"Round Up The Unusual Suspects": FYF posts lineup!

Labor Day Weekend in Los Angeles has been notable the last few years for the FYF Fest, but this could be the year that cements that notoriety nationwide.  Once again it will be held at the L.A. State Historic Park in Downtown L.A., and aside from the music, will hopefully help cast a shadow on the plight facing our State Parks.  Tickets start at an eminently reasonable $77 for the weekend pass.
The lineup was announced today on KCRW, and has been burning a hole in the internet ever since:

Amazing...and it really takes the sting out of missing Coachella this year. It looks like the placement right before MusicfestNW is very fortuitous-some nice fall out from there.
Oh where to begin: Refused, M83, and Beirut headlining...
Quicksand, Dinosaur Jr, and Black Mountain should take care of what's left of the eardrums...
Cloud Nothings, Wild Flag, and my beloved Vaselines are must sees...
The Desaparecidos reunion, Atlas Sound, Liars, and Father John Misty definitely on the hit list...
Warpaint, Papa, and White Arrows hold down the local front...
King Khan and the Shrines, Fucked Up, and Turbonegro are guaranteed entertainment...
Look forward to making the acquaintance of Ceremony, Moonface, Soft Pack, and Chairlift
Major beats on tap from Dam Funk and Aesop Rock...
just WOW!

Tickets go on sale this Friday, June 22 at 5pm via Ticketfly

Festival Fallout...

Having established that I am not (wahh!) going to Coachella this year, it's time to take stock of the consolation prize, that embarrassment of riches we shall call 'Festival Fallout'.  Proximity to festivals is definitely having an impact on my life-the recent Veronica Falls/Bleached show in LA came worked around their appearance at the Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco, not to mention upcoming shows like Cults, whose west coast run is tacked on after SXSW.

Weep not for me indeed, as even without attending Coachella, I won't have many breaths to spare.  Given the two weekend setup this year, there is a lot of loose time around, and nature abhors a vacuum.  The Santa Barbara County Bowl is opening its season with Radiohead, Florence & The Machine, and Bon Iver, all courtesy of Coachella.

Goldenvoice, who brings you Coachella, has put up their own schedule filling every nook and cranny of offtime with shows...absolutely insane.

While I am looking forward to getting back on the road to festivals, in the meantime, let's call it the next best thing to being there!

Coachella time...

Double-barrelled dose of news today...First up, the At The Drive In reunion via cryptic tweet:
( @AtTheDriveIn_: ¡ ATTENTION ! To whom it may concern: AT THE DRIVE-IN is breaking their 11 year silence THIS STATION IS NOW OPERATIONAL).

Managing to quickly co.opt it's place in the news cycle was The Announcement:  Coachella lineup for 2012!  It came about two weeks earlier than usual, no doubt saving much weeping, & wailing & gnashing of teeth.

This year's new twist, and there's one most every year, is that it will be held on consecutive weekends.  Hopefully the volcanoes will cooperate, and given the nature of artists, it will be interesting to see what the actual percentage of artists performing both weekends will be.  Should be interesting contracts involved.

Some might complain about repeat acts on the roster, the fitness of some headliners, but it seems to me that once again, the lineup is a testament to balance, and a whole lot of homework.  Sunday's reunion of At The Drive In should be an amazing way to close the weekend, unless one really feels compelled to preview Hip Hop's own 'Chinese Democracy', i.e. the Dr. Dre set.  The list does have more than a few repeat names, but they've come to be regarded as Coachella legacy acts, be it Cat Power, Andrew Bird, DJ Shadow, or the Black Keys, let alone Radiohead.  Just wouldn't seem the same without them.  It's underneath the headliners where Coachella always shines, and the money will be well spent this year.  Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Flying Lotus, Jeff Mangum, & Radiohead on the same day(s) anyone?  On the reunion tip, getting Squeeze, Refused, Hives, & fIREHOSE back together also qualify as achievements.

