US fest gets Die Antwoord
2010-04-15 08:49
Thinus Dippenaar, Die Burger
Cape
Town – Cape Town group Die Antwoord is the first South African group to be invited
to a popular music festival in Los Angeles, California.
The
Coachella festival kicks off on Friday and its 75 000 tickets are already sold
out.
Die
Antwoord will take to the stage on Saturday. Other artists who will be
performing at the festival include big names in the music industry, such as Jay
Z, Public Image Limited, Vampire Weekend, The Specials, Tiesto, Corinne Bailey
Rae, Gossip, Gorillaz, Gary Numan, Yo Le Tango, Florence and the Machines and
David Guetta.
Die
Antwoord's international break-through came when US-based music website Boing
Boing reported on them in February.
Their
music video Enter the Ninja is available on their website and on
YouTube.
It
had over 3 million hits by Wednesday, and their other video, Zefside,
had over 1.6 million hits.
Zefside will be shown at the
53rd San Francisco International Film Festival later this month.
Die
Antwoord's fan page on Facebook already has over 60 000 members from all over
the world, including the US, Canada, Europe, the Ukraine, Russia, the Czech
republic, Chile and Sweden.
The
New York Times' arts section, as well as publications in France, Brazil,
the UK, Taiwan and Belgium, have reported on Die Antwoord. The Enter the
Ninja video is even on MTV's playlist in Europe.
Their
debut CD, $O$, will be released later this year by Interscope Records,
the company which is responsible for, among others, Lady Gaga, U2, Sting,
Eminem and the Black Eyed Peas.