"Hush now child, and don't you cry..."

"...Your folks might understand you, by and by..."

I'm back! My computer is extremely upgraded, and I need to credit the Macintosh innovation "shuffle" with my current sanity. If it hadn't been for the shuffle feature, well I might have just exploded. Without a computer, I was unable to mix; but, with the shuffle feature I could let my iPod do all the work.

Now I'm on iTunes, having missed their new music Tuesday on Tuesday. It's kind of like receiving a birthday present a few days after your birthday. I'm listening to their "Coachella08" list, which includes Diplo's little homage to the Pixies, "Must Be A Devil". If you aren't a Pixies fan, then you need to know that he's referencing "Hey", which begins:

Hey!
Been trying to meet you...ooooh...Hey!
Must be a devil between us, or whores in my head...

It's probably my favorite Pixies song, and Diplo repeats the already repetitive bass-loop at high speeds.

On the second day of Coachella we have Diplo's girlfriend M.I.A. I actually heard "Paper Planes" on the radio the other day, and it was kind of surreal to hear the crooned "Some some some I some I murder, sooooome I let gooooo..." with other people listening. No one in the car seemed to notice that little segue into gangster rap territory (actually, I'm not even sure they noticed the gunshots in the chorus), but I didn't point it out. There are some gems that you have to let people discover for themselves.

Also performing on the second day is St. Vincent who has assumed a cult-following at colleges across the United States. I've got to admit that she's pretty clever, and the only reason I haven't purchased her album is that I feel I've already maxed out my number of solo female folk-singer purchases for this year. It has already been "that kind of year", and I'm only in May. By August, who knows what kind of soul candy I might require?

Did someone say candy? Because that's on the set-list too, mixed with Roger Waters, Love and Rockets, Gogol Bordello, Metric, Stars, the Shout Out Louds, Sia, Holy Fuck, I'm From Barcelona, the Black Kids, and Brett Dennen. The candy I mention consists of one horror movie star and that moment that every working stiff waits for, week in and week out. Did you guess Vampire Weekend? I can't say I'm surprised that they're on the set-list, and I can't say that I blame Coachella for inviting the Ivy-League boy band. I guess it makes sense to scoop up the latest "next big thing" while they're still anything. Unfortunately, I can't pretend to believe that Vampire Weekend's fame will last longer than a short weekend in history. Then again, I am not omniscient, and history is far more convoluted than I can imagine. I think all we can do is have fun with what we have, where we are. You never know what is or isn't around the corner.