Coachella 2013 Lineup: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Phoenix, Blur, Stone Roses

Damon Albarn of Blur, Thomas Mars of Phoenix and Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers.Ragnar Singsaas/WireImage; John Shearer/WireImage; Jesse Grant/WireImage

The Coachella 2013 lineup has officially arrived, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blur, the Stone Roses and Phoenix are all slated to headline the two-weekend festival in Indio, California this April. Among the other big names on the bill: Lou Reed, Postal Service, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, New Order and Wu-Tang Clan.

As in past years, several of the marquee acts playing Coachella are in the midst of reuniting, or at least resurfacing with new material. Both Phoenix and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are gearing up to release their first new LPs in several years this April, and earlier this week Postal Service confirmed plans to ring in their 10th anniversary with a Coachella set. The Stones Roses and New Order both kicked off reunion tours last year, and Wu-Tang Clan are at work on a new album to mark their twentieth anniversary. 

2013's Hottest Tours

Rumors about this year's Coachella headliners had been swirling for weeks, with the Rolling Stones and Daft Punk among the acts speculated to be performing at the festival. But last week, the Stones confirmed that they would not be playing Coachella, with Mick Jagger telling NME that the band would not be ready in time for the festival, despite the string of successful reunion dates they played in the U.K. and U.S. at the close of last year. And though Daft Punk have a new LP in the works, the band has reportedly told festival promoters they won't be hitting the road this year.

Coachella will kick off on April 12th through April 14th and reprise its lineup the following weekend, April 19th through 21st. Festival passes go on sale next Tuesday, January 29th, at 10 a.m. PST. 

The full Coachella 2013 lineup is at coachella.com. 

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Coachella Drops Strong Hint the Rolling Stones Are Headlining

Coachella organizers posted an image of a large round stone at the Empire Polo Grounds on the fesival's official Facebook page, seeming to confirm widespread reports that the Rolling Stones will headline the festival this year.

The Stones themselves listed Coachella 2013 in the tour section of their mobile app for a brief time late last year, though Mick Jagger told Rolling Stone that he didn't know how it got there.

If the Rolling Stones do perform at Coachella, it will be their first festival gig in the United States since Altamont in 1969. The band also played SARS benefit festival in Toronto in 2003 and the Isle of Wight in England in 2007, but has largely stuck to its own gigs over the years.

The Rolling Stones Weigh Offers for Full Tour in 2013

A Coachella appearance would likely be one of many 2013 gigs for the Stones. "We barely got off the starting blocks," Keith Richards told us of the group's 50th anniversary run late last year, which was limited to seven shows. "It would be dopey to bring things up to this level and say, 'Well, that's that, 50 years, bye-bye.'"

Like last year, Coachella 2013 will staged across two weekends in April with the exact same lineup at both events. The Stones' mobile app only listed the April 12th show, but they'll almost certainly be at the festival on the weekend of April 19th as well.

The full Coachella lineup will be officially announced later this month.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Flashback: The Pixies Reunite at Coachella in 2004

For many years, it was virtually impossible to imagine any sort of Pixies reunion. Charles Thompson (ak/a Black Francis, a/k/a Frank Black) informed his bandmates that he quit via fax in 1993, shortly after they wrapped up a dispiriting slog across America opening for U2 on the Zoo TV tour. By this point, bassist Kim Deal and Thompson weren't even speaking, and that silence stuck for over a decade.

So many were surprised in early 2004 when word came out that the Pixies were going to perform at Coachella. Here you can check out their performance of "Caribou" from the festival.

The Pixies Finally Begin Contemplating New Album

So why did they reunite? Simply put, none of them were doing that well financially at the time and their legend had grown to a point where a reunion tour was going to be highly lucrative. "Nobody got ripped off," said Thompson in Fool the World: The Oral History of a Band Called Pixies. "We all made lots of money. I know everyone's made a lot of money because I'm privy to how much the checks are for. Everyone did good. For a little indie rock band, we did really good."

