We're just over a month away from Coachella's typical lineup announcement window, which means it's time for the rumor mill to kick into high gear.
We'll start out with what we know: An interview last summer with James Mercer pretty heavily implied that the Shins are playing Coachella. Prolific Snapchatter DJ Khaled has hinted at a spot in the lineup as well. And legendary disco-funk guitarist and Chic co-founder Nile Rodgers has confirmed his appearance next year too.
Then we move onto acts that are "confirmed"—as in confirmed by anonymous posters on Coachella's fan forums and the Coachella subreddit who "heard" from an industry source who said artists are playing Coachella. These have tended to be mid-tier bands: Justice, the xx, Tycho, Gucci Mane, Rae Sremmurd, Capital Cities, Warpaint. Again, take all of these with a grain of salt.
And then there's the "rumored" category. These range from what seems like wishful thinking (people who really want to see Gorillaz) to some Nancy Drew detective work (the Avalanches started following Coachella on Instagram).
By far the biggest rumors we've seen involve the headliners: Beyoncé, Radiohead and Kendrick Lamar, if this reddit thread is to be believed. A couple of rumor blogs have repeated the same trio of performers, though all simply point to that reddit thread or offer the lineup as pure conjecture. In our brave new world of fake news, that's enough to have people already clamoring for tickets on Twitter.
Here's the thing: Coachella rumors are tricky. These could turn out to be true. Sure, it's strange that Kendrick Lamar would play Coachella less than a year after he headlined Goldenvoice's other fest, FYF. But we thought the same thing about LCD Soundsystem, too. LCD Soundsystem and Guns N' Roses were both hinted at ahead of the official lineup announcement, and those leaks turned out to be absolutely true. On the other hand, this year there was a highly suspect Daft Punk countdown that turned out to be a bust. In other words, between now and the official lineup announcement this winter, take everything you hear with a huge grain of salt.
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