Coachella 2012

Curing the post-holiday blues, a late date announcement brings news of this year's lineup for Coachella taking place as usual on the grounds of the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. In an interesting move but odd move, the festival this year will be replicated over two weekends, first on the weekend of April 13-15 then the next weekend April 20-22. I imagine that festival organizers want to be able to accommodate as many ticket buyers as possible, but doesn't having the festival occur on one weekend and then having the whole festival replicated the next weekend make the whole festival, less special? What if the first weekend is better [weather-wise, performance-wise, what have you] than the second weekend or vice versa? What if scheduled performers, for what other reason make it out only to one weekend? It looks like a formula for someone to feel jipped. Musically, there's a good mix of artists that I think will appeal to the average music festival-goer - your reunions (Pulp, Refused, Mazzy Star, At The Drive-In), your current heavy-hitters (The Black Keys, Radiohead, Bon Iver, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg) and a whole slew of current buzz-worthy acts. The Canadian contingent this year will include Feist, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Destroyer, Zeds Dead, Dragonette, The Weeknd (will Drake make a surprise appearance perhaps?), and The Sheepdogs. I haven't gone to the festival since my one and only time in 2004 and I don't imagine going this year but if I do reconsider it's only because I'd want to feel that warm Californian sun on my face and soak up the good vibes. Coachella is about music foremost but it's also about the experience. If you've never gone and if at least a few of the acts are worth your while, my suggestion is, GO. There is nothing like Coachella. On the other hand, it is three hot days and nights in the desert. I think I may just watch the webcast.

Coachella 2011 Rumblings

  photo via College Humor

It's not the entire lineup for Coachella that's been released yet, but sources have confirmed to Billboard that The Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons and PJ Harvey are booked for this year's festival. Other rumored acts include Crystal Castles [who do have a bunch of North America dates leading up to Coachella including a stop in Toronto at Sound Academy on April 2], Cut Copy[who just confirmed some North American dates including a stop in Toronto at Sound Academy on April 7], as well as The Strokes, Duran Duran, OMD[who recently confirmed a date in Toronto at the Phoenix on March 5] and Gary Numan. If you head on over to the Coachella website right now, they're featuring a music video of an artist called Monarchy, and according to Billboard the site has been featuring music bands/artists all week including Trentemoller, Lightning Bolt, Phantogram, and Fanfarlo, all artists presumed to be playing this year's festival. Consequence of Sound has been weighing the odds of a number of different acts playing this year's festival - worth checking out because CoS provides links to evidence to support the expectations/rumours [although some of the evidence links are no longer valid unfortunately]. I keep saying I want to go back to Coachella - my one and only time was in 2004 - but I'm also pondering a return trip to the Primavera Festival(whose lineup is already shaping up nicely) in Barcelona this year as a few music blogger friends of mine are also going. Let's see how this Coachella lineup rounds out before I make any decisions.

Update[January 19, 2011]: Coachella just HAD to announce the lineup for this year's festival just after I put up this blog post yesterday evening, rendering it somewhat redundant. Check out the full-lineup or check out the official poster. There's alot of highlight and alot of buzz bands, some unknown entities, but overall looks like a pretty good fest. I know they're big, and I don't hate them, but c'mon why does King of Leon have to close the first night? And to point out the Canadian contingent they include, Crystal Castles, Rural Alberta Advantage, The Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, a reunited Death From Above 1979, Chromeo, City and Colour, and Gord Downie - anyone else I have forgotten?

Coachella 2009

Tickets for the 2009 edition of Coachella, taking place April 17-19 as it does very year at Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, are on sale now.

The Canadian contingent going down this year seems smaller from what I recall at least over the past several years. Canadian artists you can look forward to seeing at this year's festival are as follows:

April 17
Leonard Cohen
Crystal Castles

April 18
MSTRKRFT
Billy Talent

April 19
Fucked Up
K'Naan
Junior Boys

What does everyone think of the lineup? I think it's a perfectly good mix up-and-comers, indie favourites, and established headliners and I'm sure there'd be a lot of interesting music to keep one entertained. If I've learned anything from my Coachella experience in 2004, it's two things: 1)it's damn hot, and 2)on the other hand when night falls and the headliner hits the stage, that realization of being thousands of miles away from home and experiencing the moment of being there is truly like no other feeling.

