Pleased to meet you — these are Chris Haycock’s little, tiny guys. Sadly he couldn’t bring them to Desert Gold, but they’re definitely here in spirit. Catchella! We couldn’t help ourselves on that one… If you missed it today, you can catch The Do-Over next Sunday afternoon at the Commune at Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs.
Grandnephew of Alice and John Coltrane Flying Lotus spread a collective, energetic smile over the lot of us last night in the Amigo Room with DJ Day at ¡Reunión!, the official kick-off party for Desert Gold at Ace in Palm Springs. Tonight, we rage happily on.
Photos by Iggy Photography
Alia Penner created this twenty-foot-wide backdrop for Father John Misty’s Coachella show this year. There’s a lot going on here — kind of like a mashup of John Ford movies, Monty Python and the Care Bears — the perfect visual alchemy for this year’s circus in the Bermuda Triangle of post-industrial America that happens to be our Southwest home and the site of Desert Gold. Stop by any time.
Read it and weep. Third Man Records hangs a shingle for their all-vinyl pop-up shop in the Cleaners at Ace Hotel & Swim Club — the only record store in Palm Springs for the time being — during our annual music and arts festival Desert Gold, deep in the desert during Coachella-time. Jack White, this year’s official ambassador of Record Store Day on 4/20, dude — hosts along with Ben Swank and other Third Man women and men. They’ll run a karaoke ring with NPR Music and other labels and groups in the Amigo Room, and pull all other manner of great feats of musical prowess off during the following couple of weeks. Stay tuned on our Desert Gold site, and bring your LP bag.
Origami Vinyl in Echo Park is one of our favorite record stores (and record labels) in the world — and their shop dog Ali is pretty great. Peering into their bins is as lascivious and thrilling as it sounds, so we asked a few of their certified cratediggers for their picks of the week.
Neil Schield — the bicep : Chelsea Light Moving S/T
It was a sad day when Sonic Youth went on indefinite hiatus a few months back. The band has been a huge inspiration to me over the years and I was lucky enough to work with them on their Murray Street album. Then I heard about Thurston Moore’s new adventure in the form of Chelsea Light Moving. I was blown away the moment I heard the first track “Lip”. The album is not only refreshing and new but harkens back to earlier SY material that was all about sonic experimentation. Get ready to drop some guitar bombs on your stereo.
Sean Stentz — the wild beauty, bassist of NO : Beak>
Geoff Barrow of Portishead and his pals from Beak> return to form sounding like a PBS documentary soundtrack meets Mad Max: Road Warrior. Dark and buzzy, I love it for filling that ever expanding Kraut-rock shaped hole in my ears.
Emily Twombly — the brain : Palma Violets 180
Palma Violets remind me of a band you’d see in a shitty basement at a party but as soon as they start playing the party turns into the best night of your life. You can tell they’re stoked about rock music and the sincerity goes a long way. Their songs are earnest anthems about “boy stuff”…. but more specifically they are NOT about being sad about girl stuff. These kids definitely collect records — with nods to bands like The Doors, Faces and the Velvet Underground. This is definitely going to be the soundtrack to my summer…
Later this month, Miss Lily’s of NYC joins us to celebrate traditional Jamaican street food at Desert Gold, our annual music and arts festival during Coachella at Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs. Miss Lily’s is a multi-faceted gem covering all the bases from a record shop to a radio station, juice stand, restaurant, DJs and events, with a strong activist sensibility. A portion of proceeds from Miss Lily’s goes to the Rockhouse Foundation, the brainchild of Miss Lily’s co-founder Paul Salmon, who also runs the Rockhouse Hotel in Jamaica. The foundation supports the building and maintenance of libraries and schools in Jamaica for school-age children. Watch and learn, and we’ll see you in a couple weeks.
There once were two magicians who lived in a palace in the forest. Together, they worked all day and all night to make the world a more colorful and enchanting place. We knew them well and so we can say from personal experience that they were capable of manifesting the magic whether they were in their workshop, drunk on beer in the flatbed of a truck on the way to the mountains, or giving sage advice while preparing a home-cooked meal for 40 of their closest friends. Their names were — are — Fran and Nick, and the palace they live in is Seizure Palace, where they print all manner of abracadabra all the live long day. This week, they made our Desert Gold flyers and signage, inspired by Jamaica, Brooklyn, Palm Springs and your mom. Here are some live action shots captured by our very own Martie Flores who is also from a magical land that you can visit here.
You can also see the full line-up for Desert Gold and get a room.
The new video for Junior’s Throwin Craze by Woolfy. Out on Public Release Recordings, a record label started by our good friend and Renaissance Man Eug.
Obviously Pussy Riot sourced some of their inspiration from Devo. And who hasn’t? We get up each day and look in the mirror and say “Are we not men?” And when someone says, “No, you are not,” we say “Are we not Pussy Riot?”
On that note, the very one and only Mark Mothersbaugh is designing some pool toys for us to use in the pool and wherever we like during Desert Gold. Just one facet of a big, complicated, cool thing we do once a year during Coachella, April 12-21. You can still nab some rooms, and see the full line-up.
