Bonnaroo 2011 Highlights //

Enjoy some video highlights from this weekend’s Bonnaroo Festival, still in full swing today down in Manchester, Tennessee.

-MW

Bonnaroo 2011 Line-Up //

Conan O’Brien presents the eagerly-awaited 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY LINEUP of Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival to be held June 9-12, 2011 in Manchester, TN.

First release as follows:

Eminem • Arcade Fire • Widespread Panic • The Black Keys • Buffalo Springfield feat Richie Furay, Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Rick Rosas, Joe Vitale • My Morning Jacket • Lil Wayne • String Cheese Incident • Robert Plant & Band of Joy • Mumford & Sons • The Strokes • The Decemberists • Ray Lamontagne • Bassnectar • Iron & Wine • Girl Talk • Primus • Dr. John and The Original Meters performing Desitively Bonnaroo • Alison Krauss & Union Station • Pretty Lights • Florence + the Machine • SuperJam featuring Dan Auerbach and Dr. John • Explosions in the Sky • STS9 • Gogol Bordello • Beirut • Big Boi • Scissor Sisters • Gregg Allman • Ratatat • Robyn • Warren Haynes Band • Deerhunter • Opeth • & Many More!

-k

Jay-Z’s ‘Vote Again 2010’ PSA //

HeadCount.org put out this PSA, featuring a speech Jay-Z made to the crowd at this year’s Bonnaroo.  Here’s hoping people will listen and we continue to change the world for the better.

-MW

Festy Fun 2010 - Best of Bonnaroo: Re-living the Dream Part 3.

Welcome to the third and final post-roo installment. Yes, it’s been over a week later, and I’m still riding the high – figuratively speaking.

Highlights from Saturday, June 12:

Dead Weather - 10 mins of sheer neo-blues, rock, glory and sin:           Will There Be Enough Water…            watch and salivate.

Shortly before this number, White declared “I want you to remember which band on stage brought the rain   to Bonnaroo, all right?” Oh yes. The rains are here.

‘Roo Sideshow Alert- In other news regarding the Jack White + Conan O’Brien + Tennessee combo, the two entertainment giants collaborated at  White’s Third Man Records home on June 10. A simple jam session ensued, followed closely an LP.

Stevie Wonder – Two words: Stevie Wonder.

Photo credit: Samuel M. Simpkins

Who needs to see, when you have vision. This legend banged out decades of funk and dance tunes. What a soul. What a smile. What a man.

Jay-Z – He was allotted a 2hr performance. He played for 45 mins. Personally, I think the audience was kind of jibbed. Albeit, it was an amazingly intense 45 minutes ending with a “forever young” encore.

Yes, that photo just happened.

GWAR - This one goes out to fellow vag Jeff who recommended you all go see this “troupe of sadomasochistic chaos warriors” from 2.30 – 3.45 am. For those of you who made it out that long, I salute you!

Sunday, June 13. Day 4. 

John Butler Trio – Listen to the whole LIVE show here  (thanks to NPR). Keep your ears peeled for the ‘pots-and-pans’ style percussion breakdown amidst the 15-minute ‘Funky Tonight’ closing jam – The song starts at 01:04:50 in the live recording above, drum jam starts at about 01:09:40 – definitely worth a listen.

Blues traveller aided my Sunday afternoon recovery session covering radiohead’s creep ..check out this fan footage.

John Fogerty is a highlight for multiple reasons. Check out this pre-gig interview by Fader. Watch him talk covers. Then watch the legend himself cover..Pretty Woman.

DMB - I must be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of Dave Matthews Band. Not for any particular reason, I’ve just always felt somewhat indifferent toward them. That said, their electrifying performance managed to give me an umpteenth wind after 96 hours of physically demanding rocking out – and that’s got to count for something. They closed out the festival with a cover of Bob Dylan’s  “All Along the Watchtower” – a climactic choice but not original – Pearl Jam finished up the same way in 2008. Never the less, with the couple of extra horns that Mr. Matthews employed “to make the sound “a little bit fatter,” and the galaxy of sky lanterns balloons floating off into the infinite Tennessee atmosphere, all in all,

Until next year. Happy Roo! From my ears. To yours. With Love -k

Festy Fun 2010 - Best of Bonnaroo: Re-living the Dream Part 2.

‘Roo Life Lesson Number 3:  There is something about a music festival that is conducive to unthought-of covers and surprise collaborations. You put enough creative spirits under one tent, and the on-stage possibilities are infinite.

Jay Sweet from Paste Magazine said it best: “The festival is the kind of thing you can’t program; you just curate it and see what happens.”

Here are a couple of those non-programmable moments. Stay tuned for more in Part 3.

Friday June 11. (continued from Part 1)

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zereos - triple-digit temps couldn’t stop our jangling souls from bouncing around like a cult of gypsies. See them on and off the ‘roo stage in this interview with Jeremiah Weed.

