Coachella Day 2

So, Day 2!
I started off Day 2 with two of my friend's choices, but both were enjoyable.  The first was RX Bandits, a sort of metal band with ska/reggae influences from Long Beach California.  Not really something I would ever listen to on its own, but at a concert it was pretty fun.  They drew a very large crowd for a noon show, as did the next band, Porcupine Tree, a pretty famous prog/psych rock band from the ?80s?.  This one I just sort of laid down on the field not to far from the stage and just took in Coachella as a whole plus some sort of trippy music from the band.  Nothing too special I thought, but I do think everybody should check them out because I do think they have a very interesting style.

Camera Obscura

Photo by Me

Camera Obscura played of course a lively show, but they were definitely dwarfed by Girls, who were playing the next tent over.  I opted to see Camera Obscura as I have seen Girls already (review here), and I got a front row spot for Camera Obscura which set me up for front row for Beach House.  The band meshed well together, playing to the crowd's pep on an early Saturday afternoon with songs like "French Navy," their ultra poppy/happy tune that got everybody singing.





Beach House

Photo by Me

Photo by Me

 Beach House finally realized their potential with Teen Dream, and it really showed in their performance.  The place was jam packed, with hundreds of people spilling out of the tent and into the sun.  Victoria Legrand's deep vocals echoed out across the tent over the crowd, putting everybody into what I like to call "the Grizzly Bear Trance"... everybody sort of closes their eyes and just sways to the music.  They were one of the few day bands that had set design, which consisted of these strange different sized pinata looking things dangling from the ceiling behind them.  Not quite sure what I thought of them, but whatever.  The music itself sounded straight off the record; lots of reverb and soaring vocals.  The most interesting part of the show I thought was how the music was actually played.  The guitarist had something that he was playing with his feet, which I am embarrassed to say i didn't what it was, although it looked/sounded like a "foot organ" if you will.  It created a very interesting performance aesthetic; Victoria Legrand with her wild tousled hair moaning out to the crowd, the relaxed, smiling with the eyes closed drummer, and the focused, sitting guitarist/samplist/foot organist.  Songs like "10 Mile Stereo" and "Gila" really seemed to move the crowd.  They even did one "new" song, a cover of Gucci.  Unfortunately I missed Temper Trap at Beach House, but it was definitely worth it.

Photo by Me

Photo by Me

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes

Before we go any further, there is a funny (and embarrassing) story to be told, involving me and a faux pas (committed by none other than yours truly).  So as I have said before (I think), I was front row for Camera Obscura and Beach House.  As you can see from my photos, there is an area in between front row and the stage where photographers/band members can enjoy shows.  In between Camera Obscura and Beach House, a pretty girl who was clearly from a band by her look/a person taking a photo with her sat down right in front of me in the area for bands/photographers.  I knew she was in a band and she looked a lot like one of the girls from Camera Obscura, but I wasn't sure.  My friend said "Yeah that's her," so I say to her "You guys were great!"  She gives me this incredibly strange look as if I am tripping or something and says after a long pause "I like your glasses."  It was a pretty strange response and I didn't know what to say so I just sort of said "Um, thank you" and she kept on looking at me and laughed.  A few minutes later I heard someone say to her "You guys are on next right?"  and she responded "Yeah, but I am so excited for Beach House and I just have to see a few songs."  And wham! it dawns on me... she was looking at me funny because she hadn't played yet!  Now, fast-forward an hour or two and switch locations to the Outdoor Stage (not the mainstage though).  You may be asking "What does this have to do with Ed Sharpe?"  Well here's the kicker.  I am a big Ed Sharpe fan, but had never seen a picture of them.  My friend and I get to the Ed Sharpe stage just as they are starting and look who is on stage... none other than the girl from my faux pas!  It was Jane of Ed Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, who just about every Ed Sharpe fan/male Ed Sharpe fan worships!  I thought it was fairly funny, so I figured I'd include, but looking back on it I realize just how awful a story teller I am...

