Well, I have to say that I am very impressed with this badass post by Jessica Seales who will be doing some Music/Culture writing for iloveuab.com. She and I are both huge Roo fans, although she has her shit down when it comes to music (unlike me). Jessica recently graduated from UAB and will be bring a HardCore Liberal Femist view to the site. Just what we need! Haha, love ya Jess…Here we go:

So, the Bonnaroo 2009 lineup is official, and I’m officially ecstatic. In my opinion, this has been the best lineup since 2006, solid from top to bottom, with more acts to be added!

So let’s get down to it:

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – Phish (2 Shows) – Beastie Boys – Nine Inch Nails – David Byrne – Wilco – Al Green – Snoop Dogg – Elvis Costello Solo – Erykah Badu – Paul Oakenfold – Ben Harper and Relentless7 – The Mars Volta – TV on the Radio – Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Gov’t Mule – Andrew Bird – Merle Haggard – MGMT – moe. – The Decemberists – Girl Talk – Bon Iver – Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabate – Rodrigo y Gabriela – Galactic – The Del McCoury Band – Of Montreal – Allen Toussaint – Coheed and Cambria – Booker T & the DBTs – David Grisman Quintet – Lucinda Williams – Animal Collective – Gomez – Neko Case – Down – Jenny Lewis – Santogold – Robert Earl Keen – Citizen Cope – Femi Kuti and the Positive Force – The Ting Tings – Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 – Grace Potter and the Nocturnals – Kaki King – Grizzly Bear – King Sunny Adé – Okkervil River – St. Vincent – Zac Brown Band – Raphael Saadiq – Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Crystal Castles – Tift Merritt – Brett Dennen – Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue – Toubab Krewe – People Under the Stairs – Alejandro Escovedo – Vieux Farka Touré – Elvis Perkins In Dearland – Cherryholmes – Yeasayer – Todd Snider – Chairlift – Portugal. The Man. – The SteelDrivers – Midnite – The Knux – The Low Anthem – Delta Spirit – A.A. Bondy – The Lovell Sisters – Alberta Cross -Band of Horses

Bonnaroo kicks it off with the obvious yet undeniably exciting. The Boss and 2 nights of Phish are your headliners. You can’t go wrong with that! Bruce Springsteen rocked out with the E Street Band during the Super Bowl in front of 60,000, and I’m sure he’ll do it again on the farm. He has a new album out, and judging by the new song performed at halftime, the new stuff will be just as good as the old. Then, 2 nights of Phish? This is a band that hasn’t toured since 2004, sure, but this is also a band with one of the hardest of core followers. Their Hampton reunion and subsequent Summer Tour sold out in a matter of days. A lot of people our age don’t know Phish, but they will not disappoint. Phish is the band that Bonnaroo has tried to book since 2002, and they finally got it. I’m not the least bit surprised they got 2 nights…it’s Phish, and Bonnaroo began as a jam-band festival. You’ve gotta respect your roots, people.

Now, let’s examine that undercard! We start off with a bang: Beasties and NIN. These bands are capable of headlining festivals by themselves (and they both did), but hey folks, this is Bonnaroo we’re talking about here! I’m expecting the Beastie Boys and NIN to either be pre-headliners or late night acts. NIN just finished a solid tour and has a great stage show, and Beastie Boys will bring down the house before the headliner has even started. Imagine fist-pumping and singing Fight For Your Right, Intergalactic, Sabotage, Brass Monkey…I could go on! Then David Byrne – good solo, but I’d much rather see him with the Talking Heads. It’s definitely a disappointment that he’s the only member that won’t reunite the band. Perhaps he’ll cover And She Was and make me happy! Snoop Dogg — this may come as a surprise to a lot of people, but Snoop is becoming a regular on the festival circuit and is fairly popular with the hippie crowd. He’s been overdue for Roo.

Al Green? Of course I want to hear “Let’s Stay Together” on the farm.

You’ve got your Bonnaroo vets: Wilco, Elvis Costello, moe., Ben Harper (with his new band the Relentless 7), Gov’t Mule, Galactic, Girl Talk, The Decemberists…all these are mid-level artists who should not be missed. Girl Talk collapsed a stage at one of his shows in Nashville, so I would definitely recommend checking out his late night! I would also look for Booker T & the DBTs (the Drive-By Truckers) to be a great show. My favorite shows at Bonnaroo are always those ‘one off’ shows that you can’t see anywhere else.

There are some new faces: TV On The Radio, The Mars Volta, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, all of which were LONG overdue for trips to the farm. These are looking like Which Stage headliners to me, and I am looking forward to seeing TVOTR (shoutout to them for leaking the lineup on their myspace)!

Lots of big indie/college rock sweethearts: Band of Horses, MGMT, Bon Iver, Jenny Lewis, Animal Collective, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. These will be tent-level artists. I HIGHLY recommend checking out Jenny Lewis and MGMT. When June comes, you’ll want to be singing, “Ooh Girl! Shock me like an electric eel!”

I’d like to see some more electronica added, but so far I am happy with Crystal Castles and Paul Oakenfold. Oakenfold will fill that 1 AM – 3 AM late night slot, and I’m hoping Crystal Castles will open for him. They’ve been a big name in the indie dance scene for awhile, and I’m excited that they’re finally touring somewhere close by. As far as Oakenfold goes, he is a dance music staple. It’s BONNAROO, all the stops will be pulled out. Rounding out the electronica selection are indie dance artists like the Ting Tings and Santogold. These two are HUGE right now, and hopefully they will get the late night shows they deserve.

Overall, I’m still trying to collect my jaw off the floor. There are so many artists I am excited about that I can’t even WRITE about them all right now. Bonnaroo has truly outdone itself, rightfully so in this economy. Still, there are 120 acts for the 4 day festival total, so I would expect around 40-50 acts to be added in the coming months. There is the comedy tent too, and of course Lewis Black is rumored for that, but no one knows for sure. I’d expect a few bigger names — probably more jam, electronica, and hip hop additions, plus comedy acts. In my opinion, the additions will blow my mind even further and sweeten an already ridiculously fattening lineup.

Lineup is on www.bonnaroo.com

Tickets go on sale February 7th! Get them fast people — with the Boss and Phish, I’m sure they won’t last long!

See you on the farm in June! Tennesee, Tennesee, ain’t no place I’d rather be!

BTW, I would just like to say how proud of myself I am for predicting NIN at Bonnaroo.

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