ROKTRONIK

There is no doubt that Coachella is one of the greatest music festivals ever known to mankind. After experiencing such an epic event, we felt that it was necessary to pay homage to the three-day bender of beats by dedicating our next mix to it. In doing so, it only seemed appropriate for the compilation to include artists that we actually saw and heard while at the festival. With that said, please enjoy our “chellie treats” mix featuring scrambled sound morsels from Mike Snow, Little Boots, Rusko, Passion Pit, Phoenix, deadmau5, the XX, La Roux, Muse, Benny Benassi, Kaskade, Tiesto, and Bassnectar.

Φ – chellie treats [to download: right click, save as...]

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Bon Apetit!!

Aside from a small hiccup due to an unorganized day 1 at the entrance (they ran out of wristbands mid-day), we hit the Coachella grounds sprinting…straight to the Sahara tent. As Coachella newbies this year, we made sure to exploit all that the festival had to offer and made a valiant attempt at seeing a little bit of everyone at every stage but alas, nothing could quite compare to what the Sahara was dishing out that Friday.

While we missed out on Proxy because of the whole entry mess, we made it just in time to catch Aeroplane. It was the first time we had ever seen them live and they were nothing short of spectacular. Wolfgang Gartner came on right afterward and followed suit with an incredible set which included his most recent hit, Undertaker. After bouncing around a bit following Gartner, we got a chance to hear some other notable performances from Passion Pit, La Roux, Imogen Heap, and LCD Soundsystem. Of those, we’d have to say that La Roux put on the most impressive showing albeit that their tent was utterly packed beyond toleration. Thus, we inevitably found ourselves back raging at the Sahara tent for the end of Erol Alkan and Benny Benassi. This, of course, culminated to the mind-blowing performance by deadmau5.

Although there were a few close competitors, we’d have to say that deadmau5 came out on top as our favorite performance of Coachella 2010. All personal biases aside, our reasoning behind that claim is because he signed, sealed and delivered the full package. Not only did he work in a handful of brand-new songs and unique improv beats, but what really stole the show was the unveiling of his new stage setup. As the very same individuals who were responsible for the lighting in Kanye West’s Glow In The Dark Tour and the infamous pyramid from Daft Punk’s 2007 Alive Tour, Lighting/Set Designer Martin Phillips and Catalyst/LED technician John McGuire stopped short of nothing in the creation and premiere of deadmau5′s new DJ podium/cube, stage lighting, and revolutionary LED mau5head. What makes this all the more epic is that Daft Punk’s pyramid also happened to debut for the first time at Coachella in 2006. As mentioned in a previous post, rumor has it that deadmau5 has a set of virtual reality screens within this new mau5head that allows him to view all of his monitors at one time. We’ll have to confirm this and get back to ya.

There were no port-a-potty lines from 11:30 onwards since no one wanted to miss a beat of what Joel and his new LED mask had in store. Throughout the entire show, different patterns and images flashed across this new helmet in sync with both the music and the lights shown on the cube. At one point, the Disney-like mouse outline of a head suddenly came to life and started wickedly singing along with the song, “Sometimes Things Get, Whatever.” Needless to say, deadmau5 successfully captivated and enthralled a tent full of beat-hungry electro heads for an incredible close of the first day at Coachella. We’ve compiled a few of the best videos from across the web for you to get a true sense of how awesome it really was…

Wait for 3:23 when “Sometimes Things Get, Whatever kicks in…

“Moar Ghosts N Whatever”/”Ghosts N Stuff” feat. Rob Swire

“Sophie Needs a Ladder” (tentative name) feat. vocals by Sofia Toufa (Tommy Lee’s GF…both of which performed live with deadmau5 at Ultra Music Festival this year)

“Strobe”

“Arguru” (closing)

And last but not least…here’s some footage of Danny DeVito trancing out with some topless girls at the deadmau5 performance (compliments of TMZ):

Here’s a great compilation of lessons learned at Coachella this year (Thanks Craig C. for this!)

