Missing the Big 4 at Yankee Stadium Sucks!10 Experiences that Help Ease My Pain...

I'm devastated to be missing the Big 4 at Yankee Stadium today. But to be perfectly honest, only because I'm missing Anthrax.

I've been a die-hard New York Yankees fan for as long as I can remember, and Anthrax are my favorite metal band. No disrespect to Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica, but I saw them all at the Southern California Big 4 - their Bronx experience will likely be the same.

But missing out on the opportunity to stand on the same Yankee Stadium infield as Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriquez, Robinson Cano and Mark Texiera and revel in the performance of a band that I'm blessed to call friends? A band that are excited beyond words to play on the hallowed ground of a team they love as much as I do, and in the city they call home? That's the type of once in a lifetime opportunity I'm fairly certain I'll never have a chance to experience again.

Which got me to thinking: while I am missing out on this epic afternoon, I have had my share of chances to experience pop-culture history firsthand - here are ten of my favorites...

10. Yankees vs Braves, Game 4 of 1996 World Series
Since we're talking Yankee Stadium, I'll start with the Yankees, who played the Braves in the 1996 World Series. My Bronx Bombers lost the first two games of the series at home, then won Game 3 in Atlanta. I was in Atlanta and had tickets to Game 4, and it was ugly, New York trailing 6-0 after five innings. They had narrowed the margin to 6-3 when Jim Leyritz came to bat in the eighth inning facing Braves closer Mark Wohlers with two runners on - he took him deep, hitting a three-run homer to tie the game. The Yankees would go on to win 8-6 in extra innings, and win the Series in six. One of the most memorable long-balls in Yankee history, and I was there!

9. Lions vs Packers, 1994 NFC Wildcard game
Staying on the sports tip, I had a field pass for the 1994 NFC Wildcard game, where the Green Bay Packers hosted the Detroit Lions in the first found of the NFL playoffs on December 31, 1994. I worked for the Associated Press and was assigned to pre-game coverage in the parking lot - no small feat at Lambeau Field, one of the world's most sacred stadiums and host to some of greatest fans in sports. I needed to file my story and notes when the game started, which took most of the first half - I spent the rest of the game standing on the Green Bay sideline watching the Packers defense dominate the Lions, holding Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders to -1 yard, and the entire Detroit offense to -4 yards on the ground. Brett Favre ran out the clock by scrambling into his own end zone and giving up an intentional safety to seal the 16-12 Packers victory.

8. Anthrax, House of Blues Anaheim (October 27, 2004)
What was so special about this show? I'll tell you... Frank Bello had briefly left the band, and this tour featured Armored Saint's Joey Vera on bass for Anthrax. But here's where things get crazy - Frank joined Helmet, who also had a show in Anaheim, CA, this night. Helmet's show ended in time for Frank to attend the Anthrax show, and I sat in the front row of the balcony and watched Anthrax - sitting next to Frank Bello. How freaking surreal is that for a piece of Anthrax history that only about a half-dozen of us can share?

7. 2011 Sunset Strip Music Festival
I recently wrote a detailed review of this slice of history, which you can read here. In a nutshell? I experienced The Doors on Friday night at the legendary Whisky A Go Go, then saw Motley Crue headline the third annual street festival Saturday night, literally performing on the Sunset Strip. Two bands that made the Sunset Strip famous, back-to-back. It never happened before, and will likely never happen again.

6. VH1 Behind the Music - Megadeth
I'm no stranger to VH1, but there are a few appearances that stand out for me, including being a featured guest on The List and providing commentary for the Behind The Music on The Cult. But the appearance I'm most proud of? Being featured in the Megadeth Behind the Music. The band is in a dead heat with Anthrax as my favorite metal band, and this was an honor I will forever cherish. We did the interviews at the video shoot for "Motopsycho," and Dave Mustaine was apparently pretty nervous about what I'd say - I'd been a bit too honest about my feelings regarding the Risk album in Metal Edge, and he was worried those sentiments might roll over to the documentary. I'll never forget him coming up to me after reviewing the footage and thanking me for my support and friendship. He remains my favorite personality in metal, bar none.

