Coachella Awards 2012: A Post by Max

I am still without internet in my apartment and my mother has been in town, so I asked Max if he would be so kind as to guest post in more of an intentional way than when I cut and paste the random emails he sends me. He was lucky enough to make it to Coachella this year and posts the following review:

 2012  Coachella Awards:

Despite the inherent problems in judging an event where I saw 1/5 of the acts I am going to go ahead and bestow honors on those who entertained me and sarcastically slight those who disappointed.

Most Talented: Andrew Bird

I had listened to his newest album a few times and enjoyed it but wasn't until I witnessed the live event did I see how incredible of a musician he is. Killer whistler too.

Most Rocking Chick Award: St. Vincent

Seriously awesome show. Planned on staying for a couple songs and ended up staying for the whole show. Well done.

Apologies to Grace Potter who had a good chance of claiming this title for not making it to your show. It was hella hot out.

Sleepiest Show: Bon Iver

Seriously a lot of people passed out on the lawn for this one. The show definitely didn't suck but combine a long, hot day of music with the tranquil style of Bon Iver's music and you'll end up with some sleepy concert goers.  

Most Swagger: Childish Gambino

Mad. Swagger.

Least Original: All the lame DJs who all sample the same few songs and rely on uber-nice sound systems and light shows to entertain the crowd. I'd call you out individually but none of you managed to make enough of an impression for me to remember your name. For the record I was quite entertained at some of these shows but I give very little credit to the DJs.

Least Surprising Tend: Skrillix Haircut

Considering the ridiculousness of the haircut I was surprised with the large amount of girls rocking the side shave. Is this an award to Skrillix? Is this an award at all?

Random Shoutouts:

Girl Talk puts on a killer show. His sampling of music is done creatively and thoughtfully. 

Gotye didn't suck! They put on a full set of good music. It was quite funny to watch the entire crowd leave after they played their hit.

emails from Max

"There are all those lame ways to announce a tour, and then there's this way...."




"Took me a few min to find this one. Not quite as epic as their performance of it at SX but it's still so dang excellent" Indeed, this is not nearly as epic as the performance we saw at SX, which was easily my favorite rowdy, dance party, awesome show! 

Siblings with The Silent Comedy at SXSW 2012

The Silent Comedy

Max sent me the following e-mail this evening. Austin is going to become exponentially cooler when he arrives.  I'll also see you all on the dance floor at The Silent Comedy during SX! 

Dear Amanda,

The lack of references in your blog to the band "The Silent Comedy" is concerning. The only logical explanation of the absence is that you don't want anyone else to go and take up room on the dance-floor. Reasonable. But you took a sacred oath the day you entered the music blogosphere, an oath to spread good music to all those smart enough to check your blog, or those lucky enough to "accidently" find their way there. At 1 o'clock am on Thursday your readers deserve to be front and center to the unexpected dance party that will be the 2012 show by The Silent Comedy.

Here's a couple versions of one of my favorite songs by them.

Peace,

Max

I was going to research for SXSW, but maybe I'll just let my brother do it

As I often post the more than delightful e-mails I receive from my brother, here is his latest...

I found myself in a SX band perusing mood this evening. Below are some notes I jotted down for you. Number of *s before band name indicates my excitement to see them live.

Amoral - Heavy metal rockin'. Is the singer a guy or girl? i have no idea. Linken park comparison maybe?

***The Silent Comedy - Casual singing builds their bluegrass tunes from barroom corner to the center of the dance floor. Sorta reminded me of the awesomeness of Ryan Gossling's band.

*Tea Leaf Green - Their 2005 CD "Taught to be Proud" was pretty badass. They've always had the ability to play both smooth hippy bro songs ft. Trevor's harmonica and some heavier rock songs taking the guitarist, Josh's lead. They sorta petered out after those awesome early years. They recently picked up a new bassist and drummer  and have definitely changed up their sound a bit. Their CD "Radio Tragedy" doesn't suck completely.

**The Dandies - Hipsters with a splash of classic rock. I dig it.

The Darcys - Mumbly vocals as a part of an overall jumbled sound left me unimpressed.

*Youth Lagoon - After putting me to sleep for the first half of their song "Montana" they revived me with a high energy ending. Could their concert be a wild alternation of naps and dancing? Maybe...

**The Young Evils - Fun! If they made a kids album, my future kid would definitely dig it.

* Talking to Turtles - Was I expecting something as awesome as Trampled By Turtles? yes. Was that unfair? yes. Pretty straightforward indie rock. Killer xylophone in "Men in Trees"

***Delta Spirit - These guys are the awesomeness. Their CD "Ode to Sunshine" is regularly played at the rental shop. Sounds like Dr Dog but good.

9 down, 1,000,000 more to go.