Magic Doors

Portishead at Coachella 2008


An an ounce of regret weighed on me as I watched Portishead's set at Coachella this past Saturday night through AT&T's Blue Room internet video feed. With a little motivation I might have just organized another trip back to Coachella, although thinking back to my trip to the festival in 2004, it was a lot of planning, within a short period of time. Cherish that trip as I do, I don't miss the heat, the sweat, the lineups, the overpriced water botteles and my aching body at the end of each day(and back then it was only two days, unlike the present's three day festival).

Whatever one's qualms might be about corporate sponsorship, AT&T's affiliation with Coachella was a positive one if only for them to have the foresight to broadcast Portishead's penultimate set of day two of the festival(no offense, Prince). Remember when internet video was choppy, grainy and just downright not worth it? Internet streaming video today is much better today and while that technical improvement is appreciated, it's still rare that I feel any sort of emotional connection to any live video streaming over the internet. That said, Portishead's Coachella set exceeded all my expectations. As crisp picture quality I've ever seen for internet streaming video, the multi-angled camera shots took full advantage in conveying the awesomeness of Portishead's stage production which cast the band and stage in varying degrees of light and shadow, and hues of black, white, blue and red against a giant video screen backdrop that revealed the subtlties in expression of the band members' faces and musicianship. Beth Gibbons was maybe never more exposed as the camera took the most intimate closeups of her face as she sang into and hung on her microphone for dear life.

Portishead's return to the tour circuit has been a selective one as so far they only have a select number of European dates lined up(and apparently won't be touring in the US[and presumably in Canada] until 2009).For North Americans, Coachella was to be their proving ground after a painful 11 year absence between their last album, the self-tited "Portishead" and the to-be-released-tomorrow new album "Third" and their first live show in North America in 10 years. I will say that Portishead rose to the task both in terms of the performance of the older material(changing things up a bit for example in an even more intimate version of "Wandering Star") and the newer material that bookended and sprinkled the set which displayed the evolution of Portishead from its trip-hop roots but still felt like Portishead in terms of rhythm, vocals, and dynamics(although the loud was louder than anything you'd have expected from them - a pleasant surprise). It was as thoroughly enjoyable and goosebump-inducing as one could expect. Portishead are back.

Watching a concert on the internet will perhaps never replace the live experience - the communal aspect and the sensory impressions - but from thousands of miles away, I made that intimate connection to Portishead. God, I wish I'd been there, but on the other hand, knowing my luck I'd probably have had some tall dude stand right in front of me.

Here's the setlist.

The L.A. Times and NME reviews Portishead's set.

Check out some awesome photos from Portishead's Coachella set over at Brooklyn Vegan(courtesy of Ryan Muir).

Deaf Indie Elephants has the whole set available for download in mp3 format. So does Mystic Chords Of Memory[via Brooklyn Vegan]

Photos galore of Portishead at Coachella over at Flickr.

Lots of spectator video of Portishead's Coachella set over at YouTube.

And a last reminder, Portishead's new album "Third" is in stores tomorrow. Or you can purchase the limited-edition box set over at the Portishead Online Store.

California (All The Way)

Stay tuned today for the announcement of the Coachella lineup. Update: Among the early confirmations for this year's Coachella are Portishead, My Morning Jacket, and The Verve according to Billboard. The rest of the lineup is expected to be announced by later on today. Update: Billboard updated their original story and other confirmed acts for Coachella include Jack Johnson, Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters (performing the band's classic album "Dark Side of the Moon"), the Breeders, Rilo Kiley, Death Cab For Cutie, the reunited Love And Rockets, Justice, M.I.A., Sasha & Digweed, Fatboy Slim, Cafe Tacuba, and The Raconteurs. Update: Full lineup here. The Canadian contingent going down to Cali for Coachella include Tegan and Sara, Stars, Islands, Metric, Holy Fuck, and DJ A-Trak.

