Coachella Overload Pt. 1

I started writing a real review/article piece (because I enjoy it) and then realized that it would either have to be ten pages long or skip over lots of bands. I prefer to touch on it all so I listed all the bands I saw on Saturday (however briefly or extensively) and just made some comments on them, some of them are too short, but oh well.

I hope to write about Sunday tomorrow or the day after.

The Sexy Magazines - unfortunately for them ‘meh’ is the best thing that comes to mind.

Boom-Bip - were interesting, sorta mellow, atmospheric rock

Gratitude - harmless, mindless pop-rock. Not my thing.

Nick Armstrong & The Thieves – The first totally impressive fun band of the day, they played 50’s style rock, but not 90’s with a taste of the 50’s, this was straight classic oldies rock. It ruled.

Buck 65 – I think I liked this guy, he was a sorta rapper/singer with completely out there lyrics, half of it sucked, half was great.

K-Os – Awesome Canadian (two words that rarely work together) hip-hop, had some very unique beats and a great feel.

Ravonettes – Meh.

Jamie Cullum – He, uh, did a nice Radiohead cover?

M83 – Yes. French bands rock Coachella two years in a row, awesomely entertaining synth-driven indie (I hate that word) rock.

Snow Patrol – Not a bad band, not a great band either, pretty good live though.

The Kills – Really liked what I could catch, just good rock, need to find more.

Razorlight – It was nice to sit on the grass for a bit.

Stereophonics – Nice brit rock, good live, but not earth shattering.

UNKLE – I was disappointed because it wasn’t really UNKLE, it was a James Lavelle (1/2 of UNKLE) DJ set. He’s not a bad DJ, actually he’s pretty damn good. But it sure as fuck wasn’t UNKLE.

MF Doom – Largish black man rapping in a Dr. Doom mask? Funny. Decently amusing lyrics too.

Swayzak – Really only walked by these guys for about 5 minutes, but I put them up here because what I heard was outstanding electronic stuff, maybe like a poppier Squarepusher?

Weezer – Still not really impressed with these guys live. Most the band is energetic but Rivers (singer) just stands there morosely the whole time. The new tracks sound promising.

Secret Machines – These guys had an amazing sound, especially for a 3 piece band; fairly straightforward rock with a hint of poppy progressiveness.

Sage Francis – Great angsty, semi-political white-boy hip-hop. Need to get some.

Bauhaus – Watched/listened from afar. Not terribly impressed.

Bloc Party – The current hot hip indie band. Not really bad, but a band I’m beginning to dislike simply because I hear way too god-damn much about them, they are good, and the more I hear, the more I like, but for fucks sake they aren’t the beginning of a new world order. And neither is Arcade Fire (more on that tomorrow).

Chemical Brothers – Pretty solid set for the most part, it was basically a DJ set of their own material, which, since they can’t generally perform the songs live due to the nature of their genre, was about the best I could hope for. It was fairly happy.

Fantomas – Mike Patton strikes again. Experimental noise metal that’s basically all improvised live. Fairly intense set that I would love to catch again when I could see all of it. And, as always, Patton likes to make friends, when one of his other bands, Tomahawk, opened for Tool in Chicago the United Center he made a large show out of insulting Michael Jordan until they turned off the spotlight on his jersey. This time around his friendliness was basically, “Hey Coachella, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be over there (gesturing toward the stage where Coldplay was starting) butt-fucking Gweneth Paltrow in the ass.” He’s a charmer.

Coldplay – Only watched the last chunk of their set, but it was pretty good, nothing earth shattering but entertaining and enjoyable, I don't feel I missed much by only seeing them 25 minutes as opposed to 75 minutes.