Amazing Line-Up For Coachella 2013

Where do I begin...and end?

Dead Can Dance, Stone Roses, Blur, Sigur Ros, Beach House, xx, Bat For Lashes, Tegan & Sara, OMD, Grizzly Bear, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Faint, etc.

Talk about too many bands, too little time! This will be Year #5 and it never gets old! Zia Records will be the place to be, again!

K

Kings Are Stanley Cup Champions!!

The L.A. Kings win the Stanley Cup for the 1st time ever tonight! I've been to a lot of games when they were still purple and gold. It's a great day to be a Kings fan!!

Sorry but this just had to be posted. I had no choice.

A Final Look Back at Coachella 2012 — and Why the Festival Needs to Look Forward

With its holograms and duplicated lineup, why is the popular music festival so obsessed with recreating the past?


Chris Pizzello / AP
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg perform during their headlining set on the first weekend of the 2012 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., on Sunday, April 15, 2012.


By Andrea Domanick


Tuesday, May 1, 2012 | 6 p.m.

One week after Coachella’s two-weekend extravaganza, its double-dip lineup experiment has proved to be the most successful run in the festival’s 13-year history, drawing over 80,000 people on each of its six days.

What was once a small gathering of musical acts that struggled to bring in both an audience and a profit has become an internationally-revered destination for music fans and a career benchmark for both emerging and established acts.

To accommodate its popularity, organizers Goldenvoice announced an unprecedented plan last June to expand the 2012 festival from one three-day weekend to two consecutive weekends, each with the exact same musical lineup.

While Coachella’s double-dip lineup was designed to accommodate the festival’s burgeoning popularity, featuring buzz-worthy acts like Radiohead and Kaskade and heavy-hitter reunions from the likes of At the Drive In and Pulp, it was also obsessed with recreating the past. Its unprecedented slate of big-name reunion acts and the holographic revival of dead artists like Tupac Shakur all highlight a cultural romance with memories and nostalgia.

That’s nothing new, but it was especially pervasive at this year’s festival. It was evident in the performances of artists like 20-year-old rapper Azealia Banks, whose patent leather overalls, vogueing backup dancers and cover of the Prodigy’s 1996 rave hit “Firestarter” on Weekend 2 were an undeniable love letter to the not-so-distant mid-nineties. Banks’ prowess as an MC and lyricist may have made her the new darling of hip-hop fans and critics (and rightfully so), but there was little about her beats or style that pointed in a truly original creative direction; it was, ironically, the set’s tongue-in-cheek throwback flavor that gave it much of its fresh and edgy feel. Then there were nineties comeback heroes Pulp, who by no coincidence opened both their Coachella sets with their ode to nostalgia, “Do You Remember the First Time?”

Nevertheless, the weather (cold and rainy for much of Weekend 1 and stiflingly hot on Weekend 2), the crowd (only about 6 percent of attendees went both weekends, according to organizer Paul Tollett) and general variations in performances managed to give each weekend its own distinct feel. If the second weekend lacked for surprises, it at least smoothed out the previous weekend’s technical kinks, which included a delay in DJ duo Justice’s set and a display malfunction during EDM artist Avicii’s performance.

In many cases, Weekend 2 also elicited larger crowds and even more enthusiastic performances from non-headlining artists, thanks to rave reviews they received the first time around. DJ Flying Lotus' Saturday night set in the 3,000 person-capacity Gobi tent drew a crowd that spilled out to around double that size; crooner Frank Ocean had fans camping out by the Gobi stage for hours before his second Friday evening set; and tuxedoed garage rockers the Hives finally got the raucous, sweaty moshpit they deserve, despite Weekend 2’s lethargy-inducing heat.

Where Weekend 2 faltered was when it tried too hard to replicate the experiences of Weekend 1. When politically-charged punks Refused followed up the first weekend’s raw, impassioned comeback set with a carbon copy Weekend 2 -- right down to frontman Dennis Lyxzén’s “remember-when” stage banter – it certainly wasn’t bad, but there was something unsettlingly insincere about it (particularly when Lyxzén noted, “For us it’s déjà vu. For you it’s a new day,”).

Similarly, the return of the Tupac Shakur hologram during Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre’s bland second headlining set was underwhelming, serving only to highlight the fact that, without the element of surprise, the hologram technology is a lot less impressive in real life on YouTube. Moreover, the hologram’s eerie, scripted greeting of “What the [expletive] is up, Coachella?” (the first festival was held three years after Shakur died) made the performance feel like less of a tribute to the late rapper than a desperate attempt to mine originality from our past.

