The far-reaching influence of the legendary Pixies has touched every artist worth mentioning in the last fifteen years, dwarfed only by the prospect of their surprising return. The hair-raising screams of Black Francis (aka Frank Black) combined with the chaotic genius of Joey Santiago's screaming guitar made a perfect match for the solid rhythm laid down by bassist Kim Deal (also of The Breeders) and drummer David Lovering. The rise of the "alternative" genre and grunge into the mainstream in the early '90s arguably might not have happened had Frank and Joey decided to stay in college and not try their luck in a music career. Although many Rolling Stoners make note of how bands like Nirvana introduced the rock style of using a soft, melodic verse followed by a screaming, driving chorus (a la "Smells Like Teen Spirit"), just ask Kurt Cobain who was influential in his songwriting: "Basically, I was ripping off The Pixies." In their relatively short six-year jaunt from '87 to '93, The Pixies recorded five albums and toured relentlessly. They gained critical acclaim from artists and critics alike, including U2's Bono and David Bowie, who referred to their work as "just about the most compelling music of the entire '80s." Even Radiohead almost refused to headline Coachella over the Pixies, citing “The Pixies opening for us is like the Beatles opening for us. There’s no way we can follow the Pixies! The Pixies, the Smiths, R.E.M. – if it wasn’t for these bands, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

As reunions often are like money grubbing, cheesy sequels to movies, there remains a slight worry in the back of the mind that the much anticipated Pixies reunion won't stand up to all of the hype and expectations. Frank Black himself has expressed how he fears the pressure of a reunion and has nightmares that it will be "an utter failure and I don't know the songs and hardly anyone turns up for the gig and people walk out." However, considering the integrity of the individual members, namely Frank Black and Kim Deal and their respective music projects, it's a pretty safe bet that their performance at this year's Coachella Festival is going to become one of those sets of legend, ala Iggy and the Stooges’ reunion at last year’s festival (minus twenty years of rust). This may only be the start of a new beginning - The Pixies embark on a European tour this summer, and there are rumors of a new studio album in the works.

Wayne Coyne has made a career out of taking chances, exploring the boundaries of performance art and music, and bringing multiple layers and dimensions to the concept of live music. The Flaming Lips are one band that deserves to be termed as psychedelic – they aren’t some jam band that everyone trips acid to – they bring the acid trip to the stage, through visual and aural stimulation, through audience participation, and boundless vision and creativity. At Coyne’s South by Southwest appearance in 1996, he unveiled his project aptly named “The Parking Lot Experiments.” For the performance, he dragged his entire audience into a parking garage, where he orchestrated various sonic arrangements out of forty car stereos simultaneously. This vision eventually turned into a concept album called “Zaireeka,” which was released as four CDs meant to be played at the same time. After ambitious releases such as “The Soft Bulletin” and “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” resurrected their career in the eyes of the alternative press, Coyne and Co. began to take the vehicles of live performance to a different level.

The Lips’ recent tours feature a stage-full of dancers in full-on animal costumes, confetti, balloons, and high-fidelity video montages. The Flaming Lips are going on twenty years as a band - from the backroads of Oklahoma City to the global stage, their sound and body of work continues to evolve and flourish. “Generating the power that drives the music is a volatile core reaction between art-noise and sweet pop…The Lips' works are strange and elusive, sometimes exhilarating, sometimes rambling. For all the art-infused subtexts of their acid-drenched din, they never come off as self-conscious or precious.”

Ben Gibbard has slowly but surely become an indie rock savior, as the genre as a whole has unleashed a revival that rivals the early 90s-era of Pavement, Sebadoh, and Dinosaur Jr. Credit indie rock with becoming the paternal step-parents of emo and punk; as punk gradually lost it’s hardcore edge and began churning out a slew of MTV-ready power-pop bands, and emo became the label that no band wanted, the indie scene swept down and soaked up all the sloppy remains, while nurturing some of the best music in the last five years. Now indie labels are bulked up with a healthy stable of bands that fall somewhere inbetween punk and emo, and the result is a rejuvenated underground scene, as-of-yet untethered by the compromises of broad commercial success and subsequent saturation.

Gibbard’s Pacific Northwest band Death Cab for Cutie is leading the pack, having endeared critics and listeners alike with their wide-ranging sound surrounding Gibbard’s introspective lyricism. Their album “Transatlanticism” is the crown jewel of the new indie scene - a vast, sweeping record in which no two songs quite resemble each other – “…from the glacial guitars of the sweeping opener ‘The New Year’ to the poppy bah-bah-bahs of ‘The Sound of Settling.’ Piano forms the basis of more than one moment during the melancholy midsection of the disc. Bizarre sound effects flutter down like the first snowfall behind the folky, fleetingly dissonant closer, ‘A Lack of Color.’"

