The Desert
There’s a turntable in the room. With a hip note saying use it, but if you abuse it, if you break the needle, you pay.
And there are records too!
And cruising through them I know they were not put here by the IMS, the electronic music organization I’m here to confab with. Because the four albums are by the Cars, the Kinks, Blondie and Steve Perry. But they’re not cut-out items. It’s the Cars’ debut, which is the best. Blondie’s "Eat To The Beat", with "The Hardest Part"…do you know that cut? Here, let me link to it on Spotify, never a hit, it’s close to my favorite of theirs ever. And it’s an Arista Kinks album, "Give The People What They Want", with "Destroyer" and "Around The Dial". And Steve Perry’s "Street Talk", his debut with "Oh Sherrie". And if you’re too hip to love this cut, I’m gonna put it on Spotify too, because you’re no friend of mine if you can’t enjoy the exuberance of this mini-masterpiece.
Yes, I’m in a hipster hotel.
What a crazy world, where the hospitality business is hipper than the media business. Network TV is afraid of breaking rules and cable is playing to the lowest common denominator, it gives us no respect. But this cinder block edifice in the heart of Palm Springs is closer to my heart than anything that emanates from the airwaves.
They’ve got a Polaroid camera too. They’ll sell you the film, for $25 in the mini-bar, and if your heart desires, you can take the whole thing home with you for $120.
It’s my first time to Coachella. But perusing the bodies by the pool, the high grade room service and the south of the border vibe, I get it. It’s a party. You can camp in the dirt in Bonnaroo, or you can live large in the desert.
But it’s gonna cost you.
Then again, the attendees like that, they like being separated from the riff-raff. They like the fact that it’s hard to get to and costs some bucks.
Staying with the hotel…
You never want to stay on the ground floor, right?
I’ll admit, I’ve got hotel room paranoia, that I’m always gonna get a bad one. And I walk in and the carpet is stained. But when I remove my sunglasses, I see it’s concrete! That distress adds character. And downstairs is where you want to be, I’ve got my own walled-off patio!
I’d like to say the drive in was a breeze, but there’s traffic in California where you’d least expect it, where there’s no visible habitues and no construction. Made it in two and a half hours, but I could have shaved thirty minutes if I’d driven at 2 A.M. I listened to Tom Petty’s "Buried Treasure" on the satellite. He played some gems, like this version of "Soul Deep" by Clarence Carter that I’d never heard. But I wish he’d talk about the tracks more. And he’s been hanging with Dylan too much, he’s now starting to sound like him.
And when I got close I saw billboards. Music billboards. Not only for the soon to be gone and back from the dead playing the casinos, but electronic music. There was a sign advertising the drop of Paul van Dyk’s new CD and another promoting Avicii’s summer tour.
AEG paid for that.
That’s one thing Pete Tong wants to get into tonight. Is electronic music on the verge of being whored out? Are the big boys gonna come in and ruin it?
All I can say is I remember Bill Graham closing the Fillmore East, ranting about the end of the business before it truly penetrated the hinterlands. And everybody likes money. Most especially the acts.
But there’s already a culture, that’s profitable, we’ll see.
So driving out here my mood began to sink.
And when I saw the exterior of the hotel I was crestfallen. Upscale it is not. Then again, there was an R8 in the parking lot. That’s what I love about music, when done right it throws off a ton of cash. And right now, all that cash is in electronic music. The popsters try ever so hard to break through and the deejays rake in the dough and fly private. Furthermore, the little girls understand. That pop is controlled by old farts, that it’s a lowest common denominator money-seeking machine, and electronic’s for them. Where the audience counts. Where it’s about the experience.
I’m having an experience right now, and I just got here!
P.S. Just ran a speed test (at speedtest.net). Download is 6.46 Mbps and upload is 2.48 Mbps, which is markedly faster than the connection at any mainstream, especially four or five star, hotel, I’ve ever stayed at. The hipsters know what’s important.
