Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Review

I wrote this article a few months back for work, and it was published in Crawdaddy!, our online magazine. I haven't posted anything in awhile but want to get back into it, and I thought this should be posted here as well. You can visit the original article page and check out other articles on the Crawdaddy! website.

Coachella Music and Arts Festival
Friday, April 16th— Sunday, April 18th in Indio, California

While driving down the long stretch of I-5 to make the trek to the Coachella Music and Arts Festival this past weekend, I couldn’t help but see the journey as a religious pilgrimage taken by music worshipers. After arriving at the Empire Polo Fields and meeting folks that travelled from as far as Canada, Europe, and even Australia come to the festival, my feelings were confirmed that there is definitely a powerful force that draws all these people from such far corners of the world. But what is this pull exactly?

Of course, the festival boasts an all-star line-up of bands, but is that enough to draw a record attendance of 75,000 people each day? The location of the event is definitely not easy to get to, and it takes a lot of planning, money, and travel time, even for those coming from nearby Los Angeles. So what is it about the festival that causes people to journey in droves out to the desert of California? After giving it some thought, I decided that the promoter, Goldenvoice, does an unrivalled job at putting on an event that is a sensory overload in every way, and that people gather to be a part of a community where everyone is simultaneously experiencing the same enlivening stimuli. Being a part of this huge mass of music fanatics poised to have an epic weekend can be a very exhilarating feeling, and I think that’s ultimately the reason that people travel far and wide to come to Coachella.

The most obvious draw of the festival is the music. There was something for everyone in the line-up of bands, with plenty of room to be exposed to new music. Not only were all the headliners huge acts from different genres that could draw big crowds on their own, like Jay-Z, Thom Yorke, Gorillaz, and Tiesto, but there was also the perfect blend of up and coming new artists with fresh hype behind them and bands hailing from previous decades, such as Faith No More, the Specials, and Public Image Ltd. Every act had an enormous group of spectators present, and you could feel the energy in the air. It is definitely a bonding experience to watch a band as part of a giant mass, and Coachella has some of the biggest crowds around where people can share their excitement for their favorite artists with everyone around them.

Many musical performances came along with high-tech light and video set-ups that were visually astounding. From colorful fractals and bright strobes at the Sahara DJ tent, to high-powered green lasers reaching out into the crowd during Muse’s set, to elaborate videos played through a huge backdrop of the New York skyline while Jay-Z performed, the light technicians for the festival did a remarkable job. Also, concertgoers toting LED lights and glow sticks combined with color-changing art instalments around the grounds gave Coachella a beautiful, glowing ambiance at night. These included a giant paper crane, a see-through plastic column that would unexpectedly blast shots of flames into the air, and the Cubitron, a rectangular prism composed of balls that flash colors in waves of intricate patterns. These aspects of Coachella created an atmosphere that was a departure from day-to-day life that gave additional energy to the people there for the weekend.

There were also many opportunities for tactile interaction at Coachella. My favorite example of this was the Do Lab, an area that had DJs playing while people on stage hosed down all the dancers with high-powered super soakers. It felt amazing in the heat, and the combination of dancing in 90 degree weather while being sprayed with cold water can’t help but make you feel ecstatic. Much of the art also encouraged people to interact with it physically. People could relax in a hut made of recyclable materials with aluminium cans hanging off of it like wind chimes. A giant diamond made of mirrors on every facet was also a popular instalment, where people walked around to find their reflection.

The promoters planned out all of these aspects of Coachella, but perhaps the most unifying part of the festival is simply meeting new people and sharing the weekend with everyone around you. This is constant, as it is impossible not to start up a conversation with those at the same show, while standing in lines, or just while hanging out at the campsites. The best example of this I encountered was the parade of festival-goers marching up and down the rows of tents at 6am, their leader proudly wielding a giant pair of cardboard scissors. They had drums and were chanting song after song, gaining members throughout the procession. In my opinion, this was the physical manifestation of the feeling of community at the festival, as everyone was feeding off each other’s energy and just there to have a great time. After being exposed to all of the planned events of the festival the whole day, people were just so happy to be there that they couldn’t quit, and started up their own all-night parties.

