Lollapalooza

A couple times a week, I dutifully drop by Jim Derogotis' blog (highly respected pop-music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times) to contemplate his record reviews for the best, worst and everything in between of the multitude of bands treading through the abyss of indie rock obscurity. Any one listen to the New Pornographers? You might enjoy reading Derogatis' recent review of Dan Bejar's other indie outfit, Destroyer. Check it out here.

On a tip from my buddy Brent, I checked in with Jim this morning around 10:30, and was elated to see that by way of his exlusive industry sourcing he had published several of the acts confirmed for the upcoming Lollapalooza festival, scheduled to take place at Chicago's Grant Park August 1 -3. Perry Farrell, founder of alt-rock icons Jane's Addiction and mastermind behind the Lollapalooza festival will not publicly unveil the lineup until April 7, so it's pretty cool to have this information in advance, especially since we're not talking just 2-3 bands, but 15-20.

Some of the major acts announced thus far are Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, the reunited Rage Against the Machine, Jack White of the White Stripes' side project the Raconteurs, Wilco, Kanye West, G. Love (recurring Wolf Trap performer, perhaps again this summer?,) and Blues Traveler.
Check out Derogatis' blog here for the full preview.

After reading, you'll likely notice the plethora of mixed opinions on this initial lineup in the comment section below his post. Several readers seem genuinely disgusted by this initial offering of featured artists, not to mention the festival in general, and to be honest, I'm struggling to figure out why. Having been to both, I won't get on my soapbox as to why I think Lollapalooza reigns superior over Bonnarroo (which most festival goers seem to immortalize, subsequently reducing Lolla to "the mistake by the lake",) but if any of the Lolla haters are reading this, I'd love to hear the source of your resentment, because maybe I'm just missing something.

So selfishly, just because I'm personally VERY excited about travelling to Grant Park in August (bought my ticket last week), and because they are returning to their home town festival after skipping last year, and because I love them (please come back to Wolf Trap soon, stop playing Merriweather!,) my video of the week is Wilco playing "What Light" from the main stage at Lollapalooza 2006. I was about ten rows back from the stage during this performance, which is impressive considering there were about 40,000 people watching their set.

And like I said, please chime in with comments and explain to me why Lollapalooza is such a terrible disaster of a festival, I'm honestly very curious to hear why.

Have a great weekend,

Graham