It can get disheartening around this time of year, as spring looks to tip into the festival season and DrownedinSound is tied to a desk, and forced to regurgitate the endless, endless spume of festival line-up leaks, conjecture, truth and rumour. Not disheartening in the same way that working in a toothpaste factory might be, of course, but you get the idea when you see Radiohead, mud-slinging and festival news in the same article and wonder if we’ve descended into self-parody.
Anyway, most pertinent is Perry Farrell’s confirmation that the line-up leaked by Chicago Sun-Times writer Jim DeRogatis last week - which includes Radiohead, as well as Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine, KanYe West and Battles - is correct. Find those present at the festival in Chicago from the 1st 'til the 3rd of August reiterated below:
Radiohead
Rage Against the Machine
Nine Inch Nails
KanYe West
Wilco
The Raconteurs
Louis XIV
Love and Rockets
Gnarls Barkley
Bloc Party
The Black Keys
Broken Social Scene
Lupe Fiasco
Flogging Molly
Mark Ronson
Cat Power
The National
G. Love & Special Sauce
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
Explosions in the Sky
Brand New
Gogol Bordello
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
Dierks Bentley
Okkervil River
Amadou & Mariam
Blues Traveler
John Butler Trio
Girl Talk
Your Vegas
CSS
Eli “Paperboy” Reed & the True Loves
Battles
Steel Train
Jamie Lidell
Bang Camaro
Butch Walker
The Blakes
Mates of State
Tally Hall
Spank Rock
White Lies
Brazilian Girls
Magic Wands
Chromeo
Electric Touch
Duffy
Innerpartysystem
The Kills
The Postelles
Rogue Wave
The Parlor Mob
The Go! Team
Bald Eagle
Mason Jennings
Krista
The Gutter Twins
Ha Ha Tonka
Yeasayer
Witchcraft
Grizzly Bear
We Go To 11
MGMT
Sofia Talvik
The Weakerthans
Booka Shade
Santogold
Black Kids
Black Lips
Dr. Dog
Nicole Atkins & the Sea
The Ting Tings
Kid Sister
Office
The Cool Kids
What Made Milwaukee Famous
Does It Offend You, Yeah?
The Whigs
Manchester Orchestra
Foals
Uffie
The Octopus Project
Cadence Weapon
Ferras
De Novo Dahl
Noah and the Whale
Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s
K’NAAN
Serena Ryder
Newton Faulkner
Next, the beef – DeRogatis has felt the sharp end of Farrell’s tongue. His journalistic endeavour – the Chicago Sun-Times writer confirmed the line-up by going to the ‘people’ managing each act – not appreciated:
“My initial reaction? Well… this guy, he’s a stinker, so it was kind of like having a skunk at the party,” Farrell sneered to MTV.com. “So what do we do? Well, I think we should make him the stinky mascot. ... That’s what I’m going to do. ... Pepe LePew.
“It doesn’t bother me that much. Why? Because I’m really proud of the line-up. It’s like saying, ‘He just leaked some good news about you!’ So what? [We’ll just make him] the evil mascot, man. I’m telling you, we’ve got to just embrace him. Embrace the darkness.”
Rant done with, the Lollapalooza boss talked up a new working relationship with iTunes. Fucking zzz? What at first seems like another corporate web/festival gland-greet may actually see a host of interesting collaborations emerge, studio efforts that find their way onstage and then onto iTunes as “unique content”.
“We’ll start to talk with Radiohead about putting them with someone they’d like to collaborate with, tell them how it’s going to go down.”
And bang, that’s the holy trinity, parody achieved. Looking down that list, is there anyone you’d particularly like to see Thom Yorke et al. lay down hot rock traxxx with?
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