Photo: Kravitz/FilmMagic
Thanks to a star-packed lineup anchored by Paul McCartney, Leonard Cohen and the return of My Bloody Valentine, this year’s Coachella enjoyed its second-best attendance ever, attracting roughly 166,000 concertgoers, Billboard reports. The news is a sigh of relief for the entire festival industry, concerns over how the recession would affect the festival biz led to layaway ticket options. Coachella’s 2007 festival, which featured Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers, remains the event’s most popular year, with a draw of 186,000.

While the economy didn’t prevent the masses from catching performances by Macca and hundreds more, nearly 18 percent of attendants still opted to purchase tickets using Coachella’s payment plan, Billboard reports. Many festivals, like Bonnaroo, Outside Lands and All Points West, have adopted a similar payment approach, while Lollapalooza has stuck with the lump sum method. Still, it was the likely the lineup featuring a member of the Fab Four that most helped Coachella put up the big numbers. “The lineup I thought was really good this year, and we’ve got the momentum of all the years we’ve been going,” Paul Tollett, president of Coachella organizers Goldenvoice, told Billboard. (more…)

Photo: Kravitz/FilmMagic

Attend enough festivals, and eventually you will experience strange occurrences you never would have imagined — like being elbowed and shoved aside by sweaty, half-naked 20-year-olds rudely rushing the stage for a better look at Leonard Cohen. Or the sight of horny young indie-rock couples indulging in deep soul-kissing to the unlikely live accompaniment of “My Love,” Paul McCartney’s 1973 mush-rock smash. These were just some of the intergenerational incongruities in Indio, California, over the weekend, where a bill packed with both heritage acts and baby bands prompted a dilemma for some regular festival-goers: What are you gonna do when Dad insists on tagging along to Coachella?

(Check out photos of McCartney, the Killers, the Cure and much more in our Coachella ‘09 gallery.)

Thanks to all the veterans on the bill, the 10th annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival found a surprising number of forty-, fifty-, and sixtysomethings working up their courage to attend for the first time. They, too, discovered the dirty little secret about the three-day desert gathering that their kids already know: that it’s not, in fact, actually all that grueling. Yes, the April dates always seem to coincide with the first heat wave of the spring in the Palm Springs area, and yes, temperatures hovered near the 100-degree mark on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. So TV on the Radio singer Tunde Adebimpe was barely exaggerating when he inquired of the crowd, pre-twilight: “Everyone all right? Medium well?… The object of the next hour is to send the sun down!” But the heat is dry (take that, humid Bonnaroo), the grass suspiciously luscious, the shady tents and frozen lemonade stands abundant, and, most tolerably, the A-hole quotient almost non-existent. Because, somehow, Coachella always manages to draw the exact 50,000 mellow, discriminating souls who revere Record Store Day as the holiest day on the calendar, and who aren’t about to let a little sunburn transform them into an angry mob.

Sabes Martinez of Montebello, California, managed to make it to the festival without parents (or grandparents) in tow. But “I feel like I lived my parents’ fantasy,” he gushed, hanging out in the parking lot with some of the 17 friends packed into a nearby condo. “We got to see a Beatle in our lifetime!” (more…)

Photo: Winter/Getty

The man in the front row wearing a Trojans condoms T-shirt had just one thing to yell over and over again as My Bloody Valentine unleashed ear-shattering noise and melody on the final night of this year’s Coachella Music and Arts Festival: “Play louder!” (Plunge into the desert fest in our Coachella gallery.)

The hour-long performance by the influential quartet was one of the most anticipated of the three-day SoCal event, and it was plenty loud. The reunited My Bloody Valentine also epitomized what has always been a core mission of Coachella since its 1999 birth: gathering the finest artists of forward-looking rock and dance music in an epic desert setting for pop connoisseurs hungry for groundbreaking music and the next new thing. While Paul McCartney’s euphoric, emotional appearance Friday will be the most talked about set of the weekend, fans are likely to find lasting inspiration in Sunday’s crowded roster of daring music acts, from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Kills to Public Enemy and the bizarre, punk-era experimentation of Throbbing Gristle.

(Read about Paul McCartney and day one, plus the Killers and day two.)

