The much anticipated 2010 Fader Fort SXSW Line-up is out. The headliner slots are still TBA, but it’s a great start. Japandroids, Neon Indian, A Trak, We Were Promised Jetpacks, and a couple dozen more are on the initial line-up.

If last years are any indication, we’re in for a few huge announcements coming soon. Last year Kanye led a who’s who of his label for a shockingly great show.

Thankfully Fader Fort is free and you don’t need a badge, but make sure you get a Fader wristband. More details on that coming soon. Who are you most excited to see on this list? Who do you hope will take the headliner slots?

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@AndyShore There is a lot of emphasis as to what headliners a music festival has. Sure, it’s the big names at the top of the bill that will put the butts in the seats, but it’s the rest of the line up that can make or break a festival. A top-heavy festival can be its downfall. Often the most memorable shows are the bands you stumbled across or your new favorite obsession that hasn’t exploded yet. The headliners get all the glory, but it’s those middle of the line-up bands that do the heavy lifting. Let’s pay them their due. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom The 2010 Bonnaroo line-up unveiling was an exhausting mess, but we’re finally looking at a legit line-up. It’s a bit of a cross between Coachella and Jazz Fest with a few strong additions late in the night, it went from a big disappointment to a must-attend even if you hit Coachella and Jazz Fest. It’s amazing what adding a couple Jack’s (White and Black), Stevie, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Cliff will do. I’ve gone from a whiny “I’m not going” to “I must be there” and all it took was a nap. Let’s see what changed my mind and give this line-up the full attention it needs. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom For those sick of fake Bonnaroo line-ups, we have a real new batch of SXSW 2010 bands. And they’re pretty damn good. Of the 55 new bands, I’ve seen 6 and have rave reviews for all of them. Balkan Beat Box used to fly in from Israel just to headline the under-appreciated Lotus festival in Bloomington, In. and they’re a force with a mix of gypsy punk and hip hop. Yeah, be excited for that one. !!! is deserving of all the exclamation points, Les Savy Fav tore you a new one when he was here for Fun Fun Fun and you can expect more of the same from their bulbous front man. Miike Snow put out one of the best albums of last year and their live show matches the album. We saw hometown heroes, Spoon last week and it’s never too soon for more. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom The Coachella line-up dropped in the middle of the night Tuesday. Thankfully, I had just nodded off, or I would have been up all night obsessing and driving you crazy with a million tweets about it. I spent most of this morning pouring over it, letting it’s pure awesomeness come over me in waves. I can still barely process it. They managed to get 6/10 artists from my best albums of 2009. All 3 of my top shows of ACL.

My first reaction was: “COACHELLA LINE-UP: Jay-z, Muse, Gorillaz, Pavement, Thom Yorke, Vampire Weekend, Them Crooked Vultures, LCD Soundsystem, Phoenix, MGMT<-wow.” In my initial 10 I managed to leave off Jack White and The Dead Weather, Sly and the Family Stone, Spoon, Passion Pit, Miike Snow, Yo La Tengo, Kevin Devine, Ra Ra Riot, She and Him and the Dirty Projectos. I would travel to California just for the second set of performers I listed. It’s so deep that there are two festivals worth of acts. There’s something special going on here. Is this the best festival line-up we’ve ever seen? Let’s break it down. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom We’re one step closer. We now know who plays on each day, but we don’t know the hour-by-hour schedule. This makes it that much clearer that weekend two is the bees knees. Saturday of first weekend goes Simon & Garfunkel, My Morning Jacket, Drake, Better Than Ezra? Weak sauce. Compare that to the second weekend’s Sunday of The Neville Brothers, Van Morrison,  B.B. King, Irma Thomas, The Dead Weather. The Neville Brothers always close down the fest, but I know I’ll be at Van after an incredibly strong TDW/BB combo. Ooh I have chills already. Based on last year, they always have two bands co-headlining each day, so as our friends at Offbeat Magazine tweeted at us, “You can almost kinda guess based on the type of music/size of act & their position in the paragraph of the daily schedule!” We sure can. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Let me start by saying these are purely rumors. It’s a forwarded e-mail. That said, it doesn’t smell all that fishy. These bands are all on tour, most are major players on the festival circuit and have new albums coming out. At the very least, it’s a lot of good guesses. Jay-Z is headlining Coachella, Dave Matthews is the king of festivals, the Kings of Leon still are a major force (sadly), Pavement’s on their comeback tour, Arcade Fire has a new album in the works, The Dead Weather may have their second album out by then, yadda yadda yadda. They all make sense. Expect 2/3 of these to be on the official line-up.

Would I travel to Tennessee in June for these artists? Probably. Is it as good as the Coachella line-up or last year’s Bonnaroo line-up? Not quite. Let’s see what we have here: Read the rest of this entry »

@AndyShore Coachella was the first festival to ever turn down the Festival Crashers. They didn’t let us in on the Paul McCartney and the Killers fun of 2009. I’m hoping that now that I live in LA, they’ll rethink their stance on Festival Crashers. That or we’re crashing our way into Coachella 2010. The Polo Grounds are a great place for a festival, having seen Phish there for Festival 8 on Halloween. Seeing the palm trees and mountains as the backdrop to your music experience rivals the skyline in Chicago as the backdrop at Lollapalooza. Also, the line-up is amongst the best I have ever seen. Read the rest of this entry »

@AndyShore Festival season began and ended as a team effort for Festival Crashers in ‘09, but took a couple of individual efforts to pull it all together. Whatever doesn’t kill us will only make us stronger. It was nice to be able to come together for ACL and show all Zack’s new friends in Austin how we do. Zack got one last taste of festival season for his birthday, but I got mine for Halloween at Festival 8. It made me sad to read Zack’s list, knowing that I was not there for many of his favorite shows of the year. It also made me realize many of my favorite festival shows of 2009 are not on his list. Who doesn’t love them some more year end lists? Read the rest of this entry »