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Music

Coachella Special: The Style History of The Stone Roses, Blur, The Make-Up, and Nick Cave

Nick Cave's been working suited and booted vampire chic for 30 plus years and The Stones Roses have a lot to answer for.

The Stone Roses: unfamiliar with tailoring. Being in a band in 2013 automatically makes a person cool whether they deserve it or not, but this hasn’t always been the case. There was a time when many bands didn’t actually try to be stylish, they just were, and by default they helped create iconic looks that have since been emulated by hundreds of other musicians, including many of the bands we listen to today. This year’s Coachella lineup includes a strong set of artists whose natural quirks or lack of funds back in the day helped create their signature image. The trickle-down being, we've all either tried to pull off these looks ourselves, or these bands simply inspired us to imagine hooking up with them during the daydream sessions of our youth. Bands will always be cooler than DJs or laptop fiddlers because being part of a gang rules. FRIDAY NIGHT
The Stone Roses
After years of claiming that a reunion was impossible—in 2009 guitarist John Squire even created an artwork emblazoned with "I have no desire whatsoever to desecrate the grave of seminal Manchester pop group The Stone Roses 18.3.09"—the quintessential “Madchester” band are back. LOL that he called his own band "seminal," but okay, he's kinda right. What's John’s excuse? It’s safe to assume the global financial crisis has been pretty persuasive.

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Off the back of their critically acclaimed 1989 debut, The Stone Roses have been held up as proto–Britpop gods, influencing Blur and Oasis and everyone in-between. Even so, it was a huge surprise to many to find that they were headlining Friday at Coachella. The band broke up in 1994, long before the majority of this year’s concertgoers were probably even conceived. Style-wise, many might not realize the impact they had on pop culture. Their look was ostensibly anti-fashion: the UK's visual equivalent to grunge. For reference, check the slacker montage in Clueless set to World Party's cover of Bowie’s “All The Young Dudes.” In the accompanying voiceover, Cher Horowitz hates on a group of guys with long floppy hair, XL t-shirts, and oversized baggy pants; The Stone Roses (and skaters) are somehow to blame.

By the time Clueless was released in 1995 the band were on the way out, but in 1993 at the pinnacle of their career, they were the coolest band in the UK. The kind of guys you’d want to trash talk with over a beer, and later, get messy with in a dark basement on the sketchy side of town. Although it seemed like their legacy lay exclusively in the band’s self-titled debut, you only have to look at new British bands like Peace and Swim Deep to see that their spirit lives on in ill-fitting attire too.

Blur
Another hugely respected band from the mid-90s, Blur have had an even bigger impact on music and fashion, and alongside Oasis, they’re responsible for making Britpop popular internationally. With a preppier, Mod-influenced look, they sported short shaggy hair, tight Fred Perry t-shirts, and Doc Martens. Back in those days, when bassist Alex James flicked his trademark side-swooped hair from side to side, all the girls down the front gripped each other in a hormonal haze. Suddenly socially awkward dudes in heavy horn-rimmed glasses who could barely make eye contact (Graham Coxon), became every indie girl’s ideal. Along with frontman Damon Albarn, Blur helped aid a global chain reaction of English pop and shoegaze-leaning bands who had young, fervent female fanbase. It wasn’t long after the release of their commercial breakthrough—1995’s Parklife—that the band grew sick of the monster image they’d accidentally created. Their response was to get into lo-fi via Pavement, release “Song 2,” and break America. Oops. But this next era of Blur was less about the quartet as stylish Britpop pin-ups and more about the darkly heartbroken, raggedly uplifting tunes they composed before Damon splintered off to do Gorillaz, write an opera and collaborate with 1023 musicians all over Africa. Now reunited with Graham after a five-year hiatus, Blur’s look these days has a sort of relaxed, I’m-a-cool-dad vibe. Which sounds lame, but no one rocks a duffel coat and Breton shirt like Graham. Bizarrely, given Blur’s hefty and eclectic back catalogue, they’re playing second fiddle The Stone Roses’ headline Coachella set.

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SATURDAY NIGHT
The Make-Up
Mid-90s post-punk band The Make-Up is another group that might sound unfamiliar to the masses attending Coachella. Coming straight out of Washington DC, frontman Ian Svenonius traded the hardcore scene for one of his own making: "gospel yeh-yeh," a sort of weird East Coast corruption of Motown and rock 'n' roll. Their image was integral to their sound and carefully cultivated at that. The plaid shirts and ripped jeans of their contemporaries were verboten. Instead they transported us to Detroit in the 60s via their matching suits, big bouffant hair, long sideburns, and pointed, heeled leather boots. Style-wise, they paved the way for the early 2000s East Coast indie rock scene.

Ian Svenonius also had a decent knack for working two-piece velvet suits. He's officially one of the only two men allowed to wear them, the other, as you well know, is Prince. Although they never had a commercial hit in America, they’re underground legends, idolized for injecting an infusion of gospel, punk, and pseudo-political ideologies into their music.

SUNDAY NIGHT
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Nick Cave's Gothic infatuation can best be understood in juxtaposition to his fellow countrymen: Australians. Nick's probably one of the few who isn't permanently in board shorts and “sunnies” and his near-translucent shade of pale can only be truly perfected by moving to Britain. Which he did.

A true renaissance man, he’s a painter, actor, author of two novels, screenwriter and leader of both his namesake act and Grinderman. Nick’s artistic intensity bleeds into every aspect of his art, with lyrics obsessed with death, religion and the most consuming kind of love, which works well with his black 3-piece suits and silk shirts accessorized with gold chains. Not to mention his long, tucked-behind-the-ear, almost-mullet. Yet, despite his dark persona, this son of a librarian and a teacher is surprisingly talkative and funny.

After 30 years, he's the only frontman of his kind whose amassed a dedicated fan base that continues to appreciate his theatrics and connect with his artistic output. He takes pride in being very different from everyone else. A few years back, when a reporter asked if he worked hard at being cool, Nick responded, “No, I was just always cool.” True that.

Style Stage is an ongoing partnership between Noisey & Garnier Fructis celebrating music, hair, and style.