Coachella 2013 Lineup Announced

The Coachella 2013 lineup is finally here and finally official. There are a couple little surprises here and a couple things worth paying attention to for the rest of the year. Here is my knee jerk, initial reaction. 

First the good. With Phoenix and Vampire Weekend playing that means only one thing: they are armed with new music. It will be fun to follow their trajectory this year as both band's previous albums were really stinking good. Can they, especially Phoenix, live up to the hype? As a fan of both bands I hope so.

Dinosaur Jr. seems to have new life so their set will be interesting. I'm also curious what the crowds will be like for chart toppers Of Monsters and Men and the Lumineers. Former Smiths guitaris Johnny Marr could be on double duty as he will be playing solo and his former band Modest Mouse both play on Friday. Might they collaborate again?  

Now the surprises. Who's excited for the English quartet The Stone Roses? The band hasn't really been active since 1996 but I guess the promised world tour and new album is finally happening. What about the Postal Service? Ben Gibbard doesn't play festivals with his main and more popular band Death Cab for Cutie but does with a side project that only released one album back in 2003? Curious. I'm also surprised by the lack of a big name DJs to blow the roof off the legendary Sahara Tent Stage. Last year they had Swedish House Mafia, Avicii, David Guetta, Martin Solveig, Afrojack, and Kaskade. That's massive. Hardwell and Bassnectar are great but hardly matchup to last year.  

As usual the lineup is pretty stacked so if you are headed out to the desert there will once again be no shortage of great options.