Paduta Goes to Wanderlust!

I am so excited to go to the second annual Wanderlust Festival at Squaw Valley in North Lake Tahoe this weekend! Last year I was amazed by the beauty of the surroundings, the caliber of performances (Spoon, Amanda F. Palmer, Broken Social Scene and Girl Talk to name a few) and of course...

the funitel. 

This year it's a little different - instead of being a music festival with yoga, its the other way around. Perhaps due to lack of show attendance, the organizers of this year's festival are scaling back and centering the focus on what many attendees are there for to begin with: the yoga.

So no more trips up the funitel for all day back to back shows at the top of the mountain, that is unless you go up there for one of the dozens of yoga classes offered.


There are however a number of musical performances I am highly anticipating this weekend:

Moby (DJ Set)

That's right - the master of not just electro-house music but vegan cuisine will be spinning on the ones and twos on Friday @ 10:30 pm on the Pulse Stage PLUS an acoustic set @ 5:30 on Saturday!

Perhaps his tunes are not presently pushed with the same commercial veracity of the late 90s, but I was actually quite impressed with his 2009 release Wait for Me.

And let's be honest, I had his hit album Play on repeat throughout most of my adolescence and teenage-hood. "Run On" - that was the track for me.


Pretty Lights

Performing Friday @ 9PM on the Pulse Stage is producer Derek Vincent Smith and drummer Cory Eberhard a.k.a. Pretty Lights. Similar to Girl Talk, these guys mix and sample music from different artists of different genres live.

Mash-up artists however have come into a bit of controversy with copyright infringement. Smith has responded to these accusations by saying "one thing I've run into a lot, is people that immediately judge artists who sample as music thieves without enough creativity to make good music on their own. [...] But I strive to always use samples in a way that brings new life and feeling to them."

They've released three albums on the Pretty Lights label which are all available as free downloads off the official website.

Photo by Tobin Voggesser

Brazilian Girls

I first listened to this trio of New Yorkers while I volunteered for Off Air at Sacramento's Capital Public Radio.

I don't even know how to describe their music but I do know I will be snapping pics in the front row of their headlining show on Sunday @ 8:30PM on the Pulse Stage!

Here's why:

I will be tweeting live from the festival, as well as updating Paduta's Facebook and posting videos of the shows on our blog, so keep checking in for our Wanderlust coverage!

And take a look back at Off Air's coverage of the inaugural Wanderlust Festival: videos, photos, interviews and more.