I arrived in the desert as ominous clouds overhead wormed their way into the Coachella Valley. A festival worker greeted us with the warning
Author: Luca Rojas
Top Five Tracks of 2012 (So Far)
Just three months into 2012, and already the year sounds promising for contemporary music, which—barring a few obvious exceptions—felt especially static in 2011. Last
New Sleigh Bells Album Follows Through
Coming across a great debut nowadays feels like catching a glimpse of a wild animal. It happens infrequently, but in the moment, finding something
A Farewell from El Jefe: Top Tracks of the Semester
“Yonkers” – Tyler The Creator Toward the end of 2010, after years of getting dragged around on a leash by the synthesized excesses of
Fleet Foxes Deliver Masterful Follow-up with “Blues”
It’s a bit of a challenge to parse out where Fleet Foxes fit in the spectrum of contemporary indie music. Nowadays, you’ve got your
Coachella One-Ups Itself Yet Again
Every year, around the third or fourth week in April, Coachella provides an oasis of sensory delights for those resilient enough to endure the
El Jefe’s Guide to Coachella 2011
This upcoming weekend, the twelfth annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival returns again to Indio, California. For those of us resourceful enough to
On Cigarettes and the 5Cs
“You smoke cigarettes?” she asked. “Yeah,” I replied. “So?” Wait. I started the story all wrong. For you to really understand this exchange between
Lupe Loses Touch with “Lasers”
Toward the end of 2010, already a fairly healthy year for music releases in general, Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy presented a
The Strokes Stage Impressive Comeback on Angles
In some ways, The Strokes reshaped the way bands rose to fame. From their modest inception in New York City’s prep school scene to