Jane's Addiction

Lollapalooza Still Gaining Steam After 20 Years

05 Aug 2011 06:53:14 EDT

Pete Wentz is excited for Black Cards' Lolla debut this weekend.
By Gil Kaufman

Before 1991, when and if it was used, the term "lollapalooza" was merely a way to describe something that was really, really awesome. Then Jane's Addiction frontman and modern shaman Perry Farrell wrapped his spindly arms around the anachronistic term and molded it into the modern definition of an American music festival.

When the gates open Friday (August 5) on this year's edition of Lollapalooza, all the names and faces will be different from that first touring edition of the granddaddy of American festivals, but one thing will remain unchanged: the music.

Asked if he ever imagined Lolla would still be around 20 years down the line (the first touring edition ran from 1991 to 2003 before being reborn as a destination event in Chicago in 2005), co-founder and Lolla partner Marc Geiger said, well, yes. "Someone pulled a quote from 1995 with me where I said, 'We're doing this now so we can still be around in 2010,' " said the legendary music agent, who was one of the first ones to buy into Farrell's vision of a traveling carnival that brought together music, sideshow acts, art and socially conscious vendors while melding rap, rock, punk and every other kind of music under the sun.

Tweet your pics from Lollapalooza to @mtvnews and they could be featured on MTV.com!

And while music has fractured into a million different micro-genres since the days when bands as diverse as the Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Cypress Hill, Metallica, Cheap Trick and Snoop Dogg could each find a home at Lolla, in some ways, Geiger said it's even simpler today than it was back when the "alternative" music fanbase was much smaller.

"It's easier when you're dealing with more numbers. With 130 bands, you can hit more genres in general, whether it's folk or techno house, there's just a bunch of room under the heading of 'good music,' " he said. "One year, we did Metallica and also had the Cocteau Twins ... and now you have Coldplay vs. deadmau5."

That concept is borne out by this year's mashed-up roster, which over the course of three days (Friday through Sunday) will range from such headliners as Muse, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Eminem, Cee Lo Green and My Morning Jacket to dance acts Afrojack, Modeselektor, Skrillex and Glitch Mob, as well as indie acts such as the Mountain Goats and Best Coast. VMA-nominated bands Cage the Elephant and Foster the People are also in the mix, along with VMA performers Young the Giant.

Former Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz was only 12 years old when the original festival launched, but ever since it put down roots in his childhood hometown, he's been a regular. And this year's event is even more special, since he'll be performing at Lolla for the first time ever with his new band, the electro-pop combo Black Cards. "I remember hearing about it as a kid and wondering, 'What is this thing with all these crazy bands on it?,' " Wentz told MTV News. "They had really taken the European model and changed it and made it this touring thing."

Like so many over the years, Wentz could vividly recall transcendent musical moments he's had at Lollapalooza, which unfolds in the city's scenic Grant Park over a huge expanse of green space that gives it one of the most unique urban music-festival settings in the world. "I remember watching Girl Talk [in 2008] on one of the small stages, and it was absolutely bonkers," he said of the mash-up DJ's now-legendary set at that year's event. The bassist also remembered how, after that Girl Talk set, he was tired and ragged when, while walking past the golf-cart path outside the fence, Farrell himself barreled by. "He stopped the cart and told us to get on the back. He said, 'You guys look beat. Get in.' That was a pretty rad thing for him to do."

Wentz also mused about the 2007 headlining set by techno masters Daft Punk, which he said was probably one of the most insane outdoor concert experiences he's ever had. "I was standing out in the crowd when the pyramid lit up, and I was thinking, 'This would be the perfect time for somebody to do hallucinogenic drugs,' " he said. "But I don't do them."

Geiger thinks that 20 years in Lollapalooza has become a kind of musical rite of passage for each new generation. "Everything has changed [since we started]," he said, noting that the event now draws more than 285,000 over three days with a massive lineup that he likens to a kind of scavenger hunt. "The difference between Lollapalooza and other festivals is that you have the food, the aftershows at clubs, the lakefront site ... it's not like going to the Southside of Chicago for a festival for eight hours. You are there for two to three days and there's more friends, more leisure time and more planning on where you want to go and what you want to see."

As for what sets it apart from similarly sprawling fests like Coachella or Bonnaroo, Geiger laughed: "Location, location, location."

MTV News is in Chicago for Lollapalooza 2011! Stick with us all weekend as we cover the bands you love and the bands you will love soon.

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Eminem Surprises E3 Crowd With Guests Travis Barker, Rihanna

15 Jun 2010 11:55:05 EDT

Rapper headlined Activision concert that included Usher, Will.I.Am, Jane's Addiction and others.
By Matt Elias

LOS ANGELES — Eminem performed an electrifying set at Activision's E3 party on Monday night, crushing any doubts that he is truly back in the game after his long hiatus. The Detroit MC headlined a massive bill that included Usher, Will.I.Am, N.E.R.D., Jane's Addiction, Chris Cornell, David Guetta, Deadmau5 and DJ Z-Trip.