Transatlanticism, as Gibbard sees it, is meant to describe “distances so vast and daunting - such as a body of water creates between people - that they seem impossible to breach.” This term embodies the juxtaposition between flowery pop, somber piano-based ballads, and spacey, dissonant guitar jams that mesh perfectly on the brilliant record. The lead singer and songwriter’s artistic talent is percolating right now – between Death Cab’s success, and the underground roar behind his SubPop side project called The Postal Service, which features Gibbard’s sweet melodies laced with meandering, jubilant electronic beats courtesy of Jimmy Tamborello of Dntel - Ben Gibbard is producing some of rock’s most relevant, exciting music, and the entire indie nation is tuned in.

Bright Eyes is one of the musical vehicles of Conor Oberst – while predecessors like Jeff Tweedy and Ryan Adams built the formative blocks of the Midwest No-Depression alternative country scene, only to stray from their rootsy beginnings to delve into more experimental pop-rock undertakings, Oberst has taken several musical directions, while always remaining faithful to the Nebraska Saddle Creek family that has caused Omaha to become the new St. Louis of Americana. Saddle Creek has now become a hub for Midwest indie rock, housing everyone from Oberst’s projects like Bright Eyes and Desparecidos, to bands like Cursive, Azure Ray and Broken Spindles. But the label maintains its communal, family feel in which the musicians perform more as a collective, taking turns on each other’s albums and tours. Oberst’s reputation has only grown with each subsequent Bright Eyes album. “Oberst's incredible ability to tell stories with his songs and paint intricate pictures with his words is reminiscent, without being derivative, of mid-period Dylan. And his gift for composing and delivering those songs is pure poetry.” The Bright Eyes sound can float from brooding emo to complex piano-based arrangements surrounded by violin, oboe, and bassoon to straight-laced banjo-kicking Midwest alt-country.

Does this group even need an introduction??? The Cure, essentially “The Robert Smith Band”, have been at it since 1976. While their style of sounds, moods, and line-up have morphed constantly over the years – as much as Smith’s hairstyle – their amazing sound is recognizable within the first few seconds of each song. You might even say The Cure play a certain type of blues. There’s nothing better to listen to than “Disintegration” or “Pornography” when you feel like slitting your wrists after your girlfriend dumped you for a football player, or some meathead made fun of your eyeliner and combat boots. Much of their lyrics revolve around intense personal anguish, tainted relationships, the sorrow of love, bitter endings, which – as in the real world – helps to underscore the beauty and treasure of love depicted in their more positive songs. Somehow, when you feel your worst, listening to The Cure is indeed a cure for the blues. After nearly 30 years of making music, with over 20 albums released, The Cure, unlike most other bands of their time, have continued to innovate and create a 100% unique sound. These days, Robert Smith usually claims that this will be the last time The Cure will play live or that they will release no more music. This is most likely bullshit, and probably just a good business tactic – they’ve sold over 27 million albums. But, somehow The Cure has managed to stick to their own weird and beautiful artistic endeavor without selling out, and in the process engraved themselves in the hearts of an infinite amount of Gen X-ers the world over.

Hailing from Seattle, and signing to a legendary West Coast punk label, is a good way for a band to start out of the gate – coming from the creative and self-supporting Seattle music community, the members of Pretty Girls Make Graves did time in respected Pacific Northwest bands such as Death Wish Kids, Area 51, Kill Sadie and Murder City Devils. Coming together in 2001, the interest and support that initially surrounded them upon first mention of their formation was overwhelming based on their pedigree of previous bands. Their first LP, released on Lookout! Records, made a splash that left ripples out from the Upper Left. But PGMG are not ones to rest on their laurels - they are out to create and perform dynamic, compelling and powerful music. “While many musicians outgrow the rough and furious genre of punk, one thing that makes PGMG so special is that the musicians involved honed their playing for many years before returning to reinvent what they initially loved about punk music.” Their latest release on Matador, has only built on their steady foundation. “Every song on 'The New Romance' is an anthem, yet without traditional verses and choruses. Tension builds and shifts without conventional release, as moments of glassy beauty and rousing aggression trade sides. Dissonant, spiraling guitar parts butt up against handclaps and singalongs. Deep and creepy rhythms undermine pop sensibilities, then give way to swaggering beats moments later.” Their set at the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin this year left everyone at the Matador party reeling - now they’re poised to rock the Coachella festival with the same ferocity.

