I realize we only have 7 days before Outside Lands starts... so rather than introduce you guys to new music I'm just going to pick and choose artists to highlight that I am rather excited to see!
Lets start things off with an up and coming band, Of Monsters and Men.
Icelandic singer/guitarist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir's solo project, Songbird, seems to be at the center of this band's formation, growing to include singer/guitarist Ragnar “Raggi” Þórhallsson, guitarist Brynjar Leifsson, and drummer Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson. After entering, and winning, as Of Monsters and Men in Músíktilraunir 2010, an annual music competition held in Reykjavík, Iceland, the band added two more to the group; piano/accordion player Árni Guðjónsson, and bassist Kristján Páll Kristjánsson. They released their debut album, My Head is an Animal, in September of 2011 in Iceland, it wasn't released in the US until April 2012.
The main song off the album that has been getting a lot of radio play is "Little Talks", and its quite catchy and good! The whole album is really good, but this song stands out as distinct among the others.
So it feels a bit sacrilegious to post something not Justice related first, but this was the easiest thing to post, and I searched a little and there is no high quality downloadable audio for the new song from Fritz and the Tantrums so without further ado, here is "She's Out Of My League" and a cover of The Raconteurs "Steady As She Goes":
Weekend 1 came to an amazing close, and I just got back home a couple hours ago. I had a ton of fun, and the whole festival was pretty amazing.
I have enough audio recordings to keep me busy for a while, a couple videos, and some decent pictures. I'll try to get some of the best ones out before Coachella 2012 Weekend 2, but no guarantees.
Some of the highlights in no particular order besides the first(WARNING SPOILERS):
MIIKE SNOW with a guest appearance from Lykke Li
Radiohead
Florence and the Machine
M83
Afrojack
Pulp
Neon Indian
Feed Me
The Shins
Jeff Mangum
Noel Gallagher
Jacques Lu Cont
Childish Gambino
Destroyer
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and Tupac(hologram) and Wiz Khalifa and Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent and Eminem
Justice(short set due to technical difficulties)
The Weeknd
The Hives
Fitz and the Tantrums
Santigold
and some that I thought were awesome based off the sound as I was walking by or got to hear one or two songs:
At The Drive In
Modeselektor
Beirut
Dada Life
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Ximena Sarinana
The Rapture
Mazzy Star
Brooklyn indie rock band We are Augustines, was formed from the ashes of broken up band Pela, in 2010. Former members of Pela, guitarist Billy McCarthy and bassist Eric Sanderson, decided to continue work on the album Pela had failed to complete. The name We Are Augustines comes from the fact that both members have birthdays in August, their former band dissolved in August of 2009, and their were too many bands named just Augustines. Their debut album, Rise Ye Sunken Ships, was released in August of 2011, and produced by Dave Newfield, known for his work with Broken Social Scene. Rob Allen is now the full time drummer for the group.
Pela was known for their intense live performances, and since that band had been around since 2002, it should be assumed that We Are Augustines knows their way around the stage, and it should be a good show.
Gary Richards has been a DJ and Producer for many years, since the early 90's in fact. He is based in LA, and has been making friends in the music industry for a long time. When he started HARD Fest in 2007, it was one of the best electronic music line ups at the time, and HARD events have gone on to become larger and more amazing every year, and have recently expanded to the high seas with Holy Ship!
Performing under the alias Destructo, Gary Richards weaves new beats in and out of good vocals and keeps a crowd going. He generally plays pretty early in the evening for any one of his events, but all that practicing has paid off and he is honestly a pretty good DJ.
Here is a promo mix for his Technology EP, among other things, set to be released April 9th:
I am running out of time, with 10 days left before Coachella, I am going to review only artists I personally like, or stand out artists that made the cut because they have something unique to bring to the festival.
There is very little infomation available about Keep Shelly in Athens. The duo is formed of members, Sarah P on vocals, and RPR doing everything else, I guess? One could describe their sound as chillwave, to me it sounds like the melancholy version of Neon Indian with less reverb. Its pretty stuff if not a bit dark, as if you were in the middle of a boring fall day looking back on the good times you had in the summer, but realizing those are over and its time to get to work. It'll be really good music to listen to in the middle of the day, while just chilling out on the lawn.
The duo is from Athens, Greece, naturally, and released their first EP in 2010, In Love With Dusk. In 2011 they released two more EPs, Campus Martius E.P. and Our Own Dream. They have also done a whole bunch of remixes.
What can I say about these guys? Pretty amazing rock duo out of Akron, Ohio that formed in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach on guitar and vocals and Patrick Carney on drums.
And again, you either know them, or you don't care to know them, here are their albums, and below will be another possible set list.
Studio albums
The Big Come Up (2002)
Thickfreakness (2003)
Rubber Factory (2004)
Magic Potion (2006)
Attack & Release (2008)
Brothers (2010)
El Camino (2011)
http://soundready.fm/artists/2-The+Black+Keys/playlists/1426
Thank you Internets for making this job easy, and thank you David Huie for finding this website and showing it to me. Also I'm ruining out of time and got lazy on this one, since I think you either love them or are not sure why they made headliner (I'm in the second camp, I like them, I'm just not sure they can pull off headliner status).
DJs/Producers Axwell (Axel Christofer Hedfors), Steven Angello (Steven Angello Josefsson Fragogiannis), and Sebastian Ingrosso (Sebastian Carmine Ingrosso) officially formed Swedish House Mafia late in 2008. All three had been DJing and producing for years, while Steven Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso had been friends since a young age, and Axwell only coming into the picture later. They toured a bunch together between their formation and their first official release, "One" off their debut album, Until One, in 2010 on the record label Polydor Records. This was documented on camera, and there is a documentary, Take One, that encapsulates this time frame. Quickly becoming a success, "One" and "One (your name)" which featured vocals by Pharrell Williams, was followed by "Miami 2 Ibiza" featuring Tinie Tempah. In December of 2011, SHM was the first electronic dance act to play Madison Square Garden, in New York, and that show sold out in 10 minutes. Their most recent tracks have been making the rounds on playlists and DJ sets worldwide, "Save The World", "Antidote" with Knife Party,and "Greyhound". All three songs are singles off the yet to be released live album, One Night Stand.
These three are some of the biggest DJs and producers in their own right, but together they form a super group that has many years of experience and they do a phenomenal job live. Check out their Madison Square Garden set, the second half is pretty amazing.
