Coachella - Day One

Its Coachella weekend in Indio, California and there is a lot of great talent hitting the stages all day today and tomorrow. We can only wish that we were there experience everything that the music and arts festival has to offer, but it will not stop us from taking a step back and forward to see what some of these great artists that are making the Coachella festival a stop on their current schedule. Franz Ferdinand The Glasgow, Scotland band is fresh off a recent tour across Canada with Death Cab for Cutie. In fact, the played last night in Vancouver, British Columbia at the Pacific Coliseum, PNE grounds. As a headliner of the festival, you can expect a big crowd looking for a big show at Coachella. The New Amsterdams With a recent release of a new album entitled "story Like A Scar" on March 21st in their back pocket The New Amsterdams will be showing off their skills on the Coachella stage today. Following the show they will be taking a quick break before another tour around the United States and a trip to Vancouver, Canada start on May 19th. Watch for the Kansas City based indie rock band to spot in a neighborhood near you. Sigur Ros Iceland should be very proud of what Sugar Ros is doing around the world and how they are representing their great nation. Another trip to Coachella is in store for Jon Por Birgisson, Kjaran Sveinsson, Orri pall Dyrason and Georg Holm. Switzerland Canadian fans can now get excited because the band has confirmed that they will be playing at the Montreux Jass Festival on July 3rd. Eagles of Death Metal Primary players Jesse "the devil" Hughes and Josh "baby duck" Homme started out as high school friend now they are out to rock the crowd at Coachella. They will continue their ways on The Late Show with David Letterman on May 18th which will be followed by a quick tour in parts of the United States starting on May 27th in Houston, Texas. The Zutons The Liverpool, UK based band consisting of singer Dave McCabe, guitar Boyan Chowdhury, sax Abi Harding, bass Russ Pritchard and drums Sean Payne have a new album out in stores, their second, entitled Tired Of Hanging Around recently entered the UK album charts at number two. The guys have a tour planned starting in May in the United Kingdom. Sheffield this their first stop on May 4th, also known as 04-05-06. Cat Power The American singer/songwriter Charlyn Marie Marshall hit the Mojave Tent at the Coachella festival and should be packed with fans. If you're not able to catch her at the California music festival she has plans to travel to a number of limited cities in the United States following her set at Coachella, starting in Seattle, Washington on May 1st. Check out her MySpace site for other locations and dates. Ladytron We missed the Liverpool, UK based group when making a stop in Toronto last week and yet again we will miss them at Coachella. They have recently released a new EP in North America which features new mixes and b-side tracks, plus a film entitled Once Upon a Time in the East: Ladytron in China. If you would prefer to see them live they will have a couple of shows in California after the Coachella festival before head over to Europe for a number of stops. Check their tour schedule on their website for details.

What A Way To Go - Death By Sexy!

With a frontman named Jesse "The Devil" Hughes, you would expect to be listening to a hardcore death metal band from the deep desert of Arizona. Eagles of Death Metal may have started from the desert, Palm Desert, California, but they are about as close to death metal as "Hotel California" is to being classified as a Heavy Punk track. Needless to say, you shouldn't judge a band by its name. You may know the drummer of the band as Queen of the Stone Age member Josh Homme and dEUS member Tim Vanhamel. With the success of their performance in SXSW and mass media that has been flowing out from the festival, many around the country have been looking extra forward to the new release by the Eagle of Death Metal. The album entitled "Death By Sexy" was released today (April 11th) and was worth the wait. With opening tracks such as "I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)" will give you a jolting taste of exactly what this band is all about - pure energy (no not techno energy). Now we all look foward to seeing the day that they take their act on the road for the reason of North America to bring the energy to a concert hall near you. If you have not heard anything by Eagles of Death Metal OR just haven't heard any tracks from their latest album "Death By Sexy" then have a listen to some samples on their MySpace site. The guys do not have any plans in the near future to jump into their rusty old tour van for a cross country adventure, hitting every major city with at least two 10 story office builds along the way to give local kids something to get excited about. However, if you live in one of the following locations you can grab your boots and join Jesse Hughes in the movement. :: April 11, 2006 - Minneapolis, MN :: April 21, 2006 - Philadelphia, PA :: April 22, 3006 - Washington, DC :: April 23, 2006 - New York, NY :: April 24, 2006 - Boston, MA :: April 29, 2006 - Indio, CA

Frontman Billy Lunn of The Subways has lost his voice and was forced to cancel some shows in England over the last couple of days. Lets hope that he gets well before making the trip over the pond to North America in the near future. :: more ::

Zach Hoskins of Modern Pea Pod sits own with Jesse Hughes of Eagles of Death Metal to discuss "movement and phenomenon" that EODM have become. He also gets the opportunity to discuss the Eagles' spring tour with the Strokes, as well as touching on everything from groupies to girl-phobic indie kids and Rick Springfield. :: more :: Skratch Magazine also got a hold of Jesse "Boots Electric" Hughes to talk about SXSW. :: more :: Andy Smythe of Zero Magazine talks with Jesse Hughes about the upcoming release of "Death By Sexy". :: more ::

They may have started as just another side project in Josh Homme's Desert sessions, but eight years later, the Eagles of Death Metal are really making a name for themselves. With their second proper studio album hitting store shelves today we can guarantee that you won't have another album like this in your collection. The latest album "Death By Sexy" is well worth the additional to your collection, but don't take our word for it, here are some others with a thought or two. :: Jennifer Kelly, PopMatters :: Christian Hoard, Rolling Stone :: Phil Villeneuve, ChartAttack :: Kamran Rouzpay, Decoy :: Jason Crock, Pitchfork