Hasta La Ideas

The 17 bands most likely to play the mother of outdoor festivals next year

by Matt Spangler

A few weeks after Coachella some bands have loaded their gear into buses and are back on the road, while others head to studios to try and capture the energy of the festival for next year’s hit songs. I myself have been replaying performances to packed audiences by the likes of Crystal Castles, Cut Copy, Chromeo and Afrojack (with Beatles legend Paul McCartney getting into the fun on the side of the stage) in my head.

Thinking about what acts might take the stage at Coachella 2012, we based the following predictions on the festival’s history of sticking to what they know—successfully blending electronic, dance and indie rock, with a sprinkling of eclectic stadium-selling artists for the masses.

At The Tents

Holy Ghost

Opening for Coachella faves Cut Copy and on the powerhouse label DFA, look for Holy Ghost to easily bag a Gobi tent spot. If the guys in the band are anywhere near as charismatic as their dads, who appear in their latest video for “Wait & See,” they’re a lock.

Dillon Francis

Diplo’s label Mad Decent has been putting out some crunky dance music lately with artists like Major Lazer and Rusko, and newcomer Dillon Francis follows suit releasing his EP “Masta Blasta” on the label. His sick remixes and dubstep sound are the perfect fit to satisfy the drum-and-bass crazed fans in the Sahara tent.

Young Galaxy

Considering the prominence of Montreal-bred music this past year at Coachella, including Chromeo, A-Trak and Duck Sauce (though they’re all from the same family), it seems logical that next year will produce a representative from just across the border. On their third album Young Galaxy (pictured above right) had the help of Dan Lissvik to produce their best record yet, and a dance-inflected pop sound that’s pitch-perfect for the Coachella crowd.

Bag Raiders

Record label Modular Recordings is no stranger to Coachella bands and it’s likely that next year the Sydney dance duo, Bag Raiders (Chris Stacey and Jack Glass, pictured above) will represent the imprint in the Mojave tent. Their remix prowess has given them additional exposure to the dance crowd, and they’re in Europe now honing their live sound. Now it’s just a matter if anyone can tell the difference between them and their Melbourne brethren and label-mates, Cut Copy.

Morning Parade

Like Two Door Cinema Club this year, Morning Parade (not pictured) is a popular dance-driven rock band with a sound that appeals to the tents. Hailing from Essex, the boys should get a push from EMI this year leading up to the fest and a tour that could build enough stateside buzz to book them an appearance.

The Naked and Famous

With catchy hooks filling in around pretty vocal melodies, New Zealand quintet The Naked and Famous (above) make this an easy call. Signed with Fiction Records—alongside Elbow, one of the more talked about acts from this past year—The Naked and Famous are ones to start loving now.

Mona

After an old-fashioned bidding war for their major label debut and an inspired run of small shows in NYC last winter, it’s likely that you’ll see the foursome behind Mona (not pictured) appear on a Coachella stage in 2012. While their rockabilly look and southern religious roots make it tough to escape Kings of Leon comparisons, Mona’s sound borders more on Jack’s Mannequin than that of the Followill brothers. They’re scheduled to play bigger and more diverse festivals in the U.K. this year, but they’ll need more buzz stateside by early next year to get a booking.

Dom

Like Beach House before them, Dom has a chance for an early day tent slot. Grungy electro sound, check. Dance-y synthesized beats and hooks, check. Female lead singer, check…wait..no, that’s actually a guy singing those parts. Color us surprised as well. All signs point to this trio from Massachusetts taking the stage with the help of their booking agency Ground Control Booking, who has a history of booking acts at Coachella, including four bands from this past year.

The Japanese Popstars

Insanely catchy dance music beats, tripped out video animations and a collaboration with Robert Smith from the Cure seems like the perfect pieces to add up to a Coachella appearance. With a new label deal on Virgin as well as a well-crafted and talked about live show experience, we predict The Japanese Popstars will be getting a prized night-time slot in the tents in 2012.

The Sleepy Jackson

If its one thing that Coachella loves it’s its lead singer spin-offs. Two years ago it was Thom Yorke’s Atom’s of Peace collaboration with Flea and this past year it was Brandon Flowers. After Luke Steele gave Empire of the Sun a triumphant tour of the US in 2010, he’ll take his solo project, The Sleepy Jackson out on the road in 2011…likely ending with an outdoor stage appearance at Coachella 2012.