5. Contributing to David Lee Roth's autobiography
From my favorite personality in metal, to my favorite personality in music - Diamond Dave! I reviewed his Crazy From The Heat autobiography for Metal Edge when it came out in 1998, and apparently Dave took a liking to what I wrote. I was sitting at my desk one morning (not early morning, trust me), and the phone rang - it was Eddie Anderson, David Lee Roth's right hand man. He said that David Lee Roth had a favor to ask (I still can't wrap my head around that, but those were his words!) - the man has been my muse for as long as I've known how to write a sentence, and he wanted to know if he could use part of my book review as the back cover of his softcover release. Ready for the kicker? Eddie proceeded to explain that Dave was not a fan of Metal Edge's history, but he was a fan of mine - would I mind if he just attributed the quote to me, and didn't acknowledge the magazine at all... I've had the pleasure of hanging with Dave many, many times - he even introduced me to John F. Kennedy Jr. - and as great as those memories are, nothing will top the honor of being immortalized on the back cover of his book.

4. Working with the original lineup of KISS
I grew up on KISS, and Alive II was the first record I ever bought. I'll never forget walking out of Caldors with the album... Who knew that someday I'd make KISStory? To the best of my knowledge, there's not another person on this planet that has interviewed all four original members of KISS, done a band photo shoot with all four original members, and photographed an entire live show featuring all four original members. I can literally write a book of my KISS experiences, and have the photos to document them all - who knows, maybe someday. An honor and a privilege that I don't take for granted.

3. Ozzy Osbourne plays me Under Cover
I've had countless bands play me their new music before it's been released (or even completed, for that matter), but never quite like this... I was invited to the Osbourne house to interview Ozzy in summer 2005, and when we were done with the interview he asked me if I wanted to hear some of the songs he mentioned while we were talking - uhm, hell yeah! Ozzy leads me into his study and proceeds to play me selections from the Under Cover album on his stereo, with stories and explanations of each. I had tears in my eyes as he played me John Lennon's "Woman" after explaining how he recorded it for Sharon... Yeah, I wiped tears from eyes in front of Ozzy - what's more metal than that? Ozzy fucking rules. Period.

2. Paul McCartney & Roger Waters at Coachella
These shows were the perfect storms. I was raised on oldies, not the Beatles, so I discovered the Fab Four late in life - but when I fell, I fell hard and fast (I swear I appreciate them more as a result). A friend asked me to see McCartney at the Staples Center with him several years ago, and I was an instant convert. The Beatles are my wife's favorite band, and I absorbed the inner depths of their catalog like a sponge. Being able to see McCartney headline Coachella in 2009 with my wife and some of our closest friends was a celebration I'll never forget and one of the greatest concert experiences of my life. Roger Waters headlined Coachella on his Dark Side of the Moon tour the following year, and that was a much more personal experience for me - Pink Floyd are one of my favorite bands of all-time, and the set was an epiphany. Practically a religious experience...

1. Pope Benedict XVI leading mass at the Vatican
Yes, I realize I just called Roger Waters a religious experience - but music means that much to me. My wife and I went to Italy for our honeymoon and our time in Rome coincided with a mass Pope Benedict was celebrating at St. Peter's Basilica on October 9, 2008, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Pope Pius XII's death. We didn't expect to be able to attend, but we wanted to try... We found ourselves in a Vatican line that we assumed was for sightseeing, and when we passed through security and got to the front they told us we couldn't go further unless we were attending the mass. We said we were - and it was really that simple! It was literally a religious experience - Pope Benedict passed within a few feet of us, and people reacted as you'd expect, but also as you could never imagine. Think of the biggest celebrity in the world - this was a hundred times that. This topped anything I've ever experienced in music.

Coachella 2012 expands to two weekends...What does this mean for the festival?

I discovered electronic music at Coachella.

I don't mean that's where I heard Prodigy for the first time - that happened a decade before my first Coachella. What I mean is, it was in the middle of a tent in Indio, twenty miles east of Palm Springs, CA, where I discovered that live music created on computers can be more engaging than live music created on instruments.

That doesn't mean it always is, it just means that it can be - and, like I said, I credit that to Coachella. Despite the fact that two of the single greatest shows I've ever seen were headliners on the festival's mainstage, the weekend has always been about the Sahara Tent for me - I'd often go there alone and listen to DJs for hours on end (few of my friends can even tolerate electronic music, let alone subject themselves to the alternative reality that is the farthest-reaching expanse of the Empire Polo Fields).

