INDIO, Calif. — Dee Dee Penny, lead singer of the Dum Dum Girls, is no stranger to performing at giant summer musical events. At the first of the two-weekend Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival events last Friday, her retro-rock act played before thousands of ecstatic fans.

She was just one of an eclectic roster of female artists who galvanized Coachella audiences. Teenage provocateur Lorde dazzled amid a howling dust storm in her summer music festival debut. R&B diva Solange got a surprise assist from her superstar sister, Beyoncé Knowles. Alt-torch singer Lana Del Rey turned in a transfixing trip-hop set. And pop-rock sisters Haim were local conquering heroes as they celebrated the success of their 2013 debut, "Days Are Gone," which embodies the Coachella spirit by contemporizing retro sounds with hipster/hippie chic.

It's a benchmark year for Coachella. More solo female artists and all-female bands were on the lineup — 16 — than at any other time in the...

Record Store Day 2014 commences Saturday with desperate vinyl collectors and obsessive fans scouring racks for the objects of their desire in the early-morning hours. The annual celebration of independent music retailers has become most stores’ biggest day of the year as a result of the hundreds of limited-edition, specially issued records, cassettes and CDs.

In the years since Record Store Day was launched in 2008, the volume and variety of releases has grown. Until a few years ago, it was relatively easy to make a list of a dozen essential items to pursue with little fear of leaving out something fascinating. But the quantity has snowballed. 

The list is a fascinating glimpse into the thriving reissue market, offering looks at obscure 1980s hard core that’s risen to the top, curious pop songs of Southeast Asia, deep rural blues from nearly a century ago and lots and lots of rock, alt-rock and post-punk wax. 

Below is a curated selection of some of the more odd releases...

A selection of jazz and jazz-adjacent shows head for Los Angeles in the coming days.

Regina Carter at the Jazz Bakery

Jazz violin isn't a crowded field, but Regina Carter remains a standout regardless. After exploring African music with the critically acclaimed "Reverse Thread" in 2010, Carter turns toward her roots in Americana and folk on her latest album, "Southern Comfort," and the results are just as arresting.

Mingling swift, sawing runs with guitar and accordion, Carter delivers fresh takes on rootsy classics including "Hickory Wind," "Honky Tonkin'" and a funky, electronics-dusted "Trampin'." The Jazz Bakery at Zipper Concert Hall, Colburn School, 200 S. Grand Ave., L.A. Sat., 8:30 p.m. $35 http://www.jazzbakery.org.

Chris Speed, Chris Tordini and Dave King at the Blue Whale

A nimble, hard-charging saxophonist who can be heard with a full roster of forward-thinking jazz royalty that includes Dave Douglas, Jim Black and the groups Claudia Quintet and the deft quartet Endangered...

At No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this week? "Frozen," of course.

The soundtrack to the smash-hit Disney movie topped the album chart for the 10th time Wednesday, reflecting sales of 133,000 copies in the week ending April 13, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That brings the album's total sales since its release in November to 2.1 million.

As Billboard's Keith Caulfield points out, "Frozen's" latest stint at No. 1 also ties the record held by "The Lion King" for the most weeks atop the chart by a soundtrack to an animated feature.

That said, "Frozen" has some way to go before it challenges Adele's achievement with her album "21," which spent 24 weeks at No. 1 in 2011 and 2012.

PHOTOS: Concerts by The L.A. Times

Behind "Frozen," Pharrell Williams' "G I R L" jumped to No. 2 from the previous week's No. 7, a boost Caulfield attributes in part to recent high-profile appearances on "Saturday Night Live," "Good Morning America" and "CBS Sunday Morning." Williams also performed Saturday nightat...

Glen Campbell has been moved into an Alzheimer’s disease care facility, a friend of his family has told People magazine.

The singer’s battle with Alzheimer’s has sparked an outpouring of support and sympathy from fans since he and his wife Kim went public with his diagnosis in 2011. They explained their decision as being motivated by his wish to continue performing as long as possible, and said he didn’t want audiences speculating about what might be the cause of his occasional forgetfulness of song lyrics, confusion and repetition of between-song banter.

People’s report suggested the move could be temporary, and quoted the source as saying, “I’m not sure what the permanent plan is for him yet. We will know more next week.”

REVIEW: Glen Campbell revisits hits on 'See You There'

The Arkansas native, who worked as a session guitarist in Hollywood recording studios and performed with the Beach Boys before becoming a star in his own right,...

This spring, Lana Del Rey's stylist, a hirsute Brit who goes by the moniker Johnny Blueeyes, ventured to the Fashion District in downtown Los Angeles to pick out free things for his client.

When he arrived at the showroom of Chic Little Devil, a style house that handles publicity for 75 brands, a handful of pricey items had been laid out before him. An employee directed his attention toward a $1,100 pair of black studded leather boots handmade in Mexico by a company called Old Gringo.

"Old Gringo would seriously love to be on Lana," Kate Bedrick, CLD's director of public relations, said she told the musician's stylist. "Feel free to take them. We already researched her sizing, so it's really easy."

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

But Bedrick wasn't hoping Del Rey would sport the so-called Fatale boots on a red carpet or at an awards show or high-end fashion editorial. She was trying to persuade Blueeyes to put the singer in the shoes for her sets at Coachella.

From the muddy...

This post has been updated. See note below for details.

Coldplay will do a rare small-theater show on May 19 at UCLA’s Royce Hall on the day the band’s new album, “Ghost Stories,” is released.

The show is one of a half-dozen small-scale shows the group will play surrounding the release. In addition to the UCLA appearance, Coldplay will perform at the Beacon Theatre in New York on May 5 and on April 25 in Cologne, Germany, May 28 in Paris, June 12 in Tokyo and July 1 at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Tickets for the Cologne stop go on sale online Saturday. Ticket information for the other performances, including the Royce Hall show, is still to be announced.

CRITICS' PICKS: What to watch, where to go, what to eat

Coldplay finds itself at a tricky career juncture putting out and promoting its new album closely on the heels of the public announcement of the split between lead singer Chris Martin and actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who described their amicable parting...

The L.A. disco revival lost a bit of its groove Wednesday.

The planned May 10 dance-music blowout at the Hollywood Bowl, featuring Nile Rodgers' Chic and Giorgio Moroder has been canceled, according to promoters.

The concert organizers -- Andrew Hewitt, Bill Silva Presents and HARD Events -- only cited "unforeseen circumstances" as the reason for the cancellation.

CRITICS' PICKS: What to watch, where to go, what to eat  

Tensnake, Oliver and Destructo (the DJ alias of HARD Events' Gary Richards) had also been slated to perform at the concert.

Promoters promised that "Nile and Chic will be back in L.A. soon," but did not give a date for a make-up show or details on other acts on a prospective bill. Holders of tickets for the May 10 show will be offered a presale for Chic's next L.A. date. 

Refunds are currently available for all ticket holders. 

