Donerail's Official Website — Portland Band

The lineup for southern California’s inexplicably located rock festival was recently announced, and I think that both the organizers of Coachella and the LA Times writers must be nearly 80 years old. The Times claims that organizer, Gary Bongiovanni has tried to attract a younger audience for this year’s festival by building a package “around Pavement, Public Image Ltd.”

Wow

I didn’t know that a band started in 1978, with a 53 year old lead singer would bring a bunch of spoiled indie/emo kids from southern California out of the woodwork. Maybe Pavement has the ability to allure the perfect youth audience. You know the kids we’re talking about, those born the same year that Pavement started their career.

So, that takes care of a couple of the big names, surely the youth can be found elsewhere. Let’s see what the Times said

The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival will bring a youth movement to the low desert this year. After several years of graybeard headliners, California’s signature festival is going back to the future with younger acts including Gorillaz, Muse, Jay-Z, Thom Yorke

Blerg

While it’s true that Jay-Z (40) and the Gorrillaz (band created last century) led by Damon Albarn (41) have large youthful followings, I’d argue that they still have a fair share of mid-30s and hip 40 year old fans. Muse has been blowing up of late, but it’s amazing to me how few people knew about them 5 years ago, when they were 15 years into their careers. Hey, look at that, Muse has been around as long as the youngest member of the Coachella demographic, while Pavement has been around as long as the eldest.

It gets worse from there folks, Thom Yorke ???? (41), Faith No More (started in 1981), Them Crooked Vultures (featuring the reanimated John Paul Jones at 64)…where is this supposed youth?!

Now, before we get all up in my business about ragging on the old folks, let’s take a step back. Am I saying that none of these acts deserve to play Coachella? No. They all do, and frankly I’m thrilled that this time around Muse will get some attention. I was at Coachella in 2004, and they were given a mid-afternoon slot that attracted only their hardcore audience of kids that bought from the import shop. I’m glad that Paul McCartney isn’t the headliner this year. I’m glad that Pavement is playing. I’m not jaded.

However

I do think that using “youth” as the story here is blatant manipulation. None of these acts are “youth.” MGMT, they’re young; and shit, they’re popular too. That’s the angle the Times and Coachella should have taken instead of trying to lie to us about middle-aged rockers being appealing to the “youth.”

As I sit at my desk mixing some of the tracks for our next set of releases, I become wistful looking out over the snow covered gables on the houses across the street from me. I’m adjusting my ears to The Mountain by the Heartless Bastards (get it if you haven’t already), and getting ready to go through one of Jake’s new songs. This would be song 25 in the endless canon of Jake’s song book. It made me think, as we enter into Donerail’s 5th year as a band (give or take, no one remembers when we actually formed…which is sad when you think about it, because it was just Dan and I at first), what has happened over the last year.

Cities Played: Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Portland, Eugene, Bend, Klamath Falls, Beaverton, West Seattle

Total Miles Traveled: at least 1,840…probably more like 2,500

Online Visitors: 2,318

Countries Visiting us Online: 34 (United States, Canada, Australia, Finland, Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Philippines, India, Netherlands, Italy, Singapore, China, Thailand, Czech Republic, Guernsey, France, Mexico, Japan, Ukraine, Argentina, Malaysia, Switzerland, Russia, Belgium, Belarus, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, South Korea, Estonia, Cyprus, Austria, Denmark)

Songs Written: 15

Covers Played: Up Around the Bend, Powderfinger, Mother, Solitary Man, 14 Cheerleader Coldfront, St. James Infirmary Blues, Thirteen, …One More Time, Babe Let me Follow You Down, Serve the Servants, Down by the River, Left of the Dial, Helpless, The Weight, Handle Me With Care, Gun, No Depression, The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down, and countless drunken others.

# of Shows: ~20 (can’t remember ‘em all)

Most Played Song: Some Ending

Most Played Cover: Left of the Dial

Least Played Song: (4 years running) Vicodin Dreams

New Fans: 30

CDs Sold: not enough Buy from iTunes or CDBaby

Have a great end to your 2009! We look forward to seeing you next year, come out and say hi.

I believe it’s spelled representation

Some Ending music video

Wilco (The Album)

Wilco understands that musicians need to embrace the Web in order to survive today. The album format is almost dead, save for the diehards like Duncan and I who crave Vinyl, and it seems that the only way to really sell the album format to the masses today is to let them listen for free.

Anyhoo, I’d go into a thousand words about the industry and the perils, but the song Bull Black Nova just came on, and it’s seriously the best Wilco song in years. I’ve missed the uber-creative Wilco. I’ve been wondering for years, when Nels would go ahead and take a song and run with it and he has. Thank you Nels!!!

Oh, and thanks Wilco; you always share with your fans first, and we appreciate it.

…aw snap, that’s Feist on there too…cute.

This is a movie called Before the Music Dies. It’s great. Says a lot about the importance of originality and culture in the music scene. Everyone should watch it.