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead is an anthropological and musical experiment gone terribly right. “With their knowledge of the arts and music, they would attempt to create an entity which would express the theory of anthropological unity: in other words, find a singular expression for various aspects of science and humanities in a form that would reflect the pattern that is present throughout the history of man's ability to create art form, literature and music.” Not a small undertaking by any means, but the result was one of the most challenging indie recordings of the millennium – with lyrics that delve into subjects like post-modern youthful cynicism and idol worship of popular cultural icons, fused with jagged art-rock aggression, …And You Know Us by the Trail of Dead deliver some of the most challenging and passionate music of the last few years.

Sparta is arguably the evolution of modern genius – formed in the ashes of the much-acclaimed At The Drive In, they mix the intensity of their former group with an emo consciousness, minus the incessant whine. When At The Drive In disbanded at the peak of their critical success, lead singer Cedric Bixler Zavala split to start the Mars Volta, while the remaining members got right to work and released their first EP “Austere” as Sparta in 2001. ATDI played an opening set at the inaugural Coachella festival in ’99 – now one half of its present incarnates returns, with an album’s worth of new material to explore, and a slot just before the Pixies on the main stage – a daunting task, but a challenge eagerly anticipated by the El Paso group.

With its troupe of seven members onstage, playing and frequently exchanging instruments which can include a violin, piano, harmonica, and French horn, it’s amazing to witness Belle and Sebastian create harmonies. The string-based, melodic rock-sounding band formed at a diner in Glasgow, Scotland, and got their name from a French children’s cartoon. Their first album “Tigermilk” was recorded in three days as part of a college project; the limited edition sold out within a month after its release in 1996. Since then, B&S have released 6 successful albums, their most recent being “Dear Catastrophe Waitress,” perhaps their most pop-influenced and upbeat album to date. At times it’s difficult to pinpoint who makes up Belle and Sebastian, as their crew has gained and lost members for each album. However, lead singer, songwriter, and acoustic guitarist Stuart Murdoch, still represents the core of the group, in addition to current members Richard Colburn (percussion), Mick Cooke (trumpet and a bit of guitar), Chris Geddes (keyboards), Stevie Jackson (lead guitar/vocals), Bobby Kildea (guitar/bass), Sarah Martin (violin/novelty instruments/recorder). While Murdoch’s lyrics have been compared Morissey and his vocals to Nick Drake, it’s truly the elegant and unassuming arrangements that combine with Murdoch’s poetry to create a brilliant sound. Bottom line, these guys (and gal) are talented musicians, and with their impressive ensemble and cult-like following it’s hard to prove otherwise.

First Keanu Reeves in Dogstar, then Russell Crowe in 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, throw in Juliette Lewis and the Licks, and the Bacon Brothers for good measure – who needs real musicians when you can have actors doing their own dramatic interpretations? Sounds like a made-for-TV movie from hell. Phantom Planet may or may not be an exception - they got their break from having Jason Schwartzman of the movie “Rushmore” as their drummer – but he has since left the group, and amazingly, the band did not fizzle without him. Score one theme song to a popular teen drama (The OC) and you’re on your way, right? I mean, c’mon – look at where the Rembrandts and Jaime Walters are today! So, to summarize - a band with an actor as a former member, who’s single is the theme song for a TV show – this band has staying power written all over them! Too bad they really are talented and no longer driven by their previous commercial sensibilities - otherwise a joke about Tina Yothers’ band Jaded would have worked oh-so-good right here. After losing the Rushmore dude and diving into their Southern California roots to find a more beefed-up punky feel, Phantom Planet has survived their fifteen minutes and their sophomore slump – now if they can contain their addiction to appearing on the soundtracks for some of the most horrific teen shows on television (Sabrina the Teenage Witch AND Smallville – you’re 0-for-2 homeys!) they might actually retain some artistic integrity. Playing at the one festival that is all about the music is a damn good start.

The Thrills found their sound on the streets of Strandway right in Mission Beach – formed in Dublin, they made their way to San Diego and stumbled upon a brand of sun-soaked 70s rock that sounds as crisp and clean as the beaches upon which is was created. Maybe you saw them sitting next to the Taang! Record shop writing songs – no doubt where songs like “Deckchairs and Cigarettes” were inspired from. Their debut album “So Much for the City” has as much in common with Wilco or Neil Young as it does the Beach Boys, although the sunny California life is the undeniable theme and influence throughout much of the album. They are currently recording their second album in LA, which will document their meteoric first year.

