COACHELLA 2013

After seeing the line-up scheduled for the Coachella music festival, that included many bands I wanted to see live, I had my heart set on going.  But...other commitments intervened preventing me from attending the festival.  Yeah, I could have managed going but the time and cost would have created problems elsewhere.  As a consolation prize, I instead committed to going to Lollapalloza in Grant Park on the water front in downtown Chicago this coming August, tickets already in hand.  Many of the same bands will be playing at that venue.   But Coachella was still tugging on my heart.

So it was with great joy that I learned they'd be live streaming many of the main acts all three days during the first weekend.  With a 23" HD computer screen and a new set of Bose desktop speakers, I was set for the three days of shows.  I recorded the audio on the ones I had an interest in, which I share with you in this post.  Unfortunately, the higher image definition settings meant streaming/buffering problems, so for a clean recording I was stuck to the lower image setting.  But it was still great, knowing I was watching as it was happening live 1000 miles away.  Seeing the palm tree swaying in the wind and the dusty haze obscure the surrounding mountains as the sun sank in the west brought back memories of when I was there in April 2010.  I intend to make it back one of these years.

The links are provided below.  Due to time limitations, the audio audio recordings are just one big file.  If any of you want the flac files (again, MP3 at 320 kbps chosen to save on uploading time), please notify and I will post.

More recorded shows later.  Find select performances here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/coachella?feature=watch

METRIC
Metric is a Canadian indie rock band founded in 1998 in Toronto. They were also at various times been based in Montreal, London, New York City and for a short time Los Angeles. The band consists of Emily Haines (vocals, synthesizers, guitar, tambourine, harmonica), James Shaw (guitar, synthesizers, theremin, backing vocals), Joshua Winstead (bass, synthesizers, backing vocals) and Joules Scott-Key (drums).

Download it here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/6bonk0dghlrn/n/Metric_-_2013_-_Coachella_Indio_CA_April_12_2013_mp3

BEACH HOUSE
Beach House is a dream pop duo from Baltimore, Maryland, formed in 2004. The band consists of French-born Victoria Legrand and Baltimore native Alex Scally. Their self-titled debut album was released in 2006 to critical acclaim and has been followed by Devotion in 2008, Teen Dream in 2010, and Bloom in 2012.

Download it here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/2ntulnrfqda7/BH_Coachella,_Indio_CA_April_12,_2013_.rar

OF MONSTERS AND MEN
Of Monsters and Men is a six-piece, English-language, indie folk/pop band from Iceland, formed in 2010. The members are lead singer/guitarist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, co-singer/guitarist Ragnar "Raggi" Þórhallsson, guitarist Brynjar Leifsson, drummer Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson, keyboard player Árni Guðjónsson and bassist Kristján Páll Kristjánsson. The band won the Músíktilraunir in 2010, an annual battle of the bands competition in Iceland. In 2011, Of Monsters and Men released an EP entitled Into the Woods. The band's debut album My Head Is an Animal (2011), peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard 200 album chart, No. 3 in the UK and also reached other European charts. Its lead single "Little Talks" was an international success, reaching the Top 20 in over five countries and No. 1 on US Alternative Songs. Of Monsters and Men is a winner of the 2013 European Border Breakers Awards. The European Border Breakers Awards honour the best new music acts in Europe. The award ceremony takes place at the Eurosonic Noorderslag music festival in Groningen (NL).

Download it here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/4jjn6lz6jbkn/n/OMM_Coachella_Indio_CA_April_12_2013_mp3

BLUR
Blur are an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1988 as Seymour, the group consists of singer/keyboardist Damon Albarn, guitarist/singer Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure (1991) incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing. Following a stylistic change influenced by English guitar pop groups such as The Kinks, The Beatles and XTC, Blur released Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife (1994) and The Great Escape (1995). As a result, the band helped to popularise the Britpop genre and achieved mass popularity in the UK, aided by a chart battle with rival band Oasis in 1995 dubbed "The Battle of Britpop".

