[Coachella 2011] Odd Future, Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Tame Impala, Lauryn Hill, Marina & The Diamonds, Crystal Castles

Photo by Karl Walter//Getty Images

After walking over ten miles, hacking up a lung full of dirt, and getting the world’s most awkward sunburn, we’ve braved and completed Day One of Coachella 2011–sane enough to write about it.

We caught sets from some of the biggest hype bands of the festival like Odd Future, Tame Impala, and Pains of Being Pure At Heart. We saw an old school great like Lauryn Hill and two more up-and-coming divas of the stage—Marina and the Diamonds and Alice Glass of Crystal Castles. 

Odd Future

Photo by Michael Tullberg//Getty Images

Odd Future/OFWGKTA: This uber-hyped Los Angeles-based hip-hop collective of misanthropic teenage skater boys has single-handedly taken the “swag” epidemic to a new level.

Virtually unknown outside of California rap communities, Odd Future went from just being a group of rowdy kids dubbed the “Wolf Gang” with musical (and artistic) talent to being virtually plastered all over hundreds of music blogs.

They’ve been touted as the “new artist to watch” from major music magazines, are building a buzz with their extremely difficult to decipher acronym (Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All), and are the “buzzband” name to drop if you want to sound “with it” musically.

Personally, I love hip-hop and what Odd Future is doing, their DGAF attitudes towards life, and the way they built themselves up. Already a fan of Frank Ocean’s emo R&B and Tyler the Creator’s lyrically bleak rhyming skills, I was expecting Odd Future to “swag it out.”

Well, according to their Twitter feed and many of the kids “rolling in the deep,” Odd Future did for all intents and purposes “swag it out.” But I really wasn’t impressed.  Beyond the fact that awesome festival antics tend to abound in the Sahara tent, a girl almost puked on my shoes, a dude left with a bloody nose, and bringing out Pharrel–Odd Future was messy.

The sound was awful (maybe not their fault), they kept rhyming over each other, and there was something incredibly contrived about their performance.  When I walked up to the Sahara tent, it was packed, but as I stood there watching, I heard people start whispering their dislike and walking out.

Should you see Odd Future? Probably. In a smaller setting with better sound, you might get to really appreciate their “swag.” But in terms of being a “best new artist,” these boys have a lot of potential, but also need a lot of polish.