At The Outdoor Stage

Fleet Foxes

The perennial Coachella favorite haven’t hit the Festival in two years, nor had a new album in nearly the same amount of time. With their new record already garnering solid reviews since dropping yesterday and a tour sure to follow, they’re a likely sure thing for either the main stage or a headlining slot at the outdoor stage.

Lykke Li

With her Wounded Rhymes just starting to get some buzz and a summer tour around the U.S., it’s likely that Lykke Li (not pictured) will make a return to Coachella since her last appearance in 2009.

Bon Iver

Justin Vernon was the only guest star of note that Kanye West trotted out during his Coachella performance…perhaps a calculated nod to the audience. With his latest release For Emma slated for a 21 June 2011 release, it’s likely that a year from now Bon Iver will be making a victory lap with significant billing at the 2012 Coachella lineup

Metric

Nothing the Coachella crowds like better then dance driven electro-rock bands led by charismatic female singers. With their new album likely out in early 2012, you can bet on Metric (not pictured) being on next year’s bill.

Ryan Adams

Based on his recent surprise opening for Emmylou Harris in Los Angeles, Ryan Adams has a slate of new songs and could be ready to release them this year. He is a near-perennial at Coachella, having been one of the acts purported to play who canceled when he broke up with The Cardinals.

At The Main Stage

Justice

If there is a band that currently defines the Coachella audience, then Justice might be it. With their crossover appeal and club kid cred, there is little doubt the French duo would draw some of the biggest crowds at the Festival. Their new album is slated to drop in late 2011, with its single “Civilization” recently featured in the Adidas brand campaign directed by Justice collaborator Romain Gavras, so they should be primed and ready for a headliner appearance. We’re calling it for Saturday night.

Beastie Boys

File this under automatic. With Hot Sauce Committee Vol. 2 out soon, and their viral celeb-studded films “Making Some Noise” to promote their new album blowing up the Internet, there’s no doubt that the boys from Brooklyn will be ready to commandeer the Sunday night headliner spot next year.

Thumbnail image by Jason Lester Photography

Haunted houses and crime scene dioramas in a morbidly fascinating photographer’s work

Photographer Corinne May Botz’ imagery teases out the human relationship with the supernatural. In her latest show at the Kennedy Museum of Art, photos from Botz’s “Haunted Houses” series are on display as part of the collection “Shadows and Phenomena”. Shot over several years, Botz paired her photographs of “haunted house” interiors across the United States with a series of contemporary first-hand ghost stories.

The enchanting stills, inspired by turn-of-the-century spirit photographs and Victorian ghost stories, speak to the dystopian and sometimes romantic tales of discontent told by women long dead. Botz sees herself as a medium in the haunted environments, tapping her female sensitivity to the supernatural to capture eerie moments in time in hopes of unleashing the invisible nuances present there. Spiritually unfathomable and complex to some, those with curious imaginations or a touch of morbidity will find it compelling.

Another of Botz’ fantastically dark projects continuing the themes of macabre and female experiences is documented in her 2004 book “The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death”. The monograph is a series of photographs of miniature crime scene dioramas built by honorary police captain Frances Glesner Lee. Lee, a wealthy divorcee, discovered the power of independence late in life when she dedicated herself to enhancing the field of murder investigation, constructing extremely detailed (down to grains of sugar on the floor) models of crime scenes to train detectives how to look for and follow clues.

“Shadows and Phenomena” runs through 19 June 2011, but if you can’t make it to Ohio the Haunted Houses book sells from Amazon, and be sure to check out more images from the Nutshell series in the gallery below.

Moody sculptural paintings by an emerging NYC artist

Stark yet colorful works that fall somewhere between painting and sculpture, NYC-based artist Eli Ping’s practice is a study of unexpected tension in form, subject and tone. Ping says he’s “ultimately interested in materials and process, and accomplishing a form that conveys energetic resonance to the viewer,” a feat accomplished by keeping spontaneity alive in otherwise highly-considered compositions.

This ruminative approach to art-making shows up in his current solo exhibition at NYC’s Susan Inglett Gallery, but also signals a shift. Where he previously worked heavily with resins, Ping found that their toxicity was a “major impediment to accomplishing intimacy” with his materials and switched to applying paint-soaked cotton to canvas.

The resulting fluid shapes have a sense of order without appearing overly worked—a tipping point for Ping. If a piece becomes too “fussy,” he will often flip it over or turn it upside down, a technique borrowed from Impressionism. Ping explains, “they would often paint over an entire area, some people would say that is a waste of energy but even if it’s not visible, it still informs the work.”