Damian Marely and Nas - had upwards of 50,000 ‘rooers grooving down the “Road to Zion.” Listen to the full LIVE hour and a half audio (including intro by Conan), from NPR.

NPR is also giving away this free 11-song Bonnaroo 2010 sampler. Sample that.

Speaking of scoring FREE Bonnaroo loot from larger music industry corporations…Since we MV’s don’t have the means to give away our own sweet swag, I’m going to give away there’s also. So, here, take it… SPIN’s Bonnaroo Mixtape 2010 – Free Album Download!  You can thank me later!

She and Him - The doe-eyed tambourine-tapping goddess PUT A SPELL ON ME, that’s for sure. I couldn’t find any live footage of the duo’s closing tune, but if you close your eyes and pretend that portabella sandwich you had for lunch today was magical in every which way, you will soon find yourself melting back to ‘This Tent’ with this audio capture courtesy of the Hype Machine .

Tenacious D – Conan couldn’t have introduced them better, “Are you ready to rock? Are you ready to laugh? Are you ready to rock and laugh?” Jack Black and Kyle Gass played all their laugh out loud classics, and some mid-set “Pick of Destiny 2” banter resulted in an on-stage band break-up theatrical…and this awesome make-up tune .

KOL - Played a bunch of their older, rawer, grittier stuff. Big thumbs up. Lead vocal/guitarist/tight-jean-wearing-hottie, Caleb Followill, persevered through his throat infection issues that sparked rumors of cancellation last week. I haven’t been able to find any decent footage of their Pixies cover, “Where is my mind,” but it rocked. It was one of those cliche postcard “Wish you were here” moments.

Daryl Hall and Chromeo  (Above: photo credits - Pete Moshay) - Ok, so it meant having to leave the Black Keys set halfway through “Tighten Up”, but catching “Private Eyes” (a personal favorite) made it totally worthwhile. The 80’s king and 80’s-inspired Canadian duo finished off with a Hall and Oates classic, “You Make My Dreams Come True.” This little fan footage alllllmost does the encore dance party justice: watch it here.

Kid Cudi - Watch this surprise intro by Aziz Ansari doubling as security for this man on the moon phenomenon… Just remember, “Rule number 2, nobody look at Cudi’s shoes. The shoes are really shy, okay.”

LCD Soundsystem’s killer late night set. Including their staple Jay-Z/Alicia Keys breakdown of “New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down”.

And then all of a sudden, I realized it was 5am. Pow pow pow pow pow…Watch the Pow Pow.

Another winner: “All My Friends.” Anyone whose been lost in a sea of thousands of sweaty, ecstatic, dancing fanatics can relate to their “buddy-system” pre-amble here. From my own experience, glow-stick weaponry works wonders.

‘Roo Life Lesson Number 4: Bloody Mary’s are the ultimate cure the morning after an LCD Soundsystem late night set.

‘Roo part 2 from my ears. To yours. With love -k

 

Festy Fun 2010 - Best of Bonnaroo: Re-living the Dream Part 1.

Warning: This blog posting may quickly turn into a nonsensical stream of consciousness. Four days of mind-altering musical performances has a tendency to create a blur of great lucid memories. Or perhaps that had something to do with those cookies that had the funny parsley bits in them. Anywho…

Thursday June 10.

It’s 10am. We picked up the RV from New York at 3pm yesterday. Drove straight through the night (thank you concerta and Ben’s ipod). Already put $200 of petrol in the beast, but it’s totally worth it.

Above: Setting up camp. Anyone who didn’t bring a futon… well, you lose. Our castle on wheels, the “Chateau” was renamed and coated with a dirty French accent “Lè Chateau”. Then 10 minutes later, stemming from a miscommunication combined with my tainted aussie accent, our vehicle was further transformed into “The Lush Toe”.

Above: Local Natives started my ‘roo off right (listen to their full set courtesy of NPR here). Followed directly by Miike Snow (below). Those Swedes really know how to get things rolling.  When they fired up Animal, no mud could stop me from jumping up and down like a 7-year old on a bouncy castle who just drank their body weight in red cordial (Yankee translation: Kool Aid).

Day 1 in Manchester, Tennessee finished strong with sets from Neon Indian, The Temper Trap and The xx – ‘That Tent’ was this vags home that night!

The xx opened with Intro – no surprises there, no disappointments either. Rolling Stone posted a little snippet of “Shelter” with Romy breaking away into a hypnotic solo (watch it here), but I’m loving this fan vid of “Crystallized.”   

‘Roo Life Lesson Number 1: After a certain number of adult beverages, navigating through the 75,000 tent maze back to “The Lush Toe” can prove difficult without a cellular device. My friend, lets call him Morris, learned this the hard way.  He left his phone in NYC and left the rest of us in ‘The Other Tent’.  He did, however, manage to find the futon at 3am.  Props.

‘Roo Life Lesson Number 2: A festy futon is the best investment you’ll ever make.

- ‘Roo from my ears. To yours. With love. -k