Day 3 @ Coachella

Phosphorescent

I went along to Phosphorescent based on 1 song I had heard of theirs, thinking they were a kind of cutesy acoustic type band… which they weren’t but they presently surprised me with a kind of country blend reminding me of whiskeytown’s earlier music. The band were more about keeping it real then being tight and solid, but I did really enjoy the music.

Twin Shadow

I spent some time just in the tent chilling, fell asleep to this band for a bit actually. The heat was just too intense!

Angus and Julia

I remember when I was working at EMI and Angus and Julia’s first EP came into my hands and I had to put together a bio about the brother and sister duo. Since then I have followed their journey to stardom now based in CA. Again like swell season I felt this show was one that should be indulged in and that the sound leaking from other stages did not provide the best setting for their quiet show. Angus also disappointed, being a whole lot more withdrawn than I expected and coming across as a total recluse who didn’t actually want to be onstage. Julia redeemed it though with a lovely onstage manner. She also played an epic trumpet solo in the middle of private lawns which was wow. I wondered how much the fan in the front row was paid to wave the australian flag for the entire show! 

Fistful of Mercy

Ben Harper… one man you could not not admire… What a star! Again a band I hadn’t heard of before but want to hear much much more of. Just making some sweet music really. I found the vocals of these guys sounded like Neil Young. The band formed when Dhani Harrison (Son of George) invited Ben Harper to play on his record, Ben then invited some guy he had met at a skate park to join them and bam… a band was born. They were just really dreamy and full of layers.

The National

The national are my 2^nd favourite band… but I think I have a lot of second favourite bands… I just love them heaps! I had heard them at an epic show in January so wasn’t expecting them to blow me away too much I was excited for Sam and Aaron and Anna who hadn’t heard them though… but they just jumped into my heart and broke it to pieces! It was another sunset experience with the moon rising up from above the palms which was again just beautiful. I stood there… danced, sung, laughed, cried… such a moving experience. They played several older numbers including a couple of songs off Alligator which was awesome and they really rocked them out. The horn section again was awesome and really made the performance. 

The Strokes

Im not a massive strokes fan but Anna was a huge fan and so I stood in the back for the gig… and man we just danced and danced. What a fun band they were.  Julian Casablancas was a bit of a looser… just came across as a dick, despite his awesomeness.

Kanye West

The finale of the festival and what can I say… To quote Mel Arnold – “Kayne – He is an art form in himself” and really words can not describe the show that Kanye turned on for us… “his true fans” check out these videos for some classic entertainment…

Kanye's speech

The opening of the show

Chariots of Fire...

Day 2 @ Coachella

Freelance Whales

I found these guys on youtube one time and quite liked their sound… a really cool combo of percussion vocals and banjo! They were cool. Vocally I love it when the whole band sings which they did. They also used the xylophone heaps and other percussion.

The tallest man on Earth

It was suggested by of one of Sams friends that we should check out this guy and… afterwards I wanted to marry the tallest man on earth because he was everything I hope and dream of… haha. His music was very folky and reminded me in a really bad way of me trying to compare artists of a cross between Ryan Adams and Damien Rice… in the style of Bob Dylan - which isn’t really what he sounded like but then kind of. He was just so raw and dreamy. The last song he performed was with a chick (speculation of if she was his wife or not but I like to think she wasn’t) which was just glorious.

Foals

I then caught the tail end of Foals… who were to be honest nothing special… they kind of just existed. Which is sad because I have heard so much good things about their live show… maybe one needs to hear the full set?

