I bet you all were worried that something was wrong and I had gone missing since I didn’t finish the previous Coachella update. Wrong, I’m alive! No, Prince didn’t sweep me off my feet and whisk me away to Erotic City. No, I didn’t have a bad burgeritto (burger+ burrito) and end up in the Intensive Care Unit. And NO, I didn’t fall asleep from Kate Nash, so bored that I was never to wake up. Things just got too busy! But here it is, a handful of days late reviewing who and what was worth it at Coachella 2008 and who was erm, how you say, Le Suckxors. From the top!
Day 1.b- When I left off in my last post, I was preaching the virtues of The Raconteurs[1] and Jack White. From there the day took me to…

Santogold (on Lizard King)

Let me start this out with this statement: I am a HUGE Santogold fan. I love her new album (self-titled, out yesterday), think she’s an awesome character and know that she and M.I.A. are unfairly compared. BUT. I saw her performance at Stubb’s during SXSW and I was underwhelmed. Santogold’s side-dancers were fun and pretty quirky but I just wasn’t into it. This time was different! The sound was spot on, the dancers still jerkin’ in their funky way and Santogold could actually interact with the audience. It was… gold.

Thoughts from the show: Rocks, better sound, more people into it but probably a smaller crowd than at Stubb’s. (and that’s it. What can I say, I was too busy enjoying the show and shakin’ my booty to be writing things in the dark!)

Datarock (on Young Aspiring Professionals)

This was NOT the same band I saw last year. They doubled in size, adding a bass player, a pretty intense drummer and two more red-hooded sweat suits to the mix. The change was remarkable. They had better stage presence, interaction with the audience and sped up their songs a bunch (I thought) to give them a more upbeat feel. The picture is part of the show when they just stopped and said “here, you do this too!” and started doing the reach up-diagonal and pull dance.

Thoughts from the show: When did they become a rock band? The guys look like little kids from back here. HIGH energy! Who knew the keyboard player was also a talented saxophone player? Great audience stuff! This is almost a bit embarrassing but everyone is just having such a good time, they don’t care.

Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings (on Daptone Records)

I’ve never stopped to read any of the numerous blog posts that have been written about Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings. I’m not sure why, but whatever my skimming eyes caught compelled me to see for myself what the online articles were probably talking about. A class-act all the way through, this soul and funk group was incredible! To call it a groupd isn’t quite fair since it’s obvious that Sharon Jones is the main event. Before she even put a foot on stage, the energy was properly built with the 2nd-in-command introduced Sharon Jones in his warm baritone voice only after warming the crow with a song. Only then was the whirlwind was unleashed.

Thoughts from the show: Sharon Jones= firecracker. It’d be hard for anyone to match her stage presence, so they don’t try. The Dap-Kings are the perfect band to accompany her because if she was on stage alone, she might seem a little loony. With an audience watching the stage and essentially a half-circled audience ON stage (performing with her), she’s in them middle of everything. As it should be.

Spank Rock

After waiting through another insufferably bad DJ on the Gobi Stage with your personal space ALL violated, and the next young-thing hipster asshole bumping into you while drunkenly dancing, the last thing you want is for an act to come on LATE. Even worse is having the people in charge decide to wait until the alotted set time is half over before even letting anyone on that said performer isn’t going to be attending. ARG! I was SO excited to see Spank Rock. But to have waited for that long only to have Amanda Blank take the stage?!? WEAK.

Official word on his cancellation (via Brooklyn Vegan and Spank Rock’s Management):

“While in Indio, at the Coachella Music festival, he had to endure two emergency room visits (one hour before his set time) that eventually resulted in an actual operation on Monday and he now remains in Palm Springs to recover from this unexpected surgery.”

Thoughts on the show: )#@(*$(*#$( young asshole *&@#*&*#$ @#)its too loud in here #*#($*( @#*($(*getting too old for this &#@$*( eeew, i wish this chick’s hair would stop sticking to me @#$*389w348*Q2#**#*$

Hope he’s alright ‘n shit.

Fatboy Slim (on Skint Records)

This dude is the SHIT and knows how to put on one hell of a show. His opening was really fun (watch the YouTube video) and for being basically a silhouette on a screen, he sure embedded his personality and showmanship into every aspect of his show. I only wish I was in a less foul mood and didn’t mind being in a loud tent with sweaty strangers. I politely excused myself and chilled the fuck out while the remainder of my party was said to have had a bitchin’ time.

Thoughts from the show: Fatboy Slim= sensory overload

Day 2:

MGMT (on Columbia Records)

More impressive than the first half of their live show was the size of their gigantic mid-afternoon crowd. A huge percentage of whoever was in the festival at the time must’ve been crowded around that tent. Needless to say, we left after one song. Apparently the later portion of the show was awesome, but frankly, there were fresher fish to be fried.

