Central Village

Coachella Set Times & My Picks

So the set times are up for the weekend.  I guess I'm a bit late on this, but I've been enjoying the beautiful breezy weather out here and haven't seen a computer all day.  Not upset.  Click on the images below to enlarge.

Not the most accurate or scientific charts up there, but you get the idea.  I have a relatively short attention span, so I've got no problem jumping around catching bits and pieces of a bunch of sets.

Here's what I'm thinking...

Saturday: Sexy Magazines > Gratitude (BV buzzed!) > Buck 65 > Raveonettes > M83 > Snow Patrol > Razorlight (or maybe The Kills) > Rilo Kiley > Wilco > MF Doom > Weezer > Secret Machines > Bloc Party > Spoon.

Sunday: Shout Out Louds > Diplo > Autolux > Jem (my friend has a thing for her) > Fiery Furnaces (or MIA?  Ouch.) > Futureheads > Tegan and Sara > Arcade Fire > New Order > British Sea Power (or Pinback? Double Ouch) > Blood Brothers > Black Star

I am well aware I won't be able to see all of those band's full sets, and I am skipping some due to the fact that I will be seeing them soon in NYC (Gang of Four, NIN in particular).  The only bands I am going to make a strong effort to see an entire set of is Wilco (who I always seem to miss) and The Arcade Fire (who nobody should ever miss.  Ever)

The odds of me keeping the above schedule are slim to none.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I just chilled out at the Outdoor Theatre all day on Sunday. (by far the best lineup of the weekend, with the Mojave tent on Saturday a decent second)

Any recommendations?  Caveats?  I am open to suggestions.

Going to California

I'm off to sunnier skies.  LA for the next few days, then down to Coachella Friday evening.  Anyone else gonna be out there, feel free to shoot me an e-mail, lemme know what goes on.  Anyone staying in NYC, be sure to check out Stars tonight, Adam Green tomorrow, The Wedding Present with (my new favorite) Crystal Skulls on Friday, Q and not U on Saturday and DFA '79 at Mercury Lounge Sunday.  I would surely try and make it to some of these shows if I were around.  Take care.

Louis XIV creep the shit out of me

Yick!  Goodness Paige, please tell me what the allure of this guy is??  He looks like a used up, 47 year old Diego Garcia with a 9 pack a day habit.  If I had a daughter, I'm pretty certain I'd take my family out of the country when they came to town.  But I guess that's the attraction, huh.  And I guess that's the marketing angle too.  And I guess I'm playing right into their hands by promoting such a rep...

Gross.

There's an afterparty for them at Happy Ending tonight.  I almost wanna go just to see this guy in action.  See if this shtick works on the big city girls too.

Short Week

Got a lot of work to do before taking off for California tomorrow.  Gonna be a busy one here at work to make sure everything is square before leaving for a week.  Will get out of here as early as possible so that I can properly kick off my vacation with Stars in Williamsburg.  Tickets are still available for tonight's show.  I was initially disappointed that I was gonna miss these guys tomorrow night at Bowery, but this last minute addition has been a pleasant surprise.  I hope everybody can make it out.  It's for a good cause, after all.  What has Louis XIV ever done for Dafur?

K, gotta get to work.  I'll be back later.

Oddly, my life remains the same

Ok, there you go for the cliche post title of the week.  I saw The Shins last night at Webster Hall.  I have always been a reasonable supporter of the place for shows, since it seems to get such a bad rap which I don't think it is totally warranted.  Last night tho, it was really bad.  The place was more packed than I had ever seen it.  Much more so than even when the Arcade Fire played there.  There was not an inch of space to move on the main floor.  Even towards the rear of the club, people were pinned against the back wall.  It was absurd.  To my horror, as we left for good midway through the set, they were still letting people in and selling tickets at the door!  Not fair.

What we stuck around for sounded good, but I just can never get up for a concert on a Sunday night.  I also don't prefer to see a pleasant pop band like this in a crowded dance hall.  Doesn't do it for me.

Killers tickets still available...

Tickets for the instantly "sold out" Killers show at Summerstage are, in fact, still available through the Clear Channel website.  All of the Ticketmaster tickets sold out in seconds yesterday morning.  They are already going on Craigslist for more than three times the face value.  No clue as to how many or for how long these will be available, so if you're interested, hurry.

UPDATE: The link now forwards you to the Ticketmaster page.  I assume this means the extra tickets are now sold out as well.

At the Mets game

Got the firm's tickets to the Mets game today. Press box seats, Diamond
Club, beautiful view of the field. Somehow the rain more or less held
up. Mets are killing the Nationals, 10-1 in the bottom of the 6th.

I'm writing from my Sidesick, so this post is a test of sorts. Lets see
how this works...

The Hold Steady's Secret Guest?

I've recently had some mixed experiences with Secret Guests.  Still, It's always fun to try and figure out who it is.

Brooklyn Vegan reported yesterday that The Hold Steady announced a secret special guest to join them at their album release party on May 19th at Bowery.  Catherine then commented that on the French Kiss Records website, they hinted that The Secret Guest will be "a rapper from Minneapolis."

While she speculated that would perhaps be Har Mar Superstar, or the excellent POS, there was only one name that came into my head when I heard Minneapolis and Rapper in the same sentence: Atmosphere.  Slug put on the most enjoyable live hip hop show I had ever seen a few months ago, and it would surely be a treat for anyone who was at the show if he, in fact, where to be the surprise.  Fingers crossed on this one.

M.I.A @ S.O.B.'s

While M.I.A. will NOT be opening for LCD Soundsystem at Webster Hall June 10th, she will be performing two shows at S.O.B's on June 7 and 8.  Tickets are not on sale yet as far as I can tell.  They should go up sometime soon on Ticketmaster.

(Pic from the Knitting Factory show via BrooklynVegan.  Knowledge via OhMyRockness)

Dave Matthews Band at Roseland

I'm fairly certain nobody reading this site cares (or would admit to caring) about these guys, but, as reported on their website, and at ClearChannel.com, The Dave Matthews Band will be playing Roseland on Monday May 9th in honor of the release of their new album, 'Stand Up'. (New album?  Who knew?)  Fan club members likely bought up most of the tickets this week, but there will be a few available to the public on Saturday at 11. 

This is the first time the entire band has played a venue in New York this small in probably 10 years.  In fact, the last time (I believe) they were in town, it was in front of half a million people in Central Park.  I remember they used to be able to sell out 3 nights at Giants stadium in about 20 minutes.  That's about 200,000 tickets if my math is correct.  This summer, they are playing two shows at the infinitely large Randalls Island.

At the very most, there will be 2000 tickets on sale for this show Saturday.  Good luck if you're looking to go.  Craigslist gawkers, this'll make Beck at Hiro look like a mere NIN at Hammerstein.

(Personal note: I was once a very big fan of DMB.  I was present at the RS photoshoot above, and while my interest in the band had somewhat wained by then, meeting Dave at the shoot still ranks up there as one of the most exciting celebrity encounters of my life.)