COACHELLA

Well with the world coming to an end later this year this could very well be the last Coachella ever, so there is no reason not to go out without a bang right? This will be my 5^th straight year attending the greatest festival on earth and I can’t wait! (83 days). Coachella is kind of like sex, in the beginning it’s a pretty bumpy ride, you’re not sure what exactly the hell is going on, you find yourself lost most of the time with no real direction. The first time is very short lived and at the end you find yourself exhausted and asking yourself “what just happened?” and hopefully you’re not asking yourself “is that it?”. However over the years you get to hone your skills in every facet of the game. You go from being able to last 2 hours before needing a nap to raging all three days with no sleep and begging for more as the last band ends their set on Sunday night. You go from showing up with one friend, a sleeping bag, 2 person tent and a bottle of water to renting out a 3 bedroom condo with a pool spa and lazy river for a whole crew of your friends one of which is your personal chef making 5 course meals and bringing enough alcohol and party favors to last Charlie Sheen an entire week. Every year just keeps getting better and better and you end up being able to navigate Coachella’s highs and lows with your eyes closed. I can honestly say Coachella has changed my life and it has become my three favourite days of the year. From the moment I left the most epic Prince set 5 years ago where he owned the stage like no one else  I have ever seen before, I knew everything was going to be different in my life. I had found my calling, music, it had been there since I was a kid but I knew from then that no matter what, I wanted to surround myself/life/career/relationships/ideologies with the thing that I love most, music. This year’s Coachella is going to be insane so I thought I’d share who I’m most excited about each day.

Friday:

Amon Tobin- quite possibly going to be the best visual set Coachella has ever seen. Watch the featured Video below it will make you feel like you’re high when you’re dead sober.  

Sebastian / Breakbot- Ed banger decided to give you a little warm-up before Justice tears down Sunday night with two of my favourite DJ’s.  Breakbot is sure to be the funkiest set you’ll see all weekend.

Frank Ocean – So his album dropped and it was weak, he’s been surviving on one track “Novocaine” that has catapulted his success, but I’m hoping I get proved wrong and this becomes a set I’m happy I wasted my time on.

Other Notables – The Black Keys (obvious), The Rapture, The Sheepdogs, La Riots

Saturday:

SBTRKT- This duo from Toronto made my favourite album of 2011 and will be the most watched set of the day next to Radiohead.

Miike Snow – I’ve been dying to see this 4 piece band for years now. (Featured video below)

The Shins – With their last album coming out in 2007 I can’t wait to hear some new tracks that hopefully outshine Broken Bells

Other Notables – Radiohead, Kasabian, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, tuneyards.

Sunday, Sunday ,Sunday

Justice- Without a doubt this is will be the set of the weekend. DO NOT MISS! (Featured Video)

Dr. Dre And Snoop- The Chronic! enough said.

The Weeknd – Most anticipated set in the last few years that I can think of. (Don’t disappoint)

Beirut- Hoping to fall in love during this set

Other Notables – Calvin Harris, Fitz and The Tantrums, Metronomy, Goyte

BARRETSO

It’s rare for me to hit repeat at the end of an album and listen to it all over again, it’s even rarer for me to hit repeat all day long and listen to only one album for an entire week. But I can’t help it with this album “Celeste” from producer Barretso. I’m not lying when I say it’s the only thing that’s been bumping through my car, house, and work speakers. Move over Calvin Harris there is a new King of Disco and his name is Barretso aka Francisco from Chile. I guarantee the featured track “Celeste” (also the name of the album) will be the first track you put on wherever you go for the next month straight. Combining enchanting synth melodies, 80’s pop vocals, and a plethora of driving bass lines Barretso captures you from the first moment you hear him. His music is a phenomenal collaboration of 80’s break beats incorporating futuristic synths that sometimes feel as if you’ve been transported to another world. His sound is very reminiscent of a Kavinsky track, yet still unique in its own right. He’s signed to some tiny label Tuff em up! that I’ve never heard of, but it’s just a matter of time before you start seeing his name everywhere. No tour dates scheduled in the US as of yet but if Barretso keeps dominating the blog world like he is now then we’re bound to get a show or two thrown our way. Enjoy!

