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05.03.13 Miss You Guys ♦04.17.13 Coachella 2013: The End Of An Era ♦
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Coachella 2013: The End Of An Era

So I met up with Klap for our second annual solid 30 or 40 seconds of yo what's up, and I had some delicious thai rolls with peanut sauce. I camped with my cousin, who I reconnected with in a big way, I saw the culture of southern california in a more outside way than I have in my life. I met up with my first (and really only) ex-girlfriend, a friend from elementary school and a girl I lived across the street from for the first 18 years of my life. With so many memories, so much family and emotion tied to a place, it's weird to consider how foreign it now feels. Barring an incredible lineup release (that say .. actually includes daft punk?), I am likely not making the trip to Coachella next year in favor of another different route that's more about the music and less about being back 'home', but even when the lineup isn't quite what you'd hoped for, the depth of Coachella makes up for it in spades
1 Friday
April 12

"We're getting up at 7, going to breakfast, picking up our car companion pass and
hitting the camp site". Heh - that's easily the fastest he moved all weekend ;) .--
Talks of Lord Huron and Beardyman were just that. The man below kicked things
into gear.
2Dillon Francis
Westside!

**One of the godfathers of moombahton kicked things into high gear at the Sahara
tent. Also, his recurring motif -- IDGAFAS (I don't give a fuck about shit) sets the
perfect tone for coachella.
3Jake Bugg
Jake Bugg

Proof I don't like country
4Aesop Rock
Skelethon

So Aesop Rock is white? 'None shall pass' did little for me. I go A$ap over Aesop.
Don't see the appeal in this guy tbqh.
5Metric
Synthetica

* Sounded good from afar
6Japandroids
Post-Nothing

* Heard the first few songs and actually enjoyed them. Felt like some good old
fashioned rock music.
7Alt-J
An Awesome Wave

** That coachella thing that happens when even though you haven't heard of a
band, you follow your friends' vibes and your fellow concert goers' vibes and
discover something new. Alt-J delivered their brand of indie rock with the polish of
a band with more LPs under their belt
8Lee Scratch Perry
The Upsetter: Essential Madness From The Scratch Files

* The guy has more accolades than the Chili Peppers, and is 77. I had to see it to
believe it. Once the full force of jamaican reggae wore off and the surprisingly
limber 77 year old stopped being a showman and started to sing. Well, .. I decided
to dash. Still, impressive.
9Four Tet
There is Love in You

* In truth I didn't see Keiran, but I wish I had. The newly installed Yuma tent has
a line, and that concept at coachella was too foreign for me to wait in it. I'm sure
Keiran was killing it though.
10Passion Pit
Gossamer

* Sounded good from a distance. While I would rather have been at Four Tet, I'm
sure their set was sounding much better than the line to see Four Tet. Oh well,
onwards and up.
11Local Natives
Hummingbird

** These guys rocked the outdoor stage. I have seen them once before and
thought their debut album was a stronger output than their sophomore, their
showmanship has only aged to make each of their Gorilla Manor songs sound like a
classic.
12Dog Blod
Middle Finger

** Something lurks in the distance. Something big and powerful and explosive and
sending serotonin-depleted onlookers in the sahara tent writhing in ecstatic bliss.
Skrillex and Boyz Noise, the former the headliner of Electric Zoo 2012 and the latter
legends in the 'Molly scene' brought the crowd exactly what they were looking for.
And Sahara was exploding in a way even it hadn't quite imagined before.
13Infected Mushroom
Vicious Delicious

* Perhaps I've grown accustomed to their sets, or perhaps I had just scene Skrillex
and Boys Noize, but while enjoyable and well crafted, the set didn't have me
writhing like in years' past.
14Purity Ring
Shrines

* A sharp step down on the mellow scale. Purity Ring also wasn't quite as good the
second time around, but even as jetlag and exhaustion were setting in, they sound
so nice. I'm gonna see .. Jurrasic 5, Foals, Bassnectar (!) Alas, no red bulls, no
caffeine, no sugar rush and no hard drugs and I simply couldn't do it. Overwhelmed
in a good way, I crashed. Coachella's a marathon not a sprint
15 Saturday
April 13

With Postal Service and Franz Ferdinand as must sees, the day was surprisingly
stolen by an English electropop group.
16Baauer
Harlem Shake

* More than a 1 hit wonder, Bauer brought Saturday shaking like Dillon Francis.
17Kill the Noise
Black Magic

We had great position. Too bad Stanczak had nothing going for the first 15
minutes of his set.
182 Chainz
Based on a T.R.U. Story

