Posts tagged with local natives
07/21/2010
Day 3. Ah, day 3. You cruel temptress, with your best lineup ever when you know that I barely have the energy left to make it there in the first place. I knew day 3 would be a great and exhausting day, but I don’t think I really had any idea how right I would be. I think I caught a at least a little of every act save 3 or 4 that day and I have the pictures to prove it. Things I learned on day 3 (plus a whole boatload of pictures from day 3):
07/15/2010
It’s time for another edition of the remix roundup! Today, we’re going to focus on a few remixes I’ve gotten in the inbox that were just taken to places that I never would have even dreamed based on the originals. Now, I know what you’re thinking. A remix roundup? Really? You post a remix just about every day. Well, that just may be so. But in this case, these remixes are so shockingly different from their originals that they just had to go together. So deal wit’ it.
First up is this crazy wild version of “Wide Eyes” by Local Natives, remixed by none other than Lewis Pesacov of fellow Los Angeles band Fool’s Gold. Now, be warned. If you are a Local Natives purist, do not listen to this. But if you’re willing to take a chance and jump into a total hip-hop rework (complete with a verse from MC Aristotle Pop A Bottle), then click play below. It’s definitely an interesting approach that strangely sort of works.
Local Natives – Wide Eyes (Fool’s Gold Remix)
Now, on a similar note, when you think of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, one of the last things you think of is house and/or techno. But Turbotito somehow envisioned this in his mind, I’m not quite sure how, and again, most surprisingly, it kind of makes sense. I guess the use of “Desert Song” was a pretty good start since it definitely has a different sound than most of the album. But I think this remix is pretty hot in a “how the hell did you think of this?” kind of way.
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Desert Song (Turbotito remix)
Ok, now if all that was a little too much for you, let’s try something a little more subtle to round things out. Alvin Risk has remixed the excellent Laura Veirs track “July Flame” which we happen to love and have posted before. It’s definitely not nearly as adventurous as the remixes above, but it’s still a fan-frickin-tastic embellishment of the original track. But that being said, the way he rocks out and cuts up the last few minutes of the track is definitely pretty unexpected as well.
Remember that awesome Cults remix a few weeks back courtesy of Brian Healey aka Brainbheats? Well he just dropped another killer remix, this time of one of my favorite Local Natives tunes, “Who Knows Who Cares?” He turns the track upside down, taking the slower tune and giving it a lightning fast electronic beat (especially in the second half. DAMN) and I can’t even describe the other electronic sounds going on but his soundcloud page tags the track with “gritty” “trashwave” and “electrodub”. It’s tough buying into remixes of songs when I love the originals as much as this one, but it totally works. I think the highlight might be the little breakdown at the 3:02 mark. Sick.
05/12/2010
After seeing Local Natives at Coachella last month, I could not wait to see them again at a much more intimate venue (although I would argue that the Mojave Tent on that Sunday afternoon was a pretty intimate affair too). Elyse and I had dinner at Grizzly Peak before stopping at the car to pick up the camera (which, it turns out, I would have been just as happy not having on this night), and on our way, I saw a short guy (I’m short, so I’m allowed to say that) with a mustache and a poncho approaching. I thought to myself, that HAS to be the guy from the band. But then as he got closer, I decided it was just some guy on the phone. Then I heard him say something about Local Natives, and we decided that it wasn’t him, because he wouldn’t have said Local Natives, he would have just said “us”.
We got there at about 8:15 and waited in a line around the corner. I figured I’d be fine getting up front with the doors at 8 and nobody ever getting to shows on time, but I clearly underestimated the average Local Natives fan. We finally got in around 8:45 and I realized I was kind of screwed for pictures despite my best efforts, so decided to just enjoy the show, but not before a run in with the door woman from hell. I gave the guy with the list my ID and he told me I had a +1, to which I replied, “Oh cool, I didn’t know that.” But, Elyse already had her ticket, so we didn’t even need it. To which the door woman bitchily said, “What is it? Take your friend to work day? Gimme a break.” I was sort of appalled, since I didn’t even know I had a +1, nor did I need one, but I let it go. Then she later made an out of line comment about me trying to grease the guest list and then I got PISSED. I don’t know who she thinks she is. Another friend of mine actually is friends with her and said she was just frustrated that people were trying to get on the guest list all night. Well then don’t take it out on the people who were already on it. Anyway, I’m not a hateful person, and I would never hit a woman, but I wouldn’t have minded kicking that gal in veej for her misdirected frustrations. Sorry, I just needed to vent a little.