These good vibes are ultimately the force that draws people to Coachella, and as long as the promise of communal energy based around the music is fulfilled, this festival will continue to be greatly successful with a very supportive fan base. Being at this festival as a great experience, and it is definitely deserving of its international fame and critical acclaim. The crowd at Coachella undoubtedly experienced an amazing weekend, and I for one plan on coming back for more next year.

I've Got Soul, I'm So Wasted

Today at work, while taking one of my many breaks from data entry as to not completely lose my mind, I found out some amazing news. I was on Wallpaper's MySpace page (one of my favorite bands) seeing if they had put up any new remix tracks, video blogs, or anything else of interest. It's usually a good bet there is some entertaining stuff up there, their frontman Eric releases a ton of retarded yet hilarious youtube video updates and I check 'em out every so often. But today was extra exciting, I found out that the release date for their debut full length album snuck up on me and is only 5 days away (update - that is only the release date for the first single... my bad! album out Sept 22). This also comes along with an album release show in late September, and I can't decide which event I am more excited for. All this totally made my day, and I cannot wait to hear the inevitable awesomeness of both the recorded tracks and the live show.

Wallpaper is a side project of Eric Frederick, the frontman for Facing New York (another great bay area band that is now on hiatus, hopefully they'll be back). In Wallpaper, he writes and composes the tracks (it's a lot of synths and electronic beats), but during shows he plays with a live drummer, Arjun Singh. Their live show is super entertaining, Eric performs in his alter ego of Ricky Reed, a flashy gangsta type dude that has amazing outfits, always. Last time I saw them in LA they played a 30 minute set, but he just kept shedding layers and ended up wearing 3 differnt getups that were all hilarious and totally ballin. He always has his signature hat, plastic neon green sunglasses, and an actual chain around his neck. In between songs, there is always hilarious commentary or stories that lead into the next song. There is heavy use of autotune throughout the entire performance, and it really works for this particular act, both because it adds to the humor of the band as well as sounding great with the composition of the tracks.

Wallpaper's lyrics are definitly satircal, the band seems to exist to poke fun at modern technology and culture trends and how people interact with each other. Just from reading the names of their songs, you can tell that they are having fun writing these things, and possibly more fun making the videos for them. The most recent one I saw was "Booty Tweet (Is the New Booty Call)", a song about people sending out desperate messages trying to hook up over Twitter. Or, there is another song called "Txt Me Yr Luv", a love song that is centered around text messaging. The songs are written as being totally serious, and Eric/Ricky definitely sells them in the live show as being legit songs. If they were ona top 40 list, the masses might not even question it, but they were no doubt written as jokes, or even a commentary on modern life. These ideas for songs may sound stupid to you, this may sound like nobody could write a quality song about such topics, but I would recommend checking out his tracks before you judge them. I might be biased, as I absolutely love anything this guy has written, but I do believe this band puts out great material and is definitely worth listening to.

Wallpaper is also involved in making a lot of remixes, the latest one I checked out was the remix of Jay-Z's "99 Problems" with "Death of Autotune", and they heavily autotuned it (another pretty funny thing to do -- and it worked out to create a sick track). I'd like to find out which app he uses for the remixes, it'd be fun to mess around with. Their remix of "Sleepyhead" by Passion Pit is also excellent, often on constant rotation. There is a neat article I read recently where they interviewed Eric about making remixes (specifically the Jay-Z remix), I thought it was pretty sweet. The quote I liked from it the most was:

"When you're writing albums you're trying to make a lasting stamp on time, but remixes are like news headlines. You're just trying to capture a moment, interrogate it and move on. I'm on to the next thing."

You can read more of that here if you're interested.

