Ocean to Ocean, Fest to Fest

It’s a warm January week on the East Coast and an apocalyptically wet one out West (sending love to my California friends), and the Covid forecasts remain more than a little unsettling on both coasts. And here come the spring festival announcements as if it’s just another regular schmegular January. I admit to being a little startled by Tuesday’s twin announcements of the COACHELLA and BONNAROO lineups, even though both arrived right on schedule. Things aren’t exactly back to normal in this sector, or in this world. But the music biz is gonna music biz, and the message is plain: Everything is awesome. Make your plane and Airbnb reservations, stat.

OK then. Between BAD BUNNY, BLACKPINK and FRANK OCEAN, Coachella has three adventurous (and blockbuster) pop headliners, only one of whom sings primarily in English, and all of whom are deeply informed by hip-hop but none of whom you'd label a rapper. And let’s not even talk about rock (or, as Stereogum suggests with gleeful hyperbole, “If you dare to bring a guitar to the desert, GOLDENVOICE will bury your guitar, and they might bury you with it”). For all the battles in Washington and elsewhere, globalism and diversity seem to have won in pop music. Good.

It will be Coachella’s second year back from live music’s Covid hiatus, and Goldenvoice will be hoping for a smoother ride than in 2022, when it lost two headliners: TRAVIS SCOTT, dropped before the official announcement was made because of the ASTROWORLD tragedy, and KANYE WEST, who backed out, not completely unexpectedly, at the last minute.

As always, there’s a deeper, wider festival happening in the smaller fonts on the Coachella poster. Not ready to bury that guitar? You’ll be able to program your own mini-festival, featuring, for example, in decreasing order of font size, O.G. new-wavers BLONDIE, hardcore true believers SOUL GLO and indie-rock revivalists HORSEGIRL. The options will be overwhelming. But the overall programming message is thorough and simple—“a mirror of the pop cultural zeitgeist,” in the words of KCRW’s ANDREA DOMANICK. Oh, and also: artist/producer JAI PAUL’s first ever live gig.

For the old-school summer festival staples of rock, hip-hop and techno, you have Bonnaroo, which will be top-lined by FOO FIGHTERS (on the road for the first time since the death of drummer TAYLOR HAWKINS with a yet-to-be-announced replacement), KENDRICK LAMAR and ODESZA, along with the usual healthy mix of roots, rock, country and jam bands. And SHAQ.

Meanwhile in New York

For festival fans who can’t wait until spring and are within range of New York City, the weeklong WINTER JAZZFEST begins Thursday. It’s a consistently great fest, highlighted by a two-day marathon that takes over venues in Manhattan on Friday and Brooklyn on Saturday with a dizzying array of performers including IMMANUEL WILKINS, LINDA MAY HAN OH, MAKAYA MCCRAVEN, IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS, the SUN RA ARKESTRA and many more. Think of a smaller SXSW in which all the bookings are on target and no one’s throwing up on the sidewalk. There’s no better guide to the jazzathon than PIOTR ORLOV’s "rhythm, improvisation and community" newsletter, DADA STRAIN, in which he describes the weekend as “a musical smorgasbord that every year reminds you how just damn healthy the music is, a way to float around the neighborhoods, dance with many people, talk with a few, go from standards to weirdness to body music, and back to tunes.”

Film Music

CATE BLANCHETT and AUSTIN BUTLER won two of the top acting awards at the GOLDEN GLOBES Tuesday night for their roles as, respectively, fictional maestro LYDIA TÁR (in a complicated movie I loved) and non-fictional rock and roll pioneer ELVIS PRESLEY (in possibly the only movie TOM HANKS has completely ruined). Butler may still be in character. KALA BHAIRAVA, M.M. KEERAVANI and RAHUL SIPLIGUNJ were honored for their song “NAATU NAATU” from the Bollywood movie RRR (beating out TAYLOR SWIFT and RIHANNA) and JUSTIN HURWITZ won for his BABYLON score.

Rest in Peace

Country, pop and rock musician, producer and promoter LES BROWN JR. He was also an actor who once showed up on GILLIGAN'S ISLAND as a member of fictional rock group the MOSQUITOES.