Friday, January 30, 2009

Coachella '09 lineup: Not bad upon consideration


The Coachella Festival lineup was unveiled this morning. Headliners are Paul McCartney (!) on Friday (with Morrissey and Franz Ferdinand as the second bill), The Killers on Saturday (preceded by Amy Winehouse and Thievery Corporation), and The Cure to close out Sunday (with My Bloody Valentine and Yeah Yeah Yeahs ).

At first, the announcement was a little underwhelming, but upon further review, I gotta say it's pretty solid, particularly Friday and Saturday. While McCartney is a bit of a head scratcher (isn't he a bit cheese ball for this type of thing?), Morrissey and FF sound awesome for the opening night, especially if they go back to back. And although I'm kinda hit and miss with their last album, The Killers are a great Saturday show closer by themselves. With Amy Winehouse in the mix, that's pretty friggin dope. (I'm kinda ehh on Thievery Corporation, but oh well. Atmosphere would make up for that).

Of course, The Cure is just a great choice to close out the event, and a great bit of planning having MBV and Yeah Yeah Yeahs leading up to Robert Smith and company. If I had like, $2000 to blow, I'd love to go all three days.

The hip-hop representation is a bit spare, but the choices are inspired. Lupe Fiasco, Public Enemy, Clipse, and The Knux are good to go. Surprised folks like Wale, B.o.B., Blu and Exile, Cool Kids or Pac Div weren't invited. Hipster rap is the next big thing, right?

All in all, a solid line up. I'll put in for my credentials once again and I'm sure I'll be rejected once again, but it's worth trying.

No comments: