DID COACHELLA 2010 INCH A BIT TOO CLOSE TO WOODSTOCK '99?

I have some friends who went to Coachella last weekend and had a great time. I haven't asked them about their accomidations, but since they both have industry connections, I am not sure if they had the total "consumer" experience of camping in the desert. Financially, the festival had a great year, selling only three-day passes (no single day passes) and selling out of them. 75,000 three day passes at $300 a pop. But reading this "Open Letter to Coachella" at the Phoenix Times,  makes me wonder if the festival is forgetting about the second most important thing that made it become such a success.  The first, of course, is the music booking: this year had a lot of great acts, including Muse, Faith No More, Dead Weather, Them Crooked Vultures, de la soul, The Specials and Les Claypool.

But the second hallmark of Coachella (I thought) was that they treated their attendees with respect.

In 1999, I remember attending Woodstock '99 with my girlfriend (now wife). Great lineup, we saw Metallica, Mike Ness, Willie Nelson, Rage Against The Machine and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Well, you know how that ended up. In my mind, the inclusion of bands like KoRn, Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit and Creed attracted a more jock-ish, violent crowd than they were able to handle. Add that to the fact that they treated attendees like prisioners, and you had a recipe for disaster. And that's what happened.  Lots of people thought that that was it for U.S. festivals.

But just a few months later on the west coast, the first Coachella festival took place in the desert.  A more hip, less macho lineup ensured a calmer crowd: Beck, The Chemical Brothers, Spearhead, Moby, as well as Rage Against The Machine, Tool, and one of the first appearances of A Perfect Circle.  But what also ensured a calmer event was the fact that the organizers treated the attendees with respect. Woodstock was over, but Coachella has been going on for eleven years now. They've booked bigger and bigger bands, and even put some big money into legendary non-indie acts (like Paul McCartney and Roger Waters, for instance). And I think people were fine with that. I just hope that they take note of complaints like this "Open Letter." Although I've never attended and am not likely to, I think Coachella is great for music (despite the fact that it's fans and the media make a bigger deal over a pavement reunion than a Faith No More one), and I hope it is around for years to come.

THE SPECIALS (MINUS JERRY DAMMERS) TO PLAY U.S.

The Specials reunion is definitely coming to the U.S. Other than doing Coachella, they'll be doing some U.S. shows including one in New York.  They'll also be playing Jimmy Fallon's show. Not that The Specials need any backing, but it would be cool if they jammed with The Roots.

It's just too bad that they couldn't make it work out with founder/leader/keyboardist/songwriter Jerry Dammers.

COACHELLA: MUSE, FAITH NO MORE, THEM CROOKED VULTURES

I'm probably not about to go camping in the desert, but if I were going to, I'd do it for this year's Coachella festival. The lineup has some great artists: Them Crooked Vultures, The Specials, Muse, Faith No More, Les Claypool, Devo, Sly & The Family Stone, The Dead Weather,  and de la soul. Plus some younger artists who I like, including LCD Soundsystem, She & Him, The Avett Brothers, MGMT, Coheed & Cambria, The Raveonettes, Sia, Corinne Bailey Rae, Porcupine Tree, Shooter Jennings, Band Of Skulls, Spoon and King Khan & The Shrines.  And "Thom Yorke???"  I presume that name is because Thom Yorke hasn't named his new project. Great lineup.  I love that Pavement - the big deal reunion of the year - are billed beneath a cartoon band, Gorillaz.

AMY WINEHOUSE DROPS OFF OF COACHELLA

I haven't written about the Coachella lineup - it is pretty cool, though, with Paul McCartney headlining opening night and The Cure headlining closing night. The middle night is problematic: apparently a lot of fans are underwhelmed at The Killers as headliners (I don't blame them) and now the #2 act, Amy Winehouse, has dropped off the bill to the surprise of, well, probably no one. People always ask me what I think of her. She's very talented, Back To Black is a great album, and it's just a shame that she's wasting her talent like this.

