Name: Explosions In The Sky
Genre: Rock
Day: Sunday

Wikipedia sez: “Explosions in the Sky is a post-rock, instrumental band originating in Texas. They primarily play with three guitars (on occasion one of them being a bass) and a set of drums. The band typically creates instrumental songs, which tend to develop over the span of many minutes. Originally called Breaker Morant, Explosions in the Sky was formed in Austin, Texas in 1999. Hrasky is from Rockford, Illinois, and the rest of the band hails from Midland, Texas. They quickly gained a reputation for themselves among other established local bands such as Lift to Experience. Temporary Residence Limited signed the band on the strength of their demo after only half a listen; the demo was submitted by fellow Austin band The American Analog Set with a brief note saying, “This totally fucking destroys”.”

The note was right, it really does totally fucking destroy. The name may not sound familiar and you will never hear Explosions In The Sky on the radio, but they first sprung to the mainstream on the soundtrack for movie Friday Night Lights. They make guitar based instrumental rock, and it sounds really damn good. Peaceful but spectacular at the same time, as soon as a track ends you are left wanting more despite that fact that the track you just listened to went 8+ minutes. They just better play early in the day (around 4:30-5pm would be nice) and don’t clash with Air.

Likelyhood of Seeing at Coachella:? A must see. Not missing this one for the world.

Read on to view Explosions In The Sky live videos…

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Name: Evil Nine
Genre: Dance
Day: Friday

Wikipedia sez: “Tom Beaufoy and Pat Pardy first combined skills as Evil Nine in 1998 and were quickly recognised as a quality DJ/Producer duo by Adam Freeland who signed them to his label. Their punk rock, DIY attitude, epitomised by their remix of Ils’ “Music”, stirred up the breaks scene. Their love of innovation and ability to tweak the breaks format, injecting punk, house and their own raw vibe into the mix, is rapidly establishing them as the new golden boys as they forge a fresh path.”

Jeez, doesn’t the above read just like a press release?? I don’t mind Adam Freeland, and I can see why he brought on Evil Nine - they sound so similar. Simple breaks with electronic piano and the odd sample thrown in for good measure too. They have done a few tracks with rappers including Aesop Rock, but I can’t say I like what I hear by any means.

Likelyhood of Seeing at Coachella: Nah.

Read on to view Evil Nine live videos…

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Name: El-P
Genre: Hip-Hop
Day: Friday

Wikipedia sez: “El-P aka El-Producto (born Jaime Meline) is an American rapper, producer and entrepreneur from Brooklyn, New York City. He is the co-founder, owner and CEO of the Definitive Jux record label. As a rapper, El-P’s style can be characterized by his dense, aggressive, and verbose attacks, which include notable use of metaphor, science fiction and fantasy themes and references, and associative word play. Regardless of this sophistication, he does not eschew traditional hip hop subject matter, a description which would fit equally well with several of his colleagues. His impact as a producer owes to his innovative mix of bleak futurism and low fidelity sounds. This sound is influenced by Public Enemy’s production team, The Bomb Squad. El-P is a great fan of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, and many of Dick’s themes—paranoia, the nature of reality—feature in El-P’s work.”

El-P is the founder of Def Jux, home to alternative hip-hop artists such as Aesop Rock, MURS and favourite of The Couch Sessions Danny! So after doing a search for some El-P, I was suprised by what I heard, in particular why I hadn’t come across it earlier. El-P’s rhymes don’t share the aggressive tones that you might hear from Slug, but are a bit more heartfelt reminding me of Murs. Recently he put together a live backing band rather then relying on records, but he has also been known to spin tracks as a DJ at festivals too. For Coachella fans, who knows what he will bring, but those saying that Friday is lacking big names may want to check him out.

Likelyhood of Seeing at Coachella: I think so!

Read on to view El-P live videos…

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Name: DJ Shadow
Genre: Electronic
Day: Friday

Wikipedia sez: “Josh Davis, a.k.a. DJ Shadow is a turntablist, producer, and songwriter. His recordings are primarily noted for their lush, atmospheric, sample-based sound. DJ Shadow began his music career as a disc jockey at the community radio station KDVS. During this period he was significant in developing the experimental hip hop style associated with the California-based Solesides record label. His early singles for the label, including In/Flux and Lost and Found (S.F.L.), were genre-bending works of art merging elements of funk, rock, hip hop, ambient, jazz, soul, and used-bin found records. DJ Shadow is often cited as a leading creator of trip-hop, though this is a label he strongly contests.”

I like DJ Shadow. Well I did, at least until he released “The Outsider”. I found Shadow via my search for everything and anything Jurassic 5 related, and since Cut Chemist did two amazing mixtapes with him (”Brainfreeze” and my personal favourite “Product Placement”) chock full of samples from here, there and everywhere as well as the brilliant “Endtroducing” and “Private Press” albums. Then in 2006 he released “The Outsider”, and the damn album is full of bay-area hyphy rap. No cool samples or beats, just rhymes about getting high on cough syrup. I wasn’t the only one who was upset by it, but at least Cut Chemist was going to come out with a decent sample based album (for the record, he didn’t). I suspect that Shadow will be doing a hyphy set rather then hearing Building Steam with a Grain of Salt, so I will probably give it a miss. But if Cut Chemist suddenly pops up…

Likelyhood of Seeing at Coachella: Doubtful, but I’ll probably check it out anyway.

Read on to view DJ Shadow live videos…

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