-TYC

NERVO

Nervo, The Nervo twins, Liv & Mim, Female Justice or whatever you want  to call these two hot blondes one thing is for sure they are taking over. And when I say taking over I mean they are pretty much everywhere these days from Ibiza to LA, from MTV to Fox’s X Factor, from little dirty electro clubs to the main stage of massive festivals, I even saw them in the elevator at work yesterday. You can literally find them anywhere you look and personally I fuckin love it! Miriam and Olivia Nervo are two Australian models turned songwriters turned killer hot DJ duo. At the wee age of 16 after already conquering the modeling world and becoming rather bored ventured into the music scene. Sony signed them as songwriters before the age of 18 and they wasted no time producing bangers for the likes of David Guetta, PussyCat Dolls and Kelly Rowland. Soon enough however, songwriting for others began to bore them so they started writing songs for themselves and landed a major recording deal with Virgin Records. After getting off tour from opening for Britney Spears but just before they played the mainstage at WMC (Winter Music Conference), Nervo dropped their hottest track to date We’re All No One w/ Afrojack and Steve Aoki.(featured). Synth, electro, pop brilliance would probably be the best way to describe it. I wish I could give a label credit for producing such greatness, but this magic is obviously all created by the insanely creative and talented Nervo twins. My plan is to one day marry them both, I’d have to move to some hick state like Utah so the likelyhood of this actually taknig place is slim to none but I’ll keep the dream alive. I hope you love these bodacious babes yes I said bodacious as much as I do.

-TYC

LETTING UP DESPITE GREAT FAULTS

Letting Up Despite Great Faults, pretty powerful name for an indie/electro band from LA even if it is a straight rip from Blondie Redhead’s track “Loved Despite of Great Faults”. I came across this band the other day as I was checking out the artist lineup for the upcoming SXSW in Austin, Texas. The featured track is one of those tracks that take you back in time. Accompanied with the video it’s hard not to be taken back to your late teenage years and early twenties, personally some of the best times of my life. Those years when nothing in the world seems to matter, you are care free running around in the world figuring out who the hell you are. Falling in love (or at least what you thought was love at the time). The times in your life when you are first let loose into the world to start making real decisions in your life, yet you approach them with just carelessness and ease that they aren’t stressful like they soon will be.  Experimenting with drugs and opening your mind to so many new things that come into your world. It’s a time when you can do the wrong thing and know that you’re doing the wrong thing, but you still do it just to test the waters. A time where good friends become best friends and bad friends become distant memories, a time where you can show your individualism and be rewarded for it, a time where you just follow your feet and end up going on the greatest adventure of your life. This is the time where I truly fell in love with “music”. Granted I went through my fair share of stages (rap, metal, rock, scremo, indie, electro etc.) But what I found out along this journey we call “the end of our adolescence entering adulthood” is that music isn’t sounds made from instruments, vocals, lyrics, songs or even albums, music is a feeling , it’s a passion, it’s an emotion,  an expression of individualism. For me music is a feeling that I can’t put into words, it has shaped who I am, what I believe in, my relationships, my outlook on life, love, death and even the afterlife. So here is to bands like Letting Up Despite Great Faults for taking us back to when we fell in love with the world.

-TYC  

FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE

      I have a confession to make, I have developed a thing for red heads over the last few years, dating one for the better part of 2 plus years and I don’t know what it is, but they drive me absolutely crazy in all the right ways. Therefore, it probably shouldn’t be a shocker that I’ve fallen for the eloquent Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine. I wouldn’t say she is the easiest on the eyes, but she’s without a doubt one talented individual. That voice of hers is second to none and she possesses such soul, for a pale freckle faced ginger (no disrespect). I have yet to meet a single person who doesn’t have the utmost respect and appreciation of her talent, whether you like her music or not, you can’t deny how incredible she is. Florence and The Machine broke out on the scene only a few years prior in 2009 with their debut album Lungs that featured a track Dog Days Are Over. As soon as this track it the airwaves it  catapulted Florence immediately to number 1 in the UK and soon following turned her and her band into a worldwide sensation. The featured track is a cover of Drake’s “Take Care” and exhibits Florence’s funny, quirky characteristics while still managing to be incredibly flawless and one of the better covers I’ve heard in years. It’s one of those covers that transcends genres and shows how talented artists can express themselves any way they please. It’s an expression of how a true “artist” can take any track and make it their own. I hope you enjoy.

