More Coachella Pictures??

Well you asked for it. Here are the rest of the photos I shot during the 2007 Coachella Music Festival. Some of these are candid shots, others are of the bands not previously mentioned.

Here are a few pictures of the new Perry Ferrell band Satellite Party. Their music was decent, but Perry’s stage antics are always a trip.

One set that may not have gotten as much recognition from my reviews as it should have was the Silversun Pickups. The set was loud, rough, and full of grungy rock. It wasn’t until I saw this set that I really grasped the Smashing Pumpkins comparisons.

The act right after Silversun was Arctic Monkeys. These youngsters really got the crowd going, hitting some classics from their debut and throwing some really good tunes in from the new album. We had to walk away from the front of the stage cause it was getting pretty rowdy and all 3 of us were coming up on 35 hours of no sleep at that point so we backed up and watched the second half of the show from a distance.

We ran over to the Sahara Tent to see what all the fuss was about. It turned out to be pretty entertaining. I am pretty sure this was during Benny Benassi.

Sonic Youth was probably the biggest disappointment of the whole festival. The band was over 20 minutes late, then they finally came onstage without Kim Gordon (lead singer). Instead of cracking a few jokes or playing a little something something for the crowd that was overly patient and eager to hear the band, the guys kinda just stood on stage and said “Ugh…where’s Kim at?” (direct quote). Once Kim finally got on stage, however, they did play a few favorites from their classic album Daydream Nation, but we were only able to catch a few tracks cause we wanted to run over and see Bjork.

This is a great photo. These were probably the only clouds we saw the entire weekend. Of course we were in a tent when they showed their comforting faces, but it was still a nice glimmer of hope that we weren’t going to bake forever out there.

Sadly, Saturday wasn’t my best day for photos. I didn’t get a good shot of Kings of Leon, The Arcade Fire or Red Hot Chilli Peppers, but I managed to snag a few from the Black Keys set. Most of these came out kinda blurry, mainly because the band was jamming and dancing the entire set.

Coachella is known for it’s artwork. While I didn’t get good pictures of most of it (you can go to the coachella webpage to see what kind of crazy shit they had there) I did get a picture of one of the not so hyped up pieces. Right outside of the Mojave tent there was this giant paper mobile with giant snowflakes hanging from the ends. It was blowing in the wind and it had some wonderfully dim lights to add some color. It was delicate, it was uncomplicated, and it was incredibly relaxing. The 3 of us laid under it for a good half an hour at the end of Saturday’s sets. The artists who created it were chilling nearby and asked me to give them a hand. Me and another fella had to have the architect stand on our shoulders so he could pull one of the poles out that had broken from the wind. Anyways, it was an overlooked piece of artwork and it just might have been the most relaxing half hour of the trip.

There were a lot of Rage Against the Machine T-shirts. This was one of the better ones I saw over the weekend.

You can add The Roots to the list of bands I neglected to include in my best of lists. These guys have such a great presence on stage.

This would be Flea (RHCP Bassist…in the straw hat) checking out The Roots set.

That just about does it. Trust me, there are a ton more pictures but the rest are either blurred, too far away or a nice view of somebody’s head that was standing in front of me. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

 

Cloud Cult – The Meaning of 8

 

 

Cloud Cult and The Meaning of 8 are getting under my skin in an extreme way, and I’m loving every minute of it. The band takes the eco-friendly term “green” to a whole new level. The band makes their albums using geothermal energy and recycled materials, donate proceeds to environmentally friendly charities, and play concerts with an onstage painter. The Meaning of 8 is the bands sixth album in 7 years. Released on their own non-profit label Earthology, the label packages CDs using hand-cleaned, reused jewel cases, recycled cardboard and paper, and nontoxic soy ink, and Cloud Cult records in a recording studio which Minowa built from recycled and salvaged materials. How is this not a granola’s dream band? Though I am only familiar with this one, I can feel the passion that gets put into this music. Similar in design to The Arcade Fire at times, this music hits many types of genres including Emo, Indie, Rock, and even this grand opera kind of feel. The band turned down major label offers before making this album in hopes of keeping the same feeling and ingenuity in their music. There are so many tracks I could talk about on this album. My favorite, “Your Eighth Birthday” is an eccentric little piece that ends in this epic cry. The first few listens I had a hard time understanding what it was that lead singer Craig Minowa was saying in his loud cries. I assumed it was the name Kaiden. Come to find out his infant son Kaiden died in 2002. That hit me hard. How can someone go through that kind of emotional rollercoaster and still have the courage to sing about it. The next time I listened to the song I nearly cried. It packs so much more sentiment with that knowledge. “Take Your Medicine” is another enchanting song filled with incredible piano, violins and a delightful choir to combine into this bittersweet symphony (yeah, I said it). “The Deaf Girl’s Song” is just that, a song about a deaf girl making a song. Like most songs on this album it is sweet, charming, and tragic all at once. In tribute to the deaf girl, the album ends with the somber “Song for the Deaf Girl”. A minute and a half of silence that at first listen is confusing until you look at the song titles, then it becomes this thoughtful piece.. Those are just a few from this sincere, fairy tale album The Meaning of 8. Believe me when I say this album is fantastic. Please take a few minutes and listen to all of the tracks below. It is for your own good. Don’t just try one, because the one below it could be the seller for you. Put your myspace page on hold for 15 minutes and enjoy these beautiful songs. If your life is really too busy to stop and enjoy this music then stop reading this blog. Honestly.