Thoughts from the show: Packed house! Same story as Cut Copy (men playing their instruments on stage does not constitute entertainment). This is less enjoyable when you can’t oogle the lead singer.

Cold War Kids (on Downtown Records)

I know what you’re thinking. “Those guys are SO 2006.” EAT IT, they’re still great live. I still think their songs are poetic, tragic and well done. So, why not Coachella 2008?

Thoughts from the show: Mainstage performers need to look good up close because most of your audience is too far away to see any of the effort put forth and relies on those jumbotrons to get a peak at your mug. Great showcase of songwriting. Man, these guys are full-body performers. They’re not just playing with their hands.

Kate Nash (on Fiction Records

While there’s a certain type of person that enjoys Goldfrapp, there’s also someone out there that likes Kate Nash’s quaint, adorable songs. Not me. NEXT…

Thoughts from the show: She looks tiny but hearty. Lord, what a set of pipes! It sounds like one of The Pipettes going solo. The band is completely incidental. They are just props supporting her performance. Can’t say that’s the kind of energy you want going on. It makes her music way less endearing to the casual listener.

St. Vincent (on Beggars Banquet)

Whew! Here’s a chick who is more my style. St. Vincent is another band that I’ve heard a lot about, but never took the time to digest. My attention span is very short. Well, an hour with no other interesting bands at Coachella sure is a heckuva attention-getter!

Thoughts from the show: She’s like a little crazy person with Winona Ryder hair, a Natlie Portman face and Bjork musical sensibilities. Definitely one seriously inspiring performer. The excellent violinist gives the music a more world-music vibe. (at one point, all 4 people on stage are using little bells) Nice use of bells, not a featured instrument very often. The music is almost cute but also sounds certifiably insane. She is serious about the guitar and is playing for a place other than here. The drummer has a really musical, atypical style. It’s keeping beat, but also adding a sub-melody to the songs, not just boom chk, boom chk. Someone just threw a single rose on stage. How apropos.

At this point in the day, we bounced around a lot:

Cinematic Orchestra= Cinematic Snoozefest. Or I just didn’t stick around long enough to give it a decent chance.

Islands- Too sleepy. Let’s just keep it at “I like their recorded music better.”

Kraftwerk- masters of their craft, these guys are nonetheless composers of music I’d like to watch a laser-light show of at my nearest planetarium. It also feels like I’m watching 4 very stiff, very German workers do data entry. Also, I’d like to ask someone at their label for the Falling Pills graphics so that I can have it as a screensaver for my laptop. (call me irreverent, so what)

M.I.A. (on XL/Interscope)

I should’ve known. There were far too many people heading to the Sahara stage for the (duh, highly) anticipated show to go well. I thought, “This is going to be mayhem.” I was right. What happened was a clusterfuck of epic proportions. Not only was every part of your body squeezed into the next person, but people had taken to climbing on the tent supports and every other imaginable surface for a better view or perhaps just to avoid the body heat of so many.

It started well enough but a couple songs in, M.I.A. kept inviting people on stage until they overwhelmed the barricades and leapt to their big stage debut. So many got up there that the rest of the audience could take at least 5 large steps forward to fill their empty space. Naturally, the Coachella stage managers freaked out, turned the lights on to get these abominations off their precious stage and suddenly, everyone in the room understood why it was a craps shoot to get M.I.A. into the States to perform (that attitude!). She huffed, she puffed, she threatened to not continue the show til the lights were back off again. She insisted, “Sahara, this a DANCE tent. Turn the lights OFF” in her fun accent to no avail until the stage was mostly clear from the exuberant audience members. This all sounds quite smooth and flowing but really there were a lot of loops, way more air horns and sirens and gunshots on the speakers than necessary and a lot of M.I.A. talking to the Coachella stage-gods-that-be about the state of Denmark. “Did I leave after that?,” you ask. Of course not! If this thing was any bigger of a shit show, I sure didn’t want to miss out. As luck would have it, she played a few more songs and with the severely diminished time, departed reluctantly.

For the remainder of the day, I saw all that I could of Portishead sitting on my bum, soaking in her dramatic voice towards the back and then grooving with Prince who was, of course, amazing. I enjoyed myself so thoroughly at both (or was so exhausted), I had not one interesting thought the whole time. Anyways, plenty of other people wrote about both performances.

My Day 3 coverage is somewhat sparse since I wasn’t there the whole time. But now that you’ve caught up with Days 1b and 2, I’ll leave you in breathless anticipation of day 3 and a pending review of my new current obsession, Duchess Says.

Footnotes:

[1] Since that time I discovered that The Raconteurs have friggen 30-second clip previews on their MySpace page for 4 of 6 tracks up. OMGWTF SO LAME FUCKIN BAD DECISION @(#$*#$(*#&$(*$ HULK SMASH. PET friggen PEEVE.

