Coachella Bands by HoH

He headlined the Main Stage of the first night of the first ever Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 1999, just ahead of the release of his album, Midnite Vultures.

Also at the first Coachella was this critically-acclaimed post-hardcore band, whose break-up two years after spawned Sparta and The Mars Volta. They reunited in 2012 to play several big festivals, including Coachella, where they ended their sets with One Armed Scissor, a single off their last album, Relationship of Command.

Coachella’s rise in popularity coincided with a similar surge for Pitchfork (the music website, not the agricultural tool). This band’s 2002 sophomore album, You Forget It In People, received a 9.2 rating from the site, which positioned them for indie rock stardom. Off of that and their electric live shows which at times featured over a dozen people on stage, this Canadian supergroup played Coachella twice (in 2004 and 2011).

The rumour of the Smiths reuniting for Coachella never came to be primarily because the band’s two main creative forces could not stand each other. However, as solo acts or as part of another band, they’ve each played Coachella twice. Name BOTH the feuding lead singer and lead guitarist of the Smiths.

This Canadian headlined the Sunday nights of both weekends of Coachella 2015, his first time at the festival. The widely-panned sets included awkward cameos by Madonna and Nicki Minaj, and unsurprisingly, not Meek Mill.

One of the criticisms of Coachella is that their line-ups feature very few solo women or female-fronted acts. In fact, its main stage has only ever been headlined by one act that fit that description. Name the only woman who headlined the main stage at Coachella, doing it both in 2002 and 2007.

If women are a rare sight on stage at Coachella, women of color are even more rare. But in 2015, this woman found her way onto the Coachella Stage on the Fridays, performing tracks off her 2014 debut, Broke with Expensive Taste. She will be starring in her first feature film in 2016 in Rza’s musical, Coco, where she plays the title character.

One woman of color who might headline Coachella in the future is Beyonce. While she hasn’t played the festival, her husband Jay-Z has, as has this sister of hers, who played the Gobi Tent in 2014. Queen Bey was even there to support her by dancing on stage during her set.

The OC’s Seth Cohen would’ve loved the 2004 version of Coachella, as both Death Cab for Cutie and Bright Eyes played. This other band, which Seth probably would’ve liked too, headlined the Gobi Tent. They are best known for providing the theme song for the OC and, for a time, having Jason Schwartzman as their drummer. Their 2002 record The Guest is worth a listen if you're into Weezer-esque power-pop.

This Scottish band played Coachella in 2014, but skipped 2015, perhaps because they were putting the final touches on their second album, Every Open Eye, the follow-up to their excellent debut, 2013’s The Bones of What You Believe. Aside from touring extensively, lead singer Lauren Mayberry kept busy between records by penning think pieces for the likes of the Guardian, while the band played numerous covers on British radio shows, many of which you can see on YouTube.

2012 was the first year Coachella expanded to 2 weekends, each with virtually the same line ups for the main stages. The one exception is at the Mojave Tent, where the set by the German electronic duo Modeselektor in the second weekend featured this frontman of a popular English band, who was a collaborator on their 2011 album Monkeytown. Who is this man, whose main band was clearly influenced by his interest in electronic music?

You can sometimes chart an artist’s growth in popularity by the size of the stage they play at Coachella. In 2006, This band played the Mojave Tent. In 2008, it’s the Outdoor Theatre, and by 2013, they’re playing the Coachella Stage. With the upcoming release of Pagans in Vegas, this Toronto quartet aren’t likely to be going back to the smaller stages any time soon.