The weather is starting to warm up and the days are getting longer, which means we are inching that much closer to the summer festival season. Coachella and Bonnaroo have been booked for months, and now the final member of the three biggest summer fests has finally announced its lineup. They certainly saved the best for last, as Lollapalooza 2010 has an incredible lineup. The festival, which will take place in Chicago’s Grant Park on August 6-8, features the likes of Lady Gaga, Soundgarden, Green Day and the newly-reunited Strokes.

Of all the summer festivals, Lollapalooza tends to be the best. It’s incredibly well-run, the lineup is always incredibly varied, the venue is large enough to feel remote but still, of course, in downtown Chicago. It’s a little cost-prohibitive (there’s no camping, which forces everybody into hotels) and always unbearably hot, but it often ends up being the finest three days of music all year. How does this year’s collection of acts stack up? Here are the artists we’re most excited about.

Lady Gaga
Festivals don’t always lend themselves to theatricality, but Lollapalooza has been open to larger-scale productions (both Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails brought their full-scale visual spectacles to their sets in 2008). That could mean that Gaga can bring the whole Monster Ball to Grant Park (and even if she doesn’t, it’ll be total lunacy during her set anyway).

Soundgarden
Heavy music rarely works at outdoor shows (and especially at festivals like Lollapalooza), but the recently-reunited Seattle legends always managed to deliver in the open air. It seems like any time a band who was on the old Lollapalooza tours in the ’90s comes back for a big set (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine and the like), it’s always a big deal.

The Strokes
The band hasn’t been on stage together in four years, so this will be a good test to see if they still have the magic. Considering how much re-assessment their albums have gotten since their hiatus began (especially their debut Is This It, which ended up near the top of a lot of best-of-the-decade lists), the crowd will probably be extremely rabid for this set. With a good set, the New Yorkers can consider this a coronation.

Arcade Fire
Another group that has been gone for a minute, the Arcade Fire will have new epics to roll out in Grant Park. You wouldn’t think that their brand of ethereal pop would make sense at a festival, but once the sun sets, their haunting hymns will provide a cathartic comedown after hours of sweating and swaying.

The Chicago Tent
Lollapalooza has done a lot to embrace the city that hosts it, which is why they are setting aside some space specifically for Chicago acts. It should be a great cross-section of the city’s musical personality, and at the very least, you’ll get to hear Mavis Staples.

The Black Keys
They’re only two guys, but they are surprisingly savage, especially in a wide open space. When they last played the festival in 2008, they got a mostly-seated crowd on their feet in the middle of a sweltering afternoon. That’s how good these guys are.

Cypress Hill
In a nod to old-school Lollapalooza lineups (where hip-hop used to be a staple), one of the defining hip-hop groups of the ’90s should provide some fantastic vibes surrounding both classics and great cuts from their awesome new album Rise Up.

Raphael Saadiq
He seems to only exist at festivals as the guy you just can’t walk past while he’s on stage. If there is an award for walk-up crowds in the middle of a park, Saadiq would be in the hall of fame.

American Bang
They’re responsible for the theme song for “WWE NXT,” so what’s not to love?

Who are you most looking forward to seeing at Lollapalooza? Let us know in the comments!

The biggest catch — and in Farrell’s opinion, the toughest catch — was Lady Gaga, who will present her Monster Ball in front of its biggest audience yet. “Lady Gaga represents to me the music industry today. She’s a good representation of where it’s at and where everybody’s trying to get to. If you look at the Grammys, it looked like everybody was trying to catch up to Lady Gaga,” Farrell tells RS. “We just see the vision of Lady Gaga in Chicago in Grant Park surrounded by all those beautiful buildings — we all just thought that it would be an epic performance.”

Check out shots of Lady Gaga’s ambitious Monster Ball.

The headlining slot marks the second time Gaga will perform at Lollapalooza; Before she became Lady Gaga, she performed on the much-smaller BMI stage at the 2007 fest, and was eager to return on the big stage. “She had a real interest in doing it as well because she felt like we had given her a break to go into the world of legitimate music, you know not just pop,” Farrell said.

