KDP,
First, would like to say how much I’ve enjoyed reading your column about Coachella bands. I’ve been doing some of my own research on some of the bands and I know how much work it is to listen to all that music, especially since I have a regular day job.
But, I just wanted to say that I think you did a real disservice to Ben Watt. I guess you weren’t trying to be objective in your band descriptions, so maybe I shouldn’t be complaining at all, but Ben Watt is not run of the mill house! I’m guessing you’ve never heard him spin live, but you should really check him out when you’re in Coachella.
I lived in London for two years and went to his Lazy Dog parties every other week at Notting Hill Arts Club. The music, people and vibe were phenomenal. I live in San Francisco now and have seen him three times locally. His new Buzzin’ Fly label has been extremely well received in the club/dance music scene and the parties at this year’s Winter Music Conference in Miami almost all cut in one of Ben Watt’s remixes. They are legendary.
Anyway, just my biased opinion. I guess you can’t like all the bands and DJ’s at Coachella, so Ben Watt probably just isn’t your thing. But I wanted to tell you that there will be people like me who wouldn’t miss a Ben Watt dj set for the world. From his early days with Everything But The Girl, to his Lazy Dog mix CD’s, to his current Buzzin’ Fly mixes, Ben Watt is one of the biggest names in deep, sexy house today!
Have a great time at Coachella… I can’t wait myself!
Cheers,
Richard
What a great way to kick off the review for Coachella 2005; a passionate fan that will stick up for his favorite DJ. And in case I didn’t make this clear before, I only had about a half hour for each band when I was researching them. A lifelong fan is going to know more about a fellow than I am. Go with their opinions, not mine. ANYWAYS, I got back 2 days ago and I’m still recovering. The jet lag is killing me. My feet are killing me. My ears are killing me, happy as they are. Don’t let them fool you; listening to this many bands is work. But it’s wonderful work. It’s the most rewarding work any of us might ever do.
COACHELLA A-Z PART 10: THE REVIEW
Out of the 90 bands at Coachella, I found myself in front of 28 of them. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but let me explain. There are two ways you can do a festival like this. You can time-shift the whole show and squeeze in 10-15 minutes of each band, or you can sit back and listen to full 50 minute sets of most of the bands you like. I went the second route, and saw 24 or so bands that I definitely wanted to see before dying. The rest were okay. If I went there and only saw 10 minutes of each band, I really wouldn’t be doing a very good service to any review, would I? So, 28 bands. Here we go.
The Sexy Magazines
The Sexy Magazines were the first band out Saturday, beginning at 12:30 in 87 degree heat. Thank God they were in one of the tents. If you remember, I wasn’t able to find any Sexy Magazine music, so I went in without knowing what they sounded like. I can now assert this confidently: Find a live show and go to it. And then buy their album and play it at your next party. A girl will ask to sleep with you. Promise. These guys take dance punk to new levels and should be loved. Nic Armstrong should also be loved, albiet differently. Love him like you would have Elvis if he was an indie darling and nobody out in the real world knew him. He’s got that sort of vibe. Except, you know, a little more British.
Buck 65 is so awesome live. I told you not to miss him. I hope nobody did. He rapped and DJ’d all on his own and made it look so easy. He was funny, clear, and a great storyteller. Every rapper should learn something from him. Well, all except K-os, who is so ridiculously tight he can wear a straw cowboy hat and still look great. He began with ‘B-Boy stance’ and had the whole crowd wishing they lived in Toronto. Surprisingly, many of them sounded like they did. The Canadian showing in both artists and crowd was possibly the most surprising part of the whole show.
K-os
The Raveonettes are my favorite band, and at Coachella they showed why. Blowing the unsuspecting crowd away with a barrage of fuzz rockabilly, The Rav’s took home a lot of new fans. Playing both new stuff and old (there’s a big difference in sound between the new album and the previous two) they did what few indie bands can actually accomplish; they became sexy. Sharin Foo has that Marylin Monroe type of sexiness that’s so pure and good that when she sings “My boyfriends back and you’re gonna be in trouble” you begin to worry. Yes, they cover old 50’s swing tunes. But they make them both new and awesome.
