Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2014

*Free

April 2014

Photo: Andrew Jorgensen

History of Set Times / Preserving the Grounds / Resource Recycling / Message Board Super Users / Pharrell Williams / Expert Coachoosers / DJ Set Deciphered / Find Your New Fave Act / The Art of Philip K. Smith III / Coachella Insiders / Festival Sound / Mysteries of the Desert / Outkast Reunion / Terrace Food / Lucent Dossier Experience / The Elements Of Coachella / The Glitch Mob

Camp Issue No. 5

Concept I Paul Tollett, Skip Paige, Bill Fold

Creative Director I Raymond Leon Roker

Editorial Director I Joshua Glazer

Editorial Assistant I Phil Nacionales

Art Director I Aerosyn-Lex Mestrovic

Design & Production I rivasgrafix

Proofreading I Maria Wheeler

Big Thanks I Gopi Sangha and Isaac Garcia

Words: Jolene Borelli, Jason Chang, Anthony Gordon,

Leslie Madill, Jeff Miller, Liz Ohainsian, Brandon Perkins,

Nicolas Stecher, Scott Sterling

Photos: Michael Ivankay, Andrew Jorgesen, Daniel Jung,

Edward Ma, Ryan Mastro, Chris Miller, Brian Moghadam,

Dan Monick, Gabriel Olsen, Dove Shore

Illustrations: John Felix Arnold III, Alland Byallo, Isabelle K,

Amy Kett, Andrew Zhbyjhi

Thank You: Nic Adler, Lauca Beckwith, Jessica Bloom,

Cameron Cramer, Asa Moore, Nick & Mike Rivas, Calina

Salgado, Ben Sorofman, Lizzy Stradler, Russell Ward, Kevin

Wolff, Melissa Wynne-Jones, Stacy Vee, Sioux Z

Cover & Back Cover Photography I Mike Ivankay

Back Inside Cover Photography I Brian Moghadam

Masthead Photography I Brian Moghadam

CAMP is hand-crafted for Coachella by

Urbdotcom

8149 Santa Monica Blvd No. 263

West Hollywood CA 90046

Say hello: info@coachella.com

Coachella may only take place in April, but the spirit of music and discovery buzzes 365 days a year on the Coachella Message Board. With almost 2.8 million posts on over 65,000 (mostly) musical topics, the board is a place where Coach-ella enthusiasts from around the world can connect and discuss the things that interest them. It also serves as a great way for Goldenvoice to communi-cate with fans to give them exactly what they want from each festival experience.

Among the 4,000 active members who make up a majority of the board’s traffic, there lies a com-munity of seriously devout enthusiasts who make the digital connections part of their everyday lives. We spoke to a few of these super users to find out how their online passion crosses over into their real world lives.

Cara Diehl (Guedita) and Bryan Mack (BMack86) are two of the board’s most active users. Cara is a house and techno head who attended her first Coachella in 2009. Bryan attended his first Coachella a decade ago, drawn by the Pixies reunion in 2004. Both 28-year-old fans from Northern California credit the board with helping them to keep up on new music and more.

“What keeps me coming back is the group of people passionate about music, concerts, film, food and general culture,” says Bryan.

More than just a virtual hub, both users have developed dozens of IRL (In Real Life) connec-tions with other board members. These meet-ups include road trips to concerts, a vinyl listening club, and even the occasional baseball game. But the ultimate meet-up happened for Cara when she met her boyfriend on the board.

“We aren’t the only ones, either,” she reveals. “The message board is a love machine.”

Tom Snook (TomAz) and Bob Rimac (gaypalm-spring) are not only two of the boards most active members, they are also two of its oldest. Concerts might be inevitably dominated by a young demo-graphic, but there is no age limit for loving music, as is proven by two of the board’s senior participants.

One might not expect the average 50+ year old to have an opinion on Portishead or Daft Punk, but these two frequent the message board regularly in order to talk about topics they cannot discuss with their age-similar peers.

by Jason Chang | Photos by Michael Ivankay

“Because I’m old, very few of my friends or col-leagues share my interest or passion for music,” explains Tom. “The board is a very important source for me to learn about new stuff.”

Several of the super users we spoke to joke about the compulsive nature of spending so much time on a message board. But all agree that it has enriched their real lives.

“I check it every morning and every evening,” Bob admits. “It is rather addicting, but not in a bad way.”

No one spends more time on the message board than its moderator, Dani Lindstrom (Psychic Friend). Dani actively participates in real world meet-ups as well, in the past showing up with tickets and other goodies. She also takes time on Coachella weekend to attend the group photo sessions, although you won’t find the enigmatic moderator actually in any of the pics.

“It’s become a fun part of the Psychic Friend persona,” she explains.

Dani’s involvement dates back to a time before Coachella existed, working on the Goldenvoice message board that pre-dates the festival. She admits that while it’s a great job, 15 years of over-seeing such a strong community has made it part of her personal life as well. One she wouldn’t give up, even were her professional duties to disappear.

“I’d still be posting on the board even if I didn’t work at Goldenvoice,” she admits. “It’s been in my life for over a decade. It’s hard to give it up.”

“The message board is a love machine.” Cara Diehl (Guedita)

Coachella message board meet-up 2011.

In memory of Travis Nornerto (Eskimo951), board member since 2008.

Travis (left) at the 2011 Coachella Message Board meet-up.

Online fans become real life friends on the Coachella Message Board.

SolangePharrell and Solange’s collaborations date back to her first two studio albums. The two have since been spotted in the studio working on her next release.

Kid CudiPharrell posted a pic of himself in the studio with Kid Cudi around the time the latter was recording his second album, Cudder.

Lorde In an interview shortly after this year’s Grammys, Pharrell spoke about “meaningful music catching fire on its own,” referring to Lorde as one of his favorite artists at the moment

Empire of the SunOriginally seen in the studio with the band, Pharrell and Empire of the Sun member Nick Littlemore assisted UK singer-songwriter Mika on the single “Celebrate,” which came out in the summer of 2012.

Aloe BlaccPharrell lent his production skills to the crooner on “Love Is Not The Answer,” off Blacc’s latest album, Life Your Spirit.

BeckBeck’s new solo album, Morning Phase, may still be fresh, but he’s already teasing a collaborations album featuring Pharrell for later this year.

NasThe Queens emcee rapped over the Neptunes produced, “Nas’ Angels…The Flyest” off the Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle soundtrack. The two would later appear on Jay-Z’s posse cut “BBC” off Magna Carta Holy Grail, alongside Beyoncé, Swizz Beatz, Timbaland and Justin Timberlake.

DisclosureThe Grammy-nominated electronic music duo sampled Robin Thicke’s “Wanna Love You Girl,” which featured Pharrell, on one of their early tunes, “My Intention is War!”

Little DragonThe always-influential Williams said in a 2012 inter-view that he was getting bored with music, but high-lighted Little Dragon as one of the “incredible things.”

Trombone ShortyPharrell kicked off this year’s NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans, performing many of his career hits, while Trombone Shorty provided the hometown special halftime performance.

WoodkidPharrell delivered a rare remix last year, add-ing his own touch to Woodkid’s “I Love You.”

OutKastPharrell and OutKast member Big Boi were featured on Dungeon Family member Sleepy Brown’s “Mar-garita” in 2006.

Duck SaucePharrell appeared in the video for their 2010 hit “Bar-bra Streisand,” along with Kanye West, Andre 3000, ?uestlove, Diplo and many more.

By Jason Chang

Few artists can claim as many collaborations as Pharrell Williams. With or without the hat, the multi-talented musician has had his fingers on more hit records than almost any other artist of his generation. This year’s Coachella line-up alone offers a litany of acts connected to the Grammy winner. Here’s who is in his orbit.

Can’t decide? Ask an expert

Ellie Goulding Ms. Goulding entered the pop world as yet another English songbird, but she has successfully transitioned into something more edgy and interesting via her taste in producers. This could be a star-making performance for her—or a beautiful disaster.

Michael Brun At 22, this Haitian-born DJ is tipped to be huge. His performances are still too fresh to predict, but it will be cool to see what he decides to do, and say you saw him when.

Banks Everything you wanted from Lorde but never got, Banks delivers—and then some. Her material is fresh and her live delivery is pitch-perfect. If there is justice, Banks will be a headliner by 2016.

Holy Ghost! Festivals aren’t their milieu, but the Coachella crowd is this duo’s bread and butter. A dance party in the desert twilight with these New Yorkers will make you glad you came.

MAKJ Mash-ups and remixes are the cornerstone of MAKJ’s come up, but as this electro producer has moved towards his own productions, he has established a distinct voice for himself. Also, he’s fucking handsome.

Rudimental Their record can be underwhelming, but as a band, Rudimental is tight. From their taste in vocalists, to their intuition about when to hit it hard and when to stay in the pocket, this UK quartet will ride their 50 minute set until it explodes in the desert sand.

Krewella The future of EDM is not only fierce and pop-song catchy, but hair-band wild and even palatable for the non-dance music set. This will be an electrifying and life-affirming moment for millennials (and those who can relate to them).

Classixx Everything about Classixx says California. Last year, they DJ’d some Palm Springs pool parties, and this year, they’ve moved up to the big show. Like their friends Holy Ghost!, they know how to make an out-door dance party that festivals were designed for.

Anna Lunoe With a string of edgy, techy-house singles in the past year, Lunoe has established herself as an artist to watch. This is a big booking for her, and every indication is that she’ll make the most of it.

Chromeo Not since Hall and Oates can I remember such an infectious and guilt-inducing synth-pop duo. Dave One and Pee Thug are musicians and party starters, and they share my vision for a future prophesied by the adventures of Marty McFly.

Bonobo No Prius commute would be complete without a down-tempo chill out session by Simon Green’s Bonobo project. The layers of Bono-bo’s sprawling and hypnotic soundscape will have you reaching bliss in the California desert.

