| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Carl |
Posted - 01/22/2007 : 08:57:58
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-et-coachella22jan22,1,6747076.story?coll=la-headlines-entnews&ctrack=1&cset=true
Rage Against the Machine will reunite for Coachella
Red Hot Chili Peppers and Björk also top the bill for the three-day music festival.
By Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writer
January 22, 2007
Rage Against the Machine, the seminal L.A. band that made heavy music into political manifesto, will reunite after a seven-year lull for one show as the headliners at the 2007 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Sources say Rage, which played the main stage at the first Coachella in 1999, will be joined by other familiar faces for the eighth edition of the festival, which covers three days this year and begins April 27: Red Hot Chili Peppers, which headlined in 2003, are back, as is Björk, who topped the bill in 2002.
Organizers were mum this weekend and it was not clear which day Rage or the other acts were slotted to play; that announcement is expected in the next few days. Other acts expected in the eclectic lineup: Arcade Fire, Interpol, Willie Nelson, the Roots, Manu Chao, the Decemberists, Arctic Monkeys, Sonic Youth, Crowded House, Air, Tiësto and Kings of Leon.
Tickets go on sale Saturday, via Ticketmaster. Three-day passes will cost about $250 and there will be a limited number of single-day passes available.
The headliners are not novel, but they are potent. The Peppers are up for their first best album Grammy right now, and Björk remains a mesmerizing figure to fans of avant pop. But in Southern California rock circles, there is very little that could compete with the excitement of a Rage Against the Machine reunion. The quartet's hybrid of funk, rap, metal and leftist ideology was as subtle as a Molotov cocktail; in the 1990s, its aggro-anthems made it the only band that mattered to a fan base that included East L.A. protest kids as well as those in Hollywood punk circles, college dorms and mainstream rock festival mosh pits, where politics were secondary to the group's feral energy.
The band is vocalist Zack de la Rocha, guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk. Their split came amid rumors of bad blood between De la Rocha and his mates, who went on to work with Chris Cornell in Audioslave. However, Morello and De la Rocha appeared together at a 2005 rally for the urban farmers of a South Los Angeles community garden.
geoff.boucher@latimes.com
Frontman |
| 26 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Carl |
Posted - 04/25/2007 : 10:08:50
Coachella '07 details:
http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070425/LIFESTYLES01/704250303/1050
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article1642183.ece
From The Sunday Times
April 15, 2007
Bands reunited
At least the Police waited 21 years, but most groups seem to reform as soon as they’ve split. What do they miss most, asks Mark Edwards, their mates, the music or the money?
We can probably pencil in the Beautiful South reunion for sometime in 2014 — maybe even as early as 2013. The band have just broken up, so that would give them a six- or seven-year gap before their reunion, which seems to be about the going rate these days. Among the bands who have announced that they’re burying the hatchets and getting back together again this year are James (who broke up six years ago), Smashing Pumpkins (seven years ago) and Rage Against the Machine (also seven).
Given that some bands take six or seven years to make a new album or get back on the road anyway, it scarcely seems worth the bother of James actually breaking up in the first place. You can just imagine Sting and Stewart Copeland sitting back in their leather armchairs in some exclusive rock-stars’ club exclaiming with disgust: “Seven years? Call that musical differences? Pah! Kids today!”
When Sting, Copeland and Andy Summers went their separate ways 21 years ago, that was a proper break-up — Copeland cracked one of Sting’s ribs in a fight on their 1983 American tour. And given that we’ve had to wait nearly a quarter of a century to see them again, the Police’s new world tour is by far the most high-profile reunion of the year.
Things have certainly changed. There was a time when if a band broke up, it stayed broken up — or, at the very least, the members remained apart long enough for their fans to grow up, have kids and a mortgage, and reach that age when they could be genuinely nostalgic for their youth and genuinely excited about a reunion of their old heroes.
Bands breaking up and band members never wanting to have anything to do with each other again are the natural order of things, because bands are inherently unstable. They echo the John Cleese/Ronnie Barker/Ronnie Corbett sketch about the inequalities of the class system. In the rock-band version, Cleese would step forward and announce: “I am the singer. I also write the songs. So I make much more money than the rest of the band, and everyone wants to sleep with me. So I look down on them.” Barker would step forward: “I am the guitarist. Sometimes I get to co-write a B-side, and when I play a solo, everyone looks at me. So I look up to the singer, but I look down on him.” Corbett: “I’m the drummer. I know my place.”
Songwriting talent plays havoc with this already combustible chemistry. Copeland, the drummer, thought of the Police as his band until it turned out that Sting could write glo-bal hits in his sleep. The current successful Take That reunion could only happen once Gary Barlow accepted that he could no longer hog the songwriting credits. Barlow must have had to swallow a lot of pride to do that, just as Copeland must be gagging on humble pie when he says things like “I just want to play my drums and follow Sting’s lead” in press conferences these days.
So why do musicians increasingly want to get back together with the bandmates they used to hate? The obvious answer is “for the money”, and in many cases this may be true, but it can’t be the whole answer. Even with three homes to maintain in three countries, Sting is never going to run out of money. As long as Every Breath You Take remains a radio staple, he never has to pick up his bass or his lute again.
One fact that undoubtedly prompts band reunions is the realisation that life is short, not to mention unpredictable. Presumably, Neil Finn always had it in the back of his mind that he might get Crowded House back together some day; but perhaps the suicide of the band’s drummer, Paul Hester, reminded him that “some day” doesn’t always come around and prompted the decision to make a new Crowded House album this year.
Another reason why bands choose to get back together was highlighted by Duran Duran’s John Taylor when the original lineup reconvened in 2001. “There are difficult bastards everywhere in life,” he pointed out. “So why not stick with the ones you know?” He’s right. You’re never going to find a perfect band, so why not work round the imperfections you’re already familiar with?
The other Pixies know exactly what Frank Black is like — he broke up the band by fax — so they can work round such limitations with good manners and basic decency. Black is, anyway, a little older and wiser now. When I interviewed the band following their decision to regroup, I was disconcerted by Black’s habit of leaving long silences after my questions. He just sat there staring at me. I assumed that he was registering contempt for my interviewing abilities. It was only afterwards that he took me to one side to apologise and explain: he was just desperate to let the other band members answer the questions first, so that they wouldn’t think he was dominating proceedings.
But even if you can’t stand to be on the same stage for a second, that needn’t get in the way of a reunion — or a sort-of-reunion. Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler have reformed, without Paul Weller, as From the Jam. Despite the absence of the lead singer and songwriter, From the Jam have already sold out one 20-date tour, and announced a second. Not pubs, either. They’ll be playing the Forum this winter.