* Formerly known as Tity Boi, Epps surprised few by showing up 25 minutes late for
his 50 minute set. But he packed Mojave and sent a lot of good vibes out there
once he decided to actually show up.
19Bat for Lashes
The Haunted Man

As much as my friends were dead on with Alt-J and I was digging the album art for
the album, this was too (girly?) for me.
20Bingo Players
Get on the Move

These guys weren't really doing it for me. My cousin was digging it, but I wasn't
really getting down.
21Jason Bentley


Kinda felt like the usual. Good excuse to explore Yuma but nothing too terribly
exciting.
22El-P
Cancer 4 Cure

I always have dug the guys production, but I just can't understand the full package
(sry sobhi ilu)
23Portugal. The Man
Evil Friends

* I saw these guys more as an excuse to sit down with friends just like I went with
friends to see them at Terminal 5 in new york city a couple years back. Both times
I was impressed though
24Hot Chip
In Our Heads

** Dorky guys that know how to make electronic music. 'Flutes' was perhaps my
favorite song of the festival. Surprising thieves of Saturday.
25Yeasayer
All Hour Cymbals

* Pretty lights from afar
26The Postal Service
Give Up

* Started strong with DC Sleeps followed by We will Become Silhouettes and Such
Great Heights was quite nice. The set was enjoyable .. enough. Perhaps I had
hoped the sounds would transform me more to simpler times than they did though.
27Simian Mobile Disco
Unpatterns

* Saw a couple nifty little tracks. Would recommend
28DJ Pierre
DJ Pierre

Proof that I don't quite get the vibes of the Heineken Dome. If anyone were to flip
my opinion, this should have been the guy.
29Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand

* 3 British guitarists / voaclists and a drummer. Kinda like the Beatles?
Unfortunately no. Once the novelty wore off, the set turned out to be just ok.
30Phoenix
Bankrupt!

* Probably deserving of 2 stars if not for the omg R Kelly you are Not Daft Punk?
The lead singer was a showman and the set was quite good.
31 Sunday
April 14

6pm Sunday somehow manages to be the peak of most music festivals. This year's
coachella was no exception -- what's important is how you react.
32Mimosa
Silver Lining

** Another heavy hitting electronic act to kick things into gear. I wish life would
be like coachella - start your day at 3pm with awesome electronic music.
Unfortunatey Jamie XX, Maya Jane Coles and the yuma tent were not worth the
wait
33Grimes
Visions

* Claire Boucher is gorgeous and her voice holds up well. Unfortunately, Mojave
was overcrowded and her music wasn't designed to fill the space. I'll still listen to
the LP over and over again
34Jessie Ware
Devotion

* Like so many others, she sounded good from far
35Kurt Vile
Wakin on a Pretty Daze

* Was nice to sit down outdoors and listen to. Such beautiful weather this weekend.
36Paul Kalkbrenner
Berlin Calling

** Very impressive DJ Set. The tent started nearly empty and standing in the
middle of Sahara while listening to his vibes you couldn't help dance to was the
best set of the day so far, until ..
37James Blake
James Blake

*** I've seen James Blake before but my jaw dropped this time around. "My
brother and my sister don't speak to me" he loops and harmonizes with himself
breathtakingly. Heaving electronic rhythms pulsing. What's scary is this guy's still
young and only getting better.
38Pretty Lights
Passing By Behind Your Eyes

** Derek Smith is the only man ballsy enough to play his hit song (Finally Moving)
followed by a mashup of radiohead/nine inch nails/nirvana and a wubbly dubstep
version of Pink Floyd. While I'm not all about the rendition of time. He gets you
wobbling and moving as well as anybody. Still considering going to a festival in
Maryland primarily because he's headlining.
39Wu-Tang Clan
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Among other things, I don't understand how a bunch of black guys from staten
island who can't even sell out best buy theater can have so many dedicated white
fans in the middle of the southern california desert. Also, they just shout on-stage.
I totally understand all they've done for rap and enjoy more than a few of their
songs but (gasp) I don't really get their live sets.
40Red Hot Chili Peppers
I'm With You

* They closed things up with the songs you knew and roused me (amazingly) with a
song off the new album, but there's nothing new or exciting about them anymore. I
coulda caught the glimpse with their first few songs and headed to Pryda but I
stayed a bit longer. Why not close things out with songs you know every single
word to?
41Festival Season?


Electric Forrest
Bonnaroo
Electric Zoo
Burning Man
42 Upcoming
Shows
43Skream
Skream!

May 24 (with Mala)
44The Flaming Lips
The Terror

May 17 (with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
45Massive Attack
Mezzanine

September (tickets go on sale June 27). Seriously, I'm going to go nuts at this one
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