Coachella

With music festivals still on my mind, the Coachella Music Festival lineup was announced about 2 weeks ago. Coachella takes place in Indio, Ca, which is about 5 or so hours away from the UA. I have some mixed feelings on the lineup, but overall I’d say it’s pretty good. Jay-Z, Muse, and Gorillaz are the headliners with LCD Soundsystem, Them Crooked Vultures, Faith No More, Tiesto, Pavement, and Thom Yorke as the openers for the headliners. I was so happy to see LCD Soundsystem in the lineup, definitely one of my favorites in the lineup. I have been listening to LCD Soundsystem’s album titled “45:33” nonstop for the past couple weeks. I love their sound, and I feel it would be a great live concert. The headliners didn’t really please me like I thought they would. Saw Jay-Z last year when he came to the UA, Muse is alright but would’ve liked to see someone else in their spot, but I was glad to see Gorillaz in the headlining spot. Never seen them before but I’ve been a fan of them since their self-titled album came out.
Besides all the big names there are definitely some bands that I’d like to see. So happy to see Dirty Projectors in the lineup. If you haven’t listened to Dirty Projectors before, I highly recommended you pick up some of their tunes immediately. Some of the more original tunes I’ve heard in a while. Passion Pit is in the mix as well, like their synth-pop electronic driven sound. Don’t know how they would be live but haven’t really heard much about their live shows.
There are a lot of electronic based bands on the lineup, as there should be, but I only hope that these bands are signed on to play late night. Electronic groups or DJ’s like Deadmau5, 2manyDJ’s, Major Lazer, Benny Benassi, etc. should never play in the daylight. It completely takes away from the live show. With that type of music I feel like the light show is necessary. For instance, last summer I saw Sound Tribe Sector 9 (amazing band, seeing them in late February) at Lollapalooza in Chicago. The only problem was they played at 4 p.m. It just wasn’t as good as when I saw them at night. I don’t really know what it is, but electronic music is supposed to be played at night
I haven’t decided if I’m going to attend Coachella this year, but there is no doubt in my mind if you plan to attend you will have great live music the whole weekend.

R.I.P. Rothbury

It comes with great sadness to say that Rothbury Festival will be no more. For those of you who don’t know what Rothbury is, it was a music festival that took place on the July 4th weekend in Rothbury, Michigan. For 4 days, roughly 30,000 people gathered to camp out and listen to some great live music. The headliners in 2008 included: Dave Matthews Band, Widespread Panic, John Mayer, 311, in 2009 the headliners included: The Dead, Bob Dylan, The String Cheese Incident, and Willie Nelson. There was a statement on the Rothbury Festival website last week that stated the festival would not be taking place this summer, due to complications assembling a lineup. I was astounded when I read this. It was hands down the best weekend of my summer last year, and just like that it’s gone. Just everything about the festival amazed me all weekend. Waking up early because the sun is beaming down, getting out the sauna you like to call a tent, crack open a few beers, hang out with the homies, then enjoy some live tunes. It’s a very jam band oriented festival, which I love, but it’s great, at night it turns into a whole different world. Electronic based music bumps from the speakers as people walk around the mystical festival grounds. The “Sherwood Forest” is what many Rothbury goers rave about. It’s a forest with different colored lights, hanging art pieces, and hammocks to go around. It makes the festival grounds into this mystical world, which is what made Rothbury so unique. My friends and I have been discussing what were going to do this summer now that Rothbury is no more. Perhaps Bonnaroo, Coachella, Summercamp, Wakarusa, who knows. Excuse me while my mind drifts away to Sherwood for a little…