7 Days 'til Coachella - The Killers

I was first introduced to The Killers in a very unconventional way, back in 2003 or 2004. My good friends Bep & DC (currently known as LA superstar DJs S&Him, and Bep was half of girl DJ duo Electroboobies) and I got together, and I distinctly remember Bep asking me,

"Hey, have you heard of these guys The Killers?"
"Oh yeah," DC cheerfully agreed, "they're great!"
"Yeah? I don't think I've heard them," I answered.

Bep proceeded to sing me the super limited remix of Somebody Told Me they'd received, and just her singing of it stuck in my head as an example of great songwriting. Bep's not a bad singer. But I've never experienced something hitting me like that third-hand before or since.

Having said that, when I saw they were headlining Saturday night, I thought, oh SHIT! Who's going to show up at the last minute THIS YEAR!?!

Last year, I was in heaven when I heard Portishead was the crown jewel of the festival. They were to headline Saturday night. Then, less than a week before the festy (as I recall), Goldenvoice announced that Prince would be the headliner.

"But Portishead is headlining Saturday!" I protested.

After I got over the initial indignation associated with their spotlight being, well, not stolen, but dimmed, I was OK with it. I knew that both acts would put on a great performance, and as you know if you've been following my insane and inane rantings, they all did pretty well.

This year, I felt like it was inevitable that an artist of Prince's stature would show up and swoop down to the main stage Saturday to put the killers in its shadow. However, we're a week out, and it hasn't happened yet. Maybe last year was a fluke, and maybe I'm just a dreamer, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a surprise or two at this year's event.

I remember a post on Mogwai's page. I'm paraphrasing but I believe it said, "If any of our fans also like the band The Killers, please send us back our albums for a full refund. Seriously. They suck."

I'm not so sure that I think they totally suck, and looking on the bright side, I'd rather see them up there on Saturday than the motherfucking Red Hot Chili Peppers YET AGAIN. I'm not really impressed by their latest stuff, but that's probably why they'll be a draw. Much more poppy and polished than Hot Fuss. It's almost like they got a new singer, or their original singer got a lobotomy or something. It's none of my business, but hey. Inquiring minds want to know.

Me? I couldn't give a shit. Put out a good show or fuck off.

8 Days 'til Coachella - NASA

I started listening to The Spirit of Apollo, which I think is this group's latest effort, and I was thinking, OK, sorta hip-hop, I can feel it coming, even though the first song, Intro, is purposefully spacey and definitely groovy.

The second track, The People Tree, features some decent grooves, beats and scratching, along with some MC'ing that's not too annoying. And what's this? That familiar voice... could it be... David Byrne?!

Reading the album's list of collaborators, you'd have trouble pegging the genre. Sure, overall it's hip hop, but only if you have to pigeonhole it into a category. Some of this stuff sounds like good downtempo with forgivable rapping, but everything I checked out is just full-on head-bopping goodness.

You may have heard Money, which also features David Byrne, Chuck D (Public Enemy), Ras Congo (possibly from London or NYC), Brazilian artist Seu Jorge, and DJ Z-Trip. That many cooks in the kitchen can easily spoil a track, but in this case, it's really something good. You're probably already sick of hearing it, it's so good.

Other contributors include hip-hop dudes Del The Funkee Homosapien, DJ Qbert, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Ol' Dirty Bastard (I thought he was dead?), Kool Keith, genius and "gay fish" Kanye West, as well as George Clinton, and TOM WAITS?!?!

The last track on the album bills itself as a 15+ minute opus called N.A.S.A. Anthem. The first four minutes sounds like it could have easily been done thirty years ago... like there are tons of samples in there, but I can't put my finger on any one of them. Then there's about six minutes of silence and the annoying 1990's "bonus track" thing shows up. Let me tell you, this one would have been a lot better off without the gimmick and without the "bonus" song. It feels really tacked on, like a compromise between two very different forces driving this group.

Overall, it's more than the sum of its parts, but after hearing this last bit, I'm really nervous that their whole live show will be standard MC'ing over standard DJ'ing.

The jury will render its decision next Friday night.

10 Days 'til Coachella - James Morrison

YAWWW-FUCKING-NNNNNN...........

Look at this guy. What the fuck? He'd be singled out and ritually sacrificed in the pit at a Tool or RATM set. Not that I'm huge fans of those bands, but this guy is totally inappropriate for Coachella.

This year's James Blunt. 'nuff said.

12.5 Days 'til Coachella - A Place To Bury Strangers

Holy fuck.

These guys are something out of a dream. Take the sonic characteristics of Jesus & Mary Chain add it to the Joy Division-esque basslines multiply it by the Bauhaus-inspired downward pickings of the guitar hooks put it to the power of the trademark shoegaze technique of hiding the lyrics underneath the din of the music, and you've got the motherfucking Di Vinci code of how to throw the aural soul into a blender.

They're from New York, which now that I know that, makes me think of such other amazing, somewhat similar artists as Bowery Electric. But APTBS is pitched up like Spacemen 3 shooting a speedball, with way more depth.

Friday's looking better all the time, y'all.

Special thanks to my pal Tina for pointing me in their direction.

12 Days 'til Coachella - Bob Mould Band

I've seen Bob a few times, I think I've seen him two and a half times as a solo artist, but never as a full band. I'll explain the half time I saw him.

It was the first time I'd had a chance to check him out, and it was to be him playing solo at Detroit's version of The Casbah, St. Andrew's Hall. This place is like three or four times the size of the 'bah, complete with a second level that goes all the way around the place. I'd say capacity is a little over a thousand.

