Bonnaroo, Firefly reveal 2013 lineups

Earlier today, both the 2013 Bonnaroo Music Festival and Dover, Delaware's Firefly Festival announced their annual lineups.

Paul McCartney, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Mumford and Sons, Bjork, and Wilco will sit at the top billing of the Manchester, Tennessee festival, which is the second of the three major U.S. music festivals to be announced (the third, of course, being Lollapalooza).

Firefly will also boast Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, as well as Coachella and Lollapalooza 2012 headliner Red Hot Chili Peppers. Vampire Weekend, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Foster The People, MGMT, and Kendrick Lamar will also be on top of the billing. For the full lineups, go to the official festival websites linked below.

Bonnaroo will take place June 13-16, with tickets going on sale February 23 at noon EST (here). Firefly will take place the following weekend, June 21-23, with tickets going on sale February 21 (here).

Coachella 2013 lineup revealed

While there was some big news out there today, including a brand new Strokes song that nobody seems to like, yesterday's revealing of the 2013 Coachella lineup is still the big story.

As with last year's lineup, the Indio, California festival will span two separate weekends in April (12-14 and 19-21). Following up last year's impossibly good lineup, this year looks to top it.

Featuring the shockingly rare Blur and Stones Roses as the day one headliners is enough on its own, but throwing acts like Phoenix, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Modest Mouse, New Order, Wu Tang Clan, a reunited Postal Service, and TWO Nick Cave acts make it the early front-runner for festival of the year.

Not just top heavy, the fest's mid-card and lower tier acts are ... just damn good: The Descendants, Thee Oh Sees, Violent Femmes, Major Lazer, Trash Talk, Japandroids, Local Natives, Four Tet, Dinosaur Jr., Danny Brown, Wild Nothing ... it just keeps going.

Click on the poster above to see the full lineup, but tickets won't be available for a few days. There's a special countdown on the Coachella website that you can keep track of, but tickets will sell fast when it comes.

As for Lollapalooza fans, while my status is uncertain this year, Coachella does have some forbearance on who performs at the Chicago festival. In 2011, the two huge events shared 31 acts (18 percent of the billing), although none of the acts were headliners. Last year, only one major headliner (The Black Keys) performed at both.

What does this mean for 2013? Well, don't expect Blur, The Stone Roses, and Red Hot Chili Peppers to appear, but don't count out Phoenix.

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.

Tuesday Bears: Bonnaroo reveals 2012 lineup

Now that Lollapalooza is finally starting to leak, it's due time that the Bonnaroo lineup made its way out.

With less than four months to go before the June 7-10, Manchester, Tennessee festival, the official lineup was finally released earlier today, with major acts like Radiohead, Phish, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Beach Boys leading the way.

Expected lineup inclusions like Bon Iver (Bonny Bear), The Avett Brothers, and The Shins will be there as well as dozens of other acts (comedy, included). You can read the whole lineup here, or just watch the ESPN introduction video below, which is surprisingly fun.

Tickets for the fest start at $234.50, and go on sale this Saturday, February 18.

Finally, some Lollapalooza rumors

This time last year, we already knew a handful of headliners and sub-headliners for Chicago's Lollapalooza, so waiting until mid-February was a bit boring.

Until today, the only rumors shifting through for the festival have been off-hand suspicions of Metallica and Red Hot Chili Peppers, among other headliners clinging to festivals like Sasquatch! and Coachella. And while those aforementioned rumors for Metallica seem to have some legitimacy now, a few other names have been 'leaked.' Now, these still are not confirmations, so don't take them as such, but they are much more likely as of today, via Consequence of Sound.

Suspected headlining acts like Jack White, Beck (who hasn't played the festival in a surprising 15 years), and Sigur Ros are among the names, of which also include Swedish House Mafia. Personally, Metallica and SHM don't really do anything for me, but are big names regardless. The others, however, make this year seem pretty exciting. It's good to finally hear that.

As always, check back for more rumors as they come.