ich bin ein auslander

Now the excitement really kicks in! It’s better than Christmas Eve! Excel spreadsheets floating across the net with color-codings based on genre, breakbeats, gothness, whatever. Plotting out who I stay 10 minutes for and who I watch for the full set. Scheduling margarita breaks. When do I get to see the huge lightning machine go off? Probably best during New Order, since they’re boring live. Do I go early or do I sleep off the hangover? We’ll see. Must be there by 3pm each day; earlier depends on the speediness of my old body’s recovery. And the willingness of my Coachella travelling partners.

Yes, tickets and passes are in hand. Directions to hotel, hotel to venue and back printed. Money in wallet. Need to do the SavOn run for the little essentials - chapstick, sanitary wipes, bottled waters for car, hotel, bag. Pick some comfortable clothes out.

The rumors begin in earnest on the net and I can’t stop reading them. Cocteau Twins and Doves are definately out; no one has really replaced them. Expanded set times for key acts. Bullshit. David Byrne has been bounced around for weeks now; we all know Interpol is around, as is Beck. Will Interpol do a full set, or will Carlos D spin somewhere? Will Beck be there at all? Will they be letting Andy Dick in after last year’s messy public arrest on the grounds? I say, let him in but don’t let in Tommy Lee and his stupid fucking Segway. What a prick.

Who’s the annual special guest? And where the hell is he going to fit in on the schedule? Who’s playing at the afterparties, and where are they? Must be plotted and charted!

They must have printed the handout maps/schedules by now… so are we going to be reduced to free-floating group rumours again? Pieces of paper stuck on the various tents which will announce “Your favorite band ever was the special guest and they just finished 10 minutes ago”. We all know the official text-messaging updates don’t work for shit out there.

Ah, who cares. The desert calls. I can’t fucking wait. “In the flat field I do get bored…”
ah, bauhaus.

My must-see list for this years..

Saturday:
bauhaus
weezer
chemical brothers
wilco
doves
bloc party
mercury rev
m83
ambulance ltd
josh wink
tiga
the kills
unkle
secret machines
swayzak
razorlight

Sunday:
nin
new order
bright eyes
gang of four
prodigy
roni size
junkie xl
mia
tegan and sara
stereophonics
british sea power
the bravery
kasabian
matmos

and david byrne if the cocteau twins replacement rumors are true.

it’s not the second coming, but it’s pretty damn good. i think i read a sentiment i agree with earlier on today … it’s not the best nine inch nails album, but it’s definately the best album that’ll come out this year. which i mostly agree with, except there’s these nagging rumours of an original line-up massive attack album coming out later this year…

anyway, the heavy radio play of the first single, the hand that feeds, bodes well for a sea change in popular music. granted, it’s obviously written to be a pop song, but that’s ok. it’s a good pop song. we could use some of those again.

fuck a nut… just doing my music news round and dead can dance are touring again?!? how the hell did i miss that? us in september.. woot!

First, let it be said that I don’t really like the Wiltern. The half general admission, half weird feeding stall setup kind of blows, particularly if it’s a sold out show and the floor is so packed you can’t really even move. I was originally happy to find out we had floor tickets, but we ended up in the back of the hall by the bar so we could actually see and breathe.

Not entirely thrilled with the show. Shirley looks great, having wisely ditched the femi-nazi look of the last tour. Eric’s playing bass and not only does he sound great with them, it looks like he’s having a blast. It’s much more of a rock-band sound now, which I had a bit of a problem with… I mean, these guys have been doing the electro-rock thing for ages, and it’s finally starting to be really popular (the bravery, bloc party, etc) so now they ditch it live and go for straight up rock interpretations of all their songs?

Maybe it’s just a matter of playing a few more shows and tightening everything up, but quite a bit of the set was pretty sloppy and sounded off. The new songs they played sounded the best, which tells me in advance not to expect too much synths on the new album. Oh well. The all have quite a bit more confidence on stage than before, which I guess is also good, but again, I missed the Garbage of yore. I’ll check them out again when they come back through town and see what time and road-testing does to the set.

The other thing - GREAT light setup, poor usage and design. If you’re going to blow all that cash on a kick-ass concept, why did you make everything look like cheesy screensavers?

Yesterday was Ghost in the Machine… definately my favorite. Good enough, in fact, that I think I need to revisit my top 10 albums of all time. It’s really dark and deep… the recording quality has the great dark airyness about it that is really intense. Opens up with Spirits in the Material World, fantastic… Every Little Thing She Does is Magic is a gorgeous pop song, still a bit melancholy… Invisible Sun, fantastic. A bit of a drop off in quality for the next few tracks, but none so hideous I’d get rid of them. Hungry for You and Demolition Man are pretty throwaway but fit the vibe of the album… Too Much Information musically kind of blows but I like the lyrics… Rehumanize Yourself, much the same, but a bit weaker. One World (Not Three) is a little too strident and certainly points the way to future Sting excesses… but all is forgiven as we head into the final three, Omegaman, Secret Journey and Darkness. I could listen to just those three on repeat forever, as the world crashes around me. Awesome.

Today was Synchronicity, which is probably one of the biggest albums ever. Somehow I made it through while putting a new exercise plan into play courtesy of my trainer… in between the tears of pain and agony, I gave it a listen. It’s certainly good… but the hits were so huge it’s hard not to feel you’ve heard them a few too many times. Sting has the songwriting thing down at this point, top of his game. It’s a shame about Mother… a nod back to the wretched filler tracks of the past, this never should have been on the album. Miss Gradenko is one of my favorite album tracks they’ve done though… and then you’re stomping right into the hits, heavily weighted at the end of the album. Every Breath You Take to King of Pain to Wrapped Around Your Finger. Classic songs, each and every one of them, and really… they’re pretty fucking dark and deep for a hit song. You won’t hear Britney or Avril singing lines like those anytime soon. After being beat over the head by those three, you get Tea in the Sahara, which is breathtakingly beautful, and you end on a bit of a flat note with Murder by Numbers. Oh well.

What have I learned? That the Police were a really, really dark group. Existential lonliness and anxiety pervade most of their songs. No wonder I liked them so much.

Think I’m a bit over-stung at the moment though… going to take the weekend off before delving into the solo stuff.

think i’m going to take the weekend off