Music Festival

Coachella's second weekend is upon us, and if you find yourself again frozen out of the desert festival the merry pranksters of Upright Citizens Brigade have assembled in what they're calling the Desert Tent (better known as the UCB stage) for a music festival that features troupe founder Matt Besser along with provocatively named groups such as Hip Hop Penguin, Cosby Sweater and Up Up Up. As an added bonus, chances of heat stroke are considerably diminished here. 5919 Franklin Ave., Sun. 9:30 p.m. $5 (323)

Music insiders offered insights and travel tips about the world of music festivals at a Saturday panel at the L.A. Times Travel Show called "On the Road: Traveling for Music & Festivals. " The panel returns noon Sunday. Times staff writer Jessica Gelt led the discussion with Betto Arcos, host of KPFK's Global Village; Rick Farman, creator of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival and Outside Lands; and Nigel Dick, filmmaker. Secrets to tickets If tickets sell out quickly, Farman recommended companies that sell packages, noting most are VIP packages.

Heat, drugs and alcohol can be a deadly combination at large summer music festivals like the Bonnaroo Festival Music & Arts that just wrapped in Manchester, Tenn., where a second death was reported Tuesday. Entertainment Weekly reports that a 24-year-old man died from hyperthermia, a condition that occurs when the body gets too hot and can't cool itself. Temperatures at the festival were in the 90s, and large crowds of sweaty bodies probably didn't help the situation. A few days ago a 32-year-old woman was found dead at the festival's camp grounds, but the cause of death is not known.

Here's one thing about hype: It's almost impossible to live up to. That's the case of the highly anticipated Shakira and Rihanna collaboration, “Can't Remember to Forget You,” which premiered Monday. News that the pop stars came together to flaunt their sexiness in song sparked plenty of online chatter, especially when the official artwork surfaced of a sultry Rihanna draped over Shakira's lap, herself equally smoldering. Unfortunately, the single, which launches Shakira's follow-up to 2010's “Sale el Sol,” could use more steam.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival takes place at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif. Th e Black Keys , Radiohead, the Shins, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg and a ton of other bands are featured at this year's outdoors concerts starting this weekend. The Saguaro hotel in nearby Palm Springs puts you close to the action and has a $199 room rate that comes with exclusive pool-side music parties in a kind of mini-Coachella celebration. The deal: The Saguaro , a relative newcomer to the Joie de Vivre chain of hotels, will host Desert Weekender parties 1-6 p.m. featuring DJs such as KCRW's Jason Bentley of "Morning Becomes Eclectic," live performances by Nosaj Thing, Tokimonsta and other bands, plus free food goodies too. The rate requires a two-night minimum stay during the weekends of the Coachella fest.

Re "Cajun Culture Adds Spice to Music Festival," May 28. This article left me pondering several issues. It hardly mentioned the music or the musicians. Isn't the music the main reason people go to this festival? Why didn't you interview some of the musicians participating? I think the quote by festival Chairman George Bercow, that when this annual event started more than a decade ago he didn't even personally like Cajun music, speaks volumes about this event. DENNIS GURWELL Burbank

Leave it to a couple of "ice cold" rap stars to bring the heat back to the desert. OutKast, the trailblazing Atlanta hip-hop duo whose members memorably described themselves that way in their 2003 smash "Hey Ya!," will headline this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, organizers announced late Wednesday. The performance is to be the group's first since it went on hiatus nearly seven years ago, following the release in 2006 of "Idlewild," an ambitious movie musical that spawned a companion album with the same title.

This weekend's Hard Summer festival took a tragic turn Saturday when a concertgoer died at a nearby hospital, promoters confirmed Sunday. In a statement, Hard Events and its parent company, Live Nation, said the 25-year-old male fan suffered "cardiac distress" just before Flying Lotus' Saturday set, and died after being taken to LAC+USC Medical Center.  LA Weekly and Spin witnessed the events and described a quick response by on-site...

A six-story-tall Doritos vending machine served as the backdrop for performances by artists such as Snoop Dog, White Denim and Mystikal at last week's South by Southwest Festival and Conference in Austin, Texas. It was perhaps the most impressive display of corporate sponsorship at the annual festival, which started out 25 years ago as a way to showcase indie bands but has since become a massive, mainstream music event. Chevrolet, Pepsi and FreeCreditScore.com were among 10 official sponsors of the festival, while Taco Bell, Marlboro and Spotify joined other big business names whose banners adorned Austin's dozens of live music stages.

