At some place called Indio in California (excuse the ignorance) there is a festival called the Coachella Valley Music Festival. All I know about it is that it has an absolutely dizzying array of amazing artists. Check this list out for size.
Saturday: Radiohead, The Pixies, Kraftwerk, Wilco, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, The Rapture, Desert Sessions, Laurent Garnier, Hieroglyphics, Kinky, Stereolab, Future Sound of London, And you will know us by The Trail of Dead, Peretz, Death Cab for Cutie, Sparta, LCD Soundsystem, Living Legends, Sander Kleinenberg, The Black Keys, The Sounds, Howie Day, Junior Senior, Mark Farina, Moving Units, Sahara Hotnights, Electric Six, The Stills, Seb Fontaine, 22-20’s, Da Lata, Juana Molina, Phantom Planet, Mindless Self Indulgence, Dios, Jem, Q and not U, stellastarr*, Erase Errata, The Section Quartet, DJ Icon.
Sunday: The Cure, The Flaming Lips, Air, Belle & Sebastian, Basement Jaxx, Paul Van Dyk, Bright Eyes, Atmosphere, Thursday, BRMC, Cursive, Le Tigre, The Crystal Method, Dizzee Rascal, Adam Freeland, Mogwai, Ash, 2many Dj’s, Muse, Sidestepper, Donald Glaude, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, The Thrills, Broken Social Scene, Richard Fearless, The Sleepy Jackson, Ferry Corsten, Prefuse 73, !!!, The Cooper Temple Clause, Sage Francis, T. Raumschmiere, The Killers, Home Town Hero, The Section Quartet.
indio is in the desert in cali. this is like the 3rd or 4th year the thing has been on and every year just gets better and better. last year had as its feature the complete reformation of the (almost) original line-up of iggy pop and the stooges (complete with everyones favourite session drummer mr dave grohl). by all reports it was a complete banger! it was originally set out to be a sorta glastonbury of nth america and give all the pale indie rockers something to froth over. seems to be working… i toyed with heading down for it but its mad expensive and i dont know anyone down there… mmm still might think about it!
Yeah, I went to number one. Man it was hot, which meant that I just skipped all the daytime events. It was my first time in coachella valley, I stayed in palm springs. Amazing, it’s an oasis in the middle of a valley that looks like mars. The shops spray water in the air so you can tolerate the heat while walking between them. The polo field that it is on is a huge expanse of green grass, surrounded by a single line of palm trees and the red mountains of the valley. Beautiful.