I'm kind of really pissed that I'm missing Coachella right now.

RVCA · 04-16-2010, 12:49 AM

I almost never go on myspace anymore, but I did tonight, and LOW AND BEHOLD, they have a front-page article about the ten greatest Coachella moments.

Coachella 2010: The 10 moments that defined Coachella << Music News

But GOD DAMN YOU school. If I was on break and didn't have two midterms early next week, I'd be rocking my ****ing sucks off for the next three days straight to an awesome lineup.

In case any of you don't know, Coachella - Lineup

Venting aside, whaddaya think of Myspace's list, and any of you been to Coachella before?

mr dave · 04-16-2010, 01:26 AM

generally speaking festival gigs are the epitome of quantity over quality. looking at the current list as compared to what i remember from a few years back it's pretty obvious that Coachella is going with the bigger is better mentality. it's looking like about 30 bands a day over 3 days now. first time i recall looking into Coachella that's about the amount of bands they had for the entire weekend.

to me the best thing about seeing a festival was knowing that you saw X bands during the run of a day and when you bump into someone who happened to be at that same show you can reminisce about how awesome it was when the rain finally stopped between these two bands, and you also know that you didn't miss something awesome somewhere else like when Band A jumped on stage near the end of Band B's set to have a super jam to finish things off before the headlining act bored everyone to tears.

now it's like you need to plot out an itinerary to maximize what bands you'll check out between the main stage, the side stage, the tent, the other side stage, and food. i suppose on one hand it allows for more diversity but it seems rather bloated and ostentatious to me at this point.

also, that myspace link doesn't work and yes, i am a cranky old man hahaha

RVCA · 04-16-2010, 02:08 AM

Well said, though I'd still love to see TCV, Muse, and Julian.

and here's the article

Quote:

10. At The Drive-In (1999)
It was October 9, 1999, at 1:20 p.m. Where were you that day? We’re willing to bet you weren’t at Coachella’s Outdoor Theatre for an opening set by the then-emerging At The Drive-In. Having just released the Vaya EP, the now-mythical band put on a time-defining performance — to, like, fifty people.

Over the next year, Bono would declare his love for the group, critics would call them The Most Important Band in the World™, and the members themselves would celebrate this newfound success by promptly breaking up. But for 30 minutes in 1999, At The Drive-In were the match that lit Coachella’s fuse. If you chose to watch A Perfect Circle instead, we hope you’re happy with yourself.

9. Morrissey (2009)
Considering that one of The Smiths’ most famous albums is called Meat is Murder, it’s not so much of a surprise to find out that the smell of barbecued hot dogs is just not as delicious to Morrissey as it is to, say, the Killers. ”I can smell burning flesh, and I hope to God it’s human,” he told the audience during his set at Coachella in 2009. And a few minutes later, Morrissey disgustedly walked off stage — in the middle of a song! — presumably to find a room that didn’t reek of Bull’s Eye Original BBQ Sauce.

To his credit, the man came back and finished his set, but not without commentary. “The smell of burning animals is making me sick,” Morrissey said. “I just couldn’t bear it.”

8. Radiohead (2004)
Let’s not forget that when Radiohead came to Coachella in 2004, they were supporting Hail To The Thief — a largely difficult album that drew its influences from glitchy techno records and free jazz. Which basically means that the most avant-garde thing they could have done at that point was just give in and play “Creep,” the 1992 modern rock hit they’d been pretty much running away from ever since.

So they did, and if we can be earnest for a second here, it was a beautiful moment: Thom Yorke revealed that the Pixies, who had recently reformed and played directly before Radiohead that night, personally requested the song. “When I was at college,” Yorke told the crowd, “it was the Pixies and R.E.M. who changed my life.”

7. Prince (2008)
Can we talk about “Creep” again? Because one of the greatest Coachella moments ever, hands down, came when Prince — who was added to the festival as a headliner only three weeks in advance — took to the stage with three words: “Coachella, I’m here!”

As if bringing Sheila E. along with him wasn’t enough to make a strung-out desert dance party go bat****, Prince then strapped on his guitar for a rendition of “Creep” that was somehow even more epic than “Purple Rain.” Had Thom Yorke walked out for a duet, Indio would have looked like the end of that one Radiohead video where everyone falls to the ground like they’re dead.