During their initial go-round, the Pixies never got beyond clubs and small theaters in America. (They were considerably more popular in Europe.) Initially, their break-up seemed poorly timed because it happened to coincide with the mainstream culture fully embracing alternative rock, but the band was a spent force at this point. Their last album, 1992's Trompe le Monde, was essentially a Thompson solo album. Deal had turned her attention towards the Breeders and a break-up was inevitable. 

Kurt Cobain did much to preach the gospel of the Pixies after their split, even suggesting that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was an attempt to "rip off the Pixies." The prominent use of "Where Is My Mind" in Fight Club helped them gain a new audience, but something bigger was happening. Teenagers were beginning to discover that Doolittle and Surfer Rosa were pretty much flawless albums. The Pixies became an unlikely part of the classic rock canon. 

Nobody quite knew how well a reformed Pixies would do on the road in 2004. They opened the tour on April 4th, 2004, at the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis and the response was absolutely rapturous. A quick warm-up leg through Canada also earned amazing reviews, then they nearly stole the show from Radiohead when they preceded them on the mainstage at Coachella. From there, they hit the road hard, touring heavily until late 2005 and making more money than they'd ever seen in their lives. 

By 2009, their reunion had lasted longer than their initial span of time together. They also failed to record any new material, so their 2009-2011 Doolittle tour didn't quite generate the same excitement as the 2004-2005 shows, but they still played to packed crowds across the world. 

"I really appreciate those songs," Thompson told Spinner in 2012.  "They've done me and my family good financially, but it's like, 'Really? 'Where Is My Mind' again? 'Gigantic' again?' Yeah, I do get a little bored of all that occasionally. It's repetitious to sing those songs year after year after year. I always appreciate it but, especially by the end of the tour, I'm begging to get off."

The Pixies took 2012 off and Kim Deal is going to spend at least part of 2013 celebrating the 20th anniversary of Last Splash with a Breeders tour, but this is also the 25th anniversary of Surfer Rosa. Might there be a tour to celebrate it? The band has been silent, but a Facebook message from the band on New Year's Eve did say "See you in 2013!" 

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Flashback: The Pixies Reunite at Coachella in 2004

For many years, it was virtually impossible to imagine any sort of Pixies reunion. Charles Thompson (ak/a Black Francis, a/k/a Frank Black) informed his bandmates that he quit via fax in 1993, shortly after they wrapped up a dispiriting slog across America opening for U2 on the Zoo TV tour. By this point, bassist Kim Deal and Thompson weren't even speaking, and that silence stuck for over a decade.

So many were surprised in early 2004 when word came out that the Pixies were going to perform at Coachella. Here you can check out their performance of "Caribou" from the festival.

The Pixies Finally Begin Contemplating New Album

So why did they reunite? Simply put, none of them were doing that well financially at the time and their legend had grown to a point where a reunion tour was going to be highly lucrative. "Nobody got ripped off," said Thompson in Fool the World: The Oral History of a Band Called Pixies. "We all made lots of money. I know everyone's made a lot of money because I'm privy to how much the checks are for. Everyone did good. For a little indie rock band, we did really good."

During their initial go-round, the Pixies never got beyond clubs and small theaters in America. (They were considerably more popular in Europe.) Initially, their break-up seemed poorly timed because it happened to coincide with the mainstream culture fully embracing alternative rock, but the band was a spent force at this point. Their last album, 1992's Trompe le Monde, was essentially a Thompson solo album. Deal had turned her attention towards the Breeders and a break-up was inevitable. 

Kurt Cobain did much to preach the gospel of the Pixies after their split, even suggesting that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was an attempt to "rip off the Pixies." The prominent use of "Where Is My Mind" in Fight Club helped them gain a new audience, but something bigger was happening. Teenagers were beginning to discover that Doolittle and Surfer Rosa were pretty much flawless albums. The Pixies became an unlikely part of the classic rock canon. 

Nobody quite knew how well a reformed Pixies would do on the road in 2004. They opened the tour on April 4th, 2004, at the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis and the response was absolutely rapturous. A quick warm-up leg through Canada also earned amazing reviews, then they nearly stole the show from Radiohead when they preceded them on the mainstage at Coachella. From there, they hit the road hard, touring heavily until late 2005 and making more money than they'd ever seen in their lives. 