Weller might as well join in. He doesn’t have to pretend to like Foxton and Buckler. Very few of the bands that have reformed recently have bothered to pretend that they actually get on. They can’t even be bothered to refute the idea that they’re together again because they know the old band name — or should that be brand name — sells tickets. Admittedly, Sting had a go at suggesting that the Police reunion would be a “healing” process, but we all suspect that Copeland and Summers would have rolled their eyes at that if they hadn’t spent the past few months practising their matey smiles and working on their hugging muscles. How much better to take the approach of the Eagles, who began the trend for reunions with the frankly named Hell Freezes Over tour, just to remind everyone that the hatred in the band was so great that they had declared they would never get together again until that exact phenomenon occurred.
Similarly, the Jesus and Mary Chain, who are reforming to play the Coachella festival this year, have made it clear that brothers William and Jim Reid still don’t get on with each other. And Van Halen — who have put together three-quarters of their classic lineup for a summer tour — don’t just admit the intra-band tensions, they revel in them. Singer David Lee Roth made a potent point about the appeal of band reunions when he likened them to stock-carracing. “Are you coming to see the winner,” he asked, “or the crash?”
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-reunions_0422gl.ART.State.Bulldog.432ec8c.html
Why are all these bands touring again?
05:14 PM CDT on Tuesday, April 24, 2007
By BEN RATLIFF / New York Times News Service
Was that a queasy feeling you had recently, when you authorized payment on a $300 ticket for this summer's Police reunion concert? What about that weird web of logic that made $249 for a three-day pass to the Coachella Festival next weekend seem an allowable expense, because you'd be seeing Rage Against the Machine, the radical-leftist punk-funk band that wrote timely songs challenging the domination of real-life power structures until 2000, when it ceased to exist?
And was that a shadow across your face the other day, when your friends were talking about the greatest rock shows ever, and someone asked if you'd ever seen the Pixies? "Yes," you said, brightly. But you qualified that. "I saw them on their second reunion tour in 2005," you murmured. Then you left the room, looking guilty.
We are going to have to come to terms with all these feelings, because reunion shows will soon become a much more normal concertgoing experience than we ever knew. More than that: I think we can meet them with an open mind.
If these reunited bands meant something to you in an earlier time, perhaps you're feeling the dirty power of money, or the lameness of aging. (Maybe you really can afford that ticket now. Maybe it isn't such a drag to drive to the stadium. At least you know there's parking.) Perhaps some part of you tells you that you don't deserve it; you didn't put in your time in the rooms where that band started out, at CBGB, or the Rat, or North London Polytechnic, or wherever.
Or maybe something about these events feels broadly, even comically, illegitimate. Aren't we supposed to form a community of taste around living culture, not afterlife culture? Isn't a great band supposed to be more than just a band, but an embodiment of a particular age, a state of mind, a place? How do you identify, then, with an aging act whose members are well past their original states of mind, have mostly relocated to sunnier places, and whose prime motivation would appear to be making money through entertainment consortiums such as AEG Live, which controls Goldenvoice, the concert promoter behind the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival in California, and the pathbreaker in the marketing of recent-past reunions? And aren't, say, 15 years of inactivity required before a reunion can be considered desirable?
Unless you are a lawyer or a promoter for one of these bands, all you have is your ears. Despite all the bien-pensant hand-wringing about how reunions smell fishy, a band is a band. It is not more powerful than the sound it generates on a certain stage at a certain hour. It is made of musicians who are considered young for a while, and then become older. They play in a club, then maybe a stadium, and then maybe a club again. They have money disputes, or they don't want to look at one another for a while, and they stop. Then the market changes in their favor, and they play again.
When Rage Against the Machine became popular in the '90s, it seemed disconcerting that many of the band's fans wanted to hear the sound of a metal chair bashed on a concrete floor rather than be alerted to new methods of revolutionary praxis. But it wasn't the fans' fault: They were slaves to the whomp of that fuzz and funk, and the rhythm and pitch of Zack de la Rocha's hectoring whine. The band's sound eclipsed the higher brain functions, at least for a few minutes at a time.
More and more of my working life, it seems, is predicated on whether I can find a band playing a song for the 4,000th time to be in any degree convincing. I do, increasingly. I used to feel allergic to reunions. For each band I'd seen in its prime, I had an image in my mind and thought it worth protecting. Worse yet, I grew skeptical of bands as they moved past the 20-year mark.
But those shows over the last few years by the reunited Pixies and Stooges, they were loud and rude and fantastic. And they were judicious. Through their set lists, they located the potential excitement in the task of explaining what the bands had been all about.
It was a fundamentally weird decision for each of those bands to re-form earlier this decade. I don't mean that they didn't know a dollar when they saw it. Issues of credibility run to the marrow of a band such as the Pixies. Now that we're into the era of indie-rock reunions, we have to realize the bohemian rock culture of the '80s nurtured the idea that credibility is more important than money, even more so than the bohemian rock culture of the '60s had.
But the Pixies and the Stooges were examples of reunions that ended up being more successful than a band's original iteration.
If you had working knowledge of the Pixies' and Stooges' albums, you may have been stunned by how sophisticated live sound has become since those bands disappeared the first time, and how they have adapted the advances to their own needs. And what about the best of those who never formally went away – a band such as Slayer, a performer such as Prince? They carry so much maturity after more than 20 years that even if they don't retain perpetual youth, they have something that might be more important: complete control over their own sound.
There really is a lot of high-profile reuniting this summer: the Police will begin its first tour in 21 years. Genesis will tour for the first time in 15; Crowded House, 11; the Jesus and Mary Chain, nine; Squeeze, eight; Rage Against the Machine, seven; Smashing Pumpkins – if you count two of four members a reunion – seven. The members of the original Van Halen nearly made it to the starting gate for the first time in 22 years, but called their summer tour off in February.
There are clear reasons for this trend. We're seeing the winnowing of the live-music era in America, as well as the end of belief in the album. Any crisis of belief leads to sanctification and orthodoxy; people want to see the saints work their magic.
Ashley Capps, who helps produce mid-June's Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tenn. – which has booked the Police as one of its headliners this year – put it in a slightly simpler way. "When I was growing up, the release of an album was an event," he said. "We've moved away from the notion that the release of a recording is an event. Somebody can release a great album and get fantastic reviews and everybody's talking about it, but how long does that last? Six weeks? In that sense, live performances are becoming the important event."
It seems now that the audience position for rock is coming closer to that of jazz around the mid-1970s. Most of the forefathers are still with us; increasingly, they seem to have something important to teach us. And we are developing strange hungers for music of the not-so-distant past that might be bigger and deeper than the hunger we originally had. That feeling people talked about during the Pixies shows a few years ago – the word "eerie" was used a great deal – seems similar to descriptions of the feeling generated in the Village Vanguard when Dexter Gordon played his comeback shows there in 1976, after living abroad.
Since then, jazz has advanced into a culture of incessant re-experience, endless tributes. Yet that doesn't mean that jazz can't still be fantastic, even transformative. It is, all the time.
We have to allow for the possibility that Rage Against the Machine – or the Police, or the Jesus and Mary Chain – could be as good as it ever was, if perhaps a little more wizened, a little more skeptical. (It will depend on their practicing of course.) If you're still looking for something sacred, it probably can't be found in their values or politics or cult significance. It's in you: It is your own reaction to how they sound. Nobody can take that away from you.