FUSE TO BROADCAST BONNAROO HIGHLIGHTS

I was surprised to read that Fuse will be broadcasting highlights from Bonnaroo. The festival seems so forward thinking, I didn't expect them to team up with a televison channel, even one as seemingly forward thinking as Fuse. Then again, they need to keep people interested in their festival during a time that festival attendence. According to this story, Coachella's attendence was down 30,000 people from last year - and they got a last minute attendence boost by adding Prince to the bill. Meanwhile, Stagecoach doubled in size in its second year. But Stagecoach has a defining charactertistic: it is a country music festival. All the other festivals are seeming more samey every year.

COACHELLA REPORT

A friend of mine goes to the desert every summer to go to the Coachella festival. She loves her indie rock. She told me that this year's highlight was none other than Roger Waters, and that the crowd loved his performance, which not only included Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety, but lots of other Pink Floyd tunes.

I have to admit I was suprised by that. I mean Roger's songs hold up to anyones, but still, the indie crowd has an aversion to artists that are firmly "classic rock." It's cool to like the Syd Barrett-era Floyd, but not the more commercially successful version that followed.

You can find reports on Coachella all over the web, I don't have to point to them. Most of them rave about Prince's performance: he covered Radiohead's "Creep" and The Beatles' "Come Together," and was joined by Morris Day and Sheila E. during the show. (My friend wasn't super-impressed with Prince, which I found shocking). Prince was a sort of last minute addition, and was allegedly paid north of four million - and also cut into the set time of the original day two headliners, Portishead, who haven't played the U.S. in like a decade or something. I like Portishead, but it's kind of weird that Coachella had to go so "off-brand" (to use the marketing term) to be successful - their headliners were Prince, Waters and scourge of indie rockers Jack Johnson.

UPDATE: I don't know if this is a joke, but as I published this last post, I got an email from Coachella's publicity firm offering a $1000 reward and four lifetime Coachella tickets for the safe return of Roger Waters' giant inflatable pig, which apparently "escaped" during his performance.

Anyone with information on the lost pig should email lostpig@coachella.com.

ROGER WATERS TO CO-HEADLINE COACHELLA

I'm not a marketing executive, but it seems weird how major brands with lots of credibility with specific fanbases seem willing to compromise their brands.

Bonnaroo, which started as a very inclusive jam band festival, last year featured Tool and The White Stripes as headliners. The year before it was Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Radiohead. I remember years ago, the H.O.R.D.E festival did a similar thing. After years of having predominatly bands from the jam band scene with some other artists that sort of made sense, they did a tour that featured Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Primus, Beck, Ben Folds Five and a few other bands that didn't have a real connection to the scene. I myself loved that bill... but to fans, "H.O.R.D.E" didn't mean anything anymore.

Likewise, after catering to the "alternative rock" crowd, Lollapalooza went "off message" by having Metallica headline. I thought it was a great tour, but after that, "Lollapalooza" lost it's meaning. So, I don't understand how Coachella hasn't learned from that. This year, Jack Johnson and Roger Waters are two of the headliners. Waters, as he did last summer, will be performing Dark Side Of The Moon. I wonder how it will go. On one hand, I think people have good enough taste to be respectful of this masterpiece, even though it is one of the best selling albums of all time, and hardly "alternative" (although it's as creative as any album you'd care to mention). Also, Coachella often promts artists to do something for the "first" time - they were behind the Pixies, Stooges and Jesus & Mary Chain reunions, which led to full on tours. If they got Roger to do Dark Side for the first time, that'd be one thing. But he's been doing it on tour for well over a year.

Anyway, there seems to be less excitement about the festival's lineup than usual. But there are some pretty cool artists: other than Rog, there's The Verve (who recently reunited), The Breeders, Madness, The Raconteurs and... Dwight Yoakam.