Sia steals show from headliner with once-in-a-lifetime performance to Coachella

Sia steals show from headliner with once-in-a-lifetime performance to Coachella
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
April 18, 2016

Renowned Aussie singer-songwriter Sia hasn’t performed a full show hardly anywhere in years. When she was announced as part of Coachella’s bill this year, she was instantly on most people’s can’t-miss lists for the weekend. On Sunday, she more than justified the hype with the kind of performance that people will be talking about for years.

Moments into the opening song “Alive,” it became clear that this was not going to be like any other set in the desert that weekend. She stood behind what looked like the bottom of her dress, but instead it was a group of people all fluffed up hiding a dancer that donned the same outfit from the music video for the same song. As Sia hit all the high notes, singing “I’m still breathing,” the dancer was just the beginning of what could be considered more performance art than concert.

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Guns N Roses pole-vault over expectations with Coachella headlining set Saturday, bring out AC/DC’s Angus Young

Guns N Roses pole-vault over expectations with Coachella headlining set Saturday, bring out AC/DC’s Angus Young
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
April 17, 2016

The second day of Coachella saw nearly perfect weather, particularly once the sun went down, which made it that much more enjoyable to witness a series of awe-inspiring performances throughout the day.

I found shade in the Gobi tent and caught jazz-tronica trio GoGo Penguin from Manchester. Nick Blacka on the double bass was a damn machine. He ripped things up and had the small crowd that gathered really feeling it. Pianist Chris Illingsworth slowed things down a bit with the beautiful intro on “Hopopono” before the rest of the band picked up the pace as the song progressed. Their set was one of those that as time progressed, the tent got more and more filled and people started vibing to the music more.

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Reviewed: LCD Soundsystem’s Fox Theater warm up gig from a new fan’s perspective

Reviewed: LCD Soundsystem’s Fox Theater warm up gig from a new fan’s perspective
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
April 13, 2016

I had never seen LCD Soundsystem perform before seeing them Monday night at the Fox Theater in Pomona. In fact, the band didn’t even really come onto my radar until 2007, 2008ish after graduating high school. But on Saturday, I was lined up in front of Amoeba Records in the rain to buy two tickets to their show, a full three hours before the record store opened.

I wasn’t a superfan of James Murphy and his electro-rock group, so why did I go to all this trouble? For one, many of my best friends whose musical taste I respect are big LCD Soundsystem fans. I was also much too broke to ever see them around the time I got into them, being a freelance sports writer with no connections to free concert tickets at the time. When the opportunity presents itself to see a band of that caliber in a small to medium sized venue, always take it. This might be the last chance I ever get to see this band in a venue smaller than 5,000 capacity, who knows?

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Must-See Coachella Undercard: The Dead Ships — a ripe dose of rock ‘n’ roll for your soul

Must-See Coachella Undercard: The Dead Ships — a ripe dose of rock ‘n’ roll for your soul
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
April 13, 2016

Los Angeles indie rock band The Dead Ships have had a helluva start to 2016.

They were added to the Coachella lineup around the time it came out. While trying to track down a contact number for the band and even having his Coachella family reach out to those that may have The Dead Ships contact number (including a text to our editor) — Paul Tollett, the man at Goldenvoice who curates the festival’s lineup, called the band’s manager and offered them a spot on Saturday’s bill. This was accomplished without a label or booking agent (but a lot of Grimy Goods love), quite the feat in today’s music landscape.

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Must-See Coachella Undercard: Anderson .Paak

Must-See Coachella Undercard: Anderson .Paak
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
March 23, 2016

Oxnard rapper Anderson .Paak is poised to have a monster 2016 — and it couldn’t be happening to a harder-working guy.

Paak is part black and part Korean, giving him a different viewpoint from many within his genre. His 2016 album Malibu is one of the year’s best so far and much of the lyrical content of it deals with his upbringing and how difficult of a road it’s been to his current stature.

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0 Best Coachella 2016 Niche Bookings

10 Best Coachella 2016 Niche Bookings
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
February 25, 2016

One of the things that makes Coachella special compared to every other festival is their ability to step outside of the box with their bookings. With more than 150 total acts on the lineup, they’re able to pull from niche genres that don’t get a lot of mainstream love without compromising the amount of name-recognition talent they can bring. Here we spotlight 10 of our favorite billings at this year’s festival.

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Must-See Coachella Undercard: DMA’s – Aussies with a Britpop punch

Must-See Coachella Undercard: DMA’s – Aussies with a Britpop punch
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
February 3, 2016

If you’ve been holding your breath for Oasis to make a return since breaking up almost a decade ago, you can exhale. No, the Gallagher brothers haven’t patched things up and announced they’re back together, but there’s another band ready to continue the Britpop legacy that Oasis helped build. The intriguing thing is these guys hail from Australia.

DMA’s came on the scene last year with a self-titled EP that had critics comparing them to Oasis right out of the gate. The band admits they found heavy influence from them, not just in their music but even in their stage attire — bucket hats and track suits are heavily featured.

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Coachella 2016: finally moving away from being a boy’s club?

Coachella 2016: finally moving away from being a boy’s club?
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
January 5, 2015

According to an April 2013 Buzzfeed article, Coachella hadn’t seen a ratio of male-fronted acts to female-fronted ones below 80% since 2008. Last year, female-fronted acts represented less than 16% of the lineup with names like Florence + The Machine, Alabama Shakes, Jenny Lewis and St. Vincent being some of the more prominent ones.

Only Bjork (twice) and Portishead have headlined the desert fest as female-fronted acts. With LCD Soundsystem, Guns N Roses and Calvin Harris headlining in 2016, that trend of exclusion will continue.

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