My friend The Hammer drove us down from East Lansing, where we were going to school at the time. This must have been around 1991 or 1992. On the way into the show, we had a little conversation about how the show would be enhanced for us, and headed inside.

We made it just in time for his set, and when he came on, all eyes and ears were on the man on stage. I remember he went back and forth between an electric-acoustic 12-string and an electric guitar, but it was all just Bob up there, cranking out song after song of heartfelt emotion, thought-provoking lyrics and plain old balls-out rock and roll.

After about five or six songs, my buddy mentioned something about our "conversation" not hitting him right, and that he wasn't feeling entirely himself. In the next seconds, I found out that he hadn't eaten anything since lunch, and that it's very hard for someone of my stature to hold up someone over six feet tall, especially when he's crashing into someone who's minding his business just trying to hold up the left-side wall of St. Andrew's.

I dragged him to the back lobby near the entrance, where we hung out for another song or so before trying to head back in. He didn't feel up to finishing the show, and offered to meet me later, but I wanted to make sure he was all right, so we headed to El Loco, a decent Mexican place just around the corner.

I got to tell Bob this story when he signed my copy of his first solo album, Workbook, at Belly Up in Solana Beach a few years ago. That's the great thing about Belly Up, and about Bob Mould. He's a real person, and Belly Up is the kind of venue where, sometimes, the band sticks around to talk to people. Even when the band is just one man, when it's THIS guy, you hardly notice he's the only one on stage.

Bob Mould has a voice that can fill an arena, and it will be great to see him with a full band. Listen for songs from Black Sheets of Rain along with the new album. Bob's recently gone through some personal troubles, and all indications are that his songwriting and sound are more distinctly and wonderfully him than ever before.

I remember hearing an interview with him where he explained his friends' typical reaction to hearing a new album. He said that friends, upon hearing the last song (usually the angriest, check out Sacrifice (Let There Be Peace) from BSOR for an example), they turn to him and say, Hey, are you all right, man? This guy puts everything he's got and more into his work, and this is a rare chance to see him with a full band. With album titles like The Last Dog and Pony Show, it's hard to know how many more tours he'll embark on.

His new album, Life and Times, will be released this Tuesday, April 7th. Until then, you can stream the whole thing here.

14 Days 'til Coachella - Hercules and Love Affair

This is not a drill!! I've finally found something to get excited about on Saturday!! Hercules and Love Affair to the rescue. While their site calls their music a "disco love affair," I think they're selling themselves short in favor of brevity. This stuff sounds a lot like Curtis Mayfield or Shuggie Otis, and if you're callin' them disco, well, fine, but not me. This is pretty soulful stuff for a genre that's not supposed to have any, so step up.

Or step side to side. Or just shake it in place. Their 2008 single Time Will features none other than Antony Hegarty on vocals, so they get serious cool points for that. Shimmering stabs, bumping beats and rolling basslines round out this track, and as I mentioned, I'm pretty excited to see what these guys throw down Saturday.

UPDATE: April 5, 2009: Apparently, they've canceled. Fuckers.

15 days 'til Coachella - Morrissey

My holy trinity in high school was, as follows:

The Cure
The Smiths
Depeche Mode

Well, I've managed to see The Cure from the third row on Disintegration, and DM front row on Violator. 89-90 were good years.

But I never got to see The Smiths.

I remember back in like 1987 when my friend Vince loaned me a tape of Strangeways, Here We Come, the last studio Smiths album for the weekend. I came in that Monday and sought him out.

"Hey Vince, I really love that Smiths album you loaned me."

"Wow, that's too bad, because they're never going to play again," he replied.

I was pretty fucking disappointed.

From then on out, I made a point of getting ahold of all the Smiths stuff I could on CD, with the exception of the really expensive stuff like Hatful of Hollow and The World Won't Listen. I broke down and bought the former in college, but still don't have the latter. I know there are some different versions of stuff on TWWL but goddammit, The Smiths were one of the first bands that made me hate the music I loved, if only because I knew I could never get it all.

Then came Viva Hate, Morrissey's first album. I kind of felt like it was mine, because it was the first thing he'd put out when I was actively a fan, and when so many people around me were denouncing it as "not as good as the smiths." Well, shit. Throw this guy a bone, man! It took forever to get the thing out, and then twice as long to get the follow-up, Bona Drag, to see the light of day. And by the time it did, it was mostly a singles collection. Not that I'm complaining. At the time, the best the US ever got of our Brit idols was of this ilk.

So what about Morrissey?

I saw him back in 2000 or 2001 at Cox Arena here in San Diego. Expectations were low. Like slug shit low. Cox Arena is infamous for shitty sound, and he'd recently released Maladjusted, which I think is probably his worst solo album by a long shot. We had nosebleed seats, and it was a Wednesday night (READ: it may have been any night of the week, but it felt like a Wednesday).

Well, let me tell you, he was a fucking SHOWMAN. He got up on that stage and belted out amazing song after amazing song, from Shoplifters of the World Unite to later favorites from his solo career, and the sound was actually surprisingly good. The setlist was phenomenal, and he pandered to the crowd like a Tijuana barker.

I've only had a few listens through Years of Refusal, his latest effort, and I think it's pretty good. Not his best solo effort, but I could be proved wrong by history. Regardless, it's going to be one helluva show, if the reports I've heard from other shows on the tour hold up.

And remember, this is Coachella. He hasn't played here since the first one back in 1999. He opened in Ann Arbor, MI with This Charming Man. Do you think he's going to do anything less in the desert?