On a much lighter/better/happier note, I knew that my twitter friend Seraphina’s sister would be at the show, so I tried to get some visual cues as to what she looked like, and got a picture sent back. Turns out she was standing directly next to me the whole time! Go figure.
First up was Brooklyn’s Suckers. I didn’t really know much about them and was less than overwhelmed after their first track. But a funny thing happened during their set. I actually began to like them! I can’t even begin to describe what they sounded like, but I knew that I didn’t hate it. They sounded nothing like Local Natives but were a great accompaniment.
After a relatively short break, the five members of Local Natives took the stage. They opened up with Camera Talk and didn’t give up the rest of the hour or so that they played. Here are a few things I love so much about seeing them live. Just about every member of the band takes turns singing lead. I feel like I didn’t know that just from listening to the album, and it shows how talented they are. On top of that, they keep it fresh on stage by changing spots, switching instruments a bit (complete with just about everyone playing some sort of drum at some point) and sharing the spotlight. And, of course, they just kill those harmonies live. This definitely came off better at Coachella than at the Blind Pig just because the speakers were so much more intense, but they still sounded great. Speaking of intense, let’s talk about their intensity. This is something else I don’t really notice as much when listening to their album (mostly because I’m often sitting at my desk at work with the speakers turned low), but so many of their songs have these big hits, and they really blow them up live. That’s when the random drums come into play that I mentioned before. Oh, and how can we forget about the singalongs? I think I even mentioned this before, but my favorite song live is probably World News, mostly because the crowd always erupts into a spontaneous singalong of the “oh oh oh oh oh oh ohhhhhh ohhhhhhhh oh oh” parts. You know the ones I’m talking about. Every other song becomes a singalong too, but this is my favorite.
Also, I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know “Warning Sign” was a Talking Heads cover.
They encored with a raucous “Sun Hands” and we all left with big smiles on our faces, but not before stopping at the 8-Ball (the bar in the basement of the Blind Pig) to enjoy a smoke free post show drink. Let me just mention again about how flippin’ happy I am that Michigan is finally smoke free.
Summary: See Local Natives live at a venue near you. NOW.
Since my pictures are so few this time, here’s the brand new hot off the press a few days ago video for “World News”.
And here’s another tune to whet your appetites.
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or amazon
For the last three days, you’ve all been hearing about the video. I’ve never made a video before, so I was a bit worried about it, but just tried to capture as many moments in time as I could in hopes that they could be spliced together into something not terrible. And now that the video is complete (thanks to iMovie being super easy to use), the time has come to share it with the world! I’m mostly happy because normally I would talk about doing something like this and find myself with 15 seconds of video at the end of the weekend. So I was happy to learn that I can, in fact, sometimes follow through.
WARNING: This was all shot on my old point and shoot camera, so the quality is going to look extremely grim in comparison to any other Coachella videos you’ve likely already watched. But I think it gives mine a more “authentic” feel to it. The everyday man’s Coachella recap video.
The theme of the video, much like the weekend, is night and day. And this seemed to be the perfect song to use for such a theme.
Here are some other final thoughts on the weekend, and then I will stop talking about Coachella, except for constantly and incessantly referencing it.
- This was my first Coachella ever, so I have no frame of reference, though it seemed like a lot of people were bitching about how crowded it was. Compared to other fests I’ve been to, this was by far the least crowded, and not only that, it was extremely easy to get relatively close up for almost any show, minus maybe a headliner or two, without camping out all day. It seemed that for the most part, this crowd didn’t really stick around from one show to the next, so if you were in position as soon as the previous show ended, you could usually get within the first 15 or 20 rows without a problem. Major plus.