Two Door Cinema Club

I cant really claim hearing these guys as I left after a couple of songs (for good reasons including promises of a shower) They had such a solid sound and were really tight. I left wanting to check them out more which is always a good thing…

Broken Social Scene

I really like broken social scene… they just do something right. They were ok but just not incredible. They are the sort of band who I think I have huge expectations on in particular their ability to perform at a live show based on the amount of back up they have with a massive band. But in saying that their show was enjoyable, I don’t think their music is something one can hugely kneebop along  to or indulge in the effects and intensity of the music, so I basically lay down in the grass and dreamed away. There is something special about looking at clouds move to the beat. Kevin Drew was also a bit lame… chucking out one liners such as my mum always told me it was important to stay hydrated at festivals, make sure you guys drink lots of water…

Bright Eyes

This video in essence shows everything that is beautiful about Coachella. The sunset was to die for and bought so much more then beauty in was the death of the heat and the arrival of a place you could actually breathe. Bright Eyes… so I was already completely in love with Connor Oberst… something about his tortured genius and ability to make amazing music… But live these guys were just amazing. They played quite a bit of stuff of their new album which has some epic songs on it. I particularly enjoyed their song shell games, and their live rendition of Lover I don’t have to love was pretty heart wrenching. I think in essence the ability for Bright Eyes to be one of those bands that have the perfect ability to cross between dynamics. They also had one of the guys on stage playing trumpet and flugelhorn which won my heart. They had 2 drummers too which just makes for awesome! Connor Oberst I want to marry you…

Mumford and Sons

These were a major drawcard for the festival and one of my deciding factors to attend… and well I was blown away. Mumford and Sons have been a bit of a worldwide phenomenon and the Americans well they just love them, which I couldn’t work out really because they are so British. They opened with Sigh No More which has beautiful vocal opening. They then played hit after hit. They also played a couple of new songs which were just a treat! I often hate it when bands play new material because I don’t know it, but these songs just felt like I had played them on repeat already. The band also had such an energy… just pumping the music out. The horn section was also a total treat. Not playing horn lines but adding to the backline of the music. The tempo changes and dynamic build that the band has were also done so well live taking us from huge climaxes back down to quite patches. I think overall the band just seemed like nice guys and all I could do was fall further in love with them.

The Swell Season

I heard these guys a year ago in Auckland and would list it in perhaps the top 5 musical experiences of my life. Everything about Glen and Marketa is beautiful. At Coachella we made a mad dash from Mumfords Stage to hear them but was sadly disappointed. I think perhaps the fact that they were in between two stages which were both pumping bass paired with a noisy audience, it was difficult to hear them, they also had a really short set so it felt like we had been short changed and the set turned into a blur of confusion really.

Arcade Fire

So here was my pick of the weekend… 11 people on stage, some massive songs, an incredible front man and lady, and a bunch of die hard fans… made for the best gig of the weekend. I love arcade fire and just love them even more now… Win Butler is just a hero as was his wife Regine who managed to play every instrument on stage. They just played hit after hit after hit. Finished their set and then played 3 more hits. I am a huge fan of their latest album which they played quite a bit of but they also played some Neon Bible and Funeral and oh It was just a blur of 2 hours of me in a field dancing with my hands in the air enjoying the glory of epic music! They ended the set with Wake up where there was a massive balloon drop, these balloons were huge though. They dropped white and then when they were dropped they had lights in them and these were all set off at different times to changing patterns. We spent a while afterwards trying to work out the technology behind these as they somehow managed to put a wave of light through the whole crowd of them, which meant they were able to locate the positions of the fallen balloons? UFOs I say!  Ending their encore with Mountains beyond Mountains and then the closing of the strings of suburbs… awwww tear. A memory to hold in my heart always!

Day 1 @ Coachella

All the titles of the bands have links to Live performances some of them from Coachella... enjoy!

Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears

To kick off the music was Black Joe Lewis… We thought the name sounded cool and expected an old country/bluesy band…  which it kinda was however instead of Black Joe Lewis being an old white guy with a beard it was this young black guy who should have been rapping. It was fun music though they had a great horn section and were able to rock out the solos.