ALSO:

Coachella 2014: Lana Del Rey connects despite revealing little

Coachella 2014: Pharrell Williams and friends fight against the wind

Coach...

Beyonce and Jay Z surprised festival-goers at Coachella last weekend with a few unannounced appearances. But music’s most famous couple have a bigger trick up their sleeves: a summer stadium run.

The married superstars will launch their first joint tour in June, a source close to the production told The Times.

Page Six first broke news of a trek that is slated to hit 20 cities in the U.S., including a possible Fourth of July appearance in New York City.

PHOTOS: Unexpected musical collaborations

Expected to be named, aptly, the Mr. and Mrs. Carter Tour, according to our source, the U.S. leg will launch June 13 in Atlanta and wrap Aug. 6 in San Francisco.

The tour is expected to have a stop at the Rose Bowl, tentatively set for Aug. 3 date. That show would be just days before Eminem and Rihanna’s highly anticipated Monster Tour sets up a two-night stand in Pasadena.

The two then plan on taking the show to Europe, with multiple shows scheduled in Paris this September, a source...

One oft-reported takeaway from this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which ran Friday through Sunday and will repeat this weekend in Indio, is that kids have taken over the place.

Yet while that may have been true on the festival’s rock stages,  where newish bands such as Bastille and Bombay Bicycle Club dramatically outdrew the wizened Replacements and Afghan Whigs,  it wasn’t quite the case in the enormous Sahara tent, Coachella’s home for big-beat dance music.

Sure, 17-year-old Martin Garrix and 24-year-old Zedd overflowed the Sahara with thousands of revelers, many of whom looked about the same age as the DJs onstage.

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

But huge crowds also flocked to the tent for well-received sets by Fatboy Slim, that balding avatar of late-’90s electronica, and Duck Sauce, the sly New York City duo that pairs the veteran DJ-producers A-Trak and Armand Van Helden.

And those turnouts weren’t about loyalty or...

AC/DC lead singer Brian Johnson has told a British newspaper that rumors of the band’s impending breakup are only that.

"We are definitely getting together in May in Vancouver," Johnson told the U.K.'s Telegraph. "We're going to pick up some guitars, have a plonk, and see if anybody has got any tunes or ideas. If anything happens, we'll record it."

Reports that the long-running Australian rock band would be calling it quits revolved around news that guitarist Malcom Young, lead guitarist Angus Young’s older brother, is seriously ill.

In the interview with the Telegraph, Johnson did confirm that one of the band’s members has “a debilitating illness” that could affect how AC/DC moves forward.

PHOTOS: Iconic rock guitars and their owners

"I wouldn't like to say anything either way about the future,” Johnson said. “I'm not ruling anything out. One of the boys has a debilitating illness, but I don't want to say too much about it. He is very proud...

Jay Z’s Made in America is officially coming to Los Angeles.

The rap mogul, along with Mayor Eric Garcetti, Budweiser and United Way, announced that the festival will take over downtown’s Grand Park and surrounding areas in front of and around City Hall over Labor Day weekend (Aug. 30-31).

“Two years ago, this was a dream,” Jay Z said from the steps of City Hall early Wednesday. "I had a vision of putting together a festival that blurred those lines of genres."

TIMELINE: Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals

Staged at the same time as the one in Philadelphia -- it will have its third run this year-- the two-day Budweiser Made in America festival is expected to attract 50,000 festivalgoers to Grand Park.

Last year’s Made in America drew 60,000 fans each day to Philadelphia’s historic Benjamin Franklin Parkway for a lineup, curated by Jay Z, that included his superstar wife, Beyoncé, along with Deadmau5, Kendrick Lamar, Miguel, Nine Inch Nails,...

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival kicked off last weekend, with fans traveling to Indio, Calif.,  from all over the world to watch their favorite acts perform -- or perhaps just to see and be seen at the several dozen pool parties happening off-site.

Musical highlights from the first weekend were plentiful -- Big Boi, Ellie Goulding and Chvrches were just a few, along with surprise appearances by Diddy, Jay Z, Snoop Dogg and even Justin Bieber. And the food and fashion of Coachella provided even more standout moments.

FULL COVERAGE: Coachella 2014

So what's in store for Weekend 2? Today at noon, L.A. Times social media editor Stacey Leasca will sit down with Coachella veterans Gerrick D. Kennedy, Mikael Wood and August Brown to discuss what fans can expect the second time around.

Have questions, comments or thoughts about Coachella? Tweet us @LATimes using the hashtag #AskLATimes. We will include as many of your comments as possible.

@Sleasca

Stacey.Leasca@latimes.com

When David Crosby wrote “Déjà Vu,” the song that would become the title track for the 1970 debut by rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, it was a meditation on recurrence.

When Crosby sang on stage Monday night at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, the song’s recurring refrain “And I feel like I’ve been here before,” it was personal memory, plain and simple.

Crosby is one of many important rock figures who got their start on the Troubadour’s stage, and for him that was nearly a half century ago. “The Byrds -- right there,” he said, pointing to the stage from his perch on anupstairs sofa between sets at the second of five sold-out solo shows this week at the venerable club.

In fact, Chris Hillman, another founding member of the Byrds, joined Crosby at Sunday's opening show to sing "Turn! Turn! Turn!"

PHOTOS: Concerts by The Times

So Crosby's sense of déjà vu is understandable, but the centerpiece of the nearly 2½-hour...

Aspiring artists face few challenges more daunting than escaping the shadow of a family member who has established a reputation in the same field.

That goes double for Carlene Carter.

The veteran singer and songwriter not only is the daughter of one of the most prominent female figures in all of country music -- June Carter -- but she’s also the granddaughter of Mother Maybelle Carter, who along with her brother-in-law A.P. Carter and his wife was part of the Carter Family, a trio whose recordings and radio performances played a crucial role in bringing country music to the world nearly a century ago.

Oh, and her stepfather happened to be Johnny Cash.

PHOTOS: Johnny Cash's life in pictures

So, although Carlene Carter grew up with some of the most vaunted figures in country music history, she spent a major part of her early adulthood separating from the family tree.

Now, however, at age 58, the woman who briefly was married to British pub rocker Nick Lowe and spent quality time in...

Rock 'n' roll has a way of romanticizing the tortured and the libertines, especially ones with a little poetry in them.

Singer Greg Dulli, whose band Afghan Whigs returns Tuesday with its first new album in 16 years, "Do to the Beast," clearly has a cultural standing to uphold. Booked for this month's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the indie rock veterans are the festival's older, musically adventurous misanthropes, but misanthropes nevertheless.

Yet his reignited passion to get the old band back together came from an unlikely place. 

Last year Dulli was unexpectedly asked if the Afghan Whigs would appear with Usher at the South by Southwest music festival and conference in Austin, Texas. 

