99 Days of Coachella

Discography (Dr. Dre):

2001
1999 The Chronic
1992

 

“…With its stylish, sonically detailed production, Dr. Dre’s 1992 solo debut, The Chronic, transformed the entire sound of West Coast rap. Here Dre established his patented G-funk sound: fat, blunted Parliament-Funkadelic beats, soulful backing vocals, and live instruments in the rolling basslines and whiny synths. What’s impressive is that Dre crafts tighter singles than his inspiration, George Clinton — he’s just as effortlessly funky, and he has a better feel for a hook, a knack that improbably landed gangsta rap on the pop charts. But none of The Chronic’s legions of imitators were as rich in personality, and that’s due in large part to Dre’s monumental discovery, Snoop Doggy Dogg. Snoop livens up every track he touches, sometimes just by joining in the chorus — and if The Chronic has a flaw, it’s that his relative absence from the second half slows the momentum. There was nothing in rap quite like Snoop’s singsong, lazy drawl (as it’s invariably described), and since Dre’s true forte is the producer’s chair, Snoop is the signature voice. He sounds utterly unaffected by anything, no matter how extreme, which sets the tone for the album’s misogyny, homophobia, and violence. The Rodney King riots are unequivocally celebrated, but the war wasn’t just on the streets; Dre enlists his numerous guests in feuds with rivals and ex-bandmates. Yet The Chronic is first and foremost a party album, rooted not only in ’70s funk and soul, but also that era’s blue party comedy, particularly Dolemite. Its comic song intros and skits became prerequisites for rap albums seeking to duplicate its cinematic flow; plus,Snoop and Dre’s terrific chemistry ensures that even their foulest insults are cleverly turned. That framework makes The Chronic both unreal and all too real, a cartoon and a snapshot. No matter how controversial, it remains one of the greatest and most influential hip-hop albums of all time.”

Worth seeing? (IMHO) Hell yeah. What better way to end the weekend by seeing two prominent figures of West Coast culture? (And don’t forget that they will be performing on the 4/20 weekend.. not sure if that was intentional.) Having gone through Snoop Dogg and Dre’s setlists of last year, it seems like they will probably be performing just their familiar, big hits from their older albums. Snoop has only had a handful of mediocre hits since Doggystyle (Jeff’s opinion… I still love Drop It Like It’s Hot LOL). Dr. Dre’s much-anticipated final studio album is in its so-far ten year production process and he recently announced he was taking a ‘break’ form music. Nonetheless, The Chronic, 2001, and Doggystyle are all regarded as timeless classics in the hip-hop community. And who knows… maybe headlining Coachella means that a release of Detox is on the horizon?

Discography:

w h o k i l l
2011 Bird-Brains
2009

 

“The album saw Garbus expanding and amplifying her raw pop vision into vibrant, rhythm-soaked compositions of melody and noise, brimming with everything from dub and folk to soca and jazz. She matched her capability for sub Saharan-style singing with huge, genre-mashing aplomb, and produced a record that set spring on fire and continued to burn bright across the rest of 2011.”

“Garbus is blessed with an extraordinary voice, and she wields it with great confidence, always coming off in total control of her phrasing while seeming totally uninhibited in her expression. There’s an authoritative quality to her voice— she often sings with a commanding, full-bodied boldness, but even at her softest, Garbus sounds assertive and forthright… w h o k i l l was mostly made in traditional studios in collaboration with bassist Nate Brenner, engineer Eli Crews, and a handful of other musicians. The music benefits from the increased professionalism, but Garbus has not abandoned her lo-fi aesthetic. As on BiRd-BrAiNs, Garbus layers sound to create a patchwork of contrasting textures. This time around, the greater clarity allows for more exaggerated dynamics. Brenner’s presence on bass is the biggest difference between w h o k i l l and BiRd-BrAiNs. His style is loose and jazzy, with fluid, melodic lines that add dimension to Garbus’ compositions. She sounded so isolated on BiRd-BrAiNs, but suddenly her music is like a conversation, with Brenner’s parts bouncing off her voice and rhythms like thoughtful banter.”

