1) E40 Revenue Retrievin'- Day Shift (Heavy on the Grind Ent.)

2) E40 Revenue Retrievin'- Night Shift (Heavy on the Grind Ent.)

3) The Young Jazz Rebels Slave Riot (Stones Throw)

4) Madlib Medicine Show 3-Beat Konducta in Africa (Stones Throw)

5) Murs & 9th Wonder Fornever (SMC Recordings)

E40, aka Forty Wata, aka E-Feezy, aka the long reigning King of Bay Rap, is riding high with his latest two-part Shifts, the pair of simultaneously released CDs Revenue Retrievin'- Day Shift and Revenue Retrievin'- Night Shift (both on Heavy on the Grind Ent.) which for the third week in a row top the Amoeba Music Hip-Hop Charts. After two weeks of riding high at the San Francisco and Hollywood charts, this week the longtime Vallejo rapper locks down the number one and two spots at Amoeba Music Berkeley. The Bay Area has always supported E40 over the past two decades, both as a solo artist and with and his extended family group The Click, although I remember back in the very early days how some hip-hop fans just couldn't get their heads around E40's most unusual rapid pace flow, peppered with his homemade language (slanguage), unlike anything anyone had heard at the time. At first, I remember, it is mainly the younger kids who really dug "Mr Flamboyant" and other early tracks from this unique wordsmith. But by the mid 90's, when 40 and The Click were signed to Jive, most everyone else had caught up with his trademark rap style. By sticking to who he is artistically, E40 has proven that the key to success is to always be yourself. By so doing you are setting the trends, not following them, and end up sticking around a lot longer.

"One man's attempt to dissect the method to 3 days of madness in the desert"
  - By Scott Butterworth

On the 3rd weekend of April my Coachella will give to me.....
.....12 DJ's DJing.....11 Angelenos....10 Duos Duet-ing....9 Debut Albums....8 Don't I Know You From Somewhere?.....7 Artists Reuniting....

....and 6 San Franciscans:  

Faith No More
Sly & The Family Stone
Kaskade
Girls
Les Claypool
Street Sweeper Social Club


Both coasts of the United States are indented with bodies of water larger than a cove, and smaller than a gulf. Still, when someone refers to "The Bay," it only means one thing....San Francisco -- more specifically the San Francisco Bay Area. The Bay Area is the birth place of these six artists, who represent diverse communities and "scenes" far and wide throughout the Bay Area. But more importantly, they have all been a very influential part of San Francisco's internationally respected music scene, past and present, and have been ingrained in our popular culture along the way. If you're not in love with San Francisco...first off, what's wrong with you!?!....and second, after watching these videos, you'll fall in love in no time.

"One man's attempt to dissect the method to 3 days of madness in the desert"
  - By Scott Butterworth

On the 3rd weekend of April my Coachella will give to me.....
.....12 DJ's DJing.....11 Angelenos....10 Duos Duet-ing....9 Debut Albums....8 Don't I Know You From Somewhere?.....

....and 7 Artists Reuniting:  

The Specials
Public Image Limited
Faith No More
Pavement
Orbital
Sly & the Family Stone
Sunny Day Real Estate

Since its inception in 1999, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has made bold attempts to reunite some of the most sought after bands in modern music history. And many of those attempts have successfully come to fruition, making Coachella the preeminent and trusted outlet for artists to bring back the magic that we the music fans hold near and dear to our hearts and our lives. With Jane's Addiction in 2001, Iggy and The Stooges in 2003, Pixies in 2004, Daft Punk in 2006 and Rage Against the Machine and The Jesus & Mary Chain in 2007, Coachella made headlines around the world, making huge headliner reunions one of the festival's defining and signature attractions. This year Coachella is giving seven artists the figurative "slap on the ass" and telling them, "Get back out there and go get 'em, Champ!"

"One man's attempt to dissect the method to 3 days of madness in the desert"
  - By Scott Butterworth

On the 3rd weekend of April my Coachella will give to me.....
.....12 DJ's DJing.....11 Angelenos....10 Duos Duet-ing....9 Debut Albums....

....and 8 "Don't I Know You From Somewhere?":  

Public Image Limited
She & Him
The Cribs
Perry Ferrall vs. Steve Porter
Major Lazer
Bad Lieutenant
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Owen Pallet

"One man's attempt to dissect the method to 3 days of madness in the desert"
  - By Scott Butterworth

On the 3rd weekend of April my Coachella will give to me.....
.....12 DJ's.....11 Angelenos....10 Duos Duet-ing....

....and 9 Debut Albums:  

Passion Pit
Hockey
The XX
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
The Temper Trap
Miike Snow
B.o.B.
Florence + The Machine
Little Boots


Each year, the stages of Coachella are graced by legends in music, many with careers spanning decades and musical catalogs expansive enough to fill the entire 3-day weekend. But there's also another pool of artists at Coachella each year -- usually found on the smaller "tent" stages or in the early hour slots of the main stage -- making a name for themselves in the music world on very limited but deserving musical output. Coachella promoters make a profession of spotting these artists early and presenting them to us before the "rest of the world" catches on. And it's not rare to see some of these artists, who are featured in the smallest font on the above flyer, go on to headline the festival in future years. The following 9 artists are playing Coachella this year on the strength of their debut albums. All 9 of them include singles that have permeated diverse avenues of pop culture within the past year, but all 9 artists have inaugurated their careers with "albums" that bite as hard as their "singles" bark.