ROBYN BECK/Agence France Presse
This summer, Sting and the Police will begin their first tour in 21 years.
Elektra/4AD
The Pixies: (from left) Kim Deal, Joey Santiago, Frank Black and David Lovering
http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=5411&IssueNum=203
Everything Old Under the Sun
This year’s Coachella reunions are definitely worth talking about
~ By DON WALLER ~
Illustration by Scott Gandell
“Think of the worst song you ever heard in your life … . Somewhere somebody got drunk for the first time, lost their virginity – or both – while that song was playing, so that’s their favorite song,” my old pal Emmis always used to say whenever I’d be goin’ on about the latest, back-from-the-dead and (inexplicably) bigger-than-ever act currently selling now-stalgia for a used-to-be-that-never-was on the never-ending, “reunited and it pays so much better than it did back in the day” touring circuit.
Emmis might’ve reissued seminal tracks by then-future garage-rock legends the Sonics on his own indie label back in ’73, and, while at least one crazed blogger recently cranked out a 5,283-word encomium to Em’s pioneering fanzine, Flash, this semi-legendary, but very real, character hasn’t bothered to listen to much of anything except contemporary black music for the last 27 years. But then Emmis has always taken a “jest the facts” approach to the pretensions surrounding popular culture.
Of course, I’d counter that, in certain cases, the increased attention is merited – mostly ’cause the Stooges or the Pixies were tragically ahead of their time – and years of word-of-mouth have created an audience that’s more open-minded to their artistic visions. (Plus a whole lotta people who were simply too young to witness these semi-legends when they trod the boards the first time ’round.) And I’ve got no problem with any of that.
And neither does Coachella promoter Goldenvoice, which pulled the now-longstanding festival out of the ashes when it convinced Jane’s Addiction to reunite (’cause, of course, they could never reform) – with Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea subbing for O.G. Eric Avery – for the 2001 event. (The first Coachella took place in ’99 and was such a glaring lack of $ucce$$ that they didn’t try to stage a follow-up the next year.)
Since then, the festival has resurrected Siouxsie & the Banshees (vocalist Siouxsie Sioux, bassist Steven Severin, drummer Budgie, and some makeweights) after a five-year layoff in 2002 … three-quarters of the original line-up of Iggy & the Stooges (with veteran punk flamekeeper Mike Watt replacing long-dead bassist Dave Alexander) after a 32-year absence in 2003 … and the all-original-members Pixies (who’d disbanded 11 years earlier) in 2004.
The following year brought back the original lineups of Bauhaus, who – despite vocalist Peter Murphy having left the “Godfathers of Goth” early on – initially called it quits in ’83 (and first reunited, to substantially less acclaim and enthusiasm, in 1998) and Gang of Four, who – despite wholesale changes in the rhythm section, including replacing sticksman Hugo Burnham with a drum machine – had given up the punk-funk, lo, some 18 years earlier.
These days, Coachella sells out months in advance, but – ’cause there are only so many “heritage” alternative-rock acts who aren’t A) still dragging their bloated selves around whatever stage is available, B) missing key members who’ve long since shuffled off this mortal coil, or C) still at each other’s throats over past perceived financial inequities – there were no reunions on tap last year.
This weekend’s festival, however, offers a fearsome foursome of reunions, notably Rage Against the Machine. Anyone cynical enough to believe this might’ve been inspired more by the less-than-stellar sales of the second album from Audioslave – the three instrument-playing members of RATM with ex-Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell replacing vocalist Zack de la Rocha – than anything in that righteous, rabble-rousing press release about wanting to raise awareness of the unmitigated disaster that’s been the Bush 43 regime, certainly has – at least for now, anyway – a U.S. Constitutional right to his or her opinion. Either way, it’s RATM’s first gig in seven years.
“Why the fuck would anyone call themselves Rage Against the Machine?” asks the increasingly agoraphobic (he prefers the term “reclusive”) Emmis, when the latest of our semi-annual, late-night phone conversations takes a sudden musical turn.
“I dunno – ’cause Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship rhythm guitarist Paul Kantner had already called his first solo album Blows Against the Empire back in 1970?”
“Thanks, buddy. I’d just about repressed any memory of that one … . Hey, it’s always been easier to write a bumper sticker than a melody. So who else is getting back together for this thing?”
“The Jesus and Mary Chain – well, actually, the two brothers, vocalist Jim and guitarist William Reid, and three spear-carriers – for the first time since ’99.”
“Didn’t those guys do that song that plays over the last scene in Lost in Translation? Do all their songs sound like the Ramones on OxyContin? I kinda like that. Tell me which ones I should download off of that Russian site – but if I don’t like ’em, you owe me 19 cents each.”
“I’ll send you an e-mail. Put it on my tab. Then there’s Crowded House, which is frontman Neil Finn, guitarist Mark Hunt, bassist Nick Seymour, and a tour drummer ’cause their original drummer, Paul Hester, died two years back. Pop group from New Zealand; got back together recently for their first shows in about 11 years. Neil Finn, his brother Tim, and the dead drummer all used to be in Split Enz.”
“I remember those guys! Well, I remember their haircuts. Hey, somebody’s got pictures of me wearin’ a puka-shell necklace, too,” Emmis laughs. “But didn’t those Crowded House guys have a hit back in the ’80s? Yeah, here it is: ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over.’ Man, I love Wikipedia, makes me an instant expert on everything. Next!”
“That would be Happy Mondays. Or at least vocalist Shaun Ryder, drummer Gary Whelan, four no-names, and this guy called Bez, whose main function was to dance around, bug-eyed, like a soccer hooligan who just discovered Ecstasy. They’re from Manchester, England. They were huge over there when the concept of a rock group playing grooves that came out of the ‘rave’ scene would put you on the cover of the NME.”
“Hmm. Lemme guess. Drugs did ’em in back around ’92 or thereabouts. And they’ve been reuniting off-and-on ever since. Wait a minute … People are gonna pay $250 to watch some teabag jump around like he was getting electroshock therapy onstage?”
“Emmis, it’s a three-day festival. There’s all kinds of great acts from all across the sonic spectrum. I’ve seen a bunch of ’em before. Björk. Roky Erickson. Fountains of Wayne. The Roots. The Kaiser Chiefs. The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Decemberists. Arcade Fire. Kings of Leon. Travis. Sparklehorse. The Nightwatchman. Cornelius. Andrew Bird. Ozomatli. Gillian Welch. Sonic Youth. DJ Shadow. Interpol. Peaches. Rufus Wainwright. Placebo. The Lemonheads.
“And I’m looking forward to seeing The Good, the Bad & the Queen, Willie Nelson, Silversun Pickups – they’re locals – the Arctic Monkeys, the Black Keys, Amy Winehouse …”
“I love that song, ‘Rehab’! I play it every time I’ve gotta write another story about Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan. You know, I’ve made almost as much money off Britney this year as she has.”
