2009 Begins!

posted Jan 17, 05:35 PM by Rick Webb

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And here we move into 2009.

So far, we have five festivals planned. Tickets are bought for All Tomorrow’s Parties UK weekend 1 – The Fans Strike Back This takes place in Minehead, Somerset UK again, at our old friend Butlins Holiday Resort, just after my Birthday May 8, 9 and 10. So far on deck for it are Devo, The Jesus Lizard (who I have not had the pleasure of seeing in over a decade), Spiritualized, Sleep performing Holy Mountain and selections from Dopesmoker, Grails, Young Marble Giants performing Colossal Youth, Antipop Consortium, The Cave Singers, Retribution Gospel Choir (Alan Sparhawk from Low’s other band), Shearwater and Beirut. More bands to be announced. They’re about halfway there on the lineup, the vast majority of the remainder being voted on by the attendees. I’m hella excited about Devo, Spiritualized, The Jesus Lizard and Young Marble Giants, who I never in a million years imagined I would ever get to see live.

I’ve also purchased tickets for next year’s US iteration of All Tomorrow’s Parties, which will take place in September, once again at Kutscher’s in Monticello, NY. This year will be curated by The Flaming Lips, and so far them, along with Atlas Sound, Animal Collective, Panda Bear, Antipop Consrotium, Suicide and the Dirty Three. The exciting one there for me so far is Suicide, who will be performing their first LP. Awesome.

I love ATP so much and am tempted to throw caution to the wind and go to ATP UK Weekend 2, curated by the Breeders, featuring Throwing Muses, Bon Iver, Holy Fuck, Gang of Four, Shellac, and Teenage Fanclub, but I’ll probably skip it in hopes that the ATP Nightmare Before Christmas is a good curator, since there are too many American bands in that lineup to justify another trip to the UK.

SO, then, festival three is, of course, the first of the year, South by Southwest. Lineup is trickling out, and for me, so far, the exciting bands include Primal Scream – one of the greatest live bands out there – along with the Vaselines (who are having some money trouble getting there, we hear, but we’re hopeful), Grizzly Bear, Au Revoir Simone, Andrew Bird, Grant Hart, The Ravonettes, Red Red Meat, Starsailor, Parenthetical Girls and Explosions in the Sky.

Moving on, we’re committed to hitting Coachella this year. The lineup hasn’t been announced yet – based on past years we expect it this week – but we are hopeful. The rumors, as usual, are insane, and we’re READY.

Next up we know we’ll be hitting Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits again this year, thanks to our good friends at C3 Presents, but we have NO IDEA what to begin to expect on the lineup.

Other festivals we’ll be keeping our eye on – Primavera, which is already shaping up nicely with Michael Nyman, My Bloody Valentine, Spiritualized and the Vaselines. We really want to go back to Iceland Airwaves again this year, so with the depreciated Icelandic currency we’ll be keeping an eye on that as well.

Finally, some really great tours have already been announced for this year. We’re insanely, ridiculously excited to learn that the Tindersticks will be venturing out this year – I’ve not had the privilege of seeing them in over a decade and I loved it. Antony and the Johnsons are on the road soon, as well as Andrew Bird, Loney Dear, Acid Mothers Temple and more. One more exciting thing – Leonard Cohen makes his first US appearance in eons this February in New York. Having schlepped all the way up to Toronto to see him in one of the best shows of the year last year, I can’t wait for that one.

Last year I claimed that 2009 wouldn’t be as insane as 2008 on the Rock Tourism, but it is not looking that way at all.

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