One of the bands rumored to be there this year(and who could possibly sway me to consider to go to Coachella this year) is Portishead who recently announced some long-overdue tour dates, with more dates to come(cross your fingers for Toronto!). Update: Portishead headline the second night of the 3-day Coachella festival.

From Blown Speakers points out that Vancouver indie-choral group The Choir Practice will be singing the US and Canadian National Anthems for tonight's Vancouver/Minnesota NHL game - game's at 10 pm EST on SportsNet.

The Montreal Mirror spoke to Young Galaxy's Stephen Ramsay. Young Galaxy open for Peter, Bjorn and John at the Phoenix on January 22.

I guess I haven't been paying attention. Firstly, I didn't know that Metric had filmed a live performance(at Metropolis in Montreal in 2006) of theirs for a DVD. Secondly, I didn't know that they show the film at The Royal in Toronto twice last week(including Jimmy, Emily and Joshua participating in a Q & A after the screening). Well, the DVD "Live at Metropolis" gets its release on February 12 and BlogTO linked to the trailer. The band takes a break from the recording of its fourth album and to celebrate the release of the new DVD with a show at Sound Academy in Toronto on February 7.

The Kooks are back in Toronto for a 19+ show at The Mod Club on February 11, onsale through Ticketmaster on January 26 at 10 am, tickets $20.00.

Brooklyn's Vampire Weekend performed a live session on BBC 6 Music's George Lamb program last week which you can listen to here and see some photos from the session here. They return to Toronto for a show at Horseshoe Tavern on February 11. The band's self-titled debut full-length gets its official release January 29 through XL Recordings.

In addition to their already announced date in Toronto at Circa on March 28, Crystal Castles have a secret show in Toronto on February 21. Full dates over at their MySpace.

While we wait patiently for the new album from Kathleen Edwards entitled "Asking For Flowers"(out March 4), the Hamilton forum at Stille Post is indicating a show in their fair city on March 22 at Westside Concert Theatre, tickets $25.00. I'd assume a Toronto date wouldn't be far off.

Domino Records is streaming clips of songs from UK's Lightspeed Champion (ie. Dev Hynes) debut album "Falling Off The Lavender Bridge", out in the UK this week and in North America the following week. Frankly, I never had listened to his music until last week when Chromewaves wrote a post about him - his music is quite lovely at times. There's something about Brits performing twangy, pastoral pop music - it just sounds so good. As Chromewaves mentioned last week, Lightspeed Champion is heading to North America for SXSW and an acoustic tour with a stop in Toronto on Tuesday March 4 at Horseshoe Tavern(Tuesdays at the Horseshoe traditionally being no cover, Nu Music Nite). It's circled on my calendar as a definite maybe.

So This Is Goodbye

The way I've been posting about Coachella over the last few days, you'd figure I was actually there. Alas, I was thousands of miles away here in Ontario, Canada vicariously experiencing it through AT&T Blue Room and YouTube. I did Coachella in 2004 and don't know when/if I'll do it again but to put it simply, it's a pilgrimage not only for the music but for the communal experience. For someone like me(ie in a North America), Coachella was attainable. Coachella takes place annually at the end of April or early May when airline flights are at a decent price. My oberservation's been that you're bound to get a ticket to at least one of the days(if not the whole weekend), as long as you don't procrastinate too long - compare that to UK/European festivals like Glastonbury/Reading which seem to sell out in record time every year. My only suggestion to those considering Coachella in the future, if you don't want to camp there and or sleep in your car is to not doddle on the accommodations/lodging situation - hotel/motels seem to fill up quite fast. Yesterday, I caught earlier sets from Junior Boys and CSS, plus some of Kaiser Chiefs, Klaxons, and Crowded House. Even with a day off work today, I was unfortunately too pooped to stay up for The Lemonheads. Fortunately, AT&T Blue Room will be archiving the Coachella broadcasts in the future.

