To paraphrase LL, I "just got back from Cali", which included a lot of surfing, chicken and waffles, and a visit to Coachella. Do you remember the Simpsons Halloween episode when Homer is sent to the Ironic Punishment Division of Hell, where hes force-fed donuts for all eternity? Coachella can feel like that (at first); theres 90 bands on 5 stages, some of them great, and a lot of them playing simultaneously. There is so much to see that you soon find yourself rushing around, jumping in and out of bands sets, trying to take in everything. The result is you hear a bunch of bands, but you never really listen to any one of them. At least, thats how it felt for the first few hours, but eventually I got over my kid-in-Disneyland feeling (and found a bag to breathe into and stop my hyperventilating)
I had an amazing revelation at the Weezer show; Ive subconsciously come to know every word of just about every Weezer song Ive ever heard. Apparently, so did the 50,000 other schmucks like me who saw the show. It was Weezer-oke. Rivers Cuomo will never have to cancel a show because his throat hurts ever again.
I guess Im an effete, rawk-snob asshole, since the most of the other people I know who like Spoon are ERSAs. But the simple truth is Spoon is great, and so was their set. These guys deserve to be more popular than they are, but judging from the handful of people at the show (Coldplay was playing at the same time), the best they may ever do is have a loving fanbase thats an inch wide but a mile deep. Oh well, I guess effete rawk-snob assholes gotta stay together, since everyone else probably cant stand us.
MIA played under one of the tents on Sunday afternoon, and it was 30 degrees outside, and at least 4000 people are crammed butts-to-nuts to see her, and all I can remember before passing out from heat exhaustion is dancing, lots of dancing, white sequins, white sequins, and then the hairy back (with back-ne) of the guy I fell into
What a weird harmonic convergence mustve happened to have the best two sets at Coachella occur at exactly the same moment, namely, Arcade Fire and Gang of Four. Go4 have influenced everyone from Red Hot Chili Peppers, to U2, to Fugazi, and every band you like at the moment sounds like them, or cites them as a major influence. Unlike the other has-beens at this years Coachella (see below), the guys in Go4 have too much class to try and milk their legacy for money, and probably wouldnt have re-united if their disciples like Franz Ferdinand hadnt created a demand in Go4s music from name-checking them all the time.
I have no particular quarrel with downloading, except this; before downloading, bloated, self-important assholes like the guys in the New Order or Bauhaus or Prodigy or NIN wouldve been content to live off the royalties from their extensive back catalogue. But downloading has made their back catalogue essentially worthless, so now theyre forced to go and record crappy new music, and then trade on the faded glory of their past genius to get people to come out to their shows and watch this new shit played on-stage. Its a fucking embarrassment. The NO show was truly awful; a cynical, calculated cash grab, and the band was not redeemed by playing Blue Monday (or even two Joy Division songs). I almost forgave Trent Reznor when he played Hurt, even if I did spend much of that song thinking of how I liked Johnny Cashs cover of that song so much better.
By the way, a VIP wristband at Coachella is not worth the funny tan line itll give you. Folks were all a-twitter that Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz were there, but I think they came out just long enough to see if there were photogs around to snap their photos, before retreating to the relative safety of the dressing room areas, where bands like Interpol (who didnt play) sat around drinking the booze of other bands riders and preening like supermodels. The rest of the VIP area was populated by B-listers like Chris Kattan, Nicole Richie, the black dude from CSI (who was so drunk he had to be supported by two of his friends), and the dolled-up hoochies who wanted to fuck them. I doubt either group was aware that they were at a music festival. Not to worry, though, since there was karmic justice; the line-up for the outhouses in the VIP lounge lasted for hours, while the outhouses in the ordinary people area were almost always free.
I had an amazing revelation at the Weezer show; Ive subconsciously come to know every word of just about every Weezer song Ive ever heard. Apparently, so did the 50,000 other schmucks like me who saw the show. It was Weezer-oke. Rivers Cuomo will never have to cancel a show because his throat hurts ever again.
I guess Im an effete, rawk-snob asshole, since the most of the other people I know who like Spoon are ERSAs. But the simple truth is Spoon is great, and so was their set. These guys deserve to be more popular than they are, but judging from the handful of people at the show (Coldplay was playing at the same time), the best they may ever do is have a loving fanbase thats an inch wide but a mile deep. Oh well, I guess effete rawk-snob assholes gotta stay together, since everyone else probably cant stand us.
MIA played under one of the tents on Sunday afternoon, and it was 30 degrees outside, and at least 4000 people are crammed butts-to-nuts to see her, and all I can remember before passing out from heat exhaustion is dancing, lots of dancing, white sequins, white sequins, and then the hairy back (with back-ne) of the guy I fell into
What a weird harmonic convergence mustve happened to have the best two sets at Coachella occur at exactly the same moment, namely, Arcade Fire and Gang of Four. Go4 have influenced everyone from Red Hot Chili Peppers, to U2, to Fugazi, and every band you like at the moment sounds like them, or cites them as a major influence. Unlike the other has-beens at this years Coachella (see below), the guys in Go4 have too much class to try and milk their legacy for money, and probably wouldnt have re-united if their disciples like Franz Ferdinand hadnt created a demand in Go4s music from name-checking them all the time.
I have no particular quarrel with downloading, except this; before downloading, bloated, self-important assholes like the guys in the New Order or Bauhaus or Prodigy or NIN wouldve been content to live off the royalties from their extensive back catalogue. But downloading has made their back catalogue essentially worthless, so now theyre forced to go and record crappy new music, and then trade on the faded glory of their past genius to get people to come out to their shows and watch this new shit played on-stage. Its a fucking embarrassment. The NO show was truly awful; a cynical, calculated cash grab, and the band was not redeemed by playing Blue Monday (or even two Joy Division songs). I almost forgave Trent Reznor when he played Hurt, even if I did spend much of that song thinking of how I liked Johnny Cashs cover of that song so much better.
By the way, a VIP wristband at Coachella is not worth the funny tan line itll give you. Folks were all a-twitter that Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz were there, but I think they came out just long enough to see if there were photogs around to snap their photos, before retreating to the relative safety of the dressing room areas, where bands like Interpol (who didnt play) sat around drinking the booze of other bands riders and preening like supermodels. The rest of the VIP area was populated by B-listers like Chris Kattan, Nicole Richie, the black dude from CSI (who was so drunk he had to be supported by two of his friends), and the dolled-up hoochies who wanted to fuck them. I doubt either group was aware that they were at a music festival. Not to worry, though, since there was karmic justice; the line-up for the outhouses in the VIP lounge lasted for hours, while the outhouses in the ordinary people area were almost always free.