“And ’cause I’m willing to spend three days and nights in the desert – steppin’ on thousands of empty water bottles and getting hustled for spare drugs while I’m strolling between stages tryin’ to see the bands I either like or am curious about – you call me a glutton for punishment?”
“No, I just can’t believe you still care. Hey, I gotta go. My stripper friend needs a foot massage. Thanks for the tip on that Sade tune from the Absolute Beginners soundtrack … .”
04-26-09
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/entertainment/abox/article_1674044.php
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Coachella off to a superb, spiritual start
Overview: Bjork, Faithless, the Jesus and Mary Chain and more set a benchmark for the remainder of the three-day festeival to match.
By BEN WENER
The Orange County Register
As David Byrne would say, what a day that was.
What an amazingday that was, I would add – for me personally a serious contender for Top 3 best days ever at Coachella. Which shocks me just as much as it might anyone else who looked at this year’s first-ever three-day fest and concluded that Friday’s fare was the weakest of the bunch – on paper, that is, and only in comparison to what is yet to come today and Sunday.
What an amazingday that was, I would add – for me personally a serious contender for Top 3 best days ever at Coachella. Which shocks me just as much as it might anyone else who looked at this year’s first-ever three-day fest and concluded that Friday’s fare was the weakest of the bunch – on paper, that is, and only in comparison to what is yet to come today and Sunday.
Perhaps – no, surely – other lineups from other years have produced more profound performances. The sets that could measure up to or even surpass things like 2004’s fabled Pixies/Radiohead/Kraftwerk and the like are still to come, with Arcade Fire and Rage Against the Machine at the top of most anyone’s list of potentials.
But in terms of mood and vibe and dare I say a sense of communal spirit – those crucial but elusive elements that, when they surface just right, can overtake a crowd this large, bring a sense of peacefulness and camaraderie to 60,000 music fans from all over the country (and the world), all thrilled to be in one place, seeing new and old favorites and making all kinds of discoveries – in terms of that, Coachella may never have been better. Since this eclectic extravaganza began in 1999, I’ve experienced very few days this remarkable.
It felt special from the get-go, despite the usual traffic snarls and worse-than-usual entrance-gate headaches. Nickel Creek set a warm and soothing tone with its contemporary bluegrass while rapper Brother Ali brought positivity on the main stage. By 5 p.m. it was increasingly evident that something heady and wonderful was in the hot, dry air: Perry Farrell had introduced his Satellite Party on the main, dropping a few bits that reminded of Jane’s Addiction but mostly basking in the hopeful glow of upbeat songs that had the pop flair of his Porno for Pyros stuff from the ’90s, only with a sunnier outlook.
Over at Mojave – the Mama Bear of the three tents, with Gobi as Baby Bear and the constant dance-a-thon that is Sahara as Papa Bear – Tilly and the Wall greeted the day with bubbling-over, glammed-up enthusiasm. Its colorfulness may have been surpassed by Of Montreal’s performance art on the Outdoor stage, but its energy was only the tip of an iceberg that completely melted by the time Amy Winehouse and Arctic Monkeys were finished.
You can read about some of the above in dispatches Team Coachella was able to send back during the day to our Soundcheck blog. So I’ll try not to reiterate. Suffice to say that those two English acts –retro-modern soul firecracker Winehouse and the ordinary-looking but explosive Monkeys – delivered first-rate, infectiously fun, immensely appealing breakout sets that will likely hold among the strongest of the fest.
Winehouse’s fresh take on the traditional soul revue show is truly new for most; the Monkeys’ nervy rock, spearheaded by Alex Turner’s acerbic wit and keen eye for everyday details, only a year old. Still, for many concert-goers this was probably their first encounter with both of them. Assuming neither act flames out, it seems their popularity will only grow after these riveting turns.
But as I walked away from one (at Mojave) and toward the other (on the main) – and heard the Marley brothers, Stephen and Damian, reviving one of their father’s most indelible songs, “Buffalo Soldier” – I could sense a deeper shift in mood, one instantly heightened as I journeyed back to Mojave, the Marleys grooving on another of Dad’s classics, “Exodus” (“movement of Jah people!”), only to find Rufus Wainwright kicking off a fantastic set in the robes of a pauper prince.
Clearly we were going to church as the sun began to set.
In the song “Woodstock,” Joni Mitchell wrote about (and Crosby, Stills & Nash sang about) getting ourselves back to the garden. That’s exactly what we’re doing out here, and it couldn’t have come a moment too soon. Think of it like this: There is Actual Time, which we all live in day in, day out, 24/7 – and then there is Coachella Time. Actual Time has carried on for eight years since Coachella was born. Coachella Time, counted in days spent wandering like nomads across the Empire Polo Field here in Indio, has just reached the start of Week 2. Friday was Day 14.
We are deeply aware of Actual Time while we are out here, both in the sense of hours of bliss slipping away and in terms of the events that are shaping our lives, our relationships, our understanding of the world in time of war and Earth crisis. It’s fitting that Coachella comes so soon after Earth Day, for fundamentally the festival is about giving back to all manner of nature all around us. Inner and outer, personal and universal. It’s about standing encircled in the spotlight beams that shoot high into the heavens, spending time healing oneself through the power of music – hopefully instilling that feeling so deeply in your soul that you carry it back to Actual Time, view the world through Coachella glasses and strive for something better.
Like going to church in a desert garden of Eden.
And we have lots of Sherpas and gurus and holy men and women out here to guide us – topped this day by our own Joan of Arc, the Queen of the “Earth Invaders,” Bjork.
Resplendently odd as ever, initially enrobed in a wildly colorful get-up that made her look like the Sheik of Wonder Bread, the internationally beloved chanteuse from Iceland beckoned the majority of Coachellans with her stately set design and clarion-call voice. Surrounded by Arthurian war flags and an all-female choir that doubled as a brass section (and looked like refugees from the Polyphonic Spree), Bjork figuratively embraced the huddled masses like a messiah welcoming minions to the Promised Land.
“All Is Full of Love” here, she reminded us when not fending off Love’s enemies with fire-and-brimstone proclamations like “Army of Me.” With her longtime collaborators in Matmos (I presume) making unreal noises via alien electronic gadgetry, she may not have presented the most casual-fan-friendly set in her history – long stretches were given to unfamiliar (but intriguing) new numbers and static atmosphere. But for the true devotee, it was another rare, surreal, moving communion with a one-of-a-kind visionary, shielding believers from the outside world while offering glimpses from the abyss she can peer into from high atop whatever star she’s typically perched on. “I go through this,” she sang once again, martyr-like, “before you wake up, so I can feel happier, to be safe up here with you.”
