Hearsay Surrounding Coachella

The hubbub behind the Coachella is slowly dying down as the highly anticipated festival arrives in a few days and most headlining bands have confirmed their slot. However, a few mysteries remain and several artists have left it vague and have not publicly disclosed for sure if they are attending the festival, or merely “expressing interest” in playing, leaving the rest of us biting our nails in anticipation.

There are a few rumors I have heard, some of which more realistic than others, about those that might make a special appearance at this year’s vaunted list of performers at this year’s festival out in Indio. Some of the more ridiculous claims were that The Rolling Stones would make a performance by some whacked out blogger, Soundgarden was “thinking about playing” – no, and Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins only wishes people still gave a hoot about his music enough to be included in Coachella. Here’s a couple more realistic rumors of what could be going down this year in Indio.

Parisian house duo, Justice, consisting of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay

First of all, it seems like everyone is speaking of Thom Yorke and his band of three question marks. Does this mean solo or Radiohead – something else? It’s being talked about like the second coming of Christ. Big hype for the close of night three but we will have to see for sure to find out exactly. Personally I’m more interested to see what Club 75 has to offer on night three. Comprised of French DJs Cassius, Busy P, Mehdi and Justice; it’s one act I wouldn’t miss. Justice slayed crowds in 2008 and gave audiences a difficult conundrum of choosing to stay and see the end of Roger Waters’ mind-blowing performance or head to the dance tent. Club 75 will definitely be a hit and it will be interesting to see if Justice plays from their new release of “Planisphere.”

No Beastie Boys this year, due to health reasons. We got stuck with Jay-Z instead for night one, and if you ask me he is the one performer who truly sticks out like a sore thumb in the whole Coachella lineup. I’d head to the parking lot early and rest up for day two.

The folky, electro-pop band Here We Go Magic is on tour with White Rabbits and the New Pornographers. Pitchfork.com has reported that they will be playing Coachella, but there is no official release from Here We Go Magic on their Web site that they will be there. They are cool if you are into that kind of music but not particularly a band I would rave about, so moving on.

The Glitch Mob will be performing on night three of Coachella and it will be the official kick-off to their Drink The Sea tour and will be followed along by fellow tour mates Deru and Free The Robots. It would be awesome to see Free The Robots playing Coachella, the Santa Ana band under Chris Alfaro will be releasing it’s first album, “CTRL ALT DELETE” March 30 and it would be a huge jump for Free The Robots to play for such a massive audience. They don’t show up on the actual Coachella playlist nor do they have Coachella on their MySpace calendar but according to The Glitch Mob’s Web site they will be playing with them at every stop on their tour minus a few exceptions – maybe this means they will collaborate at Coachella … I’m not sure.

These are but a few of the rumored Coachella performances this year. In the meantime leading up to the event you will find me milling around Chatroulette until I happen to run into one of these bands and get the opportunity to ask them face to face. Alas, I suppose that it doesn’t even really matter much to me because of the prohibitively expensive ticket prices Goldenvoice has come up with this year. Maybe I’ll just jump the fence again.

Anyone care to give me a ride?