My initial reaction to hearing Die Antwoord (Afrikaans for "The Answer") for the first time was something like this, "This is fucking weeeiiiirrrrd." Consisting of Ninja, Yo-Landi Vi$$er, and DJ Hi-Tek, Die Antwoord is taking weird to a whole new level and everyone seems to be loving them for it. Freshly signed to Interscope, the South African threesome have build a massive buzz on the interweb by releasing weird ass videos and their weird ass album, $O$, for free consumption. Much has been said about if Die Antwoord is for real or a joke, but it doesn't really matter when the joke sounds completely original and like nothing that's out there right now. Hells, they only played a 20 minute set at Coachella and it was one of the most talked about sets of the weekend. Maybe the joke's on Die Antwoord.
"FUCK. THIS IS LIKE THE COOLEST SONG I'VE EVER HEARD IN MY WHOLE LIFE"
Of all the songs on $O$, "Enter the Ninja" seems to be the most accessible, i.e, the least weird track on the album, mainly cause you can almost understand everything that they're saying. Check the mp3 and video below and decide for yourself if Die Antwoord is worth the hype. Personally, I'm in ninja.
It's been two weeks since the culmination of Coachella 2010, and I think we're finally prepared to put into words what we saw over a course of 3 beautiful days in the sun. When the lineup was released late in January we released a gasp of "oh, no you didn't Coachella?" which was followed by a gasp back from Coachella with a "oh, yes we did." And did they ever... Not surprisingly, the 11th edition of Coachella sold out, making it only the 4th Coachella ever to do so. Double not surprisingly, there was alot people in attendance this year. 75,000 to be exact. Each day. That's alot of people. With that said, I never waited more than 5 minutes for a bathroom, or 2 minutes for water. Apparently, there were alot of complaints via the internets about wait times, etc., but I didn't really see it. I dunno, maybe those people were at another festival.
Anyways, the music! Over a three day span, I was able to catch 37 bands ranging from the hottest rapper in the game and his girl wearing his chain(Jigga and B), to Colombian rock(Atreciopelados), to the geekiest white guy in the history of music, and no I'm not talking about Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip, Erlend Øye. Apart from Wale singing "Use Somebody" (really? btw, you were 45 minutes late. Did you really have to drop Kings of Leon? You're suppose to be rapping. Bad idea, dude), and the sound during Passion Pit (no fault of the band, but their audio guy kinda struggled to get a good mix throughout the set) everybody that I saw ranged from really good to amazing.
My Favorites:
LCD Soundsystem:If I was forced to pick a favorite for the entire weekend, it would have to be LCD and Mr. James Fuckin' Murphy. In the no pressure spot of playing before Jay-Z on the mainstage, Mr. James and his crew delivered by throwing down some serious and epic disco jams. Jumping up and down to "All My Friends" with all my friends was quite touching, but it was the intensity of "Yeah" that really threw LCD's peformance over the top for me. LCD Soundsystem is from the future.
Them Crooked Vultures: I won't say that I was surprised by this set, cause that would be really ignorant of anyone to say, being that there's members of Nirvana and Led Zeppelin in TCV, but I guess I was surprised at how they totally brought the rock thunder like I've never seen it brought before. TCV's set started with John Paul Jones playing slide on a 9 string bass. That's not a misprint. Do I need to say more? I think not, but I will cause I feel bad for the bald guy playing rhythm guitar that wasn't in Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, or Queens of the Stone Age. Actually, I don't feel bad when I come to think of it. That guy has a pretty sweet job!
Major Lazer: Going into Coachella 2010 I didn't know who would be best musically, but I was pretty certain that Major Lazer was gonna be the biggest party. Need proof? Please watch the video below. From the second that Diplo and Switch dropped their first beat, the entire Mojave Tent went absolutely apeshit. Led by their front/hypeman Skerrit Bwoy, who is absolutely insane, and dancers whose moves are best reserved for a futuristic strip club (I've never seen dance moves like this in my life! The physics of them is just impossible) Major Lazer had everybody jumping and screaming like the world was about to end. It would have been a really good way to go out. Pon de Floor!
The Specials: Who said Ska is dead?!? A fully reunited Specials brought it back to life in the desert in 2010. The Specials were impeccable in their performance and in their style with those fresh suits and those Fred Perry's as the sun went down on Friday evening.
Club 75: Busy P, DJ Medhi, Cassius, and Gaspard from Justice. Five French men. All dressed in white. The set started by Busy P melancholically exclaiming into the mic, as only a French man could, "Welcome to Paris." From there on it was a 90 minute Parisian dance party on a Sunday afternoon. And, yes, i stayed the entire 90 minutes.
Favorite thing I heard at Coachella: As Jay-Z held court on the mainstage he tried to connect with the indie crowd by trying to get everybody to make some noise for some of his favorite bands that were playing throughout the weekend. "Let's hear it for Passion Pit! Let's hear for Grizzly Bear! Let's hear it for The Yeasayers!" The Yeasayers?!? Oh, Jigga, you're so cute sometimes. To his credit, Jay, with Beyonce, was spotted throughout the weekend checking out all the indie bands that the kids love these days. You know, the XXes, The Beach Houses, The Grizzly Bears...
