[The Audiofiles] The Countdown to Coachella Has Commenced!

Once Spring has sprung, it can only mean one thing – it’s time to fest with the best, On the West Coast, you’ll find droves of party people, festival families – and actual families, flocking down to Weekend 1 and Weekend 2 of the Coachella Music and Arts Festivals, and then again the following weekend for the Stagecoach Festival – but the later is definitely for another time and place 😉 Over the last few decades, the pull of the music community has been strong with Coachella – eliciting the creme of the crop from each and every far reaching corner of the music industry. Originally founded in 1999 by Paul Tollett, Coachella is now in it’s 19th year and produced as a beautiful byproduct of the California based AEG subsidiary, Goldenvoice. Like Coachella, Tollett has only magnified his position in music culture as the President and CEO of Goldenvoice and a Board Member of AEG.

A dynamic, ever changing event – many of us have been witness to the pure expansion of the festival and it’s widespread cult-like appeal. At it’s inception, Coachella boasted one day of decadent dancing; in 2002, the festival had spawned an extra day of extravagance, by 2007, a thirsty third day was added into the mix and in 2012, Coachella had grown large enough to warrant double weekends. As of 2016, we’re all anxiously awaiting the global takeover – and it starts g as the best of the West heads East in the form of New York City’s Panorama Music, Arts and Technology Festival, held on Randall’s Island July 22-24; not to mention this week’s announcement of 2017’s Arroyo Seco Music + Arts Festival, which wistfully ushers music festivals back into Los Angeles proper.

Now that we’ve had ourselves a little history lesson, it’s time to prepare for our Adult Spring Break the only way we know how – an official playlist of all the artists you’d be a fool to miss while you’re imbibing, indulging and enjoying yourself in Indio’s desert landscape. We don’t know how the stages are going to tear our groups apart quite yet, so until then we can all share this proverbial dancefloor together and groove to the collective tunes of the esteemed Coachella cast of 2016.

Each weekend’s music is a cascading arc – from Friday’s dynamic stage presence of James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem, to Saturday’s historic sounds Rock and Roll sounds of Guns N’ Roses and then closing it off with Calvin Harris, in an ode to the sheer power and prowess of EDM. There’s definitely something for everyone at the show, but at The DJ List, we want to give an extra special shoutout to the BPM brothers and soul sisters, booty shakers and dance music tastemakers that have ushered in stages like the Yuma, overrun the Gobi, scared the over-30 crowd away from the Sahara and coveted the Do LaB stage all for their own.

The dance influenced acts of this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival are: the emotive and brooding Underworld, M83, bass heavy, crowd pleasing DJ superduo Jack Ü, made of Skrillex and Diplo ( does this mean we should be prepared for some Bieber fever?!), Purity Ring, 2manydjs, DJ Mustard, Snakehips, Bob Moses, the queen of Techno Nicole Moudaber, Sasha (and will be maybe bring Digweed on stage?!), Disclosure, Zedd, RL Grime, Tchami, ZHU, Nina Kravitz, RÜFÜS DU SOL…..and I’m not even halfway through the second day, not to mention the EPIC lineup from the Do LaB camp!

I’ll be out at Weekend 2 of Coachella representing The DJ List with some of my press besties, including Danny who’s shooting the event as an on site photographer for Getty Images; I can’t wait to show you guys the magic he captures! don’t be afraid, to share some grooves, moves and or beers with us as we enjoy the 17th anniversary of The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

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