Cursive is a member of Omaha’s Saddle Creek family, which is ripe with talent and homegrown passion for musicianship. Their sound channels early Afghan Whigs, with disjointed guitar riffs and Dulli-esque vocals from lead singer Tim Kasher, while adding organ and cello to create a texture and dynamic that is uniquely Cursive. Their latest release only expands on their trademark sound: “With its combination of dynamic instrumentation, diverse and accomplished songwriting and lyrical catharsis, “The Ugly Organ” stands not only as Cursive’s most commanding performance to date: It is one of the most uncompromising and exciting pieces of music you’re likely to hear.”

Hailing from Minneapolis would usually make your chances of having an impact on the hip-hop nation about as small as the chances you’d be using your Slip n’ Slide in January. Yet Atmosphere has taken hold of the underground for more than a decade, from the Midwest and beyond. Many die-hard hip-hop fans were growing tired of their genre becoming recycled, filled with nothing but lyrics about bling and played-out Recommendeds – they wanted some truth. And truth often comes from the unlikeliest of places – namely the Upper Midwest. Along with groups like Living Legends and Aesop Rock, a pulse of true underground hip-hop began to take shape – lyricism with emotion, blunted with the reality of bone-crushing original beats. Atmosphere lead the movement, and remain possessive of the scene in which they’ve nurtured on their own. They showed their true dedication to the underground by passing on the courting of the majors, and eventually signed with legendary punk label Epitaph. This seems like an unlikely combination, but upon further review, you realize that the do-it-yourself aesthetic can apply to both the hardcore punk community as well as the underground hip-hop world. With Slug on the mike and Ant on the beats, their Epitaph release “Seven Trails” has validated them as artists: “Once again Slug showcases a unique ability to transmit personal truths and experiences in a way that very few hip-hop or any other form of popular music has been able to achieve. Not only has Slug enhanced his writing but the production of Ant has also become even more complex, rhythmic and funky. Simply put, Seven’s Trails is more energetic, passionate, funnier and wiser than anything they’ve done to date.”

The artistic ambition within Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse’s “Grey Album” is only matched by the underground buzz behind its creation. A piece of sampled genius, the Grey Album intricately melds the acapella lyrics from Jay-Zs Black Album with instrumental sample from the Beatles’ White Album, to create an ingenious mash-up of epic proportions. After accepting Jay-Zs open challenge to DJs and producers to remix his final album in any and every way possible, and cranking out several thousand demos of the Grey Album, he was slapped with a cease-and-desist order from EMI, who owns the rights to the White Album master. He complied, but not before the underground caught hold of his work, and the album spread on the internet like a disease. Danger Mouse performed the entire Grey Album at the M3 Sunset Sessions at the Winter Music Conference in Miami this past March to a packed house – watching this LA native’s live mix of these two timeless pieces of hip-hop and rock will undoubtedly be on any producer’s must-see list at this year’s Coachella.

Dizzee Rascal is the newest London MC to mix his love of UK dance styles like jungle and garage with hip-hop lyricism – the 19-year old grew up in London’s rough East End, began recording tracks in his early teens, scored huge early in his teens with the UK rave hit “I Love You” and recently won the prestigious British Mercury Music Prize for his debut album “Boy in Da Corner.” He spits grimy, machine-gun ragamuffin rhymes over beats that pull from ghetto-licious hip-hop, UK garage and crunchy metal in the same breath. The creativity of the beats created by UK producers and MCs like Dizzee and Mike Skinner from the Streets gives hip-hop more avenues to explore electronic beats, as opposed to stateside hip-hop which has run nearly stagnant by constantly recycling Recommendeds of old R&B classics. And with lyrics that remain sharp, politically-conscious and grounded in street reality, Dizzee Rascal is poised to make an impact outside of his native UK and invade the US hip-hop world.

Scott Herren aka Prefuse73 has been celebrated as more than a producer - "a machine, a chimerical mechanism that randomly feeds on the best moments in pop history and recalibrates them as staggering, stunning, stuttering 21st century electronica…drawing on hip-hop's restless range and electronica's pioneering legacy.” His “One Word Extinguisher” release was celebrated everywhere from the EDM underground to the hip-hop nation. But as a live set, Herren definitely leaves something to be desired. A Grape Dope, Tortoise’s John Herndon’s solo project, was booked at the Casbah in San Diego with Prefuse73 last year. Live electronic acts range from the ultra boring laptop head bobs to the outlandish acts of avant-garde indie-rock specialists everywhere, but this was just too much show, and not enough substance. Prefuse73 may be an innovative producer, but pretty much anyone could have stood in a music store in 1976 and produced the whack barrage of sounds that were coming from his Moog that night. To have to listen to Prefuse’s amateur knob twisting at Coachella would be a letdown, unless his live set begins to mirror his production a little more closely.