Bjork’s appearance may have been the most outwardly spectacular, but it was hardly the only highlight. Take the Jesus and Mary Chain, an unexpected revelation that here filled a role like Bauhaus and Gang of Four and even New Order and the Pixies in the past – a reunion to remind the new alt-rock fans what the cornerstones are. Never the most reliable group, prone to toss off sets loaded with indifference, here the Mary Chain roared back to life, via a set dominated by sharp winners – fierce, laconic rockers like “Head On” and “Far Gone and Out” and “Sidewalking,” a pounding “Some Candy Talking,” the oozing grind of “Teenage Lust” and “Reverence,” a sublime “Just Like Honey” abetted by Scarlett Johanssonon vocals.
They’re still a sullen lot, sure, but as with Arctic Monkeys their aloof, almost motionless demeanor masks an overwhelming intensity – a feeling of forging ahead by battling back life’s ugliness and melancholy. Even a new song, “All Things,” was impressive. Still nothing like the JAMC 20 years later.
After that slide into night, everyone on Team Coachella took in a different religious experience. Mine began with the self-deprecating self-analysis of Pulp vocalist gone solo Jarvis Cocker, a tad late on an Outdoor stage that always ran off schedule, followed by the steamy weirdness of the almost indescribable sensation that was Brazilian Girls in Gobi. Fusing singer Sabina Sciubba’s over-the-top costumes and piercing vocal style with a wide array of electronic craziness, the NYC troupe came on like renegades from Bjork’s interstellar confederacy, dropping smooth science from its latest album, “Talk to La Bomb.”
From there I headed to Sahara to have my mind unexpectedly melted by Faithless, the English groove ensemble that can sometimes leave me cold on record, usually when it goes off noodling into the ether with little sense of structure. Here, however, the group was alive and propulsive like I expect LCD Soundsystem to be tonight. “This is my church!” vocalist Maxi Jazz hollered as swells of electro-organic anticipation churned toward another beat explosion. “This is OUR church!” A “place where bitterness ends,” he sang, “where I heal my hurts.”
And I literally fell to my knees from dancing, celebrating, feeling the spirit of the sound. So powerful – and this without having heard the stinging protest of “Mass Destruction”! I stupidly walked away to see what was happening with El-P in Gobi (no one there but a few hundred die-hards, and even they seemed bored), and thus wrongly cut my time at Faithless’ sermon short en route to Bjork.
Regardless, the mood had been set, the weekend off to an incredible start that, if this momentum holds, will easily vault this Coachella to the top of the list of great Coachellas. Forgive the hyperbolic ramble – and my lack of time to rethink it, polish it, edit it. We’re pushing ourselves to all new extremes out here. There’s only so much time to pause and gather thoughts – and catch a few hours of sleep – before you have to head back out to this Wi-Fi-challenged oasis. It’s now exactly noon as I write this sentence. Fountains of Wayne kick off my Day 2 in a little more than two hours. Gotta go.
Please, bear with me, bear with us. And enjoy the ride.
Bjork performs Friday at Coachella.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
| Jefrey |
Posted - 04/23/2007 : 15:53:57
As long as they put on a good show, I don't care how much money they make.
I went to the Simon & Garfunkel reunion tour, and it was so obvious the Paul Simon wanted to be just about anywhere else that it was kind of a bummer. It sounded good, but you could tell it was just a put on for cash. the Everly Brothers seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves though, so that made up for it.
Crossing my fingers that the Police show is as good as the Pixies shows were.
== jeffamerica == |
| shineoftheever |
Posted - 04/23/2007 : 15:52:09
sex pistols said it best - FILTHY LUCRE
The waxworks were an immensely eloquent dissertation on the wonderful ordinariness of mankind. |
| floop |
Posted - 04/23/2007 : 15:41:08
i agree
jamming good with Weird and Gilly |
| benji |
Posted - 04/23/2007 : 15:26:46
i love how the pixies never said the reunion was about anything other than money...to hear billy corgan spewing show about artistic merit is just sickening...and to do it without 2 of the smashing pumpkins members is just silly....screams of guns n' roses which is just a fucking joke.
reunions are about nothing except the money.
and for some bands to say otherwise is a load of bullshit.
all i can say, thank god for polio! brian |
| bumblebeeboy2 |
Posted - 04/23/2007 : 14:54:57
I've never got why 'RATM' are so big. I can't stand them. Another vote for Crowded House over here!
RATM used to be on the Union jukebox all the time during my Uni days, along with RHCPs, both made me very angry.
http://www.myspace.com/monkeyhelperband http://www.myspace.com/imnimrodsson |
| Carl |
Posted - 04/22/2007 : 14:21:15
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/arts/music/22ratl.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Not Reunions, Reinventions (Back and Better. Really.)
Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
Zack de la Rocha, left, and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, in 1996. The band, which broke up in 2000, is one of several that are reuniting and touring again this year.
By BEN RATLIFF
Published: April 22, 2007
WAS that a queasy feeling you had recently, when you authorized payment on a $300 ticket for this summer’s Police reunion concert? What about that weird web of logic that made $249 for a three-day pass to the Coachella Festival next weekend seem an allowable expense, because you’d be seeing Rage Against the Machine, the radical-leftist punk-funk band that wrote timely songs challenging the domination of real-life power structures ... until 2000, when it ceased to exist?
And was that a shadow across your face the other day, when your friends were talking about the greatest rock shows ever, and someone asked if you’d ever seen the Pixies? “Yes,” you said, brightly. But you qualified that. “I saw them on their second reunion tour in 2005,” you murmured. Then you left the room, looking guilty.
We are going to have to come to terms with all these feelings, because reunion shows will soon become a much more normal concertgoing experience than we ever knew. More than that: I think we can meet them with an open mind.
If these reunited bands meant something to you in an earlier time, perhaps you’re feeling the dirty power of money, or the lameness of aging. (Maybe you really can afford that ticket now. Maybe it isn’t such a drag to drive to the stadium. At least you know there’s parking.) Perhaps some part of you tells you that you don’t deserve it; you didn’t put in your time in the rooms where that band started out, at CBGB, or the Rat, or North London Polytechnic, or wherever.
Or maybe something about these events feels broadly, even comically, illegitimate. Aren’t we supposed to form a community of taste around living culture, not afterlife culture? Isn’t a great band supposed to be more than just a band, but an embodiment of a particular age, a state of mind, a place? How do you identify, then, with an aging act whose members are well past their original states of mind, have mostly relocated to sunnier places, and whose prime motivation would appear to be making money through entertainment consortiums like AEG Live, which controls Goldenvoice, the concert promoter behind the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival in California, and the pathbreaker in the marketing of recent-past reunions? And aren’t, say, 15 years of inactivity required before a reunion can be considered desirable?
Unless you are a lawyer or a promoter for one of these bands, all you have is your ears. Despite all the bien-pensant hand-wringing about how reunions smell fishy, a band is a band. It is not more powerful than the sound it generates on a certain stage at a certain hour, its grooves and tones and tension and release. It is made of musicians who are considered young for a while, and then become older. They play in a club, then maybe a stadium, and then maybe a club again. They have money disputes, or they don’t want to look at one another for a while, and they stop. Then the market changes in their favor, and they play again.