Go backstage at Lolla ‘09 in photos.

Lollapalooza’s other huge coup was snagging Seattle grunge legends Soundgarden to headline, marking the first gig of any kind Chris Cornell and the Superunknown gang have performed since their 1997 breakup. “It was a very tough catch for us,” Farrell says of adding Soundgarden, who announced their reunion on New Year’s Day but have gone silent since. “They were ready then they weren’t ready, then they didn’t know what they were going to do and then they were going to go out with another group to tour. So we were really kind of on edge to secure them and it came down to the wire.” Soundgarden had previously performed on two Lollapalooza circuits when the festival was a roving tour, so Farrell was set on booking them again: “We’re happy that it all worked out and we have the exclusive first comeback show for them.”

Beyond the Upside: Soundgarden’s career in photos.

With so many festivals to compete against — each with their own exclusivity clauses — and so many artists still in the studio working feverishly to complete their new albums, Farrell admits that compiling this year’s lineup was more “nerve-wracking” that previous years. “For Arcade Fire, we were going to miss the window and we just love them so much we were like, ‘OK, we’ll give you another 30 days, we’ll keep the slot open,’ and the patience worked out,” Farrell says. “They all have new material and I don’t think there’s a better place to present it than Lollapalooza.”

Perry’s, the DJ and electro stage, will return with 2ManyDJs, Empire of the Sun, and a set by Farrell himself. As for whether he’ll will take the Lollapalooza stage with Jane’s Addiction, who Rolling Stone reported officially added bassist Duff McKagan to their roster last week, Farrell isn’t promising the band will appear at Chicago’s Grant Park. However, don’t be surprised if they do show up at an afterparty or two in the days following the fest, much like Them Crooked Vultures did last year. “It’ll be similar to what they did but maybe not in a club. Maybe somewhere really special,” Farrell hints.

Relive Lollapalooza 2009 in our best live shots.

Full Lollapalooza 2010 Lineup:
Soundgarden
Green Day
Lady Gaga
Arcade Fire
The Strokes
Phoenix
Social Distortion
MGMT
Jimmy Cliff
Hot Chip
The Black Keys
The National
Spoon
Devo
Cypress Hill
Cut Copy
The New Pornographers
Erykah Badu
Slightly Stoopid
Grizzly Bear
Gogol Bordello
Chromeo
Wolfmother
Yeasayer
X Japan
MUTEMATH
Metric
Dirty Projectors
AFI
Mavis Staples
Matt & Kim
The xx
Drive-By Truckers
Blues Traveler
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
The Temper Trap
Jamie Lidell
Frightened Rabbit
Fuck Buttons
Deer Tick
Blitzen Trapper
Stars
Raphael Saadiq
The Cribs
Minus the Bear
Switchfoot
The Walkmen
Mumford & Sons
Wild Beasts
Rogue Wave
Los Amigos Invisibles
The Big Pink
The Dodos
Hockey
Cymbals Eat Guitars
B.o.B
Dawes
Warpaint
The Antlers
The Soft Pack
Rebelution
Balkan Beat Box
Wavves
American Bang
The Ike Reilly Assassination
Company of Thieves
Nneka
Harlem
The Constellations
Miniature Tigers
Mimicking Birds
The Kissaway Trail
HEALTH
Javelin
The Morning Benders
Foxy Shazam
Violent Soho
Royal Bangs
NEON TREES
Freelance Whales
Semi Precious Weapons
Dan Black
The Band of Heathens
Dragonette
My Dear Disco
Shawn Fisher
Neon Hitch
Skybox
The Ettes
Jukebox the Ghost
These United States
MyNameIsJohnMichael