How do you even begin to try and quantify the magnitude of a band like Radiohead? You can throw around words like groundbreaking, transcendental, experimental – you can endlessly analyze the shrill, mechanic ramblings of Thom Yorke and derive subtextural themes from the words that he ambiguously (yet randomly, by his own account) weaves into their intricate, spacey electronic compositions – you can cite the countless musicians and artists that consider them nothing short of pure genius. But the bottom line is – until you see Radiohead live, you have absolutely no idea of the awesome power of their music. You have not even begun to scratch the surface of the depth and awe-inspiring magnitude of this band’s music until you hear “How to Disappear Completely” live, and feel it absolutely shake you to the bone.

No band in recent years has been as widely scrutinized and analyzed, as critically and profoundly acclaimed, or as undaunting and revolutionary in the exploration of their sound. From Thom Yorke’s haunting tales of alienation, global computer domination, and the dehumanization of the planet, to the intricate layers and vast textures of the guitar and synth work of Jonny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien, Radiohead creates sonic explorations that are able to be structurally classical and futuristically chaotic at the same time. After creating arguably the most perfect alternative record of all time, only a group who had shown they had completely mastered the genres of alternative, indie, and progressive rock in one fell swoop, could take such a startling and drastic turn in sonic arrangement that followed The Bends. And what followed, became one of the most revolutionary albums in the history of modern music. OK Computer was named the best album of the all-time by Q Magazine in 1998. Many progressive rock bands before them had melded electronic textures with a rock aesthetic – but only one so harmoniously blended minimalist electronica with fuzzy, spacious guitar work and eerie apocalyptic lyrics and melodies - the body of work that followed echoed the haunting robotic textures explored in OK Computer and went on to change the face of modern rock forever. If you’re asking yourself, “How could one band in this day and age truly be defined as the future of rock?” Just bear witness to their headlining set on Saturday, and you’ll understand – we promise.

Founded by Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier in 1991, Stereolab have consistently fulfilled and confounded the expectations of the populace. While the critics have both praised and slammed them since their first release, 'Peng' in 1992, the band has attracted one of the most loyal audiences around by the sheer determination of making the kind of sound they want. Stereolab has always combined their massive stream of record releases with constant touring. With adoring fans all over Europe, Japan and the Americas and tours that touch all subsequent continents, this group is the definition of international. In the UK, their home, the group formed Duophonic Ultra High Frequency Discs for release of the main Stereolab records. The original Duophonic Super 45 label continues to release ancillary and more experimental Stereolab material both through conventional means and via mail order. This has proved to be a collector's dream for Stereolab releases and by other favored groups, and this approach also has provided a unique method of making a living outside of the route of mainstream record labels. It seemed nothing could go wrong for Stereolab, until the end of 2002, when their lives were shattered by the sudden tragic death of their backup singer/keyboard player, Mary Hansen, in a cycling accident. Undeterred, the group has released their newest full-length LP, “Margarine Eclipse”, coupled with another lengthy tour. Stereolab has helped to resurrect analog recording and outdated instruments, as well as bringing bossa nova, tropicalia, film music, space age bachelor pad lounge, and lushly orchestrated pop back towards the mainstream.

It’s difficult to categorize a band whose sound can vary from that of a solo pianist to an electronic soundscape from Mars that’s as entrancingly relaxing as it is bizarre. Described as giving a “French flavor to spacey electronic pop,” Jean Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin had taken a fairly unoriginal sound at the time to create an atmospheric lounge masterpiece titled “Moon Safari.” Since then, the band released four more albums, though none have achieved the same critical acclaim and commercial success as “Moon Safari,” which doesn’t seem to bother the duo too much. These two pretentious partners have avoided giving in to the notion of changing their style to appeal to the masses and the trends – instead, the masses have gravitated toward their ambient, free-floating arrangements. In their 5-year career, they’ve worked to improve songwriting and continued to explore their spacey, electronic sound, utilizing analog keyboards, electric guitar, synthesizers and simple and pure French/English lyrics with digitally altered audio. As a result of their sonic explorations, Air is currently at the head of the downtempo/ambient movement that captivates fans of EDM and progressive rock alike.

