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Michigan Becomes A Popular Indie Rock Festival Destination

July 5, 2008

Indie rockers Widespread Panic are one of dozens of bands at Rothbury

This year marks the beginning of more major music festivals than any year in recent memory - All Points West in New Jersey, Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco and the Rothbury Music Festival in the woods of Michigan, to name a few.

The Rothbury Festival kicked-off on Thursday and is wrapping up today in the woods of western Michigan. Highlights from the festival include performances from the Dave Matthews Band, 311, Widespread Panic, John Mayer, Modest Mouse, Of Montreal, Thievery Corporation, Sam Beam, Primus, STS9, Govt Mule and many others.

311 performing The Cure's "Love Song" at Rothbury

Chicagoians and folks in and around Michigan are festival-spoiled. In addition to Rothbury Festival, there is the Pitchfork Music Festival less than two weeks away and Lollapalooza the weekend of August 1-3.

The lineup for the Pitchfork Festival is impressive, featuring artists and groups like Animal Collective, Public Enemy, Sebadoh, Mission of Burma, The Hold Steady, M. Ward, Spoon, The Ruby Suns, Fleet Foxes, Elf Power, Spiritualized, Les Savy Fav, Apples in Stereo, Cut Copy, The Dodos and dozens more.

On Friday, the theme of the show is centered around performing highly acclaimed, entire albums performed by some of alternative and indie music's most cherished bands.

First up, Public Enemy will play It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back followed by Sebadoh performing Bubble and Scrape, and last but not at all the least, Mission of Burma will treat the festival crowds to the entire anthology from Vs.
The scheduled line-up for Saturday, July 16:

Animal Collective
Jarvis Cocker
The Hold Steady
!!!
Vampire Weekend
Dizzee Rascal
Fleet Foxes
Caribou
Elf Power - "Paralyzed" (MP3)
Jay Reatard
Titus Andronicus
No Age
Atlas Sound - "
My Car" (MP3)
Extra Golden
The Ruby Suns
Icy Demons
A Hawk and a Hacksaw
Occidental Brothers Dance Band International
Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar

This is an awesome line-up for only $30. While I have to admit I don't know all of the performers, $30 to see Animal Collective, The Hold Steady, !!!, No Age, Atlas Sound, Elf Power, The Ruby Suns and Caribou is a hell of a bargain.

Sunday, July 20 lineup is as follows:

Spoon
Dinosaur Jr.
Spiritualized
M. Ward
Ghostface and Raekwon
Les Savy Fav
The Apples in Stereo
Boris
Dirty Projectors
Times New Viking
Cut Copy
Bon Iver
The Dodos
King Khan & His Shrines
El Guincho
Fuck Buttons
HEALTH
High Places
Mahjongg


Sunday is another amazing line-up, including Spoon, Dinosaur Jr., Spiritualized, M. Ward, The Apples in Stereo, Cut Copy, The Dodos and many others.

Interestingly enough, despite a sagging economy, high fuel prices and saturation of big, outdoor music festivals spanning two to five days in duration, the fact is that ticket sales for both the veteran fests like Coachella and Bonnaroo, and the 'newbies', have been overall successful so far for 2008.

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Lollapalooza 2008 Line Up is Official: Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, RATM, Wilco, Kayne West, MGMT, BSS and More

April 7, 2008


Looks like there will be a lot more lollas than loozas for Lollapalooza 2008. While there are some great artists set to play, Lolla 08 doesn't match up to the powerhouse lineup for Lollapalooza 2007. (PDF file). Here's our report from Lollapalooza 2007.

Stay tuned for Lollapalooza 2008 lineup artist and group profiles, MP3s and streams, links, photos and more Lolla 07 videos.

The official line-up for Lollapalooza 2008 is out thanks to an early leak from The Chicago Sun Times. The Lollapaloozer's organizers 'official' line-up announcement set for today at 8 a.m. EST.

Here's the poster we made up in like 15 minutes after hearing the announcement Sunday night (I know Lolla's is better, but ours was first) : |


Other artists and groups confirmed for Lolla 08 (not listed in the unofficial Lollapalooza poster above):

The Raconteurs
Mark Ronson
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
Brand New
Gogol Bordello
Dierks Bentley
Amadou & Mariam
Blues Traveler
John Butler Trio
Girl Talk
Your Vegas
Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves
Steel Train
Jamie Lidell
Bang Camaro
Butch Walker
Tally Hall
Spank Rock
White Lies
Brazilian Girls
Magic Wands
Chromeo
Electric Touch
Duffy
Innerpartysystem
The Postelles
The Parlor Mob
Bald Eagle
Mason Jennings
Krista
Ha Ha Tonka
Grizzly Bear
We Go To 11
Sofia Talvik
Booka Shade
Santogold
Dr. Dog
Nicole Atkins & the Sea
The Ting Tings
Kid Sister
Office
Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Foals
Uffie
Cadence Weapon
Ferras
De Novo Dahl
Noah and the Whale
Margot & the Nuclear So and So's
K'NAAN
Serena Ryder
Newton Faulkner

Check back for profiles of Lollapalooza's 2008 line up artists and groups, plus videos, MP3s, news, stage and location information, schedules, maps, Lolla links and more.