-TYC

BON IVER

So it’s a little early to pick my favourite artist of 2011 but the leading candidate has to be Bon Iver. This folk rock band from Wisconsin was founded in 2007 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. It’s hard to describe how incredible Vernon’s voice truly is. To me, it’s one of those voices that transcends time and could sound just as beautiful singing any genre of music. Luckily for us I feel that Justin has found a way to make Bon Iver sound incredibly unique. One of the most fascinating things I’ve come across when exploring Bon Iver was something that Vernon used to do during their earliest shows. Bon Iver has been made up of a lot of moving different parts over the years to accompany Justin’s voice and vision, but in the early stages Justin would only have a few people on stage with him. The problem was that in his head he envisioned the harmonies being sung by up to 500 singers in order to achieve the exact sound he was aspiring for. In an attempt to try and get as close to achieving this as possible, before his shows he would type out the lyrics to every song and walk through the audience handing everyone his sheet music so that they could sing with him during the show. He said “I don’t want to be that guy on stage alone with a guitar, its boring!” If that doesn’t give you a glimpse into the mind of a true artist and how dedicated they are to their craft and to their sound then I don’t know what could. I was fortunate enough to get to see Bon Iver live this past September and I can’t begin to tell you how absolutely amazing it was. I’ve been to more shows then I could ever possibly count and have become somewhat jaded in the fact that I rarely go to a show that I’m completely blown away. Bon Iver did just that! At one point in the show the nine or ten people accompanying Justin left the stage and it went dark. Suddenly a glimmer of light from behind Justin appeared showing him standing there alone without an instrument in almost an angelic state. He began to sing acapella and a sense of stillness spread through the crowd. No one could take their eyes off him while he stood there and belted out some of the most enchanting vocals I’ve ever heard. It was almost as if someone took over your entire body and all these emotions you had never felt were flowing through you. Mind you this lasted about 3 minutes or so and at the end the entire 6,000 plus Shrine Auditorium stood on their feet and gave the longest standing ovation I’ve ever been a part of. You couldn’t help but have tears come to your eyes it was that emotional and that phenomenal. I was speechless after and no other artist has ever made me feel that way. I’ve featured quite a few videos for you to begin your own discovery into Bon Iver. Enjoy!

-TYC

CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL

What happened to good old fashioned Rock n’ Roll? Where has it gone? My boss, who has worked for Capitol Records for 19 years, and I were having a discussion the other day and we were trying to come up with any band in the last decade that epitomized Rock n Roll. Any band from my generation that I could really say was true Rock n’ Roll. The sad thing is that we could only come up with a few names; The Strokes, The Black Keys, The White Stripes, Wolfmother, and we quasi agreed on Radiohead and Muse but that was it. What happened to the days of Woodstock and Monterey Pop Festival? It was extremely disheartening last year when Coachella decided to add an extra tent solely for Dubstep. It just added to my assumption that Rock n’ Roll is dying and dying fast. We had a marketing meeting the other day and there was a 30 minute video showcasing all of the new artists that we are working with and half way through my boss turns to me and says “we are the fucking guitars at?” And it was true everything was either electronic or processed pop. My father pushed a lot of Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Mamas & The Papas, Flying Burrito Brothers, The Doors, The Who, The Grateful Dead and so many others on me when I was a child, but I think my favourite would have to be Creedence Clearwater Revival. Does it get any better than John Fogerty’s vocals? The featured track “Fortunate Son” is synonymous with everything that happened in the late 60’s; peace, love, war, sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. Creedence defined an era, they defined a generation, they defined a movement,  a feeling, a passion, they defined the emotion of an entire nation. What artist, band or even genre could I say defined my generation? It’s rare if not impossible to find music these days that has as much meaning behind it as it did back in the 60’s and 70’s. Here’s to hoping Rock N’ Roll never dies! This blog is dedicated to my dad and Aunt Lourie.

-TYC