Photo by Me (I can put another shot up with Jane if you like)

So, back to the concert itself.  This concert was about as close to a Summer of Love concert as I think you are going to get from any contemporary band.  Lots of long hair, songs about love, lots and lots of people on stage, kids on stage, a singing, joyful crowd, etc.  It was a very hippie crowd, but also a very dedicated crowd.  Every song the entire crowd seemed to know the lyrics, and when Alexander (the lead male for those of you who think the lead is Edward Sharpe) and other members (including Jane) ventured out into the crowd, it seemed as if everybody swayed in to embrace them.  "Home" of course brought the house down.  Comedically, the crowd replaced the classic whistling with humming... I don't think the crowd was quite skilled/sober enough to whistle.

The xx

As much as I love The xx and as much as the crowd seemed to love them (it was mobbed), it wasn't really a thrilling show.  The music is enjoyable live just because it is good music, but slightly static and pretty much different in no way whatsoever from the album.  This wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that it is not really interesting music to play live in my opinion.  There was one very interesting thing in an otherwise boring show (In My Opinion...) they didn't wear all black for what must be the first time!  Instead... they wore white!  

Photo by Me

Well I left the show after just a few songs, partly because it wasn't wonderful and partly because my friend (and I) had some plans for the rest of the day... unfortunately they did not involve that stage, which had an incredible lineup that day: The Temper Trap, Edward Sharpe, The xx, Hot Chip, MGMT.  This meant that I would miss Hot Chip and MGMT, as well as the Dirty Projectors who were on another stage.

So what are these plans we had that made me miss three bands that were all supposed to have had amazing shows?  To understand, we must first... TAKE ANOTHER TRIP TO STORYLAND.... (and this one will definitely get my friend mad... he hates this one).

Rewind three years.  2007.  I am twelve years old, have never been to a concert.  My friend and I are both obsessed with Muse.  We have tickets to go see Muse at the Forum in Inglewood.  His brother is taking us, along with one of his friends.  Make a long story short, we get there and as we are going in, we realize there are only three tickets, and four of us.  My friend gets the boot.  For the past three years, my friend has been dying to see Muse.  Muse at Coachella is a chance to fulfill his dream.  So how would we make up for not getting to see the concert three years ago (almost to the day)?  Getting front row for Muse at Coachella.

Muse

Now, I would like to say one thing real quickly.  I'm not as obsessed with Muse anymore, especially there new album which for the most part is awful (with the exception of the symphony), but they are still a fantastic band, in particular their early material and their live show.  They aren't really this blog's type of band though, but I still had to see this show.

So how did we get front row?  We got there straight after leaving the xx and stocking up on water... we were two and half+ hours early.  This meant we had to sit through Coheed and Cambria, who were awful in my opinion, and Faith No More, who I knew nothing about and put on one of the stranger shows I have seen (which was still pretty bad, and included Danny DeVito running half naked across the stage... writing that sentence was very enjoyable, seeing it was not).  What it also meant though was that we were front row for Muse.  And Muse is the type of band were front row is synonymous with epic.

Matt Bellamy rocking out on his Kaoss Pad-embedded guitar.
Photo by Me

Matt Bellamy on a Beautiful Piano.  Clear Cover, Light Up Keys
Photo by Me

Muse, as usual, put on an extremely rockin' show that managed to pull off things like green rave lasers, a keytar, light up shuttershades (!?), and weird robot animations (which they actually had the first time I saw them) without making it seemed over produced or cheesy.  Well maybe the robots/some of the other images on that were a little cheesy but whatever.  They really are a stadium/arena rock band.  The show featured some ballads (the always beautiful piano/megaphone piece "Feeling Good" - possibly my favorite song of the night), some rockers ("Uprising", which as bad as it is on the album is pretty fun live, and "Knights of Cydonia") and some tortured love love songs ("Time Is Running Out" "Hysteria").  Every synth sounded perfect, every riff sounded tight, every solo sounded creative and epic... all in all it was a Muse show.  One more thing that demonstrates just how cool Matt Belamy is... he is cool enough to pull off a change from neon pink pants to neon blue pants mid show.... The song "New Born" really demonstrated their range; it started off with the frantic keyboards, and then it changes to the dirty guitar sound midway through the song seamlessly.  There was some great jamming in between songs thanks to Matt Bellamy's Kaoss-Pad-Guitar, but not as much as at one of their own shows.  The only real disappointment was that they didn't get to play as much stuff as I would have liked because it was not their own show (which generally would last about 3 hours and two encores), although they did enjoy an encore.