It was musical bliss for me, and Coachella offered the only opportunity all year for me to do it - my friends could watch whatever they wanted, I could watch whatever I wanted, and we could reconvene when the timing was right. That was the beautiful thing about Coachella - we could just meet under the light...

But we haven't gone to Coachella the past two years. I've blamed my lack of interest on the headliners, but truly it's because of the festival's evolution. They've transformed from an indie festival with a heavy emphasis on electronic music, to a mainstream festival trying to be everything for everybody.

Make no mistake, the marquee electronic talent is still there, but the crowds have evolved, and with that evolution an inability to truly enjoy everything that Coachella has to offer has emerged.

There has been a mainstream hip-hop headliner two years in a row. I live in Los Angeles, and I know the demographic that appeals to - it is the demographic that not only assures that the festival can essentially sellout of $300 weekend passes before a lineup is even announced, but also sell out of $600 VIP passes. It's the same principal that drives revenue at sporting events - give the common man the "afforable" option, but double, triple, quadruple (and then some) your money from the people that aren't afraid to spend it..

I'm not a scenester that lives for weekends of bottle service. Even if I could afford to pay $750 for a bottle of Grey Goose, I wouldn't on principal. But replacing the likes of Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against The Machine, Roger Waters and Paul McCartney with Kanye West and Jay-Z, means that you're not only asking me to pay $300 for a weekend pass (no more individual day tickets), you're also mandating that I rub elbows with a scene I am not a part of.

Does this sound too high school of me? If so, guilty as charged. Music isn't a spectator sport, and whether we can all admit to it or not, the fan experience deteriorates when it is watered down by rubber-necking.

Two years ago, the first year my friends and I didn't go, the universal sentiment was that over-crowding decimated the fan experience, and the festival suffered miserably for it. This year, Coachella went to great ends to mend those memories - to a large extent, it seems they succeeded. And next year, it seems they are going even further.

It was announced today that Coachella would be TWO weekends in 2012:

"We will attempt to produce two identical festival weekends. That means same lineup, same art, same place, different people," they said in an announcement.

This means that the festival expects to sell 150,000 weekend passes, as opposed to 75,000.

Electronic music is scaling unprecedented heights in America right now, and based on the Rave aspect alone Coachella should be able to sell-out two weekends - I imagine a decent number of fans will even do both, book-ending a week's vacation with six nights of ecstacy. The real question is, what will this mean for the lineup?

Given that America is finally being exposed to the universal appeal of electronic music - and knowing that the rave scene is enough to carry a good portion of ticket sales - might we see a return to the more indie-minded roots of the festival's past? Or could this two-weekend format result in even more mainstreamed headliners?

What do you think today's announcement means for Coachella?

ALBUM REVIEW: Foster The People 'Torches'

I didn't want to like Foster The People.

In fact, the first time I heard "Pumped Up Kicks" I was a little bit insulted. I thought I was listening to a poor man's MGMT - where was the depth? The soul? The texture? All that said, the song's loopy swagger was infectious and, before long, I wasn't changing the station when it came on in the car. But I still knew I'd hate the band. How could I not? It was paint-by-numbers Coachella with minimal substance and even less style. Chumbawamba for hipsters.

So when Torches arrived in my mailbox with its Where The Wild Things Are album cover and completely uninspired CD booklet (black lyrics on white paper - and people wonder why nobody buys CDs anymore), I was all geared up for a groaner...

Then the electro-fuzz opening of "Helena Beat" kicked the album off, swashing into falsetto vocals talking about life taking you by the hair, pulling you down, and leaving you dead again... Huh? I can relate to that - who can't? I keep listening...

You know those days, when you want to just choose
To not get out of bed, you're lost in your head again
You play the game but you kind of cut
'Cause you're coming down hard and your joints are all stuck

(Just like Chumbawamba, Foster The People get knocked down and they get up again...)

By now my psyche is not only calloused to "Pumped Up Kicks," I actually kind of like the song. It hearkens back to John Mayer's "No Such Thing" - musically light and fruity on the outside, but lyrically meaty in the middle. Mayer's pop ditty had him running through the halls of his high school, screaming at the top of his lungs because he just found out that the real world is a lie he's got to rise above. Foster's tale is one where all the kids with the pumped up kicks better run, faster than the bullet from our cowboy's gun.

