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May 1, 2006

Coachella Badge Of Honor

Industry wonk Bob Lefsetz (who didn't go) reports on the weekend festival:

"Nobody cares except the idiots who went. ... Why in the fuck would the hipsters who go to shows like this, so they can wear it as a badge of honor for the next twelve months, want to see Madonna? ... I say drop a bomb on the site and the music business will be no worse for it. Shit, we'll be saved the endless drivel from the Material Girl. Madonna, are you REALLY that hard up? That you're playing in some tent, not even the HEADLINER?"
Meanwhile, a Madonna fan back from Indio answers in the form of some terrible YouTube footage.
"Madonna singing Hung Up at Coachella 2006, Sunday 8:35pm...the light was too bright, you can't really see her...okay, you can't! But I was there!"
See, Bob? The badge of honor applies to the Material Girl too.

Did you go? Tell us if you saw anything entertaining.

PREVIOUSLY: Will Madonna Rock Coachella?

Posted at 9:53 AM
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37 Comments

I am a coachella patron. How else would others identify how indie I am? The 200 dollars plus that I spent were well worth letting others know how indie I am. Even though the lineup couldn't justify the price. And the crowd favorite was a band from the 80's. Its still a way better gathering than bonarroo, sasquatch or lollapalooza because it's in california. Everyone knows that California is the greatest place to join and watch indie bands. And meet other indie minded individuals who recognize anywhere besides california is a pathetic shithole. Madonna is an elderly whore, but she is still relevant. She came with me to Dennys and got me the senior discount. Thats, like, half off my omlette!!!

Posted by: matisyahusucks at 05/01/06 11:41 AM | Reply
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Coachella has jumped the shark.

Posted by: fred at 05/01/06 11:55 AM | Reply
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Why all the hating on Coachella? It's a festival. If it's not your cup of tea, fine, just pass on it. How necessary is it to tear everyone that goes a new asshole?

Personally, I loved the bands featured this year (aside from Tool and Madonna which I thought were pretty strange add-ons) and was sad I didn't get the opportunity to go.

Posted by: Sean at 05/01/06 12:42 PM | Reply
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lots of cool bands and ten-foot transvestites.

Posted by: james at 05/01/06 1:16 PM | Reply
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gnarls's show, dressed as characters from the wizard of oz, sounded pretty fun.

Posted by: hump at 05/01/06 1:22 PM | Reply
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Yeah I don't get why anyone would hate on Coachella - why wouldn't you want to see Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Seu Jorge, Jamie Lidell, Phoenix, Kanye West, Daft Punk etc - admittedly there were plenty of idiots there but the bands were great

Posted by: grumblemouse at 05/01/06 1:58 PM | Reply
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I went to coachella and it was definitely a good time. It was worth going for daft punk alone...

Posted by: Scott W. at 05/01/06 2:15 PM | Reply
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You got to see alot of great bands experience technical difficulties and sound problems. At least for those who showed up on time for their set. Who goes on a half an hour late for a festival set?

Assholes- thats who.

Posted by: benking at 05/01/06 2:41 PM | Reply
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madonna obviously could have headlined if she wanted to..she did a 5 or 6 set in the tent..if people didnt want to see it, they could have easily stayed at the main stage

Posted by: mike at 05/01/06 3:03 PM | Reply
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madonna brought her dancing posse and even dished out some songs on the guitar last night. she didn't play the hits (cept hung up and ray of light) but ehh. i danced.
but madonna has NOTHING on daft punk. NOTHING.

Posted by: Li at 05/01/06 3:05 PM | Reply
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If that first post was trying to be ironic, then it's the funniest thing I've seen all day.

If there isn't any tongue-in-cheek to it (and I'm inclined to believe there isn't), it's funny in a really, really sad way.

Posted by: Ed at 05/01/06 3:27 PM | Reply
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Its not as much about the music as it is about the people. Listening to music in privacy of your own little world is awesome, but gathering with thousands of others who listen to the same music while their alone is quite another experience. A good example would be the Arcade Fire at Lollapolooza last year. Greatest Musical Experience of my life, not just because the music was great, it was amazing becuase I was sharing that experience with some many others.

