He had an unbilled, A-list surprise guest in tow -- his pop-star wife, Beyonce. Todd Martens joined the Los Angeles Times in and covers a mix of interactive entertainment video games and pop music. Previously, Martens reported on the music business for Billboard Magazine. All Sections. About Us. B2B Publishing. Business Visionaries. Hot Property. It must be really fucking difficult to be in this band.
For those unfamiliar with Dave Longstreth's hour practice sessions, the first 10 minutes of their set really laid out a microcosm for the Dirty Projectors experience-- a rhythmically off-kilter introduction followed by constant gesticulation from all members indicating the grating imperfections the soundman somehow let slip by that poor guy. Shortly thereafter, and once every one of the six immensely talented members got their shit in order, all was forgiven.
They were awesome. Then damn Amber Coffman makes "Stillness Is the Move" sound demure by comparison, as Longstreth plays Coffman's acoustic upside-down. One Life Stand has been made out to be Hot Chip's "adult" relationship record, but fortunately the band realized that the Outdoor Stage wasn't the place to try out "Slush" or "Alley Cats". Hell, even "Boy From School" was passed over in favor of a set full of bangers. Hot Chip still cut an endearingly awkward stage presence-- Alexis Taylor has really upped the Urkel ante in his dress code and Joe Goddard unintentionally nodded to the tradition of southern fraternities with a blazer and shorts look.
And, yes, that was a real steel drum on "I Feel Better". With all due respect, Passion Pit could learn a lot from these guys. And then there's the xx They're quite possibly the least Coachella band in existence: Imagine their Spartan and sedate debut, intensely private conversations between singers Romy Madley-Croft and Oliver Sim, performed perfectly still and exactly as it sounds on record, being shared for a mostly drunken and suntanned audience of tens of thousands.
They weren't even given the cloak of a night time set. And yet, for all the reasons that a more extroverted and traditionally popular band like Vampire Weekend sound out of place on the Outdoor Stage, the xx actually benefit: the negative space you hear on record can't compete with the California desert, so "Crystalised" and "Shelter" actually sound like they could stretch out infinitely. No, they don't move or say a lot and maybe "Intro" knocked extra hard because the crowd recognized it from a car commercial, but it turns out the xx are best contained eother in headphones or in the largest space possible.
Going by the name Final Fantasy, Owen Pallett had garnered a reputation as a compelling and unique live solo act whose records were a bit too dry to really love. Three things were noticeably different this time around: He now performs under his birth name, there's an additional musician brought on stage to play drums and guitar however slightly , and Heartland is his first slam-dunk of an LP.
Pallett began with early single "Montreal Will Eat Its Young" but from there on out, he took cues from Heartland , a record that-- like this set-- appears prim at first yet is actually fantastical, endearing, and quite funny. In between Amadeus -style laughs, Pallett asks "you ever try cornholing? What hasn't changed is the astonishing range of sounds Pallett can generate from his violin and looping pedals-- the "drums" from "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt", the "Flight of the Bumblebee"-speed riffs of "Midnight Directives", the distorted maelstrom of "Mount Alpentine".
There's also an added element of danger you don't get with more traditional set-up: If he realizes mid-song he didn't quite nail the loop, there's no going back. Hell, slight errors humanize the otherwise astonishing craftsmanship that goes into "Midnight Directives" or "Keep the Dog Quiet"-- that helps loosen things up live.
It all comes together wonderfully-- this was possibly my favorite performance of the weekend. Bradford Cox has seemingly come to terms with his success; if you've ever read any interview with him, you realize how spontaneous he is-- he's driven to share whatever pops into his head. Even as his band struggled during an equipment malfunction, Cox killed time with an impromptu jam dedicated to Coachella's attendees sample lyric: "how many condoms broke at the hotel last night?
Used to be that people in L. There's Coachella for you. Or, maybe it's just further proof that while Bradford Cox's misanthropic antics generated most of the attention that kickstarted Deerhunter's ascent, they're a band that really has their shit together now.
The crowd thinned out like Jeremy Enigk's hairline after Deerhunter left the stage, but I'll bet there wasn't a more locked-in audience this weekend than there was for the original lineup of Sunny Day Real Estate.
