Pitchfork: Pixies, Radiohead, Kraftwerk Confirmed For Coachella Fest in May

Pixies, Radiohead, Kraftwerk Confirmed For Coachella Fest in May
Neutral Milk Hotel, Velvet Underground, Howard Dean tentatively booked for second night

[Posted Wednesday, January 14th, 2004 18:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Radiohead, Kraftwerk, and The Pixies are among the headlining acts who have now confirmed appearances at this year's Coachella festival in Indio, CA, according to reports from Billboard and MTV. The May 1, 2004 date marks the first official booking of the reunited Pixies lineup, first reported to MTV by an unnamed source last September, though it is as yet undisclosed if the Coachella show will be the band's first public appearance since disbanding in 1993.

Prior to this afternoon, the only confirmed acts for Coachella 2004 were Prefuse 73, Air, The Thrills, Electric Six, Sahara Hotnights, and (International) Noise Conspiracy. With today's announcement, you can expect the quality of the other announced bookings to rise exponentially over the coming days. The two-day festival will be held May 1st and May 2nd at the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, CA, just outside of Palm Springs.

As previously reported, the Pixies lineup is expected to be the original foursome of Frank Black, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering (though, the band must be begging Eric Drew Feldman to come along, or some permutation of that scenario). 4AD are releasing a Pixies DVD containing all of the band's videos, a complete live show, and the documentary Gouge, as well as a brand-new "retrospective compilation" CD-- both of which should be out in time for full-on Pixiesmania. The Trio cable network is currently airing the Gouge documentary this month, which features interviews with Radiohead's Thom Yorke, David Bowie, PJ Harvey, and many others on the enduring influence of the Pixies.

In addition, Billboard reports that Frank Black is currently preparing a new solo release for spring 2004 via SpinART, though nothing more is known about that at this time. Black's last release was a download-only EP released via iTunes, as reported by Pitchfork last month.

The Radiohead booking is expected to be a one-off appearance in North America, as the group have booked very few live appearances for 2004 thus far (there are standing engagements of four nights each in Japan and Australia in April) and have been recording-- more on that in tomorrow's newswire.

The Coachella booking marks a fifth North American appearance for the kommissars of krautrock; the rest of the band's extensive world tour is detailed in the story immediately below.