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Eight reasons this week’s Coachella festival is worth the road trip

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Swans will bring the strange to Coachella.
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RIDE Of the few reunited bands on the Coachella poster, none boasts a font size as big as Ride, arguably the most tuneful of the shoegazer bands that ruled the early 1990s British indie scene. The band will end its 20-year silence with a gorgeous racket of guitars and pedals inside an intimate tent. Friday, 5:25 p.m., Gobi Tent. –Mike Prevatt

THE WAR ON DRUGS Adam Granduciel’s indie-rock gang seemed a bit out of place when I caught them at last year’s avant-garde Austin Psych Fest, but the band’s dreamy melodies and carefree spirit should hit all the right spots on Coachella’s lush fields as the sun sets on day one. Friday, 6:10 p.m., Coachella Stage. –Spencer Patterson

TODD TERJE AND THE OLSENS The Norwegian nu-house king’s much-revered performance at last year’s FYF Fest only whetted the appetite for another. Thankfully, Terje returns to the SoCal festival scene, this time with his percussion ’n’ strings band the Olsens in tow for a more organic and hearty presentation. Friday, 9:20 p.m., Gobi Tent. –MP

SQUAREPUSHER British electronicist Tom Jenkinson returns to the fest after a 14-year absence, bringing a vaunted live reputation and a Warp Records pedigree to his slot opposite Friday headliner AC/DC. Prep by listening to DnB classic Hard Normal Daddy (1997) and recent skittish success Ufabulum (2012). Friday, 10:50 p.m., Gobi Tent. –SP

PARQUET COURTS Rock isn’t dead, but you might not realize that looking at the 2015 Coachella poster. A festival once rich in next-wave guitar groups seems to have all but fazed them out. One notable exception: these fidgety Brooklyners, who sound like they’ve been listening to loads of Television, Talking Heads and The Modern Lovers. Saturday, 1:25 p.m., Gobi Tent. –SP

FATHER JOHN MISTY John Tillman’s last Coachella performance proved he’s as much a showman as a crooner. For his return, he and his band come loaded with musically crisp and lyrically tart tunes from the certain best-of-year candidate, I Love You, Honeybear. Saturday, 8 p.m., Outdoor Theatre. –MP

SWANS Having seen Michael Gira’s extreme, experimental ensemble once before, I feel safe predicting the group’s Saturday-capping set will be the weekend’s most intense in terms of volume, dark lyrical content and musical forcefulness. That said, I can’t imagine what it might feel like truncated to fit a 55-minute time-slot. Saturday, 12:05 a.m., Gobi Tent. –SP

GESAFFELSTEIN It’s fitting that Frenchman Mike Levy uses a German moniker—while his seductive chords and playful grooves might conjure up Paris (by way of Chicago), the hard beats and ominous synths scream Berlin. Fatigued festivalgoers will be rewarded should they power through Sunday night and save the last dance for his dystopian disco. Sunday, 9:20 p.m., Mojave Tent. –MP

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