@ZackTeibloom You’ll notice two things from seeing Atoms for Peace live. The first is that Flea makes everything better. Eraser is a strong album, but I feared it could be too slow for a live festival setting. Not with Flea. The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist pumps new life into the album. The second thing you’ll notice is that Thom Yorke and Flea were born to play together. They’re mirrors of each other.

Flea moves with his basslines. Thom moves with the beat in his head. Only when he was at the piano did he ever stop moving. Thom bops around like a retarded muppet. Flea thumps around like an injured velociraptor. Nothing against their dancing. It’s endearing, but eerily similar. Most importantly though, Flea adds a layer to Thom’s music that he’s never had with Radiohead. He adds the trademark Flea funky slap bass sound you’re used to and revitalizes it. Eraser sounded better than ever, but the new tracks are just as exciting. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom I’ve got a bad festival hangover. And I only had one beer this weekend. It was just a lot to take in for one weekend in the desert. We put in 25 hours on the grounds and I saw are 20 shows I would have paid to see any night of the week. I saw my favorite rapper ever and he was everything I dreamed he’d be. I realized Thom Yorke and Flea were made to

It felt like a cross between a day festival and a camping festival. I guess it was. I slept on the floor every night, but had air conditioning and could shower. There was that fest dust in the air (literally. Like ACL when it doesn’t rain.) We crashed every day. And crashed even harder at night. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom “Fuck rehearsals. Fuck rehearsals.” These are the first words from Sly Stone as he finally musters the energy to appear on stage. He’s only 20 minutes late. Well, for their 10:45 start time. It’s currently a little after 11. Your schedule told you they should have gone on at 7. But Sly’s here now. Well, physically, he’s here now. For maybe the last time ever.

If your lead singer has gone off the deep end, there’s a couple ways to handle it as a member of his band. You can carry him. Play on even if he decides to ramble and mumble. It’s the recommended move: just play. Play fast and loud and motion to your sound guy to lower his mic. He won’t notice. Sly’s band didn’t do this. It’s like they collectively decided they’d rather watch Sly lie down on stage and lose his mind than try to carry him. I have a feeling they’ve had to do this before. For decades. Read the rest of this entry »

@AndyShore I knew I wouldn’t hear the end of it if he didn’t go to the Dead Weather after Muse. My dogs were barking after jumping up and down for an hour and a half during Muse. All I wanted to do was sit down. Rob, @MattSilver and I wandered over and found a place towards the back of the crowd where we could sit down, but still see the screen. I dug some of their new tunes, way more than their first album. I took a video of their set, and sat back down. Soon, Tiesto took the stage and we could no longer hear the Dead Weather from our spot. No matter, Tiesto sounded amazing and that’s where the party was. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom It was a tasty first day at Coachella. The crash was easy and painless and I got a wristband so it’ll be easy the rest of the way. We caught pretty much everyone we wanted to see and they were delicious. (Listen to the Podcrash recorded Saturday morning for a full recap in just 9 minutes.)

Jay-Z’s closing set was the steak of Friday night at Coachella. Just ask James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. The bearded, boisterous Murphy called his band the vegan option of the headliners, anointing the raucous, raw rock of Them Crooked Vultures the chicken and decided Vampire Weekend was the fish. OK, let’s push this a little further.

The appetizers were light early on: We started with an amuse bouche of Wale, our first set of the day. I bet Andy we wouldn’t get into the fest in time to see Wale start at 2:35. He went on at 3:10. An Amuse Bouche is supposed to be that small, but not a rap set. How did everyone else taste?

Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Episode two of “The Podcrash” has us eagerly going over our top-10 Coachella must-see lists and giving each other a hard time for our choices. I realize how badly I messed up on my Girl Talk stage dive, Andy tells me about a new toy he bought for the festival and we argue about why I have Muse so low on my list and why Andy doesn’t have LCD Soundsystem or Jack White, I mean The Dead Weather, on his list at all.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 2 HERE Read the rest of this entry »