This fixation with nostalgia isn’t anything we haven’t already seen in Las Vegas. While the city is always hungry for the next new thing, its myriad tribute acts and theme hotels all exist in homage to better times and places (not to mention that performers like Celine Dion have been performing onstage with holograms for years).

But let’s leave the tribute acts to Vegas, and not forget that popular festivals like Coachella were once intended to showcase exciting new artists. But maybe the problem isn’t with the festivals, but with the lack of originality in pop music. A look at some of Coachella’s most popular acts – like the ’60s blues rock flavor of headliners the Black Keys – highlights the fact that many of the most successful new artists of the past decade have relied on cannibalizing past musical trends for new material.

Still, Coachella also revealed that the seeds for innovation are there: The stirring anti-establishment pop of WU LYF, the brooding industrial aggression of Death Grips and the nuanced, cerebral compositions of Flying Lotus are examples of artists emerging with sounds that are pushing music in new creative directions and with messages that speak to the challenges of life in this decade; they’re a hopeful promise that perhaps today’s reign of retromania might soon be replaced by new voices for a new generation with its own distinct consciousness.

Follow Andrea Domanick on Twitter at @AndreaDomanick and fan her on Facebook at Facebook.com/AndreaDomanick.

L.V.’s Zia Record Exchange Taps Into Coachella, Other Festivals To Keep Business Spinning Image

By Andrea Domanick



Andrea Domanick

Patrons peruse Zia Records’ Record Store Day offerings at the store’s pop-up shop at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Saturday, April 21, 2012.

Thursday, April 26, 2012 | 1:05 p.m.

For many Las Vegans, the trek to this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., meant a weekend (or two) spent in a music fan’s paradise. For Karl Hartwig, general manager of Zia Record Exchange on West Sahara, the trip meant a crucial business opportunity.

Not that he is in it for the money. In fact, Hartwig and the rest of Zia’s staff are content to simply break even from their festival booths.

“It’s not like we lose money, but let’s just say it’s a pleasant surprise if we turn a profit,” Hartwig says. “We don’t rely on these weekends to bring in money. But we do rely on them to bring in customers.”

Those customers are part of an aging demographic of record store patrons, which makes setting up shop at a youthful festival like Coachella all the more important. Indeed, at last Saturday’s Record Store Day event at the festival, it was Converse-wearing college grads and gray-haired hipsters crowding the racks of Zia’s pop-up shop, while the festival’s contingent of neon-clad teenagers flitted by, stopping only briefly to peruse the merchandise booth next door.

“The demographic of our customers in the 1980s was 16 to 26. Today, it’s 26 to 56. That’s an age group that grew up with vinyl and still values the format, whereas younger people have forgotten about it,” Hartwig explains.

Daniel Kohn, a 30-year-old writer from L.A., was among the crowd picking through Zia’s racks at Coachella on Saturday. He says he prefers vinyl for its “lasting, rewarding quality about feeling good about buying music. You feel like you're contributing and being part of something large and tangible.”

Kohn purchased exclusive releases from the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen, explaining that he also prefers the sound of the format: “It’s much better quality and, besides, there’s nothing like that crackle sound after the needle hits the vinyl.”

For Zia, harnessing the increasing ubiquity of music festivals means a key promotion and marketing opportunity. The Arizona-based chain, which expanded to two Las Vegas locations in 2005, also sells at this weekend’s Stagecoach Festival in Indio and at numerous festivals in the Las Vegas area, including Warped Tour, Extreme Thing, Reggae in the Desert and 2009's Matador at 21 festival.

"There is no doubt that our presence at festivals has increased business locally," Hartwig says. "It’s a great way to reach people who just walk in the door at festivals. They discover us there and then come into the stores; they say they had no idea we had record stores in Vegas."

Setting up shop at festivals is just one example of new and creative business strategies employed by independent record stores to survive in a time when digital music formats have all but sounded the death knell for traditional music retailers. Record Store Day, an internationally celebrated event observed the third Saturday in April, is another example.