IMPORTANT: Do not read this if you did not go to Coachella, for you will only end up frustrated and confused…

* 22 Things I Learned At Coachella 2010 *

1. Golf carts are the new Bentleys, helicopters the new G5, and “Backstage” wristbands the new black card (until security informs you yours is fake and you are out 1200 bucks)

2. Two blackberry batteries are better than one

3. Battery saving tip: change bbm status to “No, I do not have any extra tickets”

4. Once you are “wristbanded” for a party you MUST keep it on all weekend, even if the party is over, and even if it’s Saturday and the wristband says “Friday” on it

5. If you are male – A cute 19 year old girl from Simi Valley, CA will ALWAYS be able to get a cooler, larger, and more powerful collection of wristbands than you can

6. If you are female – You MUST upload a picture of all of your wristbands on Facebook to make your guy friends jealous

7. At parties people with uniform-looking t-shirts will try to hand you free bottles of juice made by companies you have never heard of. This juice is generally not good and should be avoided.

8. Girls must dress “bohemian-chic”, headband mandatory, guys must dress hipster, striped tank-top mandatory

9. Extra bonus if your sunglasses feature some form of neon

10. There will always be someone with a bigger, badder and more hipster beard than yours

11. Someone named “Mollie” will get with almost all of your friends

12. If you meet girls from Hollywood in the VIP area and they seem to be pissy, don’t take it personal, they are just angry about not having cell service to Twitter

13. When all of your friends are dancing and singing along to a supposedly-popular song that you do not know, just clap, move your lips, and take off one article of clothing

14. If hippies are sitting on the grass with 100 yards of the stage during a high energy song it is totally ok to step on them

15. If you are not time-stamping your text messages you are doing something wrong

16. It is ok to eat that extra slice of pizza because you will be walking 15 fucking miles every day

17. Thou shalt not put on a wristband so tightly that it cannot be slipped off and loaned to a friend

18. Thou shalt not refuse a free ride back to your hotel from the Festival grounds

19. Thou shalt check that the restroom has toilet paper BEFORE thou sits down

20. Thou shalt proceed with caution when offered a brownie

21. Thou shalt ask what *exactly* is in the bag BEFORE putting it in thou nasal cavity

22. Thou shalt drink lots of water, and live to tell about it.

Happy Coachella, you crazy crazy fools.

–See you all next year for Coachella 2011!–

We’ve been diggin’ the tunes from 32 year-old English vocalist, Luciana (Caporaso), for quite some time now. Although she’s been hustling around the industry since ’94, her music career didn’t fully take off until 2006 with the release of the song, “Yeah Yeah” — a collaboration with the English house DJ duo known as Bodyrox. Aside from being a great jam, the uncut version of the video (below and NSFW) also happens to be one of our favorites. Grimy and sexy…can’t ask for much more than that.

Bodyrox feat. Luciana – Yeah Yeah (Uncut)

Now that we’ve got your full attention, it’s worth noting that Luciana made her foray into the music industry by creating posters and album sleeves for record companies. With a design style similar to that of Andy Warhol, she utilized the elements of photography, painting, and silver/gold leaf to create her most notable (and first) compilation by the name of “Icon,” which was unveiled in 2004 in Soho, London. Luciana is considered and will will continue to be a significant presence within the realms of contemporary art and of course, music. Here are a couple other great videos featuring Luciana including one of her hit song from last year with Richard Vission & Static Revenger.

Super Mal feat. Luciana – Bigger Than Big

Richard Vission & Static Revenger feat. Luciana – I Like That

Can’t wait to hear what she has in store for us this year!

Per usual, to help you unwind from what was surely a rager of a weekend and of course to facilitate productivity at work–here’s the next installment of our Monday Morning series.

Φ – Monday Morning Deux [right click, save as...]

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Have a great week and hope to catch up with all of ya later this week in Palm Springs for our first Coachella experience!