3:24 p.m.: I’m in the will call line to pick up my ticket. There’s a guy next to me with a warped straw cowboy hat, standard-issue blue jeans and black work boots — no shirt. He’s belting out to anyone who’ll listen, “On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair…”
The Eagles set is still six hours away, but clearly Stagecoach is underway. And clearly it’s going to be “one of those nights.”
– Randy Lewis
I can’t deny my love for Madonna. “Lucky Star” and “Borderline” still get regular rotation on my iPod. Her Madge-esty, rightfully so if you ask me, is expected to topple the competition when album sales for “Hard Candy” (not to be confused with that disturbing Ellen Page movie) are tallied next week. Here’s Ann Powers’ take on this hip-hop and dance-minded album.
Still, despite the excellence of the former Material Girl, there’s something slightly askew about her appearance today on 106 & Park’s Freestyle Friday. You have to consider that Warner Bros. is pulling out all the stops — this is their last hoorah with Madonna. They even splurged on a Madge widget and don’t forget that guys like Kanye and the Neptunes don’t come cheap.
At 49, Madonna is flirting with grandma age in the eyes of the show’s target audience but she can still make fans out of them. Her slick video with Justin Timberlake is taken from her lead single, “4 Minutes (to Save the World)” and it’s a hallucinatory dance scene with a little bit of strip-teasing and a funky bathing-suit outfit.
Ellen Allien would like to set the record straight about her genre of “minimalist electronica.” You might think the term means bone-dry repetitiveness or barely-there soundscapes, but Allien’s music is nothing of the sort. It’s playful, restless, almost-danceable techno that would be hypnotic if it ever stood still, and avant-garde if not for Allien’s love of melody and songcraft.
She’s touring (and stopping by Avalon Hollywood on Saturday) to support her newest mix album “Boogy Bytes Vol. 4″ and her forthcoming album “Sool,” which deconstructs her ideas of sound and song structure even further. We talked to her about the real meanings of minimalism and gender politics in electronica and whether Berliners appreciate those arty Americans snapping up the good apartments there.
“Sool” seems much more obscure and less song-oriented that “Orchestra of Bubbles” or your earlier solo work. What prompted that?
First, I really wanted to work with AGF [Antye Greie-Fuchs], she is one of my favorite producers and I appreciate her work so much. Besides that, she is a friend and I wanted to experience our shared working process. And I thought that AGF would be ideal for supporting me in my wish to do something quite conceptual and minimal, without poppy ambiance. Just something abstract but smart and elegant. And it worked. I used voice only cut up. And it made me happy to create something totally different to my previous albums.
How did working so closely with Apparat on your collaborative last album “Orchestra of Bubbles” affect what you wanted to do with “Sool”?
It affected me to think about the structure of songs, tracks and the single elements. We experienced something very strong by playing live together. And that gave me a different feeling for the arrangement within each track and also the way I used — or avoided to use — my voice unmediated. I used it just for one track, Frieda; which is dedicated to my dead grandmother. But Apparat was and still is a quite inspiring person for me.
Indio, the pig has landed.
Roger Waters’ two-story inflatable prop pig that floated off into the night sky between his festival-closing sets Sunday at Coachella plopped down Tuesday over two properties in nearby La Quinta, less than two miles from the Empire Polo Field, where the three-day event was held, festival officials said Wednesday.
“One of the women who found it called us and said, ‘We found your pig, but it looks more like pulled pork,’ ” festival spokeswoman Marcee Rondan said.
Rondan said Coachella officials had not confirmed the names of the lighter-than-air pig wranglers, but the Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs identified them as Susan and Steve Solts and Judy and Patrick Rimmer. The paper also quoted them as saying they will donate the $10,000 reward money to children’s music programs in their area.
The reward offered by Coachella officials for the pig’s return also included four lifetime passes to future Coachella festivals, which the couples said they would divide. They also will receive all-access passes for this weekend’s Stagecoach country music festival, which Rondan said they’d been planning to attend anyway.
Rondan said the pig will become part of the Coachella archives. Waters’ appearance, she said, “was the first time anyone has ever performed back-to-back sets at Coachella. “So the pig is part of Coachella history now.”
– Randy Lewis
Plan accordingly, broncos and buckaroos:
Friday
TUNDRA STAGE
Randy Rogers Band, 4 to 4:40 p.m.
Shelby Lynne, 5:05 to 5:55 p.m.
Trisha Yearwood, 6:20 to 7:10 p.m.
John Fogerty, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The Eagles, 9:15 to 11:15 p.m.
PALOMINO STAGE
Sons of the San Joaquin, 3:10 to 3:50 p.m.
Shooter Jennings, 4 to 4:45 p.m.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, 5:10 to 6 p.m.
Mike Ness, 6:25 to 7:25 p.m.
Glen Campbell and Family, 8:20 to 9:10 p.m.
MUSTANG STAGE
Don Edwards, 4 to 4:35 p.m.
Star De Azlan, 4:55 to 5:35 p.m.
Rissi Palmer, 6 to 6:45 p.m.
Michelle Branch, 7:05 to 7:55 p.m.
