XL, M.I.A., British Sea Power, the Dresden Dolls, Miss Kittin, the Fiery Furnaces, Aesop Rock, the Perceptionists, Jem, Autolux, Sixtoo, Tegan and Sara, Stereophonics, The Bravery, Matthew Dear, Diplo, Subtle, Beans, Shout Out Louds, the Futureheads, Sloan, Kasabian, the Blood Brothers, Matmos, Wolf Eyes, Gram Rabbit, Smokestacks, Zion I.
This is the list according to the Coachella Official Website, ranked from headliner to opener, it would seem. See anything you like? Keep reading, and you’re bound to see more.
While this column will seem like huge propaganda to sell tickets to this show, I am in no way affiliated with the festival. I am writing this free of any bias or sway. My only motivation is that people with even the smallest interest in music will read this article and find something they didn’t know existed before. If it isn’t a desire to see the concert, then at least it should be some knowledge of where modern music is at the moment. If you want to go to the show, but are unable to, this column is for you as well. On top of providing commentary and album reviews of the artists, I will have links to mp3s for most of the bands. You will get a chance to sample a majority of the bands for free, right from this website. I’m doing this for you, the curious reader and curious music lover. I’m doing this for the people who want something new, because you’re just like me. Beginning to sound good?
Now, before we begin, I’d just like to say that the next 11 weeks will run a lot smoother for myself and my affiliates with some simple constructive criticism from you, the reader. If I’m doing something great, please tell me, and I’ll do that more. If I’m doing terribly, let me know, and I’ll fix it. Dropping me a line will take two minutes of your time and possibly save me countless hours of research. Major thanks in advance.
COACHELLA A-Z
Aesop Rock
“Aesop, born Ian Bavitz, a Long Island native and Boston University art student cum indie rap superhero, is one of the game’s most introspective. His dense lyrical patterns and cultural references are praised as genius. His fifth full-length, Bazooka Tooth, may just save rap – and music.” – Prefix Magazine interview, 2003
Info on Aesop Rock is rather sparse, which is strange considering the man has five LP’s out already and is garnering lots in independent press. From New York, this B-boy’s rhymes sound increasingly refreshing the more I listen to him. The way he bends the lines to go against the way you’d think he’d wrap them is really impressive, and there is a not-so subtle hint of sarcasm everywhere. The beats are creative, using horns, snaps, wooden flutes, and sometimes the odd child laughing.
The reason to listen to Aesop Rock though is his voice and how profoundly deep it is, and how fast he still rhymes because of it. It always seems like the lower the bass in a rappe’s voice was, the slower he rapped, but this is simply not the case with Aesop. While not blinding, he still goes at a considerable clip, breaking along the way to let his posse go for a verse or two, and to sing the choruses in often really funny ways.
To tell you the truth, I can’t really find anything connecting Aesop’s rhymes. In any one song, he’ll take the topic he begins with and flip it around a dozen times through vague references and name dropping (Blink and you’ll miss the mention of Fugazi – proof enough that the man is into much more than just hip hop). But then you’ll get songs like “Night Light” where the chorus line is “All I ever wanted was to pick apart the day” and the message sort of becomes clear.
Aesop Rock is bass heavy, unpretentious hip hop from a guy clearly interested in the craft and not the easy rewards. His music is deeply hip hop, but it’s different in it’s own unique way. It’s clean and well produced, but never sounds like it was written to make money.
Ambulance LTD
If Margus Congleton smoked a thousand more cigarettes, this band would be the Dandy Warhols. If he smoked a thousand less, he would be the beatles. Ambulance LTD is catchy, groovy pop that reeks of sophisticated couture. The only thing is though, these guys are really nice. They’re not dicks like the Dandy Warhols, and they don’t seem to be into as many drugs as the Beatles were. They seem like nice guys. At least, that’s how they seem live.
One other reason that they seem like nice guys is that they let you listen to most of their new album, LP, on their official website, as well as let you download two of the tracks. Another thing? Marcus, the lead singer, thinks Chucky Cheese is his favorite fictional character. That’s just adorable.
Now, it’s nice that they’re all, er, nice, but how do they sound? If you’re not up for checking out the link and finding for yourself, lets make up a map. The lead singer sounds like Elliot Smith on a happy day. The melodies sound like a hundred other pop bands out of Britain. There aren’t many risks taken by the band, but what they have is light, infectious, and makes you want to fall in love just so you can have this album as a proper soundtrack to your life, just like a good pop album should.
Amp Fiddler
Hear that beat when you click on the official page? You have now heard the exact same amount of Amp Fiddler as I have. It’s a bad coincidence, but his site is being rebuilt, and there doesn’t seem to be any where that has an mp3 to listen to. However, I have found some press on the man.