Cee Lo Green

Everybody loves the hit Fuck You performed by Cee Lo Green… I thought hey this should be awesome live. Had watched the performance at the Grammys with Gwyneth Paltro and it totally rock out and then listened to some of the other tracks online and found out that Cee Lo Green was also ½ of the brain behind Narls Barkley (think crazy…) so I was quite excited to hear him live… expecting a big band solid sound and an awesome time… firstly he went on about 25 mins late (not the thing to do at Coachella) and was onstage with a high school chick band. The girls seemed so fake and like they had been taught to shake their hair and rock the stage… it was quite a joke to be honest. The music was terrible and as for Cee Lo Green man that guy what a disappointment. He just swaggered across the stage mouthing off. But wait theres more. He came across quite pissed off and after playing 2 songs said he only had time for one more… he said F*** this… are you all F***ing pissed off at this f***ing S***… if you are then hold your middle fingers in the air (seriously I was in fits during this time) and proceeded to play the hit… with an audience of fist pumpers… giving the stage the fingers.

The song was pretty bad, there was a whole lot of fake instrumentation, I don’t even know if the girls were playing? The song ended and it was clear he wasn’t leaving the stage… next thing we know the keyboard starts playing… the intro to… Don’t stop believing… NO KIDDING. Cee Lo gets through the first line and BAM sound gets cut… he looks super angry as the girls continue to play but you cant hear anything and he is escorted off stage… so the audience… immediately reacts with a disappointed and affectionate boo towards the sound desk… and we are left wondering how much was a set up?

Ms Lauryn Hill

So I don’t really know any of Lauryn Hill’s music but Sam convinced me to stick around for it and lets say she was everything Cee Lo Green wasn’t! What a performer. She had a full brass band on stage (sousaphones included) as well as a supportive group of back up vocalists. Even though I didn’t know any of the songs I felt I had loved her for years and was able to dance the evening away! What a treat. Soul singing at its best!

Cold War Kids

We then headed over to the smaller stage for Cold War Kids. I discovered these guys about a year ago (Thanks Jess Armstrong) and while I didn’t love them immediately there was something that kept drawing me back. I think the music is quite intelligent with clever time, key and tempo changes. I thought hey yea lets check them out… and WOW I was pleasantly surprised by their awesomeness live. The band also came across really well which I liked, seemed like nice guys. Sam also thought that one of the guitarists went to his school? They played a bit of new stuff which I am not usually up for but I really enjoyed it, it seemed a bit more mellow but still upbeat. He played a couple of songs at the piano which were quite cool. I think I also really appreciated the lyrics, they were so deep and insightful. The other winning factor for this set was that it was at sunset… which was breathtaking. 

Cut Copy

I wanted to hear the aquabats and ended up catching the back end of Cut Copy’s set. What a great time. These guys were really solid and seemed really tight.

The Aquabats

The aquabats… takes me back to my days of ska and the good times it brings. These guys are a total fun band but they pulled out all the stops that makes Ska the funnest music out! They all dress up as aqua super heros… wearing lycra wet suits, swimming caps and goggles.  They had a full visual show which was made up of movie clips from all over the place, with cartoon batman style POW WAM BAMs included. They also utilised props on stage which were so lame but awesomely lame. One of my favourite songs was BFF Big Friends Forever and they had a bunch of blow up people onstage. They also bought a huge blow up dinosaur as well as Cave men onstage which they managed to save the world from. Just a fun time! Got my skank on!

Kings of Leon

Im going to be honest… I like to hate on Kings of Leon. I think it’s the rockstar music that just goes nowhere and doesn’t do anything amazing for me… but I thought hey ive got nothing better to do I am going to humble myself and sit in the back… and man was I wrong to doubt their ability to perform. They were amazing. Huge sound, so tight and you could just hear that they had been performing live for a while and knew what they were doing. A lot can be said for a well experienced band. I really really liked their old stuff had a real country blues feel to it. What was also cool about the crowd was that there was room to just sit back lie down and watch the stars. No one can underestimate how life changing live music is under the stars… awesome! and ive never screamed the word SEX so loud!

The Chemical Brothers

We stuck around for these guys who came on about an hour late, we ended up staying for about 4 songs which I really enjoyed. Again such a solid experienced sound. They also had a really cool visual show – which was actually kinda creepy with a weird clown and then a horse that kept running at you.

COACHELLA...

