Coachella Festival Music

Every year since 1999 a three-day music and arts festival takes place in the Coachella Valley of California in Indio bringing together many genre types of musicians and structural art. By historical terms, this is the annual Woodstock concert, with several stages, tents and theaters outdoors. Tickets sell out fast (this year, they sold out within 3 hours of going on-sale) and it is a crowded amazing place to be. Past performers have included Sir Paul McCartney, Prince, Madonna, Jay-Z, and the Beastie Boys. To call it eclectic is an understatement.

Although Coachella 2012 has passed us for the year, but in honor I thought I would mention some of the bands who performed this year. Sadly I did not make it to the show, but there were many fantastic musicians and I'll try to touch upon many genres here to strike a little of everyone's tastes:

From the United Kingdom, Radiohead was a major headliner and may be one of the most well known of this year's Coachella bands, with their expansive alternative rock sound blending jazz and electronica. Radiohead has been honored by Rolling Stone as one of the best bands of all-time,
and your favorite local Pima County Public Library happens to own several CDs and a DVD of this unique band. Try their acclaimed album "OK Computer" or "Radiohead: The Best Of" for a taste of this band.

The Black Keys are not anything to do with a piano; this indie band has been performing since 2001 and have now sold over 2 million albums in the USA with a blues rock sound and have won three Grammy Awards. Their 2011 album "El Camino" was a break out for them and would be worth checking out from the library.

For almost twenty years the British band Oasis brought a Beatle-inspired sound with brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher creating a sensation in the UK and some limited success in the USA with songs like "Wonderwall" (an homage to George Harrison) and "Champagne Supernova." Oasis has broken up, but Noel Gallagher brought his new band "High Flying Birds" to the festival. I would highly suggest checking out some Oasis songs in the library; start with Oasis's singles in the album "Time Flies."

The Shins have been playing music since 1996 where they formed in New Mexico, playing an indie/folk/surf rock type of music. They're still hot today and were a top act at Coachella, and you can checkout their album "Port of Morrow" from the library and see what you think.

Rock and soul inspired band "Florence + the Machine" from England (Coachella likes British bands) were nominated at the Grammy Awards in 2010 for Best New Band and achieve great success in the UK atop the charts. And they made it on the Twilight: Eclipse soundtrack for the movie. You might like to try them out and the library has several albums, including "Lungs" and "Ceremonials" as well as the Eclipse soundtrack.


On the rap side of things, Snoop Dogg has been a mainstay in the rap industry as a producer, actor and rapper. He and the rapper Dr. Dre brought their work to Coachella, and you can explore Snoop's sounds on Freegal and download free songs of his. And if you want something a little different than music, try  reading Snoop Dogg's book "Love Don't Live Here No More: a novel" described as "A talented young musical performer struggles for survival in some of southern California's most disadvantaged neighborhoods, an effort that is complicated by his drug entanglements."

I hope you will find some of these bands of interest. There are so many more! Coachella advance ticket sales for the April 2013 shows go on sale through May 24, and you can read more about the festival at http://www.coachella.com/%20