The Postal Service and The Stone Roses are set to reunite in the desert and Vampire Weekend and Phoenix prepare to play new tunes. Plus Purity Ring, How to Destroy Angels, and other acts to look forward to at this weekend’s Coachella Music Festival.
When The Stone Roses were announced as one of Coachella’s headlining acts, many younger music fans had to ask who are The Stone Roses? And no they aren’t a Rolling Stones or Guns ’N’ Roses tribute band. The Madchester rockers are expected to mix classic hits from their first two albums including “I Wanna Be Adored” with new material at their Friday night set.
Coachella is the “Olympic Games of music” for French rockers Phoenix. The band previously played their “best show and their worst show” at Coachella in 2006 and 2010. For their Saturday night set, Phoenix will be playing the catchy, guitar-driven tunes off their new album, Bankrupt!
The band is finally getting back together after 10 years and the California desert will be one of the stops on the reunion tour. The Postal Service—the side project of Jimmy Tamborello, Jenny Lewis, and Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard—will be playing its electro-pop cult classic tunes including “Such Great Heights” Saturday night from the album Give Up, which was recently re-issued with two new tracks.
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Indio will be the grand finale for Sigur Ros’s biggest U.S. tour yet. Known for their ethereal and minimalist sound, the Icelandic band is sure to be one of Coachella’s most anticipated acts. Playing the Outdoor Theatre’s closing Saturday night slot, Sigur Ros will please festivalgoers with tracks from Kveikur, the band’s seventh studio album.
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The New York-based quartet Vampire Weekend will be bringing their baroque pop sound to the Coachella stage once again this year, introducing “Diane Young” and Modern Vampires of the City. Coachella is just the start of the festival season for Vampire Weekend as they will also be playing their wacky yet catchy tracks at Sasquatch, Glastonbury, and Lollapalooza.
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After buzzed-about performances at SXSW, Purity Ring is poised to be one of Coachella’s standout acts. Formed in 2010 by Megan James and Corin Roddick, this Canadian electro-pop duo slowly built their audience by releasing the singles “Ungirthed” and a Soulja Boy cover “Grammy”. Their debut album Shrines was highly praised for its imaginative lyrics and its “subtly different versions of a single, near-perfect idea.” Purity Ring, also known for its interactive light cocoon instrument, will be opening for Foals in the Gobi tent Friday evening.
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Weekend One will be home to one of How to Destroy Angels’s first live performances. Fronted by the Academy Award winning composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, How to Destroy Angels recently released the album Welcome Oblivion, an industrial-feeling electronic record perfect for late-night raving in the desert. How to Destroy Angels’s tour mate Diiv, will also be performing at Coachella.
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British group Savages made noise during their U.S. debut at this year’s SXSW festival for their ferocious arrangements with “anxious rhythms, stern vocals and jaggedly focused riffs.” This feminist punk band is taking their hard-hitting tunes, including their Banshees-inspired “Husbands” to Coachella’s Saturday afternoon lineup with their first album, Silence Yourself, dropping next month.
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Jessie Ware is heading to Indio fresh off the release of her latest music video “Imagine It Was Us.” The track mixes her signature R&B sound with driving dancing beats, perfect for a Sunday afternoon at Coachella. Named one of the best albums of 2012, Ware’s album Devotion will be available in the U.S. later this month.
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A word of warning to those attending the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’s Friday night set: put your cell phone away. At a pre-Coachella gig, the indie rock group posted a sign asking fans to not watch their set through the screens of their cell phones and cameras. But if you have to miss the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’s Mosquito infested set, Coachella will be live-streaming performances on YouTube.
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Coachella’s closing act will be Disclosure one of the many British electronic pop acts appearing at the festival. The Lawrence brothers have been steadily gaining attention for their driving bass yet soulful pop singles that are not just “White Noise.”
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After cancelling last year’s appearance to work on their sophomore album, the synth-pop duo La Roux will be returning to Coachella to play these highly anticipated tracks. Despite the success of the infectious singles “Bulletproof” and “In for the Kill,” La Roux hasn’t played in the U.S. in almost two years, making their Sunday night Coachella set a must see.
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