Pulp is an english alternative band from Sheffield, England (hey aren't Arctic Monkeys from there too?). They formed back in 1978, but didn't really find success until the 1990s. In the early 1980s, the band was called Arabicus Pulp, and found some local success when they did a Peel Session on BBC Radio 1 with host John Peel. Their sound back then was described as electronic new wave and post punk. They were still in high school at the time, and most of the band went separate ways for university. This resulted in a new line up of musicians, and a new mini album titled It released in 1983, a pun on pulpit, Pulp-It. The album was light and happy, the next change in line up brought out the very dark album, Freaks in 1987. The band folded then when Leader singer Jarvis Crocker went to university for film, but it wasn't for long, and the next development for the band was an album called Separations, with a folkie side A and an acid house influenced side B. The band released several singles with a new label at the beginning of the 90s and then released the hit album, His 'n' Hers in 1994. A double-a side single, "Sorted for E's & Wizz/Mis-Shapes", was to precede the release of their next album, and had an inlay which showed how to conceal amphetamines in a DIY 'wrap'. This was controversial, and Crocker came out with a statement that is was not a pro drugs message, but could see the confusion, the single reached number 2 on the UK charts. Then Different Class was released in 1995, and debuted at the top of the UK charts. At the 1996 BRIT awards, Crocker interuppted the performance of "Earth Song" by Micheal Jackson, by walking on stage and wiggling his butt at the audience. Jackson and his crowd did not enjoy this treatment and had Crocker arrested, but the charges were eventually dropped and the whole prank catipulted Pulp into the limelight, and caused their sales to soar. The next album to hit selves took a while and had some creative hiccups. This Is Hardcore was released in 1998, and contained a lot on how Crocker was dealing with the disillusion of fame and power, and also dealt with porn, and the after effects of drugs. The disappeared for a bit after this, only to resurface in 2001 with the release of the album We Love Life, which was much lighter in tone than This Is Hardcore. Pulp played their last gig before a nine year hiatus at Auto Music Festival in December, 2002. The group announced in late 2010 that they would reunite (the line up from Different Class) and play some dates in 2011. With so much positive feedback and reharsals going well, the band decided to expand those dates to a tour, and now they are playing at Coachella.
Swedish punk band Refused, haven't performed in 14 years. Members include Dennis Lyxzén on vocals, Jon Brännström on guitar, Kristofer Steen on guitar, David Sandström on drums and to top off the reunion, and new tour, they have their favorite bassist back, Magnus Flagge (they went through 13 different bass players in 7 years...). Read the official post about the lead up to reuniting and their response to Golden Voice about playing at Coachella: http://officialrefused.com.preview.binero.se/2012/01/we-had-a-band-once-in-umea/
The band formed in 1991, in Umeå, Sweden and released three ablums in total; This Just Might Be... the Truth (1994), Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent (1996), The Shape of Punk to Come: A Chimerical Bombination in 12 Bursts (1998). The band claims that it never got a chance to do The Shape of Punk to Come right, and that this new tour is that chance, so I suspect a lot of songs from this album to be in their set. The band is very anti-establishment, and anti-culture, as can be read in their last statement to the world after they broke up, http://www.burningheart.com/refused/refmanifest5.htm. Their last performance before they disbanded was in a basement at a private residence in Harrisonburg, Virginia on the 6th of October 1998. The show was interrupted after 4 songs by the local police force, although the crowd protested by chanting, "Rather be alive". The Shape of Punk to Come has been a hugely influential album, ranked #13 by Kerrang! magazine's 50 Most Influential Albums of All Time list in 2003.
Arctic Monkeys are Jamie Cook on rhythm/lead guitar, Matt Helders on drums, percussion, and backing vocals, Nick O'Malley on bass guitar and backing vocals, and Alex Turner on lead vocals and lead/rhythm guitar. They were formed in 2002 in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield, England.
Since everyone should already know who English indie rock outfit Arctic Monkeys are, here is their discography and a possible setlist: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006) Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007) Humbug (2009) Suck It and See (2011)
Mazzy Star is David Roback on guitar and Hope Sandoval on vocals, playing psychedelic rock. The duo is deeply rooted in the Paisley Underground movement that originated in Los Angeles, California in the 1980s, and combines elements of psychedelic rock, folk rock, and garage rock. Opal is the project that directly preceded Mazzy Star. Opal was David Roback and, then girlfriend, Kendra Smith both of whom had been in bands directly involved, if not forerunners, in the Paisley Underground prior to Opal. When Smith walked away from the project in the middle of a tour, Hope Sandoval took up duties on vocals. Roback and Sandoval fulfilled the contract that Opal had, and immediately after the completion of that album, renegotiated the contract and changed their name to Mazzy Star. Their debut album, She Hangs Brightly, as Mazzy Star was released on Rough Trade in 1990. It incorporated the sounds that were pioneered by The Doors on "The End", and the guitar drone on The Velvet Underground on "What Goes On". Their next release came on a different label, Capitol, after Rough Trade went under. So Tonight That I May See, was released in 1993, but the single "Fade Into You" only became a success in 1994. And then their third album, Among My Swan, released in 1996 confirmed their ability to create this dark psychedelic rock and make it come alive. According to one interview with Sandoval, the group disbanded because the record label was breathing down their necks to get them to produce a commercially successful underground sound.
Keith Mitchell plays drums for all the recordings and live while Mazzy Star tours. Jill Emery played bass for Mazzy Star after 1993. Suki Ewers played keyboards, rhythm guitar (acoustic and electric) and some bass for the group, but was not on the albums, So Tonight That I May See or Among My Swan, but did tour in the Among My Swan tour.
In 2011, the group reunited and decided to work on a new album set to release in mid 2012, but they did release two songs in October of 2011, the first new material since 1996.
Dutch DJ and Producer, Afrojack, was born Nick van de Wall in September of 1987, which makes him only a few months older than me... He was always listening to music as a child, and began using the music program Fruity Loops at age 11. Through lots of hard work and experience he has climbed the ranks of the DJ and Producing worlds. He set up his own record label as well, Wall Recordings, and such rising talents as R3hab and Sidney Samson are signed to it. He is very dedicated to production, and just when he started getting recognition back in 2006, he began producing as much as possible. After his collaboration with Partysquad on "Drop Down (Do My Dance)" which made the Dutch top 20 in 2008, he got recognition for big time electronic artists. David Guetta collaborated with him on "Toyfriend" and Afrojack remixed Guetta's "Sexy Bitch". Afrojack start touring extensively, getting invited to many large festivals, and most recently was ranked number 7 by DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs of 2011. His track "Take Over Control" ft. Eva Simons is still a huge hit and he will be sure to mix it into his set.
The best slice of Afrojack I've heard so far is his 34 minute set from Amsterdam Dance Event in October of 2011:
Hailing from Austin, Texas, Explosions in the sky consists of members, Munaf Rayani on guitar, Mark Smith on guitar, Michael James on guitar and bass guitar, and Chris Hrasky on drums. I'm not sure i can do the band better justice than this well edited and storied description "The early beginnings of Explosions in the Sky occurred in 1999, when three longtime friends from West Texas went to a pizza place in Austin, Texas, for a prearranged meeting with a young man from Illinois. The Illinoisan had just moved to Austin, and he put up a flyer that caught the interest of the others. They ate pizza and discussed movies and decided to meet the next day with their various instruments (two guitars, bass, and drums). Over the coming months they picked a band name, then picked a better band name, then wrote and recorded an album. That album, called How Strange, Innocence, was largely out of tune, but the band members didn't really notice at the time. They optimistically printed 300 copies, and gave most of them away. A friend of theirs sent a recording of one of their live shows to a record label in Baltimore, and that label offered to put out albums for the band. Three albums and hundreds of shows later, the band released their fifth album, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, this past April."
Described as post-rock, the band plays mostly instrumental music, that is so moving and has so much feeling, you can easily imagine a story to go along with any of their songs or albums. Their live show is absolutely amazing, and they are in fact better live than recorded and that is truly saying something. They are almost guaranteed the sunset time at Coachella and you would do well not to miss them.