That depth I was looking for? Found it - and there's texture, too. "Call It What You Want" and "Don't Stop (Color On The Walls)" bump and bounce like lo-fi Black Eyed Peas (that's a good thing), and "Waste" expands on the colors in the Cut Copy palette. "Houdini" oozes soul, seeping into the 'call me Al' spirit of "Life On The Nickel" and beyond the vibrant, post-modern quirkiness of "Miss You." Foster The People flirt with a disco dynamic on "I Would Do Anything For You," then marry Animal Collective's psychedelic romp with solid gold pop on "Warrant."

And less than 40 minutes after it starts, the voyage is over - the saving grace is, we only have to hit Play to take the journey all over again... and again, and again, and again. Torches is small-town charm amidst big city bustle. It's not reinventing the wheel, it's just greasing it up really well and making it spin a lot smoother. It spins like a kaleidoscope. Vibrant. Inspired. Refreshing.

Torches offers just what the name suggests - an album of bright lights and buoyant beats to guide us through the dark of day.

Like I said, I knew from the moment I heard "Pumped Up Kicks" that I'd love Foster The People!

If Torches isn't my album of the year, I can't wait to hear what is...

Grammy Award Muse-ings: East Coast bias, Mumford & Sons shine, Cee Lo Green glows, Arcade Fire ignite, Ma-GaGa-donna & more

First of all, the pink elephant in the room - the music industry is anchored in Los Angeles. The Grammy Awards are held in Los Angeles. The notable parties are all in Los Angeles.

Why aren't the Grammy Awards televised live in Los Angeles?

The obvious answer I come up with is that they're hoping most of the industry won't watch them, that way they can't question why the awards show was opened with a stale tribute to a living legend that would have been better-suited for later in the telecast.

No disrespect to Aretha Franklin, but Cee Lo Green should have opened the show.

Or Justin Bieber, but God-forbid they do that and risk all the kids going to bed, then mom and dad turning on anything more entertaining. (For the record, there was nothing else on. My father-in-law called at 11pm EST and said he was watching - not because he particularly cared, but because he was out of options.)

That Cee Lo Green performance was everything that an opening act should be - dynamic, fun, original and relevant. Muppets! How awesome was that? You know what was just as awesome? The song - just further proving the argument I waged on my Facebook page a few weeks ago, that a great song becomes little more than a novelty when it's hanging its marketing shingle on an f-bomb.

The song is already great, and didn't miss a beat being delivered as "Forget You" - calling it "Fuck You" is nothing more than a cheap and completely unnecessary gimmick that panders to the lowest common denominator.

Speaking of turn-offs, I've loved Lady Gaga from day one - so early on, that people laughed at me when I told them she should be huge. That said, she's only one album in and I already fear her career trajectory could be where Marilyn Manson was after Mechanical Animals. That's how accelerated culture is today, and I fear she's already losing sight of the smaller picture as she jumps the Jaws tank in an effort to express herself.

You're only as good as your current hit, and the groundwork is already being laid for her next one, with the Hollywood Reporter reporting today that Gaga's producer RedOne boasts that the next single "is going to shock" - you mean, as opposed to suck?

"Born This Way" doesn't suck, but it's far from great - and a great way to have buried the song's Madonna comparisons would have been to be joined by the material girl onstage last night. Which obviously didn't happen. In a world where there is no such thing as accidental press, the fact that they're already setting up song No. 2 speaks volumes...

The big winner last night was Mumford & Sons (pictured above). They were in a league all their own, playing with an honesty and spirit that was effervescent. They're going to steal the show at Coachella this year - a 60,000 person sing-along will provide the type of magic that sells the festival out in three days despite a lackluster lineup.

Muse were my other favorite from the night - they managed to translate a big rock show (with obvious nods to Pink Floyd and Queensryche) onto the small screen, making it not only believable, but (here's that word again) relevant.

I wish Bob Dylan was remotely relevant. He came across as old as he sounded. Barbra Streisand sounded great, but how many people cared? Part of the problem NARAS are now facing is that they are trying to spread themselves too thin. Aretha tribute. Bieber performance. Yes, it's an overview of where we are, but it really wasn't tied together well at all. A shred of cohesion could do wonders.

