Coachella Photos 2010

I've been to ever single Coachella Festival. Over the past six years I've been programming for Goldenvoice, at first just the Coachooser, then eventually website updates and now the Coachella iPhone and Android apps. I've also photographed that last six Coachella festivals: Coachella 2010, Coachella 2009, Coachella 2008, Coachella 2007, Coachella 2006 and Coachella 2005.

Last year my photos ended up on Wired, Boingboing and URB. This year I'll be shooting Coachella again, look out for my photos on here, Wired and possibly a few other places around the web. More photos from my coverage last year below and after the jump:

Danny DeVito at Coachella

Jay Z Watching MGMT at Coachella

Thursday Night at Coachella

Graffiti Wall

Yo Gabba Gabba

Brobee

La Roux

Coachella 2009 Photos

Keeping up with tradition, I photographed Coachella last weekend. This time around I shot for Wired, URB and of course, my blog. As I mentioned in a previous post, I also wrote the Official Coachella iPhone application for Goldenvoice.

I had a great, albeit busy, time at the festival this year and took about 50GB of photos and 10GB of video. If you look through some of the Coachella VRs, you will see me in about half of the panoramas shooting from the photo pit.

Here are some of the photos I shot:

Coachella Crowd for The Killers

Robert Smith

Photogs Shooting Morrissey

Henry Rollins

More after the jump...

Coachella 2009: Thursday

Made it to Coachella yesterday around 5pm. Got our RVs situated and our base camp set up then took a walk through the field and camp site. Here are a few photos to get you excited for Coachella:

A string of balloons blows in the wind above a row of tents in the Coachella Camp Site on Thursday night.

The Do Lab's new look includes a plethora of shipping crates and a wooden trough fountain, which they estimate will use up to 7,000 gallons a day.

The field is nearly empty for Paul McCartney's rocking sound check.

People from all over the world travel to Coachella, many of them camp.

A worker puts the final touches on The Do Lab on Thursday evening at Coachella.

Keep your eyes on Wired and Urb for more of my shots throughout the weekend.

Brilliant Klezmer Violinist Stabbed In UK

Recently I picked up the clarinet again and have been practicing various Klezmer songs, including one of my wife's favorites: Papirosen. A sad song about a boy selling cigarettes on the streets during WW II in order to stave off hunger and avoid the fate of his sister who died from exposure.

I found this brilliant rendition on youtube by a duo known as the Klezmer Gourmets.

I was shocked and saddened to read in the comments that the violinist Michael Kahan was stabbed earlier this year by a 'discharged schizophrenic' in Macnhester.

This song will now be twice as sorrowful when I play it. Rest in peace Michael Kahan.

My New Clarinet: Selmer CL-200

Recently I picked up a new-to-me Selmer CL-200 clarinet. I love the warm sound it produces thanks to its all-wood construction. I have been practicing every day and enjoying it greatly.

I started playing clarinet in elementary school and played it through middle school. Sadly I stopped playing in high school, perhaps having to do with not wanting to be a band geek. A few years ago I bought a cheap plastic clarinet which I played once and put away.

Several weeks ago I had an urge to play again so I pulled my old clarinet out of storage and started practicing again. Surprisingly I hadn't completely forgotten my old skills and within a few days I was reading and playing music again.

I found a cool site created by a klezmer band in Manchester that had tons of klezmer PDF sheet music and MIDI files to download. I downloaded and printed every single song on their site and choose about a dozen to start practicing.

After deciding I really wanted to get into playing clarinet again, I started to yearn for a better instrument. When I played in junior high I had a nice old wood clarinet. It had beautiful tone and the grain was lovely.

I started to look around for a good deal on a nicely serviced wood clarinet online. I ended up finding the Clarinet Closet. The Clarinet Closet services used clarinets and sells them at a reasonable price. I certainly could have found a cheaper clarinet on ebay, but I wanted to buy from someone who actually spent the time to service and play the clarinet.

I opted for the cheapest wood clarinet they had for sale, a Selmer CL-200. It set me back about $260 plus shipping. I paid via paypal and the clarinet arrived in the mail just 2 days later. It's amazing that you can ship something through the USPS and it arrives twice as fast compared to UPS for half the price.

I love the clarinet. The SL-200 has a beautiful tone and feels great, especially for a student level / intermediate instrument. At some point I may upgrade to a higher level clarinet, but the CL-200 will suit me perfectly for some time.