A painting resembling a classic Rorschach test clearly illustrates Ping’s labor between intention and impulse. While symmetry abounds, he likens the unbalanced composition’s structure to that of nature. Repetition develops organically without feeling forced, the result of a process that, like contemporaries such as designer Maarten Baas, lets ideas evolve over time.

A photo of a church steeple shot through a drinking glass several years ago, now appears as a “stretched from the top” form in some of his sculptural pieces. Ping stresses that he doesn’t set out to replicate what he sees, adding “I have a sense of what qualities I aspire to, usually in response to a feeling of lack in a previous piece. Any pre-envisioning doesn’t go farther than that.”

Looking to the future however, Ping says his work will fall more in line with his simplified lifestyle. Moving forward he will create pieces that, unlike his current complex and often quite fragile works, need not “to be handled with kid gloves” and can instead become a part of a person’s life, rather than just hung on a wall.

Eli Ping’s third solo exhibition runs through 4 June 2011 at Susan Inglett Gallery.

A photographer’s eye on the Arctic reveals the natural beauty in ice

With what seems to be a prescient surname, Camille Seaman—often referred to as “the iceberg photographer”—may have been born to take up the subject. While Seaman did study photography and long worked with the medium, it wasn’t until she landed a job aboard an Arctic cruise ship at age 32 that something clicked with the harsh landscapes. There, surrounded by beautifully varied lighting conditions, what she describes as a “profound experience” allowed her to experiment, ultimately finding that a looming overcast sky projects just the right light on the icebergs, revealing their most precious inner colors and details and making her a 2011 TED fellow.

To create such stunning visions Seaman also relies on her astounding collection of cameras—both digital and analog—that she proficiently intermixes within her practice. With favorites such as the Hasselblad x-pan, Epsom Ed-1 and various Leicas, she relies on technique rather than computer skills to perfectly frame her images, preferring to stay away from Photoshop and the like.

A purist in this sense, Seaman does little else to manipulate her photographs, aside from using manual dodging and burning printing techniques. The upshot makes for an incredibly honest portfolio of images—realistic portrayals of magnificent subjects that lend a sense of personality difficult to fake.

This clear-eyed vision of the natural world extends to Seaman’s interest beyond cold climates too. Her extensive travels and previous work tells tales of massive storm clouds and golden farmland in middle America. A leading figure in self-publishing as well, Seaman co-founded Fastback Creative Books and often leads lectures and self-publishing workshops across the States.

“The Last Iceberg” is available for purchase from from Photoeye.

An interview with Miami’s champion of independent film

Speeding through Miami in a 1992 Toyota Corolla after midnight is just another day on the job for mastermind and self-proclaimed “Minister of The Interior” of the Borscht Film Festival Lucas Leyva. Leaving his own after party, the head of the city’s premier independent film event was on a mission for Miami’s rapper-turned-mayoral candidate, Unkle Luke Campbell, who told Leyva that he wouldn’t go onstage without three bikini-clad women to back him up—totally normal for a festival the Miami New Times calls “a wildly creative three-week event akin to Sundance on psychotropic mushrooms.”

Semi-nude performances aside, the films included works by award-winning director and Miami native Barry Jenkins, up-and-coming sketch comedy dynamo Duncan Skiles and recent Guggenheim Video Biennale winner Jillian Mayer, who collaborated with indie powerhouse directors Rakontur Films. (“La Pageant Diva” pictured above.) In a city of excess, Leyva’s unassuming disposition and generosity have made him an unlikely candidate for an independent cinema impresario, but his efforts prove that the 305 area code isn’t always synonymous with South Beach debauchery.

We sat down with Leyva to learn more about the independent film festival and his role in making it all happen.

How many of the films in Borscht did you have a hand in personally?

All of them. I was really involved in “Play Dead” from the concept stage throughout, but I had a hand in every film screened.

How was it possible for you to create Miami’s serious foray into independent cinema?

It wouldn’t have been possible without grants, like the one from the Knight Foundation or the support of individuals who really understand the cause. In Miami, until recently, people didn’t get it. They liked watching movies, but for people to invest in Miami cinema, they would expect to see Michael Bay films or “Burn Notice” type of stories. There’s been a huge brain-drain here and because of that typically really talented film makers from Miami have left to L.A. or New York as soon as they had the opportunity.

How long was the process to get the festival to where it is now?

This is the seventh year. Borscht was really started in high school, when a group of my friends and I wanted to make movies, but needed a place to show them. Since then it has grown by leaps and bounds, and become a launching pad for Miami artists to show their work at festivals around the world, including Cannes, Sundance and South by Southwest.