My Lazy, Hasty Coachella Write-Up (so I can finally publish much better posts)

So yes, I know it's extremely late, but I have finally written up Coachella. Don't expect anything great here...just wanted to get my thoughts down.

Unfortunately the weekend started off on a bit of a sour note. All I will say is that I will never fly American Airlines again. Though I did spot Chris Taylor, Pat Mahoney and Tyler Pope at JFK and totally embarrassed myself by acting like a total fan girl. Ouch.

The first band I wanted to see on Friday was Sleigh Bells (whose new LP Treats is rocking my world right now) and they went on at 3:30. My group and I decided that we would get there a bit early and possibly catch a bit of Wale and The Avett Brothers. It seemed as though everyone else had the same plan. We ended up waiting in line for 2 hours* for our wristbands and not only missed Sleigh Bells but Yeasayer as well. It didn't help my mood that I was also checking Twitter and everyone was tweeting about how packed the crowd was for Sleigh Bells and how Yeasayer was wearing some pretty interesting outfits. By the time we finally got in, I had given up all hopes of seeing Ra Ra Riot as their set had already started and I really needed a drink.

*This was the only mishap we experienced all weekend. Golden Voice ran a really well-organized festival. Bathrooms were (relatively) clean and always had toilet paper. Lines for food, drinks, toilets were never too long.

But my attitude changed after my first sip of Jack and Coke and Caroline and I ran to catch Ra Ra Riot. We started towards a stage that was emitting folksy-sounding music and quickly realized it was the wrong one when we were horrified by Zooey Deschanel's face/voice. We turned right and finally found Ra Ra Riot in time to hear their last three songs. I'm so glad I got to hear "Can You Tell" and "Dying Is Fine" was stuck in our heads for the rest of the weekend.

After Ra Ra Riot was Grizzly Bear. It was the first time I have seen them play and I'm sorry to say I was a bit disappointed. Grizzly Bear plays the kind of music that I would rather listen to on the record. I do like that Grizzly Bear forgoes the conventional stage setup for a four-piece band and gives all the members equal visibility on the stage by playing in a straight line, but I almost fell asleep at their show. I forced myself to stay until they played either "Knife" or "Two Weeks." Luckily, they played "Knife" (the one I really wanted to hear) and I made my way to La Roux.

La Roux looked good from a distance...unfortunately her/their (have we decided whether or not we are going to refer to La Roux as one person yet?) tent was too crowded and I couldn't really hear the music as I was viewing from the side.

So then it was time for LCD Soundsystem...I guess I won't repeat anything I've already said about the current set they are playing, but as always they were awesome. When James Murphy said they only had time for one more song and then suggested "New York I Love You" I was a bit disappointed because I was talking them up to all my friends that weren't very familiar with the band and I wanted them to hear a face-melting disco punk anthem. Then Murphy said "No, fuck it, let's do 'Yeah.'" Which is exactly what I was thinking. They killed it. And then they played "New York I Love You" anyway. Perfect.

Missed Vampire Weekend but I've seen them before. Heard they were good and played under a chandelier.

Jay-Z basically played almost every hit he's ever had. He lost his voice and brought out Beyonce to sing Mr. Hudson's part on "Young Forever." The crowd went crazy and there were fireworks. Caroline said it best when she said "Loving California but thank you LCD Soundsystem and Jay-Z for reminding me that I live in the best city."

Saturday I missed Girls and Beach House. Not really upset about that.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. They are one of Caroline's favorites. I think that some guy in the very front of the stage had hit his head or something right before the set and was bleeding. Alex Ebert or "Edward Sharpe" took off his shirt and tied it around the guy's head. So that's both very cool and very gross depending on how you look at it. But it fell in well with the hippie vibe this band exudes.

I managed to sneak a little peak of Gossip’s set but, as with La Roux, I was off to the side and couldn’t really hear much or get very into it. I did get to hear “Standing In The Way Of Control” which is probably the one song I would have chosen to hear because it’s the menu music for the Skins DVDs (Series 1) and I love that show.

The xx wasn’t necessarily a disappointment, it’s just that I wouldn’t have scheduled them when it was light out. I’ve said before that their music is best listened to in the dark. Also, they were wearing white! Wow. The xx was playing on the Outdoor Stage and during one of their songs everyone noticed that a light on the Coachella Stage had blown and caught fire. So The xx lost everyone for a few minutes as they took cell phone pictures/video. When the band had finished the song, Oliver Sim joked “The roof is on fire.” Also, Jay-Z was at the show…I think it makes more sense for him to know about The xx as opposed to Beach House/Grizzly Bear.

I missed The Ravonettes. That sucks. I missed The Dirty Projectors. I don't care.

Hot Chip.

We retired to the Beer Garden for the beginning of MGMT’s set. We initially weren’t going to go since MGMT does not have a very good reputation as a live band. But eventually we got up and made our way over. This was when they were playing “Time To Pretend” and it actually sounded awesome and we were pumped up. But then they totally fell flat and were completely boring. We left soon after. Later I heard that they didn’t play “Kids.” Always play your hits, no matter how sick of them you are.

The Dead Weather. Wait…Jack White doesn’t play guitar in this band? Let’s go.

Heard Muse was amazing.

Sunday I really really wanted to get there early enough to see Local Natives at 2:10. Luckily we had to check out of our hotel at around 11 so it wasn’t hard to convince the rest of my group to go to this show. We were a bit late, but we made it in time to hear my favorite “Airplanes” and “Sun Hands.” Local Natives are quickly becoming a favorite of mine and almost everyone else I know.

I didn’t get as close to the stage as I would have liked for Matt & Kim so that was too bad because I know how much fun their show can be if you are in the middle of the crowd like that. I think I saw a blogger make a comment about Matt & Kim’s shit-eating grins…I can’t help but agree with that but their music is so much fun and they truly look like they are having the time of their life up on stage. There was a streaker (Matt & Kim loved it) and I got to hear “Lightspeed” which is one of my favorite songs that I had yet to hear them play.

I missed Florence and the Machine. Kind of bummed.

We set on the grass for Yo La Tengo and went to the Beer Garden for Spoon.

Phoenix was pretty beautiful but I ditched it early to see Pavement. Meh.

The Big Pink wasn’t what I thought they would be. They definitely are more shoegaze-y live than they are on the record. Initially I was getting discouraged and almost left because all I heard was a bunch of noise but I stuck around and once the songs started getting a bit more discernable they definitely rocked. “Dominoes” was killer.

Gorillaz. They are a concept band of cartoon characters. I don’t think they are meant to be a live band. We left early.

Photos of Ra Ra Riot, La Roux, and Vampire Weekend courtesy of Phoenix New Times.

Photos of Grizzly Bear, LCD Soundsystem, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Gossip, The xx, Hot Chip, The Dead Weather, Local Natives, Spoon, Pavement, and Gorillaz courtesy of BrooklynVegan.

Photo of Jay-Z and Beyonce courtesy of NME.com.

Photo of MGMT courtesy of Yahoo! Music.

Photo of Matt & Kim courtesy of Live 105 Radio.

Photo of The Big Pink courtesy of Anna Webber/Getty.