The Rapture is part of the wave of punk-disco art rock coming out of NYC – along with bands like the Liars and !!!, the Rapture combine gothic undertones, buzzing guitars, and hypnotic, jagged electronic beats to bring punk and EDM even closer together. Their track “House of Jealous Lovers” off their “Echoes” LP became a club favorite the world over – fusing everything from punk to funk, house, disco and psychedelic pop – you can hear Chicago Acid House in their music just as easily as Killing Joke or Gang of Four. This New York-by-way-of-Seattle-and-first-San Diego wears their musical influences on their sleeve, and aren’t afraid to let it all hang out in their party-provoking live sets.

Q: “Do you ever wonder what it feels like to hold a guitar?”

A: “No, not really. I played some electric string guitar on ‘Autobahn.’ It was very rudimentary. But no, we play synthesizers and electronic equipment.”

Ralf Hutter, one of the two remaining founders of Kraftwerk, may not care much for the guitar, but what does he need one for? After all, with his arsenal of live performance equipment, which has included such items as an Atari ST Computer, a Casio FX 501B Pocket Calculator, and a Texas Instruments Speak and Spell among other slightly more expensive pieces, he’s pretty busy already. If there’s one group that can take credit for the entire formation of electronic music, it’s Kraftwerk – to say they were ahead of their time would be one of the grossest understatements of our time. Kraftwerk were composing electronic music as early as 1968, “propounding the values of a mechanized state through systematic electronic pop music.”

The list of electronic equipment that Kraftwerk has employed over the 30+ years of their existence just goes on and on. Until recently, that is. Their current setup may just be at the heart of a great new debate in live music. The live performance, electronic or otherwise, has come in many forms as we all know. Compare Jimi Hendrix’s burning guitar to Phish’s trampoline antics to Plaid’s relatively dry two man laptop-shrouded head-bob, and you can see what is meant. Exactly how is a live performance defined these days? Especially since the lines between rock music and electronic music are blurring out of existence in many cases, this debate seems to come up, and heatedly so, between musicians and patrons alike. The argument has been made by people who think that “two laptops don’t make a live PA.” Well, how about four? In the case of Kraftwerk, that’s essentially their live setup for this year’s world tour. But Kraftwerk are no strangers to hardware - they’ve used such established and revered electronic music instruments as the Roland TB-303 and the Arp Odyssey, as well as classics like the Hammond B3 and the Fender Strat. Hutter describes their new setup as “this whole new digital laptop mobile Kraftwerk setup [which] is functioning very well. It's intense, energetic and dynamic.”

Hutter joins founding member Florian Schneider, two hired laptop jockeys, and a host of androids on stage at this year’s Coachella as part of their world tour in support of their first album of original material in 17 years, entitled "Tour De France Soundtracks.” Hutter’s friends describe him as a cycling fanatic. In any case, who can deny these German electronic music overlords? Kraftwerk’s set better not be overlapping the Pixies or Radiohead…Goldenvoice?

Rarely does one man foster the respect of both producers and punters, of DJs and dancefloors like Laurent Garnier. His legend was spawned by his residency at the mythical institution called Hacienda in Manchester back in the late 80s, which is fabled to have spawned the revolution of rave culture – he was a forerunner in the UK acid house explosion of the early 90s, and has always kept his finger slightly ahead of the pulse of the global electronic microcosm. His releases on F Communications single-handedly put French house and techno on the global map, and his epic, legendary “The Man with the Red Face” made Garnier a global legend. He has spun everywhere from Sonar in Barcelona to the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreal – he was one of the first DJs to gain global acclaim for fusing live instrumentation such as violins and saxophones with his house and techno beats. Outside of his famous Wake Up residency at Rex in Paris, he has limited his amount of DJ sets to focus on his production in recent years – and in the last year, he cancelled an entire stateside tour due to post-911 Visa issues (well, he is French). Needless to say his live appearances are much anticipated and always deliver a taste of the best in global electronic music.

Danny Howells is part of the new breed of jock that focuses on stylistic versatility and genre-bending sound, rather than subscribing to the frenetic pigeonholing that took place in EDM around the turn of the millennium. A Howells set is a journey through all arenas of electronic composition – from four-to-the-floor house, to rampant techno, breakbeat, electro-tech, tech-house, progressive – all seamlessly mixed and flawlessly programmed in a patient distension that leads the masses deep into the night. From his chugging nine hour sets at his former residency at the soon-to-be defunct Arc, to his legendary BED parties at the Winter Music Conference, Danny Howells is the DJ’s DJ, and the man you want on the decks for a journey through the best in millennium electronica.

