A Closer Look At The Artists Of Coachella 2012: Day 3

Beirut

Usually, a band starts off as a very simple thing, and then evolves by adding more: more sounds, more production, more experimentation with genres or sounds that weren't originally a part of it- think the Beatles playing sitar, or whatever the hell happened with that Metallica/Lou Reed album. With Beirut, who came right out of the gate with a rich, layered world-rock sound influenced (in their own words) by Italian opera, Balkan folk, French chanson and Sicilian funeral brass, the only way to evolve was to simplify. Their newest album, The Rip Tide, has done just that, stripping away some (but not all) of the densely layered exotic instrumentation and carving out a sound that feels a little more mature and less global-for-it's-own-sake. Don't worry, there's still a tuba involved. [via]