Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Coachella 2011: Familiar Names, Hidden Gems


Coachella just announced its 2011 lineup, and there are the obligatory big names, but it's the smaller ones that really excite me. As it's such a massive festival, you can pretty much take a bucket and dip it into the current pond of indie bands and come up with a pretty good idea of who's playing, as the fake posters indicate.

Still, some cool stuff here. A Death From Above 1979 reunion is completely unexpected and awesome, and I'm crossing my fingers that they'll make there way to New York. Also, it's wild to see Mumford & Sons up there with Bright Eyes and Animal Collective - I should check them out at some point. The rest of the top half of the bill is solid, but nothing too jaw-dropping for me.

So on to the gems! The band that would most compel me to fly to Coachella would be Glasser. Through Philip Sherburne, I fell in love with the gorgeous voice of Cameron Mesirow, and if I had to redo my 2010 list, she could very well top it. I'm seriously kicking myself right now that I missed Glasser's gig last summer at Glasslands (what an appropriate venue!), and despaired that the band was only during European dates for the rest of winter.

This is my favorite song of the moment:



Other bands I'd like to see (and to this point haven't) include Phantogram, !!! and Klaxons. On the DJ front, I'd like to see the absurdly young Kyle Hall, Cocoon Recordings boss Sven Väth, dynamic duo Duck Sauce and moody, atmospheric Trentemøller.

But this is all pretty hypothetical - it's highly unlikely I'll actually make it this year, and pretty much all bands have or will make it to the city. I would, however, love to attend SXSW and find out if you really can do it without a badge, if anyone's road tripping to Austin from New York.

Oh, and one thing that intrigues me is the Creators Project partnership noted at the bottom of the page. It really demonstrates that Vice and Intel are committed to that brand, which is a good thing, and I'm curious what they'll add to Coachella. Update: Creators have outlined their plans on their site.

Let me know what artists excite you, and if there's anyone on that list that I overlooked.

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