Headlining were the Cure, making their second appearance on the desert main stage, with two hours of playful, tearful songs of sadness and fleeting moments of love. Bandleader Robert Smith conducted the evening with ease and a knack for timeless pop hooks. (more…)

Photo: Winter/Getty
“Hello, Planet Earth!”

Brandon Flowers of the Killers wasn’t addressing the entire globe as he paused onstage Saturday at the Coachella Music and Arts festival, but as he watched over a desert landscape of thousands of bouncing, singing, happy fans, it must have felt like the band’s own celestial body. As the mainstage’s headlining act on Day Two of the epic SoCal fest, the Killers steered the party for two danceable hours.

(Check out photos of all the Coachella action.)

The Killers represented just one of many disparate musical flavors in a full day of rock, folk, hip-hop and DJ sounds, with stirring sets by M.I.A. and TV On the Radio. For the Killers, the festival was an opportunity to deliver their euphoric pop on a massive scale, opening with “Human” (from last year’s Day & Age), before moving on to such breakthrough hits as the pleading “Somebody Told Me” and a storm of fireworks and flashing lights.

Just as celebratory, but a thousand times more confrontational, the hour-long set by M.I.A. began with news footage of protests against the singer for her outspoken lyrics on Sri Lankan politics. (more…)

Photo: Kravitz/FilmMagic

Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos was the first to point them out, as he overlooked the many thousands gathered Friday for the opening of this year’s Coachella Music and Arts Festival. There in the crush was a young Morrissey fan with “a perfect quiff” pompadour. And front row and center were three older ladies holding up a Beatles banner. Kapranos wondered: “Are they playing tonight?”

(Check out photos from the scorching Coachella fest.)

Call it the Paul McCartney Effect, as Beatlemania invaded the 10-year-old Southern California modern rock and dance music festival in celebration of the pop icon’s headlining set. Young fans wore T-shirts and carried signs expressing endless love for the former Beatle, but the trio up front set a high standard in endurance and commitment, as they had since they were teenagers, seeing the Beatles in ‘64, ‘65 and ‘66. “We’re twice the age of anyone here, but we have more stamina and experience,” said Dale Tevere, 59, of Surprise, Arizona. They got in front of the stage at 11 a.m. and remained through nearly a dozen hours of acts they’d never heard of, but said they did like Franz Ferdinand and Airborne Toxic Event.

It’s unlikely McCartney’s 10:15 p.m. show disappointed fans young or old , with a two-and-a-half-hour performance of solo hits from the ’70s, new songs released by his alter-ego the Fireman, plus 20 Beatles classics, including “Drive My Car,” “Eleanor Rigby” and “A Day in the Life” (which he melded into John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance”). He spent his time mainly behind an acoustic guitar, a piano or his old Hofner bass. (more…)

Photo: Sinai/Getty (McCartney), Shearer/WireImage (Flowers), Cohen/WireImage(Smith)
The organizers of the first big festival of 2009, California’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, have finally announced the lineup for their epic desert fest: Paul McCartney, the Killers and the Cure will headline on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively (the fest runs April 17th, 18th and 19th at the Empire Polo Club in Indio). The date will mark the U.S. festival debut of Sir Paul, who says in a statement, “I have heard that Coachella is one of the greatest festivals in the world. I’m really excited to get out there and rock!” The April 17th lineup will also include Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Leonard Cohen, Franz Ferdinand and Morrissey (not the Smiths, as many had hoped). Joining the Killers on the April 18th are TV on the Radio and the return of Amy Winehouse.

Robert Smith and Co. are headlining on April 19th, but the real draw may be My Bloody Valentine, who will finally make their Coachella debut after being at the forefront of most booking rumors last year. Sunday night is ’80s Night at the Indio festival, with bands like X, Throbbing Gristle, Public Enemy and Paul Weller all performing. Plus, there will be sets from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Lupe Fiasco.

