From top: Lady Sovereign, My Morning Jacket, Sigur Ros, Daft Punk. Photos (c) Jeff Miller.

Coachella Music Festival 2006, Day One

April 29 at Empire Polo Field, Indio, CA

Each year, my favorite moment at the Coachella Music festival -- California’s hipster convention, now 60,000 strong in its seventh year -- is always at same.

Photos (c) Daisy Romero

Black Eyed Peas, with the Pussycat Dolls
April 29 at Agganis Arena

No more shabby Carson Daly green rooms and opening slots for ex-boy-banders. Black Eyed Peas are finally headliners, dammit: bring these people the biggest sign onstage, the freshest Pellegrino backstage, and the right to pee their pants wherever and whenever they want.

(OTD is stuck at a podcasting conference this weekend (you can watch it live on the internerd), but ace photographer Carina Mastrocola is at the world-class New England Metal and Hardcore Festival, where last night goateed dudes played thrash covers of "Beat It," Italian girls killed it, and a few dudes who weren't on the schedule stopped by.

The most ridiculous weekend ever. How ridiculous?

WHAT: R. Kelly "Trapped in the Closet" sing-a-long.
WHAT?!: "Maybe you've even seen them on DVD in a room with friends. But you haven't fully experienced them until you've rapped along with R. Kelly in a theater full of hundreds of friends and a bevy of props hidden around the room.

All photos (c) K. Bonami. From top: Taco Bolt; Damon & Naomi; Ghost; terrastockists in the wild; Paik; Lightning Bolt; terrastockists; Lightning Bolt; the Spacious Mind.

Our most dedicated Lightning Bolt fan, the international woman of mystery K. Bonami, journeyed to the lost land of Terrastock, refusing all transportation except rail car, bicycle, and hang glider.

Furvis: "No, let me give you head!"

Message to Campaign for Real Time: spend your Rumble winnings wisely. In other words, make like Furvis, who made it to the Rumble finals in '05 on a platform of strict Pavement impersonation, underwent one of the more dramatic makeovers in recent local-rock history, and here unveil a slab of Stones-y, whiskey-pickled cawntry-rock, recorded by Gentleman Ed V.

No fucking idea how this ended up at the Paradise Lounge, it's like deciding to hold the olympics at your high school gym. We're guessing club bookers have no name recognition when it comes to the world's greatest party-DJ entertainers? Still, even if the "5-time turntable champion" entry didn't sink in, you'd think someone would have noticed the "Kanye West's DJ" line on A-Trak's resume.

DOWNLOAD: Hooray for Earth, "Simple Plan" (mp3)

The band formerly known as Raymond makes a huge leap forward: new name, dirty-as-shit guitars, bubbletechno synths, and anthemic moping. Quite possibly the missing link between Magnetic Fields and Andrew W.K., though left to their own devices, they call it something completely different: "Blur, Nirvana, and Enya breaking things at a video arcade in hell."

Bets now being taken now on who Matt "Ho-Ag" Parrish's famous hospital visitor was (scroll to bottom for latest news): operation apparently successful, on his way home. In other news, C440r checked in to say they beat us to the news and put up mp3s to boot, while Ryan Walsh checked in to defend his honor (see comments), which of course we defend as well.

When I met Don Lennon three years ago, he sat across a table from me for nearly an hour and hardly cracked a smile. Perusing the few press photos that exist of the guy, one would be forgiven for wondering whether he’s ever smiled at all. Which is why it’s amusing that Routine (Martin Philip), the fourth solo album from the erstwhile Bostonian — you may remember him from The Umpteens, but probably don’t — is so preoccupied with comedy.

No telling who the hell's in the band -- at one point last year, Chris Brokaw was -- but Evan Dando is back on a record label again, album reportedly due in the fall. You'll excuse our cynicism, but given the various stops, false starts, and bitter recriminations, we will not be holding our breath. The big questions, none of which have been answered yet:

The Strokes
April 25 at Agganis Arena
Photos by Carina Mastrocola

Didn’t love the new stuff -- except for "You Only live Once," which is fucking great, like the Pretenders on cocaine and restraining orders; and "Ask Me Anything," with just the mellotron, which everyone seems to hate but reminds us of Simple Minds and Magnetic Fields -- but didn't mind it either, because they got most of it out of the way right up front.

Roadrunner touting the Dresden Dolls sophmore-slump-dodging Yes Virgina as the "#1 selling new release in the US":

NEW YORK, NY - The Dresden Dolls are on fire. Their sophomore album Yes, Virginia is the #1 selling new release in the U.S. this week as the album debuts at #42 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart with 19,000 albums sold.