 

Your 8th Birthday

Take Your Medicine

Chemicals Collide

The Deaf Girl’s Song

Dance for the Dead

I Know What the Future Holds

Before I write a few reviews this weekend, I wanted to give everyone an update on what is coming up. This year has already been a monster success. The Arcade Fire and the Arctic Monkeys plowed through the sophomore slump while Bright Eyes and Kings of Leon both produced fine follow-ups to their big earlier releases. LCD Soundsystem, Modest Mouse, Wilco, and Elliott Smith have all come out with outstanding releases. And there have also been a lot of great discoveries this year (most of these won’t be “discoveries” to some of you, but I can’t keep up with all of it all the time so lay off). Bands such as Peter Bjorn and John, Explosions in the Sky, Blonde Redhead, Cloud Cult, and the Twilight Sad have all had songs that caught my ear this year. Even with all of these great albums, there is still a whole lot more to come. So let’s take a glance at what is still to come for 2007.

June has a full plate of appetizers for us. On the 19^th The White Stripes release their anticipated Icky Thump. Don’t get too absorbed, because it is only a week later that the Beastie Boys release The Mix Up. Other names to get excited for are Queens of the Stone Age, Chemical Brothers, Editors, and Ryan Adams. So start saving your pennies, because June is gonna be a spender.

July, however, is a much bigger problem. Actually it’s not so much the entire month as it is just the one day. On July 10^th, you have Spoon releasing Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, the follow up to their monumental Gimme Fiction. Some people, I not being on of them, will be excited for the new Interpol cd that comes out that day. However I think it is safe to say that the majority of the hoopla will be over the highly anticipated reuniting (sorta) of the 90’s powerhouse Smashing Pumpkins. Now if you are a Pumpkins fan, prepare to brace yourself. If you go to the WordPress Music links on the right hand side of this page and click on Shameless Complacency, you can hear the new track from the Smashing Pumpkins. It is a little rough, but it will get you overly anxious. Enjoy.

 

August isn’t as powerful of a month, but there are still some great names releasing albums. On the 7^th you’ve got the new one from Architecture in Helsinki, on the 20^th you have Jenny Lewis in her band Rilo Kiley releasing Under the Blacklight, then on the 28^th we get to hear what Ben Harper has in store for us in Lifelines.

There are still a lot of bands that have releases planned with no exact date. The big names are (get eager) The Pixies (reuniting after 15 years), Radiohead (first album since 2003’s Hail to the Thief), Coldplay, Built to Spill, Jimmy Eat World, N.E.R.D, The Postal Service, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs just to name a few. So like I said before, get ready for a big year.