They are also known for the soundtrack to Friday Night Lights, the film as well as the tv series.
If you have time, here is a full set:
If not, start the video and at the beginning you will get the option to skip ahead to certain songs, I'd recommend "Your Hand in Mine", "The Birth and Death of a Day", and "The Only Moment We're Alone"
M83 is the music project of Anthony Gonzalez, named after the Messier 83 spiral galaxy. It was started by Gonzalez and former member Nicolas Fromageau in Antibes, France in 2001. Together, the two released the self tittled debut album in 2001, and went on to release the sophomore album, Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, in 2003.Fromageau left the group shortly after the tour for that album. Gonzalez went back to the studio to work on the next album, Before the Dawn Heals Us, which was released in 2005. M83 also made a bunch of remixes for other shoegaze indie rock electo pop bands, like Goldfrapp, Bloc Party, Van She. M83 then went on to record some ambient sounds, and compiled them into the album, Digital Shades Vol. 1, released in 2007. Saturdays=Youth, the fifth album by M83 was produced and helped by Ken Thomas (known for his work with Sigur Rós, The Sugarcubes, Boys in a Band, Cocteau Twins, and Suede), Ewan Pearson (who has also produced for Tracey Thorn, The Rapture and Ladytron) and Morgan Kibby (of The Romanovs), and was released in 2008. This album was a tribute to the 80's and is really about teenage life. The latest album of blissed out electo shoegaze inspired by the 80's music from M83 is Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, a double album released in October 2011. According to Gozalez in an interview the idea behind the album is that everyone dreams, but depending on age and environment those dreams vary greatly. He said that the album was "written like a soundtrack to an imaginary movie with different ambiences, different atmospheres, different tempos, different orchestrations and different instrumentation."
This post will be a bit different as well, since I know exactly what this set is going to be like, no need to listen to backlogs of Amon Tobin material, although you may want to after listening to his new material on really good speakers or headphones.
ISAM is the most recent release from the amazing Brazilian artist Amon Tobin, who dabbles in field recordings and lots of vinyl samples. ISAM in particular is made up of just field recordings, and honestly the way they are composed together on this album is mind boggling. The shear artistic intricacies found in the album are a huge feat, and Amon Tobin deserves some major recognition for this.
AND then you add the visuals... its tough to put into words, you really just have to see it, but basically its a projection on a 3D surface made up of tons of boxes stacked with a leading edge facing the projector, and Amon Tobin's DJ booth in the center. The visuals are perfectly calibrated to create some crazy illusion on the 3D canvas, and it will literally make your jaw drop. If you took the audio away and just watched it would be amazing, and the synchronization of the audio with this projection setup is so good you feel as if you were watching the sound unfold on "screen". I can't stress enough that you should attempt to be as close to the center of the audience as possible to get the full effect.
I saw ISAM Live at the Warfield in SF a couple months back, and it is truly incredible, even the audience acknowledged that this was an artistic performance by applauding for about 10 minutes after the show ended. Here is a preview that does it absolutely no justice, except maybe the interviews where the people can't even describe what they just saw, only how awesome it was.
Oh and go listen to ISAM, with good speakers or headphones!
Madness is a seven piece ska/brit pop band that formed as The North London Invaders in 1976, and then changed names to Morris and the Minors, and then Madness, in homage to ska/reggae artist Prince Buster. The band is notable for being one of the most prominent bands of the 2-Tone ska revival(the second wave of ska, fusing elements of ska, punk rock, rocksteady and reggae) in the late 70's in the UK and for being on the UK singles chart for 214 weeks over the course of the 1980s decade.
Madness sings about some very strange subjects, but also some activist stuff. They sing about everything from childhood to politics to weird fetishes and abnormal families and other touche subjects.
Also one of the most interesting things about this band, is that 75,000 fans at their reunion concert in Finsbury Park, London on August 8, 1992, caused nearby apartment towers to shake and feel like an earthquake, read about it in an interview with the lead vocalist Suggs here: http://www.virtualfestivals.com/latest/interviews/3325
Just like any other band founded in the 1970s and active on and off since then, Madness has a large and dedicated fan base and too many albums and EPs to list in a short segment, and since they are also a seven piece band with members popping in and out of the line up over the years, too much drama to go into a storied history. Instead I will do something a little different and just give you a list of probable songs they will play live and a copy from Wikipedia of current members and their active times in the band:
Graham McPherson – Lead vocals (1977, 1978–1988, 1992 on)
Lee Thompson – Saxophone, percussion, and backing vocals (1976–1977, 1978–1988, 1992 on)
Mike Barson – Keyboards, pianos, vibraphone, and backing vocals (1976–1984, 1992 on)
Chris Foreman – Guitar (1976–1988, 1992–2005, 2006 on)
Cathal Smyth – Trumpet, backing vocals, dancing, and occasional acoustic guitar (1979–1988, 1992 on); bass guitar (1976–1977)
Daniel Woodgate – Drums, and percussion (1978–1986, 1992 on)
Graham Bush – Bass guitar (2009 on)
The Rapture was the forerunner of the post punk revival back in the early 2000s. The members have changed around a bit, but the founding members Luke Jenner on vocals and guitar, and Vito Roccoforte on drums and percussion, have remained the core of the band. The band formed in 1998, and began heavily touring, then released a mini album, Mirror on Gravity Records in 1999, then followed with the EP Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks, in 2001. Bassist Matt Safer had joined the group just before the release of that EP. More touring gave way to the stand out first full length album, Echoes, in 2003 which features one of their most famous songs, "House of Jealous Lovers". Gabriel Andruzzi joined the band full time after the album's completion to help with touring, and now plays everything from keyboard to bass to percussion to saxophone.
Paul Epworth, Ewan Pearson and Danger Mouse produced the next album, Pieces of People We Love, released in 2006. This lead to The Rapture opening for Daft Punk on the North American leg of their 2007 tour. In 2008 Luke Jenner left the band after the death of his mother and to spend more time with his new born son. He returned after a few months, but then Matt Safer left the band amicably to do his own thing. The band then headed back to the studio and recorded In the Grace of Your Love, which was released in 2011 on DFA Records. Philippe Zdar, who has also produced albums for Phoneix, Chromeo and Cut Copy, and is a member of the band Cassius, produced the album.
The Rapture are known for dancey electronic sounding disco hits, with hard to understand higher pitched vocals that turn to screamy punk vocals at times, and at other times croon to the audience.
Sooooo, its tough to say what these two respective icons will play together, since this will be the first time the two take the stage for a joint performance.(pun intended)
Jimmy Cliff:
Is a huge reggae star, and is the only living musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honor that can be bestowed by the Jamaican government in arts and sciences. He also happens to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. The man was born in 1948, and his first success came with a song recorded when he was just 14. What really made him an international star, was his appearance as the lead actor, and a composer and musician for 4 songs on the soundtrack, in the Jamaican reggae film, The Harder They Come, in 1972. This film won international success, and really brought reggae to a world audience for the first time. Since that film, he has added vocals, guitar, composition, and toured with a number of famous bands, including, Kool and The Gang, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and many more. Not to mention many bands cite him as an influence and there are lots of covers of his song out there. Counting the albums he has released on Wikipedia gives a whooping 28 albums, so if you like his music and haven't heard of him before you have tons of material to go back and listen to.