By 2009, their reunion had lasted longer than their initial span of time together. They also failed to record any new material, so their 2009-2011 Doolittle tour didn't quite generate the same excitement as the 2004-2005 shows, but they still played to packed crowds across the world. 

"I really appreciate those songs," Thompson told Spinner in 2012.  "They've done me and my family good financially, but it's like, 'Really? 'Where Is My Mind' again? 'Gigantic' again?' Yeah, I do get a little bored of all that occasionally. It's repetitious to sing those songs year after year after year. I always appreciate it but, especially by the end of the tour, I'm begging to get off."

The Pixies took 2012 off and Kim Deal is going to spend at least part of 2013 celebrating the 20th anniversary of Last Splash with a Breeders tour, but this is also the 25th anniversary of Surfer Rosa. Might there be a tour to celebrate it? The band has been silent, but a Facebook message from the band on New Year's Eve did say "See you in 2013!" 

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Read more »

Coachella Drops Strong Hint the Rolling Stones Are Headlining

Coachella organizers posted an image of a large round stone at the Empire Polo Grounds on the fesival's official Facebook page, seeming to confirm widespread reports that the Rolling Stones will headline the festival this year.

The Stones themselves listed Coachella 2013 in the tour section of their mobile app for a brief time late last year, though Mick Jagger told Rolling Stone that he didn't know how it got there.

If the Rolling Stones do perform at Coachella, it will be their first festival gig in the United States since Altamont in 1969. The band also played SARS benefit festival in Toronto in 2003 and the Isle of Wight in England in 2007, but has largely stuck to its own gigs over the years.

The Rolling Stones Weigh Offers for Full Tour in 2013

A Coachella appearance would likely be one of many 2013 gigs for the Stones. "We barely got off the starting blocks," Keith Richards told us of the group's 50th anniversary run late last year, which was limited to seven shows. "It would be dopey to bring things up to this level and say, 'Well, that's that, 50 years, bye-bye.'"

Like last year, Coachella 2013 will staged across two weekends in April with the exact same lineup at both events. The Stones' mobile app only listed the April 12th show, but they'll almost certainly be at the festival on the weekend of April 19th as well.

The full Coachella lineup will be officially announced later this month.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon MP3 Download Center

Read more »

Report: Coachella Promoters to Announce New Cruise

The Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CaliforniaKarl Walter/Getty Images for Coachella

Goldenvoice, the promotions company behind Coachella, are expected to announce later today that they will be expanding the brand of their hit music festival to include a cruise, the Los Angeles Times reports.

While those asked about the cruise did not give specific details regarding cost, dates or who might play, it is expected the ship would sail out of Florida perhaps as early as December. "The ship looks amazing," siad one artist representative who works with Goldenvoice.

The expansion comes as no surprise for the ever-growing Goldenvoice: Just this year they presented Coachella on two consecutive weekends, a move that grossed $47.3 million. The company has already set aside two weekends for Coachella next year.

Concert cruises have also become more common over the past few years, with artists ranging from Weezer to R. Kelly to the biggest names in EDM setting sail.

The Coachella cruise also comes on the heels of a recent flare-up between Goldenvoice and Indio, California, the desert town that hosts Coachella and Goldenvoice's country festival, Stagecoach. Recently a city councilman proposed a 5-10 percent admission tax for events of more than 2,500 people, which would have raised Coachella ticket prices by $18 to $36, an increase Goldenvoice was not willing to absorb or pass along to ticket buyers.

More recently, however, the councilman backed away from his proposal after Goldenvoice considered finding a new location for Coachella and even canceling the 2014 fest.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Coachella 2012: 10 Can't-Miss Acts

Gary Clark Jr., Azealia Banks and Carrie Brownstein of Wild Flag.Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images; Samir Hussein/Getty Images; Gary Wolstenholme/Redferns

It's never just been about the headliners at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. In fact, many of the 100,000-plus fans who bought tickets to this year's two consecutive Coachella weekends (April 13th-15th and 20th-22nd) signed up before the lineup was even announced. Most knew that the biggest names would be part of a much longer list of exciting rock, dance, hip-hop and more gathered for the desert fest in Indio, California. Here are just 10 of the acts further down the bill not to be missed.