Matt Bellamy.  Plus some lasers.  And a keytar.
Photo by Me

Unfortunately, also had to miss Major Lazer and Flying Lotus (whose new album is coming out... it's fantastic.).  We did stay for Tiesto, which featured some awesome bass drops and great trance/house music, but not much else.  Oh and bass that could be felt for miles.

All in All, Day 2 was a day were I got to see some great bands in the morning, and despite missing some great bands in the evening, still had a great concert experience.

-- A Teenage Elephant.

The Notorious B.I.G. vs. The xx.... One of the the most creative mash-ups I've ever seen and definitely one of my favorites

I know rap isn't really this blog's style, but this is so goddamn epic I have to post it.  I personally loved last year's debut album from the xx, xx, and I am a huge xx fan now.  I'm not really a rap guy, with the exception of Del the Funkee Homosapien, who actually used to rap in the Gorillaz - check out the album Deltron 3030 by Deltron (Del and Dan the Automator), but I guess Biggie is pretty classic, and you gotta like him right, even if you don't listen to him.  They are clearly two very different artists; The xx are the type of artist that you often listen to on your own, when you enter your own solitary shell.  It seems to me that a classic image of somebody listening to the xx is the person using some sort of public transit and surrounded by other people, yet completely in their own world that consists of only them and the music.  On the other hand, you have Biggie, which instantly evokes a party with everybody dancing; it's a communal experience.

The idea of bringing the two artists together certainly may not come to mind when you think of the two, but Wait What marries (Well, if you read the press release for it you'll find out that it's not really a marriage between the two artists but instead "a solid connection between two people trying to feel something" - you should read the press release if you get a chance it's pretty funny/interesting) the sublime and utterly laid back music of The xx with, as my friends would say, the fresh rhymes of B.I.G in a way that makes them sound like they were made for eachother.  The xx's music brings about a whole new side to Biggie's vocals, making them seem perhaps more heartfelt and sincere.  I can't quite place why it seems that way to me, but it does and it's awesome.  Whenever the intros for each song finish and the verse parts start and Biggie's vocals come in, it seems like the xx's music has more of a direction than it normally does, which certainly helps it.  When the xx's vocals come in, it seems like the perfect chorus to round out the songs to make them very balanced.  But enough about what I'm saying!  I got to ask Wait What a few questions, and here's what he had to say.  Also, you can listen to the whole thing below UPDATE: You can only download each song individually now because inevitably the record labels asked him to take it down, but you can download each song from the embedded player below by clicking download.  If you like his stuff go become a fan of him on facebook!  This is definitely the best LP length mash up since Jadiohead (Jay-Z + Radiohead) and Danger Mouse's Grey Album (Jay-Z's The Black Album + the Beatles The White Album).  I hope you enjoy!

1)  I know "Juicy-r" was the inspiration for the rest of the album, but when did you first think of mixing Biggie and the xx in the first place/what inspired you to do that?

I was kind of late to the xx party -- I started listening to them a lot in December, and was pretty intrigued when I saw that they listed artists like Aaliyah as their main influence. I started trying to listen for the R&B influence, and as a hip-hop fan, tried to think what it'd be like to hear a rapper on their instrumentals. From there, I thought of the Juicy/VCR mashup, and really liked how Biggie sounded on a minimalist beat.

