Desert Daze Announces Final Phase Of An Already Incredible Lineup

The music world is overflowing with festivals but, to be completely honest, most of them don’t interest us all that much.  The ones that do, generally have something different than the rest, or, more importantly, don’t have what so many of them do.  That is to say that, if we care about a festival, it’s most likely because they are the least like a typical music festival as possible.  One example is Pickathon, which takes place on a privately owned farm just outside of Portland, Oregon.  It’s a place where the environment matters, there is free clean water and no trash anywhere on the premises.  The crowd is minimal, children can roam freely, and due to some unspecified magic, it is actually rare to run into any assholes or drama.  In fact, I just left there yesterday and they hit another home run this year, focusing on taking care of the attendees in real, tangible ways beyond just big name draws.  Another festival that we have appreciation for is Boise‘s answer to SXSW, Treefort Fest.  The beauty of Treefort is how the entire town seems to embrace it, the unique approach to venues, and the relaxed environment of it all.  Later this month, the people behind the now-retired Saquatch! Festival, which embodied the typical large scale festivals along the lines of Coachella and Bonnaroo, will be presenting THING in Port Townsend, Wa; a sharp turn from a blazing hot summer fiasco built for day-glo warpainted teens toward something more family friendly with a diverse lineup incorporating podcasts, and speaking engagements with actors and writers to go along with the musical acts.

There’s a term that I’ve begun personally using to describe such festivals that have pushed against the standard format of packing a bunch of trendy names into hellish spaces just to pedele high priced food and beverages to the spun out twenty-something Urban Outfitters crowd.  I’ve been referring to them as “anti-festivals.”  I don’t remember hearing that phrase uttered anywhere else before, but today I saw the exact same term used in an press release/email sent in promotion of another festival that I’ve had my eye on for quite some time.  And while it’s true that, these days, I’ve been looking for much more than a stacked lineup to appease me and compel me to attend one of these things, the fact that Desert Daze views itself as an “anti-festival” is an intriguing bonus.  That being said, if it really came to it, the bill that they’ve put together, most likely, would have been enough to coax me out of my cave and out to a toxic waste dump to drink $15 Coors, while abandoning any conviction that I believed myself to hold.  It really is just that fucking good.  Fortunately, the environment is said to offer much more than that.  In fact, it’s supposed to be no less than breathtaking.

I’ve only ever had a peripheral understanding of the setup at Desert Daze, but the fact that it is thrown by the folks behind Austin‘s Levitation psych fest is promising and the booking seems to be consistently on point.  Initially, the festival took place in Joshua Tree, but last year saw them moving to Moreno Beach in Lake Perris, California.  As far as a camping festival is concerned, they’ve definitely stepped things up in that area as well, and are touting the following.

“…we’ve made ourselves at home, taking measures to improve entry traffic and all other avenues of your experience. The “oasis among American festivals (Stereogum)” features well-maintained state park camping facilities including brick and mortar bathrooms with running water, real showers, flushing toilets and RV hookups. Watch your favorite performers from the back of an inflatable pegasus afloat Lake Perris. Swim or lounge on the beach among a forest of surreal sculptures and installation structures.”

The gradual release of a lineup in various segments or “phases” at a time isn’t uncommon, but it felt like Desert Daze may have been blowing their load right out the gate with an announcement that included Animal Collective, Stereolab, Flying Lotus 3D, Parquet Courts, and Shintaro Sakamoto.  At the top of the list was The Flaming Lips, who are slated to perform their classic album, Soft Bulletin, in full.  By all accounts, that would already be enough, but this phase slowly unfolded to unveil more additions like The Black Angles, Lightning Bolt, and White Fence, alongside younger acts like CRUMB, and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, who are currently gaining more and more traction.  The names continued with Fred Armisen, DIIV, Temples, Connan Mockasin, Temples, and a number of others.  One act that wasn’t really on y radar at the time is Viagra Boys, who delivered two show stealing sets at Pickathon over the weekend — the first of which involved the frontman vomiting into a bucket on stage.  This is obviously an impressive offering, but if there was one thing that really hooked me early on it was the announcement of Dungen performing their Ta Det Lugtn album in its entirety — one friend of mine even recently made the trip to Sweden to see them perform it in their homeland.  I kept Desert Daze in the back of my mind and, whether it was for Mdou Moctar or Wand, each time a new announcement came, it only became more and more apparent that this was not one to be missed.  Then they casually announced Claypool Lennon Delirium.  Is this a joke?  Next was the J Mascis and Kyle Thomas (King Tuff) project, WITCH.  I began seriously looking into the dates and my schedule to attempt getting down there.  By now, I wasn’t really expecting much more to be announced, if anything at all.  Things were already looking so insane that it was too difficult to even keep track of just the acts that I was hoping to see there..  That’s when the final phase was released earlier today and it’s unnaturally great.  In fact, if we were asked to throw 3 more big gets in the mix without any restrictions, there’s a really high probability that I would have come up with the exact same selections.

WEEN (performing Chocolate & Cheese)

WU-TANG CLAN (performing Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers)

DEVO (farewell tour)

Keep in mind that this is ON TOP of everything else that was already pulling us like a high powered magnet to mystic desert.  Other additions include Khruangbin, The Locust, Pussy Riot, and Altin Gün.  This thing is bonkers.

Check out the full announcement video below.  Details and tickets available now at DesertDaze.org.