Tim Armstong:
Is a punk rock powerhouse. He is from Albany, Cailfornia, and along with Matt Freeman has pushed punk rock into the limelight. The two meet in little legaue baseball at the age of 5, and in 1985, at age 20, the two created the band Basic Radio, and when that dissovled, formed the ska punk band Operation Ivy with singer Jesse Michaels, and drummer Dave Mello. Operation Ivy released one album, Energy, in 1989 and then disbanded because of the pressure, even though they had immediately gained a huge cult following. The next step for the pair was the band Downfall, which lasted for three months. Matt Freeman went on to join MDC.
The next step for the pair was to join up with Bret Reed on drums and form one of the most successful independent punk bands of all time, Rancid. Rancid has 8 albums out, and may possibly have a ninth out in 2012.
Tim Armstrong also attempted a solo career, but upon expanding it with Rob Aston, and then Travis Barker of Blink-182 formed The Transplants instead in 1999, and released their self titled debut album in 2002.
Aside from his part as vocals and/or guitar in various bands, he is also a producer, and created a record label, Hellcat Records as a sub label of Epitaph.
Jimmy Cliff and Tim Armstrong:
The most recent release by Jimmy Cliff has been the Sacred Fire EP in 2011, it was produced by Tim Armstrong, who was also featured on the the track "Guns of Brixton", a cover of The Clash. The EP also includes a cover of the Rancid song "Ruby Soho", and a cover of "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" by Bob Dylan, with a singular piece of original material, "Ship is Sailing". A full length album between the two is expected in summer 2012.
UPDATE: the album is called Re.Birth and is due out in June.
So I would expect the major hits that Jimmy Cliff usually plays, along with a few songs from the Sacred Fire EP, including the Rancid cover, and then probably one or two unreleased songs off the new album, if the album does not come out before Coachella
I'll leave you with two songs I expect them to play, and a list of others:
Founding member of GIRLS, Christopher Owens grew up in the cult, Children of God, but abscounded at age 16. After going through periods of nihilism and listening to hardcore punk, and just absorbing pop culture in general, he met a 64 year old billionaire and quickly became friends by bonding over a shared respect for Elvis, James Dean, and Gene Kelly. After working for the man for a few years he moved to SF to become his own man, started making music and dating and then getting into drugs, especially heroin. He met Chet "JR" White, who is from Santa Cruz, and the two began recording material. Influenced by The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Gene Kelly, and numerous other large and small icons of rock music past, their debut album, Album, came out in 2009, and received some great reviews. Following this success, they released their EP Broken Dreams Club in 2010, and have most recently released their sophomore album, Father, Son, Holy Ghost in 2011. All of their material has gotten some pretty great reviews on pitchfork and other media reviewing websites, and at first it was hard to tell why. Upon closer inspection and listening intently to the lyrics, you can see that there is a lot going on beneath the sadness or happiness portrayed by the songs themselves. Speaking about love, god, past relationships, longing, and many other strong human emotions, the lryics really get you.
Can we all take a moment to thank whatever cultural upbringing french electronic artists get? Seriously so much talent coming out of France, and giving a particularly good showing at Coachella this year.
Madeon is just the next wave of new DJs and producers. Born in 1994, he is one of the younger DJ/Producers out there right now. He really became popular with his mash up of 38 songs in a 3 min 40 second long clip, that he uploaded to youtube in July of 2011, and is approaching 10 million views as of today. But aside from this awesome feat, he has also remixed songs like "Smile Like You Mean It" by The Killers, and "Raise Your Weapon" by Deadmau5. He was slated to release an EP of original material in early 2012, but it was scrapped in favor of several singles.
Matthew Stephen Ward, is a Portland, Oregon based folk indie boarding on country artist, who has been releasing solo material as M. Ward since 1999. Also known for his half of She & Him, and a part of Monsters of Folk, M. Ward has also stepped in to do guest vocals or guitar here and there. In his solo career, he has released seven albums and will be releasing his eighth, A Wasteland Companion, on April 10th just in time for Coachella. The highlights of his albums seem to be Transfiguration of Vincent (2003), Transistor Radio (2005), Post War (2006)and parts of Hold Time (2009).
M. Ward sounds very much folksy and alternative and country, fusing the guitar of country with guitar of indie rock, and he has a very soft voice that carries a melody very well.
The Horrors are a shoegaze 80's inspired indie rock band based out of London, and include members Faris Badwan on Vocals, Tom Furse(Cowan) on synthesizer and bass, Joshua Third on guitar, Coffin Joe on drums, and Rhys Webb on bass and organ. They released their debut album, Strange House, in 2007 on Loog Records, it reached 37 in the UK charts. NME featured them on the cover of their August 2006 issue and since then have been darlings of the magazine, playing on the NME Awards Indie Rock Tour in 2007, and other such events throughout their career. In 2009, they released their sophomore album, Primary Colours, on XL Records, which reached number 25 on the UK charts, while NME awarded it the number one album of 2009. Following these successes, The Horrors have played at festivals in the UK and Europe, and opened for acts like Crystal Castles, These New Puritans and most recently Florence and The Machine. The band released their third album, Skying, in 2011 on XL Records, and it reached number 5 on the UK charts.
Their sound is a bit grunge mixed with snyth's and some whiny vocals that are hard to understand but bring a lot of feeling into the songs. Some of it reminds me of Joy Division, and some of it makes me think a bit of Nirvana, but overall it is pretty dark and doesn't draw much from either of those bands.
Christopher Francis Ocean, born Christopher Breaux, has been a singer/songwriter for many years. He grew up in New Orleans, but now lives in Beverly Hills. Now releasing rhythm and blues under the name Frank Ocean, his debut mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra, was released in February 2011, and sometime after that 63 songs were compiled and put out under the title The Lonny Breaux Collection, many of which were probably written before 2011. He has also written or been featured on songs for OFWGKTA, Kanye and Jay-Z on Watch the Throne, and Bridget Kelly. BBC announced that he had come in second in their Sound of 2012 poll, and his mixtape has received a ton of great reviews. His lyrics focus on many social issues and personal relationships, "American Wedding" focuses on divorce in America, while "Novacane" explores flirting with a girl at coachella, and getting high with her. "Swim Good" sees Ocean delving into himself and talking about his past and being lost and mourning and finding larger meaning in life. He got in some trouble with The Eagles for using the backing melody to "Hotel California" and the track is no longer available on youtube or anywhere online.
His debut album is set to be released sometime this spring, hopefully before Coachella, but nothing has officially come out about it, other than that.
Miike Snow's new album, Happy to You, came out today! And a preview of The Shins new album, Port Of Morrow, is available on itunes, it comes out March 20th!
So the first listen of Miike Snow gave me the idea that they reached a little deeper on this album, but it diverged from the flow that their debut self titled album had. On my run through, "Enter the Jokers Lair", "Devil's Work", "Bavarian #1 (Say You Will)", "Archipelago", "Black Tin Box", and "Garden" stood out as particularly good. "Devil's Work" still sounded the best to me, but that might be because the single came out months ago and I'm pretty familiar with it, "Archipelago" was a close second and considering its the first time I've heard it, that song will probably become my next favorite. Overall a very solid sophomore album, I'll go more in depth on the actual review of Miike Snow which is coming up in the next two weeks or so (hopefully).