Listen to our Spotify playlist of 10 Coachella Can't-Miss Acts:

Wild Flag
They've existed barely a year, but are already Wild Flag are one of the most anticipated bands playing at Coachella. Led by Helium singer Mary Timony, the band is a kind of all-female supergroup of uncompromising indie rockers, a two-guitar assault powered by former members of Sleater-Kinney and the Minders. The playing is loose and loud, rolling along tumbling beats and constant motion. You can hear a bit of Sleater-Kinney and their other former bands in the songs, but Wild Flag is a band looking forward, not back. 

Key track: "Future Crimes"

Pulp
Oasis and Blur got more headlines and chart action on both sides of the Atlantic, but Pulp and its wiry lead singer Jarvis Cocker were essential figures from the mid-Nineties Britpop movement. After years of struggle, the band released Different Class in 1995 and delivered a singular blend of danceable post-punk pop and the occasional sour lyric, sung by Cocker with smirk, melancholy and razzamatazz. Pulp broke apart just three years later. Cocker now leads the reunited band he first started as a teenager in Sheffield, England, bringing the classic lineup to the appropriately epic landscape of Coachella. The band's website asks, "Can we make the desert bloom?"

Key track:  "Common People"

Azealia Banks
With last year's streetwise and sexually charged "212," 20-year-old Azaelia Banks stepped out from her Harlem neighborhood with edgy wordplay and rapid-fire rhymes (and a relentless beat from Lazy Jay). Then came the post-modern R&B of "NEEDSUMLUV," matching anxious beats with a slow-jam groove. She was soon being compared to Nicki Minaj (another "Fame" school alum), but Banks keeps her words and beats at street level. She's worked with Diplo and co-wrote the Scissor Sisters' "Shady Love," and has lately been tweeting about upcoming collaborations with Kanye West and Lana Del Rey. Banks makes her Coachella debut on Saturday, days ahead of her EP release 1991, with a debut album coming later this year. 

Key track:  "212"

Martin Solveig
Recruited by Madonna for her MDNA, this fast-rising house DJ and producer is in high demand to help craft hits for other acts while landing some of his own across Europe with his Smash album, released last year. He has weakness for polo shirts and ecstatic beats, as tracks bounce with pop hooks, wild club energy and a playful state of mind. (See his sketch comedy videos for Smash.) It's a party of colliding beats, electro-pop and inspired guests vocalists, including Dragonette on "Hello."   

Key track:"Hello"

Atari Teenage Riot
Few bands this year will ignite mosh pits across Coachella's desert dancefloor with quite the intensity of Atari Teenage Riot. The German anarchist band reunited in 2010 and last year released Is This Hyperreal?, with songs of hackers, protest and human trafficking. Frontman Alec Empire call's the band's apocalyptic punk/electronic blend "digital hardcore," and it lands right at the sweet spot between Coachella's rock and dance constituencies.  

Key track: "Revolution Action"

Le Bucherettes Le Butcherettes
This explosive indie/punk-rock trio is led by Guadalajara singer-guitarist Teri Gender Bender, whose sound and fury land somewhere in the Jack White/PJ Harvey tradition. Songs from last year's Sin Sin Sin are all hooks and sharp edges, and Gender Bender's known to act out onstage – climbing scaffolds, stage-diving and even suddenly clipping at her hair. They're at work on a new album produced by Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriquez-Lopez, now officially the Le Butcherettes' bassist. He'll be pulling double duty at this year's Coachella, shredding guitar with the reunited At the Drive-In and laying down a driving rhythm for Gender Bender's wild and crazy rock.

Key track: "Bang!"