You can find most of these tracks at the band's MySpace:
www.myspace.com/wallpaper

There is also a youtube channel, I'm going to go waste some time there now...
http://www.youtube.com/user/wallpapervideos

Album drops Setpember 22nd!
Norcal album release show at Rickshaw Stop in SF on September 26th!

If you're not stoked, I'll just be extra stoked for you. It won't be that hard for me. To explain this entry title, the first single from the album is "I've Got Soul, I'm So Wasted." I've heard them play it live some months ago and can't wait to get it on CD and bumpin' in the van stereo down El Camino. Oh it's on.

San Jose, Charlotte, Los Angeles

We got to San Jose and found our hostel after a bit of searching, it was really well hidden. It was just a door in the side of a wall where you have to get buzzed in, but when you get inside it's a strange labyrinth of rooms and different levels. It was a nontraditional design for sure. It had a rooftop bar which was pretty cool, you could see the skyline of San Jose (it was noted that the tallest building was the Holiday Inn). Our room had a grate on the ceiling that was just open to the outside, that was also a bit weird. We walked around the city for a bit that night to find an ATM and get dinner, and had a semi terrifying encounter at the ATM with a guy walking down the street covered in blood. At first I thought he had a cut in his neck, but he wasn't acting like he was hurt or like he was someone that had lost so much blood (it really was everywhere on him, the whole right half of his body and clothes), so he probably murdered someone else and it was their blood all over him. I saw him coming and was pretty startled, and then he started talking to us asking for money and I was not sure what the hell to do, like if we didn't give him money would he murder us too?? Thankfully he went along down the street pretty quickly after stopping to talk to us, smoking his post-kill cigarette and looking generally insane. We decided to go back to the restaurante next to the hostel after that, as to avoid death/rape/stabbing that might occur on a longer walk home at a later hour in San Jose.

The next morning we got some souvenirs at the markets and ate breakfast and drove back to the car rental place. Thankfully all the damage was covered and the rental guy wasn't pissed off at all. We got to the airport and started our full day journey back to the US. I would say the highlight of that day of travel was playing wheelchair football at the Charlotte airport in North Carolina in the middle of the night, things were pretty slow. We got back to LA eventually the next morning. All in all, it was an awesome trip, great times with great friends (Four friends working together! Solving unexpected things Costa Rica throws at them! Sung to the tune of the MacGruber theme!). I for sure got to do a bunch of new things and had a great time exploring the country with my buddies, it was definitely a great post graduation excursion and I was really happy with every part of it. Can't wait for the next adventure.

Manuel Antonio National Park and Bribing Cops

The following day we took the bus up to the Manuel Antonio national park and got there right when it opened at 7am. We hiked to the beach and a deer walked with us most of the way, it was pretty weird, she even let us pet her and was just chill with walking on the trail with everyone. We spent a ton of time at the beach there, which was awesome. The water was really warm and we swam and snorkeled all around and I took a nap on some rocks and the guys made a hermit crab "sanctuary" where they put the numerous and gigantic hermit crabs through tests of physical strength and intellect, the whole setup was pretty elaborate by the end. It was a pit in the sand with tunnels and leaf barriers and sticks in the sides for climbing on. All the crabs made it out in the end, they were pretty hardcore. We went on a hike after the beach and saw a bunch of animals that could only be described as deer-rabbit-pigs, they were little mammals that went through the brush on the ground and looked really cool. We also saw another anteater and more of the raccoon creatures, and 2 sloths. They were pretty cool, even though they were far away. On the way out of the park, a huge group of monkeys came out of nowhere and we spent a good amount of time just watching them. They were only a few feet away and were playing around with each other, they're so fun to watch. We also heard a bunch of howler monkeys and saw a lot of squirrel monkeys further up on the path. It was way cool.