Em's set kicked off with his first surprise of the night at the Staples Center, with Travis Barker jumping behind the drums for an acrobatic drum solo. Em joined him moments later (flanked by D12's Denaun Porter), taking the stage just before midnight. He was decked out in a black jacket, black jeans and a silver crucifix hanging around his neck.

With Em, Barker, Porter and a live band all onstage, the crowd was up on its feet right from the get-go. The six-song set began with "Won't Back Down," off of Recovery, which Em just announced would be released on June 21, a day earlier than originally planned. From that moment, there was an energy in the arena that could be felt from the floor all the way up to the luxury suites.

Eminem followed with a couple of his recent features — one from B.o.B's "Airplanes (Part II)" and the other from Drake's "Forever." As Drake's chorus blared, Eminem marched down the stage's catwalk, chanting "Bounce, bounce, bounce." He was clearly on his game, bobbing and weaving while he delivered his verses. All of this was punctuated by Barker's thumping drumbeats, which made it feel more rock show than rap show.

After three songs, Eminem addressed his adoring crowd, shouting, "Los Angeles! What the f--- is up? Make some motherf---ing noise!" As if he had to ask, Staples Center erupted in ovation.

Em then dedicated his next song, "Not Afraid," to all of the fans that have stuck by his side over the years. His live band was joined by a full orchestra on both sides of the stage. If that wasn't enough, later in the song, Eminem was joined by an entire gospel choir that numbered in the dozens.

Then Eminem sprung his next surprise. "Before I get into this next song," he said, "I wanna bring out a very special guest." After a few moments, Barbadian beauty Rihanna appeared onstage with a bright crop of candy-apple-red hair. The duo got right into "Love the Way You Lie" — another new song off the upcoming Recovery. Em and Ri had great chemistry onstage, taking turns sauntering down the catwalk and passing glances at each other throughout the performance.

As the song ended, the show seemed to be over. Eminem thanked the crowd and exited the stage. His band stayed on, however, and slowly started playing the opening notes of "Lose Yourself." As the song built, Eminem stormed back onto the stage and the crowd (as if they could get any louder) exploded. As he ripped through the song, Porter served as the hype-man, and excitement continued to build until the end, when a shower of gold confetti rained down on the audience.

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Jane's Addiction, Killers Turn Up Heat On Lollapalooza's Last Day

10 Aug 2009 10:43:00 EDT

Snoop Dogg, Passion Pit, Vampire Weekend, Lou Reed also hit the stage on day three.
By Gil Kaufman

CHICAGO — Perry Farrell left it to a couple of Lollapalooza veterans to close out day three of his annual party in the park. Of course, after two days of sets by everyone from Tool and Kings of Leon to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Asher Roth, one of those headliners was his own Jane's Addiction, who played the fest with their original lineup for the first time since they helped launch the touring juggernaut way back in 1991. The other topper, the Killers, have also been there before, serving the same honors back in 2005 at the first Chicago-based Lolla, and they brought an even bigger sound and vision this time around in a head-to-head with the reconstituted Jane's.

It's hard to beat the anticipation sowed by the doomy, slow build of Jane's titanic "Mountain Song," but Farrell, in typical fashion, brought things up a notch: As the band took the stage, a helicopter buzzed in circles overhead, scanning the crowd with a searchlight. What followed was a master class in the group's apocalyptic shaman rock, a hedonistic party that drew a smaller crowd than the uplifting glitter-rock anthems of the Killers at the other end of the park.

(Get caught up on the rest of Lollapalooza with MTV News' recaps of Friday and Saturday.)

It was a long journey to get to the Las Vegas band's rock-and-roll promised land. U.K. dance machines Friendly Fires had ripped open the triple-digit-degree day eight hours earlier with an ecstatic set of synth pop that got lunchtime feet moving at the Budweiser north stage thanks to high-energy singer Ed Macfarlane.

A seemingly mild-mannered chap in slightly too-tight trousers, Macfarlane came out grooving and never stopped — pogoing, spinning, shaking his head and punching the air during the bouncy New Order-at-a-rave opener "Lovesick." He was sweating through his shirt just minutes into the set of funk-edged dance music, as the noonday sun hit him full in the face. At one point, Macfarlane warned that he might pass out but punched through that danger to the double-drum-kit, Calypso-techno workout "Paris."

Wasilla, Alaska's Portugal. The Man (yeah, they know the former governor) brought things down a bit at the nearby PlayStation stage a short time later with a set of woozy '70s-inspired rock. Singer John Gourley — looking aggressively retro in dark slacks, old-man shoes, white button-down, Prince Valiant haircut and deer-head belt buckle — was the focal point of the band's mix of gospel-y, psychedelic freedom rock and folky reggae as a modest audience looked on, some in pleasant confusion.