Bo Ningen Did you say, “Japanese, four-piece, acid-punk band?” Well sign me up! It’s loud and fun, and their videos are badass. Tokyo really knows how to rock, and it has convinced me to visit Fuji Rock Festival this summer.

Little Dragon Yukimi [is] my dearest love and deepest infatuation. Little Dragon’s sound will turn any space into the sexiest lounge of its era. I watched them in 2010 as a fan amongst my closest friends in the Gobi Tent—and found myself working with Coachella just a few weeks later.

Bombino He sings an earthy desert blues like none other, [with] a sound most recently crafted by Dan Auerbach of Black Keys. I’m very thank-ful for Coachella. Over the years, it has exposed me to wonderful international acts, [with] some notables [being]: Le Butcherettes, Mano Chao, Tinariwen, Jake Bugg, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra and Ghost BC.

Blood Orange I wonder how many reviews Devonté Hynes of Blood Orange has read comparing his presence to the Purple One? His creative energy as a musician has fueled collaborations with Solange and Theophilius London among others. It’ll be all sex on stage.

Duke Dumont If you want to see something cool, watch Duke Dumont drop “Need U (100%),” and witness an army of cute Coachella girls singing at the top of their lungs while grooving away. Disclosure are not the only producers to master the British two-step. Next time I visit London, I won’t leave without one of those slick haircuts.

Chance the Rapper The only way you may have heard Chance’s music is if you’ve visited some shady space on the Internet to download his mix tape. Hopeful-ly, you didn’t accidentally click the wrong button and install a virus, because you’d be losing out on one of hip-hop’s most creative efforts in recent memory. Also, if you go through that much effort to listen to your music, you’re all right in my book. Shoutout to LiveMixtapes.com.

ALISON SWINGCoachella Camper Since 2010

RICH THOMAS 15 Year Coachella Attendee

Blood Orange I instantly fell in love with Blood Orange the first time I heard his single, “Champagne Coast.” Hop-ing to take in the mellow, sexy tunes under the beating Coachella Valley sun!

Neutral Milk Hotel My little brother first introduced me to this band about five years ago with their album In the Aero-plane Over the Sea. Seeing front man Jeff Mangum play solo last year was a complete dream come true and surpassed all of my expectations!

Dixon For me, it’s an absolute given to catch a set from the Berlin-based Innervisions label founder. I’ve seen him DJ a few times now, and each set has taken the room on a newer, spaced-out journey.

Cajmere Whenever I think of Cajmere (aka Green Velvet), the first word that comes to mind is BOSS. I recently saw him DJ...no...slay a room of dancers with a stone-cold demeanor.

Factory Floor I’m a huge DFA fan and have been swooning over the industrial disco jams they’ve been putting out. Really looking forward to this dance party!

Solomun I’ve been following him for so long, waiting for him to finally touch down on the West Coast. The day has finally come!! Solomun is a deity of house (and label boss of Diynamic and 2DIY4), so there’s no way I will be missing this.

Ty Segall The first time I saw Ty Segall was in a grungy little back-alley venue called The Smell. I’ve been a huge fan ever since. They have never failed in bringing anything less than a brute force of me-lodic noise rock.

Bicep These guys have been a tour-de-force within the house scene. I saw them play with Simian Mobile Disco recently, and they totally wrecked it! Can’t wait to see what they do for Coachella.

Hot Since 82 The first time I put on Little Black Book, I was driv-ing to a family dinner. I ended up taking a different (and longer) freeway route—and arrived 20 minutes late—just so I could finish listening to the album all the way through.

Wye Oak Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner can go from dreamy to raucous in seconds. Their latest, Shriek, doesn’t drop until after Coachella, so be prepared for a smatter-ing of unknown jams, but a golden hour slot would be the perfect setting.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Rough, sloppy, sexy, brash, Jon Spencer is every-thing rock & roll should be. Even though Jack White would get top billing these days, the White Stripes wouldn’t be what they are without the influence of this ’90s New York trio.

Fatboy Slim Norman has caught each unique wave of dance music the past three decades [and] ridden them like a champ. He looks like he’s having more fun onstage than you are on the floor. Pay homage to the original party rocker.

Laurent Garnier Search YouTube for a track called “Crispy Bacon,” then throw on some headphones and crank the volume. If, after seven minutes, you feel like you want the other side of your brain fried, show up for his Coachella set.

Daughter If You Leave was a Top 10 of 2013, and “Youth” is nothing short of an anthem for spurned romantics. Not to be missed if you’ve got a soft spot for female vocalists like Sharon Van Etten. Positively haunting.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band Rock, hip-hop, techno, synth-pop, folk, electro: all of these are noble pursuits, but there’s something about jazz—in any form—that stirs the spirit like no other music. Reward your soul this weekend.

Nas If you don’t have Illmatic in your catalog, you’re miss-ing out on one of the best combinations of lyrical forti-tude and classic boom-bap production ever released. [Nas is] a true storyteller, who recently helped to es-tablish the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship at Harvard University. School will be in session.

GOPI SANGHAGoldenvoice/Coachella

ZEL MCCARTHYEditor-In- Chief @ THUMP

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the peRfect openeR: it wa S Really Some thing to See people dR awn in by thoSe hoRnS!

pRobably my favoRi te daf t punK Song.

i RemembeR the ba SS line ShaK ing my bR ain while on Stage.

i cannot help but move to thiS tune.

pRobably the moSt peRSonally meaningful Song i’ve e veR wRi t ten.

much love foR the cat!

Jane t JacK Son

the cRowd alwayS goeS “oooooooh” when that ba SS Really SinK S in.

willy Joy and i aRe of ten miStaKen foR each otheR. neaR t winS

if i had a doll aR e veRy t ime i’ve been a SKed to do anotheR weeKnd Remix, i’d have pRobably done i t!

photoS: (above) daniel ZetteRStRom, (Right) theSupeRmaniK

weSt coa St!

KASTLE @ THE DO LAB Friday April 19, 2013 (11:30 PM)

D J S E T D E C IP H E R E D ~ K A S T L E

S E A R C H Our recOmmendatiOns FOr Finding yOur next FavOrite Band

Every year, Coachella rolls out a dizzying array of artists that cover a vast range of musical styles and genres. While the headliners are household names, dozens of the acts that play the festival are less well-known, but never short on talent.

Nothing beats discovering your new favorite act while running around the polo grounds. Taking a fine-toothed comb to this year’s line-up, we match some acts you know with some new artists to check out.

This British duo has brought a classic house music sound back to the world of EDM with their debut, Settle.

If you lIke: MoToRHeAD

you MIgHT Also lIke: ClAuDe VoNsTRoke

you MIgHT Also lIke: CAJMeRe

Like Disclosure, New York’s Chris and Steve Martinez caught the house music bug at a young age, releasing their debut single, “My Rendition,” when the brothers were 15 and 18, respectively. Their deep, soulful beats recall the glory days of legendary New York clubs like the Paradise Garage.

This Chicago house music legend has been releasing seminal underground hits for years under a variety of guises, including Green Velvet. Born Curtis Jones, Cajmere’s spaced-out take on dance tracks has resulted in such classics as “Percolator” and “Brighter Days.”

This Midwest native bumps out gritty, techno-meets-house beats far more reminiscent of Detroit and Chicago than his San Francisco home base. Spreading these tough, party-starting sounds on his Dirtybird label, Claude VonStroke moves the dance floor like a true master.

The Scottish DJ/producer became one of EDM’s biggest stars by matching sing-along pop choruses with shiny dance floor beats.

If you lIke: loRDe

This rising dance music star mines classic ’80s house and techno sounds to propel finely crafted singles like “Need U (100%)” straight to the top of the UK charts, while also securing his first Grammy nomination in 2014.

This San Francisco DJ/producer creates a panoramic dance music mix that touches on a wide range of sounds, from progressive house to trance, and even traces of dubstep. His high-energy sets are packed with feel-good anthems guaranteed to make you move.

you MIgHT Also lIke: JoHN BeAVeR

you MIgHT Also lIke: THe MARTINez BRoTHeRs

you MIgHT Also lIke: uNloCkINg THe TRuTH

you MIgHT Also lIke: gRAVeyARD

you MIgHT Also lIke: THe CulT

you MIgHT Also lIke: DAugHTeR

you MIgHT Also lIke: BANks

you MIgHT Also lIke: JHeNe AIko

you MIgHT Also lIke: Duke DuMoNT

you MIgHT Also lIke: TIgAThe pride of Montreal, Canada, Tiga is known for his glamorous take on techno and house, bringing high drama to dance floors around the world with cheeky covers like his notorious take on Nelly’s “Hot in Herre.”

Bruising British hard rock pioneers led by legendary front man Lemmy have become icons, with enduring, metal-tinged classics like the eternal “Ace of Spades.”

And speaking of The Cult, the British band rocked the ’80s with full-throttle classics like “She Sells Sanctuary” and “Love Removal Machine,” which teetered on the edge of post-punk, before the group charged straight into the American mainstream with larger riffs (“Fire Woman”) and tours alongside Guns N’ Roses.

This pint-sized Brooklyn tween trio cranks out massive, heavy metal riffs that belie their relatively young age. Building their growing reputation with free shows in New York’s Times Square and glowing online profiles, Unlocking the Truth righteously represents the next generation of heavy metal.

This hard rock outfit out of Sweden pairs fuzzed-out guitar licks with caterwauling vocals that bridge the gap between Jim Morrison of the Doors and Ian Atsbury of the Cult. The band’s trippy, psychedelic sound is both heavy and hypnotic.

New Zealand’s teenage prodigy-turned-superstar exploded around the world with minimal and moody goth-tinged anthems like “Royals” and “Team.”