The Raveonettes
M83 was a disappointment. I don’t know what I was expecting with these guys, but they really killed my high in the middle of the day. Thankfully, Snow Patrol was there to pick up the slack. If you didn’t heed my advice in the preview to pick up their CD and love it, do it now. Their live show proves that these guys are the real deal in replacing those Coldplay fellows.
When you go pick up that Raveonettes album like I told you to, add The Kills’ “No Wow” to the list. They compliment each other in a very interesting way. The Rav’s represent everything clean and subtly sexy about the good ol’ days. The Kills represent the dirty, romping sex. Everything the Rav’s hint during their songs, the Kills take further until you need a cigarette. Rilo Kiley should be part of this group too, last in terms of plot. Her songs mostly take place at the breakup stage, after all that hot, sweaty back-seat sex. She’s such a damn cutie though that it works.
Wilco didn’t live up to the expectations that everyone puts on him. He’s a good songwriter, but he lacks live prescence. Listening to him at home, alone, weeping about your lost innocence feels the same as listening to him surrounded by 50,000 lonely, corrupted folk. Thankfully, Mercury Rev lifted us back up, filling in for anyone who missed the Flaming Lips. Creating dreamy, substantial pop live can be tough without the right atmosphere. The sun was setting at precisely the moment they came onstage. You couldn’t ask for better mood music.
Weezer rocked the house. Playing a perfect mix of old and new (though some might say that the new isn’t exactly perfect) the guys with absolutely no stage presence at all took control and had everyone singing along and unblinking for 50 straight minutes. “Take Care of Me” is the best new song by far, and “Say it Ain’t So” still has people crooning. Great stuff. Coldplay was last, and was exactly as I expected them to be. No bells and whistles, just solid and straight through. The new stuff sounds like a natural progression from the old stuff. Playing it safe seems to work for them, and for the time being it’s good enough for them. People will eventually get sick of the schtick, though.
Midlake was the first band I saw on Sunday. Three piano players and a drummer makes for an interesting sound, I’ll tell you that. Sort of dreamy, sort of psychadelic is what I’d describe it as. This was a very different beginning than Saturday, and Sunday would continue to play differently in several ways. Perhaps it was that the first day I stayed primarily at the main stage while Sunday I was fairly rooted at the alternate outdoor stage, but there were other things. It seemed like way more people showed up earlier on Sunday. It felt almost clogged with rustling bodies.
Are Shout Out Louds your new favorite band yet? They should be. They play some pretty damn good pop. And they have a really hot keyboard player. Donavon Frankenreiter was next, out-Jack Jonson-ing Jack Jonson in terms of laid back surfer rock. Apparently he taught Jack everything Jack knows. Apparently he didn’t teach him everything he knows. Great lunch background stuff.
Gram Rabbit
Gram Rabbit’s set began with security guards handing out oddly high quality bunny ears to the entire audience. Hopefully the picture turns out, so you can get an idea. It doesn’t do the scope of the visual justice though. It was surreal. So was their music. Imagine Echo & The Bunnymen if they had been raised in the desert. They’d sound like this. Dark, disturbing, and interestingly danceable, Gram Rabbit was a bit of a dark horse going in, but they impressed me a whole hell of a lot.
JEM
Similarly, Jem really did it for me, too. Though it’s not traditionally the kind of music I’m into, the relaxed quasi-soul stuff she put out was really good. It might have to do with her being a stone cold minx, but she totally did it for me. The Fiery Furnaces blew me away as well. Instead of having stage banter and being friendly, each member stuck to their guns and basically played one 50 minute song, compiling just about every song they have into a blazing chaos of fuzz and sarcastic rock. Pick up “Blueberry Boat” and go from there.