Worth seeing? (IMHO) I think Pitchfork put it perfectly: “The stylization of the name tUnE-yArDs in print is a bit off-putting, but it at least gives people fair warning: This is not an act with any interest in politely conforming to expectations.” Sometimes, it was hard for me to stomach the lo-fi distorted and chaotic arrangements that tUnE-yArDs often uses, especially at the end of their songs (notably on ‘Es-So,’ ‘Gangsta,’ ‘Riotriot’). However, other songs like the popular and oh-so-catchy ‘Bizness,’ the delicate, airy ‘Doorstep,’ and the more mellow ‘Wolly Wolly Gang’ are a lot more accessible. Honestly, after many listens to this album I’m still confused. I can see Garbus in the studio just spontaneously creating whatever the fuck she wanted. And that’s what makes it pretty awesome. Garbus’ voice is powerful and strange, and I’m sure she’ll put on a crazy and interesting performance.

“A lot of what makes w h o k i l l and tUnE-yArDs’ excellent live performances so compelling is the degree to which Garbus commits to her ideas and displays a total conviction in her personal, idiosyncratic, high-stakes music. This, in and of itself, is very inspiring and empowering. This unguarded, individualistic expression encourages strong identification in listeners, so don’t be surprised if this record earns Garbus a very earnest and intense cult following.”

Discography:

SBTRKT
2011

 

“SBTRKT made his name hiding behind a mask, remixing the likes of M.I.A., Basement Jaxx and Modeselektor. And here, he’s kept the veneer while doing somewhat of a showy back-flip – by bringing in an A-grade line-up of guest vocalists, he’s given his own music the stage and produced a debut album almost unbelievably bursting with ground-zero moments, unexpected side-turns and slinky promises… a haughty brew of clean-but-intricate beats, squeaks and wobbles – with chart-ready choruses…. This album is paced like a perfect DJ set – it reads the listener with incredible insight, combining the immediate and familiar with intense passages of warm-up, breaking to allow for moments of blank space and reflection. The mix of shiny vocals with tight, accelerated textures is steeped deep in a glorious combination of two-step, UK funky, dubstep, US RnB and Chicago house. Add that to the compendium of a killer pop sensibility, infectious bubbling rhythms, unbridled energy and astounding curation from the man in the mask, and what we have here is the promise of this decade’s Timbaland.”

You might call what SBTRKT is doing here “post-dubstep”. That’s not a totally accurate term (for one, he’s building off more than just that one genre), but his approach is certainly similar to what guys like James Blake and Jamie Woon have been up to in the last year or so. The central differences here are that a) SBTRKT doesn’t sing himself (he’s brought in vocalists Sampha, Jessie Ware, Roses Gabor, and Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano for that); and b) his music is more immediate than both Blake’s and Woon’s. Rather than go for showy, scene-stealing productions, he keeps things tight and purposeful: The focus is on the overall song and the vocal, and beats are just one part of that equation.

Worth seeing? (IMHO) No way would I pass up seeing a guy DJ in a cremonial mask. But seriously, the guy gets some pretty amazing guest vocalists (especially Sampha, who is featured most heavily on the LP and is apparently a part of his live show on vocals and keyboards) and emotive arrangements to create a “post-dubstep” sound (the more soulful sound of electronic music, full of subs, crisp drumlines, sparse instrumentation, and darker vibes), but differs from similar endeavors in that is more accessible. His music reflects so many different influences—you’ll hear emotive vocals over tribal drums mixed with electronic instruments. Usually when I hear something that doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard before, it just sounds… weird. And a problem I often have with electronic music is that it sounds detached and manufactured. But I didn’t run into any of these problems with SBTRKT, as he creates electronic music emotional and individual while still sounding as catchy as any good pop record.