- Favorites of the weekend. In no particular order, Fever Ray (queen of darkness), Local Natives (killer afternoon set. Just killer), Miike Snow (they always bring the heat, but it got even more broughten in a packed tent as the sun went down), Aeroplane (of all the fantastic DJs I saw all weekend, their mix of songs was the most right up my alley. And they saved what started out a miserable day). Honorable mention to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. I loved everything about it but I couldn’t get over the vocal issues. That being said, they got huge bonus points for happiness, quirkiness and energy and general fun. But really, I enjoyed most of the acts I saw quite a bit.
- Wish I would’ve seens. Thom Yorke, not sure what I was thinking on this one. Hot Chip, because I don’t know when I’ll get to see these guys again. Deadmau5, despite conflicting with Fever Ray and even though I just saw him recently, mostly because of this video I saw of his SIIIIIIIICK dj table. Shit looks crazy!
- I said it before, but the Sahara tent is off the hinges. The crazy lights and all day dance party are not to be missed. The only downside, the kids and their drugs. I’m not juding anyone based on what drugs they want to take, but I am judging people who are stupid and irresponsible about it. I had at LEAST 5 people directly surrounding me throughout the weekend just collapse and pass out. It was really gross to see. At the Gorillaz show, the guy behind me collapsed right on his face and didn’t wake up for a solid ten minutes. His friends’ response? “He’s done this a few times today, but he always gets right back up.” Like I said, I’m not juding anyone’s recreational drug use, but at least try to be responsible about it, and look out for your friends. It didn’t help that most of these people looked like they were barely old enough to drive a car.
- Cancellations. Shit happens, and it sucks. Nothing anyone could have done about any of it, but still grim to say the least. But overall I was happy with the acts I did get to see. And the people who are like “I maybe saw one good performance this weekend” on the message boards need to stop going to shows, because what’s the point if you never have a good time?
- The overall ambiance of the fest is the best I’ve ever experienced. The Chicago skyline as the backdrop of Lollapalooza is pretty spectacular, but being surrounded on all sides by endless palm trees and mountains is both spectacular and extremely relaxing.
- The layout of the fest is also one of the best I’ve seen. The long and narrow Lolla setup leads to inevitable clusterfucks left and right. And Bonaroo’s circular setup is a better alternative. But it seems like it only takes 10 minutes to walk from one end of Coachella to the other. A major plus when you’re trying to catch consecutive shows at opposite stages. The setup does lead to some issues, however, like when the whole world was trying to see MGMT and the crowd was essentially surrounding the Outdoor Stage (where the band was performing) and extended all the way back through the Gobi and Mojave tents.
- Cameras. What do people think about bringing their nice cameras? I saw millions of them and it seemed like security was allowing them for some reason, so I was debating all weekend if I wished I would have brought mine. I think that I wouldn’t want to have to worry about it getting damaged, a very distinct possibility in those crowds, but I was also pretty underwhelmed with my shots, so I guess it’s a trade-off. I think a small handheld video camera may be in order for my next fest, however.
- Diplo got some major props this weekend. Aside from what I hear was an absolutely bonkers Major Lazer set, both David Guetta and supergroup Club 75 included “Pon de Floor” in their sets. Not too shabby.
- The tents. The tents are good and bad. If you are inside the tent, they are amazing. I love the enclosed feel, the shade they provide, and the great sound. However, when the tents start to overflow and you find yourself on the outside, they kind of blow. But as long as you can arrive a little early to the show you’re seeing, this is usually not an issue.
Misc.
- Throw away your garbage, people.
- Children, stop trying to get to the front 5 seconds before (or after) a show starts with all 45 of your closest friends hand in hand. Spend more time making sure your 45 friends aren’t on course to have a drug-induced death scare before the day is over.
- What’s with all the feathers and face paint?
- There’s going to be traffic whenever tens of thousands of people are in one place. Deal wit’ it. Or drive over the fence like the guy in front of me did, saving me at least a half hour on the way out.
Thanks to Beta Mike for the rad pic above that I stole from him.
Here’s to a great Coachella 2011. I leave with a few remixes by Aeroplane, the act that really kicked things off for me this year.