On the smaller stages, each day is dotted with top shelf indie acts, ranging from the Black Keys, Girl Talk and the Hold Steady on Friday to Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses and Liars on Saturday and Okkervil River, Antony & The Johnsons and No Age on Sunday. (more…)

Photo: Getty

Bonnaroo, the East Coast’s premiere multi-day, multi-stage gathering of the vibes (held in Manchester, Tennessee from June 11th to 14th) usually doesn’t release its lineup until early February — but RollingStone.com hears from reliable sources close to Phish that the band will top the bill for two nights, restoring the fest to its jam-friendly roots. It would be the fifth time frontman Trey Anastasio appears on the ‘Roo stage, having performed as a solo artist in 2002 and 2004, with bandmate Mike Gordon in 2006 and alongside Matisyahu in 2005. Phish announced their official reunion and first public gigs in four years (their March 6-9th Hampton, Virginia shows) in early October; reps for the band and the fest declined comment for this story. Also being buzzed about with some legitimacy: Bruce Springsteen as Sunday night’s closer. No pressure, but there is a deadline approaching for pre-sale tickets and VIP packages.

As for Coachella, the fest reputed for reuniting many a dormant band (the Pixies in 2004, Rage Against the Machine in 2007), Blur is believed to be a frontrunner, though a show scheduled for London’s Hyde Park in July raises some doubt (more…)

M.I.A. wasn’t trying to top her career-making Coachella 2005 gig when she hit the stage Saturday night, but the Sri Lankan-born Maya Arulpragasam managed to outdo herself, delivering one of this weekend’s most buzzed about performances. “For me, Coachella’s different from other festivals,” she told Rock Daily earlier in the day from her backstage trailer. “When I played three years ago, it was such a crazy moment. It was my first festival and I had only done about five shows in my entire life. But after that show, they said that in the history of Coachella it was the first time they got an encore in a tent. They dismantled the stage and had to put it back together because all the people started going, ‘M.I.A! M.I.A!’ I don’t think I’d ever be able to do something like that again, because it was my moment.” Saturday’s gig had plenty of its own stirring moments: During a set that included hits such as “Galang,” “Boys” and “Paper Planes,” the agit-pop singer whipped the packed Sahara tent into a frenzy, with fans climbing the girders to get a view of her in her platinum wig and then cramming onto the stage to dance alongside her. Though the fans may have been more interested in her beats than her politics that night, M.I.A. doesn’t mind if her revolutionary messages don’t sink in right away. “I’ve given my life to music for now,” she explains, “and I’m not going to do it forever. For now, I think what matters is for me to keep whatever my message is consistent and then to tell my fans, ‘Look, I made you some music, then I made you a jacket, then I made you a piece of art, then I made you some curtains, then I made you a film.’ If you’re down with me, then you’re down with me and I’ll give you the best of whatever I find, through the way I live, and you can follow me. I’m trying to make sense of my life and that’s the point. I don’t think any one song is my perfect moment.”

[Photo: Getty]

“I am tempered for the Northwest, so I don’t do well in this kind of heat,” said Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, hiding out in the icebox-cold back lounge of his tour bus several hours before his band took the stage at Coachella Saturday evening. The deep freeze paid off, and Death Cab played a stellar thirteen-song set packed with old favorites such as “The New Year” and “Sound of Settling,” alongside their new single, the eight-minute “I Will Possess Your Heart.” That tune is included on the band’s upcoming Narrow Stairs, their second album for Atlantic Records since leaving longtime indie home Barsuk in 2004 — a transition that, Gibbard says, was way more difficult than the band ever let on at the time. (more…)

When Portishead’s headlining gig at this year’s Coachella fest was announced, it was to be the British trip-hop trio’s first U.S. concert in a decade, so they were less than thrilled when Prince was added to the bill above them. “I’m not the biggest Prince fan,” says band multi-instrumentalist Geoff Barrow. “I don’t mean any disrespect. Obviously he’s an amazing musician. Usually when somebody that big comes in — we just thought we were going to be pushed aside a bit. At a lot of festivals it’s about how big your bollocks are and how many cricket bats your manager’s got.”

Not that touring was ever the first priority for Portishead. They are studio artists first. Coachella is likely to be the band’s last American concert appearance until 2009. But there are perks to festival life. As Barrow sits by the band’s trailer backstage, he hears a song off in the distance, something exciting, nervous and indie called “Hang Me Out To Dry.” Barrow smiles. “That’s a really good tune. Cold War Kids, right? I’ll bet they’re having it!” Rock Daily wanted to hear more: (more…)

There was no moon in the Coachella sky as Roger Waters stepped onstage for the final headline set of the festival on Sunday, bringing his own airborne props, exploding fireballs and the elegant, mind-expanding music of Pink Floyd. Embedded in Waters’ set was Floyd’s entire 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon, still one the best-selling albums ever, with songs of madness, hope and outrage.

