Coachella band of the week: Frightened Rabbit

Two bunny-monikered bands will play Coachella, and I already know White Rabbits is the shit.

The other, five-piece Scottish group Frightened Rabbit, plays songs that fall on both sides of the rock spectrum – more manic and loud rocking out type of stuff but also quieter, acoustic-based folksy stuff, all delivered in singer/guitarist Scott Hutchison’s thick brogue.

Not to be cheesy, but here’s the cheddar: What’s most lovable about Frightened Rabbit is that their humanity, sincerity and optimism shine through on their songs, which tend to touch on universal themes like getting your heart broken into a trillion pieces. Indeed.

And if they are as excited live as they come across on record, this will not be a band to miss at Coachella.


Frightened Rabbit doing "Fast Blood" live:

Coachella band of the week: Céu

Coachella always offers a diversified lineup that includes a few world music artists, and this year is no different.

I remember how hard Venezuelan Latin-disco-funk band Los Amigos Invisibles rocked the festival on an early Sunday afternoon in 2006, and it wasn’t just the vodka talking. Tons of dancing and floatiness, if you know what I mean.

On this year’s lineup Brazilian singer Céu, playing early on Friday, April 16, seems like a good bet if there aren’t any conflicts.

Her smooth vocals come through in Portugeuse, sometimes in English, riding dreamy musical waves of samba, afrobeat, R&B, jazz, and heavy bits of percussion.

It’s a groovy sound to enjoy laid-back-style, a light sonic break from the overbearing heat of the Coachella Valley sun.


Only 58 days til.


Céu's "Rainha":

Phoenix at the Catalyst will be the second best event happening April 17

If my weekend of April 17-18 wasn't already booked with attending Coachella 2010, I would definitely be hitting up the Catalyst in Santa Cruz on Saturday the 17th to catch a certain French band that likes to sing songs about the turn of the 20th century.

Sure, I'll see Phoenix live at Coachella, but their appearance at a club as off-the-beaten-path as the Catalyst presents a rare opportunity to rock out to "Lisztomania" in a pea-sized venue.

Don't know when tickets go on sale yet, so prick up your ears.

Coachella band of the week: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

So there's this band I used to like -- and still do, really -- called Ima Robot. They were a fun, manic dance punk band that gained a bit of popularity and radio airplay when I discovered them around 2003, however they quickly faded away after releasing their second album.

Flash forward to today: I've been reading a lot about this L.A. band Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, who before hearing I understood to be some sort of hippied out Polyphonic Spree with hella band members privy to wearing white robes and prairie gowns.

Then I found out this Edward Sharpe character was none other than Ima Robot singer Alex Ebert, who grew a beard, reinvented himself as Sharpe and recruited nine members to form this group.

Sometimes I'm skeptical when a band has more than six musicians because it just seems like an easy way to create a spectacle and elevate the grandiosity of one's look and sound; gimmicks meant to distract listeners from the fact that the band isn't really focused on the music.

Nevermind the symphonies.

But then I listened to Edward Sharpe and his crew and discovered the songs are quite good, and they're definitely a band to further explore.

It's a throwback kind of sound -- catchy, pop-type stuff brimming with harmony from the band's male and female vocal leads, and infused with lots of things to make it interesting like '50s doo wop, country, the Old West and blue-eyed soul.

They're playing Coachella on Saturday, April 17, and also Bimbo's in San Francisco on Feb. 28 for the Noise Pop festival.

Check out "Home" as played live on KCRW:

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."

Blinking Pigs - Little Dragon

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

The Coachella 2009 lineup is a tragic disappointment

Behold, below, the 2009 Coachella lineup. I've bolded the bands I actually would want to see.

FRIDAY, APRIL 17: Paul McCartney, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, Leonard Cohen, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Beirut, The Black Keys, Girl Talk, Silversun Pickups, The Ting Tings, The Crystal Method, Ghostland Observatory, Crystal Castles, The Airborne Toxic Event, We Are Scientists, N.A.S.A., Patton & Rahzel, M. Ward, The Presets, The Hold Steady, A Place to Bury Strangers, Felix da Housecat, Buraka Som Sistema, Ryan Bingham, Bajofondo, Peanut Butter Wolf, Noah & the Whale, White Lies, The Bug, Alberta Cross, Los Campesinos!, Craze & Klever, Molotov, Switch, Gui Boratto, Steve Aoki, The Aggrolites, People Under the Stairs, The Courteeners, Cage the Elephant, Dear and the Headlights.

