This year marked my sixth time at the glorious musical mélange known as COACHELLA. Per usual, the festival did not disappoint. I have come to realize that even if there were a less than stellar line-up, this weekend always turns out to be one of the best of the year. This year’s line-up happened to be amazing and I could not contain my excitement. For those who have never been to the festival, there are several different types of accommodations from hotels to camping to vacation rentals. I have done all three and I have to recommend renting a house above all else. It provides certain creature comforts that are unachievable otherwise and can be very economical if you pack in the amigos (without sacrificing comfort). Anyhoos, any festival goer this year was sure to notice the influx of electronic acts on the queue. Unfortunately there is still not enough original content among these artists to avoid duplications. I did not see every electronic act but I still heard various versions of SHM’s “Save the World” five times over the course of the weekend. I think over time, more original content will be created to avoid hearing the same song five times at a festival but it will take some time. However, this could be the impending doom of electronic music, too many DJs doing remixes and not creating enough original content that the new EDM genre will die out like “Electronica” did in the late 90′s and early 00′s. I am anxious to see how it plays out.
I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend regardless as there were several non-electronics acts if you had overloaded and needed a change of soundery. Friday started out with a portion of Yuck’s set. I love their sound which can be described as a fusion of Dinosaur Jr., Built to Spill and Sonic Youth. Check out their song “Yuck.”
My top three acts for the weekend were
#1 Miike Snow
Could have been the fact that I was ten feet back from the stage but these guys blew my mind. Their sound is so original and so fresh, something that doesn’t follow any popular music format. The band was formed in 2007 by producing duo Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, who have worked with several artists under the moniker Bloodshy and Avant, and Andrew Wyatt. Their new CD Happy for You has some great tracks including my personal fav Paddling Out
#2 Radiohead
They never cease to impress after almost 30 years together (they formed in 1985). If you have not seen one of their performances, it needs to be on your bucket list. Their creativity and musicianship is unparalleled by any other band on the planet. Nothing I can say in this review can recreate the aesthetics of their performance which include close up, chopped shots of the band members and magical colors sprawled across several moving screens that constantly morphs throughout their performance. Their catalog is so deep that they never play the same set twice.
#3 Avicii
I have a lot of respect for this young man. Not only is he one of the leading pioneers of the Progressive house genre at the ripe old age of 22, he has already donated $1,000,000 to the Feeding America charity using the proceeds from his House for Hunger tour. I have seen him once before at the Music Box in LA in July 2011 and he blew my mind so I had high expectations for his set. He did not disappoint. It was unfortunate for him that he was pitted against one of the most anticipated acts of the weekend, Snoop and Dre, but it made for some epic dance space in the Sahara tonight which was ass to ankles all weekend. He was playing a “live” set, which apparently meant he was playing live tracks through Traktor. I’m still not exactly sure how that is considered “live” compared to playing with tables but it sounded amazing none-the-less. He played from the top of a massive face that had some provided some pretty crazy visuals. 
All in all it was an amazing weekend and extremely hard to narrow down to a top three. If you have not been yet, make sure you do. Until next time..
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