When Rage Against the Machine became popular in the ’90s, it seemed disconcerting that many of the band’s fans wanted to hear the sound of a metal chair bashed on a concrete floor rather than be alerted to new methods of revolutionary praxis. But it wasn’t the fans’ fault: They were slaves to the whomp of that fuzz and funk, and the rhythm and pitch of Zack de la Rocha’s hectoring whine. The band’s sound eclipsed the higher brain functions, at least for a few minutes at a time.
More and more of my working life, it seems, is predicated on whether I can find a band playing a song for the 4,000th time to be in any degree convincing. I do, increasingly. I used to feel allergic to reunions. For each band I’d seen in its prime, I had an image in my mind and thought it worth protecting. Worse yet, I grew skeptical of bands as they moved past the 20-year mark.
But those shows over the last few years by the reunited Pixies and Stooges, they were loud and rude and fantastic. And they were judicious. Through their set lists, they located the potential excitement in the task of explaining what the bands had been all about.
It was a fundamentally weird decision for each of those bands to re-form earlier this decade. I don’t mean that they didn’t know a dollar when they saw it. Issues of credibility run to the marrow of a band like the Pixies. Now that we’re into the era of indie-rock reunions, we have to realize the bohemian rock culture of the ’80s nurtured the idea that credibility is more important than money, even more so than the bohemian rock culture of the ’60s had. But the Pixies and the Stooges were examples of reunions that ended up being more successful than a band’s original iteration. This is the part that seems new, and this is the part we will likely see more often, as long as a band has the platform of a Coachella or a Bonnaroo — or any of the other sophisticated new festivals — to stage its rebirth.
If you had working knowledge of the Pixies’ and Stooges’ albums, you may have been stunned by how sophisticated live sound has become since those bands disappeared the first time, and how they have adapted the advances to their own needs. And what about the best of those who never formally went away — a band like Slayer, a performer like Prince? They carry so much maturity after more than 20 years that even if they don’t retain perpetual youth, they have something that might be more important: complete control over their own sound.
I realize that this view might seem to decontextualize music, and even depoliticize it, which might be problematic with Rage Against the Machine. But isn’t it more accurate to see music as music, and not as philosophy or policy? (Put it another way: If you admired Rage specifically for being a forthright radical-left political band, how could you ever forgive it for being absent through George W. Bush’s presidency to this point, only showing up after the Democratic landslide of the midterm elections?)
There’s nothing new about an aura around a cultural event growing in proportion to the unlikeliness of its happening. Long before the Pixies, Pete Seeger, with the reconvened Weavers, sold out Carnegie Hall in 1955. Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli’s recordings from 1946 can seem to have a bittersweet, lived-in feeling, made after the two musicians were geographically separated by war for some years. Gilbert and Sullivan’s reunion operetta, “Utopia Limited” in 1893, benefited at the time from publicity about its circumstances: It followed a two-year breakup between Gilbert and Sullivan provoked by a lawsuit.
But there really is a lot of high-profile reuniting this summer: the Police will begin its first tour in 21 years. Genesis will tour for the first time in 15; Crowded House, 11; the Jesus and Mary Chain, 9; Squeeze, 8; Rage Against the Machine, 7; Smashing Pumpkins — if you count two of four members a reunion — 7. The members of the original Van Halen nearly made it to the starting gate for the first time in 22 years, but called their summer tour off in February.
There are clear reasons for this trend. We’re seeing the winnowing of the live-music era in America, as well as the end of belief in the album. Any crisis of belief leads to sanctification and orthodoxy; people want to see the saints work their magic. Ashley Capps, who helps produce mid-June’s Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tenn. — which has booked the Police as one of its headliners this year — put it in a slightly simpler way. “When I was growing up, the release of an album was an event,” he said. “We’ve moved away from the notion that the release of a recording is an event. Somebody can release a great album and get fantastic reviews and everybody’s talking about it, but how long does that last? Six weeks? In that sense, live performances are becoming the important event.”
Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, the concert-industry magazine, is so used to old acts propping up the industry that he doesn’t believe this year’s picture is substantially different. “Last year you had Bob Seger, this year you have Genesis,” he said evenly over the phone recently. He is not sure whether new bands — Arcade Fire, say — are striking deeply enough into the soul of the culture to necessitate their own reunions down the road. I think context will determine it. If there are lots of great new bands in the next 10 years, we won’t feel we need an Arcade Fire reunion. If there aren’t, we will.
It seems now that the audience position for rock is coming closer to that of jazz around the mid-1970s. Most of the forefathers are still with us; increasingly, they seem to have something important to teach us. And we are developing strange hungers for music of the not-so-distant past that might be bigger and deeper than the hunger we originally had. That feeling people talked about during the Pixies shows a few years ago — the word “eerie” was used a great deal — seems similar to descriptions of the feeling generated in the Village Vanguard when Dexter Gordon played his comeback shows there in 1976, after living abroad. Since then, jazz has advanced into a culture of incessant re-experience, endless tributes. Actual reunions are barely noticed: a huge percentage of the music refers to great moments of the past. Yet that doesn’t mean that jazz can’t still be fantastic, even transformative. It is, all the time.
We have to allow for the possibility that Rage Against the Machine — or the Police, or the Jesus and Mary Chain — could be as good as it ever was, if perhaps a little more wizened, a little more skeptical. (It will depend on their practicing of course.) If you’re still looking for something sacred, it probably can’t be found in their values or politics or cult significance. It’s in you: It is your own reaction to how they sound. Nobody can take that away from you.
Jay Blakesberg/Retna Ltd.
Rage Against the Machine in 2000, during its penultimate concert (then). The group will be playing at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival next weekend.
Olly Hewitt/Retna UK
Above, members of the Pixies in 2005. This alternative rock group broke up in 1993, then reassembled for a reunion that ended up more successful than the band’s original incarnation.
Steve Double/Retna UK
This summer, Smashing Pumpkins — O.K., two of the four original members — will tour for the first time in seven years, one of several high-profile bands to do so. |
| Jefrey |
Posted - 04/07/2007 : 23:58:00
I'd be much more excited about Crowded House. But then I think Rage Against The Machine fucking sucks.
== jeffamerica ==
-You get straight flush, you feel the rush. |
| Stuart |
Posted - 04/07/2007 : 18:05:21
What I hate is festivals where you have to show your pass to go through to the different stages... sometimes there are too many people for an act and they don't let people through, which is a pisser if you have forked out a shit load of cash to see one of your fave bands.
Glastonbury is the best, you just get it (somehow)and then you are free to walk around to any stage... there is no separation between the camping area and the music arenas.
I'm kind of hoping that Rage will be a last minute confirmation at Rock Werchter... now that would be a treat!