So i am going to do a 3 day update of the music at Coachella then finish up with an overall write up of the Festival... 

COACHELLA...

THE FESTIVAL IS UPON US... 

watch the link for how epically epic this will be!

If y'all interested in my faves heres my top 10 for Coachella below...

Arcade Fire

Mumford and Sons

Bright Eyes

Angus and Julia Stone

Broken Social Scene

The National

Swell Season

Phosphorescent 

Cee Lo Green

Cold War Kids

Santa Monica Dream

* Santa Monica Dream - Angus and Julia Stone - Down the Way

Seriously you should listen to this song its dreamy!

So caught the train to Downtown LA... then Sam told me to catch the big blue bus... not that hard.

But it didnt come and I was eager and so jumped on the 3rd bus I saw that was going to Santa Monica

FAIL!

So basically this bus took me for a 3 hour... (well 2.45) journey through LA! We drove through Hollywood and Beverley Hills and about 50 suburbs in between that physically could not exist...

Finally I arrived at the Beach...

Which wasnt really much of a beach lets be honest...

But it is also the iconic ending of the famous Route 66

On the way... I observed some very very interesting people... lets say Hollywood is a strange place my friends. And the ones who are making it big time... obviously weren't on the bus.

I stopped for a solo Budweiser ... (this was sad)

Then headed back to downtown where I went to this amazing Mexican Street called Olvera St which was a collection of food, shops and people. 

Then caught the Metro back to Pasadena (ive stopped spelling it with 2 ss's) where I went to Target and stoked up on candy (going for the flatmate of the month award 2nd month running)

Then had to negotiate my luggage... seriously i think i might be at the 50kg limit... i didnt even know this was possible. Am going to load up my hand luggage with the heavy stuff shhh dont tell the airline... 

Then... went with Phil who is awesome for Frozen Yoghurt at Pink Berry... mmm frozen yoghurt!

Heading to Coachella tomorrow... which is SUPER EXCITING... such an amazing lineup... 

California Dreaming...

* California Dreaming - The Mammas & The Pappas

So really just been having a dreamy time in Pasadena. Doing the things that Californians do... shopping, movies, drinking beer...

Saw the most INCREDIBLE film today... seriously am highly recommending this one... Of Gods and Men...  this is Living Life.

Peace out y'all!

Sunset Boulevard

* Sunset Boulevard - Andrew Lloyd Webber

Soooo today obviously i went to Sunset strip... where dreams come true... also for the record... Hotel California is not in San Francisco but in Mexico... Ill believe anything though.

Today just another dreamy day in California!

Headed to the Getty... (which is an art museum) (in Bel Air) was awesome this guy Andrew drove us all out... cruising the freeways how you do it here.

The garden for the gallery was just incredible - and the building was on top of a hill overlooking all of LA.

Walked round the gallery for a few hours... quite enjoyed the Monet and Van Gogh... 

I especially liked Monet's Sunrise... The capturing of light in this work is epic! (i love how I have no idea)

Then headed out to Westwood where the UCLA campus is... and got some Diddy Riese seriously this is the most explodable business idea... I am so opening one of these in Auckland. The queue was out of control, out the door and down the road... but the outcome was SO worth it.

Mint Choc Chip between mnm cookies... awww man

Then headed to this middle eastern place for dinner which was SO yum... ate myself till stuffed. Apparently (or so andrew told me but he told me alot of stuff like he showed me his house in Bel Air where he grew up...) they nickname the area Tehrangeles because it is a very Iranian area.

Then headed to Hollywood for a late night cruise... drove the boulevard, as well as through Beverly Hills, saw the play boy mansion and probably heaps of other famous peoples houses... felt like i was in Entourage... cruising with the sounds pumping! 

Do you know the way to San Jose...

* Do you know the way to San Jose - Dionne Warwick - Valley of the Dolls

Basically there are so many signs directing you to San Jose in San Francisco you cant possibly not know the way!

I wasnt going to blog today as it was a pretty boring day... just travelling really.

