Tag Archives: catie laffoon

Featured Gallery Music Other Lives Vs. “The Hoff”

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon
April 24, 2012 - 9:27 am

When we watched Other Lives on Friday at Coachella, we were captivated not only by their sound, but also by the array of instruments they incorporated into their set. We watched as they bounced between the cello, violin, horns, keys, guitar, bass, drums, xylophone – we lost count after a while! Following the band’s performance on the Gobi Stage, we headed over to the press area to pick the brain of lead vocalist Jesse Tabish.

Interviews are always unpredictable, but never in a million years would we have imagined that “The Hoff,” of all people, would come gallivanting through the Coachella grounds at a crucial moment during our conversation with Tabish.

Check out the interview after the jump:

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Featured Music Say “Hello” to Martin Solveig

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon
April 24, 2012 - 8:41 am

Electronic dance music fans flocked to the Sahara Tent on Saturday to watch Martin Solveig in action. The Paris-based DJ bestowed the power of dance on his audience by dropping remixes by fun. (“We Are Young”), Daft Punk (“Harder Better Faster Stronger”), as well as tracks off his freshly released EP, The Night Out. Solveig closed his set with a peppy version of “Hello,” which he collaborated on with fellow Coachella performer, Dragonette.

Immediately following his show, Solveig told us how special the evening was for him. “I don’t say this all the time but this is very very special. For any recording artist to play at Coachella is really a dream and it’s a gift to play for that kind of crowd.” He explained that he’s excited to be a part of a decade where electronic dance music artists are receiving more recognition than ever and chatted about his plans for the remainder of the year – which include supporting Madonna on her upcoming summer tour.

Check out our interview with Solveig after the jump:

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Featured Gallery Music Group Therapy with Dragonette

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon
April 23, 2012 - 11:45 am

One of our top shows of Coachella, and hands down our favorite interview, was with Dragonette. We danced harder than we did all weekend during their set and we laughed more than we’ve laughed in a while during our sit down with the trio. Among the conversation topics were, tour coordination equating to foreplay, freaking out about having to pee on stage, and their love/hate relationship with Deadmau5.

While we did get a few good questions in there, the majority of the interview involved us sitting back and observing Martina Sorbara, Dan Kurtz, and Joel Stouffer in their natural environment. The back and forth banter was cracking us up and at one point, we considered calling in a psychologist to help us mediate through the dialogue, all in the name of fun of course.

Check out our chat with Dragonette after the jump:

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Featured Gallery Music DJ Mea Sets the Bar High at Coachella

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon
April 19, 2012 - 1:13 pm

The gates to Coachella Day 1 were supposed to open at 11am, sharp, but the ticket checkers had a different agenda. Hoards of people stood with their faces pushed against the chain link fence, begging to be let in as the clock ticked by. “There’s music playing right now. We are supposed to be seeing this badass DJ,” a guy yelled, to which a security guard replied, “We’ll open when we’re ready.” The DJ in mention was Mea, scheduled for a Coachella opening slot of 11:20am in the Sahara Tent. When the doors finally opened, we sprinted over and caught her halfway through her set. The crowd arrived shortly after.

“Thank you guys for hanging around. Man I was scared but opening up Coachella was an honor,” chirped Mea who proclaimed that 11am was the earliest she’d been awake in 10 years and that she wasn’t kidding. The spunky singer warmed up the Coachella-ites with live vocals paired with a DJ and backup singer. Towards the end of the set, a live band accompanied her on stage. Several costumed back up dancers appeared and engaged in a choreographed routine. Mea’s sultry lyrics and high tech LED visuals transformed the crowd into a “Coachella state of mind.”

We caught up with the up and coming singer/DJ who told us about joining Belgian-American post-industrial techno band, Lords of Acid, on the road. She also discussed being a role model for budding female DJs and how she refuses to succumb to a single genre.

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Featured Gallery Music A Word with Wolf Gang

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon
April 18, 2012 - 1:41 pm

Max McElligott made music in his bedroom, as a hobby, and fully intended to continue studying social anthropology and politics at the London School of Economics. Life had a different plan for McElligott and he quickly realized that the world was interested in making his music more than just a side project. He dropped out of school and began to focus on music full time, calling his project Wolf Gang. After creating a buzz in the UK scene, McElligott sought out a band through friends in London and has been building up a fan base ever since.

