Event Coachella 2010: PHOENIX Resurrects an Exhausted Festival Crowd…

April 21, 2010 - 5:53 am

Thomas Mars eggs you on

It’s Sunday, the closing day of the festival. People stagger through the Coachella grounds with forced bravado and as much cheerfulness as they can muster, but stop anywhere and you’ll hear one of any of the following: “I’m tired,’ “I’m so exhausted,” “I just want to go home,” “You okay dude? Get up, this isn’t funny,” etc. They’re trying to stay conscious for what will later prove to be one of the biggest shows of the entire 3-day package — an hour long performance by France’s Phoenix. I thought the crowd at MGMT’s show was huge; truth be told, they had nothing on these guys. Nobody did.

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Music DJ Kraddy and Coachella Crazies @ DoLab

April 21, 2010 - 5:51 am

The Freaks come out at night

The first night of Coachella was a bit of a mess… after 7 hours of traffic I got to the Festival a little late, and switched arrangements to see The Dillinger Escape Plan with, well, pretty much whomever I could find. Thus commenced a great deal of scrambling around and looking for weird sheize to frolic in. Having never been to the big C before, I stumbled around in the dark near what I would later learn is the ‘Outdoor stage’ and found myself in a land beyond sight and sound. I had passed the main stages and DJ tents. I’d reached: The Dolab.
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Featured Music Coachella Backstage With Yo Gabba Gabba

April 21, 2010 - 5:45 am

muno_coachella_crowd_by_justin_lyon

Coachella is known for it’s share of celebrity sitings and backstage antics. But when the entire cast of Yo Gabba Gabba hit the stage, and then backstage, real hilarity ensued. ChinaShop scored these exclusive pics from Coachella 2010 courtesy of Yo Gabba Gabba. Witness the antics with MGMT, Beth Ditto, LCD Soundsystem, Danny Devito and more.

(photos by jory & justin)

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Event Coachella 2010: Explosions, Suspicious Substances, and Festival Hijinks

April 21, 2010 - 5:44 am

AUTO EN FUEGO, Coachella

I think if I could describe my festival personality in two words, it would be “Masochist-Aspergers.” I can attribute this feeling of estrangement to a particular OzzFest in my youth, when a gentleman of questionable genetic inheritance staggered over to me in the blistering heat, wife/girlfriend/sister in tow, and grabbed me by the head. He slobbered something like “GREAT CONTHERT JHESHKEBBOBTPPPTH”, and planted a big wet kiss on my goddamn cheek. Had we not been in an open amphitheater, I have no doubt he’d have made me his cell-mate.

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Art/Design Global Inheritance at Coachella 2010

April 21, 2010 - 5:41 am

Spin that thing

If you’ve never heard of Global Inheritance, you’re missing out on something big. Here’s an organization that bases its environmental credos on what the world around you can and should be: fun and interactive, in addition to being educational. This year marked GI’s 7th display at Coachella, and featured exercise bikes, human hamster wheels, and an energy see-saw — all hooked up to, and providing power for, a small stage with a DJ on board. Crowd members indulged in both endorphins and the experience of seeing how they could directly help the environment, and got immediate results. Beats having to wait years for the tree you planted to grow!

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Daily Dots Daily Dots: Big Boi, Plastikman, Daft Punk, The xx, Sophia Coppola, Steve Jobs, Guru, Jay Electronica

April 20, 2010 - 5:30 pm

plastikman

Today’s bloggin best…

- Outkast’s Big Boi finally sets a release date for Sir Lucious Left Foot. NME

- Finally some real Daft Punk movie music. Prefix

- The xx remixes Yacht. DFA Records

- Sophia Coppola baby daddy to score her new film (it’s Thomas from Phoenix). Pitchfork

- Steve Jobs really hates pr0n. Sends perverts to Google. Wired

-Legendary MC Guru passes away. MTV

- B.O.B. hangs with Jay Electronica. 2DopeBoyz

- Behind-the-Scenes with Plastikman at Coachella. URB

Music Tuesday Newsday: New Releases by Rufus Wainwright, Cypress Hill, Trans Am, Ozomatli, and Jonny Lang

April 20, 2010 - 3:15 pm

Cypress Hill's Rise Up

If anything, it’s an eclectic week in music…April 20th sees the first album by B-Real and Cypress Hill after their departure from Sony…a new album by Rufus Wainwright, All Days are Nights: Songs for Lulu… Ratt takes their new sound straight back to 1985….and Washington D.C. electro-giants Trans Am do their own Thing.

