Brad Schultz isn’t supposed to be in Nashville. “We should be on a little run in Europe, festivals and things,” says the Cage the Elephant guitarist, “but our guitar player smashed his knee up pretty bad. He’s actually having surgery right now, as we speak.”

The accident occurred roughly 15 minutes into a recent festival set in the Netherlands. As the band played “Cold Cold Cold,” from 2015’s Tell Me I’m Pretty, guitarist Nick Bockrath approached the audience for his guitar solo, jumping off the drum riser toward the front of the stage.

“And he just landed weird,” Schultz says. “He tore his ACL, tore his TCL and fractured his tibia. Pretty gnarly injury.”

While Bockrath is now on his way to recovery, the on-stage accident was only the latest in a series of misfortunes, heartbreaks and tragedies to befall the Grammy-winning band. In just a few short years, the group encountered deaths, divorce, and overdoses—much of which became the influence for this year’s moody, slick Social Cues.

“We’ve always wanted our records to reflect the things that we’ve been through, leading up to that record,” Schultz says. “And it was a tough time in life for everybody. In the span of the last two or three years, we’ve had close to 10 of our friends and family members pass away. At one time it seemed like this never-ending wave of doom. And at the same time, Matt was going through his own struggles within his personal relationship.”

In lead single “Ready to Let Go,” singer Matt Schultz (Brad’s brother) details a portentous trip to the ruins of Pompeii with his then-wife.

“Sun went down over Pompeii,” he sings, over snapping guitar and a buzzsaw synth line. “On holy ground, our vows were broken.”

With the doomed city as its backdrop and central metaphor, “Ready to Let Go” builds to a huge chorus in which Schultz describes himself striking a match and spreading the ashes of his relationship.

“He was digging very deep,” Brad says of his brother’s lyrical process. “Sometimes those words are hard to sing when you’re in the middle of it, the middle of that kind of pain. I think in the end, though, the record became very therapeutic for us.”

Cage the Elephant come to Shoreline this week as part of the Night Running Tour they’re co-headlining with Beck. The tour draws its name from the band’s new single, which features their tour mate as a guest vocalist.

“We had only met him one time,” Schultz says, “but we started thinking about doing some kind of feature on the track and Beck just popped into my mind. We sent it on a whim, not even really thinking we’d hear back. And within maybe 24 hours he sent us back a demoed version with the verses that he’d put on there. He said he had four more verses if we wanted to hear more!”

“Night Running” is a clear album highlight—a dub-heavy pop jam that finds Beck rapping on the first verse and playing hype man on the chorus. The interplay of the voices, the back-and-forth chorus and the consistent forward momentum all make for one of the band’s most inspired songs yet. It also, hopefully, signals a step away from their recent run of bad luck.

“I think we’re in a good place, other than Nick’s knee,” Schultz says, chuckling. “We’re finally getting back to a bit of normalcy. Knock on wood. I feel like I’m constantly holding my breath even just saying that.”

Cage the Elephant
Jul 16, 6pm, $30
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View

The First City Festival is adding to an already packed Northern California concert lineup with Beck, The National, The Naked and Famous and Phantogram headlining the First City Festival in Monterey.

The Festival returns for its second year August 23-24 in the coastal town with Best Coast and Dawes also on the lineup. In addition to two days of music it also features classic fair rides and vaudeville style antics and performances from Vau de Vire Society dancers.

The festival, presented by Goldenvoice (the same promoters behind Coachella), was named after the coastal city’s town claim as the “first capital” of California and home to the states first public school, library and newspaper.

The complete First City Festival lineup:

Beck
The National
The Naked and Famous
Phantogram
Best Coast
Dawes
Cults
Cocorosie
Blind Pilot
Lake Street Dive
Tokyo Police Club
Geographer
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Midlake
How to Dress Well
San Fermin
The Men
Lo-Fang
Miniature Tigers
Speedy Ortiz
Midi Matilda
Sleep Sun
The Stepkids
Mimicking Birds
Quilt
Mr Little Jeans
The Lonely Wild
The Family Crest
Doe Eye
Cool Ghouls
Survival Guide

Tickets for the festival go an sale at 10 a.m. on May 9. Visit the official festival site for more information.

Scenes from First City Festival last year:

We headed up to San Francisco over the weekend to catch performances from Metallica, Beck, Jack White and more.

Photos by Zach Davenport.

Rock critics have been obsessed with Kurt Vile’s supposed “trad-rock” sound, constantly comparing him to classic rock icons like Springsteen. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt to be spoken of in the same breath as the Boss, and certainly he’s one of the Philadelphia musician’s many musical heroes. But I think this is a tragic case of confusing an artist’s influences with his art.

Listening to Vile’s latest, Smoke Ring For My Halo, I hear the low-fi indie-rock of contemporaries like Yo La Tengo (who, don’t forget, love them some retro rock) and Beck. Vile has a personal, intimate way of delivering a song that is miles from the big, poppy sound of FM radio heroes past, and Springsteen’s worldwide-sized anthems.

Yes, Nebraska is the obvious exception, but Vile’s sound doesn’t have that reductive starkness, either. On the contrary, I’d say he’s completely of his time, the epitome of the forward-looking 21st century singer-songwriter: patching together a unique and remarkable pastiche-rock sound under slightly numbed but still emotional lyrics about the state of his world today. Let’s leave the Springsteen comparisons with Gaslight Anthem, shall we?

Kurt Vile plays the Catalyst in Santa Cruz on Wed, Jun 6, 8:30pm; $15/$17.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio has become the most influential music festival in the country, but it wasn’t always like that.

After a slow start in 1999, organizers didn’t even bother to try again in 2000, and only a miracle second shot in 2001 (courtesy, of all people, Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell—more on that later) turned the festival’s fortunes around.

What a difference a decade makes. Despite the fact that Coachella infamously recycled its headliners (and a lot of its other acts last year), the festival matched its attendance record set the year before. It sold out in six days. This year, organizers added a second weekend (featuring the same line-up led by Radiohead, Black Keys and Dr. Dre with Snoop Dogg, along with Bon Iver, Florence and the Machine, the Shins and more)—both sold out in three hours. Even if they’re still capping paid attendance at around 75,000 per day, that’s still almost half a million people kicking up dust in the desert. (Those looking to skip the desert scene can find many Coachella acts performing in the Bay Area in the weeks surrounding the event).

As its drawing power has grown, its cultural influence has grown even more. In fact, it’s practically become synonymous with reuniting big-name bands, partially because it owes its continued existence to the reunion of Jane’s Addiction in 2001; it was the surprise booking that made that year’s festival a hit. Other reunions that built Coachella’s rep include the Stooges in 2003, the Pixies in 2004 and Rage Against the Machine in 2007.

This year features a record number of reunited bands: Mazzy Star, Pulp, At the Drive In and Refused among them. When I spoke to Ed Crawford, vocalist and guitarist for the post-Minutemen cult favorites Firehose, he admitted their new reunion is pretty much entirely because of Coachella. Organizers had actually approached the band last year, but they were unable to do the festival because of Mike Watt’s prior commitments. But they didn’t let up, coming back with another offer this year.