Beck helped define music in the 1990s. (Gina Ribisi/Contributed Image)
Guess what? The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival released the 2014 lineup tonight. If you’re looking for the quick answers, the festival is April 11-13 and April 18-20 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. Tickets go on sale Friday, Jan. 10 at 10 a.m. and OutKast, Muse and Arcade Fire are headlining.
Here’s my quick take–the festival always draws from multiple decades, but this year the 1990s are back in style just like my Doc Martens and I have proof.
Friday’s has a solid batch of noteworthy ’90s acts:
Outkast is set to perform at the 2014 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. (AP)
1. OutKast
Just because the world caught on to the genius of OutKast with “Stankonia” in 2000, Andre 3000 and Big Boi were making minds melt years before. Here’s hoping we get some “ATLiens” love in their Friday night Coachella headlining set.
2. The Afghan Whigs
Once The Afghan Whigs announced that the members were reuniting, it was only a matter of time until Greg Dulli would walk back into my life with his angst and self-loathing (like a “My So-Called Life” episode written only for me). It only took two years for them to make it to Coachella. Can you think of a better band from Cincinnati? I can’t.
3. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
So wild. So freaky. So much theremin. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion put its stamp on the 1990s with its psychedelic punk blues garage rock of awesome. Don’t believe me? Go listen to 1994’s “Orange.”
The 1990s continue to shine on Saturday’s lineup.
4. Queens of the Stone Age
While “Songs for the Deaf” brought Palm Desert native Josh Homme to the MTV crowd in the 21st century, the band’s self-titled album came out in the ’90s and most of “Rated R” was recorded before Y2K.
5. Fatboy Slim
Is there anything more ’90s than the choreographed dance scene to “The Rockafeller Skank” from the Freddie Prinze Jr. movie “She’s All That”? It’s the dance Usher taught us.
6. Mogwai
OK, now let’s get some street cred back with Mogwai, the Scottish post-punks who get weird and experimental and reserved and explosive all in one. They formed in the mid-1990s.
7. The Dismemberment Plan
I went to the final D-Plan show at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. about a decade ago and I was insanely jealous when all of my friends back home went to the band’s first show back. I think one of the most important albums of the 1990s was The Dismemberment Plan’s “Emergency & I” and I plan to be up front and center for the band’s Coachella set.
Sunday takes us back one more time with some high-profile ’90s artists.
8. Beck
Beck was everywhere in the ’90s. In 1994,”Loser” brought his self-loathing alt-folk to radios and sparked the rise of one of the most important artistic influences of the next 10 years. However, the brilliance of the modern rock of “Odelay” in 1996 and the funky soul of 1999’s “Midnite Vultures” are what make Beck a top candidate for musician of the decade.
9. Neutral Milk Hotel
Every hipster is freaking out about the Neutral Milk Hotel reunion to begin with and they will cry when it happens in all of its beauty at Coachella. The quintessential album from the group is 1998’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.”
10. Superchunk
Superchunk is one of the bands that defined 1990s indie rock. That’s pretty much all you need to know. Go to that set and pay your respects.