bonnaroo

Want free music? Care about the environment? Headcount, NRDC Action Fund and JamBase have teamed up to form Music For Action, a simple give and take that allows you to walk away with a nice bounty of soundboard recordings from the Bonnaroo Music Festival. All they are asking in return for live tracks from the likes of Phish, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, Phil Lesh & Friends, My Morning Jacket, Wilco, Jack Johnson, Death Cab For Cutie and several more is for you to submit a pre-written e-mail to U.S. Senators urging the passing of the recent climate change bill that has already been pushed through the House of Representatives. It only takes a few minutes, and just might be the ticket to influence your state's Senators to take a closer look at the bill, and hopefully vote for it in the long run. The 17 tracks you get out of this whole deal are quite the treat as well, especially My Morning Jacket's take on The Velvet Underground's "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" and Wilco's sonically pleasing "Bull Black Nova."

Check out the full track list of the "Best Of Bonnaroo" compilation after the jump.

Slowly but surely, the folks over at AC Entertainment and Superfly Productions have been announcing bands via social networking sites MySpace and Twitter. Officially, many great acts have already been announced, but we still have several hours to wait until we see the full top to bottom line-up. So far the bigger acts include Jay Z, Dave Matthews Band, Kings Of Leon, Tenacious D, John Fogerty, Weezer, The Flaming Lips performing Dark Side Of The Moon and Damien Marley & Nas. Several of my favorites have so far made the cut as well, including The Avett Brothers, Dr. Dog, The Black Keys, Jimmy Cliff, Phoenix, The xx, She & Him and The National.

I'll try to do my best to update the line-up as Bonnaroo does, but for now check out the current artist list after the jump

I've been reminiscing lately about my summer travels to several of the U.S.'s best musical events, especially the many great bands I witnessed on my trek. One show in particular still stands out above the rest – Delta Spirit in This Tent, Thursday night at Bonnaroo 2009. Their set was initially scheduled for early afternoon on Thursday, but due to some technical difficulties with their plane at DFW, they couldn't arrive on time to fill their spot. Thankfully, they caught a later flight out, borrowed some instruments from an earlier band, and were dealt a prime slot – closing out the largest tent to a rain-soaked, fresh-legged first-day festival crowd. I'd been trying to get my group of about 10 others to see Delta Spirit all day, but due to the sporadic downpours, drunkenness and festival ADD, I'd lost my entire crew by the start of the set. Unfortunately, for them, they missed the best performance of the weekend, one that still sticks with me even more than the two major headlining spots by that favorite band of mine. I caught a few of the songs on video, but recently I found the closing duo of my favorite, "People, Turn Around," and the scorcher, "Crippler King," that sent the several hundred in attendance back out in the rain with a giddy stride to their step. Check it out:

I didn't catch it when I saw it live, but you gotta give much respect for the H-Town shout-out towards the end of "Crippler King" – "Holy cow, look at all of you...we've never played in front of this many people before, we're usually a bar band. So, if you could just image yourself at some fucking juke like Walter's on Washington in Houston, TX, you'll be doing great." I can assuredly tell you that I didn't need to put my imagination into Houston's best indie-rock club to be having a good time. I can't wait to catch them again live. By the sounds of it, they won't be skipping our fair city on their next tour, so I should be getting another Delta Spirit show sometime real soon.

"Still here, huh?" muttered guitarist Trey Anastasio as Phish strapped on their instruments for the final performance of Bonnaroo 2009, a full two-set show that lasted from about 8:30 pm until almost 1:00 in the morning. If they seemed a bit slow on Friday night, there were no signs of fatigue from the get-go on Sunday.

Read all about the show after the jump

Photo by Jeff Kravitz courtesy of Phish.com

Two full Phish shows over the course of three nights. Add that to a full festival line-up with the likes of the Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails, Wilco, Al Green, Animal Collective, Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear and many more favorites, and it wouldn't take much more to get me anywhere. Phish brought their A-game to Manchester (and a whole bunch of songs to boot), for over six hours of full-on rock and roll. They had no problem filling their sets with two song lists that included no repeats the whole time. I was in attendance for every single moment of the two performances which included a bounty of covers, originals and a huge guest spot from The Boss.

