Coachella is coming May 1-2 and it sure seems like everyone and their mother is going to Indio, doesn't it? It certainly is a hot ticket, with Saturday tickets already sold out and Sunday going fast. We hear one young lady in Los Angeles was so anxious to party in the desert with her fave rave rock 'n' roll gods that she was offering certain -- ahem -- privileges in addition to face value for a pair of weekend passes. We wish her the best in her quest and have to admit we can't really blame her for her desperation: the prospect of rare appearances by the likes of Kraftwerk, The Cure, and, most thrillingly, the reunited Pixies, plus performances by the Flaming Lips, Radiohead, Stereolab, Air, Mogwai, The International Noise Conspiracy, and so many more, is enough to get any music lover's panties in a bunch. So if you're headed out to Palm Desert the weekend after next, this newsletter's playlist should get you that much more amped about the good times in store for you, and if you're not, well, here's a little taste of what you'll be missing. This week's playlist includes tracks from all the artists on Epitonic who will be there -- not necessarily the most recent tracks (as you've no doubt guessed by now, we're just a little bit short-staffed here; in fact, to be honest, we're using the royal we), but tracks nonetheless. There are also some damn fine artists playing Coachella who we don't feature (some of whom should be coming to our pages in the not-so-distant future) and from that group, we'd like to encourage you to check out Juana Molina, Dizzee Rascal, Atmosphere, 2manydjs, Danger Mouse, and Broken Social Scene. Enjoy yourselves!
New Tunes
We've got an outstanding group of new tracks up on the 'tonic, one of the best batches we've offered you in quite some time (OK, one of the only batches we've offered you in quite some time, but still). It includes multi-layered punk and synth-pop from Lansing-Dreiden, experimental composition from Tyondai Braxton, sensitive techno from Matthew Dear, pulsing electro-rock from Midwest Product, addicitve nouveau shoegazer from Dykehouse, lush orchestral pop from The Silent League, tightly coiled post-punk from our boys and girl Atombombpocketknife, darkly lyrical alt-country from The Handsome Family, somber folky pop from Megan Reilly, and sexy next-generation house from Luomo. Folks, it doesn't get much better than that.
Harrison Contest Ending Soon
If you haven't entered our George Harrison giveaway contest, we encourage you to do so, as it will be ending shortly. The contest, in association with Capitol Records, is a celebration of the release of a new box set compiling Harrison's Dark Horse years of the late '70s and '80s. One lucky fan will win a copy of the box set, and all you have to do is enter your email address for a chance to win.