Dear Raconteurs, WHATS THE POINT?!? When people see shit like this, they immediately go to the Hype Machine and have a GREAT SELECTION from other music sites that AREN’T YOURS. So what would you rather have??? 30-second clips and your fans on other pages or have them STAY on your MySpace page?!?

Love, April

It’s Year 2 (for me) of the Coachella festival out in Indio, CA. While underwhelmed on several of the headliners, there are some great day shows that’ll make the trip worth it.  After all, when else do you get your pick of 2-3 great performances at any given moment? And to start the trip off right, we were next to Steve Tyler in a Maserati on the drive in!   On with the shows….

Cut Copy (on Modular People)

I heard from some coworkers whose taste I trust that Cut Copy put on several great, energetic shows at SXSW. Their neo-new wave would be a fun way to get the festival kicked off for me, right?  Mmmm, no.  Even though they were on my “Must See” list for Coachella, what I got was disappointing. 

Thoughts from the show: Nice music, but I don’t really consider standing on stage and playing instruments a performance. 

Múm (on Fat Cat Records)

I love Mum.  I love their last album, I loved their albums from before, I love Icelandic music.  These guys did NOT disappoint.  The instrumentation was out of this world and I’m still trying to figure out how they got a baby grand piano on stage.  At any given moment there were people playing guitars, violins, kazoos, harmonicas, synths, cellos, percussion, that little keyboard you blow into and play (GOD what’s it called?), recorders and more. 

Thoughts from the show: there are a couple “oh jesus” notes in the high stratosphere of the female vocal range that left you scrambling for earplugs.  BOTH the ladies had accomplished upper registers. Their music is a little reminiscent of Cirque de Soelil. The live performance of ‘The Ballad of a Broken Birdie Records = goosebumps. With enough of those air powered piano things, it sounds exactly like bagpipes. This is a band that actually knows how to use dynamics, loud and soft, to the correct effect.  These dynamics actually bring the audience along emotionally with the swells and diminishing of songs. Mum is the perfect mix of dissonance and sweet melody, sampling with live, music and sheer noise. Somehow they manage to tie it all together with a mini-cover of “I Can’t Get Enough of You Darlin”.  Final thought?  I never want to hear 4 kazoos playing at the same time on a sound system this large ever again. 

Download Dancing Behind My Eyelids from Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy, Mum’s last record (which coincidentally, I did some marketing for previously).

Goldfrapp (on MUTE)

If some people are genetically predisposed to love Goldfrapp, I was born without the gene.  After standing awkwardly and wedged into the tent for her show, we left after one song.  Sorry lady, it’s not you, it’s me. And frankly it sounds like it took you too long to get to your upbeat stuff.  Because with what I heard, Goldfrapp=Mirah.

The Raconteurs (on XL Records/Warner Bros)

Many, many, many yards and feet and a ways off from the actual main stage, you couldn’t help from getting the feeling that Jack White was going to be a musician who would grow only to become more and more legendary within our lifetime.  He’s already quite accomplished with 2 albums out now with The Raconteurs and even more with the White Stripes but he manages to bring to his performances a quality that many musicians don’t exhibit nowadays.  I only wished we had been closer and stayed around for more of the set, but the handful of songs that were enjoyed were fantastic.  

Thoughts from the show: This band is everything you need to have a great rock performance: loud, unpolished, raw, and most importantly cocky. Their enthusiasm for the music is displayed clearly in their lack of enthusiasm for the crowd.  It seems like they could be practicing in the garage and they could care less that we were there watching them.  It was ruckus nonetheless. 

ACK!  The thing about Coachella is that there are only so many hours in the day.  The rest of mine will be spent seeing more shows and not finishing this entry.  There are more reviews from Friday coming so stay tuned for Santogold, Datarock, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Spank Rock (or not) and Fatboy Slim. 

Mountain Battles Record Release Party from The Breeders on Vimeo.If you’re a fan of the Pixies, Kim Deal or more importantly The Breeders, then you’re in for a treat.Video. Album stream. With their powers combined, listen to their new album “Mountain Battles” and watch footage from the record release party, held at a VFW hall.

The album is out April 7th for purchase, put out by 4AD.

As a San Francisco resident, there is no excuse for not having seen 60-Watt Kid before our chance encounter at SXSW. They’re from San Francisco and therefore I should have acoustically met them at least 5 times previously, right? When I arrived in Austin, TX recently, this wasn’t the case. Their self-titled album was always a pleasant surprise when it popped up in my iTunes library, yet I never went out of my way to pay attention. I hadn’t ventured into live enjoyment terrain. Big mistake! During the aptly named Bay Area Takeover Party, 60-Watt Kid took the stage. From the time they walked into the room, it was completely unlike any other show I’ve seen recently and almost the most bizarre. (Goat the Head trumps in weirdness. “Contemporary primal caveman death metal,” I’ll say no more.)