Haven't had a chance to preview The Shins, and its bedtime, so to-Morrow. See what I did there? Clearly past bedtime...
James is an English rock band that was formed in 1982, in Whalley Range, Manchester,. Now composed of members Tim Booth on vocals, Jim Glennie on bass, Larry Gott on guitar, Saul Davies on guitar, violin, and percussion instruments, Mark Hunter on keyboard, David Baynton-Power on drums, and Andy Diagram on trumpet and percussion instruments, the band has lost and gained members in its 30 year long journey. Orignally created by Jim Glennie and Paul Gilbertson, James was a jam band, who resisted going into the studio because they felt the sound would not transfer to record very well. Instead of committing to an album, the band released a series of three EPs from 1983 to 1986, gathering positive reviews along the way. Their debut album, Stutter, was released in July of 1986, and was mildly popular. Followed by their album Strip-mine in 1988, then a live album, One Man Clapping, in 1989, and Gold Mother in 1990, which really gained them mainstream attention. Seven, was released in 1992, followed by two albums with Brian Eno, Laid, in 1993, and Wah Wah, in 1994. A three year gap then gave way to Whiplash in 1997, a Best Of, in 1998, and then Millionaires in 1999. Their album Pleased to Meet You, also with Brian Eno and released in 2001, marked the last album until 2008s Hey Ma. 2010 saw the release of two mini-albums, The Night Before and The Morning After.
With such a large discorapghy spanning decades, its tough to nail down a couple songs to exemplify the band that fits in the genres of britpop, post punk, madchester, new wave and alternative rock.
Alessandro Lindblad is a Swedish DJ and Producer, who just goes by Alesso. He's 20 years old, has been producing for 3-4 years but just started DJing about 10 months ago. In 2011 he was ranked by DJ Mag's Top 100 at #70. Alesso really got his start after handing a CD over to Sebastian Ingrosso's father and Ingrosso ending up contacting him and they collaborated on a track together, "Calling" which reached number 2 on the beatport website back in September. Since he is such a new producer, it is amazing that he has landed such great spots on the festival circuits so far. Since then, Alesso has also collaborated with Avicii and remixed a ton of different songs.
There has been a lot of talent coming out of Sweden in regards to house music, in the past couple years, and Alesso is no exception.
Born Sebastian Akchoté in Boulogne, France in 1981, this french electro artist is part of the Ed Banger Label, the label that so much awesome french electro has been attributed to in the past decade or two. SebastiAn was influecned by hip hop and rap and french electronica, like Daft Punk, in the 90's. Fast forward to 2005, when he calls Pedro Winters AKA Busy P, founder of Ed Bandger Records, who signs him and helps get two EPs, H.A.L. and Smoking Kills (?), out that same year. SebastiAn gets a lot of recognition for these unquie tracks, and puts out a couple remixes as well, the most famous being the remix for Daft Punk's "Human After All". In 2006 he released the EP Ross Ross Ross, and then in 2007, he opened for Daft Punk on their Alive 2007 Tour. In 2007 he also helped composed the soundtrack for labelmate Mr. Ozio's film Steak. 2008 saw the release of the EP Motor, and a Remixes compilation. In 2009, SebastiAn played his first live set at Sónar Festival in Barcelona. 2010 found him doing another soundtrack, this time for the film Notre Jour Viendra, directed by Romain Gavras, who has favored other Ed Banger artists for commercials and short films previously. In 2011, SebastiAn released his first album, Total.
SebastiAn is known for hard hitting bass, and some unique variations on synths. His track "Motor" is a great example becuase he used electronic equipment to create what sounds like engine's revving, and it sounds awesome.
Let me know if this link stops working:
The famous remix, that even Daft Punk likes the best:
Troy Beetles is from British Columbia, Canada. He was playing a lot of Xbox and making hip hop beats, but after seeing Excision live at Shambhala electronic music festival in 2008, he tried his hand at being a dubstep DJ and Producer. He made it! His Xbox gamer tag was Datsik and he ended up just using that name. Lots of collaboration with Excision seriously helped him refine his talent, and now Datsik is a big name in the dubstep world. While he does create dubstep, you could define it as more hip hop inspired, a bit dark with the meanings and aura of the tracks. One of Datsik's biggest influences is Wu Tang Clan especially Method Man, he says he loves the flow and how filthy the sound is, striving to attain that in his own productions. He also has a bit of a robotic side, describing a few of his track as "robostep".
He released a string of solo and collobration EPs from 2009 to 2011, a lot out on Rottun Records, but most recently has been signed to Dim Mak Reocrds and is planning to release his debut album, Vitamin D, on April 10th.
I saw him perform a DJ set just before Steve Aoki on the Deadmeat Tour, and while a lot of his tracks had a dubstep feel to them, it was overall a much more hip hop/rap inspired set. He kept the crowd dancing and dropped some awesome songs, overall a good mixture of hip hop and dubstep.
Another artist got added to Friday, before LA Riots, so apparently a not very well known artist, in fact its a little hard to find information about her, but there is some stuff.
Mea AKA DJ Mea or Mea Fisher is from Kansas City, but moved to Chicago in 1997. Chicago gave her more practice as a DJ and more influences that shaped her now funky house style. She DJed as far back as 1999, and was the only female DJ to go on the Funky Techno Tribe Tour in 2001. Her next move was to explore her vocal abilities and she started recording and releasing tracks on small electronic labels. This lead to a collaboration with Nynex, "Simplest of Things" released 2002, which lead to another tour and a move to Los Angeles. Her next project was the creation of a band, MeAndMyMachine, which has most recently attracted the attention of the band manager for Lords of Acid. After stepping in to fill the vocalist spot for a summer tour and then auditioning for a more permanent role as vocalist, Mea has become the lead vocalist for Lords of Acid. She has a nice voice, in fact, you know the typical lovely female voice featured in lots of house music? she has a voice like that. She produces chicago house style electronica, and some of her production stuff has dark deeper beats in the background.
Yuck is an indie rock band that formed in late 2009. Original band memebers, Daniel Blumberg and Max Bloom, were part of a previous band, Cajun Dance Party, but wanted to be more involved with the creative process and started writing and playing together on their own. Sounding like American 90's rock, Yuck has been compared to Sonic Youth, Dinosar Jr., and Pavement. When Danny and Max finally decided to do some recordings, they recruited drummer Jonny Rogoff and bassist Mariko Doi, and now and then Danny's little sister Ilana contributes vocals. They have a single self titled album that was released in 2011 by Fat Possom Records.
