Coachella 2011: Yeah, great, but where the hell is Kyuss??

It's that time of year again.  Hipsters all across Southern California start getting antsy with antici..........pation, wondering just who will be playing at their favorite desert hangout, at least when they're not focused on getting as pampered and drugged up as possible.  Ok, perhaps that's a bit cynical; they also care about getting into the parties.  But what does the Coachella 2011 lineup mean for all the people who go exclusively for the music?  Very good things, in this humble blogger's opinion.

Coachella 2010, Day 1: Oh, the humanity!

It's April, and for me that means one thing: Coachella.  After being drawn to the desert in 2004 by Radiohead and the Pixies, I've been every year since.  As I like to say, it's the greatest weekend of my life and it happens every year.  That may be a bit hyperbolic, but only a bit.  Nowhere else can I see so many bands all in the same place, and it's more or less guaranteed to surprise me.  This year was no different, though it did get off to a rocky start.  In the days leading up to the festival Goldenvoice had announced that the festival was sold out, and that the number of tickets sold was 75,000, the most I can remember in the seven years I've been going.  So I anticipated a lot of people, but what I encountered was another thing entirely.

Alive in the Superunknown

I had to take a break from all my listing to point out this exciting story I just read: Soundgarden is (probably) getting back together!  Apparently, all that I had to do to make this happen was briefly lament their demise in my Metallica review.  This is the most exciting reunion I could think of, personally, since Soundgarden was one of my first, favorite bands.  When my parents bought me my first CD player back in middle school, Superunknown was the first album I went out and bought personally, and I still listen to it fairly often.  And no kid of about my age could get through MTV or radio without seeing the amazingly creepy "Black Hole Sun" video, or hearing "Spoonman," "My Wave" or "Fell On Black Days" on KROQ (you know, back when KROQ was still good).  Lead singer Chris Cornell recently showed up at a Pearl Jam show, sounding as good as ever, and drummer Matt Cameron is still playing great, these days with Pearl Jam.  I can only assume that Kim Thayil (lead guitar) and Ben Shepherd (bass) still know what they're doing.  If this rumor pans out, I really hope they pop up at Coachella; it would be roughly infinity times more exciting than when the Pixies did it.

Outside Lands, Day 1: San Franciscoachella

Now is the time on ITIHSTDWO when we talk about Outside Lands! I know, finally. Luckily I have one of those good memories you always hear so much about, so it's still very clear in my mind. Outside Lands was exciting to me for a lot of reasons, but other than some of my favorite bands the main interest was in going to a multi-day festival that wasn't Coachella. So, basically, I was looking forward to sub-100° days; a festival where I wasn't hiding from the sun constantly. San Francisco is known for its cold winds and overcast weather, so I figured I was in good shape.