Things were slow to get moving at Perry's dance area. Many of the moon-eyed club kids were seemingly raved-out from two days of nonstop raging, including a few glow-stick jugglers whose green twirlers dangled listlessly from the branches of the trees they'd climbed to escape the heat. Austin, Texas' Car Stereo (Wars) decided to give the hundreds crashed out in the shade a little motivation, inviting a dozen-plus scantily clad men and women onstage for his Girl Talk-esque mash-up dance party.

Things got out of hand pretty quickly for another dance act, Passion Pit, the Massachusetts indie-electronica band whose helium-vocal boogie tunes have become the soundtrack of hipster discos everywhere. "Sleepyhead" sounded as uplifting as ever and led to a steady stream of bikinied crowd surfers crashing over the security barrier. But you'd never have guessed from their vampire tans, retro eyeglasses and singer Michael Angelakos' frizzy 'fro that these guys had such smooth people-moving skills or that quirky songs like the bouncy "Let Your Love Grow Tall" would become audience sing-alongs.

One of the joys of Lollapalooza is juxtaposition, like when the soothing techno and harpsichord folk balladry of Bat for Lashes (a.k.a. Natasha Khan) gave way to the Stooges-inspired, rolling-around-in-glass punk blues of Kentucky's Cage the Elephant. Singer Matt Shultz jumped on, off and under the stage during the band's frenetic set. A perfect warm-up for the Killers, Los Angeles' the Airborne Toxic Event celebrated their Lollapalooza debut later in the day with arena-band-on-the-make anthem rock, including the radio-candy hit single "Sometime Around Midnight." Like the rest of his black-clad band, singer Mikel Jollett poured Killers-via-U2, big-idea attitude onto the main stage, serving notice that Event are a band to watch.

An act that's already (kind of) made it and is prepping some new material, Vampire Weekend took time out from their set to pay homage to the recently departed John Hughes. Singer Ezra Koenig dedicated "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" to the director early in another jaunt through the band's exuberant, Township Jive-style thinking-man's rock. They brought their upbeat faces to a polite crowd largely made up of people who seemed to be waiting for Snoop Dogg to take the stage a short time later.




	Vampire Weekend, Jane's Addiction, More At Lollapalooza 2009

Ah, Snoop. The D-O-double-G proved that he's hip-hop's Wooderson ("Dazed and Confused") — he gets older and his crowd stays the same age. Imagine a sea of thousands of bobbing heads rapping along to songs that came out when they were still in diapers and you'll understand why Snoop's popularity endures: Someone is always discovering him for the first time. Wearing a Lakers jersey and gripping a bedazzled microphone with his name on it, Snoop served up all the biggies — "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang," "The Next Episode," "Gin and Juice" and "Drop It Like It's Hot."

Punk godfather Lou Reed also happens to be an O.G., but the legendary Velvet Underground leader tested a few nerves Sunday evening with an overlong set that was capped by a 20-plus-minute version of the lesser-known 2000 jazz skronk "Paranoia Key of E." Reed went well over his time with that meandering noise-blues rave-up, then tacked on an equally jammy version of the VU's "I'm Waiting for the Man" and finally, the long-awaited crowd-pleaser, "Walk on the Wild Side."

But by then, the sizable mass awaiting Seattle's Band of Horses had gotten ornery, with some shouting, "F--- Lou Reed" — as sure a sign as any that punk's generational torch was being passed. Though they took the stage more than 20 minutes late, BOH didn't disappoint, playing enthusiastic versions of their sensitive, tattooed Southern rock, including such grand, crunching laments as "The Great Salt Lake," "No One's Gonna Love You" and "The Funeral."

Then: Cue the helicopters, as Jane's came out swinging with "Mountain Song," which dove into the electric shock of "Ain't No Right" and then swooned through the psych-rock epic "Three Days." Punk-rock P.T. Barnum Farrell looked appropriately carnivalesque in a gold lamé flared-Elvis-pant tuxedo, accented by golden fingerless gloves and half a dozen swinging chains. With perennially shirtless guitarist Dave Navarro firing off picture-perfect renditions of his squealing metal solos on "Ocean Size," Farrell was left to work the crowd, pondering the virtues of loose women before gleefully playing "Whores." Long-estranged and recently rejoined original bassist Eric Avery brought a throbbing, bare-bones punk sound to classics like "Ted, Just Admit It...," and drummer Stephen Perkins aggressively played his signature chest-pulsing tribal drums despite a recent injury that Farrell said doctors advised needed more time to heal.

Farrell says that Lollapalooza lives and dies these days through a combination of the old and the new, and there was no better example on Sunday night than the massive throng gathered at the south end of the park to see the Killers. Kicking off the set with "Human," the Glitter City quartet set their sites way above Jane's beloved grimy alleys, moving the crowd with propulsive fist-pumping smashes like "Somebody Told Me" and "Mr. Brightside."