Once I master a few dozen klezmer tunes I'm going to look for a violinist, organist and perhaps a DJ / producer to start a modern klezmer dubstep / drum'n'bass group. That should be interesting!

A close-up of the bell of my new wood clarinet shows the Selmer logo.

Grand Performances : Ozomatli

Here are some photos I took of Ozomatli at the first Grand Performances of the summer:

More photos can be found on blogging.la, blogdowntown and in my Grand Performances Ozomatli gallery.

New Dubstep Website : Dubstp.com

So I've been really getting in to Dubstep in the last few months, and I've decided to start a site about it: dubstp.com It will be similar to junglescene.com, in fact it currently just forwards you to the Dubstep and Grime forum. As soon as I'm finished with my current rewrite of eecue and junglescene I will create a separate, but closely integrated site for dubstp.com.

Willie Nelson : Coachella 2007 Sunday : Part 3

Xeni has more Coachella coverage over on BoingBoing.

The Roots : Coachella 2007 Sunday : Part 2

Here are some photos of Black Thought and The Roots:

Lupe Fiasco : Coachella 2007 Sunday : Part 1

Here are some photos from Lupe Fiasco's set:

Ghostface Killah : Coachella Saturday : Part 3

Here are a couple of the shots I just took of Ghostface Killah:

Tom Morello / The Nightwatchman and more Pharoahe Monch : Coachella Saturday : Part 2

Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, performing as The Nightwatchman, his solo project:

And another of Pharoahe Monch, this time in the Artist Area being interviewed:

Pharoahe Monch : Coachella Saturday : Part 1

Here are some of the photos I shot during Pharoahe Monch:

I am going to try and catch Ghostface Killah, Ozomatli and Red Hot Chili Peppers later. Here are the rest of my Coachella Saturday photos on flickr.

Xeni Jardin is live blogging from coachella as well and has this very detailed post up on BoingBoing.

Amy Winehouse (posterior), Stephen Marley, and Bus Driver : Coachella Friday : Part 2

So I missed my chance to get shots of Amy Winehouse from the photo pit, and I only got this lousy photo from backstage. After that I shot this photo of Stephen Marley from a filming platform:

I got a whole bunch of shots of Bus Driver, who put on a great show. I was really impressed. I haven't seen him on the mic in many years, and his passionate performance was enthralling. His DJ even threw in some drum'n'bass. Good stuff:

You can see the rest of today's Coachella photos here.

Brother Ali, Toki Wright, Flostradamus and Kid Sister : Coachella Friday : Part 1

Here are some of the photos I have taken so far today:

I caught a few minutes of Flostradamus featuring Kid Sister:

I then had some water and headed back over to the main stage to watch Brother Ali and Toki Wright:

I got a photo of the large bottles of CO₂ on the main stage... I'm guessing for an effect during Bjork's set. My EVDO is getting a much better signal now so the photos are uploading faster. I'll be shooting photos of Stephen Marley and Amy Winehouse and uploading them in a few hours, probably around 8pm. Keep and eye out for updates here or blogging.la.

Here are my: Coachella Thursday Photos and Coachella Friday Photos.

Thursday Night Coachella Photos

I took some photos last night at Coachella:

You can see the rest of the photos here. I should say, in the interest of full disclosure, that I programed the Coachooser for Goldenvoice.

A Modest Proposal to Save Jungle Music

The RIAA has proven that the only way the music industry can survive is through suing its customers. In the case of the minuscule drum'n'bass music industry, it can only survive by suing its only customers, and the only customers drum'n'bass producers have are DJs.

The logical conclusion is to sue the DJs so that the drum'n'bass artists can get a slice of the fat pie that the djs are brining in through their highly lucrative mix tape / cd sales. i mean can you name a single dnb dj who isn't totally rich from exploiting the drum'n'bass producers they feature on their mixtapes? if it wasn't for the damn djs out there ruining the market the drum'n'bass producers would be selling thousands, nay millions of pressings of vinyl to your average jungle joe.

It's not my baby!

Do I hear a country song a brewin'?

Granular Music Info

Here is the info I have posting to different dnb message boards today:

Granular Music booking agency

I have just launched my new drum'n'bass booking agency, Granular Music. My roster is not yet complete, but so far I have nearly every OG jungle DJ from LA. The site will have more information soon including: bios, photos, mixes, booking calendar, online booking negotiation, booking contracts and more! The main point of granular is to help our local DJs get exposure around the US and the World. Just in case you were wondering, all our artists are nonexclusive so if you already have a deal worked out you can choose to go directly with that artist or whatnot.