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Some Things Worth Noting About This Year’s Coachella Lineup

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Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 01/10/2012 at 2:03 PM News

The Popdust Files: coachella, dr. dre, snoop dogg

This year’s Coachella festival in California will last two three-day weekends (April 13-15 and 20-22), not just one like before, but otherwise, the lineup follows its standard lines. There are the not-really-questionable headliners: blues-rock darlings the Black Keys, Radiohead (who in particular would cause riots if they appeared as non-headliners) and West Coast dream team Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. There are the hype-drenched reunions like Pulp and Mazzy Star, the up-and-comers like Gotye, Azealia Banks, A$AP Rocky and araabMUSIK (not together, alas), the safe-bet established acts like Bon Iver, M83, Arctic Monkeys and Florence and the Machine. And also…

* The festival’s finally completely caved and/or realized how many of its visitors are there for the stadium-sized dance acts (and related activities), and is promoting them really freaking hard. We’ve got Swedish House Mafia, Afrojack, Justice, David Guetta, Avicii, Kaskade, and those are just the ones with font size H2. (We’ll save you the obvious whine/joke and note that Skrillex was last year. In teensy type. But hey, Nero’s on here! BROSTEP PREVAILS!)

* Speaking of teensy type, all of the following are (writer’s opinion) unjustly buried in the lineup: Dragonette, Tune-Yards, EMA, Laura Marling and Metronomy.

* Frank Ocean obviously didn’t have as scarring an experience at Coachella as “Novacane” would suggest. This’ll be his second consecutive year, after last year’s Odd Future set.

* Hey look, it’s the Sheepdogs! Winning a Rolling Stone cover contest apparently does have tangible results. Someone should probably ask LA Riots’ opinion on this, though.

* Anyone want to speculate about who’s the last-second Sabbath replacement? We know you want to. Or, more specifically: we want you to. Go.

Check out the full poster below: