BLOG: TOP 10 ACTS I’D LIKE TO SEE AT COACHELLA 2012

10. Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I’ve seen them before and I’m not super into their new album, but there is something about seeing the Peppers in California, their home and muse, that sounds like it would be a huge experience.

9. Fiona Apple.

Her name has been on both fake leaked posters and both times it has sounded good to me. Extraordinary Machine was a stellar return to form way back in 2005 but a tour never happened because the experience of rescuing the album from the label’s creative control soured her on the process for a while. I have heard of one off shows she has been putting on lately and I hope this means she is finally able to release the new songs that have been done since 2010. To hear them on the stage in the desert would be top notch.

8. Daft Punk.

I have a bootleg of their set from Coachella 2006 and it is absolutely ridiculous. This was meant to be danced to in the desert after dark. Ride the snake till dawn kinda shit. Check it out:

I want them to be there. I want this.

7. Underworld.

The only place one could consent to see Underworld play that ISN’T in Europe is the California desert. One needs an outdoor setting to enjoy this properly. Behold:

Damn those guys! I’m not gonna lie, always kinda wanted to build a big bonfire at a concert.

6. The Polyphonic Spree.

I know. This is lame. But I saw a video of their past performance at Coachella and I can’t lie: it makes me smile. What would be wrong with this in the middle of day two, just to get you tappin’ for the latter half?

5. Other Lives.

Not only because I can’t stop thinking about them ever since I saw their show last month, but because when I first heard Dustbowl III, I thought about the isolation, desolation, and grit that makes up character of so many places in the west and mid-west of the United States. I would consider it a religious experience to hear that song in one of those kinds of places. And now that they are touring with Radiohead for the American leg, one may assume that they would be making room for the festival circuit. One may think this idea holds even MORE water when one realizes that the only tour dates in April are in Mexico City right in between weekend 1 and weekend 2 of Coachella….I’m just sayin’.

4. Radiohead.

Please please please let me be able to see these guys at Coachella. Let me hear the King of Limbs stuff fly out into the evening sky like I did with the In Rainbows stuff at Thunderbird Stadium in the rain. There is nothing better than hearing Reckoner while breathing real oxygen. I want a repeater. I was crying too loud last time to truly appreciate it…I’m saying that like it’s possible not to appreciate it…or that it won’t happen again.

3. Charles Bradley.

I really feel like there is a chance he will be at Coachella. A really good chance. I would dig seeing him on a smaller stage, up close, ‘cause I think this is as close as I am gonna get to the real deal these days. Enough said.

2. No Doubt.

Shut up ok! I loved them back when Tragic Kingdom came out and I NEVER got to see them. And yeah I got a little sad when Gwen Stefani lost her mind and released the worst sell-out solo pop album full of nonsense that anyone has ever even considered, but I have to give her credit not only in helping shape me as a woman but also for developing a truly unique and iconic vocal delivery. One that stands alone among all the other male front-man heroes I have. One that made No Doubt worth listening to (sorry dudes, but the Don’t Speak video was pretty on point). And they too were inspired by life in CA so it would be a pretty great setting to see them in.

1. Tom Waits.