In the final moments of an exhausting weekend of punishing weather and musical overload, the g

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Kings Of Leon, Depeche Mode Heat Up Soggy Lollapalooza

08 Aug 2009 11:41:00 EDT

Kid Cudi, the Knux, Gaslight Anthem also make a splash on a day plagued by storms.
By Gil Kaufman, with additional reporting by Christopher "C.J." Smith

CHICAGO -- Somewhere in Chicago on Friday night, hopefully dry and warm, you can bet that Perry Farrell was grinning ear-to-ear. Despite a persistent all-day rain that turned the massive Lollapalooza fairground along the Chicago waterfront into a slippery mudbog worthy of Woodstock, the musical mash-up spirit that the festival's co-founder has been chasing for nearly 20 years made a strong showing.

As the rain finally let up in time for the headliners to take the stage, on the north end, the battling band of brothers (and cousin) Kings Of Leon were making the most of their third go-round at the fest, pumping out their muscular Southern boogie to an adoring sea of fans. Meanwhile, at the other end, British synth pop veterans Depeche Mode moved muddy feet with a classic set of keyboard anthems, including "Enjoy the Silence" and thunderous set-closer "Personal Jesus."

But it was what was happening in between the two stages that surely made Farrell smile. The Jane's Addiction frontman, who has long harbored a fascination with techo/rave dance culture, expanded his dance area this year and created a party space that drew huge crowds all day. Despite two world-famous headliners performing just yards away in either direction, the large leafy area was packed with thousands of bodies gyrating and throwing their hands in the air ecstatically to thumping techno, just as they had earlier in the day to jeep beat hip-hop and old school dance tunes.

However, that's not what the whole day was like. With one of the weaker first-day line-ups in the reborn festival's recent history, the day began slowly in a steady drizzle with California's the Henry Clay People warming up a sparse crowd with shambling indie-rock tunes about the apocalypse and a story about an urn of a late friend's ashes they are touring with. Matching the grey drizzle perfectly on an adjacent stage was were pastoral, beardy plaints of the Other Lives.

Atlanta's Manchester Orchestra brought none of those daffodil vibes, though, crunching bones with driving rockers like "In My Teeth," "Shake It Out" and their breakthrough hit, "I've Got Friends." They ended with the surging/swooning epic "Everything To Nothing" just as the rain really began to fall.

Once the skies opened up around midday -- and all those brightly colored mohawks began to sag and the lunchtime beers became a terrible idea -- the soggy masses had New Brunswick, New Jersey's Gaslight Anthem to keep their spirits up. Channeling an inked-up Springsteen, singer Brian Fallon wove his stirring tales of busted hearts and small town girls with their sailor tattoos with a charming grit, strumming hard through get-outta-this-town anthems like "Great Expectations," "The '59 Sound" and "Old White Lincoln."

The Knux, one of the few hip-hop acts on this year's bill, made sure their presence was known, hitting the stage to the strains of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me," and swaggering like a rebel rock band, complete with distorted guitars over sampled beats. Clad in matching black Knux T-shirts, they looked like a rap Ramones tribute. MC Krispy Kreme did his best to get the crowd hyped with shout-along choruses on "Remind Me In 3 Days" and the rousing "Cappuccino."

Cleveland's Kid Cudi fit surprisingly nicely on the Perry Stage after synthetically produced acts like Simian Mobile Disco and Crookers led the way, because he himself seems to live in a world that is half real and half synthesized. Like mentor Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak, Cudi has found a sweet spot between hip-hop and electronically enhanced singing, even if it was sometimes hard to tell if he was actually singing live along to the tracks.

If that wasn't your scene, the men of Bon Iver were sure to mellow you down easy with the droney strains of "Lump Sum" and "Blood Bank" and perhaps the strangest mass festival sing along ever, the plaintive "Skinny Love," with its refrain of "Now I'm breaking at the britches/ And at the end of all your lines."

The schizophrenia continued back across the way, as the funky hippie techo of STS9 mutated into the spastic gothy beats of Crystal Castles and then the psychedelic mindstorm that is Of Montreal. What other band's lead singer is carried on stage by a pair of Skeletor-looking monsters for a set of short-attention-span pixie-pop that included masked ninjas battling a gigantic female sumo wrestler, transvestites in one-legged leotards releasing balloons and pajama-wearing goons in gasmasks delivering Christmas presents filled with smokebombs?

In addition to playing such fan favorites as "Nonpareil of Favor," "For Our Elegant Caste" and a beat-assisted version of "Wraith Pinned To the Mist," the kaleidoscopic set also featured a surprise appearance by urban boho songstress and friend Janelle Monae for a cover of David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream."

