The Lollapalooza message boards have been lit up for weeks containing topic threads and replies for "Wanna Make a Band Suggestion?" and various other messages of "hopefuls" that are updated almost hourly with eager fans pumping out some enticing, but again totally wishful, line up schedules.

Stream Rage Against The Machine Now: Listen in real time to tracks "Testify", "Bulls on Parade" [mp3], "Bombtrack" and "Killing in the Name".
Here are a couple of tracks from the 'best-bet' rumored artists set to perform at Lolla 2008:

Nine Inch Nails - 7 Ghosts

Jonathan Cohen, Billboard

"From 10-minute, three-guitar jams to heartbreaking acoustic ballads, April shines with the most evocative music of Kozelek 's career."

Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are reported to be two of the "headliners" at Lollapalooza 2008, according to a wishy-washy report published by The Chicago Tribune last night.

The Tribune article seems to play in to the non-stop rumor game - not a good thing for a journalism organization.

The headline of the article itself implies Radiohead will headline Lollapalooza, the opening paragraph of the story states they are "expected" to perform at Lolla and the following paragraph states Radiohead has been "confirmed" and in the same paragraph the Tribune's catch word of the day - "expected" - appears again.

That's not just lousy journalism, but the hype comes suspiciously close to the implication that the Tribune is trying to pump some life into a local festival that some readers of this blog have 'written off' for 2008. Lollapalooza was canceled in 2004 after weak ticket sales, but came back strong in 2005 with some 65,000 tickets sold.


All I Need - Radiohead from In Rainbows

Isobel - Bjork (2007 Lollapalooza headline artist)

Listen to past Lollapalooza performances from archive.org

Furthermore, aside from the fact (despite the Tribune's rumor-mill reporting) that not one artist or group has been officially confirmed to perform at this year's Lollapalooza Festival, the Tribune makes no mention of the usually costly tickets (ranging from $65 a day up to $195 for a three-day pass in 2007, a 30% increase from the previous year's price of $150).

Lollapalooza 2008 is set to take place in Chicago's Grant Park August 1-3. Early bird tickets go on sale March 25th. Apparently, the early bird tickets that went on sale this week were gone in a matter of hours with many potential ticket buyers complaining about the reliability of the online early bird purchasing process.

According to the Tribune (and obviously you'll have to take this with a grain of salt), Lollapalooza festival organizers will release the entire lineup sometime in the 'next few weeks.'

Let's just hope that the long wait will be worth it in the end, although it would be nice if they held the event in any other month but August (got to sell those drinks to make the vendor unions happy).

If last year's lineup at Lollapalooza is any indication of the lineup for 2008, then it's safe to say there's going to be a lot more lolla than looza.

Here is an article about last year's Lollapalooza, including videos of the performers.

If you didn't hear about last year's controversy regarding AT&T's censoring of Pearl Jam, check out the link to read about it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Many fest heads need to plan early which festivals they want to go to, so the sooner a lineup is announced, the better the odds (if the lineup is good) are in favor of that festival - like Coachella, partly because it's so early, usually April.

Therefore, fest promoters rush to get the lineup out with the hopes that many people will plan to go to their festival rather than a competing festival. Unless you are geographically close to many festivals - say if you live in the northeast or mid-Atlantic - or happen to have a lot of time and money, many festival lovers have to pick and choose. So, getting out a killer lineup means the difference between a profitable fest and a very profitable festival.

In what was a bizarre, and quite frankly annoying effort to some (entertaining to some less) people, Bonnaroo organizers teased fans with a list of riddles and rhythms about the Bonnaroo 2008 lineup.

Listen to past Bonnaroo Festival performances live from archive.org.

From the thread about this on Inforoo:

Clues on Radio Roo.
« Thread Started on Feb 1, 2008, 2:14pm »

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I posted this on another thread but I think it deserves its own. The DJ just came on and said

Clue #1 "For all you lineup lookers....here is a clue: There is more than one Manchester."

Manchester Orchestra
Man Man
Oasis
Verve

Clue #2 20 minutes later she said " Memphis isnt Albany"
Changed to "Memphis ain't Illbany"

"There is more than one Memphis. This is not a clue just an observation."

BB King
Beastie Boys

Clue #3 "Clouds taste this way"

Metallica
Beastie Boys

Clue #4 "Some Herrings are red, Jimmy"

Widespread Panic
Led Zep
Metallica

Clue #5 "Hard Substance, Soft Substance"

Iron and Wine
Mars Volta
Carbon Silicon

Clue #6 "Janis Joplin's preserves will be served"

Pearl Jam

Clue #7 "Rumors are just rumors, but twist them sideways, grow your humor hair and they become a more yen reality. No, this is not about Fleetwood Mac"

Dread Zep
Whigs

Clue #8 "it's not sour, what is sowed in the earth"

Plant and Krauss
Sigur Ros

"Three certain birds, add one"

Counting Crows
Black Crowes maybe with Page
All the Crows including Old Crow
Andrew Bird
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
The Band plus Dylan (use to be the Hawks)

Clue #9 "look to the center of Europe to get the sound, but the band comes form all around."

Beirut
Gogol Bordelo
JUI
Daft Punk
Russian Circles

Clue 10 Here is another clue for you message board people. Open up the church and you will see the steeple. Some of your guesses have been way off but correct for the wrong clues. Now I must cough.

Ani DiFranco
REM lyric from Bad Day

Clue 11 (Feb 4th Monday at 12:20)
"Message board chatter? Yes it does matter. We hear your song requests. So Listen High Listen Low Don't Look Too Hard This Is New Radio Bonnaroo"

1:30 Low of the Hour Daft Punk
2:00 High Hour Ween
2:30 Drive By Truckers
Nadasurf

Clue 12 Charlies imaginary band will not be playing and what he wrote on his hand the last few things he was not saying.

Oasis not Playing ?
Paul McCartney

Clue 13 The Walrus ain't Paul
Sean Lennon
Ringo

Clue 14 alternative language clue
Sufjan Stevens

Clue 15 What rhymes with orange

Nothing
NADASURF

Clue 16 Arizona in Manchester

Tom Petty
Cheryl Crowe
Alicia Keys
Counting Crows
Ludacris

Clue 17

What is in the dessert isn't.

Oasis
Any of the super bowl bands

Clue 18 "The Chairman of the board, after the Birthday Party"

Cake
Nick Cave

« Last Edit: Feb 5, 2008, 2:00pm by zoey

The following is the first list of rhymes (without guesses) that was posted on the Bonnaroo official message boards (and started the flack):


1. "There is more than one Manchester"

2. "Memphis isn't Albany"

3. "Clouds taste this way"

4. "Some Herrings are red, Jimmy"

5. "Hard Substance, Soft Substance"

6. "Janis Joplin's reserves will be preserved"

7. "Rumors are just rumors, but twist them sideways, grow your humor hair and they become a more yen reality. No, this is not about Fleetwood Mac"

8. "It's not sour, what is sowed in the earth"

9. "Three certain birds, add one"

10. "Look to the center of Europe to get the sound, but the band comes form all around."

11. "Here is another clue for you message board people. Open up the church and you will see the steeple. Some of your guesses have been way off but correct for the wrong clues. Now I must cough."

Bonnaroo Tries To Make Lineup Announcement Seem More Exciting Through The Power Of Slightly Infuriating Riddles

Tip to Bonnaroo promoters: Check out some marketing 101 tips for next year and do the shrooms at the festival, not while your planning and promoting it. : p

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe for the Feed Me Indie feed via RSS, Atom, iTunes or your favorite reader and podcaster.