Download it here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/786bq66p2t7x/n/B_Coachella_Indio_CA_April_12_2013.rar

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT
The Airborne Toxic Event is an American indie rock band from Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California. It consists of Mikel Jollett (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steven Chen (guitar, keyboards), Noah Harmon (electric bass, upright bass, backing vocals), Daren Taylor (drums) and Anna Bulbrook (viola, keyboards, tambourine, backing vocals). The band released its debut self-titled album in 2008 and released its follow-up album, All at Once, on April 26, 2011. Named after a section of the book White Noise, by Don DeLillo, the group is known for its blend of rock music and orchestral arrangements, having performed frequently with the Calder Quartet, a string quartet based in Los Angeles.

Download it here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/9kdtvfayn7z/n/TATE_Coachella_Indio_CA_April_14_2013_mp3

PHOENIX
Phoenix is a alternative rock band from Versailles, France, consisting of Thomas Mars, Deck d'Arcy, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz.

Download it here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/1b4docb2nnf7/n/P_Coachella_Indio_CA_April_13_2013_mp3

Flac version:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/5360pcmqnmbl/n/P_Coachella_Indio_CA_April_13_2013_flac

SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING OLD

The hangover weekend after the Van Halen concert, that event still swirling in my mind.  The craving for more pushed me into making new arrangements to get a second dose of their on stage party.  I tried drowning out the sound with new music this Firday and Saturday night.

Beastie Boys
Paradiso Amsterdam June 21, 1994

And now for something totally diffeent...in recognition of a) Adam Yauch's recent passing and b) Tony having gotten a tattoo on his arm noting the band and their second studio album, Paul's Boutique, I looked for and found the excellent soundboard recording of the Beastie boys performing in Amsterdam. The Beastie Boys are an American hip hop band from New York City, that originally formed as a four-piece hardcore punk band in 1979. For the majority of its career, the group has consisted of three MCs and musicians Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass) and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar). 

Download it here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/c0282a3/n/Beastie_Boys_1994-06-21_Paradiso_2C_Amsterdam_2C_NL__5BSBD_5D.zip

Blur
Roskilde Festival Denmark June 28, 2003

Continuing my exploration of the mid 1990's Britpop scene, brought on by reading John Harris' book "Britpop, Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock", I downloaded Blur's live show at the roskilde Festival in Demark, another excellent soundboard recording.

Wikipedia writes:

Blur are an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1988 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure (1991) incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing. Following a stylistic change—influenced by English guitar pop groups such as The Kinks, The Who, The Beatles and XTC—Blur released Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife (1994) and The Great Escape (1995). As a result, the band helped to popularise the Britpop genre and achieved mass popularity in the UK, aided by a famous chart battle with rival band Oasis dubbed "The Battle of Britpop".

Frontman Damon Albarn went on to form the virtual band Gorillaz, composed of four animated band members created in 1998.  Love their music too.

Download it here:
https://www.rapidshare.com/files/512123223/betruwuwru1.rar
https://www.rapidshare.com/files/3873127674/betruwuwru2.rar

The Ramones
Winterland San Francisco CA December 28, 1978

I was wanting another hit of fast guitars and picked up The Ramones performing live in San Francisco back in 1978 when the punk music scene was in decline after blosseming for just a brief few years .  "One, two , there, four" and off they go!

Download it here:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|684|3613259337|RamlandSFDec281978.rar|111055

The Doors
Live In New York, January 18, 1970

This is show three, performed on the second day of their two day stint in New Your City.  Excellent performance and sound.  Nothing more to say.

"Other highlights abound throughout the set such as “Moonlight Drive” from the third show which is hypnotically perfect in every way. The band is dead-on in backing up one of Morrison’s finest vocal performances complete with the “Horse Latitudes” poem – when the band lays back and let’s Morrison do his thing the performance becomes pure Doors magic, a perfect blend of heavy groove and exotic mysticism."

Read it here:
http://www.musicmookreview.com/2011/05/the-doors-live-in-new-york-1970/

Echo and the Bunnymen
Bologna Teatro Tenda May 17, 1984

The Bunnymen in a decent live recording from a show in northern Italy.  Classic performance.

Download it here:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|776|2517085833|EATB170584.rar|76453