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BYT Coachella Coverage Primer

April 16, 2009 by Jason Rubin

Hey, we have a few friends heading to Coachella this year and they were kind enough to offer up a little live blogging, photos, wrap ups, etc.  To start things off Jason (yes, yet another BYT Jason) a DC transplant from the suburban wastelands of Southern California and six year Coachella veteran, wrote up a little intro and is now making me regret not getting tickets. You can check out Jason’s travel photo blog here. -cale

So you couldn’t make it to Coachella this year?  Follow me then, folks, for your not-so-VIP, very little back stage access pass to one of the best, most unique festivals in the world.  My friends and I have been haunting (haunted by) this festival for six straight years.  One of us, the group elder, was at the first Coachella in 1999 and is celebrating his ten year anniversary.  Flight booked, sunnies packed, sunscreen bottles emptied (more on that later), party house paid for, extra curriculars procured, Costco run made, RSVP for pre and after parties complete.  Now all that is left is to fight this day before Christmas anxiety.  I even sold my Ratatat tickets for the 9:30 Club show to get out there early — couldn’t risk getting stuck in L.A. traffic.

At our ridiculous 1971 throwback house

The first thing to understand about Coachella is that the festival goes beyond just the actual festival grounds.  The entire Palm Desert area is invaded by festival goers, while the locals — the Bob Hope types that are about to return to their summer homes on the coast anyways — flea en-mass.   The Coachella Valley becomes Los Feliz hipster, Hollywood hypester, and Venice Beach burner party central.  All the big magazines, production houses, and talent agencies rent mansions for the week and throw weekend long parties with some of the festival’s best musical talent (the entire Brooklyn dance-pop scene showed up to rock the Anthem Mag party in 2007), and this is where a lot of the action happens.  But it never completely detracts from the festival itself, where the music, luscious green polo grounds, and mind-warping Burning Man-inspired art installations are the weekend’s main draw.

Art installation from 2007 and 2008

Let me be clear about something.  This is not your roughing-it, camp out, banjo around the camp fire Bonnaroo-style festival.  Nor is it your day tripping Virgin Mobile Festival.  This is L.A. transposed into a slightly more hedonistic, much less pretentious play ground.  Although I am up for and have graced those types of festivals, if you are camping you are wasting your time.  The official Coachella camp grounds don’t even allow alcohol! And if you are driving in and driving home, you are missing half the pre and after party fun.   This is both feet at the same time straight into the deep end.

This is not All Songs Considered and I am not Bob Boilen.  Nor do I even have anything close to something resembling a press pass for Coachella.  I love you Bob, but this adventure is a bit over your head.  So my daily posts and pictures will probably be a little light on pop-music analysis, and a bit heavy on the gonzo ‘what the fuck is going on.’  I plan on sending in a post a day with pictures of the parties, festival, and bands, and then doing a wrap up post next week with my co-conspirer Craig.

The most conspicuous shot you will see coming out of Coachella

Maybe a word on my musical interests, seeing as Coachella is a music festival and all.  The Coachella line-up pretty much typifies the type of music I listen to — part of the reason I keep coming back.  A good mix of up-and-comers (Blitzen Trapper, A Place to Bury Strangers), well established indies (TV on the Radio, Franz Ferdinand, PB&J), DJ’s (MSTRKRFT, Bloody Beetroots, Gui Borato), big name headliners (The Cure, My Bloody Valentine), pay your respects but go home early-ers (Paul McCartney) got-to-see-but-never-seen-before (Dr. Dog), new and old hip hop (Lupe Fiasco, Public Enemy), the unknowns but highly recommended (Murder City Devils), the is he still arounders (Perry Farrell), and once-in-a-lifetime chancers (Etienne de Crecy, check this video), and like a 100 other bands, just check the schedule.  Full disclosure — a friend of mine recommended I see Murder City Devils not only because they never play DC, but also because front man Spencer Moody punched out some DC indie-legend, Ian Svenonius, after a show at the Black Cat.  I have never heard of them, but reason enough for me!

Inspired by the infamous Burning Man Belgian waffle

That being said, I tend to stay away from bands that I have already seen or will see soon somewhere like the 9:30 Club.  And being in it really for the party usually leads me to a well trodden section of the Sahara DJ tent.  Plus, things happen — 110 degrees happens, hangovers happen, traffic will happen.  So plans change and who I actually see is often more about luck and circumstance than planning.

Mahalo, and see you on the other side…

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