Craig Morgan, 8:20 to 9:10 p.m.
Saturday
TUNDRA STAGE
Crystal Shawanda, 12:35 to 1:15 p.m.
Jypsi, 1:40 to 2:25 p.m.
Luke Bryan, 2:50 to 3:40 p.m.
Bucky Covington, 4:05 to 4:55 p.m.
Taylor Swift, 5:20 to 6:20 p.m.
Dierks Bentley, 6:45 to 7:45 p.m.
The Judds, 8:15 to 9:45 p.m.
Rascal Flatts, 10:15 to 11:15 p.m.
PALOMINO STAGE
Hayes Carll, 2:30 to 3:05 p.m.
Ryan Bingham, 3:30 to 4:20 p.m.
The Kentucky Headhunters, 4:45 to 5:35 p.m.
Cross Canadian Ragweed, 6 to 6:50 p.m.
Dwight Yoakam, 7:15 to 8:15 p.m.
MUSTANG STAGE
Waddie Mitchell, 1:30 to 2 p.m.
Red Steagall, 2 to 2:45 p.m.
Riders in the Sky, 2:55 to 3:45 p.m.
The Greencards, 4 to :4:50 p.m.
Cherryholmes, 5:15 to 6:05 p.m.
Sam Bush, 6:20 to 7:10 p.m.
The Dan Tyminski Band, 7:25 to 8:15 p.m.
JD Crowe, 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Earl Scruggs, 9:35 to 10:25 p.m.
Sunday
TUNDRA STAGE
Halfway to Hazard, 2 to 2:40 p.m.
Chuck Wicks, 3 to 3:50 p.m.
Trace Adkins, 4:15 to 5:05 p.m.
Gretchen Wilson, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Big & Rich, 6:55 to 8:25 p.m.
Carrie Underwood, 8:50 to 9:50 p.m.
Tim McGraw, 10:15 to 11:15 p.m.
PALOMINO STAGE
Karista Smith, 2:15 to 3 p.m.
Whiskey Falls, 3:25 to 4:15 p.m.
Charlie Louvin, 4:40 to 5:30 p.m.
Billy Joe Shaver, 5:55 to 6:45 p.m.
Jack Ingram, 7:10 to 8 p.m.
George Jones, 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.
MUSTANG STAGE
Wylie & the Wild West, 2 to 2:45 p.m.
Ian Tyson, 2:55 to 3:45 p.m.
The Isaacs, 4 to 4:50 p.m.
Carolina Chocolate Drops, 5:05 to 5:55 p.m.
Michael Martin Murphey, 6:10 to 7 p.m.
Jerry Douglas, 7:15 to 8:25 p.m.
Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys, 8:40 to 9:30 p.m.
It was looking like another quiet week for Will Call during this recovery period between the psychedelic indie-rock funk fest of the Prince and Roger Waters-led Coachella Festival and the Eagles-summited Stagecoach country music festival. For a few days there, it seemed like the only notable announcement would be coming from ’70s studio geeks Steely Dan. And a notable announcement it was, with two big-venue dates for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famers — a July 23 show at the Nokia Theatre and another at the Honda Center on Aug. 4 — going on sale Monday.
But then all those publicists awoke from their desert hangover and opened the floodgates.
First up, local indie-pop institution Rilo Kiley will be playing a big show at the Greek Theatre on June 18, while Portland’s indie-pop champs Death Cab for Cutie will play the Nokia Theatre on June 23 with notable openers Rogue Wave. Get tickets for both shows on Saturday.
In slightly funkier news, UK dance-rock darlings Bloc Party announced two shows with up-and-comers Does It Offend You, Yeah? at the Glass House on July 28 (get tickets Friday) and the Mayan Theatre on July 29 (get tickets Saturday). And dropping presale tickets right now, Dim Mak Records announced news of the Hard Summer Music Festival with N.E.R.D., MSTRKRFT, Spank Rock, Kid Sister, A Trak, Steve Aoki and KCRW DJ Jason Bentley to go down July 19; public tickets go on sale on Monday for that one.
If that weren’t enough indie-dom, two new wave icons announced L.A. shows: Boy George will play the El Rey on July 15-16 (tickets go on sale Saturday), while Squeeze will play the Orpheum Theatre on Sept. 10 (tickets on sale Sunday).
And they’re not the only big names from the ’80s with upcoming local dates. John Mellencamp will play the Greek Theatre with Lucinda Williams on July 31 (tickets Sunday), while Bryan Adams will play — get this — the little ol’ Roxy on May 19. Get your tickets for that one on Thursday, if you can.
So who’s the winner? That’d be Steely Dan. Any band named after a steam-powered sexual aid envisioned by William Burroughs in “Naked Lunch” has my vote.
– Liam Gowing
Photo of Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen and Walter Becker by AFP Photo / Stan Honda
Some say that one day in Finland can feel like a month. Perhaps that explains why Helsinki’s Poets of the Fall sound like they are stuck in 1993 (the band may remind you of oft-maligned post-grunge act Live, except with less-grating vocals and better lyrics, despite the fact that English is lead singer Marko Saaresto’s second language).