The day's biggest crowd, however, belonged to Kings of Leon, who played the festival in 2007 and reminded the adoring crowd that their 2003 Lolla set was a disaster. After opening with the fiery three-punch combo of "Be Somebody," "Taper Jean Girl" and "My Party," singer Caleb Followil recalled how the then-new group played to just a handful of people back then, joking that when the meager crowds got a load of their mustaches and outfits, they quickly dispersed. That wasn't the case this time, though, as the now world-beating rock group funked up "Molly's Chambers" and "Crawl" with a grimy, Stonesy flair and created a chorus of tens of thousands on their breakthrough hit, "Sex on Fire."

It was hard to believe that jittery band Caleb spoke of was the same one whose soaring, radio-ready anthems were bouncing around the skyscraper canyons of downtown Chicago on Friday night, as if they belonged on the main stage all along.

MTV News is all over Lollapalooza this weekend! Head over to the Newsroom blog for more, and for the latest updates check us out on Twitter.

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Jane's Addiction Cancel Australian Tour Due To Drummer's Illness

23 Jul 2009 16:33:00 EDT

Stephen Perkins' hospitalization isn't expected to impact Lollapalooza date.
By Gil Kaufman

Jane's Addiction have been forced to cancel their upcoming Australian tour due to the hospitalization of drummer Stephen Perkins. According to a press release from the group's spokesperson, Perkins, 41, has been admitted to the Infectious Disease Ward at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles for treatment of an infection in his elbow.

"Doctors expect to keep him there for the next few days for further diagnosis and observation while anti-biotic treatment continues," the statement read, noting that a full recovery is expected over the next few weeks.

The news comes on the heels of the announcement earlier this week that Adam "MCA" Yauch of the Beastie Boys will be undergoing treatment for cancer of the salivary gland in his throat. That treatment knocks the Beasties out of four major summer-festival dates, including Lollapalooza (August 7-9), where the Yeah Yeah Yeahs will take their place. Jane's Addiction, whose singer Perry Farrell is one of the co-founders of Lolla, are also slated to headline one of the nights of the upcoming festival on the Chicago waterfront, and a spokesperson for the group said Perkins' hospitalization is not expected to impact the group's Lollapalooza performance in any way.

The Australian tour by the indie-rock godfathers — who reunited with their full original lineup last year and are in the midst of their first world tour together in more than 17 years — was due to kick off Saturday. "I know how excited we were to come play in Australia, and how long the fans there have waited for this," Farrell said in the statement. "I want everyone Down Under to know that we will come back as soon as we can."

The band had recently returned to Los Angeles after a European leg of the tour when an unidentified infection was discovered after Perkins noticed severe swelling and pain in his elbow.

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Jane's Addiction Call Tourmates Nine Inch Nails 'Extended Family'

08 May 2009 16:11:00 EDT

'There's a familial feeling within this tour,' Dave Navarro says of NINJA jaunt, which kicks off Friday night.
By James Montgomery

Eighteen years ago, they helped found Alternative Nation on the first-ever Lollapalooza tour. On Friday night (May 8), they'll hit the road together again.

Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction kick off their so-called NINJA 2009 jaunt Friday in West Palm Beach, Florida, marking the first time they've shared the stage together since Lolla '91. It's a double bill that makes an awful lot of sense — yet, for a whole lot of reasons, it almost never happened.

First and foremost, Jane's had to reunite with original (and long-estranged) bassist Eric Avery, which British music mag NME had a lot to do with.

"We weren't thinking of getting together at all. But we were called by NME magazine to receive this thing called the 'Godlike Genius Award,' and it flattered the sh-- out of us," Jane's frontman Perry Farrell told MTV News. "So everybody appeared to receive the award, and it started to dawn on everybody that it would be fun to [play music again]. We hadn't done it, in some cases, in 18 years, and it was one of those things that you try it out again, see if it feels good."

And that led to a series of Los Angeles club gigs and a fiery headlining slot at South by Southwest in March. It sounded great, and it felt even better.

"We've had an amazing time. We haven't worked with Eric in close to 17 years, and there's been a lot of different versions of Jane's Addiction," guitarist Dave Navarro said. "We've had amazing bass players over the years ... and they've all been amazing assets to those incarnations of the band, but there's something about having the original bass player, Eric Avery, who we wrote and crafted the songs with, in place that ... it's kind of like having the missing ingredient that you haven't had all these years."

So now it's on to the NINJA tour — which, as if it weren't already a huge enough event, might just also serve as Nine Inch Nails' farewell tour. But whatever ends up happening with NIN, the guys in Jane's can't wait for the kick-off. It's just like old times.