If you weren't one of the diehards, perhaps you could appreciate that a rust-free SDRE set the tone not just for emo but for a hell of a lot of popular alternative rock a bit of history showed as one of their road cases had duct tape over a Foo Fighters logo.
But the band itself realized that most of us were waiting over a decade to sing "Seven", "In Circles", and "48" back to them, go bug-eyed when they decided to play something from The Rising Tide "The Ocean" , and probably inform someone who could care less that opener "8" was on the Batman Forever soundtrack.
Guitarist Dan Hoerner thanked the crowd after nearly every song and Enigk acknowledged the humor of celebrating "such a pretty day for sad songs. Pretty much anyone following Spoon throughout their career has shouted about how they deserve to be on a stage of this magnitude-- yet while much is made of their meticulous studio experimentation, the weirdness is amplified with the volume. But it's hearing touches like the abrupt end to "Is Love Forever", the creepy pulse of "Who Makes Your Money", the wildly flanged guitars of "Got Nuffin'", and the maddeningly insistent thrum of "Don't Make Me a Target" that confirms how Spoon fills the many holes in their compositions with alien transmissions and muffed communication-- some of the most subversively ingratiating music a currently popular band has to offer.
These guys are superstars, or as close as you can get to it in If you don't believe me, I wish you could have seen the mass exodus from Spoon's set about 20 minutes before Phoenix was scheduled to hit the Outdoor Stage. Leading off with "Lisztomania" was a bit of guns-blazing bravery it was a rare occurrence for a band to start their set with one of their better known singles this weekend.
And Phoenix looked like stars-- Thomas Mars controlled the stage with effortless charisma, and the group looked like the coolest set of guys this side of the Strokes.
But just when it seemed like Phoenix's decade-old iffy live reputation would be permanently put to rest, the winds picked up. Anyone more than 30 yards from the stage had to deal with "Fences" and "If I Ever Feel Better" getting absolutely battered from the moment they left the speakers, drifting in and out of audibility. During the latter, Mars repeatedly asked if they could get some flood lights so the band could see the crowd. It was at that point that I noticed that they really didn't have any light show to speak of whatsoever.
Of course, "" was one of the most hotly anticipated performances of the weekend and it helped salve the burn of what turned out to be a bummer set for reasons Phoenix mostly couldn't control. Performing "Love Like a Sunset" in its entirety was their fault. In the context of the weekend, Pavement seemed to stand for either a triumph of certain musical values or a negation of those that came after-- when it comes right down to it, the bigger and younger indie bands of this weekend enthralled with orchestral arrangement and indebted to electronic composition.
They appeared to have little, if anything, in common with Pavement. B and De La Soul , who were responsible for getting the Sunday crowd through their hangovers and back on their feet. The final night fully got under way as Spoon took to the main stage and powered through a set that included crowd favorites like "Don't You Evah," and "The Way We Get By.
But ultimately the night, and the day really, belonged to Thom Yorke and Gorillaz. As the band worked through York's solo tracks like "The Eraser" and "Analyse," it became obvious why Flea was a brilliant addition to Yorke's live band — his funk-inspired bass slapping provided a refreshing bounce to the otherwise steely rhythms.
Finally, there was the dazzling spectacle that was Gorillaz. The performance opened with a massive screen showing an animated video version of the introduction to the band's recently released Plastic Beach — complete with Snoop Dogg cameo.
Damon Albarn's crew rocked the crowd for nearly an hour and a half, adorned in sailor wear and never missing a beat. The band's set provided the perfect musical and visual end to the rocking rave in the desert that was Coachella But Gorillaz's audiovisual wizardry was just the last installment in three days stuffed full of spectacular displays.
On a weekend when dusk meant you could listen to great music while gazing at the dark side of the moon, there wasn't a more perfect note to end on. She also serves as the publication's deputy bureau chief in New York.
Watercutter was also a senior editor of Longshot magazine and a contributor to Pop-Up Magazine Read more. Senior Editor Twitter. Topics Coachella events Music.
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