Coachella 2010

So Coachella starts today.

Five years ago I vowed that I would never step foot in Indio, CA ever again.

In 2005, I bought tickets so my gentlemen friend and I could attend together. I really wanted to see Wolf Parade and he really really liked Eagles of Death Metal (how 2005 of us). I spent somewhere around $400 for the weekend tickets and he conveniently told me that he did not want to go, and oh, hey, I don't really wanna see you anymore.

Stuck with these tickets, I was bound and determine to go and have a good time. I was going to show him! How could he, someone who looked like a serial killer in his Nebraska driver's license photo, dump me?!

The only person who would buy my ticket was my 36 year-old roommate who the week prior tried to kiss me while I was plucking my eyebrows in the bathroom and he was drunk off of champagne.

So we went... and I was angry and resentful the entire time.

36 year-old roommate got so stoned that I had to carry his flat ass around the 100 degree desert. By the end of the first day, I was so blindingly upset at EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE, I couldn't even focus on the Depeche Mode concert, a band that I really liked (to this day, the only thing I remember is looking at my feet and thinking that that old dude (David Gahan) looked pretty good in a leather vest and nothing else).

Before the rush of cars left, I threw my roommate in the car and headed back to Los Angeles. As he mumbled something about circle-jerking with a bunch of male friends when he was 12 years-old, I tried everything to not veer my car off the road.

Ever since that day, I had no interest in going to Coachella....until now.

What a great line-up this year and I'm stuck in Austin typing this post.

Here are a couple of my favorite bands playing this year.

"Rise" by Public Image Limited (John Lyndon from the Sex Pistols. Probably know this song from the Rules of Attraction soundtrack)

"Take it In" by Hot Chip (Great band, and fucking awesome new single. Makes me want to start break dancing during a police raid in Baltimore)

"Home" by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros (Another amazing band from California. Saw these guys last year and they were phenom. This song reminds me of what love should feel like.)

"I Want to Take You Higher" by Sly & The Family Stone (Probably one of my favorite bands ever. Sly has a

horrible track record of actually showing up (sober) to concerts,

so I'm excited to see if he does.)

"Black and Blue" by Miike Snow (Norwegian band

that I'm ashamed to admit that I like)

"Golden Cage" by The Whitest Boy Alive (Is comprised of Erlend Oye, who you maybe know from

Kings of Convenience. His smooth voice reminds me of

my latest love, Arthur Russell)