But POTF, as their fans call them, don’t seem to care that their earnest rock sound is out of favor. The band doesn’t need America’s stamp of approval anyway; in Finland, their first two records are platinum-sellers, and their just-released offering, “Revolution Roulette,” is likely to follow suit.
Now, thanks to Myspace and YouTube, the Finnish foursome threesome* (the band is touring with an additional member) are gaining a small cult following in the U.S.
But this is no Finnish metal act, mind you.
Last night, POTF played a mini acoustic set a la Nirvana’s “Unplugged” at the posh Bel-Air home of the consulate general of Finland in advance of the band’s official U.S. debut at the House of Blues tonight.
The audience seemed to be heavy on businessmen and women (many not even tangentially in the music industry), although a few had fancy titles like “head of program management” at Nokia Music.
Saaresto says the purpose of the group’s first foray to the U.S. is simply to see if there might be a bit of record label interest, and to “come here and sort of introduce ourselves.”
HOB might want to order an extra case of Finlandia. Anyone who has seen Jim Jarmusch’s 1991 film “Night on Earth” knows Helsinkians are a tough bunch, who know how to hold their vodka (Poets of the Fall’s nervous-looking guitarist asked for a shot after the band’s first song last night).
“We are very welcoming,” Saaresto says of his countrymen in general. “People [from Finland] are not, you know, the most talkative people in the world, but once you get to know them or if you need help or anything, they’re always there to help you.”
Welcome to L.A., Marko, where vapid blonds will talk your ear off and the men will “help you” — if traffic isn’t too bad on the 10, that is.
Tonight’s show is technically part of an annual A&R showcase called Muse Expo, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to get into HOB. To be on the safe side, more information and the ability to register for the Muse Expo (happening over the next few days at the club), is here.
– Photo and post by Charlie Amter
*See comment for further clarification on the band’s line-up.
The critical information inquiring minds want to know about the giant stage prop that disappeared during Roger Waters’ closing performance Sunday night at Coachella isn’t so much where it is now but exactly how a two-story inflatable pig masterminds a daring escape in front of tens of thousands of fans in the first place.
Festival organizers are mum, except for offering a $10,000 reward plus four lifetime passes to Coachella to whoever can bring about the safe return of the plastic porker. Contact them at lostpig@coachella.com.
Conspiracy can’t be ruled out, considering this isn’t the first pig to float off into the night sky in recent times. On Waters’ 2006 tour centered around complete performances of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” the graffiti-inscribed oinker was allowed to drift away on several occasions, including the opening show of his three-night stint at the Hollywood Bowl. Local authorities said Waters would face charges if it happened again, and, to no one’s surprise, Porky remained contentedly tethered during the other two L.A. shows.
But what of those that did break the bonds of their terrestrial masters? Did they just fly off in search of bluer pastures? Or is it something more sinister, perhaps a protest against the wanton disregard of the inalienable right of synthetic gaseous critters to life, liberty and the pursuit of inflatable corn husks? Perhaps Waters needs a less-feisty breed of helium-filled animal. How about a nice, loyal inflatable Holstein? He could call it the Dark Side of the Moo.
–Randy Lewis
Photo: Steve C. Mitchell/EPA
If the acronym GTA IV means anything to you, then today is a very special day. A few folks have probably called in sick already because they waited outside their local Gamestop until midnight to pick up the latest in the much-maligned video game franchise. Then, of course, said parties went home and engaged in virtual bedlam all night. There’s a reason parents fear this game. Still, it gets an A+ rating in today’s Times.
The new version of “Grand Theft” isn’t just a boost for the gaming world, however. With this edition, the game’s creators are partnering with Amazon.com to help zap some life into music sales.
As with previous GTA titles, music plays a central role in the chaos, as the CGI character swerves in various automobiles and car jacks different vehicles. Just like real life, what’s playing on the radio is significant. For the gamer, in fact, it’s a selling point.
Grand Theft Auto IV is expected to do killer business — somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 million its first week.
The Barbaras is the latest band to grace Memphis’ premiere garage rock label, Goner Records. Their debut three-song 7-inch EP, which defies conventional categorization, is a beautiful little slice of lo-fi pop that exits your speakers like sunshine and honey mixed together on an August afternoon.
What’s the recipe? A twist of soul, a squeeze of ’50s falsetto, a dash of warm and fuzzy production value and a jigger of joyful bubblegum sensibility, shake it up and pour it in your ears. The effect is better than a vodka lemon drop.
Featuring members of Jay Reatard’s backup band as well as members of Memphis psych-folk act Kazalok and garage-punks Boston Chinks, the Barbaras is a seasoned act worth keeping an eye on. The songs are not only well-crafted but also free and easy, mixing influences as diverse as Del Shannon and the 1910 Fruitgum Company for an effect that is distinctly fresh and modern as well as old and wise. Rumor has it they’ll be releasing an album on In the Red Records in the not-to-distant future, but for now you can sample the pleasures of the Barbaras for free on their MySpace page.
And by all means, if you own a turntable, check out the 7-inch.
– Jason Gelt
Photo: Goner Records
Read more of the Magnanimous Collector here.
