Why?
This is the time of year that everyone who has paid a stop to the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival looks forward to... at least in ths present time. (Things will actually get much worse when festival time rapidly/slowly approaches.) Everyone is FREAKING OUT about who's going to play this year's rendition of the best music festival in the States... and even the world.
You know, typically with events like this, you can usually pick out a sure-fire headlining act that will most-likely be there. With my knowledge of the event, I know that in '04, it was announced New Year's Day that The Cure were headlining a night of the festival... and eventually news leaked out that the Pixies were ending their first tour in 12 years (and obviously reuniting) at Coachella. 2005 was met with a ton of speculation about Coldplay and Nine Inch Nails, eventual headliners. There was a lot of hype around those two acts as they both had new releases in that year. Festival-goers were even spoiled for the '06 lineup when it was announced that Depeche Mode were headlining a night... all the way back in November of '05.
We really should've known something was up though when it was pretty much a surprise that Tool was brought on to hold the other half of the weekend down last year. Really, no one saw that coming, because there was a ton of speculation that surrounded the recent (at the time) announcement that Billy Corgan made about The Smashing Pumpkins getting back together. So many just assumed that was the case.
I mean, just look at how crazy us Coachella lovers are. Of course, there's always speculation and gossip and rumors about who's gonna play, who should play, who won't have a chance in hell playing, who is dead and will play, etc. Last year, a Coachella message board member actually took things another step and made a mock-poster that included all of the bands (at the time) who would've been good bets at Vegas to be at Coachella. And I guess when it comes down to it, it's not that hard to come up with a fake poster, especially when the lineup looks pretty damned realistic and, well, good. Here's last year's real lineup, with the fake beneath it.
Uh... pretty good right? But also... pretty damned obsessed, no? Exactly.
With that said, the chaos that's going on currently over at the boards is pretty intense. People live for this annual event, myself included. So to say that Coachella fans are passionate is probably the biggest understatement of the day (hey, it's early). But where one aspect of it stops, another picks right up. If there's no lineup, there's intense questioning and ruling out. If there is a lineup, the next step is figuring out who you can see if sets do not conflict (which those aren't announced until a few months later). When set times arrive a day or two before the actual event, people just go apeshit when they realize that the two bands they wanted to see the most were playing simultaneously.
And then there's Coachella.
And then there's the following year and the cycle repeats itself!
Basically, it's a shame that we all have to pull our collective hairs out each winter to try to figure out who's gonna be where come the end of April. This year is even worse because no one has any kind of clue who the real marquee bands are. Smaller bands have been "confirmed", and that's even worse than being on the bill. When something's "confirmed", that basically means you're going by word of mouth or myspace or something. Kids ask bands at shows, "Hey, you guys going to Coachella this year?" When the answer is, "Yeah, we'll see," that's kinda like a "confirmation", which is kinda ass. That's word of mouth, and never to be 100% trusted. And then there's the new method of proving something's gonna happen - bands posting Coachella on their concert itinerary. Yeah, that doesn't work for me either... basically because it's myspace. Sure, it might be as official as a website if the band is running it, but I still don't buy into that as something to get invested into. Artists that are "confirmed" through these means as of right now are Silversun Pickups, Hot Chip, !!! (chk chk chk), and, what's worse, The Arcade Fire.
There's also the next step of "confirmations" that includes bands that are actually strung through the media and put into print. Some of these can be pretty solid, as they come through reputable sources. Pitchfork, for example, is pretty reliable and they are not there to drag themselves through the mud, all in the name of speculation. On the opposite end of the spectrum is NME. Last year, they didn't know any better and actually reported the fake lineup and put it into print. (Click here for NME running the story that TSP are back... but I cannot come across the actual story about the fake.) So when bands are rumored through online publications that they are playing (this goes out to you, Lily Allen, Lupe Fiasco, and Fountains of Wayne), this is one step closer to being confirmed, but you still cannot strip them of their "confirmed" nature just yet.
Lastly, there's the highly formulaic method of proving someone will be at Coachella. Sometimes bands tour California when it's convenient to the dates of the festival. Apparently there's some sort of agreement that bands sign when they are contractually-bound to performing at Coachella that they cannot play in the Los Angeles area a few weeks before or after the festival. So people often figure that if a band is touring southern Cali near the end of April and that there's the omission of any dates near Los Angeles that said band must be playing Coachella. This currently applies to Explosions in the Sky, Blonde Redhead, and Kaiser Chiefs. All of these bands are making stops in Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Diego, or elsewhere during April trips out west.
So, the moral of my story? Why don't we just wait for things to happen? It's kinda like clockwork that the lineup gets posted at the end of January or early February at the latest. Tickets then usually go on sale a week or two following that announcement. So why freak out about who's playing, get excited about rumours, then get pissy about the actual lineup because RUMORED BAND isn't playing at all? I've just exhausted myself of the whole entire thing with waiting and hoping and crossing my fingers. C'mon - it's Coachella, people. There's always something for EVERYONE. To really put forth significant effort into looking in the deep recesses of the internets for a glimmer of hope or NOTHING, that's just fruitless. If nothing's come out now (and considering we're about two to three weeks away from the lineup getting posted), I really don't think anything's going to change until the day arrives. And, kids, it'll be soon! No need to be all scientific and put on your lab coats and figure out systematically the formulas for what makes a "perfect Coachella fit".
With all of this said (haha), I'm going to offer my own wishlist. If none of these bands make it, I'm sure that there will be better acts. If some of them make it, I'm ecstatic. We'll see.
Smashing Pumpkins
The Arcade Fire
Air
Lily Allen
Explosions in the Sky
Do Make Say Think
Mono (can you tell I'm on a big post-rock kick right now?)
Silversun Pickups
Portishead
Cold War Kids
Caribou
The Breeders
Supergrass
Stars
Emily Haines
¡Forward, Russia!
Doves
Eels
Spiritualized
Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins
Sean Lennon
Margot and the Nuclear So and So's
Les Savy Fav
Harry and the Potters (!)
Imperial Teen
Feist
If even five of those bands are there, I'll be pretty damned happy. I wanted Supergrass so bad last year, I'm hoping that maybe I'll be able to see them sometime... and at Coachella, that would be awesome.
But until then, I'm just holding out until the day of days comes and THEN that's when things get interesting.
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