Favorite personal moment of the weekend: Standing at the way back of the Gobi tent watching the Whitest Boy Alive(Erlend, you are the whitest boy alive, by far) and turning around and realizing that to the left of me I could see Jay-Z performing and then turning to the right and realizing that I could see John Lydon(aka Johnny Rotten) grimacing at the crowd,with the rest of Public Image Ltd. behind him, like only Johnny Rotten can, and realizing this will never happen again and this is fucking awesome.
All in all, my 6th Coachella in a row was a great success, and again my favorite weekend of the year. Thank you to Goldenvoice for putting on the best festival in the U.S., and maybe the world. And a super-duper-uber thank you to all my Coachella friends that I get to share this experience with year in and year out. You guys are the best! Cuddle Party Forever!
It's that time of year again... In about 12 hours or so we will all know the lineup for the 2010 edition of Coachella aka Disneyland for music lovers. I have been to many festivals around the country and year in and year out, Coachella always comes out on top. It's like Christmas, Prom, your birthday, and the last day of school combined. This festival has done it all.
Pixies reunion-Check Madonna-Check Radiohead-Check Black Star-Check Gang of Four reunion-Check Rage Against the Machine reunion-Check Prince-Double Check Daft Punk-Triple Check
Seriously, the last two on that list are my #1 and #2 shows of all time. Daft Punk, who had not played in the U.S. in years, took all the money Coachella gave them and spent it on kick ass robot suits and a ridiculous stage set up. I'm sure everyone inside that tent was expecting a great time, but I don't think anybody had any idea that two guys in robot suits were gonna play from the middle of a pyramid that lit up. I will never forget turning around during Daft Punk's set and looking at all the faces behind me that were simultaneously expressing total awe and pure joy. You could hear people randomly screaming out, "Oh, My God!" as if God was actually on stage. And then in '08 he was. His name is Prince.
I could go on and on about Coachella's past, but it is Coachella 2010 that is upon us. Though the fully confirmed lineup will not be out till the early morning it is most likely that you will see all of these bands on the poster...
Muse, Gorillaz, Phoenix, Passion Pit, Miike Snow, Echo and the Bunnymen, The xx, Delorean, Faith No More, Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem, The Beastie Boys, The Dead Weather, Vampire Weekend, Devo, Yeasayer, Spoon, Mayer Hawthrone, Deerhunter, The Ravonettes, Beach House, and Them Crooked Vultures. And that's only 22 bands! There's about 80 more that I haven't mentioned (not that I know who they are, but Pavement and Thom Yorke might be on there...). Rumors are flying as to who will be the last headliner (Muse and Gorillaz are the other two supposedly) Names being thrown around include Jay-Z, the Rolling Stones, and definitely not David Bowie. In other words, this year is looking pretty amazing.
Like I said before, nothing is set in stone till that poster appears on the Coachella website in a few hours. We will just have to wait and see... Tune in.
Till then watch some of Daft Punk's set from Coachella '06, my #1 concert of all time. I get goosebumps from head to toe every time I watch this.
Top 5 Concerts 1) Phoenix-Park West, Chicago-6/13/09 - a couple weeks after the "official" release of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, these dashing and smiley Frenchmen destroyed the Park West. It sure helps that Thomas Mars sang "1901," on a table right above me for an encore. Only regret is that I didn't put a thousand dollar bill in his pants for playing such an awesome concert.
2) Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Lollapalooza, Chicago 8/8/09- "We're not even suppose to be here."- Karen O. Replacing the Beastie Boys as Saturday night's headliner, Karen O showed that she was born to headline.
3) The Very Best-Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago 7/19/09 While folks watched the Flaming Lips do the same ol' thing for 900th time, a select few cut some serious rug over at the Very Best stage to end the weekend in style.
4) My Bloody Valentine-Coachella, Indio,California 4/19/09-Green grass, palm trees, mountains and the sound of 100 airplanes on 50 lawnmowers going off at the same time=Priceless.
5) Cut Copy-Vic Theatre, Chicago, 3/18/09-Favorite album of 2008, seen live in 2009.
Favorite concert moment: The Cure being shut down at Coachella. First they turned off the big screen TV's. Then they turned down the music. Then they cut off everything but the bass. Then everything. But after more than 3 hours the Cure kept on going, the crowd helping them on vocals, and ending with Robert Smith screaming the lyrics to "Grinding Halt." A fitting and epic end. Cure.
Best Thing I Heard Said at a Concert: Morrissey at Coachella "I smell burning flesh." Classic Mozzer.
Best New Artist: The XX. Honorable Mention: Delorean
Favorite Twitter:@Diplo. The man never sleeps. Just tweets. It takes real talent to be able to be so funny with only 140 characters on a consistent and daily basis. Favorite TV Show:Gossip Girl. Only bad thing about this show is that it's called Gossip Girl. It's kinda difficult being a straight man and starting a conversation with, "Hey, did you watch Gossip Girl, last night?!?" XOXOLOLZ. Bonus points for the music they play during the show and having Sonic Youth on a episode.
Favorite Movie:Che. Ok, so it was officially released at the end of 2008, but I haven't seen a better movie since. Talk about epic. How Benicio Del Toro, and the film in general, did not receive some serious hardware in 2009 is beyond me. I can only begin to wonder why....
That's all for now. Top songs tomorrow, followed by albums on Friday. Stay tuned.
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