6. Public Enemy (2009)
Nobody loves a good Front to Back performance more than MySpace Music, so when we heard that Public Enemy would reconvene at Coachella last year to perform their 1988 classic album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back in its entirety — well, the Cure was just gonna have to wait until this was over.

Chuck D and Flavor Flav went out and proved, once and for all, that hip-hop can be as transcendent on stage as it is on record, and when they encored with “Fight The Power,” you could almost forgive them for not trying to get the dude from Slayer to play his guitar part on “She Watch Channel Zero?!” But still, that record is so good.

5. The Arcade Fire (2005)
There’s something magical about witnessing a seminal moment in a band’s career, and it seemed like the Arcade Fire — whose debut album, Funeral, had only been out for six months in the Spring of 2005— knew Coachella was a tipping point: Playing the sunset slot of the Outdoor Theatre to their biggest U.S. audience yet, the band played a forceful but frenzied set that culminated with Will Butler slicing his hand open after climbing a support beam and his brother Win throwing his guitar off his shoulder for an exigent take on “Revolution (Lies).”

By all accounts, the spectacle was a game-changer: Funeral went onto sell half a million copies in America without any major label support, and the Arcade Fire returned to Coachella in 2008 — this time on the main stage, right behind Red Hot Chili Peppers.

4. My Bloody Valentine (2009)
They nearly bankrupted their record label to make Loveless and pocketed half a million dollars from Island for a follow-up album that never materialized, so we’re pretty sure that half the people who came to see My Bloody Valentine reunite at Coachella really just wanted to see if they’d even show up.

They did, much to the chagrin of anyone with ears: For a band that gets routinely categorized under the demure “shoegaze” label, My Bloody Valentine might very well be the loudest band on the planet.A Los Angeles Times review compared their set to “the sound of concrete shifting” and observed that “many fans spent much of the show sitting on the grass covering their ears” — which is true. But it’s not like they didn’t warn you: For the first time in Coachella history, earplugs were offered to everyone with a ticket.

3. Roger Waters (2008)
Some folks questioned the wisdom of adding Roger Waters to a Coachella line-up, but those doubts were quickly defeated when the Pink Floyd legend closed the 2008 festival with an epic set of his greatest hits, including a complete run-through of Dark Side of the Moon — the third biggest-selling album in U.S. history.

The whole production was already a million times better than Laser Floyd when Waters’ team upped the ante by unleashing a massive flying pig into the desert sky. The pig, which also featured the word “Obama” spray-painted on its belly, hovered over the audience for several minutes before surreally flying away. Only it wasn’t supposed to fly away: The next day, Coachella organizers offered a $10,000 reward for the pig’s return and even set up a temporary e-mail for the search: lostpig@coachella.com.

The balloon finally turned up two days later at a country club in La Quinta, California.

2. The Cure (2009)
It’s not like the Cure didn’t get a chance to play at Coachella 2009: their set was over two-and-a-half hours long, it was already way past midnight, and they were just about to go into their third encore when Robert Smith walked on stage and announced, “They say we can only play one song. Ha!”

At which point Coachella became a real-time battle of will: After the Cure played two more songs, the house lights came up. A few moments later, the jumbotrons blacked out. And then finally — in the middle of “Boys Don’t Cry,” dammit! — the promoters pulled the plug on the Cure completely.

Smith and his band, of course, refused to surrender: They went on to play two more songs without a P.A. system, and — curfew be damned — the audience didn’t seem to care either way. No one was going home that night.

1. Rage Against the Machine (2007)
When Zack de la Rocha stepped up to the microphone on April 29, 2007, and — for the first time in seven years — said the words, “Good evening, we are Rage Against The Machine from Los Angeles, California,” it seemed pretty likely that the 60,000 people in front of him were going to lose their ****ing minds.

Indeed, Rage Against the Machine delivered a flawless, rapid-fire set consisting of thirteen songs and the kind of incendiary banter that gets you on FBI surveillance lists. “Our current administration needs to be tried, hung, and shot,” de la Rocha declared. “We need to treat them like the war criminals they are!” It was almost as if they were trying to atone for the sin of breaking up when George W. Bush took office, and suddenly, all was forgiven.

