Coachella Preview 2012: Everything You Need to Know About the Performers

Timothy NorrisCoachella is back, for two desert weekends this year, April 13 to 15 and April 20 to 22. Our massive team of writers and photographers will be covering everything from the performances to the fashion trends to the drug-induced tomfoolery. More than 140 artists are performing -- we've got...

By New Times Staff

April 9, 2012

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Timothy Norris

Coachella is back, for two desert weekends this year, April 13 to 15 and April 20 to 22. Our massive team of writers and photographers will be covering everything from the performances to the fashion trends to the drug-induced tomfoolery. More than 140 artists are performing -- we've got the full list below. But, you may be wondering, who the hell are some of these people? To help you out, we've got stories on many of them culled from our sister Village Voice Media papers around the country. You'll learn about that time Flying Lotus pretended to be a UCLA physics major, Seun Kuti's first Minneapolis performance as an 8-year-old, even the mysteries of Merrill Garbus and why Chuck Klosterman can't handle her. Dig in!

-Ben Westhoff

A$AP Rocky

Abe Vigoda

*Pop Go Abe Vigoda: The punk-gone-shoegaze band await a mainstream breakthrough

Afrojack

Alesso

Amon Tobin : ISAM Live

Andrew Bird

AraabMUZIK

*Q&A: araabMUZIK On His Influences, His Name, And Filling His Records With Crazy Beats

Arctic Monkeys

At The Drive-In

*Mars Volta and At the Drive-In's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Is a Real Bastard

Atari Teenage Riot

AVICII

*Avicii appears on OC Weekly's "Top Five DJs Under 25"

AWOLNATION

Azealia Banks

*Q&A: Azealia Banks On Growing Up On Stage, Being Compared To Nicki Minaj, And Why Women Have More Sexual Power Than People Think

Band of Skulls

Beats Antique

Beirut

Black Lips

*Black Lips Clean Up (A Bit) For 'Arabia Mountain'

*Phoenix New Times Story on The Black Lips

Bon Iver

*Bon Iver wins two Grammys, and "Bonny Bear" is born

*Bon Iver "kind of said 'f*ck you' a little bit" to the Grammys

Borgore

Breakbot

Buzzcocks

*The Buzzcocks: Possessed by the Spirit of '76: Steve Diggle says the punk rock way of looking at the world is just as relevant today as it ever was.

Calvin Harris

Childish Gambino

*Childish Gambino Breaks the Hip-Hop Mold

Company Flow

Dada Life

Datsik

David Guetta

Dawes

Death Grips

Destroyer

Destructo

DJ Shadow

Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg

*Big Pimpin': Pimp cups have real players like Snoop Dogg and white kids alike dropping cash

Dragonette

EMA

*Q&A: EMA's Erika M. Anderson On How To Shock People Using Stolen Classic-Rock Lyrics And Firing A Gun At Age 14

Explosions in the Sky

Fanfarlo

*Review of Fanfarlo in Minneapolis

Feed Me

Feist

fIREHOSE

*Q&A: Mike Watt on Napping, Beards, the Neutral Milk Guy, and D Boon

First Aid Kit

*First Aid Kit Are Ladies of the Fjord: A Scandinavian spin on Americana

Fitz and the Tantrums

*Fitz and the Tantrums: Soul Suits Them: The six-piece combo put the 'move' in the burgeoning American soul movement

Florence and the Machine

Flux Pavilion & Dr. P

Flying Lotus

*The Time Flying Lotus Pretended To Be A UCLA Physics Major

*Flying Lotus Rising: Could spiritual electronica be the next great California sound?

Frank Ocean

Gardens & Villa

*Phoenix New Times Story on Gardens & Villa

Gary Clark Jr.

*Seattle Weekly Reviews Gary Clark Jr.