Lollapalooza 2010 Perry’s Lineup:
2ManyDJs
Empire of the Sun
Digitalism
Perry Farrell
Tiga
Felix da Housecat
Rusko
Erol Alkan
Kaskade
Flosstradamus
Wolfgang Gartner
Joachim Garraud
Mexican Institute of Sound
Caspa
Peanut Butter Wolf
Dirty South
NERVO
Cut Copy (DJ Set)
Beats Antique
Steve Porter
Didi Gutman of Brazilian Girls
Ancient Astronauts
Ana Sia
Team Bayside High
Dani Deahl
FreeSol
DJ Mel
BBU
Vonnegutt
Only Children
Lance Herbstrong

Related Stories:

• Lollapalooza Lineup Puzzle Reveals Green Day, Arcade Fire
• Decoding Lollapalooza’s “Wheel of Fortune” Lineup Puzzle: Strokes, Soundgarden, Phoenix, More
• Jane’s Addiction In the Studio With Duff McKagan on Bass

Simply put, while Knoxville may not have the name cachet, Big Ears is arguably the classiest, most diverse festival in the country, selling more than 13,000 tickets for the 30-plus events. The brainchild of local promoter Ashley Capps (also one of the founders of Bonnaroo), BE’s closest model is All Tomorrow’s Parties in England, but with an even wider range of musical offerings. Of-the-moment bands like the xx, Vampire Weekend and the National — whose guitarist Bryce Dessner served as Capps’ co-curator — joined renowned minimalist composer Terry Riley, ambient noise freaks like Ben Frost, Tim Hecker and William Basinski, black metalists Liturgy, electronic folk artists the Books and even Andrew W.K., who performed with his chamber pop collaborators the Calder Quarter as well as giving a fiery motivational “speech” at high noon on Saturday at the Knoxville Museum of Art.

But the bar was immediately set high on Friday night with a searing set from legendary Dutch punks the Ex. Going on 30-plus years, despite a shifting lineup of members, their agit-anarcho rattlings sounded just as vital as they did in 1979. Later that night, the xx continued to prove that they were capable of living up to the fawning foisted upon their 2009 self-titled debut. Early gigs were tentative, but the English trio has found a comfort zone using sneaky production tricks and lighting to fill out their dour Timbaland-meets-Joy Division groove. The response at the 750-seat Bijou Theater was shockingly intense, even driving one couple in a balcony box into the throes of ecstasy during the seductive “Shelter” before a security guard stepped in and told them to get a room.

Hotly tipped openers jj didn’t fare as well. The Swedish duo’s three records are filled with beautifully crafted, druggy pop songs but there was no attempt to duplicate the sound live. Singer Elin Kastender sang to backing tracks from a laptop while partner Joakim Benon wandered onstage after 20 minutes holding a guitar (which he never actually played), and made googly eyes at Elin. Onstage, they were merely having a laugh, but many didn’t see the humor.

Saturday dawned warm and sunny, but the action was in the dark and inside. After a festival highlight set at the Bijou by the 802 Tour — featuring composer Nico Muhly, folk artist Sam Amidon, electronic musician Doveman aka Thomas Bartlettt and violinist Nadia Sirota — the Dirty Projectors ambled onstage down the street at the ornate Tennessee Theater (seriously, it’s like watching a show inside a Faberge egg) for a set of knotty, pulsing selections culled mainly from last year’s Bitte Orca. The crowd was already lining up for that night’s Vampire Weekend show at the same venue. Much of Ezra Koenig and Co.’s material seemed more muscular — especially tracks like “Holiday” and the punky highlight “Cousins” — and their 90-minute set wrapped to Jonas Brothers-worthy screams from the mostly female crowd.

SNL’s Fred Armisen made a special appearance as his drummer extraordinaire character Jens Hannemann before Joanna Newsom’s set, and Saturday ended with a late-night tribal dance party put on by Gang Gang Dance. Sunday, St. Vincent a.k.a. Annie Clark destroyed the Bijou with her ferocious guitar work, mad noise scientists the Konk Pack pinged and ponged down at the Annex and Terry Riley — the festival’s anointed artist-in-residence — played a set of comfortable jazz, each setting the stage for the finale of My Brightest Diamond and the National. MBD’s leader and multi-instrumentalist Shara Worden is a dynamo, whether it was playing a slow-burning blues number or the set-closing cover of “Tainted Love” (not to mention, all this while being five months pregnant).