"We're about to go on a six-week tour with Nine Inch Nails, and something that I've never had the opportunity to do is get to know the other artists on the bill, for an extended period of time on a creative level, prior to a tour," Navarro said. "In a lot of ways, this tour really does feel like extended family, based on the creative time we spent together and, going all the way back to Lollapalooza number one, where we did a month and a half of touring with them, so — there's a familial feeling within this tour."

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Killers, Tool, Beastie Boys To Headline Lollapalooza 2009

21 Apr 2009 07:24:00 EDT

Festival will also include performances by Kings of Leon, Jane's Addiction and Depeche Mode, among others.
By James Montgomery

Well, now we know all six. Last month, after four of this year's Lollapalooza headliners were revealed, event founder Perry Farrell told MTV News that he wasn't stressed by the premature leakage ... after all, he still had a pair of big-name bill-toppers to announce, and late Monday he did just that — and then some.

Farrell unveiled the full Lollapalooza 2009 lineup — a list of more than 100 acts — including his two top-secret headliners: Tool and the Killers, who will join previously reported headliners the Kings of Leon, the reunited Jane's Addiction, the Beastie Boys and Depeche Mode (as in previous years — 2008's closing-night duel between Kanye West and Nine Inch Nails, for example — each night at Lolla 2009 will have two headliners).

Artists on the undercard include Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed, Rise Against, TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend, the Decemberists and Ben Harper and Relentless 7. In keeping with previous years' Lolla lineups, there's also a strong undercurrent of electronic music (Thievery Corporation, MSTRKRFT, Crystal Castles and Simian Mobile Disco), hip-hop (Asher Roth, Kid Cudi, Rye Rye) and hotly tipped indie acts (Animal Collective, Band of Horses, Of Montreal, Deerhunter and Ida Maria).

Lollapalooza 2009 will take place August 7-9 in Chicago's Grant Park. A limited number of advance-price three-day passes are now available through Lollapalooza.com for $190. When those are gone, regular three-day passes will go on sale for $205. There are also VIP packages and private luxury cabanas available for the well-heeled members of the alternative nation.

The full lineup for Lollapalooza 2009:

Depeche Mode
Tool
The Killers
Jane's Addiction
Beastie Boys
Kings of Leon
Lou Reed
Ben Harper and Relentless 7
Thievery Corporation
Snoop Dogg
Rise Against
Andrew Bird
TV on the Radio
Vampire Weekend
The Decemberists
Neko Case
Sound Tribe Sector 9
Animal Collective
Band of Horses
Of Montreal
Arctic Monkeys
Coheed and Cambria
Ben Folds
Fleet Foxes
Silversun Pickups
Kaiser Chiefs
Crystal Castles
Bon Iver
Santogold
Atmosphere
Dan Auberbach
Cold War Kids
Deerhunter
Lykke Li
Robert Earl Keen
Peter Bjorn and John
Heartless Bastards
Gomez
Glasvegas
Federico Aubele
Dan Deacon
Passion Pit
The Raveonettes
The Gaslight Anthem
The Airborne Toxic Event
White Lies
Ra Ra Riot
No Age
Asher Roth
Los Campesinos!
Bat for Lashes
Chairlift
Gang Gang Dance
The Virgins
Amazing Baby
Portugal. The Man
The Knux
Ida Maria
Delta Spirit
Friendly Fires
Manchester Orchestra
Constantines
Ezra Furman & the Harpoons
Hockey
Miike Snow
Alberta Cross
Hey Champ
Sam Roberts Band
The Henry Clay People
Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam
Cage the Elephant
Living Things
The Low Anthem
Blind Pilot
Langhorne Slim
Other Lives
The Builders and The Butchers
Eric Church
Joe Pug
Kevin Devine
The Green Cards
Carney
Thenewno2

Featured electronic performers in Perry Farrell's electronica tent:

Bassnectar
MSTRKRFT
Simian Mobile Disco
DeadMau5
Boys Noise
KiD CuDi
Crookers
A-Trak
Hercules and Love Affair (DJ Set)
The Bloody Beetroots (DJ Set)
LA Riots
Kaskade
The Glitch Mob
Hollywood Holt
Rye Rye
He Say, She Say
Car Stereo (Wars)
Dark Wave Disco
Moneypenny
Yello Fever
Animal Collective (DJ Set)

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South By Southwest 2009: Top 10 Moments From A Wild Week Of Music

23 Mar 2009 17:53:00 EDT

Gigs from Kanye West, Jane's Addiction, Metallica and more were highlights of our week in Austin.
By James Montgomery

How does one summarize roughly 96 hours of continuous music? How does one encapsulate the experience of South by Southwest, of staying up way too late and partying way too hard, of seeing bands until your ears bleed and eating BBQ until your stomach does somersaults?

Why, with a top 10 list, of course!

It may seem like the lazy way out, but cut me some slack. I slept a grand total of 10 hours last week in Austin, and I wrote something in the neighborhood of 576 stories about SXSW — all of which you can check out on MTV News' South By Southwest hub. When faced with the daunting task of penning a recap of the entire festival, I decided it was best just to focus on my 10 favorite moments from SXSW 2009.

