Coachella: Seven Lesser-Known Acts You'd Be Silly to Miss

Comments (0) By Weekly Critics Thursday, Apr 12 2012

Wolf Gang

Wolf Gang is unaffiliated with Odd Future and, in fact, not a gang at all but rather the solo project of Scotland-raised, London-based Max McElligott. The handsome, witty 24-year-old makes some of the catchiest music you will hear out of the Fourth Wave of Britpop. On his 2011 debut, Suego Faults, McElligott takes pieces of late-'70s art-punk, classic rock and symphonic orchestration and splices them into mini-epics, which seem ready for American indie fans to fawn over.

PHOTO BY JOE KOCH

Gary Clark Jr.

Location Info

Map

Empire Polo Club

81-800 Ave. 51
Indio, CA 92201

Category: Community Venues

Region: Riverside County

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Embossed in a glittering electronic sheen courtesy of producer Dave Fridmann — with a sound not unlike The Airborne Toxic Event mixing it up with MGMT — single "Lions in Cages" was featured in an episode of Gossip Girl last year. Meanwhile, Wolf Gang has toured with artists like fellow Coachella 2012 performers Florence + the Machine and Miike Snow, and will open for Coldplay this summer. —Danielle Bacher

Wu Lyf

Manchester's mysterious Wu Lyf crew's moniker stands for "World United Lucifer Youth Foundation." They won acclaim by ignoring the Internet, dodging the press and recording their acclaimed debut, Go Tell Fire to the Mountain, in a church. They call their organ-heavy mishmash "Heavy Pop" — also the name of one of their songs — but otherwise the band members keep mum.

Frontman Ellery Roberts sings like Black Francis might after blowing out his throat on "Debaser," and he's about as comprehensible as early Unsane. Yet the band's anthemic, vertical music sounds like Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes and Broken Social Scene laid on top of one another in a huge, reverberating avalanche. The effect is like listening to a particularly loud sermon from outside the cathedral walls. Despite the tunes and words all blurring together, you might still sing along. —Dan Weiss

Coachella takes place April 13-15 and April 20-22 in Indio.