Read all about both shows after the jump

Photo by C. Taylor Crothers courtesy of Phish.com

We had the point-and-shoot in hand to take a few videos of some of our favorite bands at the 2009 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Included in our videos from the weekends are performances from White Rabbits, MURS, Passion Pit, Midnite, Delta Spirit on Thursday, Everest, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear and Pretty Lights on Friday, Jimmy Buffett, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Bon Iver and Wilco on Saturday, and Brett Dennen, Andrew Bird, Okkervil River, Band of Horses and Phish on Sunday.

Check out more videos after the jump

The 2009 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival has come and gone, leaving many happy music-loving kids well saturated with their favorite songs and plenty of sun. A rainy start on Thursday found us checking out sets from Alberta Cross, Janelle Monae, White Rabbits, Murs, Chairlift, Passion Pit, Midnite and my favorite set of the day (maybe even the weekend...) from Delta Spirit. Friday was my busiest day, running around to catch Toubab Krewe, Everest, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Al Green, TV on the Radio, Beastie Boys, Phish, Paul Oakenfold, Girl Talk and Pretty Lights. Saturday continued with performances from Jimmy Buffett, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Bon Iver, Of Montreal, Wilco, Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band, Yeasayer, Nine Inch Nails and moe. Finally, Bonnaroo concluded with a busy Sunday that featured shows by Brett Dennen, Andrew Bird, Okkervil River, Merle Haggard, Band of Horses and the perfect closing set by Phish that featured a choice guest spot by Saturday headliner Bruce Springsteen.

We brought the camera along to take some pictures, but unfortunately weren't sporting a photo pass, so no band shots. Our new friend Andy Keil was there shooting for our old friends Consequence of Sound, so check out his band shots on his Flickr page.

You can check out some of our shots from Centeroo and the grounds after the jump

After finishing off a successful weekend in Ozark, AR for the Wakarusa Music Festival, we are well rested, and ready for some more. We have a quick stop in Knoxville tomorrow night for Toast and my first Phish show in five years, and first ever for Cereal, then we will be headed straight towards Manchester to hop in line for the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. It will be a mind-blowing experience for all parties involved as we are bombarded with non-stop music from the likes of Phish (two shows!), Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band, The Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails, Wilco, Bon Iver, David Byrne, Band of Horses, Merle Haggard, Animal Collective and so many more that I can't even think of right now.

We will be taking a bunch of great photos (though, no photo pit action for this one, but I can still bring my camera into Centeroo) and videos to post when the weekend is through. We will also be live-tweeting the entire weekend, so please feel free to follow us on Twitter if you want to keep up with all of the action as it happens.

Our Wakarusa footage from last weekend has being compiled, but won't be posted until next week due to our previously discussed detour. Until then, check out our video of Perpetual Groove covering A-Ha's "Take On Me" which closed out their late night set in the Revival Tent on Friday night/Saturday morning.

Both Wakarusa and Bonnaroo have posted their daily schedules, leaving all of us festivarians either extremely happy and conflict free, or freaking out that the "two bands they paid to see" are playing at the same time. Wakarusa is offering up a different type of schedule this year, with more music on Thursday (Jun 4), Friday (Jun 5) and Saturday (Jun 6), leaving Sunday (Jun 7) as a wind down day. Bonnaroo, on the other hand, is going strong from Thursday (Jun 11) on, finally wrapping things up with a 3-and-a-half hour Phish show on Sunday (Jun 14).

Wakarusa's Entertainment Schedule

Bonnaroo's Entertainment Schedule

That's a whole lot of music in a small amount of time. Good luck!

With summer fast approaching, everyone is starting to make their vacation plans. If you're like me, those plans include a stop at at least one major music festival. Bonnaroo came out swinging early, with a huge line-up featuring tons of great music. A few weeks ago, they threw a bunch of new names on the line-up, but just the other day, they added a couple more. The difference with these additions, though, is that this round was never formally announced. While the bands are not nearly as large as Public Enemy or Ani DiFranco, who were added in the last round, a nice mix of smaller cafe acts have quietly been thrown on the line-up. Included in this round of additions are BOT favorites Everest, SXSW noisemakers Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, Sparrow Quartet member Ben Sollee, Parisian electro-rockers Phoenix and New Orleans soul man Dan Dyer among a plethora of others.

Check out who else was added to the bill after the jump