Girl Talk

*Girl Talk Is the Best at What He Does: Audiences aren't sick of mash-ups yet, not when they're as sophisticated as Gregg Gillis' work

*Girl Talk's Greg Gillis Says Irony Is a Waste

GIRLS

*S.F.'s Girls Issue a Gorgeous Old-School Epic

*Christopher Owens of Girls on Being on God's Dark Side

GIVERS

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Gotye

*Gotye: I don't care if you mispronounce my name

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

Greg Ginn and The Royal We

Grouplove

Hello Seahorse!

honeyhoney

Housse de Racket

Jacques Lu Cont

James

Jeff Mangum

*Review of Jeff Mangum in Minneapolis

Jimmy Cliff with Tim Armstrong and the Engine Band

Justice

Kaiser Chiefs

Kasabian

Kaskade

*Kaskade Masters Time, Space and Big-Room Electronica: The DJ from San Clemente headlines the biggest New Year's parties in the Southwest

Keep Shelly in Athens

Kendrick Lamar

*Born and raised in Compton, Kendrick Lamar Hides a Poet's Soul Behind "Pussy & Patron"

*Kendrick Lamar's Section 80 tops LA Weekly's list of best LA Albums of 2011

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

LA Riots

Laura Marling

Le Butcherettes

*Le Butcherettes: Teri Gender Bender is the most volatile woman in rock

Lissie

M. Ward

M83

*M83's Anthony Gonzalez Makes Soundtracks, Without the Movie

Madeon

Madness

Manchester Orchestra

*Phoenix New Times story on Manchester Orchestra

Martin Solveig

Mazzy Star

Méa

Metronomy

Miike Snow

*A Mystery No More!: Discover Miike Snow, so very disco

Modeselektor

Morgan Page

Mt Eden

Neon Indian

Nero

Noel Gallagher's High-Flying Birds

*Liam Gallagher On His Brother Noel: "I'd Rather Eat My Own Shit Than Be In A Band With Him Again"

NOISIΛ

Oberhofer

Other Lives

Porter Robinson

*Porter Robinson appears on OC Weekly's "Top Five DJs Under 25"

Pulp

*Pulp: Top 10 Songs for Beginners

*The Pulp Revival Continues With Eve Wood's Documentary The Beat Is Law

Pure Filth Sound

R3hab

Radiohead

Real Estate

*Phoenix New Times story on Real Estate

Refused

Santigold

SBTRKT

SebastiAn

Sebastian Ingrosso

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80

*Seun Kuti first performed in Minneapolis as an 8-year-old

Carlos Nunez

Sleeper Agent

Spector

Squeeze

St. Vincent

*St. Vincent Dials Up the Aggression on Strange Mercy

*Signs of St. Vincent's Success: As the artist gets more personal, Annie Clark holds back

Sub Focus

Suedehead

Swedish House Mafia

The Airplane Boys

The Big Pink

The Black Angels

*The Black Angels: Reed Scholars: The Black Angels take time off from planning their festival to play ours

The Black Keys

The Dear Hunter

The Gaslamp Killer

*The Gaslamp Killer: Greetings From Hell: This Kid's a Total Freak

The Growlers

*The Growlers Go Further, Fursure!: For the Long Beach band, life is a woozy warzone

The Head and the Heart

The Hives

The Horrors

The Rapture

*The Rapture Come Home: The band that launched DFA Records returns to its roots after a major-label detour

*Review of The Rapture at The Music Box

The Sheepdogs

The Shins

The Vaccines

The Weeknd

Thundercat

*Thundercat Emerges With His Debut, Co-produced by Flying Lotus

Tijuana Panthers

*Warpaint, TRMRS and Tijuana Panthers Play a Badass Benefit: The bands raise money for late fan Haley Butcher

*Drinking Tequila With Tijuana Panthers

tUnE-yArDs

*tUnE-yArDs tops the Village Voice's Pazz and Jop Critics Poll

*Chuck Klosterman irks tUnE-yArDs' fanbase, while likely enlarging it

*tUnE-yArDs' Experimental Pop Is a Strange Pill to Swallow

Wallpaper

We are Augustines

We Were Promised Jetpacks

*Review of We Were Promised Jetpacks in Minneapolis

Wild Beasts

Wild Flag

*Wild Flag's Ceremony

*Forget Pedigree: Wild Flag Is a Great New Rock Band

*Wild Flag Is Indie Rock's Female Supergroup

Wolf Gang

WU LYF

Ximena Sarinana

*Ximena Sariñana: An Indie-Pop Star In Mexico, Anonymous In L.A.

*Ximena Sariñana: Five Things She Loves About Echo Park Boys

*Five Questions With Ximena Sariñana

Yuck

*Go Yuck Yourself

Zedd

*Phoenix New Times story on Zedd

*Review of Zedd in LA

Zeds Dead

By Elano Pizzicarola

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