SATURDAY, APRIL 18: The Killers, Amy Winehouse, Thievery Corporation, TV on the Radio, Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes, MSTRKRFT, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Atmosphere, Mastodon, TRAV$DJ-AM, Henry Rollins, Crookers, Turbonegro, Hercules and Love Affair, Superchunk, Glasvegas, Dr. Dog, Drive-By Truckers, Booker T & the DBT’s, Amanda Palmer, The Bloody Beetroots, Surkin, Para One (Live), Calexico, Liars, Bob Mould Band, Zane Lowe, Electric Touch, Blitzen Trapper, James Morrison, Drop the Lime, Glass Candy, Thenewno2, Gang Gang Dance, Billy Talent, Ida Maria, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Zizek, Cloud Cult, Tinariwen.

SUNDAY, APRIL 19: The Cure, My Bloody Valentine, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Throbbing Gristle, Lupe Fiasco, Paul Weller, Peter Bjorn and John, X, Antony & the Johnsons, Roni Size, Public Enemy, Jenny Lewis, Groove Armada, Paolo Nutini, Christopher Lawrence, Lykke Li, The Kills, Okkervil River, M.A.N.D.Y., Clipse, Sebastien Tellier, Fucked Up, Perry Farrell, The Horrors, Late of the Pier, K’naan, Junior Boys, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Supermayer, No Age, Vivian Girls, Shepard Fairey, Themselves, Gaslight Anthem, The Knux, Mexican Institute of Sound, The Night Marchers, Marshall Barnes.

Looks like I'll be saving $300+ on April 17-19.

Rant: Where for art thou Coachella lineup announcement?

I awoke today giddy like a tot on Christmas morn, as today was the day the Coachella lineup was to be revealed! So I checked the Internet before I left for work around 8 a.m. Nothing up yet. Once (chained) within the confines of my "cubicle," I started seeking the info at various sites supposedly in the know around 10 a.m., the time when good things usually seem to happen (you know, ticket onsales, traffic-free highways, etc.). No go. All day I searched, and I and sought, and I hunted, only to find nothing but dissatisfaction and frustration, eventually learning that the announcement was postponed until tomorrow. I guess that makes this very moment that I'm writing this Christmas Eve. A last-minute delay certainly doesn't bode well for the lineup. But if it takes an extra day (or seven, or 21) for the promoters, Goldenvoice, to sort out a kickass batch of headliners, so be it. But only as long as that Paul McCartney: headliner, remains a rumor, thank you. To tide myself over, I checked out the Coachella message board which is teeming with all kinds of fun folks. Best message board thread ever: click here.

Coachella '08 lineup announcement sparks riot in San Francisco

OK, so no animals were harmed in the making of this announcement, but music fans around the world yelped a collective 'huh?' upon first glimpse of this year's Coachella lineup. Just a hunch, but I think it has something to do with Jack Johnson headlining night one. Blah. The big whoa of Coachella '08 is undoubtedly Portishead rocking the main stage on night two. Unmissable stuff, this Portishead group is. Can't say the same for fellow night two performer Dwight Yoakam, who I heard made a certain transaction with a certain sneaky red horned Angel of Darkness in order for his inclusion to come to fruition. How's about a last minute bump of our old pal Yoaky for some Hank III. Let's take a vote. But coolness: The Verve, Raconteurs and Spank Rock add some spice to Friday's headlining blah while Kraftwerk, M.I.A. and the Cold War Kids give us three more reasons to spend three months of babysitting money on a three-day pass. Overall, Sunday's looking like the best bang for your dollar, err, 90 dollars: Roger Waters playing "Dark Side," Spiritualized, Love and Rockets, Autolux, Man Man, Les Savy Fav, Justice, Gogol Bordello, Holy Fuck. Mmmmmmm. In the grand Coachella tradition of lineups becoming more attractive as it gets closer to showtime, I must admit that my initial deeming of the performer list as lackluster will have no effect on the ace chance I'll attend all three days. It's Coachella - how can I not go?