No one trance artist has garnered more respect through both production and live sets than the legendary PvD. While Oakenfold has become a joke in the EDM world, Judge Jules and Ferry Corsten still cling to cheesy anthems for the dwindling glowstick nation, and jocks like Tiesto and Mauro Picotto have opted to gravitate towards techier soundscapes, VanDyk is one of the only DJs in the world of trance that manages to evolve his production, captivate audiences with supercharged live sets, while still staying faithful to the euphoric, uplifting sound that he is known for. To do so truly is a monumental task in 2004 – trance was the genre that lifted EDM into the heavens in the late 90s and onto the global map – house and techno had secured their place in the underground in both the UK and the States for at least a decade – but once trance and ecstasy exploded into rave and club culture in the mid-90s, a global phenomenon ensued. But alas, light shows and seratonin were only in abundance for a few years, and gradually the sound of euphoric synths and epic breakdowns became as tired as the Judge’s glasses or Picotto’s neon green headphones. But PvD continues to pack clubs and move masses, and his productions still remain air-tight, keeping him on top of what is now a very small heap.

Before Jane’s Addiction celebrated commercial success in the 90s, Perry Farrell was a fixture on the LA underground circuit, throwing hedonistic bashes that fused art and music, fashion and performance. He went on to host some of the biggest counterculture bashes the world has ever seen, namely the legendary Lollapalooza festivals which brought music of all genres together with performance art and came to define the alternative culture of the 90s. But, for all the success that he had with Jane’s Addiction and Lollapalooza, there were also the forgettable endeavors such as his ENIT festivals and Porno for Pyros. To say that Perry’s suaré into the world of DJing is one of his unsuccessful ideas is an understatement of ginormous proportions. After seeing Peretz open for Oakenfold on his recent tour and spin at the Ultra Music Festival at this year’s WMC, one thing is for certain – Perry Farrell could not match a beat even if a Technic was bludgeoning him over the head at a steady 4-count. Let’s just hope that Peretz goes on in the early afternoon in the DJ tent, so a minimal amount of us have to endure his incessant trainwrecking.

Mark Farina was, is, and will be a permanent fixture within the underground electronic community. Farina was one of the first Chicago house DJs to bridge the gap between their monumental house scene and the fledgling Detroit techno community – he often waxes nostalgic about eating baloney sandwiches and Kool-Aid while crashing on the floor of Kevin Saunderson or Derrick May back in the late 80s, interposing Chicago’s deep soulful melody with Detroit’s mechanized beats to create sounds and productions that would soon become integral to the electronic explosion in the UK and the States. He was a founding member of the legendary Chicago loft scene – alongside the likes of Derrick Carter, Gene Farris, and early SuperJane, Farina and Co. created the parties that would form the foundation of the global Chicago house movement. Farina went on to explore fusing elements of organic jazz with house, creating his “Mushroom Jazz” series which garnered serious critical acclaim - layering West Coast Acid Jazz with the urban beats of his hometown ChiTown, the series, which became a weekly in San Francisco, won him a large following on the West Coast as well as the Midwest. Farina became known for playing a downtempo Mushroom Jazz opening set in the back room of parties, then coming up to the main space to headline and drop chunky four-to-the-floor til close. Wherever he jet sets to, whatever sound he chooses, you can count on Air Farina bringing the true passion and soul of Chicago to the tables.

Last year’s electronic lineup at Coachella encompassed artists that truly did push the envelope in all genres of EDM – from Felix da Housecat’s razor-sharp electro to Underworld’s jaw-dropping live PA, to Richie Hawtin’s skull-fucking techno masterpiece and Deep Dish’s undulating tribal, the lineup focused on the best of the best. While this year’s lineup does feature some of the best in the world of electronic music, isn’t the “best trance DJ” kind of an oxymoron? Now given that PvD is already on the bill, the one producer and DJ in the world of trance that still retains a smidgen of credibility, where does Corsten, who unapologetically clings to cheddar-filled build-ups and hands-in-the-air synths, fit into a festival which is supposed to focus on the most groundbreaking artists in the sounds of underground music? Let’s face it – the genre as a movement was dead within it the first two years of this millennium, and you can count the number of trance DJs that don’t sound completely played-out on one finger. Listening to a set from Ferry Corsten is like taking a time machine back to the end of last century – when light shows, back rubs and shiny shirts were aplenty, when 15 pills didn’t land you 7 years in jail, when the RAVE Act wasn’t even a gleam in some crooked congressman’s eye. Ahhh, the good ol’ days…but, take a look at some of the cracked-out pictures from those nights filled with Oakey and the Judge from back when, full of spikey hair, rose-colored glasses and neon, then listen to a trance set that lays scratched and worn amongst your spindle of burned CDs, and you can’t help but wonder…”Man, how many drugs was I on?”