Junior Boys' late afternoon set coaxed even the most aloof indie rockers to dance setting the mood for CSS' disco-punk later on in the evening. Brooklyn Vegan has coverage of CSS meeting Paris Hilton and Courtney Love prior to their set. My initial impression of Crowded House's set was one of awkwardness in that their reunion didn't necessarily warrant a mainstage appearance. It was difficult to tell from the video whether the audience was enjoying it. (Actually, my main beef with the AT&T Blue Room broadcast was that it was difficult to hear audience reaction - I'd have preferred more audio/video of the audience interspersed with artist/band performances.) When Crowded House's Neil Finn's mic conked out on him during their hit "Don't Dream It's Over" he was able to get the audience to sing a long, casting aside any doubts I had if the audience was enjoying themselves. The Sydney Morning Herald reports on Crowded House's nervous start yesterday which disappeared several songs into their set.

I gathered up some of the better video clips uploaded to YouTube by various Coachella attendees, and I'm sure there'll be more to come in the days ahead when attendees get back to harsh reality:

YouTube: Junior Boys - "In The Morning" (live at Coachella 2007)
YouTube: The New Pornographers - "Sing Me Spanish Techno" (live at Coachella 2007)
YouTube: LCD Soundsystem - ? (live at Coachella 2007)
YouTube: Cornelius - "Drop" (live at Coachella 2007)
YouTube: Peter Bjorn and John - "Young Folks" (live at Coachella 2007)
YouTube: The Frames - ? (live at Coachella 2007)
YouTube: The Decemberists - "The Crane Wife" (live at Coachella 2007)
YouTube: Amy Winehouse - "Rehab" (live at Coachella 2007)
YouTube: The Rapture - "Whoo Alright" (live at Coachella 2007)
YouTube: Jesus and Mary Chain - "Reverence" (live at Coachella 2007)
YouTube: Jesus and Mary Chain - "Head On" (live at Coachella 2007)
YouTube: Interpol - "Narc" (live at Coachella 2007)
YouTube: Sonic Youth - ? (live at Coachella 2007)
YouTube: Arctic Monkeys - "When The Sun Goes Down" (live at Coachella 2007 - from AT&T Blue Room stream)

Check out photos from Pitchfork and Yahoo!.

Jam Showbiz reports on Rage Against The Machine's set. Stereogum has a review and photos of the band's set.

The Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot lists his highlights and disappointments of this year's Coachella festival.

Read about Jennifer's(of dose.ca) Coachella experiences(she also as video): Friday, Saturday(afternoon/evening), Sunday(afternoon/evening)

It's miraculous that with approximately 180,000 people attending over a 3 day period, there were only 85 arrests and 37 persons injured.

Update: Check out Spinner.com's Coachella coverage with the likes of Rage Against The Machine, Willie Nelson, Travis, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Regina Spektor, Tom Morello, Amy Winehouse, Peaches, Perry Farrell, adn Jesus and Mary Chain. I promise no more mention of Coachella after this.

Spare-Ohs

Day 2 done. 1 to go. I've gone to two multi-day music festivals in my life - Coachella in 2004(2 days/2 nights of shows - I didn't camp), and Sasquatch in 2006(3 nights/2 days of shows - 3 nights of camping) and I can only imagine how exhausted those who attended are by night. But it's an exhilirating feeling at the same time. I caught a few bits and pieces of performances yesterday through AT&T Blue Room including much of Andrew Bird, Regina Spektor and The Arcade Fire, as well as bits and pieces of The Cribs, The Frames, Jack's Mannequin, The Fratellis, and Ozomatli's sets.

I've only recently discovered Andrew Bird mostly due to his recent Take Away Session for La Blogatheque for which he wandered the streets of Paris, France playing guitar and violin, whistling and serenading for whomever wanted to listen. Mr. Bird's Coachella set yesterday was a full band affair, combining his classical musicianship with more conventional pop sensibilities. He seemed to go over well with the crowd. I'm sorry it took me so long to notice. Video below courtsey of Brooklyn Heathen(who ripped it from the AT&T Blue Room stream):

YouTube: Andrew Bird - "Plasticities" (live at Coachella 2007)