Worden’s set was so strong, she nearly upstaged the National, but after a shaky start, the Brooklyn band locked in. Their upcoming fifth album High Violet (due out May 11th) is one of the year’s most anticipated releases and if the live versions of tracks like the anthemic “Bloodbuzz Ohio” and “England” are any indication, it should be a monster. The band is a scruffier Kings of Leon (but with more intricate songs and deeper lyrics), combining the grandeur of U2 and Bruce Springsteen with folk elements and a distinct indie-rock thrash. Charismatic lead singer Matt Berninger rumbled his vocals in an Ian Curtis-like baritone while spastically stalking the stage like a jittery Chris Martin (even bolting into the crowd during the ripping “Mr. November” from their 2005 breakout Alligator).

For the encore’s first song, High Violet’s closer “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks,” the band were joined by many Big Ears performers — Muhly, Clark, Doveman and Worden, among them — and after the quiet, dreamy number Berninger announced, “we’re always sorry to see them go.” For Big Ears festival attendees, the feeling was mutual albeit on a much bigger scale.

The Libertines only released two albums, 2002’s Up the Bracket and 2004’s The Libertines, but the group quickly ascended to become one of the biggest bands in Britain thanks to their Clash-style rock and the notoriety of their guitarist Pete Doherty. A rift between Doherty and co-frontman Carl Barat led to the band dissolving in 2004. Doherty — when not getting in trouble with drugs or the law (he was just arrested again last week) — went on to perform with Babyshambles and embark on his own solo career, while Barat formed Dirty Pretty Things. Still, a Libertines reunion always seemed inevitable (if the price was right), as just last May three of the group’s four members — Doherty, Barat and drummer Gary Powell — performed six Libertines songs onstage following a Babyshambles show. Up the Bracket recently appeared on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Best Albums of the 2000s.

Guns n’ Roses, who will hit up multiple European festivals this summer, is set to headline the Friday, August 27th performances at Reading and close out Leeds on Sunday, August 29th. Arcade Fire, who have the Libertines on their bill at both shows, will headline the opening day of the Leeds Festival and play Reading’s second night. Blink-182 will play second night of Leeds and the final night of Reading. The rest of the lineup the days Blink-182 perform seems more suited to a Bamboozle here in the States: Weezer, Paramore, Cypress Hill, Limp Bizkit and All Time Low.

More acts and special guests will be announced soon. For more fest info, check out the Reading and Leeds site.

Related Stories:

• Pete Doherty Apologizes After Singing Nazi Anthem in Germany
• Barat Finds Life After Libertines
• Pete Doherty Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges, Being Tardy

Other artists on the bill include past Rolling Stone Breaking acts and Artists to Watch like Nneka, the Low Anthem, Dawes, Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros plus old faves like Richie Havens and Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers and Blitzen Trapper. Check out the entire lineup below.

As Rolling Stone reported last year, the 50th anniversary of the Newport Folk Festival brought an all-star lineup, as Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, the Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, Neko Case, Arlo Guthrie and more.

George Wein’s 51st Newport Folk Festival
July 30th
Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers
Tim O’Brien
Sarah Jarosz

Four days of near-continuous live music, peppered with brief, meat-filled interludes, the occasional open-bar, and parties that plow on into the early morning hours, SXSW is the music marathon to end all music marathons; it’s part endurance test, part wild, unending bender … the kind of thing you’ve got to experience at least once in your life, provided your ears (and liver) can handle it. Seriously, you have no idea how nuts things get down here.

Anyway, we arrived in town early Thursday morning, and when we got here, the folks at SXSW were nice enough to have two of Texas’ favorite sons — Paul Wall and Chamillionaire — waiting on hand to welcome us. We’d like to think they do this for everybody, but we know better.

