Coachella countdown - Morrissey & other Top picks for Day One of California's finest music festival

April 13, 3:51 PMPop Culture ExaminerDominic Patten

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The calendar might say different, but this weekend's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is the first real sign that summer is here - at least the summer festivals. The economy might be hurting bad, the music industry might be bleeding and paparazzi everywhere may be salivating with opportunity now that Lindsey Lohan is single again and on the loose on the Sunset Strip, but this year's Coachella delivers a 10th anniversary line-up that will make that all seem very far away. Now granted, way out there in the desert at Empire Polo Field in Indio, California near Palm Springs everything seems somewhat far away, but with this Coachella picks we aim to bring it all a bit closer ... or at least conserve your time for the best festival ever. 

No doubt, if you're going all the way out to Coachella, you're planning on seeing headliners Franz Ferdinand, Morrissey, and Beatle Paul McCartney on Friday, M.I.A, Thievery Corporation and the Killers on Saturday and the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, the reunited My Bloody Valentine and the still in black, still wonderfully gloomy The Cure on Sunday. However, unlike too many festivals, Coachella isn't all about the headliners. Like a great melody, the weekend rises and rises and within that rise there are some pretty good finds. So pack lots of sunscreen, plan on giving yourself lots of time to get from stage to stage and location to location and really plan on making some great new friends while you're there cause, besides the music, that's the best part of Coachella. Besides the music that is ....

Coachella 2009 Best Picks

There are lots of great bands and performers playing, I mean like that broken hearted ladies man poet Leonard Cohen and lots more, but here are a few that you have to see on Day One. 

Day One - Friday - April 17

Morrissey - I know the headliners are a bit of either a no-brainer or something to hear in the background as you make your way back to your tent or lodgings, but Morrissey is and always has been different. Like Stonehenge, the former Smiths frontman's legend might be bigger than his reality but there is no doubt that whether or not you were one of the choose few who saw The Smiths back in the Eighties, you have to see him before you die. After all, he's Morrissey, and, as Years of Refusal, his latest album, reveals, he can still show the pretenders how it is really done.

Girl Talk - the master of mash-ups shows that all that work makes for one Hell of dance mix. And you will dance.

Take a listen to some Girl Talk right here

M. Ward - in one year he was the He in the delightfully listenable He & She with   Zooey Deschanel and then, going solo again, he releases Hold Time one of the best records of this or any other year. It probably hurts to be that talented, it can't hurt at all to hear and see one of Portland's finest do his thing. Plus, M. Ward has said that "Amazing Grace" is his favorite song and that's my favorite song, so we spiritual types gotta stick together.

The Black Keys - They play tough and stripped down 21st century blues. So if you believe that Blues is blood then blood will be boiling when the guitar and drums Ohio duo hit the stage.

Check out the Black Keys live here

The Hold Steady - they've been called one of the best bar bands in America and Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, loves them but the thing that stops the Brooklyn-based group from being another bunch of Bruce Springsteen clones is that they take you down the Boulevard of Broken Dreams much more than any Thunder Road and they don't cut any lyrical corners on the way. "Best bar band in America?" - make mine a double.

More Coachella Day Two best picks to come. And remember, there'll be a plethora of Examiner coverage onsite, onstage and all Coachella long. 

Check out the Coachella site here for up to the moment info, what stage people are playing on and what time