At 64, Waters may have been an unexpected choice to headline a festival with roots in the alternative nation, but Floyd’s soaring waves of forward-looking sounds have been echoed in different ways by the likes of Radiohead and Massive Attack, both Coachella alums. And as huge clouds of stage-fog drifted across a field packed with festival-goers, Waters strummed an acoustic guitar for “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun,” a song from Floyd’s earliest days, accompanied by old black and white footage of the band wandering an English beach. The tune marked the beginning of a major theme of the evening: the genius and tragic breakdown of founding Floyd leader Syd Barrett, who died in 2006 after spending three decades fading into drug-damage and madness. (more…)

As we reported on Saturday, and as Jack Johnson prognosticated on Friday, Prince wowed the Coachella audience with an emotional take on Radiohead’s “Creep.” For those who missed the Purple One’s performance in the Indio desert, check out the cover above, and keep checking back for more video as the festival-goers return to their homes and hit the YouTube.

• Complete Coachella Coverage
• Coachella 2008 in Photos

The crowd was noticeably thinner (and the bathroom lines therefore shorter) on Coachella’s third and final day. Attendees weary from Prince’s marathon set Saturday night wandered in to the strains of Stars‘ boy/girl vocal combo of Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan emanating from the Main Stage. The group performed an energetic rendition of “Set Yourself on Fire” from the critically acclaimed 2005 album of the same name, with Campbell in a yellow jacket despite the baking afternoon sun, the stage strewn with flowers. “I can’t believe I’m standing where Prince stood,” Campbell announced. “He said this is the coolest place on Earth, and if Prince says something you believe it.” Millan dedicated the charming, bouncy “Midnight Coward” to all the swingers in the crowd, and as the song raved back up after a momentary slow-down listeners grinned and bopped their heads to the band’s beautifully lush work.

Over at the Outdoor Theatre, L.A. fuzz-rock band Autolux tested out some darker, less melodic material from their forthcoming Transit Transit and droned their way through favorites from their first LP, 2004’s Future Perfect, including the head-nodding “Sub Zero Fun” and “Turnstile Blues,” a mellow but urgent groove that ably shows off the skills of drummer Carla Azar.

The real afternoon party was taking place at the Gobi tent, where SXSW vets Does It Offend You, Yeah? were throwing down their dance-rock tunes with furious energy. (more…)

One of the Cool Kids MCs, Mikey Rocks, was wielding a giant blue supersoaker and threatening to douse anyone in the VIP area “who’s trying to look too cool” when Rock Daily caught up to him Sunday afternoon outside his trailer in the artist area at Coachella. Before the water carnage began, we asked him some questions about the group’s desert gig:

Dream Coachella headliners:
Headlining on the far left stage I want Nas. And then in the middle left stage, A Tribe Called Quest. Middle stage, this is the main stage, I want a collaborative show with Red Hot Chili Peppers, Biggie and Hall & Oates. That would be my dream concert right there.

Best show you’ve seen so far:
Prince. People were talking about no, he’s not going to do any of the jams, he’s going to do a bunch of new stuff, but he came out straight into the jams. He’s Prince, man. He could walk into a room and point at me and be like, “Shut the fuck up” and I’d be like, okay, Prince, whatever you say, man. (more…)

James Rushent and Dan Coop of Does It Offend You, Yeah? have a solution for bands missing that key piece of percussion that you always seem to need more of: “When there’s not a cowbell, use a bottle,” Rushent says. Beer bottles weren’t as plentiful at Coachella as they’d hoped, though. “You can’t take drinks out of here into the other VIP bit and you can’t get drinks in the VIP bit and bring them backstage,” Coop lamented. “In England, if you’ve got a can of beer you can take it anywhere in the festival.” Rock Daily managed to chat with the pair for a few more moments before they went off in search of alcohol:

If you had five minutes alone with Prince …
Coop: I’d check to see if he’s got all his ribs.

Dream headliners:
Coop: Rage Against the Machine.
Rushent: Nirvana.
Coop: Yeah, they’d smell a bit. (more…)