“Detroit musician Amp Fiddler has been working behind the scenes as a vocalist, songwriter and keyboardist for more than twenty years. His versatile style has led him to recording ventures with George Clinton, Moodyman, Jamiroquai, The Brand New Heavies, Fishbone and Maxwell.” – Dancemusic.about interview, which you can read in full here.
From what I’ve read, this man is a student of funk and soul primarily. You could definitely call his album, Waltz of a Ghetto Fly, a thesis, since it took him three years to put together even after those twenty years studying under some of the game’s finest. I’m extremely curious to hear what it sounds like.
Now Magazine in Toronto had this to say; “Don’t expect a house album, though. A better comparison would be classic Sly Stone updated with current R&B sounds and a bit more dirty funk. He’s got that sexy growl down pat, and the rhythms swing and drop in a way that only a student of Clinton could pull off.”
Armin Van Burren
This guy has a sense of humor. His one downloadable mp3 on the official website is called “A State of Trance Radio Compilation” and, instead of a real song, appears to be clips of actual radio announcers speaking partially in English and partially in German about, it seems, the state of trance radio. There is lots of laughing and I don’t understand a single word of it. There are links to the radio shows that he does, apparently every Thursday, on the website as well.
The videos on the site however show something much different than gags and radio. One shows Armin spinning house, somewhat trancy-house, to a stadium club of thousands. It’s an awe inspiring site. The other appears to be on a float for a gay pride parade. The music sounds amazing on both these clips, and since these have been recorded live, you know he’s capable of putting on a good show at Coachella.
In an interview with Soul Shine Magazine, Armin commented on his particular sound; “I never have concrete plans about styles. I’ve produced a lot of house records in the past which I would like to do again. It all depends on what crosses your path as an artist in your life. The reason why I use that phrase is because I don’t want to be pinned down on just one style of music. I like to explore the boundaries of all styles by combining different elements. This can make music very interesting in my opinion.”
Autolux
The closest comparison to noise pop rockers-from LA Autolux would be Sonic Youth, and I think the comparison is apt. Both rely on the fuzz pedal to carry the sound through to a melody. Both instill moodiness, but it’s that weird comforting moodiness that works best at night after your ears are ringing from some other inferior band. Both have both girl and boy singers, a quality that gives the band a sense of duality that complex pop music needs, and it works really well. Finally, both have freaking weird official websites.
Just like Sonic Youth, and to a lesser extent The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Autolux will go off for several minutes in the middle of a song to deliver a crunchy guitar solo that seemingly only exists to remind us that guitar solos are cool. The lyrics are secondary in a band like Autolux; rather, it is the sound of it all that gives Autolux it’s edge. I’m always curious to see how a band that seemingly plays it so cool like this one does on a stage, especially in front of fifty odd thousand people. Will they be able to deliver the energy that is necessary to excite a crowd like that? That will be the big question for this group.
Another question will be about Autolux’s relevance and originality. They are making great alternative pop, but aren’t a lot of bands on this lineup doing the same? I’ve always wondered that about bands. Right before they go on stage for a festival such as this one, I would figure they would be listening to the band that was on. Wouldn’t it be a nightmare for the band to realize that the band preceeding them had not only the exact same genre as you are, but also pulled it off better? It certainly would be for me.
You can download Autolux’s single, Here Comes Everybody, right here.
Bauhaus
I’m sure you have noticed that the trend of popular music in the 2000’s is not some new form of art in any way; it’s actually just recreations of past fads and ideas. Arguably, it’s our most postmodern decade yet. The organizers of Coachella have recognized this trend, and decided to vaguely ‘theme’ this years’ festival by sprinkling the lineup with acts that have had their heyday back in the days that our decade is trying so desperately to copy. Bauhaus is one of these bands, and is second from the top of the bill on Saturday. Translation: They’re big, kids. Listen to them.
If you haven’t heard of them, that’s okay. It wouldn’t be okay to anyone who has ever considered themselves either ‘got’ or ‘glam’ at any point, but I’ll forgive you. They haven’t played a live show since 1998, and haven’t had an album since long before that. Even in the heyday of glam rock, Bauhaus barely scratched the pop music surface. They have no #1 hits to their name, and their highest song to chart (at #4) was a cover of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust.
They weren’t ever popular, but that doesn’t mean that tons of people don’t love them. More importantly, their popularity has little to do congruently with their talent. I love the snaky voice of the lead singer, I think it works perfectly with their style. Think David Bowie when he’s being snarky and you’ll have a good indication of what this band is like.
Here is a link to their video of Ziggy Stardust
Beans
This should serve as a reminder to all budding musicians looking for a good name for their project. Don’t name yourself something like Beans. I’m not saying it’s a bad name in itself, but for the sake of journalists trying to find anything about you, please don’t. Not only did I have to scroll through several pages of kitchen products and candy advertisements to find a single artist, I ended up finding two. Yes, there are two musical entities known as Beans. The first is a mostly-instrumental band from Vancouver that sound very art-café in the sense of mood and repetition. The other is an MC from New York, and while Coachella makes no distinction between the two, I’m going to assume the MC is the one Beans that they mean.