Wolf Gang recently arrived in the US to take the stage at Coachella where they performed for thousands on Friday of weekend one. The alt rockers are also supporting Miike Snow in Los Angles on April 18th and playing Coachella weekend two before jumping on a summer tour with Coldplay.

We huddled up with McElligott and the rest of the Wolf Gang guys (Lasse Petersen, James Wood, and Gavin Slater) at a picnic table in the Coachella VIP area to discuss annoying neighbors with their bedroom recordings, romantic terrorist songs, and their upcoming tour with Coldplay.

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Gallery Music Sebastian Ingrosso and Ryan Tedder Wow Coachella with Live Rendition of “Calling (Lose My Mind)”

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon
April 17, 2012 - 4:32 pm

Swedish House Mafia closed out Coachella Day one, packing in thousands of faithful fans that fought the day’s sporadic rainstorms and dipping temperatures to ring in their night with a massive dance party. While their set was fantastic – they spared no expense and wowed the crowd with fireworks, cutting edge visuals, and crafty remixes like “Sweet Disposition” (Temper Trap), “Coming Home” (Diddy ft. Dirty Money & Skylar Grey), and “Paradise” (Coldplay) – we have to touch on how much we LOVED Sebastian Ingrosso’s DJ set the following night.

We saw some fabulous DJs this weekend – Martin Solveig, David Guetta, Afrojack, Morgan Page, Breakbot, Kaskade, and more – but it doesn’t get any better than a live set by Ingrosso.

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Gallery Music Sleeper Agent. Clap Clap Clap…

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon
April 17, 2012 - 12:34 pm

We caught up with Sleeper Agent vocalist Alex Kandel minutes after the band finished their first ever Coachella show. “It was so much fun!” she exclaimed. Kandel told us that she’d never smiled so much in her life as she had during that show and that she usually gets harassed for looking ‘sad and miserable’ when caught up in the moment performing.

Kandel explained the back-story on how the Bowling Green-based band came to be – Hint: it involves Sleeper Agent drummer, Justin Wilson getting sucker punched by a rival drummer. She also joked about fans stalking her in the pool on the Weezer Cruise and told us that bands in her hometown music scene are incestuous.

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Event Gallery The Hipster Games

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon
April 17, 2012 - 11:00 am

There are hipsters and then there are EXTREME hipsters… And if there’s one place to find them, it’s at Coachella. We’re not entirely sure why giant music festivals bring out the crazy in people, but there must be something in the water that makes Coachella-goers want to dress as “out-of-the-box” fashion forward as physically possible. In between interviewing bands, shooting portraits, and catching live shows, we went “Extreme Hipster Hunting.”

Tutus, Indian headdresses, a man wearing a giant bear suit, crowns, grown men in little boy’s underwear, body paint, dress wearing wizards, a clan of shirtless dudes wearing birthday hats… you name it we found it.

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Featured Gallery Music Going AWOL at Coachella

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon
April 16, 2012 - 2:18 pm

AWOLNATION surprised fans with their debut Coachella performance in more ways than one. First, frontman Aaron Bruno rallied the audience into a frenzy, demanding crowd surfing participating, at one point asking the masses to “try something different on the next song and see how many girls we can get to crowd surf at the same time.” The band managed to unite thousands into simultaneously jumping to “Kill Your Heroes” and brought Macy Gray out to accompany Aaron on vocals during “Sail.” Known for his energetic stage antics, Aaron dove into the crowd himself at the tail end of “Sail,” clutching his microphone and belting out the chorus. The set ended with an “AWOLNATION” chant and a Coachella-worthy version of “Burn It Down.”

It’s been a while since we sat down with AWOLNATION so we caught up with the band for a post-show “what have you been up to?” chat. Check out the interview after the jump.

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Featured Gallery Music Who is “Keep Shelly in Athens”?

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon
April 16, 2012 - 12:28 pm

One of the most talked about “under the radar” bands of Coachella was the Greek duo, Keep Shelly in Athens. The emerging indie-electronic band has created quite a stir – for their unique, sometimes characterized as “melancholy disco” sound and their “mysterious” reputation. In order to keep the sole focus on the music, the band members don’t reveal their real names to the public, performing under “Sarah P” and “RPR.” They also constantly have people asking, “Who is Shelley?” and “Does she live in Athens?”

We caught up with Sarah P and RPR after their Coachella set to learn more about Keep Shelly in Athens. Check out the interview after the jump:

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