Elliott Smith – New Moon

Elliott Smith hasn’t been with us for almost 5 years now, so when I heard there was a new Elliott Smith album coming out I kind of freaked. My first thought was that the bastard faked his death and if that was the case I was about to hunt his ass down and…I don’t know, slap him maybe. Then I quickly remembered that there was a ton of rarities and unreleased material that Elliott’s family and the record company were in a tangle over what to do with. This newest release entitled New Moon is 24 songs that never made the final cut to an album between the years of 1994 and 1997. Those were the good years. Elliott was signed with the indie label Kill Rock Stars and put out 2 of his best works, his self titled album and the semi-popular Either/Or. Everything on New Moon was from that time period. There is word of another release due in November of this year for the rarities after that time period that are owned by a different label but that is still up in the air. As for this release, I couldn’t be happier. Some of the tracks have been played live before, showing up in bootlegs every now and again like “Thirteen”, the delightful tune about young lovers and “Placeholder”. Out of the 24 songs on this compilation, I’m glad that 20 of them didn’t make the cut on their respective releases. If I heard these songs without knowing anything about Elliott Smith, I doubt I would have enjoyed any of them. However, after years of getting to know Elliott through both his lyrics and interviews it makes it that much easier to get into these tracks that hold so much more character than most of his released music which, is obviously saying a lot. And though most of his work sounds like thoughts spilling off of Elliott’s chest, this collection of songs has a different feel to it. Almost like they weren’t intended to be part of an album, they were merely a way for him to release. The version of “Miss Misery” blew me away. Though it is not as crafty as the original Oscar nominated version, it is interesting to see where the thoughts developed from. Same goes for “Pretty Mary K”, a track that was release on the Figure 8 album under a completely different melody, entirely different in its original form. One song that stands out to me is “New Monkey”. Late in Elliott’s life he bought a studio which he wanted to use antique recording machines to capture that old essence that is lacking in so many modern records. The name of the studio is New Monkey Studio, probably adapted from the song title. I noticed another interesting piece of trivia while I was listening to the track “Looking Over my Shoulder”. Elliott says “I ran down to the corner lot, its forty five past two, I almost forgot to show.” Most lines take a few listens to click in my head, but this one stood out mostly because “2:45 AM” is one of my favorite tracks from Either/Or. I can assume that it is tied into the Either/Or classic in one way or another. As a whole, this album is genius, but not for a casual fan. If you know little Elliott Smith, I would suggest starting somewhere else. Anywhere else really. This album is not his best material by any means. It is simply a few tracks that didn’t make the cut 10 years ago that diehard fans will appreciate. If you are an Elliott fan, this album will make you fall head over heels all over again.

 

New Monkey

High Times

Miss Misery (Early Version)

 

Wilco – Sky Blue Sky

Jeff Tweedy has never been the kind of guy who stays in one musical state of mind for too long. The experimental sides of Wilco’s latest 2 albums have been replaced by the soothing, relaxing folk rock sounds of the early 70’s. Sky Blue Sky has this floating dock vibe that most of Wilco’s collection touches on but doesn’t get into as deeply as this album does. The band’s sixth studio album has the ability to put your mind in this mature, easy going summertime mood. If you’re still trying to find that common musical ground with your grand dad at your family’s BBQ this summer, give “Impossible Germany” a shot. Both “Side with the Seeds” and the aforementioned track have incredibly ripping classic Wilco guitar solos. The track “Please Be Patient with Me” comes off a little masochistic lyrically, but its smooth personal touch is far beyond any track on the album. “Hate it Here” starts off rather sexist as Tweedy talks about how his life has changed when his woman moved out on him, but the drumming from Glenn Kotche is astounding. The single “What Light”, though I’ve heard it a number of times, is still one hell of a catchy song. Lastly, the track “Walken” has that nice Wilco-esque jam session at the end. When it’s all rolled together on Sky Blue Sky, you get a finished product that is one of the most natural, soulful Wilco albums to date. Jeff Tweedy has excelled again, weaving together clever little lyrics around some gorgeous melodies. This album bleeds Wilco from every pore.

What Light

Impossible Germany

Walken

love that picture

You Ready for the Stripes?

 

Jack White has been a rock and roll powerhouse in the 2000’s. Since his first hit “Fell in Love with a Girl” from 2001’s White Blood Cells, Jack and his ex-wife Meg have rocked the nation with hit after hit. It seems as though everything Jack touches turns to gold. Get Behind me Satan and The Raconteurs’ Broken Boy Soldier both made the top 5 of the best of 2005 and 2006, respectively. This June, The White Stripes will release their sixth full lenth entitled Icky Thump. While I highly anticipate the full album, the title track has been pumping up my mornings for over a week now. Just thought I’d give a little glimpse into the new album. In case you haven’t heard it, here is the new single, “Icky Thump”.