Gary Clark Jr.
The Austin, Texas, guitar phenom and singer is as comfortable wailing on straight blues as he is with simmering soul, shifting easily from funk to a fine Stones-y grind on his electric and acoustic guitars. He's collaborated with Alicia Keys and Nas and was part of the blues contingent that performed at the White House in February, and he'll be at festivals across the U.S. this year. But don't miss him at Coachella. Reason enough is the fiery rock and blues on 2011's The Bright Lights EP, to be followed by a full album due in the fall, bringing loud guitars and soul to a new generation of listeners with the blues.

Key track: "Bright Lights"

Laura Marling
This prolific English singer-songwriter comes from the same folk scene that birthed Mumford & Sons, but she shares little of that band's brotherly foot-stomping euphoria. Her songs are seething meditations on human entanglements, at times stark and delicate or layered with evocative sounds and feeling. At 22, Marling has already released three albums, and on her latest, A Creature I Don't Know, she's commanding and confident enough to put her securely in a tradition that stretches from Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell to Ani DiFranco.

Key track: "Night After Night"

Mazzy Star
After nearly a dozen years of silence (but no official breakup), Mazzy Star are reuniting this yearwith the duo's first new album of spectral rock and honky-tonk since 1996, plus two rare performances at Coachella. It's long overdue, but two songs released online last year ("Common Burn" and "Lay Myself Down") show a band reconnecting with the ethereal twang that once represented Mazzy Star's private, smoky corner of the Nineties alternative boom. Singer Hope Sandoval's vocals remain distant and sultry, wounded and wistful amid layers of haunted guitar and gently psychedelic atmosphere from musical partner David Roback.   

Key track: "Be My Angel"

The Refused
The most unexpected reunion at this year's Coachella just might be the Refused, the aggressively anti-capitalist Nineties hardcore band from Sweden. The quartet put out three albums of intense grind and wail that decade, and they came apart on the road soon after the 1998 release of The Shape of Punk to Come, widely regarded as their most accomplished recording. As before, that album kept lucrative hardcore formulas at arm's length, choosing to experiment with tempo, bits of techno and even violin amid bonebreak beats. Musicianship gave clarity to the chaos that the band itself has called "incredibly violent rock music." Coachella brought them back together to tour "one last time." Another chance to see this influential act may never come again.

Key track: "The Shape of Punk to Come"

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Coachella 2012: 10 Can't-Miss Acts

Gary Clark Jr., Azealia Banks and Carrie Brownstein of Wild Flag.Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images; Samir Hussein/Getty Images; Gary Wolstenholme/Redferns

It's never just been about the headliners at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. In fact, many of the 100,000-plus fans who bought tickets to this year's two consecutive Coachella weekends (April 13th-15th and 20th-22nd) signed up before the lineup was even announced. Most knew that the biggest names would be part of a much longer list of exciting rock, dance, hip-hop and more gathered for the desert fest in Indio, California. Here are just 10 of the acts further down the bill not to be missed.

Listen to our Spotify playlist of 10 Coachella Can't-Miss Acts:

Wild Flag
They've existed barely a year, but are already Wild Flag are one of the most anticipated bands playing at Coachella. Led by Helium singer Mary Timony, the band is a kind of all-female supergroup of uncompromising indie rockers, a two-guitar assault powered by former members of Sleater-Kinney and the Minders. The playing is loose and loud, rolling along tumbling beats and constant motion. You can hear a bit of Sleater-Kinney and their other former bands in the songs, but Wild Flag is a band looking forward, not back. 

Key track: "Future Crimes"

Pulp
Oasis and Blur got more headlines and chart action on both sides of the Atlantic, but Pulp and its wiry lead singer Jarvis Cocker were essential figures from the mid-Nineties Britpop movement. After years of struggle, the band released Different Class in 1995 and delivered a singular blend of danceable post-punk pop and the occasional sour lyric, sung by Cocker with smirk, melancholy and razzamatazz. Pulp broke apart just three years later. Cocker now leads the reunited band he first started as a teenager in Sheffield, England, bringing the classic lineup to the appropriately epic landscape of Coachella. The band's website asks, "Can we make the desert bloom?"

