Your Coachella primer

By Cathy Maestri
InstantRiverside.com

It seems like only yesterday that I was were standing in the desert sun, listening to a twee Scottish act by the name of Bis and thinking how unbelievably great this Coachella festival was… and wondering how much money it was losing and which member of the scanty crowd would be the first to collapse from heatstroke.

That was 1999; 2009 marks the Indio festival’s tenth edition. There was no festival in 2000 because the first incarnation did, indeed lose a lot of money. Also, the event was moved from just before the fall polo-field resodding to just before the spring resodding to try and avoid the blistering heat. Today, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival no longer operates at a deficit, is recognized internationally as one of the planet’s best music festivals and has spawned a sea of lesser copycats …. but it’s still bloody hot.

Promoter Goldenvoice’s Coachella web site offers pretty much all you need to know, from music and video from each of this year’s 130-odd acts to how to use the iPhone application to Saturday’s special Record Store Day events to airtimes for Huell Howser’s “California Gold” coverage of last year’s festival.

Like we said, it’s pretty much all you need. We’re going to add a few things learned the hard way.

•Don’t just cover the obvious areas with sunscreen — include ears, the back of the neck and any scalp that may be showing. Hats are good, as long as they aren’t blocking others’ view; recycling-container lids are handy in a pinch, but best left on the recycling containers.

•Whatever you do, make sure to find fixed landmarks to guide you back to your parking spot, and pay attention to the route you take in.

•Go earlier than you think you need to. And don’t just go for a single headliner — not only does that defeat the purpose of the festival, but you’ll miss something better. Guaranteed.

•Once you get inside, buy some water (still only $2!) or a sports drink and hang onto the bottle — you can keep refilling it at the drinking fountains.

•If you spend the entire time texting or Tweeting, you’re going to miss a lot. Then again, that allows performers and celebrities to wander around the grounds unnoticed.

•Don’t go anywhere near My Bloody Valentine without earplugs.

•Give yourself time to check out the art installations. They get better each year.

•Enjoy your Coachella Moment, a intense period of bliss that usually coincides with sundown as you realize how lucky you are to be exactly where you most want to be.

I asked two tastemakers for their top 10 recommendations as far as what to see. Strangely enough, both responded with 11 — and only one band, Tinariwen, appeared on both lists.

Mike Ruthig, senior director of marketing for New West Records, usually knows what I like before I do, and provided his recommendations in no particular order:

The Bug
Felix Da Housecat
Courteeners
Cage The Elephant
Tinariwen
Crookers
Sebastian Tellier
Late of the Pier
No Age
Friendly Fires
Gaslight Anthem

Phil Gallo, former associate editor at Variety, said Leonard Cohen is the must-see performer and that his other selections were “literate, not overly aggressive and definitely rooted in song traditions beyond standard rock ‘n’ roll”:
M. Ward
Airborne Toxic Event
M.I.A.
Thievery Corporation
Fleet Foxes
Booker T & the DBTs
Ida Maria
Tinariwen
Antony & the Johnsons
Lykke Li

It’s tough to come up with just 10 acts, so I broke it down to two lists, the first being what I consider the best legacy acts:
Paul McCartney
Morrissey
Leonard Cohen
The Chemical Brothers (veterans of Coachella’s 1996 precursor, Organic)
The Orb (ditto)
My Bloody Valentine (loudest band I’ve ever heard)
Bob Mould Band (Mould’s Sugar was the second-loudest band I’ve ever heard)

Then there are the 10 emerging acts I’m hoping to fall in love with:
The Courteeners
thenewno2 (which I liked before I realized it was Dhani Harrison, George Harrison’s son)
N.A.S.A.
Thievery Corporation
Calexico (at dusk, no less)
Tinariwen
Ida Maria
Dr. Dog
James Morrison
Mexican Institute of Sound

So, what’s the deal with Tinariwen? It’s got a groovy Middle Eastern/African sound, and members of the Saharan band (whose name means “empty places”) got together while forced into military service under Col. Moammar Gadhafi. And it’s just the sort of unexpected treat that makes Coachella so magic, year after year.

– photos from Coachella ‘07 and ‘08 by Cathy Maestri

Filed under News A3, Entertainment