Posted by: Dude at 05/01/06 3:45 PM | Reply
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http://img.timeinc.net/people/i/2006/startracks/060515/madonna.jpg

where'd her legs go?

Posted by: jen Aye at 05/01/06 3:55 PM | Reply
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If Madonna could have headlined why didn't she? I stayed away and saw Seu Jorge which is where the real dance party was.

Gnarles Barkley was even better than anticipated. Daft Punk killed it. they were amazing. i was wishing i was on more drugs.

I had a blast. the weather was amazing and the people (for the most part) were great.

Posted by: Kier at 05/01/06 4:00 PM | Reply
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Elitist hipsters please stay in NYC and stick to the Randall's Island shows. Please continue to tell everyone you know that Coachella has jumped the shark and that it is not 'cool' anymore. I'll take the sunshine, the palms and the California girls, and try to get over the fact that I am hopelessly uncool.

MOGWAI fucking RULED, as did TOOL, Depeche Mode, My Morning Jacket, Deerhoof, Daft Punk and the YYY's. Cat Power was cute and brimming with sexy crazy nervous energy. Great fucking weekend.

Posted by: pious bionicus at 05/01/06 6:43 PM | Reply
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I heard from lotsa folks that Daft Punk owned. A much better madonna video on youtube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=U3jhnzo5BHY&search=madonna%20coachella
A HELL of a lot better than when she did it at some awards show with Lenny Kravitz years ago. Never really loved it but how much less indie is this song than so much electronica that's played at festivals like this?

Posted by: adam at 05/01/06 7:18 PM | Reply
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Anyone catch the at&t live feed thing? I caught bloc party's short set, their new single sounded very similar to their old stuff but a bit slow for a single

Posted by: Jay at 05/01/06 8:56 PM | Reply
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daft punk played at my house.....

Posted by: maya lucia at 05/01/06 10:09 PM | Reply
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those of us that saw daft punk live know how wrong all the haters are. friggin' robots!

Posted by: robot at 05/01/06 11:17 PM | Reply
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i could swear i saw Kevin from the backstreet boys, and Marg Helgenberger there. I definitely saw that model with the sex tape, Carolyn Murphy.

Posted by: k at 05/01/06 11:43 PM | Reply
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i went. first time. lots 'o fun. i'll go again.

not one celebrity sighting. who cares? laid-back, fun setting. my gyro was delicious.

hotter than hell in the day, for sure, parking arrangement sucked, but at night, warm winds, palm trees swaying in the breeze...oh yeah.

editors, dungen, depeche, sleater-kinney, daft punk, mylo, living things, ladytron, scissor sisters, the walkmen, my morning jacket, tosca, franz...all so good.

one of the best weekends ever.

it was awesome!

Posted by: melina at 05/02/06 12:15 AM | Reply
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I watched a little bit of the stream from the att site and DM was fab although David needs to keep his shirt on. Most of the bands I really wanted to see weren't streamed which was a disappointment; I'm hoping they might show some after the fact. Although the CA desert full of kiddies doesn't appeal, I'm sorry I wasn't there. It made me long for a really good outdoor festival-type concert.

I'd kill for a mp3 of Martin doing Shake The Disease.

Posted by: Ruins at 05/02/06 12:56 AM | Reply
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two words: daft punk. and another word: incredible

Posted by: karl at 05/02/06 2:02 AM | Reply
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maybe i'm old or something, but no one seems to be mentioning what i considered to be one of the most amazing coachella moments this year. Elizabeth Frasier from the Cocteau Twins sang two songs with Massive Attack! absolutely stunning.

oh yeah, and daft punk killed it. seriously. perfection.

Posted by: shane at 05/02/06 11:18 AM | Reply
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I think I fell asleep during Massive Attack..... Went to the (conversely) energetic Go! Team instead.

Saw a ton of bands, some whole sets, some partial sets......MMJacket, TVOTRadio, DBanhart, MURS (9th was a no-show), Lyrics Born, Digable, the AWESOME Deerhoof, Metric, the sadly disappointing Wolf Parade (probs with their equip), the always rockin Ted Leo, YYY's, Sleater, Walkmen, Duke Spirit, Sigur Ros (who played at sunset, awesome stuff), DM (who play waaaay too much post-Violator stuff for my taste), Franz, Bloc Party (BAD SOUND, could hear the lead guitar and too much vocals), Animal Collective (who were having huge sound issues comparing to their recent NYC shows) and the TRUE kings of the festival, the MIGHTY Daft Punk.