Key track:  "Common People"

Azealia Banks
With last year's streetwise and sexually charged "212," 20-year-old Azaelia Banks stepped out from her Harlem neighborhood with edgy wordplay and rapid-fire rhymes (and a relentless beat from Lazy Jay). Then came the post-modern R&B of "NEEDSUMLUV," matching anxious beats with a slow-jam groove. She was soon being compared to Nicki Minaj (another "Fame" school alum), but Banks keeps her words and beats at street level. She's worked with Diplo and co-wrote the Scissor Sisters' "Shady Love," and has lately been tweeting about upcoming collaborations with Kanye West and Lana Del Rey. Banks makes her Coachella debut on Saturday, days ahead of her EP release 1991, with a debut album coming later this year. 

Key track:  "212"

Martin Solveig
Recruited by Madonna for her MDNA, this fast-rising house DJ and producer is in high demand to help craft hits for other acts while landing some of his own across Europe with his Smash album, released last year. He has weakness for polo shirts and ecstatic beats, as tracks bounce with pop hooks, wild club energy and a playful state of mind. (See his sketch comedy videos for Smash.) It's a party of colliding beats, electro-pop and inspired guests vocalists, including Dragonette on "Hello."   

Key track:"Hello"

Atari Teenage Riot
Few bands this year will ignite mosh pits across Coachella's desert dancefloor with quite the intensity of Atari Teenage Riot. The German anarchist band reunited in 2010 and last year released Is This Hyperreal?, with songs of hackers, protest and human trafficking. Frontman Alec Empire call's the band's apocalyptic punk/electronic blend "digital hardcore," and it lands right at the sweet spot between Coachella's rock and dance constituencies.  

Key track: "Revolution Action"

Le Bucherettes Le Butcherettes
This explosive indie/punk-rock trio is led by Guadalajara singer-guitarist Teri Gender Bender, whose sound and fury land somewhere in the Jack White/PJ Harvey tradition. Songs from last year's Sin Sin Sin are all hooks and sharp edges, and Gender Bender's known to act out onstage – climbing scaffolds, stage-diving and even suddenly clipping at her hair. They're at work on a new album produced by Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriquez-Lopez, now officially the Le Butcherettes' bassist. He'll be pulling double duty at this year's Coachella, shredding guitar with the reunited At the Drive-In and laying down a driving rhythm for Gender Bender's wild and crazy rock.

Key track: "Bang!"

Gary Clark Jr.
The Austin, Texas, guitar phenom and singer is as comfortable wailing on straight blues as he is with simmering soul, shifting easily from funk to a fine Stones-y grind on his electric and acoustic guitars. He's collaborated with Alicia Keys and Nas and was part of the blues contingent that performed at the White House in February, and he'll be at festivals across the U.S. this year. But don't miss him at Coachella. Reason enough is the fiery rock and blues on 2011's The Bright Lights EP, to be followed by a full album due in the fall, bringing loud guitars and soul to a new generation of listeners with the blues.

Key track: "Bright Lights"

Laura Marling
This prolific English singer-songwriter comes from the same folk scene that birthed Mumford & Sons, but she shares little of that band's brotherly foot-stomping euphoria. Her songs are seething meditations on human entanglements, at times stark and delicate or layered with evocative sounds and feeling. At 22, Marling has already released three albums, and on her latest, A Creature I Don't Know, she's commanding and confident enough to put her securely in a tradition that stretches from Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell to Ani DiFranco.

Key track: "Night After Night"

Mazzy Star
After nearly a dozen years of silence (but no official breakup), Mazzy Star are reuniting this yearwith the duo's first new album of spectral rock and honky-tonk since 1996, plus two rare performances at Coachella. It's long overdue, but two songs released online last year ("Common Burn" and "Lay Myself Down") show a band reconnecting with the ethereal twang that once represented Mazzy Star's private, smoky corner of the Nineties alternative boom. Singer Hope Sandoval's vocals remain distant and sultry, wounded and wistful amid layers of haunted guitar and gently psychedelic atmosphere from musical partner David Roback.   