This British band has been compared to contemporaries like The xx and London Grammar, thanks to warm, impassioned anthems like their single “Youth,” which plumbs the emotional depths of heartbreak via singer Elena Tonra’s smoky vocal styling.

This Los Angeles native’s brooding, sparse sounds broke through to a wider audience when her song “Waiting Game” was used in a Victoria’s Secret TV ad, before reaching even more listeners with a plum opening spot on The Weeknd’s “Kiss Land” tour.

Best known for high-profile collaborations with rappers like Drake and Childish Gambino, Jhene Aiko has come into her own with emotional, atmospheric singles like “The Worst,” exploring the outer reaches of alt-R&B and hip-hop on the stellar Sail Out EP.

If you lIke: CAlVIN HARRIs

E N G I N E

If you lIke: DIsClosuRe

Located alone in a desert clearing just outside of Joshua Tree, a 70-year-old wooden homestead stands as a monument to modern art among the still, yet shifting environment around it.

Created by acclaimed artist, sculptor, and designer Phillip K. Smith III, the desert installation, titled Lucid Stead, is a visually haunting interaction cre-ated by combining slats composed of both one- and two-way mirrors within the existing structure. By incorporating its surroundings into the work by way of these reflective surfaces, the piece lets the desert itself becomes a part of the experience. The story is further enhanced by the custom LED lights and electronics, which help to create a truly ephemeral dynamic between instal-lation, viewer, and the environment surrounding both.

“It’s really about four ideas: light and shadow, reflected light, projected light, and change,” Smith says of the installation.

“The light and shadow is about the interaction of the sun. The reflected light is within the mirrors itself, using the desert as both material and medium. The projected light comes from the inside out.” He continues that the piece stands as a monument to “the quiet and pace of change of the desert. It is about stop-ping and being quiet so that you can truly see and listen.”

A native of the Coachella Valley and a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Smith was drawn back to the California desert, where the ideas of change and pace play a huge role in the fabric of his visual language. His return led to a stint as 2010 Artist in Residence at the Palm Springs Art Museum. He has also been commissioned to build large-scale public works in Kansas City, Nashville, Oklahoma, Arlington, Phoenix, and across California, in addition to an exhibition at the UNTITLED Art Fair in Miami this past December.

Thanks to Smith’s growing reputation, Lucid Stead drew over 400 art lovers from as far as Canada and New York to its remote desert location during its single weekend open to the public. Perhaps more significant, however, was the Inter-net reaction to Lucid Stead, which drew over 350,000 views of the official Vimeo clip, which was posted on media outlets as diverse as Slate and High Snobiety.

Yet, a video clip cannot do complete justice to any work of art, especially art that plays with dynamics of time and scale like Smith’s. That is one of the reasons why Coachella 2014 will bear witness to a completely new piece, one with seeds sown from Smith’s earlier Lightworks series, cross-pollinated with the forms of Lucid Stead. With Reflection Field, Smith brings his ideas of material and internal reflection, environmental connection, and modernist minimal art spaces, to the grass-floored, open-air gallery of Coachella.

Smith’s description of the piece, “By day, the monumental, mirrored volumes are prisms of earth and sky, wrapped by the surrounding environment. By night, they become monolithic fields of color that blend and layer through echoes of reflec-tion. Spaces become simultaneously infinite and finite, while hues push and pull, saturating and dissolving the surroundings and your periphery into pure color.”

After experiencing Reflection Field through its planning stages, the installation is a place of thoughtful respite among the hustle and bustle of the Coachella fields. Be sure to check it out—you definitely won’t miss it.

Reflection Field brings artist Phillip K Smith III’s vision to the polo grounds.

ARTIST

Art photos courtesy Royale Projects: Contemporary Art. This page: Torus 5, 2013, Opposite page: Lucid Stead, 2013 Artist photo by Paulo Von Borries

by Phil Nacionales

Two thousand fourteen marks the twelfth year that Coachella has offered camping as an option for festival fans. What started with a small lot for tents as an alternative to hotels (which quickly fill up every year), has become a major event of its own, with 20,000-plus sun-drenched souls treated to every-thing from a pinball tournament and nighttime roller-skating to an arts and crafts studio and a custom-made magazine (the one you’re holding right now!).

Much of that expanded activity can be attributed to Justin Ferreira, who acts as both Camping Director as well as Property Manager for the Eldorado Polo Grounds, where the camping takes place. Along with Activities Director Katie Bellinger, Justin is constantly looking for new ways to entertain the campers.

“The coolest new thing that’s happening is the Thursday night snowball fight,” reveals Justin with a laugh. “People in their swimsuits throwing snowballs!”

Such inspired ideas are only possible when one spends a lot of time out in the desert, which is why this year, Justin will spend over three months working in the Coachella Valley. It gives him the time to discover new ways to improve the camp-ers’ experience, ways that would seem impossible unless you stumbled into them.

“It allows me to have the time to go have a tour of the ice factory. I was hanging out with the owner and he had a trailer that crushes ice blocks and turns it into snow,” tells Justin of the happy accident that lead to his latest, wild idea. “Just being out here, especially in the non-show time when it’s not so hectic, gives me more time to slow down and think about stuff and look at everything differently.”

Besides more fun, Justin wants to give campers the chance to look their best as well. Four nights in a tent might not make for the best grooming regimen, but after listening to what the campers ask for, Justin and his team decided to give them what they want.

“We’re going to have a salon-type tent where the girls can get ready, put on their make-up, blow dry their hair,” he reveals. “The campsites themselves don’t have power, and they’re always looking for places to plug in flat irons and stuff.”

“[Coachella] is a fashion show,” he proclaims. “And we give them a place to get their fashion on.” Joshua Glazer

Colleagues come together to create Coachella

B O U T I Q U E C A M P I N G

The Coachella Boutique offers more than simple souvenirs. Full-on fun from the moment you leave your tent.

“The coolest new thing is the Thursday night snowball fight.”

I N S I D E E D I T I O N

Surely, at this moment, you’re forging indelible memories that will last a life-time. Building mnemonic postcards that you’ll trigger in future days, to relive some of the happiest moments of your life. The whiff of a Spicy Pie might take you back; an old selfie from the Sahara Tent resurfacing on Instagram; a Shlohmo track streaming on Pandora.

But let’s be honest: the lifespan of some of those gilded memories can be cut short by, oh, I don’t know—let’s call it the heady cocktail of desert heat, dance-inflicted dehydration, and a healthy does of sleep deprivation. That’s why it’s a good idea to pick up a souvenir of your world-class week-end. It’s almost as good as inking a “Coachella 2014” tattoo, without the risk of infection.

Enter the Coachella Boutique, a purpose-built sanctuary of custom-crafted goods designed especially for the Coachella Festival. James Allen was first entrusted with shepherding the merch at the Coachella Boutique last year, and he’s returned for another tour of duty. Coming from a background that is half high-end retail, and half DJ/producer/promoter, the melding of these worlds seemed as tailor-made for Coachella as the palm tree-studded lunch-box sold in the shop.

“We just find people whose work we like and ask them. It sounds simple, but it’s true!” says Allen, describing the Boutique’s laissez-faire approach to find-ing collaborators. On his team is Jon Halperin, who works as a conduit to the visual artists community. Together, they simply find people they like to work

with—like graffiti legend SEEN, whom they met at an art opening. “We just cornered him and basically pestered him into doing a shirt for us. We’re polite, but persistent.”

Artists contributing this year include street-art heavyweights like D*Face, as well as Kii Arens, Us vs. Them and Chris Shary. Some contribute prints—like D*Face’s work, featuring a crying girl clutching a zombie motorcyclist—that are limited to only 100 pieces (50 for each weekend). Other items include t-shirts, pajamas, socks and wool beanies. Wait, a beanie? “It makes next to no sense, on paper, to sell a beanie at a music festival in the desert,” Allen admits sheepishly. “But if you’ve been to Coachella, you know how chilly it can get at night.”

Standard actor gear aside, a lot of thought and craftsmanship goes into all of the items, to create a carefully-curated sundry of exclusive gear that will far outlive your star-dusted weekend. Allen’s favorite: a gorgeous metal-bodied, limited edition Lomography camera.

“It’s incredible. The level of detail kind of blew me away…I really hope to provide items that are as unique as Coachella. I don’t feel that it’s a hyper-bole to say there is no other experience like Coachella in the world, so the items we create need to match that uniqueness,” explains Allen. “I want people to walk away with something that takes them right back to the mo-ment when they bought it.” You know, because Spicy Pies just don’t keep that long. Nicolas Stecher

Illustration by John Felix Arnold III

Many of Coachella’s most buzzed-about appearances have never been listed on the iconic concert poster. They don’t make it onto any ten-bests list, and you can’t buy their t-shirt at the merch stand. Yet, they will appear in more photos than any of the musicians on the bill.

We’re talk about the amazing art pieces that turn the polo grounds into an annual pop-up museum, where fans can gasp, gawk and point their cam-era phones at these outstanding installations that make the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival stand out from any other music gathering in the world.

“There really isn’t another music festival, from what I understand, that is spending the kind of money on art that we are,” says Paul Clemente, a former visual effect professional who worked on summer blockbusters like The Matrix and Titanic before becoming Coachella’s art director in 2009. The reason for this expenditure is that for the past three to four years, Coachella has com-missioned almost all entirely new pieces of art for each event.

That wasn’t always the case. Art has always been a major priority for Coach-ella. “Right up there with the bands,” insists Clemente. But in the early years, with all budgets smaller than they are now, most of the art was recycled from the previous year’s Burning Man gathering.

“Burning Man was the obvious place to look for people who were capable of delivering those pieces,” Clemente explains. “Not just the idea, but actually manifesting and delivering that reality, on budget and on schedule. All those things are very important.”

Today, Coachella still works with many Burner artists, including Charles Gade-ken and Keith Greco, who have had previous pieces at both events, and each of whom will be creating new pieces for Coachella this year. They will be joined by several new artists, including Philip K. Smith and James Peterson, who have had previous success at marquee art world events such as Art Basel.

