Lollapalooza 2012 Must-See Artists, Pt. I

By the fifth year in a row, I'm used to this.

With less than two weeks to go before the August 3-5 Lollapalooza festival begins in Chicago, I'll be providing my annual top ten countdown of 2012's Must-See Artists. Last year, headliners My Morning Jacket and Deadmau5 rounded out the top two, with regular Bears and Bullets favorites Black Lips and Titus Andronicus also landing in the countdown.

As it is every year, seeing every act - notable or otherwise - is impossible. So for those waiting through the list to see Jack White, unfortunately, won't be seeing him. Regardless, let's start with #10.

#10: Jeff The Brotherhood
Despite officially beginning their careers in 2001, Nashville brothers Jake and Jamin Orrall didn't really catch anything close to buzz until their 2009 album Heavy Days. Pulsed with fuzzy blues and cool garage punk, the recently released Hypnotic Knights LP finally gave some more ground for the band to walk on. Amid an extremely extensive touring history, the band has finally reached the major festival circuit. And, more than likely, they'll be returning very soon.

You can see Jeff The Brotherhood early Saturday, August 4, at 1:30 p.m. on the Playstation stage.



#9: At The Drive-In
The first project of Mars Volta figureheads Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López made huge news earlier this year after announcing their 2012 reunion. Rodríguez-López has already declared that At The Drive-In would not be recording new material, despite finally returning after more than ten years. Their April performance at Coachella marked one of the very few appearances for the band, so having them perform at Lollapalooza should be considered extremely rare.

Catch the band one last time (probably) Sunday, August 5 at 6 p.m. on the Red Bull Soundstage.



We'll continue with Part II tomorrow ...

Lollapalooza schedule, aftershow lineup released

With less than two months before Lollapalooza, the last stretch of the preliminary events has finally passed. Earlier today, the festival released their official three-day schedule, and their lineup of pre-Lolla and post-Lolla after shows. You can check out the listed shows here; FIDLAR & Delta Spirit is one I'm particularly excited for.

As for the schedule, we already knew which artists were playing on which days, but not at which particular times, so this is simply a clarification. As it is, the biggest obvious dilemma is Justice and Jack White closing Sunday night on opposite sides of Grant Park, which is a fairly big decision for a lot of us. However, because of the relative openness of the Sunday schedule, you have the opportunity to see either At The Drive-In and Florence+The Machine prior to the aforementioned acts with relative ease.

Outside of that, there have been more divisive schedules, but there are a few big decisions that will have to be made. Check out the schedule for yourself, here.

Wednesday Bears: Lollapalooza rough schedule released

With three-day passes selling out yesterday, Lollapalooza released their "which artists on which day" rough schedule. The announcement (click photo for larger image) came with the release of single-day passes, which are available now for $95.

Conflicts are inevitable (in life as well, but, forget about that), and it seems that Sunday presents the biggest challenge. Jack White, Florence+The Machine, At the Drive-In, Justice, and Sigur Ros are scheduled to play as the day's largest acts, so decisions are likely going to be made, and unhappiness will spread like, let's say, smallpox.

While Sunday seems unfortunate, days one and two should be comfortable, with a super-strong mid-card scheduled to perform Saturday.

Check back to Bears and Bullets for when the official schedule is released.

Lollapalooza 2012 lineup revealed

So, the day's really here. And after the previous months/weeks of speculation, the biggest story of Lollapalooza 2012 ended up being that the lineup leaked from Sunday WAS 100% ACCURATE. It's the first time in recent memory that a complete leak like this has happened with a major U.S. music festival, so everything we heard tonight wasn't a surprise.

As you know, Black Sabbath, with all original members, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Black Keys, Jack White, Florence + The Machine, At The Drive-In, Avicii, and Justice are the big names headlining the August 3-5 Chicago festival. And if you've been following, you'd already known that M83, Sigur Ros, The Weeknd, The Shins, and many others will fit the billing as well.

So while the fest isn't as particularly top-heavy as in years past, there's a more-than solid mid-card to support it, with spectacular acts like The Tallest Man on Earth, Jeff the Brotherhood, Michael Kiwanuka, FIDLAR, and many others. Alongside them is an extremely solid electronica lineup, with Bassnectar, Star Slinger, Madeon, Kaskade, and plenty others worth your time this year.

There were a few left-field acts, like Franz Ferdinand and The Afghan Whigs making the billing, despite zero previous rumors of their inclusion.

But as it is every year, there are some notable disappointments. Namely, the absence of Odd Future, St. Vincent, Fucked Up, and Refused, among others, not making the final billing.

Regardless, there is a ton of depth to Lollapalooza 2012, and plenty of reason to get excited. Tickets for the festival are still available. And as always, stay tuned for more additions (and subtractions) from the billing, and the lineup schedule, which should be available in a few weeks. As well, check out the official Lolla video below.
 

Lollapalooza lineup leaked early?

What you're looking at above is an "apparent" copy of the official Lollapalooza 2012 lineup, given to press members at the festival's branch outing at Lollapalooza Brazil from last weekend. The photo leaked a few hours before midnight, Sunday, and for all reasonable expectations it looks accurate.

Considering the leaks that Lollapalooza has already confirmed with their CTA ads (Jack White, Justice, etc.), what you see above looks extremely plausible to be the actual lineup, which will be out officially sometime on Wednesday, April 11.

So while I won't go on the record saying that this is the full lineup, what we'll see Wednesday will probably be very similar to what's listed above. There are, however, a few notable holes in the lineup. Number one, namely, is the absence of Kimbra, who was one of the acts that Lollapalooza promoted with their aforementioned CTA ads. Several other acts, such as Odd Future, St. Vincent, and others, have also personally said that (at least through a varying party) they would be performing at the festival.

The other problem, notably, is that C3 (Lollapalooza promoters) have kept the lineup under extremely tight wraps - more so than they've ever done. Why, then, would they give the entire lineup to press members? What sense does that make, even more so considering the lineup will be out in less than three days?

So while there are some logical holes here, let's play around with the idea that this is the real lineup. Because if it is, I'd be pretty damn happy. Black Sabbath is a huge booking - one that no other festival could get. And Jack White will not performing at the other large music festivals this year, other than Sasquatch! More so, however, is the very strong undercard - possibly the best, in my opinion, since 2009.

I'll be keeping you up to date on Twitter of the leak's legitimacy, but if nothing shows up I'll be updating the real release Wednesday. Stay tuned.

Coachella 2012 Lineup Revealed

As you probably have already heard, the first big music festival of 2012 released its lineup early today, and as you can see from above ... Coachella looks to the biggest event of the year. Not only has the Indio, California festival has enlisted Radiohead, The Black Keys, and Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg as the three primary headliners, but recently reunited At The Drive-In, Pulp, Justice, The Shins, Bon Iver and a crap-ton more have also made the list. Which, by the way, is a bit different this year.

If you haven't heard already (as I had no idea), Coachella is going to take place over two weekends. The lineups won't change from the weekends of April 13-15 to 20-22, but the artists will be playing twice because of overwhelming ticket sales.

Before I get into whatever inclinations this will have for Lollapalooza later this summer, I will affectionately say that this is absolutely the best festival lineup I've seen since Lollapalooza 2008. It's really just astonishing to look at.

Anyway, Coachella usually has a heavy layover of acts for Lolla. Last year, 31 of the 170-plus Coachella acts ended up playing both festivals, with roughly an 18 percent carryover rate. However, of those acts, none were considered the headliners. That doesn't bode fairly well for those hoping that Radiohead would make the Chicago date, but it doesn't completely rule them out.

If there are any tickets left, do your best. They'll be gone fast.