On stage they seem to be really absorbed by the music they are playing and they sound crisper live than they do on their record, check out their show at SxSW last year if you are really curious: http://youtu.be/VSmlLV1A5ow
Neon Indian is the lo-fi synth-pop project of Alan Palomo. The project was formed during his college years while he was juggling music, his studies and his career in gay porn in Denton, Texas. He had been in previous music groups before, but Neon Indian really came out strong. When his first album, Physic Chasms, was released it got great reviews and the blogosphere started putting it in the top albums of 2009. Pitchfork placed two songs from the album on its Top Tracks of 2009, "Should Have Taken Acid With You" at 74th and "Deadbeat Summer" at 13th. "Should Have Taken Acid With You" was an apology in song form for missing an acid date with an old girlfriend, she liked it and Alan continued making strange summery songs. The second album, Era Extraña, was released in 2011, and feels much more polished, still lo-fi, but not to the extent of the first album, and it shows that Alan really has talent.
Live, Neon Indian tours with Alan Palomo doing vocals and keyboard, Jason Faries on drums, Leanne Macomber on keyboard and vocals and Lars Larsen overseeing live visuals. I saw them back in 2009 at the Echoplex and they were awesome live, really got the crowd going. Looking forward to seeing them on a warm summery day in the desert!
Dawes was formed from the ashes of the band Simon Dawes when co-songwriter and guitarist Blake Mills left. Simon and Dawes are the respective middle names of Blake Mills and Taylor Goldsmith. Dawes originated in Los Angeles, and is made of borthers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith, with Wylie Gelber and Tay Strathairn. Simon Dawes was post punk, Dawes decides to go with the folk rock sound. Dawes released their debut album, North Hills, in August of 2009. Nothing is Wrong, is the group's sophomore album, and was released in June of 2011. Both albums evoke that folkesy and bluesy sound that groups like Fleet Foxes are famous for. Singer Taylor Goldsmith really has a beautiful voice.
Experimental/psychedelic rock outfit The Black Angels formed in Austin, Texas in 2004. They released their first self titled EP in 2005, and their debut album, Passover, in 2006. Consisting of Stephanie Bailey on drums & percussion(wooo, a girl on drums!), Christian Bland on guitar, drone machine/organ, Kyle Hunt on keyboards, percussion, bass, guitar, Alex Maas on vocals, and Nate Ryan on bass, guitar, The Black Angels take their name from a Velvet Underground song, and even their logo is a high contrast image of the Velvet Underground's vocalist. They showed up at Lollapalooza in 2007, and SxSW in 2006 and 2008, and their songs have been featured in TV shows and movies. They released the EP, Black Angel Exit, followed by the sophomore album, Directions to See a Ghost, in 2008. 2010 saw the release of their third album, Phosphene Dream, and 2011 brought the EP, Phosgene Nightmare. While phosphene is the process of seeing light without light actually entering the eye, phosgene is a chemical compound that was used as chemical weapon in World War II. Phosphene can be caused by rubbing closed eyes or taking pyschadelics, and it seems fiting that their influences on this album range from Jefferson Airplane to Animals to Pink Floyd.
Sounding like a mix of The Doors, and The Velvet Underground, with influences from Led Zeppelin, Jesus & Mary Chain, Verve, Joy Division, Syd Barrett, Bob Dylan, and 13th Floor Elevators it seems more like these are just recordings from the 70's released now. In fact the more I listen the more they remind me of a tribute band for The Doors.
Experimental hip hop group Death Grips hails from Sacarmento, CA and is composed of vocalist Stefan Burnett and production team Zach Hill & Andy Morin. Dark and aggressive, the style reminds me of being hunted down or followed in the dead of night. The lyrics don't always make sense but form a sort of cryptic script that references everything from witches and speaking in tongues to drugs and sex. In their first interview they described their sound as “Raw. Raw like wet pennies. Post-Christian, Post-Satan”. They started in December 21, 2010, with the recording of their first single "Full Moon (Death Classic)" on the first winter solistice to have a full moon since 1638. They released their debut mixtape, Exmilitary, in April 2011.
French electro disco, its so smooth and silky. From Ed Banger Records, Breakbot creates modern disco, or maybe its electronic french rhythm and blues. Whatever you want to label it, its sensual and catchy, in a way that the french do best. Breakbot is the recording alias of Thibaut Berland, who has also created short videos and made some advertisements. Realizing he had a flare for creating this smooth electronic french sound, he went into producing and DJing. As a producer, he has four EPs, one through Moshi Moshi Records and the other three through Ed Banger Records. His Happy Rabbit EP released in 2007 through Moshi Moshi is a bit more simple and not as sensual, in fact its more electronic, but in a really calm way. The Baby I'm Yours EP and Let The Children Techno EP have many more layers and build up that disco sound.
He also has a few remixes of artists like Justice, Metronomy, Pacific!, Digitalism, Van She, Röyksopp, and Chromeo. And I'm not entirely sure if he is going to be preforming live or doing a DJ set. From a few clips of live shows it seems a combination of a live remixing of his material with some others.
The sensual:
To top it all off, Take Some Crime does some dancing to Breakbot:
Feed Me AKA Spor AKA Jon Gooch, is a Producer/DJ from Hertfordshire, England.
In the vein of electro, house, dubstep and intelligent dance music, Jon Gooch's most recent production project Feed Me is much closer to Deadmau5 than Skrillex, but has elements of both. Lots of piano interludes give way to massive bass drops, and a bunch of fluctuating synthy sounds create catchy melodic beats. Feed Me's Escape form Electric Mountain just came out at the beginning of this month and represents Feed Me's most recent EP. Other material released under this monkier include the EPs in 2011, To The Stars and The Spell/Raw Chicken, and the debut album Feed Me's Big Adventure in 2010. All of these have been released under the Mau5Trap Recording Label. And keeping in the theme, Feed Me's newest stage production is a quite impressive array of LED panels in front of his booth that create a set of teeth in a wide grin similar to that of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.
He has also done wonderful remixes for the likes of Robyn, Muse, Nero and Gorillaz.
WU LYF stands for "World United Lucifer Youth Foundation," which is a band that formed in 2008 in Manchester. Shrouded in mystery, the band refused to do interviews or give away any information about themselves. In the information era, this proved difficult and facts have been leaked.
Described as a heavy pop, indie rock band, WU LYF is comprised of "Jeau" (Joe Manning), "Lung" (Tom McClung), "Elle Jaie" (Ellery Roberts) and "Evnse" (Evans Kati). While the band really broke out in early 2010, their debut album, Go Tell Fire To The Mountian wasn't released until June, 2011. In fact a year before that they founded the Lucifer Youth Foundation, and for a fee, new members receive a bandit mask and a 12" that contained their songs "Heavy Pop"and "Concrete Gold". It was the money generated from this scheme that allowed them to produce their debut album on their own, despite multiple offers from record companies.
Live they have a comfortable stage presence, and attempt to recreate the emotions captured in their recordings.
Something very basic about the vocals gives a real sense of meaning and purpose to the sound, while the instrumentals build up a sense of excitement.
Coachella added an artist to Friday, just before LA Riots, and since I've been doing this based on the least important to most important on the poster, I decided to review this newcomer first.
Wallpaper is a white Oakland rapper, whose real name might be Ricky Reed, but more likely Eric Frederic. Creating a band page on Myspace back in 2005, Wallpaper has been throwing out hip hop jams that cater more to the white college crowd. Probably his most famous song to date, "Stupidfacedd" is all about drinking and partying and sleeping and scoring, in the urban college community. The message is straight forward, he doesn't sing or rap well, but it doesn't matter, cause the beat is catchy. A fine multi-instrumentalist and producer, he knows how to do viral marketing well, and has risen up the ranks in youtube fame style.
