Blur, the Stone Roses, Phoenix and Red Hot Chili Peppers top the lineup for the 2013 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which was unveiled late on Thursday night (Jan. 24). The annual fest is set to once again take over Indio, Calif. on consecutive weekends, this year from Apr. 12-14 and Apr. 19-21.
Friday night is topped by a pair of recently reunited British alt-rock bands, Blur and the Stone Roses, who both recently performed overseas while side-stepping the States (Blur frontman Damon Albarn’s side project Gorillaz headlined Coachella in 2010). Other notable Friday artists include the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who will release new album “Mosquito” in April; How To Destroy Angels, the latest project from Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor; the reunited L.A. rap collective Jurassic 5; and Alt-J, who recently won the Mercury Music Prize in the U.K.
French indie-rockers Phoenix, whose “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” follow-up “Bankrupt!” is expected to be released this spring, tops the Saturday lineup, with the reunited Postal Service also performing on the middle day of the festival. Indie mainstays like Grizzly Bear, Hot Chip, the xx and Sigur Ros are also slated for Saturday performances, while a generous portion of hip-hop (Danny Brown, El-P, Pusha T and even 2 Chainz!) is also scheduled for April 13 and 20.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, who served as headliners at Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza in 2012, will cap off the festival on Sunday night, with Vampire Weekend, Social Distortion and the Wu-Tang Clan poised for the final day of the fest. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds are also scheduled for Sunday, two days after Cave’s other band, Grinderman, performs at Coachella.
One artist noticeably absent from the 2013 lineup is the Rolling Stones, who were rumored to be headlining after the festival appeared momentarily on the band’s iPhone app last month. The Stones had since denied their inclusion on the 2013 bill.
Top-line dance/electronica artists are also surprisingly scarce on this year’s lineup, after artists like Swedish House Mafia, David Guetta, Calvin Harris and Afrojack filled out the 2012 bill. Bassnectar, Eric Prydz and Paul Oakenfold are among the EDM stars set to rock Coachella 2013.
Tickets for this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will go on sale on Tuesday (Jan. 29) at 10:00 am PT. Coachella 2012 was topped by the Black Keys, Radiohead and Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg, who brought out a very special guest, Tupac Shakur (in hologram form). [Billboard.biz]