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Best of Lollapalooza 2007 Videos, Vol. II - LCD Soundsystem, Muse and Regina Spector

April 6, 2008

(photo by tmesis)

The Lollapalooza 2008 official line-up is supposedly just hours away, so in the meantime, so here are some of the best video performances of Lollapalooza 2007, including LCD Soundsystem, Muse and Regina Spektor. The first set of best videos from Lolla 07 include Pearl Jam and Daft Punk.

LCD Soundsystem is one of the 'rapid risers' in the indie music world offering fans a mix of punk rock styles with electronic beats and keyboards. This clip of their performance performing "All My Friends" at Lollapalooza 2007 helped the band add fuel to their own fire, becoming one of the hottest new bands of 2007. In fact, they were nominated for a number of music awards this year, including a Grammy (the Grammy people know good music?)



Muse performs "Take A Bow" during a live set at Lolla 2007. This video features
a lengthy introduction by some Vegas showman in a fettered yellow jumpsuit and a long audio quote, with the words accompanying on screen, by JFK about the threats to our liberties (which are just about all gone now, thanks George!). Altogether, this is one of the best videos from Lollapalooza 2007. Another shout out to tacvbo.



Regina Spektor performs "Après Moi" in this video performance at Lolla 2007. The video is from the official AT&T Blue Tooth live cast, so the quality is excellent.



Check out Best Lollapalooza Videos, Vol. 1 and official AT&T live casts from Lollapalooza 2007.



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Best of Lollapalooza 2007 Videos, Vol. I - Pearl Jam and Daft Punk

April 5, 2008

While waiting for the official Lollapalooza 2008 line-up, here's a look back at Lollapalooza 2007's best performances. Enjoy.

The grunge/alt rock legend Pearl Jam performs "Daughter" and then eases into Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall". Always willing to expose the ills of corporations and politicians, Eddie Vedder changes up the lyrics in ABITW to "George Bush leave this world alone/George Bush find yourself another home."

Those lines were censored from the official AT&T Blue Room 'live' (obviously delayed) cast of Lollapalooza 2007, which created a huge uproar in the mainstream and blog music press. AT&T called the censoring of Vedder's words a 'mistake' with the video stream. Yeah, right.



This next clip is from the electronic lightshow duo Daft Punk performing "Robot Rock" with a very interesting and familiar intro. This is a good video, but it gets shaky once the grooves and beats really get moving. It's obvious that amateur videographer tacvbo was being bumped into, but strangely or not, it gives the video an added sense of excitement. Sound quality is excellent for a YouTube concert video.



Did you say more Daft Punk? Cool. Here's a nine-minute long compilation of Daft Punk's set during Lollapalooza 2007 meticulously spliced together by YouTuber trunts297. The shots are further from the stage and there's the shakiness factor (when will YouTube give us tripods?), but overall it's a must-see for DP fans. Sound quality is good.



Stay tuned, more best videos from Lolla 2007 coming soon...

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Bamboozle Left Festival Kicks Off Today in Irvine, California

The Bamboozle Left Fesival kicks off today, April 5th in Irvine, California and extends through the end of Sunday, April 6th.

Check back regularly for updates from Bamboozle Left's weekend festival and get blog and media reports, photographs and videos, plus MP3s and streams of profiled artists.
Performing today on one of six stages at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater (I hate how so many of our music, sporting and other venues and events have surrendered their namesakes to brands of capitalism; it really takes the 'organic' feel out of the event and makes you wonder why you still pay so much for tickets) include:

- All American Rejects [mp3: It Ends Tonight], Josephine Collective, Alkaline Trio [mp3: Radio], Daphne Love Derby, Jimmy Eat World, Paramore [mp3: Pressure], New Found Glory, The Bouncing Souls, The Starting Line and Valencia to name a few.

But there really are no 'big headliners' at Bamboozle Left that other music fests for 2008 can brag about.

Then again, the full line-up is not all that bad for the $45 single day tickets at the door, but with the dragging economy, fears of a recession and rip-off gas prices, the single day ticket price is still a bit pricey. Why not $70 for a two-day pass?

If you're in the Irvine area and decide to go the festival last through the end of Sunday. Check back for more lineup information, performances, music, videos, blog and media reports.

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Chicago Tribune's Wishy-Washy Report of 'Headliners' for Lollapalooza 2008 Lineup Feeds Rumor Mill

March 8, 2008


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.

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Still No Lineup for Lollapalooza 2008; Wait Game and Rumors Might Kill Ticket Sales

February 26, 2008

For months now, festival and music lovers, bloggers, musicians and the mainstream media have speculated, floated rumors, predicted and even made false 'confirmations' about 2008's Lollapalooza's lineup. Rumored artists include Black Lips, Bloc Party and MGMT.

Bottom line: There has not been one artist or group confirmed for the Chicago-based festival in 2008 by Lollapalooza organizers.

