lineup: Jane's Addiction, Paul Oakenfold,
Weezer, Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, The ORB, The Roots, Roni Size
Reprazent, Gangstarr, Ozomatli, Mos Def, Kruder & Dorfmeister,
Iggy Pop, Tricky, St. Germain, Christopher Lawrence, Dandy Warhols,
Sigur Ros, Photek, Squarepusher, Plaid, Doc Martin, Uberzone, Blonde
Redhead, Jason Bentley, Ian Pooley, Adam Freeland, Pedro The Lion,
Del Tha Funky Homosapien, Souls of Mischief, Bad Company, Raymond
Roker, Jason Blakemore, Z-Trip, MC Supernatural, Medusa, Aceyalone,
Smith & Mighty, Andrea Parker, Nikka Costa, The New Deal, Rinse
& Flux, Detroit Grand Pubahs, AK 1200, DJ Dara, Dieselboy, and
The Nortec Collective
The
second annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is hopefully
the start of a long tradition. Bringing together the best of the world's
top artists and DJs in a beautiful open field lined with palm trees
and mountains, Coachella delivers on its promises. All music and free
expression lovers were not disappointed with this year's musical,
cinematic, and artistic line up. More than 45 artists represented
sounds ranging from epic trance to conscious hip-hop to experimental
rock to ambient grooves.
The films screening in the Coachella Film Festival likewise represented
the gamut of live music played that day. The live graffiti art, sculpture
garden, robot performance, and performance artists added to the incredible
ambiance. Some soaked in the good vibes and the sun in their tattoo
revealing bikinis and others scrambled from stage to stage enjoying
their favorite artists.
Needless to say, you couldn't see or do it all. Whatever you did
happen to catch was a blessing. Featured artists like ?uestlove, Medusa
and Busdriver roamed the festival grounds because Coachella just had
that kind of vibe. Its art and music belonged to everyone and each
other equally. The music and art were different roads paving the way
to the same goal: free expression. Thank you Goldenvoice, "It
was a most beautiful happening."
The
hip-hop lineup reflected these confluent artistic waters most obviously.
The Roots and Mos Def built on the nature of hip-hop to mix and match
musical genres and added live instrumentation. The Roots, known for
their instrumental stylistics, started their set slow and built up.
During "You Got Me." The Roots broke into a bossanova tip
then into a bouncy reggae tip then into dub into punk into beatboxing
and then into a climax of jazz type solos.
?uestlove started out the solos, flexing his skills with a banging
drum set. Keyboardist Kamal's solo pumped the crowd up covering hook
after hook from classics like A Tribe Called Quest's "World Tour"
to Mystikal's "Shake That Azz." Finally, Black Thought rhymed
over Malik B's beatboxing and the whole thing exploded into a cover
of Pharoahe Monch's "Simon Says." Black Thought's sprained
ankle and supporting cane didn't hamper the show one bit.
Mos Def collaborated with an amazing group of musicians representing
Bad Brains, Living Colour and the Sugar Hill Gang. The crowd was bugging
about him being an hour late, but no one could deny the unparalleled
intensity of his set. Spitting rhymes in the middle of billowing smoke
from the smoke machine and the gusting desert winds befitted Mos Def's
lovely set. He did an extended version of "Miss Fat Booty"
that really showed his musical proclivity. He sang more Gregory Issacs
song than he sampled in the recorded version.
Playing
the remix DJ himself, Mos also sang songs like Smokey Robinson's "Just
My Imagination" and Bob Marley's "Waiting in Vain."
He ended "Miss Fat Booty" with a poignant line from the
sitcom Good Times, "Just looking out my window watching the asphalt
grow." As if that wasn't enough poetry, Mos Def did a spoken
word freestyle about how he has rocked the mic for everybody, everywhere,
while making "you and me music."
He freestyled, "For all my people/ So we can be equal/ so we
can fight evil" and it seemed to summarize a metaphor that manifested
before his set started. While we were all impatiently waiting, a ghetto
bird (i.e. helicopter) was pacing in the distance behind the stage
shining its menacing spotlight on us. As soon as Mos Def hopped on
the stage, he proclaimed that what we were about to hear was ghetto
music and like magic the ghetto bird moved out of sight. Word is born!
While
Mos Def's politics were about the universal ghetto, West Coast underground
hip-hop dynamos Aceyalone, Abstract Rude, Busdriver and Del Tha Funky
Homosapien politicked about the unnecessary bling, blinging in hip-hop.
Del's clothing label of choice was Atari. Between rare cuts and classics
he philosophized about everything under the sun from Bill Gates, to
computer games, to video game conspiracies, to body odor, to urging
ghetto rappers to let go of the ghetto and be creative.
Aceyalone, who performed with his Project Blowed (a hip-hop workshop)
colleagues Abstract Rude and Busdriver, likewise slammed mainstream
emcees for their narrow thematic range. Aceyalone, Abstract Rude and
Busdriver really showed their skills when the DJ skipped the record
and Abstract "trekked on, trekked on" into a freestyle.
Busdriver then freestyled with trademark fast paced, tongue twisting
rhymes. Aceyalone and Abstract Rude, formerly of Freestyle Fellowship,
along with newcomer Busdriver really showed their lyrical dexterity,
living up to Aceyalone's claim, "I give people what they want/
Because I got fortitude, gratitude."
With so many performers that day and night, I have to apologize for
not being able to review everything. My night ended perfectly with
the tail end of the Chemical Brother's dopamine inducing set. I enjoyed
myself tremendously and can only say you all will have to join in
next year.
