Bonnaroo Music Festival 2008 Kicks Off Thursday with Superdrag, Vampire Weekend, Battles and MGMT
Jack Johnson performing at the second annual Bonnaroo (2003). Photo courtesy of evilvince.com
Thousands of music and arts enthusiasts are gathering in the beautiful foothills of Tennessee to enjoy four days of music, arts and plenty more. Bonnaroo is one of the largest festivals in the United States and the first major festival of the 2008 summer season.
In recent years, Bonnaroo has become as well known as other big music and arts festivals like Lollapalooza, Coachella and Austin City Limits.
But Bonnaroo does not start of with a bang. The line up for the first day of the festival pales in comparison to the artists and bands set to perform this weekend.
For the Thursday kick-off, bands like Vampire Weekend, Superdrag, Battles, and MGMT are scheduled to play - all of these in the so-called "This Tent". The other 'stages', or tents, feature lesser known artists, or bands and musicians that have a comparably small or local following, such as Lez Zeppelin, Dark Star Orchestra, Grand Ole Party and The Felice Brothers.
For music fans that have never heard The Battles, check out this driving electronic rock video titled "Atlas". It has been viewed over one million times.
It's not much of a surprise that the first day of the festival, being that it is a Thursday, is not loaded up with must-see bands. Furthermore, the music doesn't even get started until early evening.
Nevertheless, on Friday, June 13, Bonnaroo becomes the epicenter of a wide array of impressive bands and artists, including The Raconteurs, Metallica, My Morning Jacket, Drive-By Truckers, Steve Marley, Jose Gonzales, Rilo Kiley, Willie Nelson, Tegan and Sara, MIA, The Swell Season, !!!, MSTRKRFT, Tiesto, Les Claypool, Minus The Bear and almost a dozen others.
Tegan and Sara performing "Back In Your Head" (YouTube video)
The only problem, and this is the problem with most festivals that have multiple stages, is that you are almost guaranteed to miss some of your favorite artists or bands because they perform simultaneously in different locations. That's why pouring over the schedule in advance and mapping where you want to be and when is so important to maximizing your musical experience.
With that said, and to the credit of the organizers, Bonnaroo is one of the top music festivals at which who plays where and when has been scheduled in such a way that most festival goers will have the opportunity to see most of the 'big name' performers in their genre (i.e. indie rock) without too much overlap.
Another cool thing about Bonnaroo is that headliners play very long sets (Metallica is playing for 2 1/2 hours and My Morning Jacket is playing for three hours) and the music goes well into the wee hour mornings, when the summer sky is full of stars and the cooler night time air makes for a wonderful experience.
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Best of Lollapalooza 2007 Videos, Vol. I - Pearl Jam and Daft Punk
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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Vineyard Fest Was Coachella'd for All Points West Festival
The organizers of Coachella, Goldenvoice/AEG Live, announced a few weeks ago the formation of a new east coast major music festival, dubbed “Coachella East”.
The festival, now officially the All Points West Festival (Aug. 8-10), just released the lineup - including Radiohead , Underworld, Cat Power, Jack Johnson, Black Kids, CSS, Animal Collective (shown below), Andrew Bird, Metric, The Go! Team, Rodrigo Y Gabriel, The New Pornographers, Kings of Leon and many others.
Some festival fans in the New York City metro area (which includes the venue location of Jersey City - just across the river from lower Manhattan - with amazing views of the city and Statue of Liberty) are calling a coup of the historically annual Vineyard Festival.
Vineyard has been cancelled because it was Coachella’d from Liberty State Park (photo; bottom left) until 2009.
From a money-making and fan-demand perspective, it only makes sense to create a “Coachella East” based on the enormous success of the famous west coast, three-day outdoor camping Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in the desert of Indio, California (read the latest on Coachella lineup, tickets and breaking news), which has attracted some of the biggest names of indie and mainstream rock for the past half decade.
Apparently, the announcement of 'Coachella East' by Goldenvoice/AEG Live effectively forced Vineyard promoters Festival Republic and C3 Productions (who also produce Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, Glastonbury and others) to cancel the Vineyard Music Festival for 2008.
Perhaps more telling is the fact that 'Coachella East' was in the works for months now, and through the online rumor mill was scheduled a couple of months ago – deliberately or not – on the very same dates as Vineyard, August 8 to August 10.
Among many speculators, Rolling Stone magazine recently reported - incorrectly - the dates of the Vineyard Music Festival, or 'Coachella East' would be August 10-12, 2008.
"We had to get our egos in check and say, 'Let's do [sic] the smart decision, get off these dates and go for an isolated (date) so we can build this thing without having to look over our shoulders,"' C3 partner Charles Attal said.
"We don't want to be compared to all the other festivals and who's playing where. We want to build this thing right, organically from the ground up."
Organically? Ticket prices for a single day pass are $89 a pop. Three-day passes sell at a hefty $258, plus Ticketmaster's ridiculous fees (but they are the sole distributor of the tickets; Coachella organizers, along with Goldenvoice/AEG Live, must have a deal with Ticketmaster on both coasts it appears.
While the tickets don't go on sale until Feb. 29 at noon EST, the following fees have been added to tickets for Coachella West (not including the $55 camping fee):
Convenience charge: $22.20 Building facility charge: $12.00
(These do not include whatever other fees, such as delivery and such, are added when tickets go on sale. Note: Opt for the $2.50 online tickets to print when you want).
Flashback: Thank goodness to Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam (photo; bottom, right) for taking a stand against Ticketmaster's exorbitant fees and services charges more than a decade ago, even though they knew it would mean losing millions of dollars. Now that's putting your money where your mouth is.
Check out this rare 2003 RS interview in which Vedder talks for the first time in a long time about the Ticketmaster fight that left some fans bitter and caused others to entrench deeper with the band).
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Lollapalooza 2008: Lineup Rumors Abound, First Indications from Lolla Boards and Six Months Ago
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.
Lollapalooza 2007 Special Edition: Music Video Performances
Missed out on Lollapalooza? Well, don't sweat it.
IRC has put together a hot compilation of videos from festival goers and mainstream media highlighting the indie rock and pop artists that helped make Lollapalooza 2007 a great success.
Even threats of thunderstorms were not going to allow the feast of music to be interrupted, although there were a few, brief showers, which you can imagine was a nice relief from the searing heat and icky humidity that has made it an unusually warm summer in the midwestern United States.
Don't miss reviews and postings for festivals still yet to take place, such as Austin City Limits Festival, Monolith, Download Festivals, Vegoose and many more.
Check out YouTube videos from Lollapalooza (videos have been approved for quality) and other Lolla links.
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