BUT... in my shuttle on the way to Pasadena... we dropped a guy off at Caltech... which i got excited about because its where Sheldon, Leonard, Wallowitz and Kuthripali work!

Later I found out its actually famous because Einstein went there or something... mhe!

Arrived in LA its a pretty blah looking city or at least the drive from the airport was... has some nice hills!

Also had a epic fail when i tried to check in for the wrong airline... whoops! always read your ticket... where it says American Airlines not United Airlines! got there in the end!

Welcome to the Hotel California...

Hotel California - The Eagles - Hotel California Album

Because today... I saw... THE Hotel California... 

Prepare yourself for a long one because today has been a LONG day!

So I have 1 day in San Fran… so determined to make the most of this I decided to purchase a bus ride thingy which takes me… everywhere!

Headed towards the golden gate bridge - went over the bridge, which was incredibly windy and cold. Stopped at the “vista” point that’s what they call lookout points over here… got the photos. Also was quite excited as was the guide and the New Zealand couple next to me because at this “vista point” they have… pohutukawa trees! Real ones!

Then we headed down to Sausalito which is the rich part of the bay – apparently it is one of the riches areas per capita in the whole of the US and has the highest average house price in the States.

It was amazing though! I could have spent the whole day there as opposed to 20 minutes. It has heaps of galleries and coffee and wine shops. Is just generally “cute” and sophisticated. Is located on the coast and there was this quaint little fishing port. I felt like I was in Portsmouth or somewhere. We also saw the the dock that inspired Otis Redding. (which was going to be my song until…)

We headed back to San Fran and that was the bridge tour. I then hopped on the bus to do the downtown tour. This took us everywhere really… Fishermans Wharf, Ferry Building, City Hall, Union Square, Chinatown, The financial district, Italian district, Lombard Street, Pier 39… basically San Francisco in a nutshell.

I hopped off in Chinatown and walked through the area… was completely different to NYC Chinatown… seemed way more legit! Went to this random place Uncles for lunch and had the best Sweet and Sour since Brunei times… was soooo good and cost me $4.55!

Finished the tour at Pier 39 which was quite a weird place to be honest. Very touristy… so basically they had a massive earthquake early 20^th Century and 2 days after a bunch of sea lions arrived on this pier… this is apparently a very exciting thing to look at (if you haven’t been to Kaikoura) and so around it is this hideous Americany fair ground slash concentration of tourist gift shops… mhe.

I did go to a bakery though where you can buy shaped bread… like lobsters and crabs! was amazing!

I then decided I was going to find the City Lights bookshop… which I had heard about and was interested in going to. So tried to find it because I thought it was in the Fishermans Wharf area… I literally wandered for about an hour then was able to steal the Hilton’s wifi and googled it to find it wasn’t in that area but in Chinatown… so I trekked for about 30 minutes up a massive hill to find this bookshop… but it was so worth it.

Founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights is one of the few truly great independent bookstores in the United States, a place where booklovers from across the country and around the world come to browse, read, and just soak in the ambiance of alternative culture's only "Literary Landmark." Although it has been more than fifty years since tour buses with passengers eager to sight "beatniks" began pulling up in front of City Lights, the Beats' legacy of anti-authoritarian politics and insurgent thinking continues to be a strong influence in the store, most evident in the selection of titles.

The book shop The City Lights mast head says A Literary Meetingplace since 1953. Ferlinghetti, the guy who opened it (he was a writer/poet) used to say it was as if the public were being invited, in person and in books to participate in that ‘great conversation’ between authors of all ages, ancient and modern.

And I love that!

So basically was in heaven! They had upstairs a poetry room where they had gatherings… oh man I could have actually spent hours there…

Was really bad and totally couldn’t resit a hardcopy of the first print edition of On the Road… heavy luggage or what! But seriously… I was so stoked!

Then popped into the alley way next door where… Dylan did the photo shoot for Blonde on Blonde… and then to Vesuvio which is the bar next door… which was frequented by several beat generation celebrities…

So that was all just a whirlwind of magic!

