IVANA’S IN A FESTIVE MOOD

ONE-MAN WRECKING MACHINE: I may be older than your mom, but if I’m determined to be front-and-center at a show, like during the Gnarls Barkley set at Coachella, there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Good luck trying to slither in front of me (I pinch), and don’t even THINK about invading the space I’ve carved out for myself (I’ll kick the back of your heel until you move). For my part, I’ll arrive an hour early if necessary, and do my best to engage those in my immediate periphery in conversation. The very tall gentleman to my right at the aforementioned Gnarls Barkley show was a teacher who lived four hours north of Detroit, and saved his vacation days so he could go to Coachella. The kid to my left with the really cool Japanese watch already knew every song on the record. Yeah, it was well over 100 degrees in the tent (glad I decided to wear black), but I didn’t care! In fact, my second day at Coachella was jam-packed with memorable musical moments, from Phoenix (who SHOULD be as big a band as, say, Maroon 5) to Ladytron to Gnarls Barkley (covering Violent Femmes’ “Gone Daddy Gone,” even!) to Matisyahu (definitely a crowd favorite) to back-to-back Common/Kanye West sets to The Editors to an amazing Coheed & Cambria performance to Mogwai to my exiting after 10 p.m. while Cocteau Twins’ Liz Fraser made a rare onstage appearance with Massive Attack. I know I also heard (but couldn’t see) TV on the Radio, My Morning Jacket and many other bands during Coachella, although it’s kind of a blur right now—I also know I was whining for a sherpa to rescue me during the loooong trek back to the car on Saturday night. Of this I am certain: being in the middle of over 65,000 Coachella attendees each day reinforced my faith that if you put together a compelling festival, the audience will follow. Radio programmers, in the unenviable position of also being concert promoters, should take note. In that same spirit of building the perfect concert experience, KROQ announced the lineup for Weenie Roast, and it is a veritable who’s who of core KROQ bands, including Red Hot Chili Peppers, AFI, Dashboard Confessional, Rob Zombie and blink-182 alum Angels & Airwaves, as well as Matisyahu and Panic! at the Disco, among others! The show is this Saturday, May 13, and I’m sure I’ll see you there!… We were SHOCKED and saddened to hear that WXRK Cleveland and PD Kim Monroe have parted company. Without question, Kim will land elsewhere soon—the talented programmers always do… KMYZ Tulsa named Ken Wall PD, following Corbin Pierce’s departure to KHBZ Oklahoma City. Ken was most recently at WRAX Birmingham… KMYZ was among the stations (others included 99X and WAVF) adding Damone’s “Out Here All Night” this week. Damone are the greatest—I LOVE this band!… Speaking of Island bands, Hoobastank’s “Inside of You” was Most Added at Active this week, and has been #2 phones at KXTE since they started playing it over a month ago. PoMo radio will undoubtedly make this song Most Added next week… KRBZ, one of our favorite PoMo stations, is leading the way on the new Elefant single, “Uh Oh Hello,” which Lazlo says he loves. We love Lazlo. We love Elefant. We love Geordie Gillespie at Hollywood Records…. Speaking of people we’ve loved since our scenester days in NYC in the early ’80s, Lorraine Caruso is having a fantastic week on the new Three Days Grace single, “Animals I Have Become,” as well as making a strong showing on the new Living Things single. That other band she’s working, Tool (maybe you’ve heard of them?), should easily debut at #1 next week at retail. Godsmack’s IV also bowed at #1 this week, which means that this week’s magazine should be filled with headlines heralding THE RETURN OF ROCK, or something equally profound. Hey, let’s enjoy it while we can… Speaking of rock bands we love, MTV2 added the new 30 Seconds to Mars video this week for “The Kill.” This is one of the most visually arresting videos we’ve seen this year—tell Bill Carroll and Howard P. you want to stream it on your station website… Speaking of videos, Jacqueline showed me The Cartel’s video for “Honestly,” and it’s so awesome! What a great band! What a great song! 99X added it this week—how cool!… The upcoming Arctic Monkeys tour is already SOLD OUT (including markets without airplay)! “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” is FIRMLY entrenched in the Top 10 at PoMo, with new adds this week at WOCL and WRZK. The CD has sold over 168k in merely 8 weeks! Very exciting!… Mark Czarra and Steph Harty at Universal want you to hear the band The Working Title. Trust me, your audience are already fans… WHENEVER YOU’RE ON MY MIND: Howie Miura, Leslie Fram, Jay Harren, Lynn Barstow, Gomez, Kevin Kertes, Sean Demery, Jack DeVoss, Jeff Sottolano and Mike Childs.