In fact, as Coachella solidifies its place as not only a music destination, but also one for exclusive large-scale art displays, the festival’s artistic goals be-come more ambitious year after year. “We want to have work at our show that you wouldn’t be surprised to see if you walked into the courtyard at LACMA or MoMA, or any great museum,” say Clemente.

But, unlike these cultural institutions that preserve art as much as they pres-ent it, Clemente admits that there’s a good chance many of the pieces shown at Coachella will never be seen again. In the end, the ultimate goal is making a memorable impression on the fans.

“To make sure that the kids who are coming to the show year after year are getting a unique experience each time,” is how Clemente describes his aim. So, as you step onto the Coachella grounds, remember to take time and really look at the art on display. For two weekends a year, every kid at the concert is more in the know than any art collector in the world. Joshua Glazer

Community building, not just concert building.

Original installations are a visual feast for the Coachella faithful.

“There really isn’t another music festival, from what I understand, that is spending the kind of money on art that we are”

P R O D U C T I O N A R T

What’s changed about your job since you first started?: I’ve been certified to drive a forklift, so now I actually get to help build the festival!!What will you be doing after the gates close for 2014?: I’d like to say enjoying a glass of whiskey! But that always has to wait. Describe one of your unrealized (as of yet) visions for Coachella: I’ve wanted to see the festival expand their gourmet food options. We’ve got some great people making that dream a reality this year, and I can’t wait to try everything!

KEVAN WILKINS (Production Manager/15 years with Coachella)Responsibilities: I oversee everything that goes on at the venue and all the surrounding land, which is roughly 1½ square miles.What will you be doing the moment the Coachella gates open this year?: First, I check with the stages to make sure that they are ready. Then security, then fire, then police and medical crews. It’s a procedure that takes 20 – 30 minutes prior to opening.Are you the guy who says, “Open the gates?”: I am, yes.What will you be doing after the gates close for 2014?: Get to sleep. Then wake up early and start taking down the main stage to move it across the field for Stagecoach.Describe one of your unrealized (as of yet) visions for Coachella: Get the bands’ running order earlier.

BRYAN BISHOP (Crew Chief, aka The Pirate Captain/15 years with Coachella)Responsibilities: I’m in charge of all the labor that builds stages, lights, sound, light towers, and all things that have to do with production of the festivalWhat’s changed about your job since you first started?: I’ve gotten an as-sistant. I use to do everything myself. Second, we have finally gotten quality, overnight meals. In the early years, it was cold-ass burritos and pizza.Describe one of your unrealized (as of yet) visions for Coachella: Having a bigger effect on the local community as well spreading the message of togeth-erness. It’s really amazing to see the local community get health care and dentistry done when Goldenvoice holds outreach programs.

JESSYCA ESTRADA (Venue manager/14 years with Coachella)Responsibilities: Oversee all operations in venue, make sure things are running smoothly and fix problems. What’s changed about your job since you first started?: The amount of people it takes to build and run this show is incredible. I feel a little responsible for help-ing make 90,000 people’s weekend the best ever! What will you be doing the moment the Coachella gates open this year?: One hun-dred different things! But once they open, I usually find a quiet place for about 15 – 20 minutes to sit and let out a big breath, and prepare for the fun weekend ahead.What will you be doing after the gates close for 2014?: I find my Goldenvoice family, exhausted and hopefully celebrating. Usually some crazy shenanigans follow to blow off steam.

B-TEC (Festival Architect/7 years with Coachella)Responsibilities: Consolidating the information from all departments to form the site map, our bible, on the festival grounds of what goes where and why. What’s changed about your job since you first started?: The site as a canvas has grown, allowing more creativity. Not only on my part, but the expansion of land has vastly opened for more thought into the festival grounds.Describe one of your unrealized (as of yet) visions for Coachella: I would like to continue to see architecture as part of the art or live art. I believe we have taken a step in that direction. Our partnership with Modernism Week has made this vision that much closer to reality.If you weren’t working for Coachella, what would you be doing?: Most likely, teaching architecture and design at a university, continuing to do design build architecture, and traveling the world attending music festivals as a patron.

DRE HANNA (Production Supervisor/3 years with Coachella)Responsibilities: I help hire the vendors who provide stages, sound, lights and video, tents that provide shade, heavy equipment to help build the festival, fence and bathrooms, offices for staff, trailers for artists… In a nutshell, I help build the city that our staff works in and our guests play in.

Once upon a time, hearing your favorite band often meant fighting to the front of the stage and subjecting your ears to potentially damaging volumes to get the full effect. Today that’s changed, and working pros in the live sound industry universally agree that we are living in a golden age for concert sound. Coachella strives to be one of finest example of how great the sound at a festival can be, thanks to the expertise of longtime soundman and audio entrepreneur Dave Rat.

Dave Rat photographed at the Rat Shop in Camarillo, CA on February 27, 2014.

Dave’s explanation for why concerts sound better now than ever before has as much to do with the state of the current music industry as it has to do with modern sound reinforcement technology. Physical sales of music have dropped in recent years due to MP3s and other digital formats replacing CDs. While this has placed pressure on struggling record companies, it’s also shifted focus back to making live music a more important revenue driver. Says Rat, “That disruption in the record business has had a profound effect on the live music industry. Budgets for making records are going down, but budgets for live sound production are going up. In a way, the troubles in the recorded music business have had an inverse effect on the live music business.”

It’s not just a shift in priorities for the music business that’s driven these improvements in concert audio quality, however. “We’ve also experienced some major advancements in live sound technology,” explains Rat. “For example, line array (loud-speaker systems) were a definite game changer (see sidebar). It’s not just that they sound better than older loudspeaker systems, it’s that the amount of accuracy needed to set one up is crazy. We have to use precision equipment like laser inclinometers to set these up properly. This development alone upped the caliber of people working in the live sound business, since it’s such highly technical, challenging work now.”

“The quality of the audio experience being presented to the audience is better than it has ever been before,” says Rat, who is the president and founder of Rat Sound, the audio company that has been providing sound for Coachella since 2001. “(Coachella promoter) Goldenvoice has always put sound quality and audience experience first. They really try to make Coachella the best festival in the world, and deliver[ing] top quality sound. (That), to me, is paramount.”

Front oF House engineer This is the audio engineer responsible for creating the sound mix that you, in the audience, are listening to. He’ll adjust the volume of each instrument on his mixing console until the music sounds as good as it possibly can. Ironically, the bands themselves don’t ever hear this mix from the stage.

Pro tip: The best sounding seat in the house is always right in front of or behind the front of house mixer. Just don’t try asking the sound guy for “more rhythm guitar” while he’s working.

Mixing Console Also know as “the board” or “the desk,” this is the most important piece of gear for live sound. It takes all of the various inputs from microphones and musical instruments onstage, and mixes them together into the final music you hear coming out of the speakers. The mix engineer can adjust each audio elements’ EQ and volume, and apply hundreds of different effects, such as reverb and delay. Modern mixing consoles are literally more sensitive and complex than the instruments NASA used to land on the moon. It’s not unusual for a band to have 60 – 70 inputs run-ning through the console for a show.

Monitor engineer The Monitor Engineer is respon-sible for creating the “stage mix” that the performers themselves hear coming out of the monitor speakers facing the band onstage. This job is crucial because it’s nearly impossible to give a great performance if the musicians can’t hear themselves properly.

Fun game: Drink every time a musician gives the monitor engineer the thumbs up sign. They are not congratulating him. They’re telling him to turn their stage volume up.

line ArrAys A line array is a loudspeaker system that is made up of a number of identical loudspeakers that are typically mounted in a vertical line when used to amplify sound at a concert. These systems can be suspended from a structural beam or a specially constructed tower. The line array first came into wide use at concerts in the mid-1990s, and has been widely accepted as heralding a massive leap forward in live sound quality. Get one installed in your home if you really want to impress people.

FESTIVAL SOUND 101

To give you an idea of what a massive challenge it really is to provide sound for a festival as large as Coachella, think about this—Rat Sound will roll in with a total of 18 semi trucks packed full with audio equipment, bring along as many as 70 crew people, and will be ultimately responsible for the audio needs of more than 180 bands and DJs. In addition to trucking in, setting up and operat-ing the audio equipment used to power all six days of the festival, Rat’s team also has to make sure they’re working in coordination with all of the audio teams that each of the performers brings with them to the gig.

Every band that is playing the festival will have their own sound crew, anchored primarily by two sound people—the front of house and monitor mixing engineers (see sidebar). Both of these engineers will have their own large mixing consoles, and each stage will have two sets of mixing consoles set up at any given time. Why the redundancy?

“It’s to make sure we can have a quick changeover. We only have 20 – 30 minutes between each performance, so instead of setting up another console between each act, we have redundant systems already set up so the next band is ready to perform almost immediately after the last band has struck their gear from the stage. It’s not a lax environment at all, and it’s hard work, but we have a very high success rate of getting it done right.”

A legendary figure in the live sound industry, Dave Rat is no stranger to hard work and getting it done right. He recollects,

“I started Rat Sound back in 1980. I used to record live perfor-mances of bands at small shows, and I’d make copies of the shows for bands. I started getting requests to supply sound systems for these shows, so I built some little speaker rigs and drove them around to the gigs in my van. That’s really how the company got started.”

It was just around this time that a new concert production company called Goldenvoice was starting up and began working with Rat Sound to provide sound systems for their shows. “Rat Sound and Goldenvoice kind of came up togeth-er, so we’ve enjoyed a long and really natural partnership since the beginning,” explains Dave.

In addition to running one of the top sound companies in America, Dave Rat personally holds two patents for audio technology that he invented. While this would be enough work for most men, Dave still finds the time to do what he’s always truly loved—mixing live sound for bands.