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

"We had 48 hours to put together a show with someone we had never met," said Dulli, 48. "I had only spoken to him on the phone. There was something really thrilling about doing something quickly. For lack of a better word, it made me feel like a...

The first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has come and gone, but the tweets and Instagram photos will last forever (or at least until Weekend 2 kicks off Friday).

The special guest performances continued Sunday, with Drake taking the stage during Jhene Aiko's set and none other than Justin Bieber joining Chance the Rapper during his performance.

Check out a few more highlights from Day 3 at Coachella below.

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Faces of Coachella

ALSO:

Coachella moves to the beat of the digital youth

Coachella 2014: Lorde makes festival debut, brings in the wind

Coachella 2014: Who really headlined, Arcade Fire or dance music?

Twitter: @Sleasca

Stacey.Leasca@latimes.com

Coachella's great if you're rich, tan and beautiful, but those who fall outside that demographic should know that it's not all rose gardens, $15 artisan cocktails and Baco Mercat wraps. 

In fact, those with body image issues or a flat-lined bank account can be forgiven for sensing the occasional gag reflex at the displays on the Empire Polo Club in Indio. For all the music permeating the scene, it can be a very hostile and humbling environment, both socially and musically. 

To use the words of one attendee who, trapped in a mass of people trying to get a glimpse of Zedd, said flatly, "God I hate people." 

He may sound grumpy, but over three sun-baked days, he often had a point. Though the wonders of the musical weekend are many, it's not all bliss on the polo field. Below, a primer on a few red flags Coachella attendees will have to overcome to prevail. (Note: Many of the observations below are just as likely at other big-ticket festivals this summer.)

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2 |...

It was an offhanded comment by singer-songwriter Jesse Winchester, but it stopped Elvis Costello cold when he was chatting with Winchester for his short-lived music-interview series “Spectacle” on the Sundance Channel a few years ago.

In an aside, the inordinately gifted songwriter casually identified “The Brand New Tennessee Waltz” (one of the first songs for which he’d gained acclaim in the early 1970s) as the first song he’d ever written. Then he nonchalantly moved on to finish the main point he was making about the art of writing songs.

Costello interrupted, in utter disbelief: “You mean to say that was actually the first song you ever wrote?”" He knew all too well that it had been widely recorded by artists including Joan Baez, the Everly Brothers, Ralph Stanley and Patti Page, whose 1950 “Tennessee Waltz” was the reference point for Winchester’s song.

PHOTOS: Notable deaths of 2014

Winchester, who died Friday at...

When Jhene Aiko sang the opening lines of her Drake collaboration “From Time” during her set Sunday night at Coachella in Indio, the crowd -- singing the bone-chilling lyrics back to her -- knew what was coming next.

The Gobi tent was already lighted up by hundreds of smartphones when Drake emerged onstage. The deafening screams were likely heard across the festival grounds. He eased into his verse, gliding across the stage slowly to give everyone (OK, mainly the women) a lasting image.

Drake’s surprise appearance during Aiko’s set -- she also brought out Childish Gambino -- capped a weekend of performances from a who’s-who of rap not featured on the bill.

Electronic music might have dominated the lineup of 2014's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, but rap won the buzz this year.

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Everyone from new school hitmakers (Future) to veterans (Busta Rhymes, Nelly, E-40) to larger-than-life icons (Jay Z, Snoop, Diddy)...

After the first few days of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, some of the 90,000 people in attendance each day no doubt left the desert feeling overwhelmed, exhausted and yet exhilarated, with significant moments burned into their brains. Some highlights from Weekend 1:

--

Jay Z and Diddy join forces with Nas

Nas celebrated the 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking rap album "Illmatic" accompanied by guest performers Jay Z and Diddy.

"I bet this album is older than some of y'all out there," the 40-year-old Nas said as he surveyed the crowd, and indeed, he was correct.

But the declaration hammered home one of the best aspects of Coachella: It bridges generational gaps by introducing youth of today to the great music of yesterday.

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

--

Beyoncé supports her sister Solange

The reigning queen of R&B joined her little sister, Solange, onstage in the Gobi Tent for an endearing love fest that left fans screaming for more.

Solange...

Weekend No. 1 of Coachella is now officially a memory, but weekend No. 2 is careening down the road, gearing up to do it all over again.

If you're getting ready to partake in the fun and want to find a way to hit some parties, you would do well to start digging up those elusive invites now. Yes, Coachella has expanded into two weekends, but the party scene really hasn't.

That's because the parties are extremely expensive to throw. They're branded platforms with open bars at pricey private estates geared to draw attention to products and fashion labels like Guess, Corvette, McDonald's, Lacoste and H&M.

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

When the first weekend is over, so are most of the exclusive parties.

A brand wins when it can nab a photo of a celeb trying out its wares. Example?  Saturday at the Bootsy Bellows Estate in Rancho Mirage when Leonardo DiCaprio showed up and took a bite out of a McDonald's Bacon Clubhouse Burger in his private cabana.

At the same party Joe Jonas...

Ozomatli is taking its polyglot music and attitude from the streets into the halls of academia.

In preparation for Ozomatli Day on April 23 in Los Angeles, the long-running East L.A. rock-R&B-punk-funk ensemble will visit UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center at noon Monday for a question-and-answer session and an acoustic performance. Unlike many such sessions where attendees are advised against documenting them with smartphones or tablets, Ozomatli is encouraging the audience to shoot the session, then personalize it and share it on the group's web site.

The band's label, Vanguard Records, also is giving students permission to use the title track from Ozomatli’s latest album, “Place in the Sun,” as a soundtrack for their video pieces.\

PHOTOS: Concerts by The L.A. Times

The goal is for Chicano Studies Research Center students to create videos explaining how they expect to apply their studies to their lives after they leave UCLA and what they plan to do in the...

Because she was on the West Coast, Lana Del Rey said, she thought it made sense to unveil her new single midway through her performance Sunday night at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Titled, um, "West Coast," it's a characteristically bleary number that sounds like Stevie Nicks' "Edge of Seventeen" slowed down to a narcotized crawl; there's a bit of "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak in there too, as, indeed, there is in all of Del Rey's music.

But Coachella's location wasn't its only appeal to the singer. She also called it "the sexiest concert of the year," and if there's one judgment Del Rey is prepared to make, it's that one.

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Right?

Wearing a filmy above-the-knee dress that ruffled just so in the desert wind, she put plenty of sex into her 45-minute set, which surrounded "West Coast" with tunes from 2012's "Born to Die" and its companion EP, "Paradise."

She tossed her long brown hair and crouched down to the stage; she made a...

Like a fisherman casting a lure, Beck on Sunday night offered a lesson in how to draw a tired, coming-down crowd and muster one more burst of adrenalin. 

Moving through the quick-tempoed party jams before going deep with songs from his new album,  "Morning Phase," the Los Angeles singer understood that nothing gets the crowd hooked like a singalong anthem with a beat. Hence a roller coaster set that was front-loaded with early jams "Devils Haircut" and "Loser," two '90s oldies that helped bridge a gap between rock, electronic dance music and hip-hop, and served the role of party starter.

