Summer Festival mania

Much to my surprise and elation, my wife bought a 3-day pass to Lollapalooza for my birthday. Can you believe that?! Fantastic! If you haven't seen the line-up yet, here it is, but all you really need to know is that it's headlined by Radiohead.

The downside is that she bought me just a single pass so I'm going solo. I'll hopefully be able to drag along her brother and our brother-in-law. My tentative proposal, although I've yet to run this by anyone else, is to try out the MegaBus for an unbeatable cost of $1 to Chicago. I'm not a fan of bus culture, so we'll see...

Our annual Austin City Limits Music Festival trip is back on again this year after missing 2007. The line-up is set to be announced on April 15, but about 30 of the booked bands have been revealed via this clever musical mash-up by Austin's own Car Stereo (Wars). From the mash-up, people have already singled out:

The Raconteurs
Neko Case
Gnarls Barkley
Okkervil River
Hot Chip
Man Man
NERD

and 22 others...

Not a bad start. Other than this official leak, the line-up has been kept surprisingly secret this year. My educated guess for ACL headliners would be Pearl Jam, Neil Young, REM and unfortunately, I'm predicting that Jack Johnson will be there. I'm also rooting for attendance by Wolf Parade and festival favorites Wilco and MMJ.

For the final fest on this year's slate (first chronologically), there's a one-day local Twin Cities event called Rock the Garden with Andrew Bird, The New Pornos, Bon Iver and Cloud Cult. Short but sweet. Outdoor music in Minnesota is unheard of around these parts so I consider this event as groundbreaking news.