Airbourne No Guts, No Glory
Anarbor The Words You Don’t Swallow
The Apples In Stereo Travelers In Space and Time
Aqualung Magnetic North
V.V. Brown Traveling Like The Light
Caribou Swim
Circa Survive Blue Sky Noise
Cornershop Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast
Cypress Hill Rise Up
Demander Future Bright
Earl Greyhound Suspicious Package
Rocky Erikson [13th Floor Elevators] True Love Cast Out All Evil
Everest On Approach
Merle Haggard I Am What I Am
Inlets Inter Arbiter
Javelin No Mas
The Kissaway Trail Sleep Mountain
King Britt Intricate Beauty
Jonny Lang Live At The Ryman
Shelby Lynne Tears, Lies And Alibis
Nerdy Condors
Kate Nash My Best Friend Is You
Willie Nelson Country Music
Plants And Animals La La Land
Lou Rhodes [of Lamb]  One Good Thing
Ozomatli Fire Away
Ratt Infestation
Sevendust Cold Day Memory
Sun Domingo Live In Montreal/Marillion Weekend ’09
Trans Am Thing
Rufus Wainwright All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu

Daily Dots Daily Dots: PJ Harvey, Richie Hawtin, Coachella, Kode9, M.I.A., Diplo, Michael Alig

April 19, 2010 - 8:55 pm

michael_alig

Today’s bloggin’ best…

- PJ Harvey plays new song “Let England Shake” in front of UK Prime Minister. NME

- Coachella’s finest freaks. (NSFW) LA Weekly

- Dubstep takeover: Kode9 to mix latest of long running DJ Kicks series. Resident Advisor

- Who says major labels are out of ideas? M.I.A. album announced via blimp. Rap-Up

- You Say Party! We Say Die! Drummer Devon Clifford collapse onstage and dies. Village Voice

- A brief chat with Richie Hawtin. LA Weekly

- A nice talk with Diplo. Wired

- A long conversation with club kid turned murderer Michael Alig. Interview

Music MGMT: Get Thee in Front of Me, Indio!

April 19, 2010 - 8:48 pm

MGMT 2 Coachella 2010

Anyone who nursed a prayer about escaping Coachella just before MGMT started their headlining slot Saturday night knew they were screwed when the crowd showed up. I don’t know if it’s just because it was night, and everything from venues to tents to people just seemed attached… but either way, it looked like the equivalent of the entire population of Indio and Palm Springs were there just to see MGMT. And when “Electric Feel” started playing, forget about it…I knew once I got sucked inside, I’d have no choice but to render unto Caesar — so I teetered on the outside of a mile-long mob and did my best to avoid the black hole. While slot precursors Faith No More have tagged their long-awaited reunion as “The Second Coming”, if one were to go by crowd alone, it might appear as though MGMT are the ones bigger than Jesus.

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Featured Music Butch Walker & The Black Windows at The El Ray

April 19, 2010 - 8:40 pm

Butch Walker

You can’t go wrong with Butch Walker, you really can’t.  I don’t think I’ve had as much fun at a concert as I did last night when Butch brought his band of Black Widows out for a night of wreaking his usual havoc on Los Angeles.  We’re talking Butch climbing to the edge of the stage and threatening to dish out his adrenaline on a guy that happened to deliver a not so nice F bomb during a heartfelt verse, Pink dazzling as an accomplice to Here Comes The Heartache, a stage full of fun mini lights, a drummer in a police hat, the bass player laying it down while simultaneously playing a tambourine attached to his foot…it was like a trip to Vegas, minus the next day hangover.

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