There was nothing cooler than how they opened that show (with the Close Encounters music)....

Posted by: BlackCloud at 05/02/06 12:16 PM | Reply
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Wish I was there for that Daft Punk set, saw some youtube footage looked amazing. Ladytron were cool, saw them on the live feed...

How can you hate on a festival in the sun?? Go back to your cave trolls.

Posted by: duderally at 05/02/06 1:04 PM | Reply
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does anyone have footage or links from the daft punk set?

Posted by: Julien at 05/02/06 1:38 PM | Reply
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Voila des petits clips de Daft Punk:

http://youtube.com/results?search=daft punk coachella&search_type=search_videos&search=Search

Footage quality is a mixed bag, but rest assured the set was as fucking amazing as everyone says. Definitely one of my top 5 live experiences ever.

Madonna was pretty ill too, as was Gnarles and Ladytron. Basically, the conventional wisdom has been pretty accurate.

- BvL

Posted by: baron von luxxury at 05/02/06 4:07 PM | Reply
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i have been to coachella the past 3 years along with countless other shows in the dc area and the daft punk show was one of the best sets i have ever witnessed. unreal.

Posted by: ryan97ou at 05/02/06 7:17 PM | Reply
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mogwai and dungen were great. the parking was ridiculous. i was very relieved to be in a normal club on monday seeing sunset rubdown. yeah, coachella has jumped the shark--this year the physical reality of it was a pain in the ass in a way it hasn't been before.

Posted by: bananas at 05/02/06 11:55 PM | Reply
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How can an indie blog rip on a festival with darlings Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! and DJ Danger Mouse's first schedule appointment with a new collabo? Looked like no fun to me, see

http://www.stanford.edu/~joshsc/Gnarls.jpg
http://www.stanford.edu/~joshsc/Mouse.jpg
http://www.stanford.edu/~joshsc/Mogwai.jpg
-Josh
steenboat.blogger.com

Posted by: Josh at 05/03/06 6:15 AM | Reply
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hate all you want but Madonna is more punk more indie and moe rock than pretty much anyone. we all stood there with our arms folded, we booed as we waited for her set to start when the canned music faded out and she didnt appear, but when the lights came on and she took the stage she reminded us who was boss and we danced in that sweaty hot tent even though we couldnt see shit.

gnarls was great, wolfmother was great, kanye was great, matisfuckingyahu was great, the yeahs destroyed, hell even sleater-kinney was good and they dissed madonna and raised an unsarcastic fist to Tool. cat power was unbelievable, the Go! Team made you feel wonderful, the dears were good, and Common was totally good.

hate all you want but theres no experience like the Coachella experience and of course youre going to have some big named headliners, but with 95 bands odds are youre also going to have lots of groups that youve always wanted to see but never had the chance to.

real music fans dont care what the show is called, how much it costs, or nonsense like indie cred, we go we listen we rock. coachella dominated this year.

100+ pics including some great ones of Gnarls
http://www.buzznet.com/buzzwords/bestofcoachella06/

over 2,500 pics
http://www.buzznet.com/buzzwords/coachella2006/

Posted by: tony at 05/03/06 12:08 PM | Reply
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hate to be hyperbolic, but the daft punk show was wicked as hell. that show alone was worth the price of admission and was one of the best i've ever seen.

Posted by: just plain daft at 05/03/06 10:42 PM | Reply
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Everything everyone said about Daft Punk, totally true.

Best thing I've ever seen in my life.

Better than Radiohead, better than Arcade Fire, better than Ecstasy
(but also made better by it.)

Celebration was the fucking shit.

TV on the Radio was energetic and it was good to see the Cookie
Mountain stuff live, but sounded kinda caca-y.

and glorious Art Brut made me understand why I didn't get them and they really do rock as hard as everyone had lead me to believe.

AND also... best/most relevant celebrity sighting of all. Sofia Coppola watching baby daddy perform on Sunday's Phoenix set, all while Big Poppa Coppola himself was judging the young man's competence from the sidelines on an (illegal on the Polo Grounds) chair he brought himself.

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