A bit of movement on the updated Coachella poster puts Atari Teenage Riot next up for review.
Speaking of movement, ATR has had a consistently changing lineup of muscians, the original lineup of Alec Empire, Hanin Elias, and MC Carl Crack came to a tragic end with the death of Crack in 2001. Formed in Berlin in 1992, the group was active throughout the 90s, releasing 4 albums and 7 EPs, before Crack's death in 2001. There is a lot of politics in their music ranging from Anarchist to Anti-Fascist to Anti-Nazi, and more recently against human trafficking. The group gained a lot of momentum and support after their very memorable SxSW performance in 1997, the live band consisting of Alex Empire, MC Carl Crack, and Nic Endo, a female Japanese-German-American soundscape artist. From 1996 on, Nic Endo has contributed a lot to the band, and has stepped in anytime Hanin Elias has ducked out.
A fusion of punk, techno, and hardcore, ATR basically created the genre of digital hardcore and has inspired and influenced a lot of bands, including Crystal Castles, Sleigh Bells, MIA, Le Tigre, and more. A little hard to access, their first album in 10 years, Is This Hyperreal? was released on Dim Mak Records in June of 2011. Previously, most of their records were released under the Digital Hardcore Recordings label co-rounded by Alec Empire in 1994.
The current touring lineup is Alec Empire (Vocals, synths, drummachines), Nic Endo (Vocals, samplers, noise fx) and MC KidtroniK (Vocals, machines).
Reminding me of Vampire Weekend and I am Barcelona, GIVERS creates poppy indie rock music that makes you feel happy and playful.
GIVERS started in Lafyette, Lousiana in 2009 with Tiffany Lamson on vocals and percussion, Taylor Guarisco on vocals and guitar, Kirby Campbell on drums and vocals, Josh LeBlanc on bass and guitar, and Nick Stephan on flute, saxophone, and keyboard. Having one EP and one Album, In Light, makes them easy to listen to, and they have a diverse sound among their ten track album. "Noche Nada" reminds me a bit of Battles, only because they have the same sound in the background. Some of it also sounds kinda island-y, like you should be on a beach in Hawaii.
I realize I am late posting on this but the Sasquatch lineup has been out for 4 days now and I feel I must comment,
Looking very similar to the Coachella lineup, there are a few key differences. Most notably Jack White, who is set to release his first solo album Blunderbuss April 24th, followed by Beck, Pretty Lights, The Roots, Metric, Wolfgang Gartner, Apparat, Little Dragon, and STRFKR. The Gorge looks like the prettiest place on earth to hold a music festival, and seeing some acts like Jack White, or The Shins or Explosions in the Sky there would probably be tear jerking. While watching amazing visual installations from Pretty Lights and Little Dragon and Metric and Apparat and SBTRKT, would be just awesomely cool.
While this lineup is spectacular and considering it's a mini coachella, Coachella still puts out a wider range of artists and acts that are hard to top. Oh if only I could go to both, sigh.
It looks like Band of Skulls got moved to sunday... so its on to Other Lives.
Other Lives creates beautiful, slow building indie rock. Orginally named Kunek, the band was formed in 2004, and released an album under that name titled Flight of the Flynns in 2006. It seems they changed names to Other Lives in 2008, and released a self titled EP in 2008, and then a self titled album in 2009. In 2011 they released Tamer Animals. The band members include Jesse Tabish on vocals, piano, guitar and percussion, Jenny Hsu on cello and backing vocals, Jon Mooney on violin, horns, piano and percussion, Colby Owens on clarinet and percussion and Josh Onstott on bass and percussion. This is another band that would qualify for the symphonic rock genre, and it totally fits in shows like Grey's Anatomy, and Gossip Girl, oh wait they have songs featured in those shows. They also toured in support of Bon Iver last year, and are scheduled to support Radiohead on the first leg of their US tour. They sound really good, but i'm not sure their live show is that good.
I feel like the best way to prepare for an electronic artist who will be doing a DJ set and not performing their own stuff live, is to go ahead and get your hands on a recording of one of their more recent DJ sets.
R3hab (Fadil El Ghoul) is a Dutch DJ/Producer who has been doing some really cool remixes for everyone from Lady Gaga to LMFAO to Kaskade, and has had some awesome collaborations with some of the biggest names in house and techno. I have his set from EDC last year and while its decent, I just downloaded his set from Escape From Wonderland and it's far better. Afrojack has seen the potential in this 25 year old, and has signed R3hab to his own imprint label, Wall Recordings.
A British alternative singer and musician, Max McElligott started Wolf Gang in London in 2009. While Wolf Gang live is a three or four piece band, McElligott did all the recordings for Wolf Gang's debut album Suego Faults, by himself. Released in 2011, Suego Faults is a well composed slice of symphonic rock (I just learned that this is a genre which is rock, based on classical style composition). Sounding similar to some of the electro-pop bands he has supported, including The Naked and Famous, Metric, and Miike Snow, McElligott's voice goes into a falsetto that brings out a feeling of longing in the listener.
I don't even know where to begin with The Midnight Beast. Doing great parodies of popular songs since 2009, they are hilarious and clever, and internet famous. Probably most known for their Ke$ha - "Tik Tok" parody they have some other pretty amazing parodies, including Jay Sean's "Down", Mirah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You", and Kate Perry's "E.T.". They also do original skits and songs, the best one I've seen so far is "Wands" a song based on being a rejected wizard from the magical world of Harry Potter.
Based out of London, The Midnight Beast is made up of three boys in their early twenties, Stefan James Donald John Abingdon, Andrew Francis "Dru" Wakely, and Ashley Neil Horne. Stefan and Dru have both been involved in music prior to forming The Midnight Beast, while Stefan and Ashley have previous acting experience. Together the three have some great dance routine's and a lot of fun. I look forward to seeing them get the crowd excited on Friday!
Based on their live videos, I feel too old, and too male, to be one of their fans, but hey they make me laugh, and they have some clever wordplay, so I'll be there with all the teeny-boppers screaming their lyrics.
I started listening to Erika M. Anderson's first solo album Past Life Martyred Saints (2011) last night, its depressing, but in a very beautiful way, roughly in the same way that Grandaddy's "Everything Beautiful is Far Away" is sad yet beautiful. EMA's lyrics don't always make sense, it seems like something stuck between poetry and stream of consciousness, but there is meaning there if you look for it. It must really be tough for a 6 foot tall blonde woman from South Dakota, who may or may not be sure of her sexuality. Her sound is what is really interesting, it kinda sounds like Sleighbells took too many downers and is still trying to perform, I guess this can be attributed to the low quality of the recording equipment they used. I'm sure a lot of people will just think its noise, but its intentionally crafted to evoke a strong inner feeling, and it really gives her vocals a lot more power than if she just sang over a guitar and drums. Its really hard to hear her words sometimes so it helps to read them as you listen. Be warned! You might be even more confused or depressed if you do that.
While I think EMA is really cool, listening to her live in the middle of the day at Coachella does not seem the best setting. She will be playing at Rickshaw Stop on March 1st, and I think I might check her out there.