John Mayer, Norah Jones and Keith Urban performing Dolly Parton was great - but where was Dolly Parton? I feel like that fell as flat as John Mayer wasting an opportunity to ad lib and stating he'd stick to the teleprompter...

What makes Mayer such a star - aside from his musical talent - is the fact that he is smart enough to manipulate pop culture to fit his personality. Problem is, he's been snakebit since calling Jessica Simpson sexual napalm, and now he comes across as afraid to open his mouth.

Nobody else worries about opening their mouth, why the double standard?

I had to hide from Twitter and Facebook all day yesterday to avoid the barrage of people announcing winners and spoiling the surprise before we on the West Coast had a chance to see the action, at least make it worth my while to watch!

Arcade Fire would have been a nice surprise - if it was a surprise. As for their show, their punk bravado reminds me a lot of Sonic Youth. And the strobe lights ever-present through their performances reminded me of Motley Crue when they reunited on television what seems like eons ago. We listen with our eyes as much as our ears - don't underestimate how important those strobes were...

Did Arcade Fire really deliver the best album of the past year? Does it really matter? The Grammy Awards got what they wanted - indie cred... Despite the disarray that ensued with their botched Arcade Fire/Barbara Streisand/Kris Kristofferson ending.

Ouch.

One final note, to the publicity company that sent out press releases immediately after the live broadcast aired announcing all the winners - really? You get paid in the ballpark of $5,000/month to work your A-list clients, but you can't stay up until the West Coast feed ends to send out a one-line release announcing that said band won a Grammy, and it was their first?

You couldn't even give us a quote from the band? Nothing but a buzzkill, that's all that press release was... NARAS, meanwhile, doesn't even know how to create a buzz - they kept announcing that people won earlier in the night, but they never went so far as to even scroll the winners that weren't televised.

When NARAS doesn't even think their own awards are important enough to announce, how seriously are we supposed to take them?

About as seriously as Cee Lo Green, I guess.

Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth & Anthrax...Big 4 announce single North American date

What do heavy metal and the movie Pretty Woman have in common?

The Empire Polo Fields, about 120 miles east of Los Angeles in Indio, CA, will be home to key moments in both.

It was announced this morning that the much-heralded live reunion of metal's Big 4 - Metallica, Slayer, Megedeth and Anthrax - will follow last summer's seven-date stretch of European festivals with a single North American concert event to be held April 23, 2011, at the site of Coachella's annual three-day weekend.

Last year's European dates were commemorated with the November 2 release of The Big 4: Live from Sofia, Bulgaria, a DVD package that, in the ten weeks since its release, has been certified double-platinum in nearly every country where it is available.

It will be a busy month of April at the Empire Polo Fields, which will be hosting the 12th annual Coachella festival the weekend before the Big 4 invade, and the fifth annual Stagecoach country music festival the weekend after. For metal fans that also appreciate a good romantic comedy, the polo fields were also featured in the Julia Roberts blockbuster Pretty Woman - yes, it was there that Jason Alexander's character found out Roberts was a hooker!

From glow sticks to mosh pits to cow chips - promoters Goldenvoice know a thing or two about diversity.

Tickets for the all-day event - which will feature full-length sets from Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax - go on-sale Friday, January 28 at 10:00 AM (PT) through Ticketmaster.com, and by phone at 1-800-745-3000. Ticket prices are $99.00 for general admission and $199.00 for VIP.

Round-trip shuttle service will be available from Southern California locations including Carson, downtown Los Angeles, Pasadena, Ontario, Riverside, Anaheim, Irvine and San Diego, with prices ranging from $40.00-$65.00.

Complete details can be found at the Big 4 Festival website.

Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire, Kanye West and The Strokes to headline 2011 Coachella Festival

Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire, Kanye West and the Strokes will headline the 12th annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, to be held April 15-17 at the Empire Polo Field, in Indio, CA.

While the lineup is light on surprises - the biggest may be the absence of long-rumored headliners Daft Punk - the roster reads like a who's who of the modern indie rock scene.

Highlights include Duran Duran, Animal Collective, the Black Keys, Big Audio Dynamite, Cee Lo Green, Cage the Elephant, Killers frontman Brandon Flowers, Empire of the Sun, Mumford & Sons, Scissor Sisters, Gogol Bordello, and former Fugees frontwoman Lauren Hill.