Despite the fact that conservative wingnut Ann Coulter went on Fox News the next week to denounce their remarks and diminish their credibility — “I don’t know anything about them, like most Americans,” Coulter claimed — Rage Against the Machine technically played to the largest audience in Coachella history; their comeback was relevant and undeniable.

Even Stereogum — who is much better known for swooning over Sufjan Stevens — recognized the significance of this legendary performance by magnifying what could arguably be the most extraordinary two minutes in Coachella’s history. Simply put, “you haven’t lived until you’ve yelled, ‘**** you, I won’t do what you tell me,’ pumping fists with 60,000 sunburned kids in the desert.”

Astronomer · 04-16-2010, 03:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr dave

generally speaking festival gigs are the epitome of quantity over quality. looking at the current list as compared to what i remember from a few years back it's pretty obvious that Coachella is going with the bigger is better mentality. it's looking like about 30 bands a day over 3 days now. first time i recall looking into Coachella that's about the amount of bands they had for the entire weekend.

to me the best thing about seeing a festival was knowing that you saw X bands during the run of a day and when you bump into someone who happened to be at that same show you can reminisce about how awesome it was when the rain finally stopped between these two bands, and you also know that you didn't miss something awesome somewhere else like when Band A jumped on stage near the end of Band B's set to have a super jam to finish things off before the headlining act bored everyone to tears.

now it's like you need to plot out an itinerary to maximize what bands you'll check out between the main stage, the side stage, the tent, the other side stage, and food. i suppose on one hand it allows for more diversity but it seems rather bloated and ostentatious to me at this point.

also, that myspace link doesn't work and yes, i am a cranky old man hahaha

Speaking about festivals in a general sense, since I'm not really familiar with Coachella, I totally agree. I was so pissed off when I attended a festival at the beginning of this year and at least three pretty big bands were on at the same time. I remember thinking how stupid it was and why on earth would they put those particular bands on at the same time. It's because they have an immense number of bands playing and they have to squeeze them all in somehow. I went to my first music festival about 5 years ago and although it's not really that long ago I remember it being so much more chilled and you didn't have to plan out an itinerary to work out which bands you could and couldn't see. Festivals lately seem to have a massively huge and impressive list of bands but what they don't tell you is that you won't be able to see all of them due to the timetable.

That MySpace link works fine for me, and I just checked up the lineup and HOLY CRAP that is a huge amount of bands for 3 days! Pleased to see some local artists from down my way in there too, though.

Mojo · 04-16-2010, 07:50 AM

There are a few bands on that line up id like to see for sure but im not sure if it would convince me to part with my money. It looks as though it would be a fun weekend to go and check out some bands id never seen before though.

Leeds and Reading festivals in this country tend to have an even bigger lineup i thnk or at least a similar size. Without counting them its actually quite hard to tell which is the bigger festival, lineup wise.

This wasnt a good line up for the festival but it is an example.

http://readingfestival.files.wordpre...ading_2007.jpg

RVCA · 04-16-2010, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mojopinuk

There are a few bands on that line up id like to see for sure but im not sure if it would convince me to part with my money. It looks as though it would be a fun weekend to go and check out some bands id never seen before though.

Leeds and Reading festivals in this country tend to have an even bigger lineup i thnk or at least a similar size. Without counting them its actually quite hard to tell which is the bigger festival, lineup wise.

This wasnt a good line up for the festival but it is an example.

http://readingfestival.files.wordpre...ading_2007.jpg

Wow... I would have gone to that for Brand New and Lostprophets alone. But you're right, that's a sh*t-ton of artists.

Mojo · 04-16-2010, 10:44 AM

I didnt have the cash for Leeds that year but im not sure I would have gone. I did consider a day pass for the Sunday for N.I.N and Smashing Pumpkins but not much else took my fancy at all and I couldnt even afford that in the end.

lucifer_sam · 04-16-2010, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lateralus

Speaking about festivals in a general sense, since I'm not really familiar with Coachella, I totally agree. I was so pissed off when I attended a festival at the beginning of this year and at least three pretty big bands were on at the same time. I remember thinking how stupid it was and why on earth would they put those particular bands on at the same time. It's because they have an immense number of bands playing and they have to squeeze them all in somehow. I went to my first music festival about 5 years ago and although it's not really that long ago I remember it being so much more chilled and you didn't have to plan out an itinerary to work out which bands you could and couldn't see. Festivals lately seem to have a massively huge and impressive list of bands but what they don't tell you is that you won't be able to see all of them due to the timetable.