Because your candle burned too bright, that I almost forgot it was twilight |
| floop |
Posted - 04/07/2007 : 10:01:14
quote:
Originally posted by Carl
Crowd: 100,000
you couldn't pay me to go to Coachella . it was tolerable when the crowds were like 20 30, 000 people. but 100,000 people fenced in together in the hot sun doesn't sound enjoyable to me. but then i'm an old man
jamming good with Weird and Gilly |
| Carl |
Posted - 04/07/2007 : 09:39:42
Rolling Stone festival guide, including Coachella info:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/14030479/your_official_guide_to_springsummer_2007_music_festivals
Coachella
History: Active since 1999, Coachella has become known for its ability to reunite cult faves and penchant for booking surprise appearances by high-profile guests. Jane's Addiction, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Iggy Pop and the Stooges and the Pixies have all delivered mythic performances at Coachella.
Where: Indio, California
Dates: April 27th -- 29th
Lineup: Bjork, Arctic Monkeys, Sonic Youth, Amy Winehouse, Arcade Fire, The Good, The Bad and The Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, The Kooks, LCD Soundsystem and more
Tickets: 3-Day passes: $249, limited single day passes: $85 Buy Tickets
Crowd: 100,000
Transportation Free onsite parking is available. Carpooling is strongly encouraged due to traffic. There are Greyhound and Amtrak stations in Indio from which you can take a cab to the festival site. The Palm Springs airport is 23 miles away, which has shuttle buses and cabs that will take you to the festival. Grade: B
Where To Stay Onsite camping is available for $45 for all four nights- perhaps the best option since the festival is on a giant grassy polo field and it's a way to be close to the action. Hotels in the range from Indio Motel 6 or Budget Inn at $55 a night to more upscale Spa Central Palm Springs hotels (about 20 minutes away) which start around $80 a night. House and condo rentals in the area are $700-$2400 a week. All of the above get booked very far in advance, so better move quickly. Grade: A
Getting Around All of the stages and tents are within a 10 minute walk from one another. Grade: B
Food $2 bottled water. No outside food and beverage are allowed. Grade: C
Facilities Unlike some other festivals, Coachella is all grass, so none of that muddy, dusty festival scene and you can actually lie out on the grass during shows. Port-a-potties with sinks and water fountains are stationed throughout the festival. But be warned, Coachella is in the desert which means temperatures over 100 degrees during the day so staying hydrated is a must to avoid heat stroke. Also, winds get pretty intense, so much that one year during a Beastie Boys performance a record actually blew off of the turntables and the show had to be interrupted. Grade: B
X-Factor: This year's festival will feature a Rage Against the Machine reunion (and presumably a performance that will serve to voice the band's opposition to the Bush administration, among other political sentiments). In general, Coachella tends to have that reunion draw that makes long-split bands come together for yet another go. This is your best bet if you're holding out for a surprise Pavement gig. |
| Stuart |
Posted - 03/19/2007 : 02:52:35
Thats o.k. Audioslave were mediocre. I've never really liked Chris Cornell's voice... he sounds like someone is shaving his balls with cheap shaving foam and a blunt butter knife.
It would be great if Rage do a new album though... have always been a fan.
Because your candle burned too bright, that I almost forgot it was twilight |
| Newo |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 14:03:56
Chris Cornell left the band. Quick, dig up Rod Stewart, shave his chest and give him a pair of aviator shades, no-one will know the difference.
--
Gravy boat! Stay in the now! |
| Carl |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 13:33:31
I dunno, but Audioslave have officially split.
[EDIT] No, I'm wrong, see Newo's post below! |
| Stuart |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 02:21:16
does anyone know if Rage's reunion is just a one off or if they are gonna be making a propper comeback with an album?
Because your candle burned too bright, that I almost forgot it was twilight |
| Carl |
Posted - 02/01/2007 : 06:32:40
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1551284/20070131/index.jhtml
The Reunion Epidemic: From Police To Rage, Why Are So Many Bands Re-Forming?
We take a look at why 2007 will be Throwback Summer in concert-land.
By Gil Kaufman and Jem Aswad
For the last decade or so, a look at your local concert guide might have you wondering what year it is. Every summer, it feels like more and more reunion tours are hitting the boards.
Even if the bandmembers famously can't stand each other (Mötley Crüe, the Pixies), rudely dumped their lead singer years earlier (Black Sabbath, Anthrax) or vowed that hell would freeze over before they played together again (Eagles), fat paychecks await many acts who agree to bury the hatchet and wheel out the hit parade — especially if their primary audiences have grown old and/or wealthy enough to pay the hefty ticket prices.
Even '90s-era acts are getting in on the action, with the Smashing Pumpkins (half of 'em, anyway), Rage Against the Machine and even Another Bad Creation looking likely to regroup for some summertime throwback love.
And that's just the beginning: Other strong possibilities include Van Halen, reportedly with ousted original singer David Lee Roth; the 30th-anniversary blitz that the Police are expected to announce shortly (see "Reunited Police To Kick Off Grammy Awards"); as well as yet another rumored Led Zeppelin reunion that (apart from a couple of one-off performances) would include bassist John Paul Jones for the first time in nearly 30 years. Add that to a Phil Collins-era Genesis tour, rave favorites the Happy Mondays, and even a few rumored laughers that should be good on the fried-dough circuit (Right Said Fred and Men Without Hats) — and you've got the biggest reunion avalanche in rock history.
These reunions can usually be blamed on one or more of the following factors:
The Lute Thing Didn't Really Work Out
Sting's recent album of lute-driven 16th-century folk songs, Songs From the Labyrinth, may have been the top-selling classical release of last year, but it probably hasn't done wonders for his image. So what's the best remedy? Get back to the reason people liked him in the first place and reunite the Police. The lute thing — not to mention Eddie Van Halen's soft-porn soundtracks — is an extreme example, but across the board, the more recent output of most heritage acts pales compared to their classic material.
Your Drummer's Way Behind On Alimony Payments
As many a wizening musician can attest, after a band splits up, the money often stops rolling in for non-songwriting members, whose income frequently stems primarily from gigging. According to legend, one oft-reunited classic-rock act hit the road whenever its notoriously spendthrift bassist ran out of money. A quick cash-in tour can be the easiest fix for the insolvent musician — and can ease the conscience of the band's more flush members.
New Bands That Sound Just Like You Are Raking It In
Three or four years ago, new bands influenced by early-'80s British outfit Gang of Four — including Bloc Party, Interpol, Radio 4 and others — were all the rage. Not surprisingly, a re-formed Gang of Four were on the road within months. It's a reliable trend (many of Aerosmith's contemporaries re-formed around the time of Guns N' Roses' rise), so watch for a wave of reunited alternative-era acts to hit right about ... now!
All The Other Kids Are Doing It
SPLASH! That's the sound of a wave of alternative-era acts hitting the surf. The Pixies' 2004 reunion tour was unexpectedly, enormously successful: a fact probably not lost on contemporaries like Dinosaur Jr., the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Smashing Pumpkins, the Happy Mondays and the many others who have since followed (or are following) suit.
Even considering all that, 2007 does have an unprecedentedly thriving throwback circuit. Why? It depends on whom you ask.