Key track: "Be My Angel"

The Refused
The most unexpected reunion at this year's Coachella just might be the Refused, the aggressively anti-capitalist Nineties hardcore band from Sweden. The quartet put out three albums of intense grind and wail that decade, and they came apart on the road soon after the 1998 release of The Shape of Punk to Come, widely regarded as their most accomplished recording. As before, that album kept lucrative hardcore formulas at arm's length, choosing to experiment with tempo, bits of techno and even violin amid bonebreak beats. Musicianship gave clarity to the chaos that the band itself has called "incredibly violent rock music." Coachella brought them back together to tour "one last time." Another chance to see this influential act may never come again.

Key track: "The Shape of Punk to Come"

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Concert Promoter Purchases Coachella Grounds

Day 3 of the 2011 Coachella Festival in Indio, California.

Goldenvoice, the promoter of the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals, has completed the purchase of 280 acres of land in Indio, California where the events are held each year, Billboard reports. The company, a subsidiary of the concert promotion juggernaut AEG Live, already has another 280 acres on long term lease, comprising the full festival grounds. Goldenvoice president Paul Tollett told Billboard this deal will "help us put in some infrastructure so we don't have to keep coming back and do the same things each year."

The grounds in Indio will see a lot of use in the coming weeks. The Coachella festival, which will expand to two consecutive weekends with identical lineups featuring Radiohead, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, and the Black Keys, will be held on April 13th-15th and April 20th-22nd. The Stagecoach Country Music Festival will be held one week later on April 27th-29th, with headliners Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton and Jason Aldean.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Read more »

Concert Promoter Purchases Coachella Grounds

Day 3 of the 2011 Coachella Festival in Indio, California.

Goldenvoice, the promoter of the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals, has completed the purchase of 280 acres of land in Indio, California where the events are held each year, Billboard reports. The company, a subsidiary of the concert promotion juggernaut AEG Live, already has another 280 acres on long term lease, comprising the full festival grounds. Goldenvoice president Paul Tollett told Billboard this deal will "help us put in some infrastructure so we don't have to keep coming back and do the same things each year."

The grounds in Indio will see a lot of use in the coming weeks. The Coachella festival, which will expand to two consecutive weekends with identical lineups featuring Radiohead, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, and the Black Keys, will be held on April 13th-15th and April 20th-22nd. The Stagecoach Country Music Festival will be held one week later on April 27th-29th, with headliners Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton and Jason Aldean.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Radiohead, Keys, Dre Invade the Desert for Coachella 2012

Concert-goers dance during the Coachella Vallery Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California.

Two years ago, Florence and the Machine celebrated their breakthrough year with a victory lap at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. "It was quite surreal, looking out as a performer and seeing palm trees and Ferris wheels and this amazing desert skyline in the distance," says Florence Welch. "It's such a beautiful setting." Florence return to the sprawling grounds of the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California – alongside headliners Radiohead, the Black Keys, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg – on the third night of the April 13th-15th festival. And one week later, all the same acts will do it again, as Coachella expands for the first time to a two-weekend blowout. Adds Welch, "I can't wait!"

Over the past 13 years, Coachella has grown into one of the coolest parties in America, where top-flight rock acts and DJs mingle with A-list actors and models between sets on five huge stages. "You get to see bands you never would have gone to see, meet up with old friends and make new friends, and all that," says ex-Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher, who's playing Night Two with his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. "I'll definitely check out Radiohead – Jonny Greenwood is a fuckin' wizard, man. And if I have time to kill, I shall be prancing around the site, acting all self-important."

Other must-see acts include the Shins, recently reunited Brit-pop heroes Pulp, reggae legend Jimmy Cliff (playing with Rancid's Tim Armstrong) and Neutral Milk Hotel singer Jeff Mangum. Electronic music is a bigger part of Coachella than ever, with global superstars from Swedish House Mafia and David Guetta to Avicii and Afrojack set to shake the Sahara tent's monster sound system. "It's the biggest show for us this year," says Sebastian Ingrosso of Swedish House Mafia, who will unveil a new lighting and stage setup at the fest. "Our production team really made our dreams come true. It's something else, man."