For fans of the festival's Sahara Tent, DJs and electronic acts include the Chemical Brothers, Leftfield, Paul van Dyk, Sasha, Chromeo, Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77 and Cut Copy.

The complete Coachella 2011 lineup (as of January 18, 2011):

!!!, 12th Planet, Afrojack, Alf Alpha, Andy C, Angus and Julia Stone, Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, A-Trak, Axwell, Beardyman, Best Coast, Big Audio Dynamite, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77, Bomba Estereo, Boys Noize, Brandon Flowers, Brandt Brauer Frick, Breakage, Bright Eyes, Broken Social Scene, Cage the Elephant, Caifanes, Caspa, Cee Lo Green, Chromeo, Chuckie, City and Colour, Clare Maguire, Cold Cave, Cold War Kids, Crystal Castles, CSS, Cults, Cut Copy, Daedelus, Death From Above 1979, Delorean, Delta Sprirt, DJ Hype, DJ Kentaro, DJ Marky, DJ Zinc, Duck Sauce, Duran Duran, EE, Elbow, Electric Touch, Eliza Doolittle, Ellie Goulding, Emicida, Empire of the Sun, Erick Morillo, Erykah Badu, Excision, Fat Freddy's Drop, Fedde Le Grand, Fistful of Mercy, Flogging Molly, Foals, Foster the People, Francis and the Lights, Freelance Whales, fun., G.Q., Gayngs, Glasser, Gogol Bordello, Good Old War, Gord Downie, Goth Trad, Green Velvet, Gypsy and the Cat, HEALTH, Here We Go Magic, High Contrast, Hurts, Interpol, Jack Beats, Jack's Mannequin, Jakes, Jenny and Johnny, Jimmy Eat World, Joachim Garraud, Joy Orbison, Kanye West, Kele, Kings of Leon, Klaxons, Kode9, Kyle Hall, Laidback Luke, Leftfield, Lightning Bolt, Lil' B, Lorn, Los Bunkers, Magnetic Man, Mariachi El Bronx, Marina and the Diamonds, Mary Anne Hobbs, MEN, Menomena, Monarchy, Mount Kimbie, Moving Units, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Mumford & Sons, Nas & Damian Marley, Neon Trees, New Pants, Nosaj Thing, OFF!, OFWGKTA, Omar Rodriguez Lopez, One Day as a Lion, Ozomatli, Paul van Dyk, Phantogram, Phosphorescent, PJ Harvey, Plan B, Ramadanman, Raphael Saadiq, Ras G, Ratatat, Riva Starr, Robyn, Roska, Rye Rye, Sander Kleinenberg, Sasha, SBTRKT, Scala & Kolacny Bros., Scissor Sisters, She Wants Revenge, Shpongle, Skrillex, Sleigh Bells, Steve Angello, Sven Vath, Take, Tame Impala, Terror Danjah, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, The Aquabats, The Black Keys, The Chemical Brothers, The Drums, The Felice Brothers, The Henry Clay People, The Joy Formidable, The Kills, The London Suede, The Love Language, The Morning Benders, The National, The New Pornographers, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Presets, The Radio Dept., The Rural Alberta Advantage, The Strokes, The Swell Season, The Tallest Man on Earth, The Twelves, Thunderball, Tinie Tempah, Titus Andronicus, Tokimonsta, Trampled by Turtles, Trentemoller, Twin Shadow, Two Door Cinema Club, Warpaint, Wire, Wiz Khalifa, Yacht, Yelle and Zed Bias.

Three-day weekend passes, along with camping passes, go on sale Friday, January 21, at 10:00 AM (PT) through Ticketmaster.com, by phone at 1-800-745-3000, and at www.coachella.com.

LINKS
Coachella 2010
Coachella 2009
Coachella 2008 review
Coachella 2007 review

Beyonce joins Jay-Z onstage at Coachella

Beyonce joined Coachella's opening night headliner Jay-Z for a fireworks-filled run through the hit single "Young Forever" - a clip that is sure to make many of this year's festival highlight reels. But the first-day footage I'm most sorry I missed by skipping this year's annual desert exodus? Deadmau5 closing out the late-night dance party in the Sahara Tent. Saturday's mainstage triple-billing of Faith No More, Muse and Tiesto almost led me to drive down for the day, but I'm smarter than that - Faith No More will be back in a better setting (maybe the Wiltern?), Muse will be epic (but not worth the headache), and Tiesto would no doubt disappoint me anyway. Hopefully next year's lineup will be more inspiring...