In doing so, he presented a convincing argument as being a godfather to this holy Coachella mess, one in which said pop music subgenres could not only live harmoniously but also spawn a new vibe. His set, in fact, was timed perfectly -- astrologically speaking. After the rush of fast-tempo groovers, the singer paused, took a breath and pointed above.

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

"See that...

Who was Sunday's Coachella headliner? The band that played last, to wrap up the weekend on the main stage? Or the act that drew probably the weekend's biggest crowd, and certainly its most fevered rush of fans?

If the answer is the former, it's indisputably Arcade Fire, which closed out the festival with a set drawing from the downtown disco of its latest album "Reflektor." But if it's the latter, then it's probably Calvin Harris, the Scottish EDM producer whose main stage set around 8 p.m. drew an instant crush of ravers who practically vacated the rest of the festival.

Or it might have been the English neo-house duo Disclosure, whose sprawling Outdoor Stage set absolutely beat Arcade Fire's in numbers during the few songs the two overlapped (and more to come on their set, which featured a cameo from Mary J. Blige, later).

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

The true headliner Sunday was dance music in general, which should be cause for reflection about how Coachella organizes its...

INDIO — As a giant impenetrable scrum of attendees waited for New Zealand singer Lorde, 17, to take the Outdoor stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Nearby, MGMT played the main stage, and the chorus of its song "The Youth" gusted in toward Lorde's crowd like a portent.

"The youth is starting to change," offered singer Andrew VanWyngarden as the band's psychedelic disco slow jam drifted in. "Are you starting to change? Are you, together?"

A few minutes later, as if conjured by MGMT's query, arrived Lorde. Dressed in white and seeming every bit a future figurehead, she took the stage just after the distant song had arrived at its ethereal ending mantra: "the youth … the youth … the youth." It felt like a clarion call.

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Call it coincidence or a mystical accident of fate, but that moment on Saturday seemed to capture this year's festival for me: a musical event firmly listing away from past glory and toward a...

INDIO — The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has been referred to by some as Bro-chella since at least 2008, when the annual desert gathering featured such dude-friendly headliners as Jack Johnson and Roger Waters.

The latest edition, which ran Friday through Sunday at the Empire Polo Club before repeating this weekend, had a bit of the bro about it, with performances by dub step king Skrillex, stoner-rap MC Kid Cudi and jock-jammy alt-rockers Foster the People. But a different atmosphere seemed to settle over the festival during its initial three-day blast.

Its name: Pro-chella.

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Widely considered America's most glamorous festival (thanks to its scenic locale and its appeal to young Hollywood), the event in its 15th year rolled out some remarkable creature-comfort upgrades, including a reservation-only four-course dinner and a so-called beauty studio sponsored by the cosmetics maker Sephora.

The sophisticated vibe stretched to the...

Two years ago during a performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Teri “Gender Bender” Suaréz climbed to the top of a lighting rig, locked her legs around a rung and then hung upside and sang. Standing between her skull and a stage was little more than gravity, and while the move was certainly of the don't-try-this-ever variety, Suaréz and her trio Le Butcherettes are committed, aggressively, to the visceral. 

But the reckless antics would be just that if the music wasn't also incendiary, where every rant or tear shed is amplified for its maximum emotional venom. Yet after releasing a debut album in 2011 with "Sin Sin Sin," the Los Angeles-via-Guadalajara band has largely been missing in action. Suaréz has spent much of the past two years working closely with creative collaborator Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (of Mars Volta and At the Drive-In fame) on his Bosnian Rainbows project. 

While Bosnian Rainbows gave Suaréz room to sing over more abstract, electronic-...

An epic sandstorm raged Saturday night, reportedly sabotaging Pharrell Williams' set and causing festival-goers to walk with kerchiefs wrapped tightly around their mouths.

"Finally, hipsters have a real use for their scarves," one heavily bearded, suspiciously hip-looking man dryly commented Saturday night while waiting in line for the Neon Carnival, the weekend's biggest party.

Produced by nightlife mastermind Brent Bolthouse and hosted by Nylon, Guess and Olay Fresh Effects, the gathering attracted recent Oscar-winner Jared Leto and pal Emile Hirsch to an airplane hangar in Thermal that was outfitted like a vintage fair complete with neon-lighted rides, ring tosses and adult-sized slides.

PHOTOS: Day 1 of Coachella 2014 | Day 2 | Day 3

The fashion at the party could be called Leto-influenced. The actor had been spotted wearing zebra-striped tights (or maybe just really, really tight pants) at Future Islands earlier in the day. That evening striped tights, or spandex were seen on an...

This post has been corrected. See below for details.

You could have had a Bloody Mary on Coachella Sunday to brighten your eyes in the morning. Or you could have wandered anywhere near the Gobi Tent for the first few hours of the day, because two of the earliest acts were some of the fest's most pulverizing.

Right out of the gate, the Japanese-via-London quartet Bo Ningen played with the kind of incendiary force that usually sets this part of California on fire for months.  If Primal Scream had twice the pedalboard and quadruple the swinging black haircuts, it might have approximated the blowtorched, hallucinogenic punk that Bo Ningen riled up. [UPDATED: 10:30 a.m. Mon., April 14. This post orginally misidentified the sex of some members of Bo Ningen]

All 20 minutes of the band's set that I saw seemed to be one outro of one song (and only one continuous chord of it to boot). But the way they wandered in and out of a Krautrock groove, twisting pedals to call up squalls of satanic...

Whenever talking about Solange, the conversation inevitably steers to her superstar sister Beyonce.

It’s understandable, albeit a bit unfair. Beyonce, the teenage girl-group frontwoman turned pop queen of the universe, casts a mighty wide shadow -- a shadow that stretched to the Gobi tent stage at Coachella, where Solange performed Saturday night. Beyonce's kid sister has surely led a life of constant comparison, and Solange’s first album, 2003’s “Solo Star,” did follow in the sassy, pop-tinged R&B of the mega-selling Destiny’s Child.

It didn’t strike with listeners, nor did its underrated follow-up “Sol-Angel and the Hadley Street Dreams,” but the conversation changed with 2012’s seven-song EP “True.” Stuffed with shimmering '80s-era R&B, funk and alt-pop, "True" provided the source material for Solange’s enchanting set Saturday night.

PHOTOS: Faces of Coachella

Dressed in an orange romper and blazer —...

With Coachella 2014 well into Day 3, fans coming for the second weekend can learn from us: Be prepared for glory as well as grime.

Musical highlights are plentiful -- Big Boi, Ellie Goulding and Chvrches were just a few from this weekend. And the food and fashion of Coachella provided more standout moments.

So bask in the wonder of Coachella. But be prepared for dust and wind and sunburn and blisters on your feet. Awesome.

