summer festivals
A few days ago Yancey mentioned that we’re running a poll asking for your ideas on the 50 best summer albums eMusic has to offer. I immediately thought of some great music, but I was just as immediately thrust back to the where of that music. For me, seasonal music is all about where you hear it. Winter music, for me, always seems to conjure up listening to moody albums in the dead of the night. Summer music? It’s all about the festival.
Right as I type this, the annual Bonnaroo festival is getting kicked off in Tennessee. With a line-up of hugely varied performers (Sasha + Digweed? Meet Pete Yorn.), it’s quickly become an “event” festival each year. Bonnaroo comes a little bit before the official summer season, but it’s a nice lead-in to the whole host of concerts happening all over the country.
What festivals are you interested in attending this year? What festivals have you already gotten your tickets to? Me, I’ll be hitting up the South Street Seaport a lot throughout July and August for free shows from the National, Au Revoir Simone, Camera Obscura, Fujiya & Miyagi and others. And I might even check out the Village Voice’s Siren festival, now that MIA is apparently playing. But with Pitchfork, Lollapalooza, Vans Warped, Summerfest, Ozzfest, Virgin Festival, and tons of others there’s hardly reason for anyone to miss out. What’s your pick?
I was at Mountain Jam on June 1, where eMusic was being promoted to everyone at the ticket exchange area. Lots of the Bonnaroo artists were there. Despite the rain, it was a great festival. As this was the only festival I will get to this year, I thought I’d mention it here.
Still waiting for the emusic festival. Why not? Pitchfork does one, and they’re not nearly as cool as they think they are. Imagine the line-up, in no particular order: Califone
Yo La Tengo
The Ponys
Mr. Lif
John Doe
KRS
Funkadelic
13 &God
The National
Matthew Dear
Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3
Frank Black
Andrew Bird
Hem
Neko Case (she’ll also sit on The New Pornographers Set)
Lucinda Williams (she and Neko will also do a set together after their own solo sets
Sasha Digweed (both separately on emu, so why not together at the festival?)
Napalm Death
Bloc Party
Whoever Ian MacKaye is playing with these days
Jello Biafra and Henry Rollins doing a spoken-word slamdance beatdown
Mission of Burma with Mike Watt sitting in (seen it — amazing)
Belle and Sebastian
Cat Power
Sufjan Stevens
and our super-secret guest, accompanying himself on piano, with Andrew Bird on violin and Sufjan Stevens on banjo, ladies and gentleman, please join emusic in welcoming….Sir Paul McCartney.
He comes out before the announced headliner…Bjork, who shows why she’s the real headliner.
McCartney joins her for the encore.
And the crowd goes wild.
Give me half an hour, and I’ll get the bill in order. Need more metal and electronica, a little jazz and a classical tent) and we kick righteous ass for 2 days on 2 stages.
See you there!
I’m so stoked to see Spoon, Son Volt and The Old 97’s at Summerfest!
They have a decent lineup this year: Silversun Pickups, Violent Femmes, Wolfmother, O.A.R., Built To Spill, Social Distortion, Slaughter (just checking to see if you’re still awake), The Wailers, Buddy Guy, Scissors for Lefty, The Cat Empire, Keller Williams, The Silent Years, Lewis Black…
Green Man anyone? (for any UK readers…)
Bill Callahan, Gruff Rhys, Broken Family Band, Joanna Newsome, Battles, Devendra Banhart, Steven Malkmus, Richond Fontaine, the Earlies, Tung – and the chance to see a whole lot of new stuff.
Lots of emusic here…
Sweeny
http://partlyporpoise.blogspot.com/
It’s Womad at Charlton Park,Malmesbury for me this year.I was very tempted by the Green Man but I felt that I had to swing my hips a bit.
Lowlands anyone? (Ok I admit a bit far off if you are in the US but every year more people from the UK and Germany come here) Not surprising if you see the line-up…
Highlights: The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, Tool, Arcade Fire, Damien Rice, Sonic Youth, Interpol, The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Nine Inch Nails, LCD Soundsystem, Motörhead, Basement Jaxx, Kasabian, M.I.A., Kings of Leon, Editors, Lily Allen, Saybia, Groove Armada, Eagles of Death Metal, Jimmy Eat World, Laurent Garnier live, Klaxons
website: http://www.lowlands.nl/content.php?page=english_intro