Buzzcocks, Madness, & Pulp head up the English legacy side, one can only imagine how much hair they shed collectively trying to get Blur...wonder if that would have toppled the dominoes for an Oasis reunion...Guess we'll save that one for next year...

Seeing if the hotly tipped artists actually live up to the hype, (Azealia Banks, Keep Shelly In Athens), as well as the chance to see long awaited new material (Santigold, Florence & The Machine, Fanfarlo).

It will be fun to watch the audience behold the power of Wild Flag, Fitz & The Tantrums, or The Black Lips live, most for the first time...More than a few lightbulbs will go off, I suspect.

What separates out Coachella from just about every other non rave festival is the depth & quality of their electronic acts...running the gamut from Justice to Amon Tobin...You can make a good weekend out of just the dance acts: Modeselektor, tUnEyArDs, Kaskade, Company Flow, Calvin Harris...it's quite a list.

Wonder how they'll deal with Mr. Mangum's 'no cameras' policy? Can't really put him in a tent, and how will his delicate songs deal w/other stages' noise pollution?  Or will the singing crowd drown out other stages?

So, due to that thing we call life, I won't be on patrol this year, but thanks to AT&T, they'll be streaming a good chunk of the action.  All in all, looks like festival season will get off to a good start.

Goodbye Fonda?!

Word passed heavy today about the fate of the Fonda MusicBox Theater, with rumor having it closing soon, if only temporarily. The picture became somewhat clearer, thanks to quick reportage from LA Weekly and the LA Times.

It took me years to deal with going all the way to LA for shows, (with day traffic a six hour round trip), but a crucial part of what turned the tide for me was the 1300 seat oasis on the corner of Hollywood and Gower.  Many a night I would hang out on the roof between sets, eyeballing the Capitol Records building, gazing up the street towards the Roosevelt. 

With proximity to Amoeba Records and Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles, it is/was the epicenter of my LA Bermuda Triangle, and will be very hard to replace.

Some favorite memories from the venue include: 

-the last LA show of Stereolab in 2008 

-a stunning Superchunk show done to a half filled house, not to mention a comet-like appearance from The Vaselines as openers

-a transcendent Beach House gig last February when the crowd became one, 

-the Gang of Four returning to LA for the first time in too many years

-an electric solo performance from the Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer, introduced by none other than Neil Gaiman. What little did we know that down the road they would be married!

Not to mention the ones that got away: 

-Nine Inch Nails did a spot as part of their 'Wave Goodbye' tour.  I never got close to getting tickets...

-Radiohead picked the Music Box to put on their relief benefit for Haiti.  I dropped out of the ticket bidding at $350, no harm done.  Still regret that! 

Got an email tonight from Goldenvoice, who are going ahead with putting tickets on sale for the Cults gig in March.  I'm sure they'll have a backup in place, but if anyone can help leverage out this mess, it would be GV, (who just celebrated their 30th anniversary).

One of the biggest unanswered questions will be the fate of the adjoining restaurant, The Blue Palms, which has managed to carve a fine little niche among craft beer lovers.

Hopefully new ownership will be kind in renovations and not destroy the loving recreations of Bosch's 'Garden Of Earthly Delights'.  It might be that that I miss the most...

it's alive...(coachella preamble)

...and lived to tell. Right now it's all a blur, but we will step through it piece by piece, a day at a time. Quick summation, 5th one i've been to, and while there have been better individual sets, pound for pound this was the best fest ever. Major shout.outs to Paul T & the Goldenvoice crew: your lineup agonizing paid off in spades, and lastly, not leastly: Jeff Cook & my peeps at the Best Western Date Tree Hotel for letting us be part of the family...Too much of our lives we spend wandering around like the freaks that we are, and to be accepted & embraced for our eccentricities is refreshing...go Date Tree.

Image recap: above, stage lights vs. sunset at the Outdoor Stage sunday night. Below: the Flaming Lotus Girls' installation: Serpent Mother, (at night!), and further below, at rest during the day...