We spoke to the dynamic duo — who had just reunited on stage the previous night at Austin’s La Zona Rosa after spending much of the late ’00s pursuing solo careers (with, it should be added, much success) — about teaming up once again, memories of their earlier days spent hustling in Houston, and the status of their respective solo albums (after months of delay, we found out Cham’s Venom will finally see the light of day on June 22, five days before another date that holds plenty of significance for any true fan of Houston’s so-called “Screw Music” scene — June 27 — the title of an influential mixtape released by the late, great pioneer DJ Screw).

And while we’ll get to all the news over the coming days, we figured we’d let these two Texas boys do what they do best: get on the mic, and welcome all of you to the party. After all, even the most gnarly of marathons must begin with a single step.

Check back throughout the week (and into the weekend) for more of MTV News’ adventures at South by Southwest … the biggest bands, the best interviews, the beefiest beef ribs … it’s all gonna be here.

Catch up on 27 more reports — and see video — from SXSW’s Day One in our Twitter marathon roundup.

Despite what you’ve been told, Broken Bells are not a duo consisting of James Mercer, on hiatus from the Shins, and Danger Mouse, on hiatus from Gnarls Barkley. Last night they were a seven-piece band, with multiple guitars, horns, and keys that provided a platform for Mercer to kick out the jams. Broken Bells played their entire self-titled album, starting with the endearing, organ-infused first single “The High Road.” The ambient details Danger Mouse adds to Broken Bells’ songs are not as readily apparent in a live setting — his in-studio electronic curlicues were relegated to preprogrammed samples, as he mostly manned a drum kit — but still make the songs feel like more than just Shins tunes with new players.

While Broken Bells may still be in pursuit of their live voice — the show was one of the band’s handful of debut gigs — their onstage successor, Spoon, have had years to perfect a muscular, new-wave aesthetic. The Austin five-piece, augmented by a second percussionist, was introduced by the same disheveled fellow who introduced the Flaming Lips at a pre-SXSW gig in Austin last week attended by Spoon frontman Britt Daniel. (The guy said he was one of six people at the first ever Spoon show, where he reported that Daniel joked, “I wish I knew what it took to get people to like my music.”)

Spoon raced through songs from the albums Transference and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga clad in black, amid sparse white lights. Daniel made occasional detours to wield his guitar like a mobster spraying a Tommy Gun. On cue with the rip-roaring “Don’t Make Me a Target,” the lights illuminated the stage in an orange glow that left the band exposed to the crowd.

Daniel performed two songs without his guitar, including a slowed-down version of the Damned’s “Love Song,” during which he wielded a maraca like a panhandler shaking a cup of coins. Then he proclaimed, “OK, we’re gonna do it,” and revisited the summer of 2007 with the hit “The Underdog,” whose premise is no longer applicable.

Day one of SXSW 2010 didn’t have a big show for everyone to whisper about and try to sneak into — although Lemmy’s name was bandied around quite a bit. Instead, fans of niche genres celebrated their own victories big and small. Andrew WK returned with his new band after a long hiatus, rappers Paul Wall and Chamillionaire patched things up on stage, electronic wonder Flying Lotus kicked off what is probably going to be a year of amazing hype, and indie rock buzz bands (Real Estate, Surfer Blood, Neon Indian, etc.) did their victory laps. Whatever scene you repped, there was something special to get excited about.

Chris Weingarten of @1000TimesYes began his Twitter odyssey yesterday, tweeting about 27 bands in 14 hours for @RollingStone. Get a look at the mayhem for yourself in our TwitterCam (clips range from the psych scuzz of Tobacco to the stoner metal of Priestess) and catch up on his 140-character reports here:

1) KILL THE CLIENT: Only @ sxsw can you see a grindcore band at noon on a Wednesday. Dude is currently stalking/scaring the early birds

2) YELLOW FEVER: Charming and adorable indie-poppers with hard-working drummer rocking Mario Clouds-looking sweater in 64 degree heat

3) LISSIE Country-folk outsider finds extra 10 minutes in her set; does tender, howling version of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”

4) TV GHOST: Trashgoth frontspazz Tim Gick lurching & freaking all over the icky floor of the appropriately batcave-like Beer Garden.