The Smashing Pumpkins' manager says in their case, it's all about the art.
"They've had some amazingly big offers — some seven-figure ones to play certain shows — and [bandleader] Billy [Corgan] has passed on several because he didn't think it was the right thing for the band," said Paul Geary, manager of Pumpkins 2.0, who are nearly finished with a new album and will begin a reunion tour with European festival dates this summer (see "Smashing Pumpkins Drummer Offers More Clues About Forthcoming LP"). But despite those big offers, Geary said Corgan's motivation is not money but his artistic vision.
"I've been involved with bands whose members can't stand each other, and over time they run out of dough and that's why they do it," he said. "But Billy's making a great record, and for the sake of a younger generation that he wants to turn on to the band's music, he is doing it with a band that will more faithfully re-create the old songs than ever before" (a pointed reference to the absence thus far of original Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and bassist D'Arcy Wretzky from this reunion).
According to former Police/Sting manager Miles Copeland (who said he is privy to reunion talks), that group is a bit less high-minded about its motivations. "It was the 30th anniversary [of the release of the Police's first single] and that was a good opportunity to be reflective about it," said Copeland, brother of Police drummer Stewart Copeland. "That's really the only reason. If it had been the 29th anniversary, it wouldn't be happening. The record company's always thinking of a hook to reinvigorate the public's awareness of the band, and the anniversary was as good a reason as any. So it's not just about the money: From an aesthetic standpoint, it's in everyone's ego to want to see your art carry on and see it be vibrant and reach a new generation."
All of that, of course, works in tandem with the large sums of cash being dangled by concert promoters, who know they can charge high ticket prices for shows attended primarily by middle-aged concertgoers — who usually want to see acts that were big in the '60s, '70s and '80s.
"There aren't a lot of new bands that can sell tickets like the boomer acts can, and a reunion is like new product in the market," said Pollstar editor-in-chief Gary Bongiovanni. "Who ever thought they'd have a chance to see the Police? That's something many people will consider to be a unique opportunity."
So following that logic, what might reunion fever look like 10 years from now? Bongiovanni's not sure. It could be Justin Timberlake putting on that graffiti jacket one more time for an 'NSYNC revival, or Fall Out Boy teaming up with Panic! at the Disco for a package tour (Fall Out Men, anyone?). But even if you (re)build it — there's no guarantee that they will come.
"You have to have a lot of hits to fall into that category, not one or two," said Bongiovanni of the expected box-office riches a re-formed Police or Van Halen could be looking at this summer. "The Smashing Pumpkins audience won't pay Genesis prices, that's for sure."
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/ent_index/172122
Caliente
My first Björk concert!
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.08.2007
Last year, local music act Music Video, aka Paul Jenkins, did his best Björk impression during Club Congress' Great Coverup event.
This year, he will travel to Coachella to see Björk for the first time. He answered some questions via e-mail about his planned trip to Indio, Calif.
Have you ever been to Coachella before? If so, when and what are your favorite memories?
"Definitely seeing Radiohead (2004.) The Pixies were great, too, but Radiohead are my all-time faves, and they were absolutely amazing. Watching Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips) crowd-surf from inside a giant bubble was pretty cool, too. If only it didn't cut the Lips set so short . . ."
Why are you just going to Coachella on Friday?
"Friday were the only tickets that were available. I would have liked to go two or three days, but I would have been completely burned out by the end of it. Friday is the only day that I felt was completely necessary to attend, so I'm glad those didn't sell out. I saw a 3-day pass go for $1,500 on eBay!"
How are you getting there/affording it?
"I'm driving up with my girlfriend. . . . Basically we're affording it by not going all three days."
Have you ever seen Björk live before? Are you excited?
"Never, I'm super-excited. (Björk's) always been an incredible live performer, if my DVDs have anything to say about it."
Any other bands you're excited to see at Coachella on that day?
"Definitely, Sonic Youth. And the Jesus and Mary Chain reunion should be good. Also, DJ Shadow, Peaches, Of Montreal and Silversun Pickups. I'm curious about Peeping Tom. And finally, Jarvis Cocker, if he's planning on playing any Pulp songs."
What is your dream Björk set list for Coachella?
"'Army of Me,' 'Human Behaviour,' 'Hunter,' 'Possibly Maybe,' 'Unravel,' 'Hyperballad,' 'It's in Our Hands,' 'All Is Full of Love,' 'Cocoon,' 'Undo,' 'Bachelorette,' 'Hidden Place,' etc. . . ."
Paul Jenkins, in sync with one of Björk's famous stylish quirks, will catch the Icelandic singer at Coachella.
Ron Medvescek / Arizona Daily Star 2006 |
| Daisy Girl |
Posted - 01/25/2007 : 19:11:55
they're great live saw em back in the day in indian no place. I was in the front row off to the left. I was trying to let the security guards let me past the barricade but no luck. they rocked!! |
| darwin |
Posted - 01/25/2007 : 15:52:57
What about Roky Erickson? And I would have thought the New Pornographers would get a little higher billing.
Saturday looks the best to me. |
| mcil |
Posted - 01/25/2007 : 15:07:34
Rage?? What about the fucking Mary Chain!!!!
greatest Scottish band of all time
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.myspace.com/mcil13 |
| El Loco |
Posted - 01/25/2007 : 09:19:55
quote:
Originally posted by Skatealex1
Am I the only one here who doesn't find Rage to be that amazing?
The Truth Is Out There
same here, i could care less
IN MY PAST LIFE I WAS CALLED FARTBONE HERE. |
| Skatealex1 |
Posted - 01/25/2007 : 09:07:20
Am I the only one here who doesn't find Rage to be that amazing?
The Truth Is Out There |
| Homers_pet_monkey |
Posted - 01/23/2007 : 09:54:03
That's a pretty good line-up. Plenty of great bands amongst the shit.
 I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
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| Carl |
Posted - 01/23/2007 : 09:40:18
The Jesus And Mary Chain have also been confirmed:
http://www.coachella.com/
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| Newo |
Posted - 01/23/2007 : 04:56:34
quote:
HeywoodJablome Posted - 01/22/2007 : 19:25:12
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Isn't Coachella sponsored by Pepsi? Stick it to the man Zacky!!!!
I´m sure all that ranting would make a man mighty thirsty.
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Gravy boat! Stay in the now! |
| shineoftheever |
Posted - 01/23/2007 : 01:36:34
i saw rage twice back in the day, and was at the lollapalooza they called in sick for in vancouver. they are very good live. i remember it was either nme or melody maker did a thing where zack would rage against a machine (ie. dishwasher, lawnmower), very funny indeed. i wonder if he is still as angry?
The waxworks were an immensely eloquent dissertation on the wonderful ordinariness of mankind. |
| HeywoodJablome |
Posted - 01/22/2007 : 19:25:12
Isn't Coachella sponsored by Pepsi? Stick it to the man Zacky!!!!
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"Well then I hate you...and I hate your ass face!" |
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