BEST OF COACHELLA : SMALL PRINT EDITION - SATURDAY

LET’S TALK COACHELLA.

The number one festival in the West Coast. Like at this point its inarguable, no? Sure there’s Lightning in a Bottle and Outside Lands and Desert Hearts, but do any of those places hit the high highs and weird weirds that Coachella does? We’re excited! The lineup dropped and we’ve been digging like mad, like we’re looking for clams or something. In fact we found some bomb-ass clams. The kind you pay the big money for at a fancy restaurant. Music-clams bomber than the big names on the lineup even. I mean who cares about Tame Impala when there’s Four Tet? Who can be bothered about Ariana Grande headlining the festival, when they’re likely to program the return of Gesaffelstein at the exact same time. This lineup is deeper than deep even knew deep could get. There’s more exciting underground, international acts on this lineup than ever before. Sure, the festival market is oversaturated, so the Coachella team went and evolved with it.

Ain’t going to see another lineup like this out there, that’s for sure. We’re excited to present to you our top ten list of acts we’re most excited to see in the smaller font sizes. We’ve been doing this for five years now and we’ll continue doing it until the festival ends or the internet explodes, whichever comes first. Truth is, most of this has been a lie the past couple of years. I’ve been writing these articles consistently from 2015 - 2018, but I’ve also taken those years off from the festival. I’m admitting to blog-perjury here people. 2019 is a big year for this website and the festival because it’s my glorious return. Sahara turned to side? What is the Sonora? WHO EVEN CARES? Give us the selections!

Woo, let’s listen!  Make sure to check out our Friday & Sunday posts too.

SMINO

For those of you down with that Chance the Rapper / Anderson. Paak sound, let us introduce you to Smino. This dude is super chill, with the kind of flow that didn’t even exist five years ago. No shade, I’m loving it. This is the evolution, the kind of hip-hop that absolutely crushes at Coachella. I’ll gladly watch this under the sweltering sun at the Outdoor Stage begging for the set. Will you be there next to me? Can I have a hit of your joint? Thanks.

SiR

Vibey, washed out R&Bwave. This is literally the perfect sound to almost get heatstroke to. You don’t need to do much, just sit in the grass and sway. Make it in early to chill out to this one. But don’t rush in or anything, that wouldn’t fit the energy.  WE GOTTA GET TO SiR is going to put you in a really strange headspace for this one.

IDRIS ELBA

Don’t you want to be able to say you saw James Bond play Coachella? Sure, it’s not exactly Hollywood official locked down or anything, but if Idris Elba (Stringer Bell of the Wire) gets cast as the next Bond you’re gonna be like “goddamnit, I could have seen him play house music!” Don’t sleep. Who cares if he’s even good (he is), this is the best celebrity you’re going to see outside of VIP (for sure. 

PARCELS

Truth is, there aren’t a lot of guitars on the lineup. So I think we must treasure the ones that are present and accounted for. Parcels have that Vampire Weekend / Phoenix sound down pat which means in two years they’ll be headlining this very same festival with people scratching their heads as to how they blew up so fast, but it’s really just that people are desperately craving solid indie grooves. Parcels got the solidest indie grooves. Parcels 2021.

STEPHAN BODZIN

We had so much trouble last year, picking the best techno to highlight, so we just put four in the same header and called it a day. Coachella’s techno lineups are just too damn amazing to not give all of the love to. But the question remains who are we most excited for.... Sure we could highlight Nicole Moudaber, Nic Fanciulli, Amelie Lens (special rep to Lens for being a hard one to catch stateside), Charlotte De Witte, Patrice Bäumel, and Lauren Lane just to name drop a couple of artists we’re familiar with, but we’ve chosen Stephan Bodzin as the must see for the heads. This is bound to be a hypnotic minimal techno set, one you get so deeply lost in and come out a completely changed person. You’re friends won’t even recognize you anymore.

CLOZEE

Coachella doesn’t really mess around too much with bass genre, but I certainly do. CloZee feels more like a Do Lab artist than one actually on the lineup, which makes this booking really really cool. The decision behind this one seems to involve the Coachella powers that be branching out into fields they don’t normally touch with some French funky world-music glitch. What this says to me is that the festival is evolving in ways we can’t even imagine. Whatever the case, this is some top notch behind the scenes decision making. Let’s make the kids heady.

A R I Z O N A

Pure pop rock. Once upon a time the fest is thrived on acts like this, so now we are legally required by law to treasure the few we have remaining. Plus my Uber driver the other day was really into them and bumping them on the whole ride and I was like “damn this is catchy” and he’s like “bet your ass bro. You going to Coachella? You gotta catch them.”  And I’m like “I’ll take your word for it, actually I’ll shout it out loud on the blog I write for.” We both gave each other five stars. Very positive experience. I expect the same out of this set.

JAMBINAI

Korean post rock? Godspeed! You Black Emperor with Korean folk instruments that I’ve never even heard of? Haegeum! Piri! Geomungo! What? Now I sure as hell need to see those instruments played live.  This is one of the biggest ex-factors on the lineup and I have to wonder if this will be at noon (with no one there) or at 11PM closing out a tent (also with no one there).  I’m sure excited either way to wander by this one and ask myself what the hell are those instruments and the noises they are making.

THE GARDEN

I was LOOKING for the punk act. And here it is. Turns out there’s a couple, but this is the only one that lines up directly with my steez.  Kinda grunge, lots of fun, not too heavy, not too sundazed-- just right. This is not a particularly heavy-hitting Coachella, leaning more on pop and soul than previous years, so if you need to get some aggression out (but not too much), the Garden might be your best bet. 

SUPERORGANISM

The dopest weirdness. This is one of those names that was on the verrrry bottom that had me squealing like an excited pig (not the Deliverance kind, like the just found some truffles kind). Superorganism is like if The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots really was fronted by a fourteen year old girl (she’s 18). This is the kind of strange that I crave at Coachella. Glad to see they programmed just for me. And you. As a reader of this site you’re already familiar with them I’m sure. This is just a reminder.

Hope you really enjoyed all of these songs. Like we really really do. Our self worth depends on it. Please don’t let us down. Please enjoy. Whether you see these acts or not is up to you.

For Friday’s must see small print acts click here.

Image: Photo by Andrew Ruiz on Unsplash

From deep within the murky depths of the Los Angeles River emerged a creature: 50% raver, 50% comedian, 10% Robotcop. Kurt Kroeber doesn’t own a dog, operates Soundbleed (the world’s only dance party comedy talk show rave), and is down to party with you. Come up some time and say “Hey dude!” But definitely make sure to casually drop the secret Illuminati password.