Top 10 Bands to Do Drugs to at Coachella

By Nadia Noir Mon., Feb. 7 2011 at 8:00 AM

Is this girl on drugs at Coachella? What do you think?

Drugs are bad. So is standing for hours at Coachella in triple-digit heat to soak up eardrum-shattering decibels while drinking booze out of smuggled insulin bottles.

Many people, however, are down for doing bad stuff. At Coachella. So since we're not gonna convince them otherwise, we're gonna be servicey. Here's our list of Top Ten Bands To Do Drugs To At Coachella (with the ideal drug to pair each band with):

10. Sleigh Bells
Drug: Meth
Experimental pop duo, Sleigh Bells, sounds like the crunchy, erratic tremors of a night of meth-fueled euphoria mixed with the cranked-out paranoia that your head is going to explode shards of glass and glitter. Sleigh Bells smacks you over the head with hypersonic, rhythmic libido and push you over the precipice until the heightened acceleration of falling cracks your skull against the floor of sound. Watching them at Coachella on Meth might be the scariest thing you've ever done, or you might walk away with knowledge of a previously-secret fail-proof hipster weight loss routine.

9. Animal Collective
Drug: LSD
Animal Collective's summery, psychedelic freak folk already causes delusions of mass musical unity and intense hallucinations without the actual addition of perfectly-paired drug, LSD. Their tripped-out cerebral melodies twist through the same receptors of your brain that control psychosis and reality expansion, flipping off the heavy societal filter. By the end of their Coachella set you will either be completely lucid, psychoanalyzing the micro-movements of every person around you as the move in rhythm to the music, or you will be writhing naked in the grass, trying to absorb the "soul" of the universe.

8. Shpongle
Drug: Whatever You Can Get Your Hands On
Doing drugs during Shpongle should be a no-brainer, or rather you should lose your brain to varied chaos of whatever chemical plaything you can manage to mule onto the festival grounds. Shpongle's fuzzy, drugged-out ambient techno was written as a musical reactions to experiencing sensations, most likely sensations occurring during transcendental moments of heavy drug use. If you really want to feel what Shpongle is feeling, you will have to climb up the ladder of musical notes to their ethereal sonic ship made of neurochemical clouds.

7. Gayngs
Drug: Quaaludes
Dance-pop collective, Gayngs, is lush, languorous and hedonistic--kind of like a 1970s key-swapping orgy with a bowl full of quaaludes and naked, writhing bodies on bear skin rugs. The R&B-tinged aphrodisia of their melodies with the slurred electro-based back drop acts like a glammed-out disco biscuit, sure to cause some baby-making in the oppressive heat of the Coachella Valley sun.

6. Nas & Damian Marley
Drug: Copius Amounts of Weed
One word: Marley. As if even the hint of reggae isn't enough to get you smoking ganja immediately, Nas' literate and punctuated rhymes combined with the sun-drenched reggae swagger of Damian Marley, will. Honestly, you probably don't even need to bring your tools for "green living" through the gates. Just go to the Nas and Damian Marley show, position yourself in the middle of the crowd, and breathe deep.

Tags:

Animal Collective, Coachella, Empire of The Sun, Gayngs, Gogol Bordello, Kanye West, LISTS, Nadia Noir, Nas & Damian Marley, Shpongle, Sleigh Bells, Suede, Trentemoller

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Dgjlfccc

Sick article. I always try to figure out what drugs inspire music. Gogol pcp Haha totally.

doesitexplode

you misquoted the kanye song

Le Chris

Drugs are stupid. Leave them at home please. Thanks.

BrianAlbers

This is some of the most irresponsible 'journalism' I've read. Since when is it OK to promote drug use?

Oh, wait. What is that? You say, 'but look at the first sentence! It says 'Drugs are bad.' We're not condoning drug use! We're denouncing it.'

Ya, well, that doesn't hold water when in the article you write 'Doing drugs during Shpongle should be a no-brainer' and 'Empire of the Sun…is perfect for the transporting, fairy-like qualities of magic mushrooms' and 'A few snort-heavy bumps of nose candy and your dilating pupils will dance with joy to (Kanye) West's brash, boisterous beats.'

And this after all the coverage of that girl who died last year at EDC, never mind all the other deaths over the years. What happens if someone dies of a drug overdose at this year's Coachella (happened at least once before, in 2008)? Would that make you happy? Would you not regret posting this article?

It would be one thing if you wrote the article with the angle of 'I really liked the music of these bands while totally smacked out on these heavy drugs.' That would bad enough, but that's not the article. What you're saying is 'you should do these drugs while listening to these bands,' and that's totally unacceptable.

Stevetyler69

Get off of your high horse. People WILL do drugs at Coachella. And for the majority of people (those who can handle their shit), it will be a fun, safe experience.

And your sarcastic use of quotes (see: 'journalism') is clichéd.

Skew

I love the mixed message the LA Weekly sends. "Coachella - amazing concert festival awesome to take drugs to" versues "EDC - the drugged out circus unsafe for anyone"

Fashion aside, what really sets a concert festival and a rave apart? The lines seem to blur fairly often, yet one is acceptable by the media and the other isn't.