Rilo Kiley
Tegan and Sara was awesome in their own completely unique way. When they speak, they sound 10 and adorable. When Sara says “Yeah, I’m really very attention seeking. When I walk into a room, I have to have everyone just stand up and start cheering.” you want to take them home and fall in love with them in that completely platonic way. When they sing, they become vixens. There’s no other way of saying it. They’re close to becoming one of our best exports.
Tegan and Sara
The Futureheads, a British pop band, sounded oddly punky during their set. This was one of the few bands I only got to see 10-15 minutes of, because I was not going to miss The Arcade Fire. Apologies to those Futureheads fans out there. What I heard wasn’t terrible, but I liked their recorded material better.
The Arcade Fire was the show of the weekend, far and away. You could feel the energy in the crowd while the band tuned. I was pretty close to the front, and I was getting squished. The crowd went back farther than I could see. As soon as the eight members began their first song, the crowd was ready to explode. They began with arguably their best song, “Wake Up” which begins with every member singing at the top of their lungs for 5 bars. The crowd sang back every word (a feat I considered pretty impressive, seeing as the album isn’t the easiest to comprehend lyrics wise). Each member played at least two instruments, and the diversity was amazing when they’d all switch mid-song. The two percussionists used just about every part of the stage as a drum (a crash helmet and the metal twenty feet up the scaffold they climbed being the two really impressive ones). I hope these guys become the biggest band in the world.
The Arcade Fire
It’s tough to compete with a set like that one, and New Order seemed somewhat bland afterward. The music was fine, but the stage prescence was really lacking. I know I didn’t have a problem with this when I mentioned Weezer, but after The Arcade Fire, 4 old guys playing classic new wave just didn’t do it for me. I left the set early to check out The Dresden Dolls, who put me right back into the throes of euphoria. These two are an amazingly captivating experience that must be done live. It’s just two members; a piano player and a drummer, but there seems to be so much more. The girl sings in a strange opera-ish way, but very fast, and the guy drums like a lunatic. Both donned mime makeup and gothic attire, and it was impossible to take a good picture with all that black on stage. Great, weird, aquired-taste stuff that I loved.
British Sea Power were a slight disappointment because their big selling point was their cool stage show. They did nothing but sing great songs, which was a downer until you realized how good their songs were. I don’t often enjoy a show where I only know one or two songs from a group (I have their album but don’t really like it) and come away feeling great about them, but I did here. They are a hell of a lot better live than on CD. So is The Faint, which had everyone rave-dancing all over the place. It was the first time I was completely fine being far away, since that gave me plenty of flailing room (I don’t think I’m that graceful as a dancer). It would have been a great closer in itself, but there was still one more band to play.
Bright Eyes was so good that everyone stood still and soaked it in. It’s like when an entire audience is being quiet during an amazing wrestling match. They stay silent out of admiration, respect, and awe. People on the net are wondering why he only played songs off his new album, “Digital Ash In a Digital Urn”. The thing is, this is his second tour this year. He already toured for “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning”, and most of his stuff before these two albums sounds a lot more like the latter. The “Digital” stuff is pretty unique within the catalogue, and the 50 minute set didn’t even allow him to play the whole album. The critics panned it, but there really isn’t a bad Bright Eyes song anywhere, and this album is no exception. The mood created by this particular sound is haunting. His scratchy voice only accentuates the low hisses and hard drum beats throughout. I spent the entire show cuddling with my girlfriend, hoping that we never live in a world that “Digital Ash In a Digital Urn” paints.
Coachella was the concert of my life. Coming home I was too drained to even discuss it, but I’ll be talking about it for years to come. I scratched over 20 bands off my “see before I die” list. It was worth every penny.
Though it doesn’t compare to the show itself (not too much does in the music world) writing this column has meant a great deal to me. I have to thank everyone who wrote in and helped me out during the last 11 weeks. I hope I helped people find some great new music.
Check out my new weekly column, debuting this monday. It’s called Lets Rave On, and will cover a whole whack of things. Peace.
