Eugene from Gogol Bordello at Coachella 2008, photo by Tom Wallace

We%uFFFDre off to the first music and arts festival of the season for 2009! Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival hosted by Goldenvoice April 17th-19th marks the unofficial kick-off of American music festival season and the start of a new chapter in terms of sponsorship, marketing, summer fashion styles, and of course, old and new bands breaking it big.

For Coachella, as the first festival of the summer circuit, this is where you’ll see a good chunk of the bands that will be doing the festival circuit this summer. It’s also the place where new up-and-coming bands, particularly in the indie rock genre, electronica, rave, and synth are showcasing for the first time in front of larger audiences, particularly internationally as a lot of these bands will hit up the European festival circuit later in the summer.

AEG Live, which produces Coachella, along with Stagecoach, New Orleans Jazz, Bumbershoot, and many others, is now bundling its festivals together so that sponsors can reach a far broader audience across a multiple of cities. This also allows bands to basically “tour” via festivals without it actually being one tour.

This summer, basically every band is back out on the road as musicians and record labels realize that it’s in the touring -the sales of merch, posters, tickets -that bring in the cash more so often times than sales of music itself. Which is why many of the old timers too, are back out, such as U2, Fleetwood Mac, and No Doubt.

For Coachella, here’s the line-up so far:
FRIDAY APRIL 17: Paul McCartney, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, Leonard Cohen, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Beirut, The Black Keys, Girl Talk, Silversun Pickups, The Ting Tings, The Crystal Method, Ghostland Observatory, Crystal Castles, The Airborne Toxic Event, We Are Scientists, N.A.S.A., Patton & Rahzel, M. Ward, The Presets, The Hold Steady, A Place to Bury Strangers, Felix da Housecat, Buraka Som Sistema, Ryan Bingham, Bajofondo, Peanut Butter Wolf, Noah & the Whale, White Lies, The Bug, Alberta Cross, Los Campesinos!, Craze & Klever, Molotov, Switch, Gui Boratto, Steve Aoki, The Aggrolites, People Under the Stairs, The Courteeners, Cage the Elephant, Dear and the Headlights.

SATURDAY, APRIL 18: The Killers, M.I.A., Thievery Corporation, TV on the Radio, Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes, MSTRKRFT, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Atmosphere, Mastodon, TRAV$DJ-AM, Henry Rollins, Crookers, Turbonegro, Hercules and Love Affair, Superchunk, Glasvegas, Dr. Dog, Drive-By Truckers, Booker T & the DBT’s, Amanda Palmer, The Bloody Beetroots, Surkin, Para One (Live), Calexico, Liars, Bob Mould Band, Zane Lowe, Electric Touch, Blitzen Trapper, James Morrison, Drop the Lime, Glass Candy, Thenewno2, Gang Gang Dance, Billy Talent, Ida Maria, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Zizek, Cloud Cult, Tinariwen.

SUNDAY, APRIL 19: The Cure, My Bloody Valentine, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Throbbing Gristle, Lupe Fiasco, Paul Weller, Peter Bjorn and John, X, Antony & the Johnsons, Roni Size, Public Enemy, Jenny Lewis, Groove Armada, Paolo Nutini, Christopher Lawrence, Lykke Li, The Kills, Okkervil River, M.A.N.D.Y., Clipse, Sebastien Tellier, Fucked Up, Perry Farrell, The Horrors, Late of the Pier, K’naan, Junior Boys, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Supermayer, No Age, Vivian Girls, Shepard Fairey, Themselves, Gaslight Anthem, The Knux, Mexican Institute of Sound, The Night Marchers, Marshall Barnes.

Stay tuned from more in-depth coverage from the festival next week, including a festival fashion and accessories report, and music and festival art report. Meanwhile, you can check out our coverage from last year%uFFFDs Coachella Music & Arts Festival 2008:

Coachella Music & Arts Festival Story
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Festival Fashionisita from Coachella 2008

Fashion story from Coachella 2008