5) TOBACCO: Black Moth dude bringing the scuzziest, wooziest, weirdest, noisiest dance party to a tent. Lots of bearded head nodding!

6) PRIESTESS: Punishingly loud instore at @waterloorecords w/ foggy stoner riffs, snarky fan jokes & a tutorial on changing a string

7) MATÍAS AGUAYO: Minimal techno producer plays multitasking rock star with maracas and funky slidewhistle.

8 ) THOSE DARLINS: Riotous, giddy cowpunk about DUIs and crank calls completely packs the Red 7 porch.

9) TORO Y MOI: Rising chillwaver taken aback by “the biggest crowd I ever played.” Hard to see, but making some inhuman smear.

10) REAL ESTATE: NJ’s pastoral punks look a little bored, sound a little mushy… But that might be on purpose.

11) FUCKED UP: Frontman Pink Eye says Emo’s was first place he ever went shirtless. “Fat guys everywhere felt a little bit skinnier.”

12) TORCHE: Emo’s Jr. is way too tiny to handle their enormous sludge, enormous hooks, enormous energy, enormous crowd.

13) SHOUT OUT OUT OUT OUT: Six-man discopunk crew and a mountain of gear make a patio vibrate, then make it bounce. Brbrbrbrbrbrb.

14) BALMORHEA: Austin chamber-gloomsters cast a skeletal shadow over the reverent, still audience at the Presbyterian Church.

15) HESTA PRYNN: Former Northern State MC growing into a sultry, new wavey, electro, rapcentric art-diva persona, with mixed results.

16) THE YELLOW DOGS: Iranian post-punkers ride spidery bass lines, galloping hi-hats & garage-fucked guitar. Small crowd, great sound.

17) SOKO: Parisian quirkball is equal parts Kronos Quartet, Bjork & Slits. Everyone claps along to “People are mean, people are bad.” Brilliantly nuts; ranting about Austin’s creepy love of taxidermy; singing about fellatio; “I’m French so pardon my French”

18) NAAM: Virtuosic bass crunge, ripped jeans, long hair, extended krautrock blissouts as shaggy stoner metal spectacle. Yes!

19) HERE WE GO MAGIC: Lush, complex, moody indie rockers gently woo a crowd that’s lively, chatty and reeking of weed.

20) J-ROCC: Stones Throw turntable savant spins all 45s. Packed but still room for breakdancing. Kids go bonkers for William Bell.

21) JAHDAN BLAKKAMOORE: The evocative toaster/MC/vocalist and beat polygot Shadatek are transfixing as ever, but could use a louder PA

22) HAUSCHKA: Satie feather-drops, gorgeous string plucks, transfixing rattles. Stillness is the move.

23) BRIAN POSEHN: “I’ve been to this festival a bunch of times and I can tell if your band sucks from 50 feet away.”

24) ANDREW WK: There’s pushing & shoving in parts of this club that logically shouldn’t have pushing & shoving. Andrew interviews and hugs an enthusiastic fan on stage. Thanks for coming, Chris!

25) SPOON: No shrugs or indie-cool, Britt Daniel is leather-clad, guitar-stabbing rocker in his own backyard.

26) ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE: Cosmic comedown, endless solos, “whataburger” as stage banter, actual tarot card readings by the merch booth.

27) PAUL WALL AND CHAMILLIONAIRE: One of the hotter, more electric shows of the day. And they even publicly apologized for beefing!

By Matt Harper

The 2010 South by Southwest (SXSW) festival began Friday (March 12) with the premiere of the heavily-anticipated comic book flick “Kick-Ass,” but anyone familiar with Austin’s famed annual festival knows that music takes center stage during this week-and-a-half. And in keeping with that spirit, Ustream held their own kick-off party and invited Gym Class Heroes and Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz to start the week off right.