Jay-Z, Muse, Gorillaz to headline Coachella

Jay-Z, Muse and Gorillaz will headline the 11th Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, which will be held April 16-18 in Indio, CA.

In addition to the three headliners, other highlights among the 130 acts scheduled to perform over the three-day festival include the recently reunited Faith No More and Pavement, MGMT, Them Crooked Vultures, Vampire Weekend, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke in a solo performance, Orbital and Phoenix, electronic acts Tiesto, LCD Soundsystem, Deadmau5, Benny Benassi and David Guetta, and veteran acts Public Image Limited, Sly and the Family Stone, Devo, Gary Numan, Echo and the Bunnymen and De La Soul.

To continue reading, and for daily lineups, please click here.

Paul Gargano is the National Music Examiner for eXaminer.com.
Click here to visit his Examiner homepage.

COACHELLA SET FOR APRIL 16-18 Rumors include Stones, Muse, Faith No More...

Let the lineup speculation begin - the tenth annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival will be held April 16-18, 2010.

While concert promoters Goldenvoice haven't announced any acts for the eleventh incarnation of America's most acclaimed music festival, they have confirmed the Coachella weekend and have officially begun selling pre-sale ticket packages, including layaway plans. Visit www.coachella.com for details.

Though nobody has been officially confirmed for the three-day festival - which will be held on the same weekend as last year, which included headliners Paul McCartney, The Cure and The Killers - many artists have already started talking about their plans.

My wish list? FAITH NO MORE and DAFT PUNK headlining Friday night, an improbable TALKING HEADS reunion followed by FATBOY SLIM on Saturday night (Heads frontman David Byrne and Fatboy Slim joined forces for Here Lies Love, a collaboration to be released Feb. 23), and DAVID BOWIE sending us all home happy with Sunday evening's closing set. I know that's not going to happen, but let a man dream...

To continue reading, please click here.

Paul Gargano is the National Music Examiner for eXaminer.com.
Click here to visit his Examiner homepage.

COMMENTARY: Morrissey live in Los Angeles

I'm admittedly not the biggest Morrissey fan in the world - indifferent would be an appropriate word. I've always appreciated the Smiths more than his solo material, and have been to three shows before, all of which I've left partially through (early '90s in Milwaukee, about 10 years ago in New York, and Coachella last spring) - those factors considered, I thoroughly enjoyed his set last night, and left the Gibson Amphitheatre with a new appreciation for the man, the myth and the legend that is Moz.

A number of fans commented afterwords that it was one of his weaker shows that they've seen. Without the frame of reference of a couple dozen (literally) shows, I was impressed with what I saw. Let's face it, you can't hide from the headlines, and my opinion heading in had been shaped by his most recent escapades, from his "I smell burning flesh" tantrum at Coachella, to walking offstage after getting hit by a cup, etc. He's got a reputation for being a diva, and there's definitely a trainwreck appeal that - as a casual listener, not a devoted fan - you can't quite escape.

But not in Los Angeles last night...

To continue reading, please click here.

Paul Gargano is the National Music Examiner for eXaminer.com.
Click here to visit his Examiner homepage.

M.I.A. Added to Coachella Lineup

Sri Lankan firecracker M.I.A. has officially been added to this year's Coachella lineup, and is scheduled to perform in the headlining slot vacated when troubled soul singer Amy Winehouse canceled earlier this month.

This will be M.I.A.'s third appearance at Coachella. Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam - her easier-on-the-tongue acronym is pronounced like the letters and is short for both “Missing in Action” and “Missing in Acton,” a reference to both her politically tumultuous youth (her father is militant activist Arul Pragasam), and the neighborhood in London where she was born - debuted at the festival in 2005, in the more intimate and world flavored Gobi Tent. Last year's set in the Sahara Tent, the largest of the festival's covered stages, was the biggest crowd the far corner of the festival has seen since Madonna's appearance in 2006.