The event, started at the Bay Area’s Rasputin Records in 2007, now has more than 1,700 stores around the world touting exclusive releases, artist signings and other special music-related offerings that can’t be found or downloaded anywhere on the Internet. As a result, vinyl record sales increased 89 percent to 1.9 million copies in 2008, according to Nielsen Soundscan, a growing number that hit 4 million in 2011; 67 percent of last year’s sales were made through Record Store Day-sanctioned independent retailers.

Still, Zia is one of the few that have not only been able to survive, but also thrive. Hartwig says the chain’s role as the exclusive vendor at Coachella in particular for the past four years (replacing now-defunct record store behemoths Tower and Virgin Records) has been essential to that success, thanks in large part to Coachella’s overlap with Records Store Day.

“The best thing about selling at Coachella is that Record Store Day is completely centered during it,” he says, adding that Zia’s pop-up shop is the only location in the country sanctioned to begin selling its Record Store Day offerings one day early, on Friday, April 20.

Coachella’s expansion to two three-day weekends this year proved 2012 to be the busiest year yet for Zia at the festival, a fact that was anticipated by the record industry: For Record Store Day and the festival in general, labels supplied Zia with some of the most exclusive offerings in the country, such as a reissue of highly anticipated Coachella reunion act At the Drive In’s seminal EP “Vaya.”

“East Coast blogs are talking about Zia and the exclusives we offer, saying that they have no idea who we are -- but now they want to know," he says, adding that Zia connects with those markets by promoting its online store and low-cost shipping through the Record Store Day website.

At Coachella, Zia also features more than 60 artist signings and meet-and-greets per weekend, compared to Tower and Virgin’s three or four. While such events are certainly a treat for fans, Hartwig says they’re also great PR for up-and-coming performers like Le Butcherettes and Childish Gambino, the latter of whom boasted the weekend’s longest signing line and the top-selling album of Record Store Day. As a result, Zia is able to foster relationships with fans and artists.

All this is not to say the chain hasn’t had to adjust to life in what is still very much a struggling market; a glance around the pop-up shop reveals the books, T-shirts and other non-music merchandise that pad its inventory of new and used vinyl records and CDs. But look again, and you’ll see fans exchanging sweaty post-show hugs with artists, jotting down record suggestions rattled off by employees and beaming as they pull a long-coveted album out from among the racks; it all attests to the value of hand-to-hand exchange of music that can never be usurped by iTunes.

“I’ve been in this business a long time. It’s really nice to be part of a company that can look toward its future rather than live in fear of it,” Hartwig says.

Follow Andrea Domanick on Twitter at @AndreaDomanick and fan her on Facebook at Facebook.com/AndreaDomanick.

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Thunders Into Southern California

Wes Woods II, Staff Writer Posted: 04/12/2012 05:05:53 PM PDT Updated: 04/12/2012 08:15:11 PM PDT

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival with its hundreds of acts will converge in the desert with scores of thousands of fans for two sold-out weekends starting today.

The Black Keys, Radiohead, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg are among the headliners.

"The best thing about Coachella is there's so many different types of acts," said Karl Hartwig, general manager at Zia Record Exchange in Las Vegas who is working at the store's booth at Coachella this year. "From a retailer standpoint it's your best customer experience several hundred times a day. We can do a week's worth of sales in one day."

Adrienne Scherer, store manager at Rhino Records in Claremont, likes the fact that the festival gives exposure to smaller bands.

"One thing that happens every year is that when they announce the lineup people come in (to Rhino Records) with a list," Scherer said. "They say `I want to know about these smaller bands."'

Such bands this year include indie rock's Abe Vigoda, who are originally from Chino.

Meanwhile artist Destructo, who's real name is Gary Richards, performs Saturday and April 21 at the festival. He admits he was a little nervous until he came up with a plan.

"Now I'm just going to have a few cocktails and rock the house and do what I do and not get so crazy. Just treat it like it's any other gig - even though it's not."

Richards, a producer and DJ in Los Angeles starting in the early 1990s, helped launch the careers of Basement Jazz, Lords of Acid and others when he became head of A&R (artists and repertoire) for electronic music at Def American Recordings.

He later created HARD in 2007, which puts together events such as the HARD Haunted Mansion that features electronic music.

"I try to align myself with guys who last," Richards said. "As with anything, there's a few great people, then all the other people copy them."

Coachella 2012 Line-Up!!

We have TWO weekends this year!! Mazzy Star, At The Drive-In, Madness getting back together?? Holy crap!

Great line-up this year! How do I decide who to see?

Decisions, decisions.

K