2)  From reading the post and the main page of your website, it seems like everything happened really quickly once you realized the potential for the full album, and it came together really all over the world.  Could you maybe describe what the process was like doing it in so many places, etc., and if maybe the different locations influenced the songs at all (i.e. the songs from one place have more of one sound, and the songs from another have a different)?

Yeah, absolutely. So creating the album all over the world was mostly a result of circumstance rather than an intentional decision made in making the record. I happened to be traveling a lot at the beginning of the year -- I work for a tech company that sent me to Switzerland for a little bit, and then was going on trips four or five  weekends in a row: Williamstown, Mass, Aspen, New Orleans, Switzerland, London -- I got see some really cool places. It's hard to say, as a mashup album, how much location was an influence, but I do feel the most creative when I'm around friends or out of my standard day-to-day life, so being able to work on it in different locales definitely made the creation of it a lot more fun for me.

3) You mention in the press release how the xx are often listened to in your earbuds when you enter your solitary shell, even if it is on a commute when you're surrounded by people, you are still alone in some way, whereas when you listen to Biggie it's usually a "communal"experience; what is your take on how this album "should" be listened to/it's impact on people (i.e. how it makes them feel)?

Great question! So I actually am really into this concept of music matching a specific situation, and I thought a lot about where I liked listening to this record. I included this note at the end of the liner notes, suggesting three places it's worked well for me:

1) rainy days in your apartment after you've overslept but aren't going to let the asymmetry of your day disrupt your mood

2) driving during that time between when the bars close and the newspaper routes haven't started when no one's out and the city looks abandoned

3) walking alone and thinking about everyone you know and imagining what they might be doing right then.

4) Does the album/the making of the album have any special significance to you?

Yeah, the album has absolutely held special significance to me -- despite it being a mashup, it does feel personal to construct something in headphones and away from where you live, and it makes it feel like it only exists in your head. I was more anxious than I thought I'd be before it came out, and was just hoping a couple friends would listen to it and be digging it. The response has been pretty overwhelming, but I do feel like I'm listening to something different than everyone else -- I think of airports and late nights and playing demos for my best friend to see what he thought about it.

5) Was there any sort of message, whether it was a feeling, idea, etc that you were trying to convey?

I'm not sure about a specific feeling, but generally I want people to hear about it and think 'that'll never work,' and then check it out and enjoy it. A lot of mashups I find to be a little obvious -- I've certainly been guilty of this -- and I think challenging listeners a little bit is really the most fun part of the genre. Also, my favorite emails are from people who say 'I usually hate rap, but really liked hearing Biggie on your record' or 'I had no idea who The xx were, but they're awesome -- where do I get their CD?' The album's free, I'm not trying to exploit any other artists, and I'm most happy when I can play a small part in spreading good music to people who otherwise maybe wouldn't have checked it out.

6) What's your favorite track from the album, or do you think it is best listened to as a whole?

I would say I hope the record is best listened to as a whole, but my favorite track is probably 'one more chance for a heart to skip a beat' or 'the curious incident of big poppa in the nighttime.' The first one because, thematically, I think it's the strongest, and I really liked how the chorus turned out. Big Poppa/Nighttime has a pretty eerie beat, and I thought was a cool transformation of the Biggie track. 

7) Do you have any other mixes/anything else in the works? (Just an idea maybe it's stupid but... Animal Collective's "Guy's Eyes" vs. the Dirty Projector's "Remade Horizon")

Yes, absolutely! I'm exploring a couple possibilities now, and am a couple demos into one project that I'm excited about. My hope is to have some individual tracks coming out in the next couple weeks, and hopefully a new album this summer. Also, I've been getting some inquiries about a string of college shows, and would love to go on a short tour -- I think that'd be a lot of fun. If anyone's booking at colleges, get at me! Also, I've got a facebook page where you can follow all the action: www.facebook.com/pages/wait-what/90344887283

Hope y'all enjoyed my first real interview (the Animal Collective one doesn't really count because it was more of just a conversation that I remembered the salient points from...) and this awesome mixtape.

-- A Teenage Elephant (Be Seeing You...)