ThisNext Blog

Who’s going to Coachella this year? I haven’t been since 2005, where some of the highlights included watching New Order play “Transmission” by Joy Division, getting my ears brutally assaulted by Blood Brothers, and falling asleep during Bright Eyes’ end-of-day set (seriously - how often do you get to have Conor Oberst sing you to sleep?).

I’ll probably be heading back again this year, since I love Red Hot Chili Peppers way too much. It’ll be my fourth time seeing the band but my first live RHCP experience since the release of last year’s Stadium Arcadium, a double album that Fred Wilson describes as a “guitar lover’s record” featuring “almost 2 hours of quality music.” My favorite Chili Peppers album, though, will probably always be Blood Sugar Sex Magik, one of the first records I ever really fell in love with.

A year after Blood Sugar’s release came Rage Against The Machine’s eponymous debut, which esh very succinctly sums up in this shopcast: “Heavy. Hard. Driving. Intense. Angry. Loud.” Coachella will be the band’s first gig since disbanding in 2000, and we’re quite sure that they’ll still be pulling out those “explicit anti-establishment lyrics” that esh warns us about.

Also anti-establishment in his own special way, Girl Talk will be bringing his ridiculously awesome brand of illegal art to one of the desert tents this spring. Hailed as one of best records of 2006 by Rolling Stone and practically every music blogger on the planet, Night Ripper steals a whole slew of classic rock, modern rock, hip-hop, and pop tracks, then tosses them all into the blender to create the most genius mash-up ever. Seriously, if you haven’t heard Girl Talk yet, get thee to Looking At Them and download an mp3 of “Smash Your Head,” which squeezes all these songs into three crazy minutes:

- X-Ray Spex “Oh Bondage Up Yours”
- Fall Out Boy “Sugar, We’re Going Down”
– Trina “Don’t Trip”
– SWV “I’m So Into You”
– Public Enemy “Rebel Without A Pause” / James Brown - “Get Up Offa That Thing”
– Lil Wayne “Fireman”
– Young Jeezy “Over Here”
– Nirvana “Scentless Apprentice”
– Young Jeezy “Soul Survivor”
– The Pharcyde “Passing Me By”
– Elton John “Tiny Dancer”
– The Notorious B.I.G. “Juicy”
– Beyonce Knowles “Check on It”
– Juelz Santana “Clockwork”

I’m maybe most psyched about seeing Girl Talk, but I’m also quite aflutter about witnessing my first Bjork performance since her tour behind 2001’s Vespertine. Another devoted Bjork fan, userboy regards Homogenic (featured in the box set Surrounded) as her “masterpiece,” cautioning that “you may hazard blowing up your speakers while listening to this album.”

Among the dozens of other hands hitting the desert are FredWilson’s beloved Arctic Monkeys, the always happy-making Manu Chao, Peter Bjorn and John (a favorite for Ohsweetheart), and Arcade Fire. I caught the latter at 2005’s Coachella, and their set smashed to bits any doubts I had about whether the band was actually worth a damn. Oh, and they do this thing where a couple of the guys put on helmets and play drums on each other’s heads, which rules so hard.

See more of my Coachella 2007 list at ThisNext.