 Icky Thump

Coachella Road Trip

Coachella was an experience far beyond what I had hoped for. The music, the atmosphere, the food, the sculptures, the people, the heat… all of it combined for an amazing occasion. There is a lot to write about and a lot of pictures to see. Before we get started, i have a few things to say. One, I took every picture you see on this website with my own camera. Two, there are still plenty more pictures to post, but I filled up my online storage so we’re gonna have to wait till I get more room to see the rest. Now let’s dive right into it.

Jesse and my brother Matt flew into Seattle at 10:30 am on Thursday morning. We got right in the car, and started heading down to Indio California. The trip down was rather uneventful. We all really just wanted to get this festival started. Which is probably what gave me the energy to drive straight till 3:30 am without needed a tag in. Jesse took over from that point, and got us safely to our camp ground no later than 7 am. There were only 2 trip highlights on the way down. I asked the guys before coming out here to make a summertime road trip mix cd for the road. I thought it would be fun to hear what everyone thinks is good summertime music. Unfortunately Matt left his cd in the airport parking lot back in Rochester, NY. So it was just Jesse and I. My mix was mostly loud, roll down your windows and take in the fresh air rock music to pump you up and keep you going on the road. Jesse’s mix was very chilled, turn on the AC and let’s talk about it down to earth music. This, if you know either of us, is really ironic. Both mixes were good, and it was a fun little project.

Coachella Story Time #1

The thing about Indio is it’s a desert. There isn’t a cloud in the sky and the blazing sun does nothing but send blazing heat to the earth’s surface all day. They don’t even have a morning. As soon as the sun comes up at 7:30, its instantly in the 80’s. Then it doesn’t take longer than 3 hours to get to the days high of 101 degrees. To emphasize how hot this is, take a look at this picture.

This is a picture of my leg and a lighter at about 11 am. The lighter, as you can see, had blown up and set fire to my leg hair. The loud explosion startled all of us. What’s worse is the lighter was sitting in the shade of our tent when it popped. It wasn’t even in the sunlight. It was in the coolest spot of our tent and it exploded. Anyways, when we arrived and set up shop, we were all exhausted. I hadn’t slept longer than an hour the whole trip, and the other guys had been traveling for way longer than I had and only had 2-3 hours of shut eye in their system. After we got a free Jack and Coke from one of our neighbors, we decided it would be best to take a nap before the show. Unsuccessful. Way to hot in the tent with 3 guys practically cuddling. I gave up after 15 minutes to go attempt hacky sac (by attempt, I mean I have been trying to play hack for years now, and though I have tried with all might, I still manage to blow ass) with some neighboring British guys. It wasn’t too long before the gates opened and we were sent into the festival. By the time Jesus and Mary Chain got onstage (in case you don’t have the schedule sitting in front of you like I do, that’s about 7:40) I was already feeling the effects of my decision. By the end of Bjork all 3 of us had fallin asleep somewhere on the ground. I missed the second half of her set, and Matt fell asleep as soon as we sat down to wait for Jesse at DJ Shadow. It had been a long 48 hours for all of us. For me, I know that was the longest I have ever attempted to stay awake.

Coachella Most Surprising Acts

 

I think what the Coachella festival has over the others is while some festivals have great headliners, they sort of lose the crowd towards the bottom of their bill. At Coachella, you can walk to any stage at any time and see an ear splitting performance. There were moments we just walked around and caught a few songs from different artists. My brother made this his whole weekend. If there wasn’t a show he was dying to see, he wandered the entire polo field checking out every possible act he could witness. When we would all meet up, we would ask each other what shows were good. Jesse would say “I saw Kings of Leon, met Tom Morello and caught the Nightwatchman”. I would say “I saw Peter Bjorn and John and the end of Kings of Leon”, and Matt would be like “Yeah, I saw them. I also saw the Decemberists, New Pornographers, and MSTRKRFT.” Everyone has their own Coachella. No 2 people, even if they came together, have the same experience.

OK, getting off topic here. Best Surprise Acts. Well the first one I am counting as a surprise because I only discovered them a few days before we left. Paste Magazine has a 2 page spread where they talk about 4 new bands for people to hear. The Noisettes caught my eye. I recognized them from the lineup and got their album the same day. Only heard it once, but I knew it was a band I would have to catch. Luckily, there were no time conflicts with other artists so we were able to catch them. They were the first show to start our festival on Friday afternoon. And they kicked it off perfectly. Their wild stage antics and intense music made for an excellent 50 minute set. Very similar to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Noisettes have 2 albums out (I think) but their latest release “What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf?” is definitely worth a listen. The band preformed with a lot of heart as most of the openers at the festival did. It was very entertaining to watch the lead singer hit those crazy notes. If they every swing by your town it’ll be worth the $15 I promise you.

