I saw Ryan Adams at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara the other night. It was absolutely phenomenal. Great artist, great venue. Adams had a cold, but the band played a 2+ hour set. Makes me wonder if he could possibly be any better when healthy. I’m anxiously browsing the web in search of a bootleg.

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The Coachella lineup is pretty mediocre this year. Jack Johnson is headlining the first day? Enough said. After last year’s lineup that pretty much kept me going all day for all three days, I’d say this lineup has about half as much draw for me. Plenty of criticism from the music nerd world already, but the powers that be had to have seen that coming.

Needless to say, I won’t be going. Instead I’ll be doing whatever it takes to get Radiohead tickets for their Santa Barbara date. If it costs me less than the $300+ per ticket that Coachella does, I’ll have come out ahead.

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A few years ago, when Rhapsody was taking off, I predicted that it wouldn’t be too long before we would be able to stream an unlimited amount of music to a portable player on the go. Check out the Ibiza Rhapsody player. A huge step in the right direction. Now we just need better widespread Wi-fi and the possibilities will be endless.

My dream portable player has Wi-fi web access, stereo Bluetooth for wireless headphones, BitTorrent accessibility, FLAC compatibility, a 500+ GB solid state drive (to store all those FLACs, solid state for better battery life), gapless playback, ReplayGain capability and full, ID3 support with lots of options (for flexible library organization). It’s going to be a while before that happens, but hey, I can dream can’t I?

Having nothing better to do after Nickel Creek, I stuck around with the large crowd that had formed to see Of Montreal. I’d heard enough of their stuff to be familiar with them, but it hadn’t ever really pulled me in. Now I can understand their appeal.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of their weird outfits and strange stage antics at first, but after a couple songs it was amusing and added to the entertainment value. I’m pretty sure there are a lot of psychedelic drugs being passed around back stage with these guys, but that didn’t stop them from playing like their pink, flippy shoulder pads depended on it.

Their unique blend of freaky dance pop was addictive and catchy, and I was a big enough fan by the time I left that I ended up buying a t-shirt. That’s saying something, because all shirts at the Coachella merch booth were $25. Hooray for festival ripoffs.

Once again, there are more pictures than you can shake a stick at over on Flickr.

Well, first off, let’s get this out of the way: I was at Starbucks that Friday morning and held the door for Nickel Creek violinist Sara Watkins on my way out. I didn’t realize it until I was out the door. There’s a lot more back-story to that, but we’ll leave it at that.

This was the second time I’d seen Nickel Creek, so I had my expectations and they didn’t disappoint. They played a shorter version of their normal set (the curse of every music festival). The only song I was unfamiliar with was a new one that I’m guessing mandolinist Chris Thile wrote post-divorce. Something about “don’t set me up with one of your friends.” It was funny. But kind of sad at the same time.

I’m glad I got to see them again, considering this is their final tour before they take an indefinite hiatus to work on their solo projects and such.

I didn’t take my camera to Coachella (intentionally) but if you want pictures, Flickr has plenty.

I just got way too excited for Coachella this weekend when they posted the set time schedule.

Somehow they managed to keep conflicts to a minimum, as far as my own preferences go, anyway. There are a couple bands I might have to skip out early on to catch something else, but the only major conflict for me is Saturday evening. Kings Of Leon, The Decemberists, !!! and Andrew Bird all playing at the same time. I don’t even know where to start with that one. I’ve seen Andrew Bird, so I may have to sacrifice there, but even then, he puts on an amazing show.

Here’s how I plan to break it down:

Friday

• Nickel Creek
• Of Montreal
• Circa Survive
• Rufus Wainwright
• The Jesus And Mary Chain
• Peeping Tom
• Interpol
• Sonic Youth
• Bjork

Saturday

• Regina Spektor
• The New Pornographers
• Kings Of Leon vs. The Decemberists vs. !!! vs. Andrew Bird
• The Arcade Fire
• Girl Talk
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• The Black Keys

Sunday

• Mika
• Anathallo
• Grizzly Bear
• Explosions In The Sky
• The Roots
• Willie Nelson
• Amos Lee
• Ratatat
• Damien Rice
• Rage Against The Machine

Meanwhile, I’m packing up my sunscreen and shorts (two things I don’t use that often; yeah, I’m a nerd) and expecting to have a very fun weekend. I’ll be lucky if I don’t come back deaf, malnourished, underslept and looking like Pigpen.