That MySpace link works fine for me, and I just checked up the lineup and HOLY CRAP that is a huge amount of bands for 3 days! Pleased to see some local artists from down my way in there too, though.

Festivals function under different economic enterprises than normal concerts. Like mr dave said, they operate under the principle quantity > quality, and the more people they can attract to these things the better the payoff is for the bands, the sponsors and ultimately the promotional group responsible for it.

I have no idea as to how much money these places make off corporate sponsorships, but I would imagine it would almost rival the intake from ticket sales, etc. Bands there aren't looking to wave their moral standards over the audience, they're looking to make a quick dollar (and from some of the figures I've seen it's astronomical, around $2-3M for a headliner down to $10-15K for a supporting act). One two-hour festival gig worth a year's salary -- that's why so many "huge" bands churn out to do this and don't mind when they share the stage with other big names.

As a rule these gigantic festivals are GREAT for everyone except the environment, and if you don't mind shelling out the $500-1000 (depending where you're coming from) I'm sure it's a wonderful experience. As for me? Three days of self-indulgence isn't worth the price on my conscience. I've been to Coachella Valley before (the area, not the music festival) and it's beautiful this time of year, but I'd rather spend that time in neighboring Joshua Tree than among the kinds of people that defame music festivals so.

bubu · 04-16-2010, 11:15 AM

why would great bands mind playing with other great bands? that's the whole point of music after all, a language by which every musician communicates

I too find it too costly for my liking... chillin' on the beach with my guitar while drinking some wine is my thing :P

JossB · 04-16-2010, 11:50 AM

I really wanted to go this year, but work wouldn't allow it

04-16-2010, 12:49 AM	#1 (permalink)
RVCA （￣ー￣） Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 3,270	I'm kind of really pissed that I'm missing Coachella right now. I almost never go on myspace anymore, but I did tonight, and LOW AND BEHOLD, they have a front-page article about the ten greatest Coachella moments. Coachella 2010: The 10 moments that defined Coachella << Music News But GOD DAMN YOU school. If I was on break and didn't have two midterms early next week, I'd be rocking my ****ing sucks off for the next three days straight to an awesome lineup. In case any of you don't know, Coachella - Lineup Venting aside, whaddaya think of Myspace's list, and any of you been to Coachella before?

04-16-2010, 07:50 AM	#5 (permalink)
Mojo Melancholia Eternally Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: England Posts: 5,018	There are a few bands on that line up id like to see for sure but im not sure if it would convince me to part with my money. It looks as though it would be a fun weekend to go and check out some bands id never seen before though. Leeds and Reading festivals in this country tend to have an even bigger lineup i thnk or at least a similar size. Without counting them its actually quite hard to tell which is the bigger festival, lineup wise. This wasnt a good line up for the festival but it is an example. http://readingfestival.files.wordpre...ading_2007.jpg __________________ Last.FM \| Echoes and Dust

04-16-2010, 10:44 AM	#7 (permalink)
Mojo Melancholia Eternally Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: England Posts: 5,018	I didnt have the cash for Leeds that year but im not sure I would have gone. I did consider a day pass for the Sunday for N.I.N and Smashing Pumpkins but not much else took my fancy at all and I couldnt even afford that in the end. __________________ Last.FM \| Echoes and Dust

04-16-2010, 11:15 AM	#9 (permalink)
bubu Music Addict Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 112	why would great bands mind playing with other great bands? that's the whole point of music after all, a language by which every musician communicates I too find it too costly for my liking... chillin' on the beach with my guitar while drinking some wine is my thing :P __________________ Acoustic Guitar Paco De Lucia

04-16-2010, 11:50 AM	#10 (permalink)
JossB Groupie Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Dallas, Tx Posts: 18	I really wanted to go this year, but work wouldn't allow it