As a three piece of sparse drums, keyboard, sometimes guitar, knobby things and always a telephone receiver, 60-Watt Kid play spazzy, chaotic, loud weirdo music. While watching them, there’s the distinct feeling you aren’t watching a band. It’s also not surprising that when you make eye contact with another audience member they would send you a very skeptical look. Because if it had been done badly, it would be insufferable. But they do it to near perfection and you’re left in awe, almost unable to process what you’re hearing.

The most striking effect they used throughout the whole show was a really strong echo really strong echo. Just like that just like that. It’s disturbing in just the right way, knocking your perceived sense of timing with the lead vocalist’s actual action completely off balance. The brain says that someone is talking into the microphone when in fact, no one is. The echo did not dimish until the 3rd time it is repeated. It’s strangely more effective than someone actually repeating the same line themselves.

The band also used chaos to their advantage. While it never felt particularly musical or traditional in terms of song structure, each track was melodious. There seemed to be a line or phrase in each that somehow strung the noise, beeps, blips and buzzes together into a cohesive tune. Each band member was rapt to their particular instruments and seemed to feed kinetically from each other without ever having to look at what anyone else was doing. There were no cheeky mid-song guitar nods and you’d be pressed to have found any sign that they knew anyone else was performing on stage at the same time. Towards the end, the lead vocalist had frenzied himself right into the audience. Both noisy and ambient, it was glorious.

60-Watt Kid is Kevin Litrow on guitars, analog synth, vocals, harmonica, samples. Derek Thomas plays guitars, analog synth, samples and electronic soundscaping devices. Garrett Pierce strikes on the tom drum, percussion and xylophone. Next time you see their name on a local bill, buy tickets and GO TO THE SHOW.

Two MP3s via Promonet for your enjoyment/analysis:
Every Day
Ocsicnarf Nas
More info on this album (where you can buy it, etc)

For more reading on 60-Watt Kid, I’d recommend:

An interview on The Bay Bridged, a local music podcast:

In an age where experimental pastiche and damaged art-pop are increasingly familiar, this band has a unique ability to blend and balance their different elements, likely due in equal parts to their conscious refusal to develop a singular sound as well as the three members’ seasoned musicianship.

A overly dramatic album review on Pitchfork:

This San Francisco trio sounds like two split personalities fighting for control over the same vessel, like the Being John Malkovich of indie.

And the band’s actual MySpace blog:

SXSW dump truck

::Disclosure, I heard about 60-Watt Kid and their label, Absolutely Kosher, from working at IODA, who distributes their releases::

2007 seems to have been the year of Tom Petty’s proper rock and roll canonization. Beginning with the release of “Highway Companion,” an album that feels like the world weary rocker’s elegaic look back at his life, continuing with Peter Bogdonavich’s retrospective documentary “Running Down a Dream” (not to mention its sprawling DVD set), and culminating in a halftime performance at the Super Bowl, the world seems to have unanimously decided to accord songs like “The Waiting” and “Free Falling’” the status of Beatle’s-level classics.

As great as these singles are, though, I believe that they often lack the melancholy depth of Petty’s lesser known album tracks. Without a doubt, my favorite of these is “Straight Into Darkness,” from the 1982 album “Long After Dark.” I heard this song for the first time this summer, and was immediately floored. I couldn’t believe that such a perfect song had escaped my notice all these years. There are so many things to love about it: the “Don’t Fear the Reaper”-esque percussion groove (which certainly seems overdue for a renaissance in the wake of SNL’s “More cowbell!” sketch), the sparse, moody piano opening, the contrast of the bright, soaring chorus, the subtle guitar harmonic accents in the third verse.

But I think what gets me the most is the raw emotional impact of Petty’s lyrics, and how the song’s structure is perfectly designed to support it. This is clearly a song written by a man struggling with the pain and hopelessness of a dying love, and it begins, well, in darkness. But what’s surprising, and what makes this every bit the Tom Petty song, is that it doesn’t stay there: the despair of the verses gives way to a glimmer of hope in the chorus, and by the time the bridge rolls around (”Oh give it up to me I need it/Girl, I know when I see it/Baby wrong or right I need it”), Petty has reached “I Won’t Back Down” levels of defiance. The final verse is enough to make the most jaded cynic believe in love again:

I don’t believe the good times are over
I don’t believe the thrill is all gone
Real love is a man’s salvation
The weak ones fall the strong carry on

These are words as inspiring as anything ever sung in a rock song, and a fine example of what makes Petty great.

Tom Petty: “Straight Into Darkness” (MP3, 6 MB)