Discography:

Era Extraña
2011 Psychic Chasms
2010

 

“Neon Indian’s second album, Era Extraña, shows a commitment to tighter, wide-reaching songcraft and appeal… Reflecting the shift, there’s an increased focus on streamlined melodies; the vocal gasps and moans that streaked previous highs like “Terminally Chill” are still here, just not as suffocating. …The feel of Era Extraña is expansive and lonely, like someone staring at the night sky in solitude….Two albums in, he remains a compelling songwriter. The scrappy charm of Psychic Chasms was hugely appealing from the jump and its brilliant initial flash faded just slightly over time. This is a far more serious record than its predecessor, but Palomo isn’t always as assured in rendering the darker material.”

“The “neon” in the name is both a hint and a misnomer: This Austin, Texas duo’s debut emanates bright colors even while the glow is muted by lo-fi haze. A dreamy collage of samples and synth tones, Psychic Chasms succeeds both as pop — check the playful MGMT keyboard lines of “Deadbeat Summer” or the catchy, regretful chorus of “Should Have Taken Acid With You” — and as affecting art: The mournful disco sirens of “6669 (I Don’t Know If You Know)” beg for strobe lights while summoning lumps in throats.”

Worth seeing? (IMHO) I mean, it’s chill. But sometimes it’s… just… too chill… terminally chill (ha. ha.). I could definitely imagine watching Neon Indian at Coachella and being bored. Would suggest being high while watching them.

Discography:

Electronic Dream
2011 How To Be An MC
(Instrumental Kings 5)
2010

 

“…It’s tough to imagine the tracks on Electronic Dream getting any play in any dance club in the world, and it’s virtually impossible to picture anyone rapping over them. Instead, this album is a genre unto itself— ominous future shit that creates an atmosphere but never bleeds into the background. Araab’s snare-hits resonate like eye-punches, and his drum-programming is pure, unrelenting rap shit. But he’s applying that sensibility to songs where the melodies shine even when Araab’s using a screaming sound effect as part of the rhythm track. The end result is a truly weird little album— something at once anxious and euphoric.”

“One of the predominant themes in the electronic music of 2011 was the incorporation of previously unfashionable, even unthinkable elements and styles into existent genres. But no one took a more literal stab at it than Dipset-affiliated producer AraabMuzik and his album Electronic Dream, which throws his memorable MPC antics right on top of entire trance songs. Kaskade, Jam & Spoon, Ian van Dahl: this is the real stuff, not just slyly winking hints. There was a precedent for this, particularly the Dipset Trance Party mixtapes, but Electronic Dream exhibits a new level of directness, calling modern hip-hop’s dance-obsessed bluff. The effect of Araab’s MPC demolition is more hazy than rousing, the anxious, palpitating heartbeat at the center of it all, manipulating trance’s preoccupation with ecstasy and pitching songs down wholesale. Kaskade’s “Streetz Tonight” is rendered a burnt-out lullaby, and the jittery coke high of “Lift Off” is the farthest thing from trance’s usual warm and fuzzy embrace. A lot of artists tried to make cotton-candy riffs and fist-pumping melodies acceptable in 2011, and AraabMuzik did it transparently enough to make even the staunchest of snobs reconsider aversions to the big and obvious stuff.”

Worth seeing? (IMHO) Possibly, but I wouldn’t make it my priority to go see him. The great thing about him is he can improvise and put his own twist on songs from any genre, whether it be trance, dubstep, or hip-hop. In this sense, he’s a very versatile producer and beat-maker. However, much of his music as an artist doesn’t feel genuine, and he often fails to properly credit the artists that he samples from. Many of his samples are left unchanged, or sound like they’ve just gone through the same minor tweakings through his MPC. I personally feel like the way he spun trance anthems into his own remix-like songs on Electronic Dream is a lot like how some DJs do mashups, which appears void of much originality.