Regina Spektor performed a solo set with herself on keyboards. She was the definition of charm, enticing the audience with her playful keyboard melodies and vocals, and simplest of banter like saying she was honoured to play the festival or apologizing for some technical difficulties seemed to bring out the best in the crowd. Or maybe it was the was she leaned over her keyboard a few times, and I swear she was out there, if you know what I mean. Video below courtsey of Brooklyn Heathen(who ripped it from the AT&T Blue Room stream):

YouTube: Regina Spektor - "Apres Moi" (live at Coachella 2007)

There was a palpable excitement for The Arcade Fire's set. I watched most of it and it was great but I do sense a toning down of their onstage antics. None of that motorcycle helmet banging craziness. Win did jump down to the audience's level during "Rebellion(Lies)" though. Below are a few videos over at YouTube courtesy of Brooklyn Heathen ripped from the AT&T Blue Room stream:

YouTube: The Arcade Fire - "Rebellion(Lies)" (live at Coachella 2007)
YouTube: The Arcade Fire - "Keep The Car Running" (live at Coachella 2007)

Stereogum keeps the awesome Coachella coverage coming here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Coachella Valley's The Desert Sun has the local perspective on yesterday's experience(including the sweltering heat).

Check out Coachella coverage over at NME and The L.A. Times.

The Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot posts about his day two experiences.

Billboard's Jaded Insider posts about his(her?) experiences of day one and day two.

Go over to AT&T Blue Room and watch Junior Boys' set NOW[well, at least as of the time of this posting]!

Earth Intruders

Day one of Coachella is over and I was able to catch some streaming performances yesterday evening[technically earlier this morning, EST] over at AT & T Blue Room. I caught a bit of The Arctic Monkeys' set, and then later on Sonic Youth. But the horns-a-plenty and tribal rhythms that dominated Bjork's set was deliriously awesome. I'm 99% sure now that I'll buy a ticket to day one[September 8] of Virgin Festival in Toronto where Bjork will be headlining.

The Factory Blog postedlinked to some videos on YouTube of Bjork's set.

Stereogum will be blogging live from Coachella all weekend, so keep refreshing his mainpage for all the action.

Greg Kot of The Chicago Tribune blogged Day one of Coachella.

Like me, Brooklyn Vegan stayed up to watch the stream of Bjork's set and he also has the set list. I remember watching the stream and at the end of the performance the camera zoomed in one fan holding a hastily written sign that said "Set List?". As if he'd get his hands on one, especially when he didn't seem to be anywhere near the stage. BV and I must be on the same wavelength because I also took an image capture of the performance[see above]. Brooklyn Vegan also posted a few photos of Scarlett Johansson singing backup during Jesus and Mary Chain's set during "Just Like Honey".

Check AT&T Blue Room's streaming schedule for the rest of the Coachella festival. And remember all times listed are Pacific Time, so for all you Eastern Standard Timers, just add 3 hours to the time. So Arcade Fire, 12:50 am EST it is. Who will you be watching?

Oh My Coachella

The inaugural 3-DAY Coachella festival starts tomorrow. Oh, the days went it was just 2 days. My friend and I went in 2004 which was a blast. Filter points towards the schedule which illustrates why such big music festivals are awesome and frustrating all at once, although the way such festivals are scheduled is ultimately practical. The lineup of Coachella has a dizzying array of interesting artists to check out and even if I haven't heard many of the bands, at least I've heard of a lot of them and I'd be tempted to check them out. The frustrating part is that there's the inevitable overlapping schedules of different stages which prevents one from seeing all the artists he/she would like to see. The practicality of the scheduling, the way I see it, is that the organizers want to spread out attendance at any given time, as evenly as possible amongst the different stages. So big music festivals have their ups and downs, but in the end it's all about the experience. And with Coachella, you have the added bonus of being in California with it's lovely summer-like weather and its beautiful sunsets. I envy everyone going this year but I shall try to live it out as vicariously as possible through the internet this weekend. Does anyone know who'll be streaming performances on the 'net this year?
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In other news, Ladytron's Reuben Wu and Mira Aroyo are going on the road for a DJ tour and will be at Spin Gallery in Toronto on May 16.