Coachella, the three-day annual music and arts festival held in Indio, California typically held the last weekend in April or the first weekend in May, has announced the lineup for 2008. This year the music and arts festival takes place April 25-27 and Soundboard, the Los Angeles Times music blog, has the official scoop. Unfortunately, Coachella has decided to follow in the footsteps of fellow music festivals Bonnaroo and the Baltimore Virgin Festival, which both had 70’s/80’s rock band The Police headline last year, by announcing that former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters would be the closing act. Don’t get me wrong, I love Pink Floyd as much as the next guy, but I just don’t think getting Roger Waters to perform Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety is getting the blood pumping of 18-25 year olds around the country like it once did.
As an aging music fan who has gone to his fair share of music festivals the past two years, I can attest that Waters performing a show that he’s already taken across America over the last year is not getting me out of my house and is definitely not getting my money. I already passed on seeing him the first time around when his latest tour brought him to Houston, so its definitely not getting me to buy a flight out to California. While the rest of the 2008 Coachella lineup is ok, it really just resembles most of the music lineups I’ve seen from other music festivals across the continent.
Here’s the official Coachella poster for this year’s festival courtesy of Soundboard, and for those of you who don't want to click here, I’ve gone ahead and included the list of artists performing below:
Friday’s Lineup
Jack Johnson
The Verve
The Raconteurs
The Breeders
Fatboy Slim
Tegan and Sara
Madness
The Swell Season
The National
Animal Collective
Slightly Stoopid
Mum
Pendulum
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
Stars
Battles
Aesop Rock
Midnight Juggernauts
Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Minus the Bear
Spank Rock
Dan Le Sac Vs. Scoobius Pip
Diplo
Adam Freeland
Santo Gold
Jens Lekman
John butler Trio
Vampire Weekend
Dan Deacon
Architecture in Helsinki
Sandra Collins
Busy P
Cut Copy
Black Lips
Datarock
Professor Murder
Reverend and the Makers
The Bees
Porter
Rogue Wave
Modeselektor
American Bang
Lucky I Am
Saturday’s Lineup
Portishead
Kraftwerk
Death Cab for Cutie
Cafe Tacuba
Sasha & Digweed
Rilo Kiley
Dwight Yoakam
M.I.A.
Hot Chip
Cold War Kids
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks
DeVotchka
Flogging Molly
Mark Ronson
Turbonegro
Scars on Broadway
Islands
Enter Shikari
Calvin Harris
Boyz Noise
Junkie XL
Cinematic Orchestra
Jamie T
The Teenagers
VHS or Beta
Carbon/Silicon
Erol Alkan
Yo Majesty!
Little Brother
Bonde Do Role
St. Vincent
Akron Family
MGMT
Institubes DJs
Surkin, Para One and Orgasmic
James Wabiela
Sebastian
Kavinsky
Dredg
The Bird and the Bee
Grand Ole Party
New Young Pony Club
120 Days
Yoav
Electric Touch
Uffie
Sunday’s Lineup
Roger Waters (”Dark Side of the Moon”)
Love and Rockets
My Morning Jacket
Spiritualized
Justice
Gogol Bordello
Chromeo
The Streets
Metric
Danny Tenaglia
Simian Mobile Disco
Booka Shade
Murs
Dmitri From Paris
Autolux
The Field
Linton Kwesi Johnson
Les Savy Fav
The Cool Kids
Sons & Daughters
Sia
Holy F—
Black Kids
Black Mountain
The Annuals
Kid Sister with A-Trak
Man Man
Duffy
I’m From Barcelona
Manchester Orchestra
Deadmau5
The Horrors
Austin TV
Shout Out Louds
Platiscenes
Brett Dennen