• Artist: The Weeknd
• Day Performing: Sunday
• Genre: R&B/Electronic
• Who? Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, is a sub-headliner for Coachella without ever having sold a record. In the past nine months, he self-released three mixtapes, all of which received critical acclaim. People have caught on to his downbeat, sensual, druggy sound that has labeled him a “progressive R&B” artist. So many people rushed to download his newest mixtape “Echoes of Silence” of his website that the server crashed. As described by The Guardian, “he is a very 2012 kind of pop star, who releases his material for free on the web, declines interviews and instead communicates with his audience entirely via a gnomic Twitter feed and a Tumblr headlined Til We Overdose, on which he posts new music, photos of himself looking impressively off his knackers – boggling at the wreckage of a hotel room, fag in mouth; head in hands on the floor next to a bottle of cognac – and, occasionally, worrying handwritten notes: “mama I understand why you’re mad – it hurts to accept what I am and how I live and what I did.” Truly an intriguing artist.
  Discography:
  • The Noise (2009)
  • The Weeknd (2010)
  • House Of Balloons (2011)
  • Thursday (2011)
  • Echoes Of Silence (2011)
  What people are saying about The Weeknd
  • “[He] push[es] Drake’s self-examining take on the R&B loverman persona into more disturbing territory. While Drake agonises over the shallowness of wealth and fame, Tesfaye’s songs inhabit an actively amoral universe where some kind of drugged-out degradation is often taking place, usually in a hotel suite with its curtains drawn against the dawn. A frail vocalist in a genre packed with artists who can sing up a storm, Tesfaye and his producers are nevertheless spectacularly good at capturing a small-hours atmosphere that’s both queasy and compelling. The dragging beats, washes of synthesiser and eclectic musical references – chillwave and crunk hip-hop, Aaliyah and France Gall – somehow contrive to sound not just eerie and desolate but cosseting as well, inexorably drawing the listener into a deeply troubling world.
    …Echoes of Silence and its two predecessors represent a pretty staggering achievement from a brilliantly provocative and daring new artist. Even so, he is going to have to come up with a new role soon. As David Bowie would tell you, you have to stay ahead of your audience: there’s only so long you can inhabit a persona before it gets boring and self-parodic. Alternatively, there’s the slim chance he might not be playing a role, or he might genuinely believe at least some of what he’s singing. Of course, that wouldn’t make the music on Echoes of Silence any less incredible, but it would mean the future of his recording career is some way down on a list of problems at the top of which is: “Being an absolutely catastrophic arse of a man”. For the moment, at least, Tesfaye isn’t saying either way: it’s all about the myth and mystery.”
    - The Guardian
  What people are saying about his latest mixtape, Echoes of Silence
  • “Echoes of Silence is his third album in nine months, and it might be the most troubling of the lot…. XO/The Host and Initiation sound like an artist boldly exploding one of modern pop’s great myths and suggesting that what goes on in the VIP area is infinitely seedier and more unpleasant than the multitude of songs hymning its pleasures suggest. But more disturbing still are the songs that surround them, because they seem to cloud Tesfaye’s intention. With their talk of meteoric rises and bullish predictions of continued success The Fall and Same Old Song seem not to be about a character, but Tesfaye himself. The closing title track, a reverb-heavy piano ballad, features a protagonist dismissing yet another corrupted and distraught female (“you’re such a masochist”), but it’s mired in self-pity: “Don’t go home … don’t leave my little life.” The likelihood is that you’re meant to think he is absolutely pathetic, to listen with your cheeks puffed out in disbelief. But taken as the conclusion to an interlinked trilogy of albums, there’s a slight but nagging suspicion that Tesfaye is genuinely trying to elicit some kind of sympathy – he’s certainly going all out on the impassioned vocal front – and that he thinks he’s raising an important point about the complex nature of victimhood. Will no one spare a thought for horrible, predatory men? They have feelings, too, you know. You’re left unsettled, enthralled and confused, not least about where Tesfaye goes from here. It might be that he’s simply playing a role: perhaps , despite the songs about inveigling drugged-out ladies into group sex and the photos of himself passed out, he’s actually sitting at home under a slanket in front of The Great British Bake Off.”
    - The Guardian
  Worth seeing? (IMHO)
  • Rarely do I find myself liking most of the tracks off an album. But I enjoyed almost every single track off of every album by The Weeknd. I would say that though Thursday is good, but Echoes of Silence and House Of Balloons are amazing. I’m intrigued by his unique moody, druggy style… it’s just so… damn sexy. However, I agree with The Guardian’s review. In the past three albums, The Weeknd has occupied pretty much the same persona, and for him to really stay at the top he needs to continue to evolve. A lot of his stuff sounds the same, and it makes me wonder if he’s just a one-trick pony. He’s said to release an album late this year, so we’ll see where he goes next.
  Select tracks from Echoes of Silence
  • I couldn’t choose my favorite tracks so I just included the whole damn album.
  The Weeknd - D.D.
  The Weeknd - Montreal
  The Weeknd - Outside
  The Weeknd - XO / The Host
  • “At its centre are XO/The Host – a sneering, chilly dismissal of a groupie whose life has run out of control, with a great chorus, set to echoing electronics and drums that crack like gunshots – and Initiation. The latter isn’t the first Weeknd song about using drink and drugs to coerce an unwilling woman into group sex, but it’s perhaps the most horrible – rhythm clattering, the sweetness of the melody corrupted by the Auto-Tune effect that causes Tesfaye’s voice to continually speed up and slow down. After it ends, it haunts you in the same way as a newspaper’s graphic description of a crime or a disaster.” - The Guardian
  The Weeknd - Initiation
  The Weeknd - Same Old Song
  The Weeknd - The Fall
  The Weeknd - Next
  The Weeknd - Echoes Of Silence
  Select tracks from House Of Balloons
  • Again, I couldn’t choose my favorite tracks. So here’s the whole thing..
  The Weeknd - High For This
  The Weeknd - What You Need
  The Weeknd - House Of Balloons
  The Weeknd - The Morning
  • Wow, really love this one, where he “blend[s] hazy synth washes and liquid blues-guitar riffs to narcotically hazy effect.”
  The Weeknd - Wicked Games
  • No, this is not a cover/sample of the Chris Izaak song.
  The Weeknd - The After Party
  The Weeknd - Coming Down
  The Weeknd - Loft Music
  • Here he samples Beach House’s ‘Gila.’ One of the best sampling I’ve heard. You know sometimes how artists just stick in the sample and rap/sing over it? Kind of like they’re sampling just to sample…like an easy way out? The Weeknd is too creative for that. He alters the track and makes it his own so that it just flows so well.
  The Weeknd - The Knowing
  Select tracks from Thursday
  • Weaker than his other two albums, imo, but still awesome. Still included the entire album.
  The Weeknd - High For This
  The Weeknd - Lonely Star
  The Weeknd - Life Of The Party
  The Weeknd - Thursday
  The Weeknd - The Zone
  The Weeknd - The Birds Part 1
  The Weeknd - The Birds Part 2
  The Weeknd - Rolling Stone
  The Weeknd - Gone