Apparently, part of the reason for the delay is to keep 'the buzz' going to help sell tickets (when they go on sale) and to try to drown out all the chatter surrounding many other music festivals this year, two of which are new festivals for 2008: Rothbury (more on that later) and Coachella East (aka APW).

Radiohead will headline two of the three nights of Coachella East, so that should be amazing. The fest is being held Aug. 8-10, 2008 at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey.

It is very possible that Lolla organizers' delay in announcing a lineup could ultimately kill ticket sales, so if the delay is to keep fest goers in suspense to sell more tickets, that strategy may just end up doing the opposite.

Closer Look at Lolla

In 2004, the Lollapalooza music festival tour was canceled due to low ticket sales. Since then, the fest has stopped touring and landed in Chicago for an annual festival.

While Lollapalooza 2007 was considered a come-back of sorts, organizers of the event must be nervous about ticket sales for 2008. What they seem to fail to realize is that the sooner they announce the lineup and ticket sales, music lovers around the country - and world - can start making their plans to go.

On the other hand, and this is not hypothesizing, waiting much longer than the end of February to announce the lineup - or even a headliner tease - means that many people will either make plans to go to another music festival (some already have), or just forget it altogether (others have already done this).

Nevertheless, the rumors and speculation continue (when the lineup is announced, it will be published here first).

You can also check out more about the Lolla fest 08 and sign up to get the latest news, plus artist profiles, tour schedules, MP3s, articles and more from artists and groups playing at music festivals in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Europe and around the world.


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Lollapalooza 2008: Lineup Rumors Abound, First Indications from Lolla Boards and Six Months Ago

February 18, 2008

Over the next couple of days, IRC will publish complete updates on the latest news for 2008 music festivals, including Bonnaroo, SXSW, Coachella, Rothbury, Bamboozle, Sziget, Glastonbury, Austin City Limits, Virgin Festival and many others.

Next month, a comprehensive guide will be published and feature all of 2008's indie-relevant music festivals including the latest news, ticket info, line-ups, artist profiles, discussions, photos, MP3s and videos of past performances.

Lollapalooza (August 1-3, 2008) - While ticket sale dates and the line-up for Lollapalooza 2008 have yet to be announced (as of 2/26/08), rumors are flying everywhere about which artists and groups might be playing at this year's Lolllapalooza.

If the lineup is anything like last year's (see flashback to 07 below), there will be more lolla than looza.

The following artists are rumored to be set for Lollapalooza, according to the official website's board moderator sixtimes:

The rumor mill seems to be favoring the following artists as headliners: The Smashing Pumpkins (not a SP reunion, so it's really Billy Corgan and the band), Radiohead (who wouldn't love that, especially since In Rainbows is crazy popular in and of itself with a whole new generation), Wilco, Bjork, The National, Tom Petty and The Police.

Rumor mongering is dangerous, so let's just say that as soon as the line-up is announced, it will be published here (got folks in the mix but they are staying mum right now).

In the meantime, let's warp back to six months go for a memory fest of 2007's killer lineup:

Headlining Lollapalooza 2007 was an eclectic mix of popular alternative, indie, rock, mainstream and electronica artists like Pearl Jam, Daft Punk, Modest Mouse, Ben Harper, Muse, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Patti Smith, The Roots, Amy Winehouse, LCD Soundsystem, Spoon, The Black Keys, Kings of Leon and others.

The headliners did not come at the expense of 'second-bill' artists and groups Tokyo Police Club, !!!, My Morning Jacket, Yo La Tengo, Ted Leo and Pharmacists, Snow Patrol, CSS, Annuals, Blue October and many other indie artists who rocked Grant Park.

Where is Lollapalooza? The annual event is held in Chicago's Grant Park on the shores Lake Michigan right off the Miracle Mile. Here's a map of last year's festival grounds.

Last year, festival goers endured blistering heat and suffocating humidity (as did festival attendees at the Austin City Limits fest in Austin).

Some folks may not realize this, but it's a fact that festival organizers deliberately schedule such outdoor summer events during the 'doggiest' days of summer. Why? They sell more drinks at ridiculous prices.

Now, in fairness to event organizers, there are tremendous costs to put events like popular music festivals together. Still, don't shed a tear for the organizers, corporate sponsors and vendors, they are raking in money.

The other point is that most music festivals are attended by students - whether college age or under - who obviously have the most free time during the summer months.

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Indie Rock News

  -   Best Indie Rock Songs of 2008, Vol. VII

  -   Best Indie Rock Songs of 2008, Vol, VI

  -   Best Indie Rock Songs of 2008, Vol. V

  -   Best Indie Rock Songs of 2008, Vol. IV

  -   IRC Artist of the Month: Goh Nakamura

  -   Best Indie Rock Songs of 2008, Vol III

  -   Election of President-elect Barack Obama Inspires ...

  -   Best Indie Rock Songs of 2008, Vol II

  -   Best Indie Rock Songs of 2008, Vol. I

  -   New Release: Hooray for Earth's Self-Titled Debut


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Last year, IRC ran a 12 part series featuring great indie and alternative rock Christmas songs. There's been plenty of interest in this series, so if you want something but the same old Christmas songs, check out The 12 Plays of Indie Christmas.