Our bodies tired and a little sore, it was time for the third and final day of Coachella to begin. I’d been looking forward to the strong day 3 lineup ever since it was released and was glad that there were not too many conflicts today. Since Delphic had to cancel thanks to Icecanogate, our day was going to start out with an early afternoon set by Local Natives, a band that I didn’t know was among my favorites until today.
There’s really something special about a nice early afternoon set in a tent. It’s a great atmosphere (especially when palm trees can be seen behind the tent) and can really set the tone of the whole day. All I can say after this performance is that I am beyond stoked that I will be seeing them twice more this summer (including a tiny show at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor). The energy was almost incomprehensible at times and their songs took on a whole new life on the live stage. Anyone who has the chance to see these kids live need to do it. As my friend Peabs said, Local Natives justified the price of his ticket and everything else was just gravy. The vocals were spot on (and harmonies are such a huge part of their music, so this was a good thing) and a lot of songs turned into big singalongs, namely the crazy parts of “Sun Hands” and the “oh oh oh oh ohs” of “World News”. Oh boy, I almost can’t imagine my head not exploding had Delphic nailed a set right before this. Here’s two bad pictures of the band. I believe the second was during the insane section of “Sun Hands”
buy it on or amazon
We sat around for a bit until 3:45 because my friend Sarah was going to be spinning at the Green Stage, you know, the stage that has giant hamster wheels, a see-saw, hand cranks and stationary bikes, all used to create energy to run the stage. Her set was great and she gathered a pretty nice crowd, but I have to say it was pretty difficult riding that bike for more than ten minutes on a 90 degree day on the third day of a music fest. But it was pretty fun anyway, and it was great to see a long lost friend, especially since we’d been talking Coachella for so long.
Next up was another highly anticipated act, Club 75 (who I often mistakenly refer to as Beat 75). This DJ supergroup is made up of Busy P, Cassius (who I must say looks exactly how I envisioned him to look….extremely French), Justice and Mehdi. The set was pretty fun but I think in my head I envisioned this to be a Justice show, which clearly is not what it ever was advertised to be. And apparently when you’re 15 it’s still cool to start a mosh pit. After sweating up a storm we headed back out to take another breather, because next up was Miike Snow. Sorry for no pics. The bright backdrop sort of washed out all of the people. But video footage has been obtained.
This marks my third time seeing Miike Snow live. The first was at Lollapalooza last year, when I had no idea who or what Miike Snow was (maybe back when I thought it was a person, not a bad) and only knew that they had something to do with this Vampire Weekend remix that I really liked. Then I was blown away by their live show at Lolla and by mere chance got to catch them in Chicago a few weeks later at a tiny show at the Empty Bottle. So I pretty much knew what was in store for me. And even so, it was one of the rip-roaringest good times I had all weekend. I can’t quite describe what it is, but there’s something so cool about the way they combine great catchy pop tunes with heavy electro in a way that is completely organic and not forced one bit. And the extended electronic jams are just “the whip”. At the end of the set, lead singer Andrew Wyatt again reminded us that if we didn’t know, Miike Snow is the name of a band, and not a person in the band. And then he implored us to tell our friends.
I’m not sure what it was about this performance, but it was by far my favorite of the three that I’ve seen. It just seemed that the jams were harder and the beats were heavier.
It was time to get some food in mah belly (a slice of pizza that was much inferior to the one I devoured on day 1) before heading over to the Pavementhomyorillaz extravaganza. I’m not the hugest Pavement fan in the world (I like them, but just haven’t really listened to them in depth) but it was still great to see them and hear a few tunes that I really enjoyed like “In the Mouth a Desert” and the classic “Range Life”. In fact, “Range Life” offered up one of those surreal weekend moments where you kind of just look around at the whole scene and the mountains and palm trees that surround the grounds and smile a little bit.
After that, we decided our priority was Gorillaz so we sort of camped out there. We could hear some of Thom Yorke’s set, but I heard his encore was “Everything in its Right Place” aka one of my favorite Radiohead songs ever, solo on piano. So that was a definite fail on my part. I also hear that Flea is a ridiculous addition to Yorke’s music, so was a little sad to miss that as well, but we can’t make it to everything at these festys, now can we. Especially if we want any sort of line of vision for Gorillaz.