• Artist: The Head and the Heart
• Day Performing: Saturday
• Genre: Indie folk pop
• Who? This band became one of the biggest recent grassroots success stories by self-releasing their debut album and selling 10,000 copies by word-of-mouth alone. They then signed with Sub Pop Records, and the album was remastered and re-released last year. The Head and the Heart has toured relentlessly and opened for a number of notable acts, including Vampire Weekend, Dave Matthews, The Decemberists, Iron Wine and My Morning Jacket.
  Discography:
  • The Head and The Heart (2010)
  • The Head and the Heart (remastered) (2011)
  What people are saying about their latest album, The Head and the Heart
  • “Tracks like ‘Down in the Valley’ and single ‘Lost in My Mind’ are perfect examples of The Head and the Heart playing to their strengths. The remarkably nostalgic atmosphere both songs provide immediately tug on the listener’s heartstrings and threaten to soon be songs defining a rich, wealth of memories yet to happen. It’s entirely manipulative, truly: a perfectly gravelly vocalist sings “you’re already home where you feel love” over a distinct, poppy brand of indie-folk that has the power to appeal to fans of truer-to-form folk and silly radio indie-rock alike. It’s hard to go wrong. Surely they knew what they were doing - singing “I just wanna die with the one I love!” in three-part harmony over thumping percussion is a sure fire get-rich-quick scheme for any band in this class and so as long as you’re not Mumford & Sons and you actually mean what you’re singing, you’re going to win people over. The sincerity absent from much of their peers’ efforts is the vehicle that drives much of The Head and the Heart and it’s the band’s feel-good warmth that make any of these perfect-3rd harmonies and folky crescendos more than just good music theory.”
    But for every moment that The Head and the Heart breach the confines of tolerable twee, The Head and the Heart becomes a little less convincing. It’s this aforementioned blurry line that comes into focus every so often preventing the band’s nostalgic songwriting from being drop-dead brilliant. Until the band finds more than one lyrical subject matter and writes a song as good as ‘Cats and Dogs’ without dashing its chances with animal sounds, we’re left with a band still embracing the genre’s most bittersweet and common attribute: a touch too little head, a tad too much heart.”
    - Sputnik
    (Brilliant review, imo)
  • “[Their grassroots story] would be a remarkable story if the album were innovative or intriguing, if it offered some new take on Pacific Northwest folk-rock, if it had personality beyond its success. Instead, The Head and the Heart is a lackluster mélange of vaguely old-time instrumentation, wan gospel harmonies, and heart-always-on-sleeve songwriting. Jon Russell and Josiah Johnson trade off lead vocals, each trying to out-earnest the other, while Charity Thielen’s violin traces placid swirls around the melodies. But it’s Kenny Hensley’s piano that distinguishes the band and broadens their palette, for better or worse… he constantly falls back on the tactic of repeating chords to convey general drama, which recalls Coldplay more than Tin Pan Alley. The band’s name is intended to emphasize both emotion and intellect, yet so many of these songs fall flat in both aspects. They’re capable lyricists, although prone to lapses in judgement…nods to history and to hard labor are meant to give this album the sheen of authenticity, but it doesn’t take long to see through to the calculation beneath… without that group’s effortless harmonizing, easy melodicism, and demonstrative vocals, the Head and the Heart sound anonymous, their drama wholly predictable.”
    - Pitchfork
  Worth seeing? (IMHO)
  • The band described themselves as “shamelessly happy” in an interview, but it doesn’t sound genuine to me. I don’t know what it is—maybe I don’t like the indie folk-pop style. Maybe it’s that the harmonies are too familiar, the chords are too repetitive, or the melodies are too…predictable. The whole time I have this feeling that I’ve heard this somewhere else before. Overall, I think the reviews I posted above really hit the nail on the head. I mean, I don’t think the music is bad. Some of it’s catchy, namely ‘Lost in My Mind,’ their most popular song. But I don’t see anything special. But to give an alternate point of view, a friend stated that he “love[s] the campfire music feel to it—just so simple and catchy like a comfort food type feeling. Heard their live performance puts the album to shame as well so looking forward to that.” Listen below to form your own opinion.
  Select tracks from The Head and The Heart
  The Head and the Heart - Lost in My Mind (video)
  • I can’t help liking this one. The ‘hoo hoo hoos’ get me.
  The Head and The Heart - Cats and Dogs
  • I like this one. But it’s only 1:55. More ‘oo oo oos.’ And some ‘la la las’ that remind me of The Flaming Lips
  The Head and The Heart - Down in the Valley
  The Head and The Heart - Winter Song
  The Head and The Heart - Sounds Like Hallelujah
  • This song is melancholy enough to make it like it kind of.