Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Thunders Into Southern California

Wes Woods II, Staff Writer Posted: 04/12/2012 05:05:53 PM PDT Updated: 04/12/2012 08:15:11 PM PDT

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival with its hundreds of acts will converge in the desert with scores of thousands of fans for two sold-out weekends starting today.

The Black Keys, Radiohead, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg are among the headliners.

"The best thing about Coachella is there's so many different types of acts," said Karl Hartwig, general manager at Zia Record Exchange in Las Vegas who is working at the store's booth at Coachella this year. "From a retailer standpoint it's your best customer experience several hundred times a day. We can do a week's worth of sales in one day."

Adrienne Scherer, store manager at Rhino Records in Claremont, likes the fact that the festival gives exposure to smaller bands.

"One thing that happens every year is that when they announce the lineup people come in (to Rhino Records) with a list," Scherer said. "They say `I want to know about these smaller bands."'

Such bands this year include indie rock's Abe Vigoda, who are originally from Chino.

Meanwhile artist Destructo, who's real name is Gary Richards, performs Saturday and April 21 at the festival. He admits he was a little nervous until he came up with a plan.

"Now I'm just going to have a few cocktails and rock the house and do what I do and not get so crazy. Just treat it like it's any other gig - even though it's not."

Richards, a producer and DJ in Los Angeles starting in the early 1990s, helped launch the careers of Basement Jazz, Lords of Acid and others when he became head of A&R (artists and repertoire) for electronic music at Def American Recordings.

He later created HARD in 2007, which puts together events such as the HARD Haunted Mansion that features electronic music.

"I try to align myself with guys who last," Richards said. "As with anything, there's a few great people, then all the other people copy them."