Countdown to Grant Park

Roughly five months from now my friends and I will be taking our second annual trip to Chicago's three-day music festival - Lollapalooza. Is it a little early for me to get started on this? Absolutely, but Lollapalooza has already become my favorite time of the year and the closer and closer August 7 comes, the more and more giddy I become.

Most of you already know that The Beastie Boys, Jane's Addiction, and Depeche Mode were confirmed as early festival headliners several weeks ago, but today eager fans learned of the others (Lollapalooza has six headliners): Kings of Leon, Tool, and The Killers have plugged the bill.

Those of you reading may notice a bit of a top-tier drop off from last year's headliners (Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails, Wilco, and The Raconteurs), but worry not (I'm not, so you shouldn't be either). The crop of mid-level artists emerging have begun leaking from numerous sources today, stifling my heart beat a smidgen.

Alex Young at Consequence of Sound posted some notes worth mentioning of the remaining acts. Andrew Bird, Neko Case, and The Decemberists have jumped on the band-wagon with previously confirmed acts Atmosphere, Ben Folds, Delta Spirit, Friendly Fires, Kaiser Chiefs, The Ravonettes, Paul Green's School of Rock All-Stars, and TheNewNo2. But one non-headliner as making louder noise than the rest. Lou Reed, as confirmed in The Chicago Tribune, is slated for a most-likely early night performance this year.

So the confirmed list has streched to 18 out of roughly 130 possible artists. As for those not yet confirmed but are at least likely to put their names in the mix - Animal Collective, Bon Iver, No Age, Peter Bjorn & John, Girl Talk, Q-Tip, De La Soul, Bat for Lashes, Lykke Li, and nearly a hundred others.

I'll keep you up to date during the oncoming months of any and all possible, plausible, and real line-up additions.