We got back to the hostel just in time, as it started raining a ton right as we got inside, and we hung out and read for awhile before going to dinner. We got back to the hostel and played cards and drank guaro and beer afterward. We were playing with Dave's kama sutra playing cards which were pretty hilarious, learned some new positions like the "splitting bamboo" or "the cow"... funny funny stuff. Another note about the hostel and most other hostels we stayed at, the heated water in the showers is powered by electricity, so there are electrical wires coming out of the shower head doing something crazy to heat the water. It seemed sorta dangerous to me, combining the electric current with water and all, but I guess it works, and we didn't get shocked, so that was good. Although the temperature and water pressure were definitely unreliable and you never knew what was coming up next. It was an intense showering experience full of suspense and surprises (when will the scalding water hit next??)!

Next day we hung around Manuel Antonio for awhile and checked out the markets and the public beach there before driving back to San Jose. We also stopped at Playa Hermosa, the town next to Jaco where we should have stayed, it was a really nice beach with good waves and water that was not contaminated! What a concept, Jaco should get on that wagon. We also stopped at this random bridge where there were a ton of crocodiles hanging out, they look pretty creepy down there just floating around waiting for people to feed them from the bridge. I imagine that is why they hang out there in such large numbers, there were probably about 15-20 crocodiles down there. Right after that stop, we had another rental car adventure when Michael got pulled over for speeding (pulled over = policia in neon vests waving us down from outside the car). The cop was going to give us a ticket, but then found out we were tourists in a rental car, and said we had the convenient option to pay him cash right then at a reduced price and he wouldn't have to file a ticket. Shady as this was, we definitely took him up on this offer that was essentially a bribe, as we didn't want to have to deal with paying a ticket in a foreign country. It was cheap, less than $50, so split between us was not a big deal. So add bribing foreign cops to the list of rental car insanity.

Vista Serena Hostel and Monkeys!

We drove to our next hostel in Manuel Antonio, and it was beautiful. It was called Vista Serena, and it did have an amazing view of the ocean and the hills, it was just a gorgeous place. We checked into our rooms and had made it just in time to go on the 2pm monkey tour, where we went out on a boat in the estuaries in search of monkeys and other wildlife. Christina had been disappointed that we hadn't seen any monkeys yet up in the highlands, but wow, this trip definitely made up for that. We pulled up to this one tree and there were suddenly about 15 Capuchin monkeys all over the boat, and our guide had bananas that he would hold out to them and they would climb over your head and jump across the boat to get them. It was such a cool experience, we thought Christina was going to stay with them, but we managed to keep her on the boat and also got to see some basilisk lizards, an anteater, and a bunch of cool birds. It was a really cool trip, and our guide Conrad was hella funny, he was this chilled out stoner guy that definitely said whatever came to his mind at any specific moment. He was in the middle of a talk about how one of the mangroves was different from another, and then just looks up and goes, "Oh shit, that bird just took a shit!" He was originally from Riverside, but moved back to CR to take care of his grandparents, and just works at the hostel and gives tours now, seems like a pretty sweet life.

We got back to the hostel in time to see one of the most amazing sunsets Ive ever witnessed, it was just epic. Such awesome colors and the clouds were all different from the ones you see in California, and it went on for about 2 hours. It was just mesmerizing to stare at and was nice to just relax on the porch at the hostel with such a beautiful thing in front of you.