Gym Class Heroes frontman Travis McCoy took to the stage in good spirits and kept the crowd dancing to the band’s own unique brand of rock-infused hip-hop (or is it the other way around?). Friend and label mate Pete Wentz stood on a couch to get a better view of the band with a coy half-smile. Wentz wasn’t the only celeb in the house though, as actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler watched enthusiastically from the VIP section and legendary rapper Bun B hung out with the crowd on the floor.

During Gym Class Heroes’ set, Travis took a moment to talk about his upcoming solo album and assured the crowd that the band was about half way through a new Gym Class record. His solo project is just a chance for him to explore a new sound, he told the enthusiastic crowd. Travis told the room that we can expect The Papercut Chronicles 2 some time in the first quarter of next year.

After Gym Class Heroes wrapped up their set, Pete Wentz took to the club’s turntables for a quick DJ session. All in all, it was a great way to kick off SXSW in Austin, and we’re hoping more great things in the next 10 days.

Lilith Fair
Kelly Clarkson
The Bangles
The Go-Go’s
Courtyard Hounds (Emily Robison and Martie Maguire of the Dixie Chicks) Martina McBride
Suzanne Vega
Anjulie
Anya Marina
Jesca Hoop
Kate Miller-Heidke
Lucy Schwartz
Miranda Lee Richards
Nikki Jean and The Rescues

Camp Bisco
The Disco Biscuits – All 3 Nights
LCD Soundsystem
Ween
Thievery Corporation
Girl Talk
Bassnectar
Pretty Lights
Major Lazer
The New Deal
Diplo
Aeroplane
Rusko
Sunrise Silent Disco
The Album Leaf
Brothers Past
Dieselboy
Gift of Gab (of Blackalicious)
Future Rock
SOJA
Telepath
Felix Cartal
Two Fresh
Kill the Noise
Eskmo
Orchard Lounge
Rubblebucket Orchestra
Emancipator
Spiritual Rez
Sub Swara
Derek Plaslaiko
Big Gigantic
Earl Greyhound
The Black Seeds
Grimace Federation
C-mon & Kypski
Nobody Beats the Drum
King Britt
Dubskin
Woodhands
Justin Paul
Lee Maytals
DJ Everyday

Bonnaroo
Ween
Galactic
Umphrey’s McGee
John Butler Trio
The Gossip
Circa Survive

The march towards the 2010 festival season continues (we’re only about a month away from the South by Southwest Festival to launch it in earnest, and then a month later Coachella will properly kick things off). On Monday night (February 15), the latest lineup was unleashed, this time for Sasquatch, the annual Memorial Day Weekend festival in George, Washington. The annual three-day event has drawn on a number of different sources for bands, and the lineup reflects it: There are plenty of indie favorites (the reunited Pavement, Vampire Weekend), post-modern jam bands (My Morning Jacket, Broken Social Scene), hip-hop (Kid Cudi, Wale), stand-up comedy (Rob Riggle, Craig Robinson), dance (LCD Soundsystem, Massive Attack) and everything in between.

Just as we did with Bonnaroo and Coachella, it’s time to take a look at what bands get us excited about heading out to rural Washington and what groups we just don’t get.

The Best

My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket are a positively stellar live act, and if they’re given one of the final night slots, they could turn in a truly epic, career-defining performance.

Pavement
The more shows, the merrier. The big secret about Pavement was that they were never that stellar a live band, and there are concerns about their ability to hold down a headlining slot at a giant festival. The more practice they get with just such a scenario, the better off they’ll be (and the better chance that they’ll create new music and not just break up once the shows are all over).

The Hold Steady
This will probably be the first high-profile show the breakout Brooklyn band plays with their new keyboardist (Franz Nicolay left the group last month). Considering they’ll also have new songs in tow, it should be an interesting set for them.