“What really got me started in the touring business was mix-ing for Black Flag,” he says. “We did three tours together. After that, I was hooked. I mixed the Red Hot Chili Peppers for many years, I mixed the Offspring, and I just came off the road mixing the last Soundgarden tour. I still love it.”

It’s this passion for music and live sound technology that has made Dave exactly the right man to take on what has to be one of the toughest jobs in audio. He says it’s worth the hard work.

“The live music experience is human and natural. And this is, without a doubt, the best time ever to experience live music.”

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go on the road with your favorite band, live out of a suitcase and make out with the groupies that the band has passed on? Then get a job on the audio team! These guys are responsible for making sure the band sounds great. Blow it, and you’re fired. Kill it, and you’re an honorary member of the band (until you blow it, and the band fires you). You’ll need to know a few things about live sound first before you get the gig.

Check it out.

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Mysteries and Oddities of the California Desert By Liz Ohanesian / Photography by Chris Miller

We’re heading down a near-empty desert highway, maybe a half-hour or so outside of Indio. A large, blue expanse creeps into the corner of our field of vision. We look through the passenger side window. My husband, the driver, wonders if, after three hours and change on the road from Los Angeles, we’ve finally hit the Salton Sea. I jokingly counter that it could be a mirage. As real as this body of water in the middle of the desert is, it warrants a triple-take. The salty lake, butting up against mountains, is outlined by a thick haze. It looks like a TV dream sequence.

The Salton Sea’s history is ancient. Its terrain has historically fluctu-ated between wet and dry. However, its current incarnation is the result of a spectacular mix of 20th-century innovation and human error. After massive flooding in 1905, the Salton Sea morphed into a lake supported by irrigation run-off from the local farms. It is the largest body of water in California and home to a diverse ecosystem teeming with birds and fish. It’s also home to one of the great legends of the desert.

Google “lost ship desert” and you’ll find a couple pages of results concern-ing purported shipwrecks hidden far from California’s coastline. It’s the sort of tale that is immediately suspect. How could a boat wind up sub-merged hours away from the Pacific Ocean?

Inside the Salton Sea’s Visitor Center, a gray-haired gentleman sits behind the counter. I hesitate and stumble through a question that seems prepos-terous. Is there any truth to the stories about a ship at the bottom of the Salton Sea?

A woman in a park uniform laughs when she hears this. “Good question,” she says.

The man pauses before he answers. “Possibly,” he says. He walks toward a rack of books and hands me a copy of The Periscope, a magazine from the Coachella Valley Historical Society. The story of the lost ship(s) is in here. I buy the issue and read it in the car. Legends have persisted for well over a century. One is said to have been a ship abandoned during a trek across land towards the Colorado River. Another may have been a boat-like vehicle built for sand. The most convoluted saga, involving seafaring travelers of varying origins, was reported exposé-style by the Los Angeles Star newspaper in 1870. The actual existence of these shipwrecks remains an unknown.

"In the desert, artists and musicians have come to find their muses. Not all lived to tell the tale."

Salvation Mountain by folk artist Leonard Knight.

Slab City

With the scorching summer heat and harsh landscape, the desert of inland California is fertile ground for strange legends and unusual sites. In the desert, artists and musicians have come to find their muses. Not all lived to tell the tale. It’s also a place where generations of seekers have come to find gods or aliens, and where that communion can lead to impressive feats of art and design that exist outside of big-city establishments. For two Sundays, we crisscross the desert in search of some of its best-known mysteries and oddities.

Our next stop is a couple dozen miles away from the Salton Sea’s main hub. We pass the remains of a former snack shack (a reminders that the lake was once a popular vacation spot), and cross the line into Imperial County, entering a ramshackle town called Niland. We turn left onto its tiny Main Street marked by dilapidated structures. All too quickly, the buildings are gone and the space widens. The iPhone’s sense of direction comes into question. Eventually, RVs, and even a teepee, dot the landscape. A brightly colored hillside looms ahead of us. We’ve made it to Slab City.

Formerly called Camp Dunlap, this military outpost lost its usefulness after World War II. Eventually, the Marines who trained here gave up their space, and long-term campers gradually moved to the grounds. Today, Slab City is a base for travelers, known as “snowbirds,” who escape chillier climates during the winter months. In February, when we visited, the landscape is dotted with residences spread far enough apart to create some semblance of privacy.

It’s not just migratory people here. There are a few longtime residents of the Slabs as well. The most famous, folk artist Leonard Knight, died less than two weeks before our arrival. At Slab City, Knight worked for decades on Salvation Mountain, a mix of religious sentiments and obsessively maintained, populist art.

The “mountain” is a small hill filled out with haystacks and adobe. Its facade is covered in layers of paint so thick that it looks like frosting. Rough-edged paintings of flowers are applied on top of blue and white stripes. A yellow dirt road winds through the enchanting scene. Prayers, bible citations and reminders that “Jesus loves you” are scrawled across the piece in big letters. Beneath the facade are a series of alcoves sup-ported by pastel-painted trees. One section holds trophies. Another boasts the partial shell of a car.

The mountain is bustling. People climb the hillside and wander through the corridors. Salvation Mountain is a spectacle, one that clearly excites travelers as a colorful respite from the endless monochrome desert. Despite all the joy that comes from exploring this monumental piece of art, there’s an air of sadness. Salvation Mountain is incomplete. There are buckets of adobe and errant stacks of hay off to the side of the installation. Now that Knight is gone, will it ever be finished?

I spoke to Bob Levesque by phone about this. He’s the Vice President of Salvation Mountain Inc., as well as Knight’s “nephew by marriage.” Levesque, who lives in Florida, says that completing the project isn’t their intention. “We don’t feel that it is our job to finish it,” he says. “It is our job to preserve it.”

Maintaining Salvation Mountain is a daunting task of its own. Rain can cause collapses. That’s happened in the past, so this is a major concern, particularly for a site that brings in several hundred people a day on winter weekends. There are teams who work on maintenance and repairs, as well as caretakers. “The preservation will be an ongoing process for years and years to come,” says Levesque. The desert is brutal. Even a beloved piece of art isn’t safe from the elements.

On the way back to Los Angeles, we stop at the Cabazon Dinosaurs. If you travel across the I-10 freeway between Los Angeles and Coachella, you have likely seen two large beasts off the side of the freeway. There’s Dinny, an apatosaurus (or brontosaurus), and Mr. Rex, a tyrannosaurus. Constructed by Knott’s Berry Farm sculptor Claude K. Bell in the 70s and 80s respectively, these giant lizards are a testament to the grand road trip and B-movie culture celebrated around these parts. Built to draw attention to Bell’s roadside diner, the beasts became screen stars when they were featured prominently in the 1985 cult hit Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. But that’s just the first half of the dinosaurs’ tale.

In the shadow of Mr. Rex sits a small statue of a lamb. A fake lion hides under a nearby palm tree. Lambs, lions and dinosaurs are an unusual jux-taposition, but all becomes clear once we enter the gift shop located inside Dinny’s giant belly. “Evolution teaches that dinosaurs lived millions of years before man,” reads one of the signs inside this tiny museum. “However, science and the Bible tell us a different story. They tell us that dinosaurs and man lived at the same time.” Since the mid-’00s, the Cabazon Dino-saurs are one part playground, one part creationist museum.

We return to the desert the following Sunday morning. This time, the destination is near Joshua Tree National Park, to a white dome-shaped building surrounded by open space and post-storm clouds.

"The sounds that we were about to hear would shake us into some greater state of consciousness."

George Van Tassel’s alien-inspired Integratron

Joshua Tree Inn

The Integratron was the brainchild of George Van Tassel, who had worked in the Los Angeles aviation industry before moving to the desert with his family, where they lived in a one-room cave dug out underneath Giant Rock, a seven-story tall freestanding boulder, believed to be the largest in the world. It was there where Van Tassel allegedly encountered aliens in the early 1950s. This sparked his involvement in the UFO sighting com-munity. It also inspired the development of the Integratron, whose unusual design and superior acoustics are said to harness local energy and, es-sentially, reboot the human body via sound baths that take place inside the upstairs dome.

For two weekends every month, the Integratron hosts No Reservation Baths. During this time, anyone can show up at the facility and pay $20 for an hour-long group session, so long as space is available. There are only 40 spots open for each of the group sessions. Ours is sold out.

We each grab two thick, Southwest-print blankets and lay them out on whatever small share of floor we can secure. One blanket functions like the yoga mat. The other becomes a makeshift pillow. We will be lying down for the next hour.

The leader of our session sits surrounded by crystal bowls. He tells us about George Van Tassel and the aliens, asking if we believe in extrater-restrial life forms. He talks about spirituality and energy and what we can hope to accomplish in the next hour. I’m not sure I completely understand the lecture—a mishmash of metaphysical ideas that boil down to vibra-tions. Essentially, the sounds that we are about to hear will shake us into some greater state of consciousness.

There are a few rules. If you must cough, sit upright. Also, don’t snore. This last point is stressed repeatedly before the sound bath begins. Do not snore.

We take three deep breaths before the bath begins. The clang of a mallet against a crystal bowl ricochets across the room. These are bullet beats, startling sounds whose origins and destinations are unclear. Together, they form an overpowering rhythm. It is unlike anything that has ever excited a dance floor. Each pulse hits a different part of the body—right ear, left ear, gut—but quickly travels across skin and muscle. The body-rattling clamor becomes a lullaby. My feet don’t want to move. I close my eyes.

Minutes pass and crystal thuds continue to bounce across the room. I can hear everything; it sounds like a wind tunnel now, but my mind has left the building. I’m acting out another situation, somewhere back home. It’s recognizable as a work dream. My eyes pop open. I stare at the ceiling until the lids grow heavy once again, and I return to the world of banal fantasies. A nudge to the side pushes me to float and fall, or so I think. Are the aliens trying to communicate with me? In truth, I haven’t moved so much as a fraction of an inch. My husband leans over and whispers in my ear, “Don’t snore.”