The move to adding a second weekend is designed to double capacity without creating crowd and parking nightmares – but some aren't crazy about it. "It's a great festival, but I don't like this," says agent David T. Viecelli, whose acts at this year's festival include Bon Iver and St. Vincent. "Duplicating the exact same experience one week later just feels odd." Fans can at least expect a significant number of artists to mix things up. "If I know there's one repeat customer, I have to change the set," says Andrew Bird, who's playing Night Two. "Otherwise I'd feel like a chump."

This story is from the March 29th, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.

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Radiohead, Keys, Dre Invade the Desert for Coachella 2012

Concert-goers dance during the Coachella Vallery Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California.

Two years ago, Florence and the Machine celebrated their breakthrough year with a victory lap at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. "It was quite surreal, looking out as a performer and seeing palm trees and Ferris wheels and this amazing desert skyline in the distance," says Florence Welch. "It's such a beautiful setting." Florence return to the sprawling grounds of the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California – alongside headliners Radiohead, the Black Keys, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg – on the third night of the April 13th-15th festival. And one week later, all the same acts will do it again, as Coachella expands for the first time to a two-weekend blowout. Adds Welch, "I can't wait!"

Over the past 13 years, Coachella has grown into one of the coolest parties in America, where top-flight rock acts and DJs mingle with A-list actors and models between sets on five huge stages. "You get to see bands you never would have gone to see, meet up with old friends and make new friends, and all that," says ex-Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher, who's playing Night Two with his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. "I'll definitely check out Radiohead – Jonny Greenwood is a fuckin' wizard, man. And if I have time to kill, I shall be prancing around the site, acting all self-important."

Other must-see acts include the Shins, recently reunited Brit-pop heroes Pulp, reggae legend Jimmy Cliff (playing with Rancid's Tim Armstrong) and Neutral Milk Hotel singer Jeff Mangum. Electronic music is a bigger part of Coachella than ever, with global superstars from Swedish House Mafia and David Guetta to Avicii and Afrojack set to shake the Sahara tent's monster sound system. "It's the biggest show for us this year," says Sebastian Ingrosso of Swedish House Mafia, who will unveil a new lighting and stage setup at the fest. "Our production team really made our dreams come true. It's something else, man."

The move to adding a second weekend is designed to double capacity without creating crowd and parking nightmares – but some aren't crazy about it. "It's a great festival, but I don't like this," says agent David T. Viecelli, whose acts at this year's festival include Bon Iver and St. Vincent. "Duplicating the exact same experience one week later just feels odd." Fans can at least expect a significant number of artists to mix things up. "If I know there's one repeat customer, I have to change the set," says Andrew Bird, who's playing Night Two. "Otherwise I'd feel like a chump."

This story is from the March 29th, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Coachella Lineup 2012: Radiohead, Black Keys, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg to Headline

The Black Keys perform as part of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California.

After months of speculation, leaked lineups and hipsters spreading rumors "from friends," the Coachella 2012 lineup is out. As already widely reported, Radiohead are one of the headliners, closing out the festival's two Saturday nights (April 14th and 21st). The Black Keys, who've been predicted to appear as well, are topping the two Fridays, April 13th and 20th. But one headlining act no one foretold, at least that we saw, are hip-hop icons Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, wrapping up both weekends on April 15th and 22th.

This year marks the first time Coachella will expand to two weekends. While many have wondered how Goldenvoice would be able to pull off arranging matching lineup for both weekends, the promoters have come through with a classic Coachella talent roster. Every key ingredient of past Coachellas is represented on the 2012 edition.

Major dance headliners -- how about Swedish House Mafia, Kaskade, Justice, David Guetta and AVICII?

Reunions? Check, in the form of At the Drive-In, Swedish hardcore cult heroes Refused, Pulp, Mazzy Star and the postpunk group fIREHOSE. And the current crop of alternative stars are well represented, from Florence + the Machine and Bon Iver to the Shins and Miike Snow.

The celebrated veterans spot, which in past years has seen the likes of Leonard Cohen, is represented this year by Jimmy Cliff. Other highlights we have circled include Cat Power, Madness, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, St. Vincent, Feist, M83, Amon Tobin, Givers, the Weeknd, Nero, Santigold – in fact, too many more to count.

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