My vote for best American festival goes to Goldenvoice’s consistently good Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival going on this weekend. Missingtoof will be dancing in the desert for three days! If you’re headed there too, I’m sure you’re equally excited about what you’re going to be able to see and stressed out about all the stuff you’re undoubtedly going to have to miss… Talk about tough decisions! Here’s the breakdown of what’s happening in Indio, California this weekend:

The lineup is overwhelming (maybe the scheduler can help?)! Björk/Soulwax/Ed Banger/Etcetera/Etcetera/Amazing/Amazing—all that aside, the singularly most hyped act this year has been the planned reunion of Rage Against the Machine, after a 7 year break-up. Last time I caught these guys play it was riot, like, literally! They did a free protest show (supported by Ozomatli with Cut Chemist still intact) against the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in downtown Los Angeles during the 2000 Election campaign. The concert was staged right outside the convention in an enclosed ‘protest area’ and that scene ended in a small-scale riot with cops on armored horses and rubber bullets and the whole fun bit! Let’s see if we can outdo ourselves this time!

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MP3:  Inside Out – Redemption (Zach de la Rocha pre-RATM) (1990)

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MP3:  Rage Against The Machine – Killing in the Name (1992)

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MP3:  Rage Against the Machine – Know Your Enemy (Live @ Coachella 1999 with Maynard of Tool) (1999)

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MP3:  Zack de la Rocha and DJ Shadow – March of Death (2003)

If you prefer your RATM mashed-up and glitch’d-down, try and find this bastardized collection of MP3s titled enRAGEd. Maybe someone over that this originating site will bring it back to life someday if we pester them! I’ve heard a few tracks and they’re very IDM-ish.

If you need a deeper primer on Coachella 2007 artists, try these Missingtoof tags for downloadable audible goodies from the archive.

Search our tags: Busy P, DJ Mehdi, El-P, Flosstradamus, Ghostface Killah, Kid Sister, Klaxons, Justice, MSTRKRFT, Ratatat, Soulwax, Spank Rock