Jaco: Craptown of Drug Dealers, Prostitutes, and Car Vandalists

Jaco was a trip to say the least. The hostel we were staying at, Las Camas, was a crazy place with all the walls painted wacky colors and signs like Pura Weeda painted all over the place. The room we were in had no windows and was a bit like a jail cell, and when we got there, there was nobody working there and the other girls staying there had to let us in and we waited until the owner came back. She was hilarious. She was a Hungarian chick that reeked of alcohol when she checked us in, and she gave us a tour of the place and we found out that she was responsible for all the color schemes and murals, as well as the shack made of Imperial beer cans on the roof and everything else crazy about the place. She was really nice, but we decided she was for sure permabaked and not sure what was going on most of the time. We hung out on the roof during a thunderstorm that night, and it was really cool just watching the lightning and chatting outside and listening to the music she put on, definitely a chill night. We went back to the room and noticed that our bags were being assaulted by these tiny bugs that were sortof like ants. It turns out they got into the candy we had made that morning, but something had taken a huge chunk out of the bag, and I'm not sure how these bugs could have done that. They were definitely all over it though, and were carrying pieces all over the floor. We got rid of it and brushed off as many bugs as we could, and prayed they were not also in the bed. We woke up allright, not dead or bleeding or anything, which was good. I went running which turned out to be a pretty painful experience, as it was insanely hot and humid out, but it was cool being on the beach and noticing all the signs saying that the water there was contaminated with fecal matter, and that you shouldn't swim in it. After wandering around the rest of the town that was just a tourist trap with a bunch of souvenir shops, we were definitely wondering what was good about this town anyway, and why we had ever decided to stay there (It was because Christina hyped it up to us with promises of drugs and hookers and binge drinking, but we were all too tired for that stuff after the drive over, so it was a failed mission. We definitely saw plenty of hookers and were offered weed and coke a few times, but sadly didn't partake in any of these traditional Jaco activities.).

The icing on the cake with Jaco was that our car got its back window smashed in sometime between breakfast and when we left at noon in broad daylight in front of our hostel. Our car was empty, and there was no reason to smash the window, especially in the middle of the day, so it was just a dick move by some jackass in Jaco. We taped it up with grocery bags and it lasted like that the rest of the trip, but it definitely cemented our opinions on Jaco being a shit place that should not be visited. It was funny leaving the hostel, as our host was shocked that such a thing would happen in Jaco (even though I bet it happens all the time), and she was also shocked to find out that the ocean was contaminated there (even though there were signs everywhere saying that is was inadvisable to swim). She was like, but I surf there every day! I was not aware of this! This woman was so so funny, she said she had considered herself an expert on the area, but I think she had some more things to learn about the city of Jaco that we decided was the Tijuana of Costa Rica. As we drove away and got out on the main road, Dave screamed, "Cianora crap town!" out the window, and people turned and stared. But it was true, we were definitely happy to be out of that godforsaken place.

The Journey to Jaco: Insane Rental Car Adventures

After the coffee tour, we had a very adventurous trip to Jaco, a coastal beach town. We were driving down the road from the hostel in Monteverde to the main road, and we realized our GPS was not working. It would not connect to any satellites or open any maps, and that was indeed a problem. We drove back to the hostel to use their phone to call the car rental place and arranged to meet a guy from their company in a town called Orotina on the way to Jaco. The drive back to the hostel was literally less than 200 meters away, and on that short drive back we drove over a sharp rock and heard a loud noise. We didn't think much of it, but after getting back into the car to head out for the second time we realized that the back right tire was completely flat and that we were driving just on the rim. It had started raining crazy amounts by this time, which was also good timing. We went back to the hostel to ask where to go to get the tire changed with our spare, because the rental people had taken the toolkit from the car for some reason and we had no way to lift up the car by ourselves. The guy came out and inflated our tire enough to drive to the garage, which was really luckily right down the road from them. The guys there had the tire changed in about 5 minutes and it only cost 2,000 colones, which is about $3.50! We were pretty impressed by that and got back on the road and started down the pass to the coast.

About 15 kilometers down the road, a guy driving behind us flagged us down and told us our wheel that had been replaced was wobbling a lot and that it looked dangerous. Sure enough, the spare tire we had was defective, and we had to stop at another garage where they patched the original popped tire and put that back on for another 3,000 colones. So cheap! We made it to Orotina only 2.5 hours late and got a new GPS and a new spare tire from the guy that looked really bored of waiting for us, but hey, if they hadn't of given us a messed up GPS in the first place, this all would have never happened. We ate a quick lunch at Killer Munchie in Orotina, home of the Killer Sandwich and Killernacho, and made it to Jaco at 7pm or so. It was for sure an experience, but we made it and it was all good in the end.