Whether you're attending Coachella or following via YouTube or Sirius, you need to know who's playing and when; director Jay Chandrasekhar used a crowd sourcing campaign to fund 'Super Troopers 2'; Judith Hill (pictured) goes from backup singer to releasing her own album with a little help from Prince.
Coachella 2015: Breaking down the schedule and making the hard choices
Whether you’re attending the Coachella music festival this weekend or following along on YouTube or Sirius Satellite Radio, the most important info you need at this point is the schedule of which bands are playing when.
Coachella is around 250,000 square feet, which equates to about five football fields. So imagine if there’s two bands you wanted to see, playing at the same time, yet on opposite sides of the field. Well, let’s just say you’ll probably need a good pair of track shoes.
Phillip Cosores, contributing editor for Consequence of Sound, helps us make some decisions on who to watch this weekend:
Interview Highlights:
What's the usual response on the internet when the Coachella schedule is announced?
Confusion, horror, fear. [laughs] You realize that there's a lot that you're not going to be able to see, and that's disappointing, but it's to be expected every year.
The people who are putting together the schedule have to factor in a couple things — they obviously have headliners who need prime times, but I suspect they also try to make sure that people who like different kinds of music aren't going to have to compete against themselves in terms of what they want to go see.
Yeah, that's what you would think goes into it, though sometimes you look at the schedule and you wonder if that actually happens. On Friday, three rap acts — Lil B, Ab-Soul and Action Bronson — are all playing at the same time on three different stages. You'd think they would want to stagger them throughout the day so hip-hop fans could have the option to see them all. In this case, you can only really see one of them.
Jack White/FKA Twigs?
Jack White's one of the headliners for this year. You might know him from the White Stripes, the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather, but this is his first time headlining Coachella as a solo artist, and that's going to demand attention. On the other hand, FKA Twigs is a rising young female artist and this is her first time at Coachella, while Jack White's played several times. It's a tough call.
But Jack White's not closing out the main stage — R&B act the Weeknd is. Was that surprising to you?
It was surprising, but they hinted at that a little bit ahead of time. I think the Coachella frame of mind might be that the Weeknd has a younger audience and Jack White's audience skews a little bit older, so that older audience might want to leave Coachella at a more reasonable hour. [laughs] They want to be in bed by midnight or 1 in the morning, and that makes sense. Maybe Jack White wants to be in bed earlier. [laughs]
Another conflict that's upset some people is that between Tame Impala and Todd Terje.
Yeah, Tame Impala is a psych rock band from Australia that's looking to be more than a psych-rock band. Their third album is going to be released at any moment, and while they haven't announced it yet, the singles are coming out. On the other side, Todd Terje's a DJ, but he's more than a DJ — it's '80s-inspired, funky music. There's a lot going on, especially with his band, the Olsens, backing him up. It's a tough call, since they're both really great acts.
What is it like as a music fan to actually get this? Do you start marking up your calendar and figuring out where you have to be and how fast you have to get there?
Well, it assumes that everything's going to start on time, and if that doesn't happen then things become very confusing. I have an idea of how long it takes to get from stage to stage, and I'd say that 15 minutes is a good window of time if you wanted to get from the start of one set to the start of another. If they're 15 minutes apart, you can do it.
And you take a personal jetpack too, don't you?
Yeah, exactly. [laughs] I train six months out of the year to do this.
It's probably going to be up in the 90s this weekend, so is weather ever a factor in terms of who plays when? Are there some artists who don't want to be out in the sun?
I don't know if anybody makes those calls. Perfume Genius is playing outside at 1:55 in the afternoon, and he seems like a person who might not like the sun.
Are you saying he's a vampire?
[laughs] His music skews towards things that are played in the dark, I guess.
What to see and when?
Don't try too hard. If it's too hot, sometimes I show up a little later or miss some acts, but you're going to have a great experience either way.
Judith Hill moves closer to stardom with her Prince-approved debut album 'Back In Time'
Singer Judith Hill has been harboring dreams of a solo career for a long time. This year, at the age of 30, the longtime back-up singer and former contestant on “The Voice” has finally recorded a full album of her own.
