Lollapalooza 2009 Is Officially Rocking

As we speak, the 2009 Lollapalooza Music Festival has begun. I felt a little amiss since I hadn’t mentioned it once this summer even though it is hands down my favorite music festival of them all. I was a little down on Lolla this year because I absolutely hated it’s line-up, but thought I’d show it a little love since both of my step-brothers will be attending this year. If the headliners were a tad better I might have considered meeting up with them, but Depeche Mode, Tool, Jane’s Addiction and the Beastie Boys just don’t do it for me like they would have in the late 80’s and early 90’s.


With that being said, I do love me some Killers and Kings of Leon, so a weekend spent at Chicago’s Grant Park wouldn’t have been all bad. And as always, Lollapalooza just stacked the middle and bottom of its line-up with incredible talent. Just take a look at the 2009 Lollapalooza Line-Up poster above and you’ll notice a ton of great artists, including Ben Harper, Snoop Dogg, TV on the Radio, Andrew Bird, Vampire Weekend, Cold War Kids and too many other great bands to mention all of them here.

I have no doubt this year’s festival will be a blast, but alas it’ll have to go on without The Blot. Besides, I’ve gotta save up all my energy for this year’s ACL Music Festival in October.

Lollapalooza takes place this weekend, August 7-9th, at Grant Park in Chicago, IL.

Lollapalooza 2008 Lineup

The official 2008 Lollapalooza lineup was released today and it seems that the rumor of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails headlining the music festival proved true. Not only that, but the newly reformed Rage Against the Machine are also making a headlining appearance after much speculation that they would be headlining Lollapalooza last year. It seems like the 90’s love fest will be in full swing on August 1-3 at Grant Park in Chicago, IL for Lollapalooza 2008. I have to say the lineup is exceptionally strong considering one of the non-headliners, Kanye West, headlined the festival just two years ago.


Lollapalooza 2008 Lineup
Radiohead
Rage Against the Machine
Nine Inch Nails
Kanye West - Wilco
The Raconteurs - Love and Rockets
Gnarls Barkley - Bloc Party
The Black Keys - Broken Social Scene
Lupe Fiasco - Flogging Molly
Mark Ronson - Cat Power
The National - G. Love & Special Sauce
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - Louis XIV
Explosions in the Sky - Brand New
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Gogol Bordello
Dierks Bentley - Okkervil River
Amadou & Mariam - Blues Traveler
John Butler Trio - Girl Talk - Your Vegas
Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves - CSS
Battles - Steel Train - Jamie Lidell
Bang Camaro - Butch Walker - The Blakes
Mates of State - Tally Hall - Spank Rock
White Lies - Brazilian Girls - Magic Wands
Chromeo - Electric Touch - Duffy
Innerpartysystem - The Kills - The Postelles
Rogue Wave - The Parlor Mob - The Go! Team
Bald Eagle - Mason Jennings - Krista
The Gutter Twins - Ha Ha Tonka - Yeasayer
Witchcraft - Grizzly Bear - We Go To 11
MGMT - Sofia Talvik - The Weakerthans
Booka Shade – Santogold - Black Kids
Black Lips - Dr. Dog - Nicole Atkins & the Sea
The Ting Tings - Kid Sister - Office
The Cool Kids - What Made Milwaukee Famous
Does It Offend You, Yeah? - The Whigs
Manchester Orchestra - Foals - Uffie
The Octopus Project - Cadence Weapon - Ferras
De Novo Dahl - Noah and the Whale
Margot & the Nuclear So and So's - K'NAAN
Serena Ryder - Newton Faulkner

Lollapalooza Headliners Leaked

On Friday the Chicago Tribune’s Greg Kot leaked who the headliners of this year’s Lollapalooza music festival will be. (link) According to Kot’s blog the weekend of August 1-3 will be headlined by Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, with Radiohead closing the weekend. Both bands have released new albums recently with Radiohead’s In Rainbows released online October, 2007 and NIN’s Ghosts I-IV released just last week. This continues the trend of Lollapalooza choosing 90’s legends to headline their music festival including Weezer in 2005, the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2006 and Pearl Jam in 2007.

While I think it would be very cool to see Radiohead at Grant Park, The Blot’s really not feeling NIN anymore. I can’t think of the last time I heard new music from Trent Reznor, but I know he still has a huge following so I’m sure both of these band will be great headliners. Regardless, The Blot will not be attending Lollapalooza for the third straight year. The first round of discounted $60 tickets went on sale Friday for the Chicago music festival and The Blot was not one of the lucky few to snag tickets. Therefore I’m skipping out on Lolla this summer and instead will be probably heading to Austin for ACL this September.