Below, a recap from Day 2.

Between songs during Lorde's striking, sparse set just past sundown on Saturday night, the singer paused for a moment to wonder on the year that she's had.

She's 17 years old and co-penned one of last year's biggest anthems, "Royals." With the first gusts of a looming windstorm rolling in, she explained that this Coachella gig was the first big festival she booked at the onset of her whirlwind 2013.

"I think we booked this in May of last year, and since then we've been all over the world. We've seen so much," she said, her voice filled with awe as she looked out on Coachella's after-dark neon beauty and waves of humans absorbing her every word.

PHOTOS: Faces of Coachella

She wasn't exaggerating. In that time she's won Grammys, earned critical praise and become a household name. And here she was at another career pinnacle, gigging one of the biggest, hippest festivals in the world, a first circle in the midst of being completed.

That's a lot of weight for any artist, and she carried it...

Nas, Jay Z and Diddy hit the stage together at Coachella to celebrate a landmark hip-hop album.

Twenty years ago Nas, a hungry 20-year-old emcee from New York's tough Queensbridge projects, issued his debut, “Illmatic.”

The album, with its stark coming-of-age narrative on the pits of inner-city life in a drug-fueled, poverty-stricken housing project, set a new benchmark for hip-hop.

LIVE UPDATES: The Coachella scene

Nas feted the game-changing album — it officially hits the milestone a week later — during his late night set on the Outdoor stage.

Now 40, Nas is a rarity in hip-hop: an elder statesman who’s not only endured two decades in the industry but kept his cultural relevance and influence intact. The feat is especially impressive given the genre’s slant toward championing youthful, more commercial, trends.

In rap, the term "classic" is tossed around loosely. But "Illmatic," widely considered one of the greatest rap records of all time, is among...

There was a huge, heaving mass of Coachella fans listening to time-shifting, hard-riffing music with an apocalyptic sci-fi bent last night. But they weren't watching the headliner Muse.

While a trickle of committed fans progged out with the English hard rock trio, all the action was deep in the Sahara tent last night, where the 26-year-old Sonny Moore led a beyond-capacity crowd in a reverie of the restless, insistent party music he makes as Skrillex.

The producer is one of the kingpins of the American EDM wave, riding a tide of harsh bass music to the headliner slot of almost ever major electronic music fest in the U.S. But after the surprise release of his new album "Recess," which touches on deep reggae, K-pop and a thousand other influences, his Coachella set cemented just how much bigger his project is.

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2

Moore took the stage in an update of his spaceship stage motif, where he appears to be performing in the cockpit of some junked "Star Wars" fighter...

It's a perennial theme, one that manifests itself throughout genre and era: the idea of getting lost in music.

Whether it's Pharrell imploring us to "Lose Yourself to Dance," Eric B. and Rakim's "Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em" or the old-time standard "The Tennessee Waltz," the notion of vanishing inside the rhythms, of losing all sense of time and space and letting the proverbial troubles glide away, is something that draws many -- but not all -- festival goers to Coachella. Let's get lost.

Amid 80,000 or so people with competing agendas and strikingly different ideas about concert etiquette and acceptable social behavior, though, that's way easier said than done. Half these people don't even seem to understand how to get lost in music in a public setting, let alone appreciate that surrounding others might want to.

LIVE UPDATES: The Coachella scene

Cajmere is best known for his other persona, Green Velvet (whose "La La Land" Fatboy Slim sampled during his set), but for this mix the artist...

It might seem crazy, what I'm 'bout to say, but Pharrell Williams kind of blew it Saturday night at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, where in spite of a hot streak that's included some of the past year's biggest hits -- "Happy," "Get Lucky," "Blurred Lines" -- the singer-rapper-producer seemed not quite ready for his prime-time performance.

Williams himself might insist he was the victim of the blowing: At least three times he complained about the "stupid" wind that turned Coachella into a dustbowl Saturday; he said it was ravaging his voice and had forced him to scale back his stage production. And, indeed, by the end of his hour-long set, his vocals had become not much more than a hoarse bark.

But as much as you felt for the guy, who seemed genuinely sorry that his big Coachella debut wasn't going according to plan, you had to wonder why none of his handlers had put the most important lesson of pop stardom into his head: The show must go on.

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day...

The human party animal is a particularly curious breed at Coachella, where excessive heat, glaring sun, copious amounts of alcohol and ear-shattering beats spur a hormonal reaction that results in the obsessive shedding of clothing. 

And so it was on Saturday at pool parties across the desert where no bikini was too tiny and no man could seem to keep his pants on (over his short-short swim trunks). This all despite the fact that most party-goers never deign to enter the pool.

The most egregious example of this near-nudist mischief could be found at the new Hard Rock Hotel in Palm Springs where dance music fans flocked to the LED Day Club to watch the English electronic music artists Disclosure. The duo DJed a sweat-fueled set a day in advance of their headlining gig at the Outdoor Theatre at Coachella.

PHOTOS: Faces of Coachella 2014

Orange towels littered the pool deck and black-and-white beach balls bounced around almost as much as the suntan oil-slicked bodies to the hypnotic beats....

Some Coachella sets are about finding an audience. Others are about proving just how substantial a rising band's is.

The latter is the best scenario to describe the absolute hordes of fans stacked cheek-to-jowl at Chvrches' afternoon Outdoor Stage set. The Scottish electro-pop trio has made big strides since their album "The Bones of What You Believe" last fall. But the turnout at their Coachella set suggested that much bigger things are in store.

The band played great, with a mix of self-effacing charm from singer Lauren Mayberry and perfectly calibrated pop bullets from her bandmates and producers. But the real story was in the audience. Teenage girls finding a new pop hero, shouting along to every word of kiss-off poison pen letters like "Gun."

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Guys in tank tops and neon shades nodded along with the heavy drum programming and deep-cut basslines. Dance fans were digging the synthetic sounds. Pop fans loved the enormous, finely wrought choruses....

INDIO — It wasn't yet 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in the Sahara Tent, but 16-year-old Niall Bauer had already met up with friends on the lawn in the massive, LED-flashing venue inside the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which began the first of two consecutive weekends on the grounds of the Empire Polo Club on Friday.

"It's so much bigger than I expected," he said, a little wide-eyed behind his sunglasses. It was the Beverly Hills resident's first Coachella, and in many ways the festival that launched 15 years ago has been much bigger — and full of more rarified pleasures.

This year's Coachella offered new and expensive ways to wall yourself off from its crowds of some 200,000 attendees over the three-day weekend. Yet amid a sprawling roster of performers that included Outkast, the Replacements, Bryan Ferry and many others, the festival had moments where almost every fan dug into its most populist attractions.

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2

On one hand, well-heeled...

Opening day of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is history, so all of those second-weekend pass holders know what to expect -- and can plan accordingly.  

With acts like Muse, Skrillex, MGMT, Lorde and Pharrell Williams among some of Saturday’s can’t-miss sets, here are five things we learned from Day One.