George Van Tassel’s interest in aliens was the impetus for building the Integratron, but music is what helps keeps this place in the public eye. Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) famously took Anthony Bourdain here for an episode of No Reservations. In recent years, that TV moment has become a big selling point for the Integratron.

Music spills from far across this section of the Mojave Desert. There’s a long history of artists choosing to visit, record and live in the area. One highly influential musi-cian died here, and his memory is kept alive in a small hotel along the highway that leads to Twentynine Palms.

It’s easy to speed by the Joshua Tree Inn & Motel. We did. It’s a quaint structure trimmed in desert shades of turquoise and red. A young man named Marsu, an employee at the inn, lets us inside and offers us chai tea made by his pal in Mon-tana. He tells us to wander around the premises. Joshua Tree Inn has served as a temporary home for plenty of noteworthy people. Sixties folk singer Donovan had a favorite room here, and there are rooms named for country star Emmylou Harris and actor John Barrymore, father of Drew Barrymore. However, the major draw is Gram Parsons, the famed eccentric musician best known for his work with The Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers. In 1973, the then 26-year-old Parsons succumbed to an overdose in one of these rooms.

Today, concert posters and other memorabilia line the lobby and dining areas. The memorial which once stood at nearby Cap Rock, where Parsons’ ashes were dis-persed, is now in the motel’s courtyard. His room is still available for use as well. It’s frequently booked, but today, it is vacant. Marsu loans me a key so that we can sneak a peek. It is an otherwise ordinary hotel room, save for the Parsons-related posters hanging over the bed.

As we head out of the desert, back toward the lush green of Los Angeles, clouds darken above us and a community radio station plays a litany of American musicians who worked against convention. It is a fitting end for our excursion to a place where the odd legacies of outsiders continue to thrive long after they’ve left this planet.

“In 1973, the then 26-year-old Parsons succumbed to an overdose in one of these rooms.”

DualThe two decades, two universes, two minds, and one legacy of OutKastOutKast’s story is best told in two decades. Between 1994 and 2004, the duo of André Benjamin and Antwan Patton put out five albums, with each subsequent release exponentially garnering more critical fawning and unprecedented sales than the last. From the moment that two unknown teenagers submitted a remix for TLC’s hit single “What About Your Friends”—which landed them a record deal—OutKast started on a path that would forever change music. Their debut single, “Playas Ball,” rocketed up the charts on the momentum of Atlanta’s famed Freaknik weekend, and OutKast began a decade of innovation and dominance. Ten years later, André 3000 and Big Boi reached an apex of cultural saturation rarely seen with the simultaneous release of “The Way You Move” and “Hey Ya!” from their double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, pulling in a coronation at the Grammys and a diamond plaque from the RIAA.

Then, the momentum suddenly shifted. André, who never really liked touring to begin with, refused to hit the road in support of the duo’s magnum opus. His distaste for hip-hop was apparent on The Love Below (there are only two rapped verses on the entire record), but the onslaught of new OutKast music, hip-hop or not, slowed to a trickle. It hasn’t been a complete drought of OutKast music in the 10 years since, but the Idlewild soundtrack, two Big Boi solo releases, and a handful of mind-blowing guest verses from Andre were a far cry from the prolificacy displayed in the duo’s first decade. While it’s easy to see they were busy with other projects—acting, painting, running an award-winning pitbull kennel—the every-other-year release of classic OutKast albums stopped.

by Brandon Perkins | Illustration by Andrew Zbihlyj

In 2014, at the start of OutKast’s third decade in the public sphere, André 3000 and Big Boi are touring again, beginning with the hotly anticipated headlining gig at Coachella, but no one really knows what that means. Like OutKast’s entire canon, the public may empathize with their lyrics and feel their music on a soul-shaking level, but no one truly understands OutKast.

Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that Andre 3000 and Big Boi were actually born humans of this Earth. It’s not just the awe of multi-platinum celebrity or undeniable talents that changed the dominant culture of the last 20 years, nor is it the pink fur boots, slicked-silver hairstyles or the counterbalanced interstellar pimpisms. Even as OutKast sounds like an amalgamation of everything, there’s nothing that sounds like OutKast (and many have tried).

“OutKast are psychedelic space aliens with radioactive wigs and a sexually adventur-ous wardrobe,” British publication NME said. “Look again, and they’re playas from the Dirty South with a titty bar in their basement.” Aboard the intergalactic cruiser once manned by George Clinton and his Parliament Funkadelic, OutKast has pushed through the orbits of hip-hop and pop with enough matter to generate its own grav-ity. Science fiction philosophies, a speakeasy-set concept album, rapid-fire war cries for peace—nothing is off limits. From drum-less rap tracks (“E.T. (Extraterrestrial)”) and rap-less rap albums (The Love Below) to stoner songs about productivity (“Git Up, Git Out”) and dance tracks about civil rights leaders (“Rosa Parks”), everything is on the table. Entertainment Weekly called OutKast “the most innovative partners in hip-hop,” but plenty of people have suggested that the duo’s innovation extends beyond just hip-hop’s tiny corner of the universe. The weirdest part of OutKast’s bizarre bonanza however, may be that the music is so universally enjoyed.

There’s an OutKast song for nearly everyone (and over 25 million records sold proves that). There’s “Wheelz of Steel” for the hip-hop purists, “Hootie Hoo” for the pot-heads, “B.O.B” for the moshers, “The Whole World” for the pop fanatics, “Ms. Jack-son” for the committed baby-daddies, “Da Art of Storytellin’” for the lyrics-obsessed and, of course, “Hey Ya!” for your mom. There are pieces of these musically advanced beings in every single song, moments that actual people can relate to; so much so, it’s hard to think of André Benjamin and Antwan Patton as anything but human.

Their individual successes and vulnerabilities are so blatant and right there on record that, even through the excess of weirdness, a listener can’t help but experience a kinship with these extraterrestrial visitors. For all the etherealness, André and Big Boi are two artists who got their break while recording in a home studio aptly called The Dungeon. They are truly of this earth: “All the equipment was secondhand, some of it old. The basement itself was completely unfinished, the floor Georgia red clay, with dust everywhere,” Chris Nickson details in Hey Ya! The Unauthorized Biography of OutKast. “The only furniture was some beat-up patio chairs; if you wanted to sit, there were the basement steps.”

The world doesn’t need to be one thing or another, it’s everything and nothing at the same time. OutKast is both alien and human—and neither one. At different points of observation, it’s all the same. A brain cell measured in micrometers looks exactly like billions of light years worth of the universe. Synapses of the mind fire off with the energy of thousands of galaxies. OutKast is the wormhole between everything that makes us human and everything that makes up the impossibly vast system of stars, planets, space dust and black holes.

SouthernplayaliSticfunkymeteoricriSeOutKast did not have to toil away at their art in obscurity for very long. Born just four months apart in 1975, Dré and Big Boi began rapping as Two Shades Deep shortly after meeting outside of the Ralph Lauren store in Atlanta’s Lennox Square Mall at the tender age of 16. Before they even left their teenage years, the duo changed their name to OutKast and had Atlanta’s first nation-wide hip-hop hit. That “Player’s Ball” was ostensibly a Christmas song, spurred on by its anthemic presence at At-lanta’s storied Freaknik spring break party destination, proves that OutKast was never going to be just another hip-hop duo. After the party dispersed, people took OutKast’s debut album, Southernplayalisticfunkycadillacmuzik, home with them to every part of the country.

In 1994, there was a gulch of difference between the East and West Coasts’ hip-hop heroes and the local legends found in the South. The booty bass of Miami had its share of attention and even scored a few hits, but 2 Live Crew felt like an isolated incident rather than a movement. OutKast was not the only act from Atlanta that was making moves on a national scale, as Jermaine Dupri’s roster was crossing over into pop radio. But that didn’t necessarily translate into a last-ing impact on hip-hop.

“We find reasons not to like the South. If it ain’t afro-pretentious Arrested Devel-opment, it’s Kris Kross,” says Rob Marriott in his review of Southernplayalisticadil-lacmuzik in The Source. “If it isn’t Kris Kross, it’s all them country pork-chop-eatin’ niggas havin’ fun with their bug-legged women. But if you are a victim of this rural/urban southern/northern schizophrenia, then OutKast may be the antidote you seek.”

OutKast was able to achieve the rare balance between positivity and coolness. The duo addressed real issues in their lyrics without sounding like preachers on a pulpit. When André snidely raps, “I never smelled the aroma of a diploma,” he’s just sharing his story—not boasting about it. The line serves as the subtle bit of autobiography that keeps OutKast from pushing a positive outlook on the listener and merely dis-playing it. With a critical and commercial success under their belts, the bar was high for Dré and Big Boi’s follow-up.

atlienS meet aquemini meet StratoSphere No one knew what to expect when OutKast turned in their sophomore offering, AT-Liens, in early 1996. Always the adventurous dresser (even how he wore his Braves jersey in the Puffy-directed “Playas Ball” video was different), André had completely left the fashion map in the two years between albums. Channeling Jimi Hendrix and rave fashion through a twisting wormhole of hip-hop credibility, Dré wore turbans and psychedelic prints (and in much smaller sizes than the rest of hip-hop’s norm). The sprawling weirdness was certainly present on ATLiens, but OutKast was also able to detail the struggles of daily life in catchy, hook-laced song form.

“What distinguishes this record from the materialistic hedonism of much East Coast rap, and the gunplay and pimpism of its West Coast counterpart, is more than Out-Kast’s Southern roots,” Kevin Polowy says in his Rolling Stone review. “André and Big Boi display a unique ability to describe ghetto life while offering up life-affirming possibilities, something all too rare in today’s hip-hop nation.”

