A man accused of raping a 23-year-old woman in the parking lot at last weekend's Stagecoach Music Festival will face charges in court next week. 46-year-old Darin Garrett of Los Angeles was working as a parking attendant at the festival, which took place at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio last Saturday night when he offered assistance to a woman who was looking for her car in an overflow parking lot... more ›

One week after music die-hards make the annual pilgrimage to Indio for The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, a new fest will rock the Empire Polo Grounds. This gathering, however, will be a decidedly heavier affair. And by heavy I mean, pure, face-melting, metal destruction. On April 23rd, the Big 4 Festival, featuring Anthrax, Megadeath, Slayer and headlined by Metallica, will make its first and only American stop. After 7 European dates last year, American metal fans prayed for DEMANDED a stop here. Goldenvoice, the force behind both Coachella and the Stagecoach Festival (also taking place on the Polo Grounds, one week after the Big 4) has granted their collective wish. more ›

The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things, of shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax, of cabbages and kings. And of Coachella. The big announcement is finally here. Shhh, if you listen closely you can hear the muffled shrill of sycophant whineoceroses deflating in winced unison. Bemoan! Oh the woe! No Radiohead. No Daft Punk. No David Bowie. Coachella 2010 was aMuse-ing, but Coachella 2011 is all about DURAN DURAN OMG SIMON LE BON AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!. And all these other bands: more ›

Goldenvoice managed push out the 2010 Coachella lineup this morning -- a full 3 months in advance of the 3-day festival April 16-18 in Indio -- and before the typical fake Coachella posters made the rounds. more ›

As a surprise to the many who awaited the typical January announcement, event promoter Goldenvoice has just revealed that The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will be held April 16 to 18 on the green lawns of the Empire Polo Club in Indio, according to Pop & Hiss. They have not yet named headlining acts, however pricing and ticketing info is already available on the official Coachella site. $269 plus fees will get you a full 3-day pass, and struggling music lovers can buy passes on a layaway plan, but "you must do so before Feb. 1." more ›

It wasn't until concertgoers arrived at the gates yesterday that they finally learned what classic album Phish would cover in its entirety during their "musical costume" set at Festival 8. Reviving a tradition that began in 1994 when Phish covered The Beatles' The White Album, last night the quartet staged an ambitious cover of the Rolling Stones' 18-song double LP, Exile on Main St. As in years past, the costume choice was a closely-guarded secret until the day of the show, when thousands of "Phishbill" programs (à la Playbill) were distributed, complete with bios of the "cast," which last night included Sharon Jones on vocals and members of the Dap Kings on horns. more ›

Tonight Vermont-based jam band Phish (LAist Review) will be concluding Festival 8, a three-day stint in Indio at the famed Empire Polo Club. Indie rock duo Black Gold are poised to take on the Troubadour with none other than all-female rock trio Girl In A Coma. And, lastly, Ohio-based lo-fi rock act Times New Viking will be performing at the Echo with San Franciscan noise-infused pop outfit Sic Alps for this week's edition of Part Time Punks. But we strongly suggest heading over to Amoeba Music in Hollywood to catch Los Angeles' own "Ambassador of Boogie Funk," Culver City-based DJ/selector DâM-FunK. more ›

Last night Phish tore through the first two of eight sets which the quartet's scheduled to play during their three day "Festival 8" in Indio, California. The Halloween-themed bacchanal, taking place at the astonishingly beautiful Empire Polo Grounds (also home to the Coachella music festival), is a homecoming of sorts for Phish, which invented a new rock festival model in 1996—even before disgruntled audience members rioted at Woodstock '99 over the rapacious price of water. Phish was the first contemporary band to organize multi-day rock festivals which treated attendees like guests, not numbers. This novel approach inspired Bonnaroo, where Phish performed for the first time in June. more ›

Country diva and Palm Springs native Shelby Lynne treated the folks in the audience for her show last night at Indio's Stagecoach Festival to an earful. But she wasn't serving up just the sweet sounds of her songs--she had an awful lot to say about how unhappy she was with the venue and the attendance.

"I love singing to empty seats," Lynne sarcastically said as she opened her set, remarking about the vacant chairs in the reserved section in front of the stage. more ›

There were at least a handful of LAist contributors at this year's Coachella Festival, and as we slowly recover from our Coachella "hangover" we'll continue to upload photos and tell the stories from another epic weekend in the desert... (or at least the parts we can remember) more ›

The moment has finally materialized: The official lineup for the three-day mega music fest in the middle of nowhere (aka Empire Polo Field in Indio) has been announced. more ›

The Oscars are set to be announced tomorrow in Beverly Hills, but today, this Holiday day, the uber-California music festival experience will be announced. From Mexico City, no less. more ›

Is Indio the new Austin? Over two back-to-back weekends this spring, scores of the best indie, rock, pop, electronic, and country music will play to tens of thousands outside Palm Springs. The last weekend of April will bring three days of Coachella, and the following weekend will see the first Stagecoach country festival. Voici: Saturday, May 5, 2007: George Strait, Alan Jackson, Sara Evans, Jason Aldean, Eric Church, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Neko Case,... more ›