1. OutKast has a lot of work to do. Massive expectations aside, the long-awaited reunion of hip-hop’s most beloved duo fell short Friday. It's understandable that the first show after a several-year hiatus would have some kinks, especially in a festival setting when stage turnaround is lightning speed compared with an arena tour. But the Atlanta duo’s big set was rusty and, at times, uncomfortably sloppy.

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2

Technical problems ran throughout the 90-minute set. The set time was moved up 25 minutes, which only meant the massive crowd got to watch the production crew struggle to prepare the stage (it featured a giant cube...

No one remembers full sets at concerts. They remember moments.

Snapshot memories of a particular singer's stage maneuvers. An excellent organ solo. An amazing EDM break. A bitter bit of banter from, say, Morrissey about the smell of burning flesh. 

The early part of Saturday at Coachella will be defined in my memory for one incident as young band Unlocking the Truth made its festival debut. "Young" is an understatement. The Brooklyn band's members are all in junior high school, but it didn't show. Playing a hard, distorted blend of metal, speed punk and alternative rock on the main stage, they were as well-practiced as units three times their age. 

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2

By the end of their set the small but vocal crowd were so impressed that they started chanting, "One more song!" But if Outkast can't do one more, neither can Unlocking the Truth. That didn't stop the band members from wandering toward the fans, and when they did, something beautiful happened.

One by one...

Have we talked about the Sahara tent yet? Let's talk about the Sahara tent.

Approximately the size of a small airplane hangar, it's where Coachella puts the big, dumb dance music that for many these days serves as the festival's main draw. And Friday night it was where Martin Garrix and Zedd -- two of the genre's youngest, most successful stars -- undammed the pent-up energy of 10,000 or so Millennials awash in hormones (and whatever else).

It was almost frightening, the level of intensity in the space when 17-year-old Garrix dropped the central riff of his hit "Animals," which instantly turned the crowd into a sea of outstretched limbs.

PHOTOS: Coachella Day 1 | Day 2

Worth noting: "Animals" was the first song in Garrix's set, followed closely by a pumped-up remix of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. Did the kids in the Sahara (or, indeed, Garrix himself) know any other Nirvana songs?

Who knows? And, more importantly, who cares? The teenage Dutch phenom -- a protege of Justin...

TEL AVIV — Tamer Nafar, a 34-year-old rapper who has been described as the Chuck D of Palestinian hip-hop, was standing on a sidewalk dressed in a skin-tight black bodysuit and wearing a silky red wig.

"Can I see more duck lips?" the director prodded from behind the camera. Nafar pursed obediently.

He was channeling Scarlett Johansson for a video sketch skewering the actress for serving as a spokeswoman for SodaStream, a company boycotted by Palestinian activists because it is headquartered in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

PHOTOS: 2013's year of controversial rap lyrics

Over the years, Nafar and DAM, the hip-hop trio he founded in the late 1990s with his brother Suhell and their friend Mahmoud Jreri, have produced dozens of searing songs about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But this was the first time Nafar had cross-dressed for the cause. When a gaggle of teenagers stopped to catcall, the rapper rolled his eyes and shouted, "Oh, stop!"

Nafar, a Palestinian citizen...

Bob Dylan's mercurial words on religion and spirituality have been examined for decades. Scholars, cultural critics and theologians have speculated with their pens, parsing the songwriter's syllables as if they were grains of sand. Entire books have focused on his spiritual explorations, beginning with his Jewish roots, his sometime embrace of evangelical Christianity and beyond.

For all the words, though, few have argued its point more thoroughly — and with fewer academic buzzwords — than Brothers & Sisters, a choir of Los Angeles session singers who in 1969 gathered at Sound Recorders Studios in Hollywood under the direction of Lou Adler to record an album of the most uplifting and spiritually inclined works in Dylan's early canon. The result, the recently reissued "Dylan's Gospel" (Light in the Attic Records), was released by Adler's Ode Records in 1969, but the record failed to make much of a marketplace impression. It became a footnote, one of many such stabs at...

The buildup lasted much of Outkast's oft-riveting Coachella performance on Friday night, rolling toward those set-ending classics and album tracks that defined the early '00s: "So Fresh, So Clean," "Ms. Jackson" and "Hey Ya!" 

Triumphantly returning to celebrate 20 years as a team, Antwan "Big Boi" Patton and Andre "3000" Benjamin presented repeated arguments as to why they'd earned such a huge Southern California welcome for their first shows since the Atlanta duo went on hiatus in 2007.

Visually imaginative, well paced (with a few lulls) and filled with the adrenaline of rebirth, Outkast offered 90 minutes of bouncy hip hop glory, proving that, indeed, absence begets fondness. By the time Big Boi opened his pearl of a song, "The Way You Move," as the clock was headed toward a hard 1 a.m. curfew, the pair, a band and a busy brass section had already proved its point.

PHOTOS: Day 1 of Coachella 2014

"We never relaxin’, Outkast is everlastin’," rapped Big Boi with a typical...

Toward the end of the Knife's Friday night set on the Outdoor Stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, a couple of shirtless bronzed bros wandered over from across the field, pulled by the siren song of an electronic house-music beat.

They probably expected an outpost of the rave-centric Sahara Tent (where, it seems, most fans are spending their days). From a distance, the Swedish electronica duo's take on their 2006 song "Silent Shout" did sort of sound like it belonged in the heaving maw of the dance tent. 

The bros began their species' natural fist-pumping, and crept closer to the stage. When they saw what was happening up there, though, their sweaty brows furrowed. Onstage a dozen dancers and musicians in teal space-togas were dancing to purposefully hokey, choreographed routines full of same-sex makeouts and cat-claw hand gestures.

RELATED: Coachella 2014 by numbers

Karin Dreijer Andersson, the band's singer, had the sides of her blond head shaved, and sang these...

Haim's performance Friday afternoon in the Outdoor Theatre was its first at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

But with their long center-part hair and their short denim cut-offs, the three sisters who make up this L.A. pop-rock trio look like they invented Coachella: Two out of every three women walking around Friday could easily have passed for Danielle, Este or Alana Haim. Consider them the festival's hipster-hippie spirit animals, finally returned to the den.

In fact, Este said midway through the group's set, she's a Coachella veteran, having come as a fan every year since 2004. But this was the first time she didn't jump a fence or otherwise sneak in, she added. Then she offered an apology to the show's promoter: "Sorry, Goldenvoice."

PHOTOS: Day 1 of Coachella 2014

Haim doesn't just look like it belongs here; its music -- a clever refashioning of '70s-era rock with the slick textures of '80s-era soul -- fits right in at Coachella, where nothing from the past is safe...

Coachella is for earnest young things. But every old misanthrope in Indio this weekend found their way to Mojave Tent on Friday for the Afghan Whigs.