From the ear-worm blues on lead single “Elevators (Me & You)” to the chill-inducing breakdown on the title track—“Softly, as if I played piano in the dark,” André intones—OutKast was able to hit people on a gut-level with concepts that would normally fly over the average listener’s head. The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts and has since been certified double-platinum by the RIAA, proving that André’s pen-chant for strange outfits couldn’t hurt the commercial prospects of good music.

If ATLiens furthered the chasm between OutKast and the rest of hip-hop, Aquemini created more space between the styles of Big Boi and the newly-christened André 3000. While the former tightened his street proverbs to be among the best in hip-hop history, the latter followed his fashion sense’s path into a realm of rapid-fire abstraction. Big Boi’s “stickin’ together like flour and water to make that slow dough” on the album-opening “Return of the G” is counterweighted with André’s “Let’s talk about time traveling’, rhyme javelin/Somethin’ mind unravelin’,” setting the tone for Aquemini’s glorious meld of two distinct styles.

The album received a coveted 5-mic rating from The Source and went on to not only top several year-end lists, but also landed on many Best-of-the-90s lists at the end of the decade. Despite a contentious lawsuit from the famed civil rights leader, Aquemini’s

“Rosa Parks” became OutKast’s biggest—and weirdest—hit yet. The thrilling combi-nation of distinctly Southern blues (with a harmonica breakdown!), epiphany-worthy church music, and industry-damning condemnations not only propelled OutKast into the national consciousness, but also set the table for what was still to come.

enter Stankonia, exit Speakerboxxx/the love belowThe heartfelt apology isn’t exactly a typical hip-hop topic. All too often, confessing fault means admitting defeat. Yet, “Ms. Jackson” catapulted OutKast from critical darlings with platinum plaques to a pop culture force that had people who hated hip-hop humming the hook. Dedicated to “all the baby’s mommas, momma’s mommas, baby momma’s mommas,” the song detailed the struggles faced by both Big Boi and André 3000 with the mothers of their respective children, over a delicate piano and airy synth line.

Uplifting in outlook while honest about life’s mistakes, “Ms. Jackson” was the first OutKast song to top the Billboard 100. The lead single from Stankonia was decidedly less angry than the rest of the record, as songs like the bombastic “B.O.B.” and guitar-fueled “Gasoline Dreams” better depicted the album’s overall mood, but still marked another leap in OutKast ascension up pop culture’s gilded staircase. Four albums in, OutKast had increased its visibility and artistic viability with each release. Many assumed Stankonia to be the peak for a pair of kids from Atlanta. That’s not what happened, though.

Big Boi and André 3000 recorded two solo albums—the former not even hearing his partner’s effort until it was already mastered—and packaged them together as the next entry of OutKast’s discography. Big Boi’s Speakerboxxx stayed in OutKast’s ever-expanding, always-twisting lane, but expanded the highway to include more political lyrics. The record showed that Big Boi could carry the OutKast torch—funky beats, fun hooks, full ideas—even without much of André’s input (he only contrib-uted two beats and one vocal appearance to Speakerboxxx). Big Boi even released the year’s second biggest single without his partner’s help, but it was André’s half of the double album opus, The Love Below, that spawned the biggest song of 2004.

Ten years ago, there was no avoiding “Hey Ya!,” It was in heavy rotation on every format of mainstream radio, save for country and classical, and was one of the few videos that MTV actually played. There’s no point in discussing its charms—every neighbor everywhere has plenty of that sugar. By the time OutKast closed the MTV Video Music Awards at the end of August that year, it was apparent that even André was sick of “Hey Ya!” Perhaps, especially André, who had lip-synched the song 23 times in the making of its unforgettable video. At the end of OutKast’s medley, André introduced the song with a mumbled “damn it” and practically sang his mega-hit with his hands in his pockets. His performance lacked all of the energy that made “Hey Ya!” so special. In hindsight, it was apparent that OutKast had reached a breaking point.

more idle, leSS wildRumors of OutKast’s break-up had persisted since the recording of Aquemini. The stranger that André dressed, the less he decided to tour, the louder they got. By the time the distinctly splintered Speakerboxxx/The Love Below dropped, it was a forgone conclusion that the OutKast of that first decade was no more. The 2006 film Idlewild (written and directed by long-time OutKast video director Bryan Barber), as well as its accompanying soundtrack, did little to suggest that a full-blown OutKast album was on the way. It also marked the first time that an OutKast record failed to build upon the success of the last, both in sales and garnering critical accolades. The film’s mixed success also blurred the vision of their future together.

In the years since, very little has cleared up. Big Boi released two spectacular solo records—Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty in 2010, Vicious Lies and Dan-gerous Rumors in 2012—staying both relevant and consistent. André, however, has eschewed prospects of a solo album almost entirely. With a bigger focus on acting and his on-again, off-again clothing lines, André’s rare musical offerings turned into event listening. In 2007, his contributions to Unk’s “Walk It Out Remix” and UGK’s

“International Players Anthem” were light-years ahead of what (and how) everybody at the time was rapping. Frustratingly tantalizing, it showed that André still had the ability to be one of the game’s greatest—he just didn’t want to show too much.

It was what he did reveal on another scene-stealing guest appearance, however, that injected some hope into the idea that there was still some music left in Out-Kast’s future. On T.I.’s 2012 album cut “Sorry,” André directly addressed his group’s hiatus and even more so, Big Boi himself: “And this the type of shit that’ll make you call your rap partner/And say I’m sorry I’m awkward, my fault for fuckin’ up the tours.” It felt like a declaration or even an olive branch, but it still took two additional years before anything happened. Even now, as people await the first performance from OutKast in over a decade, no one really knows what this all means. Both André and Big Boi are publicly stating that there are no plans for another OutKast album, nor is there any commitment to tour after their summer run of 40 festival dates. But we live in a world where Beyoncé can release an album without five minutes of forewarning, so anything is possible. Only one thing is certain: OutKast has a proven track record of doing what’s least expected of them. It isn’t up to the fans to determine what’s next for André and Big Boi, we just need to sit back and enjoy the show while it’s here.

Stankonia-era steez.

T A S T E O F T H E T E R R A C E

P o P - U P s

Crossroads KitChenNamed restaurant of the year by VegNews, Tal Ronnen’s Mediterranean-inspired small plates are perfect for the vegan in your Coachella crew.

MexiCaliLatino food is an undeniable part of Southern Cali culture. Mexicali brings the Baja flavor to the polo grounds with flame-grilled meats and amazing salsas.

night + MarKetEver yone from obsessive food bloggers to Pulitzer-Prize winning food critic Jonathan Gold has lauded this Silver Lake spot for owner Kris Yenbamroong’s regional Thai recipes.

strippedbaCKImported from England like some of your favorite bands, Ben Spalding mixes unexpected flavors the way OutKast blends genres.

Y U r t s

stuMptown Coffee barGet the ultimate pick-me-up in a cup from Portland’s infamous caffeine delivery system (i.e. coffee).

salt & straw iCe CreaMAnother Portland fave that will cool you down while it fires up your taste buds with flavors like Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache.

bon pufCotton candy isn’t just for clowns anymore, with all-organic flavors like mango chili and salted caramel.

CloverHydration is essential in the desert, so grab a cold-pressed juice for an extra dose of wellness.

Crazy go nutsLocal, vegan and gluten free, Courtney Carini and David Wolfe’s six custom walnut flavors are inspired by Courtney’s family recipe, which they still serve as well.

CrèMe CaraMel laInsanely popular baked goods from Kristine de la Cruz, from savory stratas to super-sweet custard pies.

dried & true beef JerKyTrue protein power, handcrafted jerky from 100% lean beef, with none of the bad stuff like nitrates or MSG.

the fanCy boyzCelebrate the no-GMO movement with these amazing cakes.

le bon garConIs that a French-style caramel in your pocket, or are you just delicious?

sweet CleMentine’s handMade popsiClesLick quickly before these fruit-packed ice pops melt down your arm.

yes barGluten-free and paleo positive, these high-energy granola snacks will power your run from the Terrace to the Main Stage, then back to the Yuma Tent.

z ConfeCtions Salted caramel corn is perfect for popping in your mouth for a sweet and savory snack.

Fantastic New Food On The Field

We all love Spicy Pie, but it’s still not advisable to eat only pizza for three days. The Terrace area of Coachella has expanded this year to offer a wide range of artisanal eats that are healthy, local and sustainable. Take a taste!

ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?AftER A DECADE At thE Do Lab, thE LUCENt DOssIER EXPERIENCE Is READY fOR thE bIg stAgE.

Turn the right corner, though, and you’ll come across a non-descript industrial building. From the outside, it looks like the others, with a wrought-iron gate and an air of illegal irresponsibility. Inside, however, there’s evidence that this two-story spot belongs to a different segment of society’s fringe: an artistic, wanderlust-y side that finds function in a dangling sphere that looks like a happy lunatic’s dream of a jungle gym; a crazy-looking pyramid…thing. Hanging art that seems as if it’s been transported from some alternate steam-punk galaxy.

In a way, this is an alternate galaxy. This building is the home of the Lucent Dossier Experience, the crew of misfit aerialists, athletes and artists who’ve transformed themselves into a can’t-miss Coachella attraction for the last nine years, performing throughout the weekend in the outdoor Do LaB village, entrancing passersby to the point where they’re not really passersby anymore.

“At the end of the festival, one year, someone came up to us. They had the big acts all circled (on their schedule), and said, ‘This is what we were supposed to do all weekend. But what we really did was see every single one of your shows,’” recalls Dream Rockwell, one of Lucent’s co-founders, sitting in her cozy office to the side of their practice space, along with a few other key members of the ensemble.