At this year's festival, M.I.A. will precede The Killers as Saturday night's mainstage headliners. Her 2007 XL Recordings/Interscope Records release Kala is approaching gold sales, and has led to two Grammy nominations. The British vocalist, producer, songwriter and artist was also nominated for an Academy Award for the song "O... Saya," one of her contributions to the score of the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire.

Winehouse was forced to cancel her festival appearance when an assault charge filed earlier this month made it highly improbable, if not impossible, for her to be granted a work visa. It would have been Winehouse's second Coachella performance. "Amy Winehouse is too big for a tent now," Coachella founder Paul Tollett told NME when this year's initial lineup was announced.

The same can be said of her replacement. While M.I.A. doesn't hold the trainwreck sideshow appeal of Winehouse, few could argue that she's not the better talent of the two.

Official Coachella Website

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M.I.A. Official Website

Click here for an archived preview of Coachella 2008.

Click here for an archived review of Coachella 2008.

Click here for an archived review of Coachella 2007.

ARCHIVE: Live Review Links

Alphabetized list of links to select concert reviews archived online:

Arlo Guthrie (Nov '05) The Hollywood Reporter

Be Your Own Pet (Jun '06) The Hollywood Reporter

Bob Seger (Mar '07) liveDaily

Bon Jovi (Apr '08) The Hollywood Reporter

Buckcherry/Nonpoint (Jun '06) The Hollywood Reporter

Cheap Trick (Nov '06) liveDaily

Coachella (May '08) ARTISTdirect

Coachella (May '07) liveDaily

Dave Matthews Band (Aug '06) The Hollywood Reporter

George Michael (Jun '08) ARTISTdirect

Goo Goo Dolls (May '06) The Hollywood Reporter

Guns 'N Roses (Sep '06) The Hollywood Reporter

Guns 'N Roses (Dec '06) liveDaily

Heaven and Hell (Apr '07) liveDaily

Iron Maiden (Feb '08) ARTISTdirect

Iron Maiden (Oct '06) Reuters

James Blunt (Sep '07) ARTISTdirect

Joan Jett (Nov '06) liveDaily

John Mayer (Jun '07) liveDaily

John Mayer (Sep '06) The Hollywood Reporter

Justin Timberlake (Jan '07) Reuters

Kelly Clarkson (Aug '06) The Hollywood Reporter

KROQ Weenie Roast (May '08) Reuters

Linkin Park (Mar '08) Reuters

Massive Attack (Sep '06) The Hollywood Reporter

Mayhem Tour (Jul '08) The Hollywood Reporter

Metallica (Oct '08) The Hollywood Reporter

My Chemical Romance (Oct '06) Reuters

Neil Young (Oct '07) Reuters

New Found Glory (Oct '06) liveDaily

OZZfest (Jul '06) The Hollywood Reporter

Poison (Aug '07) liveDaily

Rod Stewart (Mar '07) liveDaily

Roger Waters (Jun '07) liveDaily

Rush (Jul '07) liveDaily

Sevendust (Feb '06) Reuters

Shooter Jennings (Dec '06) The Hollywood Reporter

Steely Dan (Jul '06) liveDaily

Stereolab (Mar '06) The Hollywood Reporter

Stevie Nicks (May '07) liveDaily

Stone Temple Pilots (Jun '08) ARTISTdirect

Suicidal Tendencies (Oct '05) The Hollywood Reporter

Ted Nugent (Jun '08) ARTISTdirect

The Beatles "Love" (Nov '06) liveDaily

Tony Bennett (Aug '07) liveDaily

Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Dec '06) liveDaily

Type O Negative (Apr '07) liveDaily

Paul McCartney, The Killers and The Cure to headline 2009 Coachella Festival

Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival
April 17-19, 2009

The lineup for this year's Coachella (as of 1/30) is as follows:

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, Los Campesinos!,
Alberta Cross, 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, Mastodon, TRAV$DJ-AM,
Michael Franti & Spearhead, Atmosphere, 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, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti,
Ida Maria, 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, Public Enemy,
Antony & the Johnsons, Roni Size, Jenny Lewis, Groove Armada,
Paolo Nutini, Christopher Lawrence, Lykke Li, Okkervil River,
The Kills, 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.

Official Coachella Website

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Click here for an archived preview of Coachella 2008.

Click here for an archived review of Coachella 2008.

Click here for an archived review of Coachella 2007.