Coachella Photos: Yoav
Sometimes the blogosphere gets all hyped up about some band or singer, and when I go to hear what all the fuss is about, to me the vocals just sound like people yelling offkey and the songs are ho-hum. You know what I mean? Myself, I get excited when I find an artist with a great voice and beautiful songs.
One of the new artists I was anxious to see at the Coachella was the multi-national Yoav, who had appeared on KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic on Feb. 20, 2008. His live performance last Saturday did not disappoint. Although the audience in the Gobi Tent at 1 PM was small, it became more enthusiastic as he played each song.
Just as Joseph Arthur did before only recently assembling the Lonely Astronauts, Yoav records his own background tracks on loops and then sings and plays acoustic guitar over them. He usually starts by pounding out the percussion with his hands on the face of his guitar.
Yoav began his set with "One By One," then "Adore, Adore," followed by a cover of Radiohead's "Idiotech." Yoav does not sound like Thom Yorke, but he definitely has the vocal range and quality to produce not just an adequate version, but one that was truly amazing.
Next, for "Wake Up," he recorded two notes by plucking a guitar string with his teeth and humming into the box at the same time. This created a skin-prickling buzz that was then amplified electronically in the loop.
This was followed by "Club Thing" and last, the ethereal "Beautiful Lie" with its gorgeous echoes. Yoav left the stage to a long and warm applause. If you have a chance to see him, do not pass it up.
Making the beat
COPYRIGHTED CONTENT HAS BEEN REMOVED
Yoav: Club Thing from Charmed and Strange (2008)
Look for more of our posts on Coachella 2008
MySpace | Website | Label: Verve Forecast | Lyrics
Buy at Yoav's website, Amazon, iTunes
Show Schedule:
Yoav appears in Seattle tonight, then will be appearing at several dates in Canada through the end of May. He has one date in New York on June 3 before he begins a European tour. Check MySpace for specifics.
4 comments:
i am officially jealous. :) great pictures. i wondered how he'd do his music live, all by himself like that. very cool.
He is SO good. He really won the audience over with his performance.
I forgot to say that he performs barefoot. I couldn't tell if he's twiddling knobs with his toes, or what.
I saw him in Vancouver in (I think) March and would agree with everything you've said.
He was better dressed at Coachella though. :) (beige shirt here that made him look like a blob 'o' skin and not in a good way).
LOL @ "blob o' skin!"
It's hard to think of him as a blob of anything--he is so string-bean shaped!
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