There’s a part of downtown Los Angeles that you’re not really supposed to go to if you’re a

functioning member of society. A sort-of confusing cavalcade of dead-end streets and tent city

pop-ups that is where the fringe lives, just a mile from the classy bars and high-end restaurants

that have revitalized some of that section of downtown—and marginalized others.

It’s not an isolated incident. Each year, an uncountable number of Coachellans are drawn in by the spectacle of Lucent Dossier’s indescribable shows (“Cirque De Soleil on acid—and a lot more interesting” is about the closest one of the performers can come to summing it all up).

In the past, that has meant performers doing death-defying flying stunts, breathing fire, and dancing in ways that very few can dance—contorting non-contortionists, stunt-walkers and stilt-walkers, dressed as 50s greasers or sinister clowns or any number of deep-minded characters from the mind of Rockwell and her co-conspirators. “We play with reality and sur-reality,” says Lucent member Linda Bornini. “We make the real unreal, and vice versa.”

This year’s Lucent show’s appeal is no different: Rockwell, inspired by an obscure Chinese movie, explains that the “plot,” loose as it is, focuses on good and evil: “[In the movie], all of the characters who are evil, you also have compassion for them. And all the victims have a dark side.” She pauses for effect: “There’s no good—and there’s no evil.”

It sounds impossibly grand, and thankfully, it can be: for the first time ever, Lucent Dossier will not only perform on the Do LaB’s outdoor stage, but on Sunday night, they’ll shine in the Gobi tent, opening up an enormous amount of possibilities to enhance the performance. Each year, as the festival approaches, the LDE team goes into a meeting with the heads of Coachella to pitch their plans; this year, Coachella pitched Lucent Dossier.

by Jef f Miller

Photography: Live shot by Andrew Jorgensen, Portraits by Daniel Jung

“I pulled a computer up to do a slide show,” says Rockwell. “The pictures were running, and they were like, ‘You know what? We’ve been supporting you guys for so long, and we really feel like we’ve championed you from the beginning, and we think it’s time to take you to the next level. We want to put you on one of the stages, and give you a nighttime slot—and let you really do what you do.”

What Lucent Dossier does is both grandiose and intimate. They might have legions of fans around the world, but the group is just as happy to perform for small gatherings in the studio space we’re currently occupying. “We’re used to one-on-ones, with us and a few people having a really intense experience together,” says Rockwell. “Now, it’s us and thousands of people having an intense experience together. It’s nuts!”

Lucent Dossier’s roots, unsurprisingly, can be traced back to Burning Man. “All of us are Burners—every single one of us,” says Rockwell. “When you’re at Burning Man, there’s this sense of freedom. Anything is possible, and everything you do will be accepted no matter how weird or crazy it is.”

She continues. “When I got to Burning Man [the first year], it was the first time in my life where I was like: I can do whatever I want. The idea of bringing that world—that possibility—back to people is what inspired us.”

That means a no-rules and no-judgment approach to performance. The groups’ shows are both carefully choreographed and intended as an anything-goes orgy of movement. “We work really hard at ‘unzipping the suit,’” Rockwell explains. “The suit that we all wear so that we’re acceptable for society. In here, there’s a trust factor that builds between all of us. We can unzip our suits and become the raw person we are inside. [When the performers are on stage], you’re not seeing a fake character that they’re putting on. You are actually seeing them being themselves, because no one is saying to them, ‘Okay, smile here. Okay, here’s where you’re sad.’”

That openness to true self has guaranteed Lucent a legion of devoted fans, many of whom are inspired to pursue similar artistic dreams. “We’ve had so many people over the years send us pictures of themselves in crazy outfits and crazy makeup, and they’re like ‘This is what I’m doing now.’

“People have sent us videos over the years of their dance companies that were inspired by Lucent,” Rockwell says, “and I’m like—yes!” The troupe has had multiple hardcore fans get married at their shows, usually after years of following Lucent around, and sometimes, even becoming part of their operation. One longtime fan met the group when she was 14 at a Panic! At The Disco show and imbedded herself in the organization as an intern. Eventually, she went to Italy with them, and got engaged at one of their performances.

Lucent’s free-wheeling spirit has led to a myriad of other festival calls. This year, they are booked at the Do LaB’s own Lightning in A Bottle festival, as well as

a Canadian festival they can’t announce just yet. There is talk about going to Ireland and Australia for shows, and the troupe is also planning their first “real” tour, which will hit out-of-the-way markets like Detroit and Milwaukee for an experience the Lucent Dossier members call “the box”—essentially, figuring out a way to take what feels unhinged in the middle of a desert in California and conveying that vibe in a more-traditional theater. “We’re in every nook and cranny, and that’s really the easiest and most playful way for us to be.”

Though the group’s become something of a sensation, they know that Coachella is where their launch pad really is, and Dream and company have had some exceptional experiences here. Members tell stories of being forced (in a sort of happy way) to cancel their show, as Paul McCartney went past curfew, watching his fireworks burst in the air, as they tore down their set. They talk of watching Roger Waters’ headlining set from the front of the stage, then running back to get in position to close the night out. They get giddy when talking about roaming the field in costume, getting regularly stopped by concertgoers for photo opps, or just to tell them how much their performance meant to their Coachella experience.

“[We’re talking to engineers] because we want to rig things off the tent,” Rockwell exclaims, glowing as she speaks. “We want to have stuff flying in from the back of the tent to the front and things flying from the front to the back. We’re trying to get in the audience because, well, that’s our thing. I want to get face to face with someone. I want to look into someone’s eyes. So, the only way to do that is for us to have little stages out in the audience, to have zip lines carrying performers out, and to have aerial points. We gave them a wish list, and hopefully they’ll approve at least one thing on it.”

Assuming permission is granted—and given Coachella’s love for Lucent Dossier, that’s a safe assumption—the end result will be something surreal and magical, dark and light, concurrently. The show is being worked on, still. It’ll be worked on even more between the two weekends, as they perfect the movements and the fluidity and how to work with their new surroundings. But, the performers know the overall vibe, and it’s a romantic notion.

“This year, we just entered the Age of Aquarius,” says Lucent member Jen Shields, getting as heady as you’d expect. “It’s all very feminine, and things are just turning into beauty. [The years] 2012 and 2013 came and went, and now we can focus on the good things in life. Beauty is just seeping in.”

She finishes, and the troupe members head to that dangling jungle gym sphere. They barely talk as they dangle on it from all sides, lifting themselves up, and over, and through, seamlessly operating both individually and as a unit.

It’s going to look amazing in costumes, with fire blowing by them, amid the magic of Coachella.

Hell, it looks pretty amazing in a back-alley industrial building in downtown LA.

"I want to get face to face with someone. I want to look into someone’s eyes."

CREATeby Ryan Ma stRo

Coachella through the lens

TECHNOLOGYby andRew JoRgesen

SWEATby dove shoRe

LOVE

by Ch

Ris M

illeR

Glitch Mob performing in the Sahara Tent, 2010 Photo by Edward Ma

CAMP: Can you talk about your Coachella experience and how it and you have grown?

Ed: Coachella has been an interesting marker in our musical journey. Our friends, the Do LaB, do the stage in the middle. Before we ever got offered to play the Sahara Tent, we would go and play on their stage.

At the time, 2008, there was not a ton of electronic music in or around the festival. Especially like us, stuff that is a little weirder and off-kilter. It has been interesting to grow along with the Los Angeles beat scene and beat-driven music. By 2010, we played the Sahara Tent.

Justin: I think we played in between all the Ed Banger guys and Rusko.

Ed: Yeah, it was Busy P and Justice, which was a huge honor, because we love those guys. It has been interesting to be part of that trajectory. Now, you will see acts that make pretty weird electronic music on just as big of stages as some of the other guys.

Los Angeles “beat scene” veterans The Glitch Mob came up with Coachella, graduating from attendees to performers—first at The Do LaB, then later in the Sahara Tent. This year, they bring their amazing new stage show to Coachella after dark.

Ed, Justin and Josh explain to CAMP how their group’s growth has paralleled the rise of electronic music, and the death of the music genre.

By: Phil Nacionales

“Festivals are helping diversify everything.”

You see FlyLo at the Mojave Tent; it’s just a huge fucking stage.

Justin: Steve is one of our homies and he is arguably one of the most critically acclaimed elec-tronic musicians of our time. To be able to do what he does and be able to make weird, trippy electronic jazz stuff and be on those size stages is incredible. People are a lot more open-minded.

THE GLITCH MOB

Why do you think that is?

Justin: I think the Internet has had a really big hand in that. It used to be, if you are into drum & bass, or indie hip-hop, or whatever, then you didn’t listen to mainstream rap. You didn’t listen to anything four-to-the-floor. That was heresy. Now, you can be into pop music, you can be a big Drake fan, and still be into FlyLo.

Ed: I definitely give big props to these festivals that are helping diversify everything, because they are taking risks by putting different types of DJs in one tent. Rusko, into Ed Banger, into Glitch Mob—all three are very different.

Justin: Coachella has become a festival by which all other festivals are measured.

Josh: They have had a big part in making people take a ton of music seriously. There was a point in time, back in 2007 and 2008, when I remember feeling like we almost had to apologize [for our music]. The rave scene was very much looked down upon.

You had cats like LCD Soundsystem and The Rapture who were starting to mesh things to-gether, but kids who were pure hardcore electronic heads were almost not around anymore.

Ed: A lot of those bands helped bridge a lot of the stuff. Even MGMT and acts like that. A lot of those type bands helped me get back into band music. Miike Snow was a perfect example. I was like, “Oh, cool. Electronic sounds, with drums and guitar and a singer.”

Everything from the festivals, to these bands, to the Internet—it is all this big mix-ing pot of music. People are like, “Who fucking cares anymore. I’m just going to make 10 different tempos of music and I’m going to add a guitar on one of them, I’m going to sing on one of them. People are tired of calling a genre a genre—you know what I mean? All that stuff is just mashing together, and it’s just music.