Difficulties in finding information aside, it’s also quite difficult to define Beans. At first he sounds like Choclair; jumpy, optimistic, and fast without being terribly creative with the melody. His words sound like they are being given much more attention than the way he goes about saying those words. He’s one of the few MC’s where you can tell pretty well everything he is saying on the first go around. He still manages to rhyme, and to blast through his narrative at blazing speed, but the lack of creativity in the delivery kills every hook he might have. After repeated listening you begin to see what he’s trying to do, and it has something to do with working against the grain of regular hip hop by sharing common ground with it, but I personally don’t get the groove all that much.
Here is an MP3 from Beans to you, entitled Diamond Halo Grenade.
Black Star
Black Star has no official website. In fact, all I’ve found on the band at all is the Amazon review of the disc, where you can listen to 30 second samples of each song. This didn’t make much sense to me, until I realized that Black Star is simply a side project for two incredible MC’s. Both of them DO have official websites.
Talib Kweli. You can listen to live performances and a few studio tracks in the ‘download’ section, as well as tour his biography and all the other things a good official site should have. However, you must register to the site to view or listen to anything. It’s free, but you gotta do it.
Mos Def. There are several videos and previews of tracks from his new album, and you don’t need to sign up to anything to get them.
The best I can do for you here is tell you that Black Star sounds pretty well like these two artists rapping on the same tracks. Their styles are slightly different – Mos Def has a little more of that BET gangsta thing going – but they flow together just fine. Both artists are on the verge of breakthrough (and depending on who you ask, Mos Def has already ‘sold out’ to the big time, though I’ve still yet to see him on MTV or Muchmusic), especially Talib, who always seems to be the artist people mention first when you look for ‘different’ hip hop. He worked with Kanye West before he blew up on Top 40 radio, and he’s doing his best it seems not to be in everyone’s face with his music. People come to him for good stuff, he doesn’t throw it at them, and this is how he’s received his rep as a true ‘independent’ MC even if he’s not independent in the label sense.
If you’re thinking ‘where have I heard of Mos Def’ before, then maybe you know him as an actor more than an MC. With an impressive Resume of film roles, his on screen personas may overreach his presence in hip hop. With movies like The Woodsmen, Monsters Ball, The Italian Job, and The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, this assumption may not be too far off. Talib has a smaller film career, but he’s been in a few (such as Brown Sugar along with Mos Def) although he’s always managed to play himself.
Black Star is a tag team of almost mainstream MC’s at arguable the top of their game, both artistically and in their influence. If the preview tracks from their album (released in 1998, this almost counts as a reunion) are any indication, their live show can be electric.
Bloc Party
MP3’s – This modern Love
So Here We Are
Official Website
Along with the two mp3s available to you there (thanks Ryan from Baltimore!) There are three tracks available for download on the main site.
Yesterday, at the end of my radio show in Toronto, I was talking to Tenni, our music director about this column. I told her I’d be going from Aesop Rock to Bloc Party, and she replied with “Yeah….Bloc Party” and nodded really approvingly. I figure, if you’ve got the approval of a gal who is so immersed in independent music that she rarely leaves her office, then you’ve got something good in there. Part Strokes, part Broken Social Scene, part Hot Hot Heat, all mixed together to create something entirely different. The funny thing about those three bands that sort of sound like Bloc Party is that they are all built on a huge blockade of punk rock bands from the 70’s, and so is Bloc Party. In fact, right at the beginning of their biography, we get this blurb:
“Bloc Party is an autonomous unit of un-extraordinary kids reared on pop culture between the years of 1976 and the present day. Like many such kids, between them they eventually concluded that their own attempts to imitate what had informed them could be construed as a worthy variation on the many forms that preceded”
Being up front and admitting that they are really only a summation of their musical knowledge is not only really post modern, it’s also refreshingly honest. Fitting perfectly into this lineup of old, original bands and new bands trying to sound like old, original bands, Bloc Party doesn’t make you want to dance, but it does make you want to buy vintage T’s and hang out at that elitist record store all day. Need more proof of this? Pitchfork, the most pretentious music website ever, gave them an 8.9 for their first and only album.
Bloc party are what they say they are – a rock band from England. With a statement like that comes the inevitable references to the Smiths, The Stone Roses, and The Cure. Bloc Party seem to be fine with this. They just want to be good, and from all the elitists I know, they are. Until they sell out and we hear them in the top 40 of course. And then they’ll suck.
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So that’s the first nine. Join me next week when I tackle the next list which will include: Boom Bip, Bright Eyes, British Sea Power, Buck 65, Café Tabube, Cocteau Twins, Coldplay, Diplo, and DJ Peretz, better known as Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction.
