Coachella 2012 Lineup

Just about 9 hours ago, Goldenvoice released the lineup for Coachella 2012. Though most of you have probably already seen it by now, here it is:

Friday April 13th & 20th

The Black Keys
Swedish House Mafia
Pulp
Refused
Arctic Monkeys
Mazzy Star
Afrojack
Explosions In The Sky
M83
Amon Tobin
Cat Power
Madness
Jimmy Cliff & Tim Armstrong
GIRLS
The Rapture
Madeon
M. Ward
The Horrors
Frank Ocean
James
Alesso
SebastiAn
Datsik
Yuck
Neon Indian
Dawes
The Black Angels
Death Grips
WU LYF
Breakbot
Atari Teenage Riot
Feed Me
GIVERS
Other Lives
Band Of Skulls
R3hab
Wolf Gang
The Midnight Beast
EMA
Ximena Sarinana
Kendrick Lamar
The Dear Hunter
honeyhoney
Hello Seahorse!
The Sheepdogs
LA Riots



Saturday April 14th & 21st
Radiohead
Bon Iver
The Shins
David Guetta
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
Kaskade
Miike Snow
Jeff Mangum
Sebastian Ingrosso
Andrew Bird
Feist
fIREHOSE
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
St. Vincent
Martin Solveig
Sub Focus
SBTRKT
Flying Lotus
Manchester Orchestra
Kasabian
AWOLNATION
Azealia Banks
Squeeze
A$AP Rocky
Buzzcocks
Kaiser Chiefs
Destroyer
The Head and the Heart
Laura Marling
tUnE-yArDs
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Black Lips
The Big Pink
Childish Gambino
The Vaccines
Zeds Dead
Grouplove
Jacques Lu Cont
We Were Promised Jetpacks
Gary Clark Jr.
Borgore
Dragonette
We Are Augustines
Mt Eden
Destructo
Suedehead
Keep Shelly in Athens
Pure Filth Sound



Sunday April 15th & 22nd
Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg
At The Drive-In
Justice
Florence + The Machine
AVICII
La Roux
Beirut
The Weeknd
Girl Talk
The Hives
DJ Shadow
Calvin Harris
Nero
Wild Flag
Modeselektor
Dada Life
Porter Robinson
Santigold
Flux Pavilion & Dr. P
Gotye
Seun Kuti & Egypt 80
Beats Antique
Fitz and the Tantrums
araabMUZIK
Company Flow
Real Estate
Zedd
Le Bucherettes
Greg Ginn
The Growlers
NOISIA
Morgan Page
The Gaslamp Killer
First Aid Kit
Oberhofer
Lissie
Thunder Cat
Metronomy
Wild Beasts
Housse de Racket
Fanfarlo
Spector
Gardens & Villa
Airplane Boys
Sleeper Agent



After staring relentlessly at this lineup since its release here are my reactions:

• Great headliners, but it's weird to see The Black Keys in a headlining spot. Especially after they played last year as the #1 subheadliner on Friday. Nevertheless, I will make sure I'm there to see them because they always bring their A game. Can't wait to see Radiohead in what will no doubt be the biggest crowd of the weekend. Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg should be interesting to watch, though Goldenvoice is clearly going out of their way to get a big name hip hop act in a headlining spot every year. As far as hip hop artists making new music today you don't get much bigger than Jay-Z and Kanye West. Since they've headlined back to back years, I suppose this is the biggest they could've gotten. An Outkast reunion would've been unreal though...

• Saturday is the best day. I don't know how it would be possible to see everyone I want to see. Radiohead, everyone on line 2, Andrew Bird, Feist, St. Vincent, SBTRKT, Manchester Orchestra, AWOLNATION, Kaiser Chiefs, tUnE-yArDs, Childish Gambino, and Grouplove make for a very exciting, but somewhat stressful day. Some sacrifices will need to be made. Luckily there is plenty of time to prioritize so that when the set times are released, I'll have some idea of who I'd want to see.

• Friday is the second-best day, Sunday is a distant 3rd.

• Though Saturday is the best day overall, the combo of The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, and M83 is my favorite of the weekend and are all must-sees.

• Lot of repeat artists this year. This can happen when you have a festival that's been held every year since 2001. However, a lot of the artists on this year's bill have played Coachella in the last 2 years, including The Black Keys, Afrojack, SBTRKT, Band of Skulls, Florence + the Machine, David Guetta, Miike Snow, The Big Pink, La Roux, and Kaskade. 

• Two of the three members of Swedish House Mafia (Axwell and Steve Angello) played their own dj sets last year. And Sebastian Ingrosso is playing twice this year (Friday with Swedish House Mafia and Saturday as a solo act).

• Omar Rodriguez-Lopez played last year as a solo act and will play this year with a reunited At The Drive-In.

• Frank Ocean is a member of OFWGKTA. They played last year as well.

• So happy to see The Hives making their return! It's been a little over 4 years since their last album came out and they have a new album slated to be released later this year.

• I'm gonna make a giant "Put a Bird on It" poster just in case I end up seeing Wild Flag.

• I'm a big fan of Donald Glover and his work as Childish Gambino. He'll be a priority on Saturday.

• "Up Up Up" by Givers and "Colours" by Grouplove were two of my favorite songs of summer 2011.

• "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye has been a favorite song of mine in the past couple months and has started getting a fair amount of airplay on L.A. alternative radio stations.

• Not a huge fan of AWOLNATION, but "Not Your Fault" is another song that I've really been enjoying by him recently.

• I can see myself spending a lot of time in the Sahara tent this year. Acts like SBTRKT, AVICII, Calvin Harris, and Kaskade are starting to convert me to a fan of dance music.

• "Laid" by James: the first song I thought of after seeing this lineup. I'd see them just to hear this song. "This bed is on fire with passionate love. The neighbors complain about the noises above..."

• Has any concert lineup ever featured more artists with capital letters? (GIRLS, WU LYF, GIVERS, EMA, fIREHOSE, SBTRKT, AWOLNATION, A$AP Rocky, tUnE-yArDs, AVICII, araabMUZIK, and NOISIA)

• Not as good of a lineup as last year's, but that would've been impossible to top. Great music came out in 2010, which is why the 2011 lineup was so great. Not a lot of great music came out in 2011, which is why the lineup isn't as strong. Plus, it's incredibly difficult to book artists for 2 weekends in a row so hat's off to the workers at Goldenvoice for being able to put together a lineup this great considering these facts. Overall I feel that Coachella 2012 has a solid lineup and will be an amazing weekend full of great music in the blistering heat of Indio. Weekend 2 here I come!