Greg Dulli, the singer for the recently re-activated indie combo, led his band in one of the day's more scalding rock sets. They dug into loud and lecherous tunes like "Somethin' Hot" with the hormones of onetime collaborator Usher, but the bile of a 90's rocker jaded to the hilt.

While the rave tents were full of flexing bros and tweens dressed as forest sprites, Dulli's crowd was overwhelmingly wizened old cads, and nodded in quiet approval as he played harsh yet resonant bar ballads from his band's comeback album for Sub Pop, "Do To The Beast." Dulli sang from behind a pair of motorcycle-cop aviators, and the sentiment was definitely a bit like getting pulled over and knowing you're at his mercy.

RELATED: Coachella 2014 by numbers

It was one of a few really solid rock sets on Friday afternoon that tried to restore some edginess into...

Hello Day No. 2 of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival! What? You can't hear me through your throbbing Day No. 1 hangover headache? No matter. Soldier on, dear festival-goer, and head to one of these off-the-hook events, where an open bar will surely cure what ails you.

Today's post takes a comprehensive look at Saturday and Sunday's shenanigans.

SATURDAY

Neon Carnival: Perhaps the best -- and literally the brightest -- of all of Coachella's annual parties, this late-night bad boy is presented by Nylon, Olay Fresh Effects and Guess. It's also produced by Bolthouse Productions, nightlife impresario Brent Bolthouse's event-creation house, so it's as lush and over-the-top as any A-list Hollywood premiere. As the name suggests, the party, which takes place in a massive airplane hangar, and is filled with neon-lit old-school carnival rides, including a Ferris wheel and bumper cars.

PHOTOS: Faces of Coachella 2014

H&M Loves Music: Major Lazer and Jesse Marco are slated to get this...

Juxtapositions abounded on the first day of Coachella, reinforcing the idea of a pop culture splintered but joyously so.

Competing narratives ruled the day, the most striking of which early on involved a New York versus Los Angeles battle between the self-described "Trap Lord," ASAP Ferg, and the spirited Los Angeles pop/rock band Grouplove. The former, Ferg, is part of New York's ASAP crew. He appeared masked on the outdoor stage, with half a dozen veiled compadres offering big crawling beats and sibilant high hats.

The polar opposite of hot fun in the sunshine, the rapper offered bad vibe after bad vibe, lyrically speaking, the meanest of which involved bragging about stealing other peoples' lovers. The opposite sentiment spilled off the Coachella stage, when breakout Los Angeles band Grouplove sang of a more unifying brand of love and their devoted fans bellowed along.

PHOTOS: Day 1 of Coachella 2014

In "Itchin' on a Photograph," lead singer/guitarist Christian Zucconi, donning blue...

As day one of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival heats up, so does the epic party scene.

While hundreds of thousands of people have swarmed the Empire Polo Field to gorge on their favorite bands, thousands of others -- mostly celebrities, musicians, industry types and the kind of polished VIP party people that seem to be on every Hollywood guest list -- descend on private homes with lavish pools to swig at open bars, raid swag lounges and ogle potential mates while clad in barely-there swimwear.

This is the Coachella party scene: alternately wild, sexy, fun, alarming and sometimes grotesque. When it comes to people watching, the opportunities are unparalleled.

PHOTOS: Day 1 of Coachella 2014

Here's a brief rundown of Friday night parties, as well as those that last all weekend. On Saturday morning, check back here for a comprehensive guide to Saturday and Sunday's events, which are plentiful.

To get into these parties you must be on a list, which can be tricky business, so...

Barely three months after their release from Russian prison, Masha Alekhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova sit outside a Santa Monica hotel, smoking cigarettes, insisting that their group Pussy Riot is not a band.

"People sometimes think we are a musical group and think we can do a performance," Tolokonnikova, 24, says with a smile, leaning forward. Alekhina, 25, nods between drags, and adds, "But it's not true. We're another thing."

Still, the noise from a notorious one-song performance of "A Punk Prayer" inside Moscow's Orthodox Christian cathedral in 2012 was potent and outrageous enough to land the pair a nearly two-year prison stay in the Gulag for what prosecutors called "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred."

The defendants insisted it was an act of protest against the mingling of church and state, and the case drew international outrage from artists and human rights activists.

PHOTOS: Concerts by The L.A. Times

Pussy Riot is a performance art collective, its seven songs of...

As Flatbush Zombies turned the energy up high early on Day One of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the general admission lines were deeply snarled as security staffers struggled to check in  hundreds of attendees.

Despite the heat (temps were already in the high 90s), event staffers on the Empire Polo Grounds kept things light by greeting guests with cheers and high-fiving them as if they had just reached the end of a marathon. The "finish line" was the electronic stations on which guests tap with their wristbands to get beeped into the festival grounds.

PHOTOS: All of Coachella's past headliners

Inside, the so-called "baby bands" -- the slate of acts that literally open the day with not-so-plush set times -- faced stiff competition for the attention of crowds who slowly trickled in.

The Canadian group Austra played the Gobi Tent by early afternoon. The band featured singer Katie Stelmanis, who wore all red, a floppy-brimmed bright sunhat and black Minnie Mouse shoes.

Stel...

BROOKLYN, N.Y.— The man formerly known as Cat Stevens quietly walked on stage at the Barclays Center arena to be honored at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 2014 induction ceremony.

Now known as Yusuf, the singer-songwriter of 1970s folk-rock hits such as "Wild World" and "Moonshadow" converted to Islam and turned his back on pop music stardom at the end of the decade.

Thursday during the ceremony, Yusuf re-entered that fray after being introduced by Art Garfunkel.

PHOTOS: Rock Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony 2014

The 65-year-old, dressed in a crisp gray suit over a yellow T-shirt, drew surprised laughs from the crowd when he thanked Rock Hall voters for electing "someone who doesn't drink, doesn't do drugs, doesn't throw television sets out of hotel rooms and only sleeps with his wife.... It's a slightly bold move — and very rock 'n' roll."

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland is dedicated to showcasing the history and significance of popular music. Every...

While attendees to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival can increasingly enjoy such lush accouterments as four-course meals and beauty studios, there are plenty of perks for those staying closer to home this weekend, including air conditioning and open seating at many in-demand L.A. coffeshops and cafes. There's also the ability to watch a number of the fest's name acts online and from the comfort of your home. 

Coachella's rather robust live stream returns in 2014, which for the first weekend will be broadcast on three different channels via YouTube. Top-billed artists such as OutKast, the Acrade Fire, Lorde, Duck Sauce and Pharrell Williams are just a few whose full sets will be airing on the site.

This means that you can take a screenshot of OutKast's Andre 3000, post it to Instagramand your followers will never need to know you did it all while lying on your couch.  Additionally, with approximately 30 artists streaming per day, there are plenty of lesser-known acts...

Coachella 2014 is finally here.

Time to check out our official survival guide and read about the 10 must-see up-and-coming acts at the festival. 

