Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs [photo: Debi Del Grande]Southern California's desert musicfest Coachella began in earnest on Friday, bringing highlights like a mini-set of Smiths songs from Morrissey's better ex-half, Johnny Marr; a Britpop double-header of Blur and Stone Roses; fantastic live sets by Beach House, Jake Bugg, Divine Fits, and Foals; and a Daft Punk album-preview commercial that bizarrely generated more buzz than many of the day's actual performing artists. And along the way, some random radness ensued. Here are five cool observations from day one in the desert.

Daft Punk's surprise video is the talk of CoachellaDay one of Southern California's Coachella music festival in the Indio desert boasted an impressive lineup of acts, from the old-school (Stone Roses, Blur, Jurassic 5, Sparks) to the new (Foals, Palma Violets, Jake Bugg, Passion Pit). But the act that made the biggest impression did so without even showing up: Yes, the talk of Coachella Friday was not a concert but a commercial, basically, for Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, one of the most anticipated albums of summer 2013.

Afrojack is one of the biggest DJs on the electronic music scene nowadays, thanks in no part to his collaborations with huge artists, his flair for dramatic displays behind the decks and his tremendous talent in the studio. At only age 25, he’s one of several Dutch DJs who are taking the world by storm; he was already as high as No. 9 on DJ Mag’s “Top 100 DJs of 2012.” Moreover, he invaded the mainstream on U.S. shores when he collaborated with Pitbull and Ne-Yo one of the biggest songs of 2011, “Give Me Everything.”

After playing both weekends at Miami’s Ultra Music Festival, Afrojack’s out today with the music video for his latest track, a collaboration with Chris Brown called “As Your Friend.” In the futuristic medieval video, Afrojack (birth name: Nick van de Wall), lords over a kingdom of dancers who seem to bow to his every whim, much like his legions of followers at festivals and clubs around the world.
We caught up with Afrojack in-between gigs to ask him all about what’s going on in his universe right now.

On March 15, synthpop legends Depeche Mode played their first-ever South By Southwest show in Austin, Texas. The rare intimate club gig, which was their first proper concert since 2010 (aside from a private show they did for "Live on Letterman"), was presented by Yahoo! at new venue Brazos Hall and attended by the likes of Usher and celebrity manager Scooter Braun, and it was a major black celebration for fans who'd won coveted tickets via a SXSW lottery drawing.

If you weren't one of the lucky 800 festivalgoers who made it into the show--or if you didn't get down to Austin this year--here is Depeche's entire set for your viewing and listening pleasure, featuring classic material as well as new cuts from the band's recently released 13th album Delta Machine. Check out the Mode's fantastic performance!

For more South By Southwest coverage on Yahoo! Music, go to http://music.yahoo.com/sxsw.