You might remember Hill from her appearance in the Oscar-winning 2013 documentary, "20 Feet from Stardom." Her soulful voice has supported some of the biggest names in music — including Elton John and Stevie Wonder. And she was slated to duet with Michael Jackson on his “This Is It” tour. She can be seen rehearsing with Jackson in the documentary that was made following his death.
For her debut album, “Back In Time,” Hill had the luck of landing none other than Prince as her collaborator and mentor.
Interview Highlights:
Part of your musical background is as a backup singer, and you're featured very prominently in the film, "20 Feet from Stardom." That movie touches on a particular fact, that if you become very good at singing backup then you almost become locked into that world and it's very hard to have a solo career. Did that happen to you?
It was all timing for me. My career as a background singer was all very unique and a wild roller coaster. I started as a background singer for Michel Polnareff right out of college and lived in France for a year, then I was launched into working with Michael Jackson. All of these things cultivated my art and helped me become the person I am today.
You say "working with Michael Jackson" like you just walked out [onstage] with him. You were doing more — you were singing with him on a very special song. Can you talk a little bit about that?
"I Just Can't Stop Loving You." I was his duet partner, and that was beyond words, just an incredible experience. I was so new at the time and really just overwhelmed by being able to share the stage with the King of Pop. [laughs] It blew my mind every time I sang that song in rehearsal, and I learned so much from seeing him rehearse and put together such an incredible show. I had to pinch myself every day.
There's another person you collaborated with on your new record, someone people might know as Prince. How did you two find each other?
He had never seen me in "This Is It" or "20 Feet," and he had never even seen "The Voice." I did an interview on television and they said, "Judith, you've worked with everyone, but what would be your dream collaboration?" And I said, "Well, I would love to work with Prince." And he saw that and his people reached out to my manager and said, "Hey, Prince would like to personally have a phone call with Judith." Next thing you know, my phone rang. "Judith? This is Prince," and I basically freaked out — not on the phone, but on the inside.
After you get over your freakout, what do you talk to him about? How'd he become a part of the album?
I'm such a big Prince fan, and the biggest thing for me was the funk. We talked about that and I said, "I want to do a record that's like Sly and the Family Stone." And he said, "Oh, I got you. No problem." There was such a musical connection between the two of us that it was fun. We made a pact and said, We want to make the funkiest record and we want to do it the right way. We had a picture of this lady with her hat on tilted, and we'd look at it and say, "The music needs to be as funky as she looks." [laughs]
You've spent 26 years singing and you now have your first album. You're about to go out on the road, not as a background singer or a warmup, but as a headliner. How does it feel to be about to tour with your own album?
Exciting. [laughs] Really, really exciting. My show and my band are really on point, and I can't wait to start touring. That's where the fun begins. The show's incredible, I'll be announcing tour dates very soon, and I'm really excited for that.
'Super Troopers' filmmakers crowdfund a sequel
More than 14 years ago, strange low-budget comedy “Super Troopers” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie, which followed a group of ne’er-do-well Vermont state troopers, was made by a comedy troupe called Broken Lizard and directed by one of its members, Jay Chandrasekhar.
“Super Troopers” wasn’t much of a hit with critics, but audiences loved it. The film grossed $18.5 million in theaters and became a lasting cult hit on video.
For years, Broken Lizard has tried to get a “Super Troopers” sequel going. Fox Searchlight has agreed to distribute the film, but it has left the financing entirely up to Chandrasekhar and his Broken Lizard cohorts.
Now they've turned to their fans to help raise the money, and are campaigning on Indiegogo. In just the first 24 hours, Broken Lizard's campaign managed to hit their initial goal by raising more than $2 million.
Broken Lizard's Super Troopers 2 video
As of April 8, with more than two weeks left in the campaign, they've neared the $3.5 million mark as they reach for further stretch goals. At this rate, they've got a shot at beating the most successful film crowdfunding campaign to date— the Veronica Mars Movie project, which raised about $5.7 million.
Writer and director Jay Chandrasekhar spoke with The Frame's John Horn about the campaign to bring fans "Super Troopers 2."