Coachella preview: The Bug ft. Warrior Queen

Pop & Hiss will be covering the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., from April 17 to 19. There are more than 120 acts on the bill, but in the next couple of weeks, we'll be selecting some of the best bets -- some on the radar, some flying below.

Who: The Bug ft. Warrior Queen

Why it will make you want to move to a city with subterranean mass transit and bituminous skies: Of course, we need a subway to the sea to duck the steel crush of 5 p.m.traffic — but lost in the morass of Henry Waxman-led bannings and Villaraigosa's myopia is our Angeleno inability to properly absorb the Bug’s third album. An apocalyptic, mercury-colored maze built for the grimy claustrophobia of packed Tube cars, “London Zoo” is engineered to repel light.

Pigeonhole the Bug, born Kevin Martin, at your own peril. Often classified as dubstep, his music incorporates dub, dancehall, industrial noise and soot-coated hip-hop, and he's collaborated with El-P, John Zorn and Cutty Ranks. The “Influence” section on MySpace pages typically reads like a Christmas wish list, but Martin’s makes sense — Philip K. Dick, David Lynch, King Tubby, Scientist, Public Image Ltd., Public Enemy, Wu-Tang, Pharoah Sanders, John and Alice Coltrane, Miles Davis and My Bloody Valentine. Virgin Atlantic tickets to London start at $640. Here’s hoping Goldenvoice constructs a makeshift Underground in Indio.

  -- Jeff Weiss