I then ran back down to Fishermans Wharf to catch the 6’oclock night tour bus… picking up a gelato in the Italian part on the way.

Caught the night tour bus around a different route of the city was cool.

Did you know… That there is this statue in Union sq here where they needed a girl to pose naked for it (see statue below) so this art student did it, and then she became really popular and then ended up marrying the richest man in San Francisco who was 28 years older then her. He was the richest man as he held the monopoly on sugar… and thus the term “sugar daddy” was born!

And then we headed up to Nob Hill where we drove down Stiener street and saw the seven ladies which… the yellow one is the house on Full House… (see previous post)

So really that was my day… I have a mixture of sun burn and wind burn…

See how windy it is!

LA tomorrow!

Have Mercy...

I decided this needed to be a standalone blog post... for those of you who aren't fans... this is Stiener Street the home of... Danny, Djay, Stephanie, Michelle, Uncle Joey, Uncle Jessy, Aunty Rebecca and the twins... Oh YEA!

What a Wonderful World

* What a Wonderful World - Eva Cassidy - Wonderful World Album

5:15 am Alarm goes off

5:17 am Roxie wakes up

5:19 am Roxie gets out of Bed

5:30 am Roxie walks to the “meeting point”

Ok so I had to walk through the army base in pitch black at this time of the morning… and then wait on some random corner hoping that the “bus” would know it was me… problem… there are 4 corners to a crossroads. 2^nd problem… San Fransisco has a lot of homeless people – (apparentley this is illegal in some states! But San Fran offer free meals and showers) which isn’t a problem unless you’re a female waiting alone on a corner at 6am… it was ok though… they just drove their trolley past as I held my breath.

6:00 am the bus picks me up…

And the journey to Yosemite begins.

The trip is 4 hours there and 4 hours back with about 6 hours spent in the national park. The journey there was quite exciting and it was a great way to see a bit more of America. We passed a wind power valley which has over 7500 windmills… it was amazing to see them scattered all over the hills. We then drove through the San Joaquin Valley – this apparently provides approx 50% of all America’s produce… as well as being the home of the Almond producing over 80% of the worlds almonds!

We then stopped in Oakdale – a town of approx 20,000 people that named themselves ‘The Cowboy Capital of the World’ because once a year they have a rodeo… anyways – there was this GIANT supermarket complex (I don’t know how they sustain this) where we stopped to pick up lunch etc… The other thing about Oakdale is that they had like a zillion churches like no kidding I saw at least 20! and that was just the main road. The guide said that he thought there were more seats in the churches then people that populated Oakdale... 


To Yosemite. The park was cool – not quite as spectacular as I expected but still massive and awe inspiring. The park features a giant Sequoia grove (redwood trees for the unlearned) which we couldn’t see as it was too high up and was snowed out. Several giant waterfalls (one is the 4^th highest in the world?) huge granite rock faces as well as an amazing national park filled with wildlife… Black Bears included. The bears were all in hibernation however I did see a couple of deer and a million squirrels.

The rock faces were pretty impressive, apparently it has the largest concentration of granite in the world. The waterfalls only form in the winter/spring as the snow melts but dry up in the summer.

The weather was incredible. I packed a bag with boots, thermals, extra scarfs, hat and jumper… and ended up walking round the park in a tshirt with my jeans rolled up (kiwi). But that golden sun… wao California Baby!

\Probably the best part was our guide... Rick. He was Brazilian and had the most legit accent. He sounded mexican and reminded me of rob schnider maybe? i could just imagine him saying coco loco? He was just generally hilarious and talked and talked and made the funniest jokes and was just "crazy" as he kept telling us. At the end of the tour he said - you will never forget me i will always be a part of your life... genuinely a legend!


Driving home through Oakland... (Full House reference... the one where they think they are going to Oakland and they end up in Auckland New Zealand - this episode holds a special place in my heart!)

We finished off the trip with a view of San Fran at night from the other side of the Bay Bridge...

Shame about the iPhones capacity to take night photos :(