A Coachella coach’s advice

Every music fan who joins the caravan to Coachella has a personal plan for the ideal immersion. Some are focused, holding a spot near a particular stage for hours, awaiting a beloved artist. Others go ambient, wandering wherever old or new friends lead them, leaping toward whatever half-heard sound throws a hook around an ear.

Then there are the most hopeful Coachella-goers, who seek something extremely elusive: the unparalleled musical set. Perhaps you are one of them: a true believer, hoping for a weekend, or at least a set or two, that will change your life, on whatever small level.

Focusing on headliners is one way to get that rush -- certainly, Paul McCartney’s desert debut will be memorable -- and the almost-headliner slots, packed with legends like Leonard Cohen and zeitgeist rulers like M.I.A., can provide it too. But sometimes the best way to access surprise and delight at Coachella is to try something you’ve never heard before.

Here are some artists in the great big middle of the bill at the Empire Polo Field this coming weekend; some come equipped with critical buzz, a strong fan base or a few years under their belts. Each has a good chance of becoming the most talked-about artist of the weekend -- or maybe just your favorite.

--

Friday

The Bug featuring Warrior Queen: Electronic music isn’t all about a dance party; the most powerful artists are masters of dark fantasy, carrying forth messages from deep within the collective psyche. As the Bug, London-based DJ Kevin Martin blends dancehall’s aggressiveness with the expansive experiments of dubstep to make music that’s alluring and scary. Teaming with the Jamaican vocal lioness Warrior Queen, the Bug has crafted a sound that’s somewhere between heavy artillery and spiritual ecstasy. Trent Reznor is a fan; the pair recently toured with Nine Inch Nails.

Buraka Som Sistema: In the new global pop landscape, trends jump continents with the ease of a great Internet connection. Kuduro is a sound that represents the cultural exchange between the central African country of Angola and Portugal, which once claimed it as a colony and where many emigrants relocate. This group is the style’s premier practitioner, known for generating sweats with dizzy rhythms and rapid-fire vocals. M.I.A. is a fan and collaborator; maybe she’ll guest during this set.

The Hold Steady: One of the two best bar bands in America (rivaled only by the Drive-By Truckers, who play the next day), these Brooklynites transcended that category by making it a prime subject. Craig Finn’s hyperliterate songs would be pretentious if not for the tattered joy the band never stops generating and the singer’s deep belief that the most profound guy in any given room might have been the one who just threw up in the wastebasket.

--

Saturday

Mastodon: The desert may be the ideal place to absorb the soaring intensity of serious hard rock, and this year, Mastodon is the band to bring it. The Atlanta four-piece continues to refine the idea of intelligent metal mayhem on “Crack the Skye,” its fourth album and the most accessible yet. Renowned for gleefully brutal live shows, the band benefits from a new level of subtlety on this complicated conceptual outing, and that is likely to make for a triumphant territory grab during this set.

Tinariwen: Many rock stars like to claim they’re nomads; these African blues players are. Ibrahim Ag Alhabib and his bandmates are Tuareg -- Saharan wanderers with connections to Malian rebel movements -- whose entrancing, organic sound invokes the meaning of the group’s name: empty places. The band’s deep, psychedelic groove is sexy and tough in ways that the term “world music” just doesn’t capture. Just ask self-professed fans Carlos Santana and Robert Plant.

Ida Maria: This Norwegian power-pop songstress is like Katy Perry in some ways; she has dark hair and a sultry voice, a sizzly wit and a love of confrontation. But Ida Maria is a proud feminist who exhibits real, messy, plate-breaking emotion in songs such as “Oh My God” and the torchy “Keep Me Warm.” She’s an It girl that bighearted young women deserve.

--

Sunday

K’Naan: Blending funky African cool with North American ghetto swagger, this Somalia-born, Toronto-based artist has crafted music -- and a message -- that doesn’t just play at crossing borders. He’s a close friend of reggae’s first family, the Marleys; has kicked it old school with Chubb Rock; and got Kirk Hammett to take a break from Metallica and throw him a solo on his new album, “Troubadour.” Now that’s crossover!

Vivian Girls: Certain special bands set forth a wave of simple sonic pleasure, hitting listeners with the cleansing effect of a Waterpik. Vivian Girls, a Brooklyn trio that (unlike all those animal-named bands with only humans in them) actually consists of young women, is one such entity. Fuzzy but focused post-punk jangle with rattling guitar, hard-banged drums and harmonies that sound as if they belong in a high school bathroom add up to make the Vivian Girls one of this year’s new favorites.

Throbbing Gristle: Coachella is known for helping reunite alternative-rock elders, but rarely is a returning group as foundational to a style of music as is this English outfit. More than 30 years ago, Throbbing Gristle basically invented industrial music, melding synthesizer music with found sound and provocative, sometimes repulsive imagery to push punk into its darkest future. Its members continued to shape the genre in groups such as Psychic TV and Chris & Cosey, but this return to the source allows fans to participate in a collaboration that’s essential and consistently inventive.

--

ann.powers@latimes.com