Bonnaroo Thoughts

First, it looks like a great lineup. I'd be thrilled to see Nine Inch Nails in an atmosphere where it's a safe bet 70% of the crowd won't have some kind of chip on their shoulder. Bruce? Wow. What are they going to do with them? "Sorry, Bruce, but you guys can only do a two-hour set. Yeah, I know, but Robyn Hitchcock comes on at midnight."

Second, Gomez returns! Give me your best Howard Dean scream! Last time they played Bonnaroo, they played Nashville Sunday Night that weekend and it was one of the bestest shows (if not the drunkest), ever. (I heard a little bit of their forthcoming album the other day. Not a lot. Just enough to say to David Hall, "ooh, what's this? Me likey. Me want to play.")

Last year I skipped, but I think I'm going to have to brave the heat this time. And all the area hotels are booked. Argh.

Bonnaroo Lineup Announced

And it goes like this:

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Phish (2 Shows)
Beastie Boys
Nine Inch Nails
David Byrne
Wilco
Al Green
Snoop Dogg
Elvis Costello Solo
Erykah Badu
Paul Oakenfold
Ben Harper and Relentless7
The Mars Volta
TV on the Radio
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Gov't Mule
Andrew Bird







Merle Haggard
MGMT
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The Decemberists
Girl Talk
Bon Iver
Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabate
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Galactic
The Del McCoury Band
of Montreal
Allen Toussaint
Coheed and Cambria
Booker T & the DBTs
David Grisman Quintet
Lucinda Williams
Animal Collective
Gomez












Neko Case
Down
Jenny Lewis
Santogold
Robert Earl Keen
Citizen Cope
Femi Kuti and the Positive Force
The Ting Tings
Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Kaki King
Grizzly Bear
King Sunny Adé
Okkervil River
St. Vincent
Zac Brown Band
Raphael Saadiq
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Crystal Castles
Tift Merritt
Brett Dennen
Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue
Toubab Krewe
People Under the Stairs
Alejandro Escovedo
Vieux Farka Touré
Elvis Perkins In Dearland
Cherryholmes
Yeasayer
Todd Snider
Chairlift
Portugal. The Man.
The SteelDrivers
Midnite
The Knux
The Low Anthem
Delta Spirit
A.A. Bondy
The Lovell Sisters
Alberta Cross

No comments right now, gotta work!

Bonnaroo Breakout

One of the things we look forward to about Bonnaroo every year is speculating over who will be the next "break-out" band, someone most people have never heard of, that goes onto greater fame. With over 1,000,000 YouTube plays, 58,000 MySpace friends, and 6 paragraphs on Wikipedia, it can't really be said that no one's ever heard of Battles. Just maybe no one who's not online regularly. Anyway, I wasn't even there but it's impossible to ignore this kind of vibe:



Kudos to Lightning 100.com's Brian Waters for picking up.

And just in case the sound issues wreck it for you, check out this studio video -



p.s. - Helmet fans might recognize the guy at the yellow drumkit as John Stanier.