January 28, 2010

Coachella band of the week:
Little Dragon

Only 78 days until Coachella, or, 78 days to get schooled on all of the bands I've been heretofore unfamiliar with.

So this week I discovered Little Dragon, a Swedish electro-pop foursome playing the festival Friday, April 16.

Now I usually abstain from synth pop and female-fronted bands  (not a hard rule, I just tend to enjoy male singers more), but these guys have enough darkness and soul to their sound to avoid coming out robotic.

Will definitely be checking out this band at Coachella, and apparently I have two albums to catch up on -- 2007's self-titled LP and 2009's "Machine Dreams."


January 26, 2010

First great show of the summer announced: Pavement, June 25, Greek Theatre, Berkeley

Pavement will bring its 2010 reunion to the best outdoor venue in the Bay Area on for the bargain price of $39.50.

A proper reaction?

Step 1. Pencil "best indie rock band from Stockton ever" into the June 25 spot on your calendar.

Step 2. Buy a ticket during the Thursday, Jan. 28 presale @10 a.m.

Step 3. Only 148 days to go! Live renditions of "Box Elder" and "Trigger Cut" shall soon be yours.



January 24, 2010

Following Radiohead's Haiti show tweets with all the other geeks


It's Sunday night, and I am officially a geek.

How else could I characterize myself after spending a perfectly good weekend evening sitting in front of my computer following people's Twitter updates?

Damn Radiohead fixation.

It's the only way I could cope with the fact that I'm not one of those lucky (rich) fans with enough fortune to have attended tonight's Haiti benefit show at the Henry Fonda Music Box Theater in Los Angeles.

So instead of rocking out with my favorite band, here I am following the tweets of people at the show so I can learn of the setlist in real time.

Just like all of the other Radiohead geeks.

Sure, reading about what's happening at an event doesn't even graze the ass of attending the real thing, but it's still a way to feel some connection to it.

Let's just hope I don't get to the point of joining the message board world -- but with a band like Radiohead, there are no limits to one's dorkdom.

Radiohead setlist, Jan. 24, 2010, The Music Box Theater

1. Faust Arp
2. Fake Plastic Trees
3. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
4. National Anthem
5. Nude
6. Karma Police
7. Kid A
8. Morning Bell
9. How to Disappear Completely
10. Wolf at the Door
11. The Bends
12. Reckoner
13. Lucky (lucky 13, ha)
14. Bodysnatchers
15. Dollars & Cents
This is where took a request: Just or Airbag?
16. Airbag
17. Exit Music (For a Film)

Encore 1
18. Everything in Its Right Place
19. You and Whose Army
20. Pyramid Song
21. All I Need

Encore 2
22. Lotus Flower
23. Paranoid Android
24. Street Spirit

If did pay the minimum $475 ticket price to get in, would I have sacrificed my own experience to provide constant updates to the ladies and gentlemen at home?

I think timmayb sums it up well:

"While I am thankful and living vicariously through y'all, I cannot understand the need to tweet during a Radiohead show."

Amen.

But in all seriousness, even though us fans at home couldn't afford to support tonight's good cause, there's no reason to complain about it -- not when hundreds of thousands in Haiti are dead, buried, injured, homeless, hungry and grieving.

So stop your bitching, bitches.

I'm thankful there are famous faces out there willing to use their talents, or celebrity, or position to convey important messages to masses of people, to entice the more well-to-do folks to part with unneeded cash.

The sum of Radiohead's efforts tonight: $572,754, for those who really need it right now.

January 18, 2010

Back from the dead: Coachella lineup in T minus seven hours!

I'm so excited ... some serious rumors of a Thom Yorke appearance have been making the rounds.

Serious rumors, ya know.

But any combination of the bands below would be just lovely.

Blur
Soundgarden
Pavement
Flaming Lips
Deerhunter
Spoon
Fever Ray
The Strokes
The Antlers
Memory Tapes
St. Vincent
Entrance Band
Vampire Weekend
Major Lazer
Phoenix
The xx
Real Estate
Titus Andronicus
Sunset Rubdown
Panda Bear
LCD Soundsystem
DOOM
Raekwon
Andre Nickatina
Dan Deacon
Arcade Fire