Reporting from San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico Oakland-bred Raka Rich brought the flow of California hip-hop, in Spanish. Puerto Rico's Davila 666 ignited a wild mosh-pit with its Latin-tinged punk. And all kinds of new Mexican acts — as varied as Juan Cirerol of Mexicali and cumbia-rockers Sonido San Francisco — showed that Mexico's independent music scene just might be at its most dynamic in years. Over 12 hours on Saturday, some 4,500 fans gathered to hear more than 50 international acts at a sonically diverse annual music festival called NRMAL.

There's really no question: When it comes to pop songs about spherical implements of destruction, Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" beats Lea Michele's "Cannonball" in every way, not least in the matter of each song's central metaphor. "I came in like a wrecking ball / I never hit so hard in love," Cyrus sings , "All I wanted was to break your walls / All you ever did was wreck me. " That's good writing -- concise, emotional, easy to visualize. Then there's Michele, who sings, "Now I will start living today / Today I close the door / I got this new beginning, and I will fly like a cannonball.

Leave it to a couple of "ice cold" rap stars to bring the heat back to the desert. OutKast, the trailblazing Atlanta hip-hop duo whose members memorably described themselves that way in their 2003 smash "Hey Ya!," will headline this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, organizers announced late Wednesday. The performance is to be the group's first since it went on hiatus nearly seven years ago, following the release in 2006 of "Idlewild," an ambitious movie musical that spawned a companion album with the same title.

Classical music buffs certainly have heard Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, but we suspect they've never heard them sing. Next June, the 2014 Ojai Music Festival will give them the chance. The three great composers are among the characters in a new comic opera, “The Classical Style,” that will have its premiere on June 13, the second night of the four-day annual festival. They won't be singing their own stuff, but music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky. The librettist putting words in their mouths is Jeremy Denk, the pianist and recent MacArthur Foundation “genius award” winner who's curating the festival as its music director.

Prince is headed to New Orleans to headline the 2014 Essence Music Festival, the annual three-day festival held over Independence Day weekend, Essence announced Tuesday . Next year's installment will mark the 20-year anniversary of the festival, which is billed as one of the largest gatherings of black artists in the country. Prince previously performed at Essence in 2004 to mark the festival's 10th year. The 2014 festival is set for July 4-6 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

A list of upcoming concerts across the Southland, with on-sale dates in parentheses. Empire Polo Club Stagecoach Country Music Festival, April 25-27 (Fri.) Shrine Expo Hall Steve Aoki, Nov. 15 (now) El Rey Theatre The Mowgli's, Dec. 11 (Fri.); the White Panda, Dec. 7 (Sat.) Fonda Theatre Darkside, Jan. 25 (Fri.); the Aquabats, Dec. 7 (Sat.) The Wiltern Panic! at the Disco, Feb. 16 (Fri.); Amanda Miguel y Diego Verdaguer, Nov. 15 (Sat.)

Six years in, it's reasonable to expect some growing pains from the Angel City Jazz Festival. Heading into its third and most conventionally "festival-like" concert on its six-night schedule, which offered a slate of four acts under clear skies at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, the festival still couldn't escape the shadow of a run of bad luck with scheduling. With the event's most buzzed-about act -- the Robert Glasper Experiment -- canceling its show due to a scheduling conflict, the festival rebounded fast by booking the Terence Blanchard Quintet in his place for Oct. 12. But just as the sun was setting, festival emcee LeRoy Downs announced from the stage that Blanchard had also canceled his appearance (a festival representative later cited "circumstances beyond our control," and said all pre-sold tickets would be refunded)

The 2013 Hear Now Music Festival is meant to be the sound of Los Angeles. What does that mean? No one really can say, anymore than what it means to be an Angeleno. Over two programs at the First Lutheran Church of Venice on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, a dozen pieces will be played by a dozen composers. They don't all live precisely in Los Angeles -- Altadena (William Kraft), Claremont (Karl Kohn), even Berkeley (John Adams) counts. The age difference is great. They come originally from Austria, Germany, New Hampshire and elsewhere.

With all the anniversaries upon us - the Los Angeles Master Chorale celebrates its 50thwith a gala at Walt Disney Concert Hall Sunday and the Los Angeles Philharmonic follows that next week with the start of a monthlong celebration of the venue's 10thanniversary - it is too easy to forget about Carlsbad. The quaint seaside village in North San Diego County is best known for Legoland. It is also home to the quirky Museum of Making Music. But 10 years ago, a young composer at USC, Matt McBane, quietly (well, quite loudly, at times)

Organizers of New York's Electric Zoo dance music festival announced Tuesday that they will offer partial refunds after canceling Sunday's final day of performances in light of two drug-related deaths. The deaths included one 20-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man. Representatives for the city of New York (which owns the Randall's Island facility where the festival is held) said that use of MDMA is suspected in each death. At least four other festival patrons are currently in the hospital with symptoms apparently related to the drug.