Just before Gorillaz took the stage, I noticed quite a few chairs and music stands on the stage. Were they going to have some sort of orchestra accompanying them tonight? The answer was yes, via a 6-8 member string section. They started out with, appropriately, the Orchestral Intro from Plastic Beach followed by “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach” with a special appearance from Snoop Dogg (if a prerecorded video of Snoop Dogg playing on the big screen counts as an appearance). They played a few older tunes and then hit up some of my Plastic Beach favorites, such as “Glitter Freeze” (which was for sure off the hinges), “Empire Ants” (with a guest appearance by my girl from Little Dragon) and “Melancholy Hill”, among others. Other guest appearances included De La Soul (during “Superfast Jellyfish”) and Bobby Womack (during “Stylo”).
The stage setup was pretty simple but pretty entertaining. There was a large “GORILLAZ” near the bottom just above all the musicians and a giant movie screen showing all kinds of crazy video content, much of which included the cartoon version of Gorillaz, but have no fear, Damon Albarn and company were on stage in the flesh as well performing live.
The group came out for an encore and played “To Binge” (again with vocals from Little Dragon) and a great version of “Feel Good, Inc” that the crowd really got into. And then in a strange turn of events, they brought out Bobby Womack to sing the final song, which I’m not quite sure what it was. And then the weekend was over, just like that. After 5 or 10 minutes when the crowd realized there wouldn’t be a crazy festival ending dance party to “DARE” as so many of us were hoping for at that point in time, we walked back to our cars, most of us completely satisfied with the fantastic weekend we had just experienced, with heavy eyelids and aching feet.
Gorillaz – To Binge feat. Little Dragon
buy it on or amazon
I know you’re all sick of hearing about Coachella from me, but I think you’ll be getting two more pieces of awesome this week, one of them a recap of the festival as a whole (highlights, misses, etc). And the second, the much talked about video. I definitely have lots of clips (it was all about catching little moments in time and connecting them to tell the full story of the fest), but now it’s just a matter of whether or not I can figure out how to edit them together. Although there are 118 of these moments and I haven’t looked at any of them yet, so they may all be scheisse. Wish me luck.
03/15/2010
Like so many of us, I’m so crazy in love with “Gorilla Manor”, the debut album of Los Angeles band Local Natives. It’s been in heavy rotation as of late which is saying quite a bit with the crazy amounts of great new music that have been released as of late. I will without a doubt be catching these kids when I hit up Coachella next month (holy crap, I’m finally going to Coachella next month), especially since they were supposed to be playing in the D based on flyers posted around local venues, but that Detroit tour date was nowhere to be found when the dates were officially announced last week.
While there are so many gems on this album, “Who Knows Who Cares” has been a huge standout for me. I think I sort of consider it a modern day power ballad, with it’s string arrangements, slower tempo and huge huge vocals and harmonies (something Local Natives are oh so great at and that I can’t wait to hear live). It’s funny for me that this song has become a favorite on the album because I’m almost always turned off by the the slower tunes. I feel like this song is the peak of the album. Like every other song has been leading up to it. But I really could have posted any song from this album though and been happy with my decision. I expect big things from these kids in the future.
Local Natives – Who Knows Who Cares
buy it on or amazon
11/11/2009
another track today from a band that got a lot of buzz earlier this year. this time its oxymoronically named los angeles band local natives. theyve been getting much love this year but i havent listened to them other than a few songs ive heard around. but the ones i heard were enough for me to kind of like them. and theyve got some funky art stuff to check out on their website, so thats a bonus too. todays song is “sun hands” and i think what first struck me was the interesting harmonies throughout the song that mimic the opening guitar riffs (something that the dirty projectors do quite successfully all the time as well). theres something a bit mysterious about this whole song that i cant quite put my finger on. maybe its just that its freezing right now, so i cant relate to all of this talk about the sun. just make sure you make it to the big breakdown in the second half of the song when it really gets rockin.