This mexican singer/songwriter was born to producer/director Fernando Sariñana and screenwriter Carolina Rivera, on October 29th, 1985. While this might explain how she began as an actress and ended up with two solid albums and an EP, it does not take away from the fact that this woman is gifted. Her most recent album, Ximena Sariñana (it's self titled), contains a lot more singing in English than her first album, Mediocre. She has a beautiful voice, reminding me of other strong female artists like Norah Jones and Michelle Branch. She is much more adventurous with sounds though, adding little bubbly electronics to the background, courtesy of Greg Kurstin (The Bird and the Bee, also one of the producers behind Lily Allen). Also labelled a pop singer, Ximena Sariñana's songs are catchy and melodic in a very cute innocent way. If you want some further insight into her songwriting process on her self titled album, which involves input from members of bands like Rancid, TV on the Radio, and Aqualung, check out this NY Times article, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/arts/music/ximena-sarinanas-self-titled-new-album.html.
While her two albums are very different they are very good in their own ways, and the wider audience gathered from her album Ximena Sariñana, should hopefully launch her onto the international stage with some success. I missed her at Outside Lands so I hope to catch her Friday afternoon at Coachella.
So I'll start off with the fact that I'm not a huge hip hop or rap fan. But there are certain artists that have intrigued me, such as Busdriver, The Beastie Boys, Kanye West, E40, Mos Def, and some others. Kendrick Lamar is a west coast rapper, born and raised in Compton. So it makes sense that his idols are Tupac and Dr. Dre. He has been steadily releasing material since 2003, when he was only 16. He has been heralded as the new prince of West Coast Rap, appearing on stage with Snoop Dog and Dr. Dre, and I wouldn't be surprised if he shows up on stage sunday night to rap a bit with Dre and Snoop. He'll be doing his own set early on friday though. He raps well, and that's about the extent that I can review, raps not my thing, decide for yourselves.
Dear Coachella,
You have impressed me, I can't believe that I have started researching the artists for this year's performance, and all of them so far have amazing potential. Thank you.
Now on to The Dear Hunter, which started out as a side project of Casey Crescenzo who was in the post-hardcore band The Recieveing End of Sirens. Based out of Boston, The Dear Hunter has gone through many member changes, the most current lineup I could find has Casey Crescenzo on Vocals, Piano, and Guitar; Nick Crescenzo on Drums, Percussion, and Vocals; Maxwell Tousseau on Guitar and Vocals; Erick Serna on Guitar and Vocals; Nate Patterson on Bass, and Vocals. Casey Crescenzo had a vision, and put his heart and soul into it starting in 2003, but it wasn't until the first album in 2006 that he was able to bring the ideas to the public. Act I: The Lake South, The River North, began what is to be a six act story arc, all about the birth, life and the abrupt death of a boy(The Dear Hunter) set around the dawn of the 20th century. So far the band has released three acts, and then took an intermission to do something really interesting. They released not one, but nine EPs in the summer of 2011, each corresponding to a color. The entire collection was later released as The Color Spectrum and contains a total of 36 songs.
Having a decently large catalog to choose from, it is tough to pick out any one song to represent The Dear Hunter, especially since their sound varies from emo-punk to alternative rock to beautifully arranged melodies. Sometimes they remind me of Panic at the Disco, but I think only some of their songs share the same genre as Panic, while the rest is very original and captivating. I'll have to give more of their stuff a listen, but until then I'll leave you with:
honeyhoney, obviously a girl and boy band, Suzanne Santo on vocals and other stuff, and Ben Jaffe on guitar and other stuff. Introduced by a mutual friend in LA sometime during 2007, they began songwriting together and released their debut EP Loose Boots and debut album First Rodeo in 2008. They have since released Billy Jack in 2011. Their sound ranges from crossover jazz to neo-soul to alt-country, and the best way I can describe them is if you took something like, The Submarines or Best Coast, but made it bluesy and country. They even have some South-of-the-border guitar sounds, which really makes them a diverse sounding duo. While its hard to tell if they will be good live, you should decide for yourself based on this cover of Smashing Pumpkins "1979",
With a name like Hello Seahorse! I immediately hoped I would like this band. While I was expecting something strange and actually Japanese(Don't ask me how I got there, I guess seahorse's remind me of Japan?), I stumbled upon maybe the third Spanish singing band that I instantly liked(the first was Manu Chao, then SKA-P). Formed in Mexico City in 2005, Hello Seahorse! is a four piece, Lo Blondo(Denise Gutierrez), Bonnz!(Gabriel G. De León), Oro De Neta(Fernando Burgos) and Joe(José Borunda). Described as Rock-Pop, I would say they had a bit more electronic sounds than this title implies, but not to the point of being an Electro-Pop band. They are a strange bunch, I was going to attempt some translation of their songs but read a blurb somewhere that it's pointless because their lyrics are surrealist anyways. Checking out their offical youtube videos gives you a sense of what a surrealist modern rock band from Mexico is like...
Having three albums and an EP, and starting in 2005, you'd think I was mixing up the info from The Sheepdogs, but I triple checked it, and I am not. Interesting band, I also want to check out their set, looks like they won't let down live. Oh and according to an interviewer of Lo Blondo, the name is something you might exclaim if you ran into an underwater equestrian, or for that matter anything pleasantly surprising in life. Sounds good to me, it certainly caught my attention.
This rock group from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada(somewhere north of Montana to give you an idea) focuses on melody, harmony, guitar solos and general feel-goodery. Comprised of Ewan Currie(Guitar and Vocals), Leot Hanson (Guitar), Ryan Gullen(Bass and Backing Vocals), Sam Corbett(Drums and Backing Vocals); these rockers pull their influence from 60's and 70's rock. They really have that old timey heavy guitar rock sound down, some nice riffs and a solid melody. The vocals aren't lacking either. Something similar to The Black Keys actually, they just don't have the discography to compete or the amount of good songs, but with three albums and an EP they are gathering momentum. Formed in 2005, they have had time to realize what makes a live performance good, and judging from youtube videos I think they have it figured out. Expect a good rock show while you sip the first beer of friday.
"Formed on the 15th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, the group was named as a reflection of their aggressive and rebellious sound."(soundcloud.com/lariots) The duo of Daniel Le Disko and John O'Brien, who started mixing together in 2007, are some of the first DJs in Los Angeles to create a blend of dance and indie music for the club. With years of experience behind each of them, they bring a level of expertise to the DJ booth that is much appreciated. Unfortunately the duo split amicably in 2009, when LeDisko wanted to expand into further genres, while J.O.B. wanted to focus on production. Fortunately LA RIOTS lives on with the chance meeting by LeDisko of DJ/Produce Jon Pegnato in San Bernadino in late 2009. The group now focuses a bit more on the techno and drum and bass, but have also found time to create their own productions.
With remixes of songs from artists like Crystal Castles, The Ting Tings, Chromeo, Soulwax, Nero and Justice; they are poppy and indie and electronic all at once. In a live performance they keep the energy of the crowd at a constant level. It's too bad they'll be pretty early in the day on friday, but expect a dedicated crowd to be dancing anyways.
If you haven't given them a listen yet, I would highly recommend a 45 minute mix they did back in 2008:
