Coachella 2013 Lineup: The Reaction

After a flurry of rumors, parodies and anticipation, the lineup for Coachella 2013 was finally released earlier this week.

While those of us here at the Independent have our own opinions on the lineups (No Daft Punk?! Damn it!), we’ll shut up for now. Instead, we scoured the good ol’ Weekly Wide Web for reactions.

We did find a wee bit of consensus. For example, everyone was understandably bummed that some of the rumored headliners (Stones, Bowie, Daft Punk) were just rumors; and there’s a surprising amount of consensus that the second-tier acts are rather strong. 

Here are eight bits of reaction worth noting, in no particular order:

• The Los Angeles Times’ August Brown was surprised by the lack of EDM (electronic dance music) in the lineup. “One has to scroll down to the third line of any given day before a proper dance act is listed (some electro-leaning bands like The Postal Service and New Order have higher billing). In more recent years, EDM acts like Swedish House Mafia and Tiesto have closed out nights on the main stage and drew more fans than the ostensible headliners,” Brown notes.
• The provocateurs over at Spin offer 10 reasons why the lineup sucks—and 20 why it doesn’t. Spin‘s Chris Martins, for example, is excited about the reunion of The Postal Service, but pissed about the apparent lack of holograms. (RIP, Tupac.)
• Across the pond, the folks at The Guardian seem thrilled that British bands “dominate” the lineup. “Joining Damon Albarn and co on the first night of the event, which takes place over consecutive weekends in April, will be the Stone Roses. The band will be playing their first US gigs since re-forming in 2012,” the paper notes. “The lineup has a heavy UK presence, with performances promised from the xx, New Order, Hot Chip, Two Door Cinema Club, Biffy Clyro, Foals, Franz Ferdinand, Jessie Ware, Jake Bugg, James Blake and Johnny Marr.”
• Speaking of the Stone Roses: An entire Tumblr page has been developed to compile the reactions of (mostly younger) Twitter-users asking: Who in the heck are the Stone Roses? It’s an oddly amusing read. (Doesn’t anyone know how to use the Google these days?)
• The folks over at MTV.com (Remember when MTV had music credibility? The folks who have tweets on the aforementioned Tumblr page probably don’t!) focus on the reunions. James Montgomery writes (after actually using the word “kvetching”): “Late Thursday night, (Coachella) organizers took to Twitter to reveal the full lineup for the 2013 edition of the fest, which features recently-reunited acts like the Stone Roses, Blur and the Postal Service, returning indie champs Phoenix, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Vampire Weekend and, uh, the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”
• Up in the Pacific Northwest, Portland, Ore.’s Willamette Week is decidedly unimpressed with the lineup. “Coachella’s hotly anticipated lineup is out and—woof. If this lineup was announced for (George, Wash. festival) Sasquatch, we’d be ho-hum. But for the West Coast’s premiere music festival to have Blur, Phoenix and the Red Hot Chili Peppers headlining is really bumming us out.” Writer Martin Cizmar then goes on to list holograms that could save the festival. Har!
• Hollywood.com’s Jean Bentley sees evidence of Coachella organizer Goldenvoice’s disappointment in the lineup announcement’s timing: “The fact that the lineup was announced via Twitter after 8 p.m. (Pacific time!) on a Thursday—and the fact that it’s out weeks later than in past years—is also quite telling. If bigger names were playing, it seems like the bands wouldn’t have been revealed at such a random, late hour.”
• And finally, the granddaddy the alternative press, The Village Voice, gives the lineup a thumbs-up—albeit a weak thumbs-up. Brian McManus writes: “So what do you think? There’s lots to like in there if you drill down far enough. Visions of a reunited Postal Service and the four Wu Tang members who actually show up wandering the camp grounds together are already swimming through our heads.”

For more information on the festival, including an inaccurate countdown clock (as of this writing, the clock says the April festival is just two days and change away, which we don’t think is correct), head over to coachella.com.