Drive-By Truckers
They’re secretly one of the best live bands working, and they’ve got a tremendously deep catalog upon which to draw their live act. Their new album The Big To-Do is one of the strongest of their career, which means they’ll have a new batch of songs to unleash on a festival crowd.

The “Huh?”

Ween
They’re extremely popular with the jam crowd, and they’re incredibly charismatic live, but this will be the time when we hit the food tents. We just don’t get it.

Any One of the Dreamy, Droney Indie Pop Acts
A lot of the festival lineups have run into the same problem: They’re still steeped in last year’s predominant indie rock sound. So while bands like Band of Horses and Passion Pit are fantastic individually, the cumulative effect of too many of those groups makes the festival seem sleepier than it should be.

Vampire Weekend
Don’t get us wrong: We really adore Contra. And while they’re improving as a live act, we’re not convinced they can make the jump to being a headlining festival draw just yet. It takes a lot to move 25,000 people at once, and Vampire Weekend still look a few rock moves short.

Public Enemy
The idea of Public Enemy is still great, and Chuck D remains a force on stage, but PE’s version of politically-minded hardcore hip-hop will probably get lost among the good vibes of the rest of the show.

What do you think? Is the 2010 version of Sasquatch a can’t-miss or a can’t-be-bothered? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Look back at 2009’s giant Sasquatch! in photos.

In fact, this year’s Sasquatch! festival lineup reads like a Who’s Who of past Rolling Stone Breaking artists: The xx, Dam-Funk, Mayer Hawthorne, Girls, Dirty Projectors, the Low Anthem and many more. As always, Sasquatch! will also feature a handful of Pacific Northwest artists like Band of Horses, Quasi, Minus the Bear and the New Pornographers. If that wasn’t enough, Sasquatch! organizers promise additional artist announcements in the coming weeks. Tickets for the Northwest’s hottest festival go on sale this Saturday, February 20th at the Sasquatch! official Website.

The 2009 Sasquatch! featured performances by Kings of Leon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nine Inch Nails, TV on the Radio and Jane’s Addiction. Check out RS’ recap of the 2009 fest, and view the entire 2010 lineup below:

Sasquatch! Festival
My Morning Jacket
Massive Attack
Pavement
Ween
Vampire Weekend
MGMT
Band of Horses
The National
LCD Soundsystem
Tegan & Sara
Broken Social Scene
Passion Pit
Deadmau5
She & Him
Public Enemy
Nada Surf
The New Pornographers
The Hold Steady
The xx
Dirty Projectors
OK Go
Drive By Truckers
Kid Cudi
The Long Winters
Minus the Bear
The Mountain Goats
Quasi
Camera Obscura
Fruit Bats
Brother Ali
Midlake
Dr. Dog
Caribou
Simian Mobile Disco
City & Colour
No Age
The Temper Trap
Vetiver
Miike Snow
Portugal. The Man
Telekinesis
Mayer Hawthorne
Why?
Girls
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Wale
The Lonely Forest
Japandroids
Boys Noize
Yacht
Freelance Whales
Laura Marling
Patrick Watson
Past Lives
Cymbals Eat Guitars
The Low Anthem
The Very Best
Phantogram
Neon Indian
Nurses
The Tallest Man on Earth
Fresh Espresso
Mumford & Sons
Jets Overhead
tUnE-YarDs
Shabazz Palaces
Fool’s Gold
Morning Teleportation
Z-Trip
Dam-Funk
Hudson Mohawke
The Middle East
Local Natives
Avi Buffalo
Booka Shade
A-Trak
Yes Giantess
Craig Robinson
Rob Riggle
Garfunkel & Oates
Luke Burbank

This weekend Rothbury, Michigan celebrated July Fourth with the second annual Rothbury Festival, a multi-day event featuring Bob Dylan, the Dead, Nas, Girl Talk, the Cool Kids and many more. Check out all the live action in our photo gallery:

• Rothbury 2009: Bob Dylan, The Dead, Girl Talk and More Onstage in Michigan