“From the far corners of the world the Boozoos have assembled the recipes for these splendid exotic audio liquids. Some are world famous, some completely homegrown and unheard of, all are delightful adventures into the mysteries of deep audio pleasures.” Boozoo Bajou are one of those secret-handshake groups, a name that you invoke if you need to demonstrate your credentials as a genuine aficionado of underground European club music. The duo Peter Heider and Florian Seyberth of Boozoo Bajou have caught the eye of DJ's and other hipsters through the release of a series of twelve-inch records which brought a whole lot of club-play and smaller notification all over the world. With a slew of creamy mid-tempo remixes and original production – the dub rhythms of this rare show are not to miss.

T.Raumschmiere is the alias of 27 year-old Berliner Marco Haas. He has produced music since 1997, mainly for his own label Shitkatapult and for imprints such as Cologne's Kompakt and Hefty Records of Chicago. Gnarled bass-lines, known in German as 'Gnarzigkeit' have become his stylistic device. His brand of 'minimalism' is to achieve the 'maximum' with as few means as possible, with a decidedly punk ethos: why go for sterile minimalism when you can rock out? This bluntness forms the T.Raumschmiere sound: bass sequencing with scratched up, brushed down beats and no unnecessary breaks in the sound. Raumschmiere takes his place in the Novamute team line-up that features other big jocks such as Richie Hawtin, Speedy J, Si Begg, Thomas Brinkmann and Luke Slater. Kid606 meets punk formula or scratchy minimal techno with an edge? You decide, but either way, you’ll find a healthy crowd of chin-scratchers front-stage at the electronic tent for this one without a doubt.

The LA-by-way-of-Vegas electronic duo Crystal Method were the US ying to the Chemical Brother’s UK yang during the late 90s EDM movement, which pushed electronic acts almost as rock groups, complete with stadium tours and videos. Inspired by the early 90s LA rave scene, Crystal Method’s sound fuses 70s funk and disco Recommendeds with dense arrangements of loops, bombastic break beats and funky basslines filled with startling crescendos and unexpected drops. They have brought their sound from dirty Southern California warehouses to giant arenas, and still manage to drop jaws with their live performances. And by live, we mean live recommendeds, sequencers, synths – the whole nine. Their latest release “Legion of Boom” features classic CM big beat and breaks, but this time with a notably more industrial edge. Expect things to be full-on in the tent with these SoCal faves.

Guitar rock has its place… and as Adam Freeland has proven, that place can be smack dab in the middle of a break beat track. With thumping remixes of White Stripes and Nirvana that make you squint with ear splitting pleasure, Freeland has re-educated the breakbeat scene that rock music…well rocks.

But Adam…where is your soul? There were enough Freeland-goes-overboard-guitar-riff lashings at the Winter Music Conference this year to warrant a glance behind the turntables to check for leather pants and wonder if he could tease his hair if he permed it. But, now he heads back to the desert, and as Burning Man attendees will testify with raised hands and still swollen eardrums, Freeland owns the desert. He can end the drought and quench the parched desert sands, calling forth the sweat and tears of the bass lovin’ masses to flow free like the Nile. So which Freeland will show himself at Coachella this year?

Adam…will you continue to ride the success of your past two albums or are you going to show us something new? Yeah…I’m callin’ you out motherfucker! Bring you’re A-game breaks to the desert. Bring us the brain humping bass that compels the dancing hordes to create seismic activity. Re-establish yourself as a break-beat force. Draw the lovers of electronic music from across the desert to you because they feel the music you’re playing before they can even hear what it is.

As one of the pioneers of nu-school breaks, and with the genre-altering “Tectonics” album to his credit, we all know what Adam Freeland is capable of… but if he wants our soul this time…he’s gonna have to fuckin’ take it.

As you fumble through the enormous schedule of music and films presented at this year’s Coachella festival, make sure to check out the emerging art/rock combo Loma Lynda, composed of talented musicians/cinema junkies. At their show, you’ll see the foursome perform each of their songs in front of a projected film accompanying the music, which is designed by their guitarist/art director Jason Bognacki. Seeing the band is like “an eloquent symphony of indie rock and trip hop aesthetics.” Loma Lynda was also chosen as an official selection at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. As we experience the dominance of singles driven music, with the emergence of mp3’s and iTunes, it is refreshing to come across a group that presents a more fulfilling conceptual piece to ponder. Loma Lynda will be performing live both Saturday and Sunday at the Coachella Film Festival.