Friday, April 27, 2007
Several major car accidents on the streets of Los Angeles this morning. Impatient and quick-tempered people from the Westside to the Eastside in the afternoon all while temperatures begin to rise to their normal melting points. This can only mean one thing.
It's Coachella weekend.
Seems Los Angeles is a little more anxious than usual for this weekend's festivites. Perhaps the addition of a Friday from its usual 2-day affair has made things a little more hectic but we're taking this one in stride... First, hit up up the Hotel Cafe for an early set from the one-and-only Holly Palmer (see later posting), then head out on to Pomona to catch what we can of Mr. Finn and the boys, then settle in at the polo grounds to see her royal highness sing to the desert moon. After we've had our fill of 115 degree sun and since we can't stand the fact that Goldenvoice couldn't pick a better local band than Jack's Mannequin (talk about a "you scratch my back, I scratch your back" booking), we'll be back for Mono at the Troubadour on Saturday... Those not interested in sunburns and dehydration, can still see Coachella acts The Walkmen (4/28), Arctic Monkeys (4/29), Travis (4/29), Rufus Wainwright (5/1), Teddybears (5/2), among others in much more mild conditions...
April residencies end with a flurry next week with crazy good lineups that you should not miss. And if you must miss, head to the basement of the Echo for Justice and Busy P's post-Coachella soire. By the way, this basement (aka The Echoplex, fka EX_PLX) is a massive 600-capacity room that not even that gigantic line that stretched to the Brite Spot last week for Klaxons could not fill. Best of all, it sounds pretty decent in there. Certain mid-sized venues (you know who you are) should be worried right about now. As for Klaxons, we were fairly impressed, but apparently not to the level of the hundreds that piled on each other for them last week. They are a good band on record and if you like the idea of Chemical Bros. doing remixes of The Clash then you've found your pot of gold, but we can pretty much guarantee if they were from Reseda instead of London everyone would have left after The Deadly Syndrome who clearly write better songs without the Brit pretense and the hour and a half changeover. In any case, we were back at the Echoplex for its official launch last night where four of L.A.'s finest played to an impressively filled room. But before heading down, by chance, we heard the unmistakable voice of a certain lady we once loved before through the doors of The Echo and sure enough Emma Burgess was doing a last-minute spot for Ms. Heather and Ms. Ashley's "Hell Ya" night. She's got a new band, some recent buzz, and thankfully an actual album to sell at shows, which we quickly snatched up in bulk... Good to see friends of The Ship (Let's Go Sailing, Castledoor) out to support their brethren at Echoplex downstairs. Castledoor and The Parson Red Heads played a free show the night before at the Three of Clubs. If those two are not the most feel-good bands of Los Angeles we don't know who are. And talk about feeling good, how about that show at Kevin's Pants/Tuesday night down at the Prospector with Amy Cooper and Frank Lenz? And dear Happy Hollows, you were too good on Monday. We are officially sweet on you.
Look at all those words we wrote. It must be Coachella fever.
Mono - "The Remains of the Day" (MP3)
Rufus Wainwright - "Not Ready to Love" (MP3)
Justice - "D.A.N.C.E" (Radio Edit) (MP3)
Bjork - "Earth Intruders" (watch it before it gets pulled)
Labels: coachella, we think you're hot