The second surprise act is Hot Chip. I wasn’t planning on seeing them, but they were squeezed in between The Fratellis and Peter Bjorn and John at the Mojave tent so I was kinda forced to into it. I suppose we could have left after The Fratellis to go catch Roky Erickson (lead sing of the 13^th Floor Elevators) or Jack’s Mannequin, but the idea of sitting in the shade for another act didn’t sound so bad to any of us. We all thought it was best to spark up one of our blunts just before the show to make it that much more interesting. And it was a good thing we did. Hot Chip is a 4 piece electro dance rock…thing…from London. I had a really neat thought during the set of how to describe the band but I was high, so it might not come out as clearly as it came to my head then. Did you ever tap on your desk in school with a pencil or something and find a really clever little beat? Then you started adding to the sounds with a pen tapping on a folder, or sliding your desk around to the music. While all this was going on you thought to yourself, “Geez, I really have something good going here.”  Well their entire set was like that, except way more advanced. Their music had the entire tent going crazy. Very catchy stuff. It’s hard to remember everything that happened during that show, but I do know all 3 of us were very impressed with the band.

Coachella Top 10 Songs Preformed

Basically if you were at Coachella all 3 days, these are the moments you should have been there to witness. Now I was lucky enough to find video’s for most of these moments, but keep in mind the quality is not going to be perfect for most as they were recorded from the crowd. But I think it’s better than nothing. So enjoy.

#10: Kings of Leon – Bucket

A tune from the hit album “Aha Shake Heartbreak”. Since I missed the beginning of their set, I was happy I got to catch one of my favorite tracks from their older cd. From what I saw the band rocked. Seeing some of their new songs preformed live has definitely made me want to go back and give the new album another chance.

#9: Tapes ‘N Tapes – 10 Gallon Ascots

The only song I could not find a video for. This was a great song on the album and an even better song live. It exploded and got the whole tent jamming. Even the people that didn’t know the song had to start dancing when it erupted.

#8: Explosions in the Sky – Welcome, Ghosts

This set was without question one of the highlights of the festival. It is always so fun to see a band at the same time you are starting to get into them. I mean it is always fun to see a band you know and love, but when the timing is right it just makes it that much better. This is my favorite song from the new record “All of a Sudden I miss Everyone”.

#7: Arctic Monkeys – A View From the Afternoon

The opening track from the 2006 phenomenon “Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I’m Not” was outrageous live. We got right up to the front for this set (and many others) when they burned the house down with this track.

#6: The Black Keys – Just Got to Be

Truthfully, this probably would have been 10am Automatic if we hadn’t missed that song. But this track was awesome too. A great way to end Saturday night.

#5: Bjork – Earth Intruders

I know 2 songs from Bjork. I love both of them, which in no way explains why I haven’t tried to hear more, but this is the one I was dying to hear. From her new album “Volta”, this is her Coachella opener.

#4: Placebo – Infra-Red

I knew I wanted to see Placebo. I didn’t know how badly until they started playing. As soon as this song started blasting, I knew I was going to absolutely go crazy for this set. Which I did. This is Placebo’s opener.

#3: Peter Bjorn and John – Up Against the Wall

This goes back to the whole idea of seeing a band right as you are falling in love with them. Well I’ve been in love with this band for months now as most of you probably know. But to have them close with my favorite song was just unbelievable. This set was outstanding and this closer was the best part. Sadly, Youtube doesn’t have a video for the entire song. There are 100 different videos for “Young Folks” but nobody stuck around to hear this one. This was the only video I could find. It doesn’t capture any of the magic, but if you get past the ugly dancing guy and listen to the eruption of music in the backround, that’s this song.

#2: Rage Against the Machine – Wake Up

This band reunited at Coachella to use the festival as a loudspeaker to project their view on the bush administration. The entire crowd was waiting for the moment when Zach De La Rocha would speak his mind. It only happened once, during this song. And although the entire set was astounding, this was the highlight moment for me. Notice during the video that the camera is stead the entire time…until the explosion from the crowd set it into a tornado. That’s how the whole show was.

#1: The Arcade Fire – Wake Up

Sing a Longs are always fun. This is the biggest one I’ve ever seen.