Whether you’re at Coachella or just wishing you were, follow along as our reporters share photos, videos, news, tweets and more from inside the festival and exclusive parties all weekend long. For those at the event, here's our mobile guide.

INTERACTIVE: Tell us your Coachella Weekend 2 schedule

stacey.leasca@latimes.com
Twitter: @SLeasca

If the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival guarantees festival-goers anything, aside from wickedly high temperatures, it’s this: Leave your expectations outside the gates.

As the festival kicks off Friday, much of the buzz undoubtedly will be dominated by OutKast’s highly anticipated reunion. What will their set look like? How will the pair sound after seven years apart? Do they still have it? And even more, who might possibly join them onstage?

The surprise guest appearance is a festival staple, and Coachella acts have turned it into an art form.

It certainly wasn’t a shock when Rihanna popped up unannounced during Calvin Harris’ set in 2012 to perform the two smashes he produced ("We Found Love" and "Where Have You Been”) and it wasn't much of a surprise when Jay Z celebrated his 2010 slot as the first-ever rap headliner by calling on his wife Beyonce to join him onstage.

INTERACTIVE: Plan your Coachella schedule

But no one could have predicted...

The above graphic paints a stark picture of gender inequality on the stages of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival starting Friday. Male performers (lead singers, solo acts, DJs) outnumber female players by nearly 5 to 1, a notable, depressing truth that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone following rock, hip-hop and electronic dance music.

Of the 69 artists making electronic dance music (and its myriad subgenres), only 11 female-led acts – including Krewella, Nina Kraviz and Ellie Goulding – work the decks and/or accompany beat-based sounds.

An identical number of female-led rock acts were among the 62 total, which may be a better showing percentage-wise, but is further illustration of a bro-friendly festival.

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randall.roberts@latimes.com raoul.ranoa@latimes.com /* Main div */ div.ent-music-must-reads {...

When the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival launched 15 years ago, creature comforts included any small slice of shade cast by the odd light pole, the occasional working toilet and maybe somewhere to sit other than the dusty desert floor.

Today, there are $799 VIP passes that give you cocktail bar privileges, even though you'd have to pay extra for privileged parking. Well-heeled foodies can splurge on a $1,024 gourmet dining package. Shell out more, and you can skip the traffic — round-trip transportation is available via private jet.

These pricey add-ons are emblematic of larger shifts for the event, which runs the next two weekends on the manicured grounds of Indio's Empire Polo Club.

Acclaimed in the early 2000s for its free-spirited vibe, Coachella is now more akin to a spring break weekend at a walled-off resort than to an edgy music festival. High-end car companies and fashion brands stage elaborate pool parties throughout the area, including nearby Palm Springs....

The 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony may well go into the books for its "Who'd have thought?" surrealistic moments.

Yusuf, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, nailed one at the beginning of his acceptance speech when he quipped: "I never thought I'd be on the same stage as KISS, to be honest."

It's equally unlikely that KISS founding members Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, who joined the Rock Hall along with Yusuf on Thursday, ever envisioned sharing a stage with country singers Carrie Underwood and Emmylou Harris, who were on hand to welcome in Linda Ronstadt.

PHOTOS: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony

And who’d have thought:

-- that KISS guitarist Stanley would stand in front of a crowd of more than 10,000 fans in a concert arena extolling his many years of sobriety?

-- that rock goddess Stevie Nicks would be seen strumming air guitar while singing a snappy old Buddy Holly song during a salute to Ronstadt?

--- that Kurt Cobain's widow...

Those interested in examining the specifics of this weekend’s Coachella Arts and Music Festival, which begins Friday in Indio, Calif., with DJ Jimbo Jenkins warming the Yuma tent at 11 a.m., would be wise to download the annual festival’s smartphone app.

Filled with features including set times, bios, a handy scheduler, a list of food venders and a site map, the app has become an essential tool. (That is, if you can get a consistent signal.)

From a fan’s perspective, the app also has another useful feature: As part of its scheduling tool, the app lists the number of attendees who have added the gig to their hour-by-hour calendars. The result is a revealing look at which acts are trending.

INTERACTIVE: Plan your Coachella schedule

For example, the listing for Friday's 2:50 p.m. set by MS MR on the Coachella stage confirms that thusfar, 4,811 attendees have committed to see them in action. Compare that with the Dum Dum Girls’ 1,779 scheduled fans, and Title Fight&...

The bulk of the attention surrounding this year’s class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame zeroes in on the musicians: KISS, Nirvana, Linda Ronstadt, Peter Gabriel, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, Hall & Oates and Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. Plus whatever chatter has been sparked by KISS' decision not to perform because of bruised feelings over which band members are being inducted, fans grousing that original Nirvana member Chad Channing isn’t being included, Ronstadt’s public comments about her general lack of interest in the proceedings, etc.

What hasn’t generated 1% of that kind of attention is the culmination of a 15-year campaign that has resulted in Beatles manager Brian Epstein being inducted as a recipient of the Ahmet Ertegun Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Without their talent, he would have had nothing to manage,” said British Beatles historian Martin Lewis, who started the induction campaign a decade and a half ago after numerous conversations with...

Last month, the EDM-focused speakers' series IMS Engage announced its first round of lecturers, including Moby, David Lynch, Junkie XL and Hans Zimmer. Now they've expanded the roster with rap and disco legends.

Sean "Diddy" Combs, the MC and entertainment mogul, will join his new collaborator Guy Gerber for a discussion about their new collaborative project, 11 11.

Their new music together is surprisingly experimental house, and much closer to Gerber's catalog then the mainstream hip-hop work Diddy is most known for (though Diddy has long been a presence on the Miami electronica club scene, and his "white parties" attract top DJ talent). 

Also tapped for the event? Disco producer Giorgio Moroder and the DJ/radio host Pete Tong. 

Moroder is set to play a major Hollywood Bowl showon May 10, with Chic. ft. Nile Rodgers, Tensanke, Oliver and Destructo. Moroder has enjoyed a comeback as the paterfamilias of EDM, playing HARD's Day of the Dead and remixing Haim among many others. Tong, a...

With the induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame set for this evening in Brooklyn, music nostalgia is in full swing this week. The good ol' days of the '80s and '90s were celebrated Wednesday night on NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," where surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Kris Noveselic reminisced about the band's sudden rise to fame and Stevie Nicks revived her smokey-cool duet with Tom Petty, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around." 

Petty was absent -- replaced here with Fallon doing his best attempt to strain and distort the original Petty verses. Yet the perforrmance, complete with an '80s soap opera sheen that recalled the original video, as well as Fallon's consistently amusing music impersonations, was largely a simple reminder of the song's darker-than-they-should-be undertones. With its relatively languid pacing, verses in the original felt like thinly veiled threats. 

That wasn't the emphasis Wednesday night, however, as Fallon's Petty wasn't as...