Because, sometimes, there is no grand point. Sometimes it's just about the music. If there are any shows I left off my list, feel free to let me know about them in the comments section. Now, if you excuse me, I have to go fall asleep under my desk, Costanza-style.

1. The Decemberists at Stubb's
Imagine if you discovered that not only was your science teacher in a heavy-metal band, but that they were actually a really good heavy-metal band. That was the general takeaway from the Decemberists' Wednesday night gig at Stubb's, where they debuted their new album, The Hazards of Love, in its entirety. It was a brave idea to tackle a 60-minute prog opera in front of perhaps the most fickle audience on the planet, and it paid off in spades. The heavy stuff was heavy, the pretty stuff was pretty and, for one night at least, the super-nerdy were super-mighty.

2. Kanye West at the Levi's/Fader Fort
It may not have been a proper Kanye show — he spent the majority of his 90-minute set playing hypeman to his roster of G.O.O.D. Music artists — but it was the gig everyone in Austin was talking about, days before West was even confirmed to appear. That buzz, coupled with cameos by Common and Erykah Badu (and turns from newcomers 88-Keys and Kid Cudi) made it a highlight. After wrapping at the Fort, West would take his party over to Perez Hilton's late-night soiree, which only further cemented his status as the hardest partyer of SXSW 2009 (well, either him or MTV News digital producer Andrew Ross Rowe. That dude's a beast.)

3. Metallica at Stubb's
Just once, it would be amazing if a "secret" SXSW show actually managed to remain a secret, but when a band as ginormous as Metallica is involved, it's difficult to keep the cat in the bag for long. According to some reports, as many as 4,000 die-hard fans deduced that Metallica would be the surprise guests at Friday night's "Guitar Hero" party, and nearly two-thirds were turned away (they still attempted to watch from a nearby parking garage). What they missed was 90 minutes of one of hard rock's greatest bands, playing fast and loose ... and doing impressions too. And how can you not include all that in a SXSW top 10?

4. Grizzly Bear at the Central Presbyterian Church
It's difficult to think of a better place to see Grizzly Bear than a warm, intimate church. All the usual adjectives apply ("hushed," "reverent," "ethereal"), but to actually feel the tones created by the Brooklyn four-piece reverberate around the room made this one truly special. During Thursday night's performance, co-frontman Ed Droste joked that Grizzly Bear had come a long way from their first SXSW gig four years ago at a pizzeria. Somehow, I doubt it sounded and felt as good as this one did.

5. Jane's Addiction at the Playboy "Rock the Rabbit" party
Immediately following Grizzly Bear's set, I walked across town to catch the return of Jane's Addiction — playing with original bassist Eric Avery for the first time in 17 years — at the Playboy party, and to say that it was a change of pace would be an understatement of Hefner-ian proportions. Super-charged (and super-loud), Jane's hadn't lost a beat, and they looked happy as Pigs in Zen while doing it, which only bodes well for the future. They completely blew out of the water 90 percent of the bands I saw at SXSW — more proof that the original is always the best.

6. WAVVES at Red 7
I'll admit that I didn't know the first thing about 22-year-old San Diego noisemaker Nathan Williams — a.k.a. WAVVES — before heading down to SXSW. But with his Wednesday afternoon gig at Red 7, he won me over. Backed by drummer Ryan Ulsh (who may or may not be an actual member of WAVVES ... this was never clarified for me), Williams tore through blast after blast of raw and lightning-quick bedroom punk. You can check out some of that performance (and hear Williams talk about dirty stuff) on the Newsroom blog.

7. Asher Roth at Club Deville
His set was very short and happened very late at night, but it proved that 21-year-old rapper Asher Roth might actually be the breakout star of 2009. Laconic and bed-headed, Roth might try to play down his deft lyrical touch and ability to spin a narrative, but on songs like "Lark on My Go-Kart" and "Blunt Cruising," he does just that (and work in a MILF joke or two). And it translates to the stage. The crowd at the Deville ate him up, and by the time he got around to his hit, the dorm-room banger "I Love College," the place was going bananas. He sounds like Eminem, looks like your R.A. and has a fascination with weed that is perhaps rivaled only by the immortal B-Real. Now that's elite company.

8. BLK JKS at the Mohawk Patio
Elements of spiky punk, bubbly dub, stoned-out reggae and free-form jazz (with the occasional Hendrix guitar explosion thrown in for good measure), fronted by a kid who happens to sing like a Kele Okereke/ Peter Murphy hybrid. In other words, exactly like every rock band from Johannesburg, South Africa, would sound. BLK JKS (pronounced "Black Jacks") were my favorite discovery at SXSW 2009, and I'm certain you'll be hearing more about them very, very soon. Their gig at the Mohawk was co-signed by YouTube, which means you can watch it here, guilt-free. Oh, and yes, the bass player does look an awful lot like Avon Barksdale, which only makes them rule even more.

9. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at seemingly every venue in Austin
These Brooklyn dream-poppers (or, if you prefer, nu-shoegazers) played a tidy 13 gigs at SXSW 2009, all of which seemed to be at venues I would randomly wander into. The thing was, they were always good, with the dueling vocals of Kip Bermand and Peggy Wang particularly standing out. After seeing them a baker's dozen times, I'm willing to say that the hype surrounding their debut album is, in fact, justified. Still, I can't help but think that I was being stalked. Don't make me get the restraining order, guys.

10. Explosions in the Sky at the Auditorium Shores Stage (with fireworks immediately following)
An Explosions in the Sky gig with actual explosions in the sky?!? Duuuuude.

MTV News was all over the South by Southwest festival, with blogs, articles and video on all the gigs, the artists and the scene!

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Perry Farrell Drops Lollapalooza Lineup Hints At SXSW

20 Mar 2009 17:06:00 EDT

Jane's Addiction frontman promises a 'who's who of electronic artists.'
By James Montgomery

Last year, when the full Lollapalooza lineup was leaked by Chicago Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis, Perry Farrell was so angry that he invoked the name of amorous French skunk Pepe Le Pew.

This year, when a handful of Lolla headliners were revealed by The Chicago Tribune, Farrell refrained from mentioning any cartoon characters. Instead, he's striking a different tone: optimism.

"Well, it's pesky. But you gotta look at it like this: It's kind of exciting these guys care enough to try to dig up what we're doing every year, and, um, it's a great lineup, so I'm not too mad that people happen to know [about it]," Farrell told MTV News at South by Southwest on Thursday, hours before he and the re-formed Jane's Addiction tore through Playboy's "Rock the Rabbit" party. "And they don't know the 100 other groups that are coming. ... But Lollapalooza now has six headliners, so there's two they don't now about. [Plus,] even the people who are playing before us are awesome, so no, I'm not too mad about it."

Farrell wouldn't divulge the names of the other two Lollapalooza headliners, who will join Jane's, the Kings of Leon, the Beastie Boys and Depeche Mode atop the bill August 7-9 at Grant Park in Chicago. Nor was he willing to discuss any of the "100 other groups" apparently confirmed for the fest. But he did hint at an increased electronic presence at Lolla '09 — perhaps he's thinking of reviving his old ENIT festival? — and managed to compare himself to a certain pop-culture pariah in the process. The man truly is a master of the sound bite.

"We have a lineup in the electronic world that's a who's who of electronic artists, and they don't know anything about that, either," Farrell added. "I kind of feel like Octomom, you know? Getting all this attention. Who cares?"

MTV News was all over the South by Southwest festival this week, with blogs, articles and video on all the gigs, the artists and the scene!

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Jane's Addiction, Grizzly Bear Soar At SXSW '09

20 Mar 2009 09:19:00 EDT

Reunited Jane's play stellar comeback set.
By James Montgomery, with additional reporting by Christopher "CJ" Smith

AUSTIN, Texas — The beauty of South by Southwest lies in the scheduling. Take a stroll down Sixth Street between the hours of 6 p.m. and 2 a.m., and you'll hear a cacophony of sludgy metal, blooping electro and booming hip-hop pouring out of the windows of each and every club. It's a 500-band pile-up, all within a 10-block radius, all the time. And it's pretty amazing.

Take, for example, Thursday night, when over the span of a few short hours, the SXSW schedule-makers threw together the whisper-quiet indie of Brooklyn's Grizzly Bear and the revelatory rock of Los Angeles legends Jane's Addiction, and set them in venues that ran the gamut from a Presbyterian Church to a gutted supermarket in a strip mall by the interstate. It was, to say the least, rather inspired. (There were loads of other gigs as well — head over to our SXSW hub for more!)

But this was hardly haphazard planning. Grizzly Bear's gig at the Central Presbyterian Church — a warm and cozy chapel with high-arching ceilings and knotty wood-paneled walls — was perfectly tailored to their brand of atmospheric, harmonized indie, as the intertwined vocals of frontmen Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen floated up to the eaves, curled like puffs of smoke, then disappeared.

Gauzy guitar lines and gently tapped Casio tones swirled about the space, making themselves at home. And the audience (many of whom had begun queuing up hours earlier to land a spot in the pews) sat in reverent silence — fitting, given the location — as the Bears worked through songs from their 2006 album, Yellow House, and their upcoming Veckatimest, the latter's newfound focus on gentle reverb being particularly suited to the churchly location. It was all very ethereal, very pretty and a tad bit surreal ... just like Grizzly Bear's music.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, of course, is Jane's Addiction, L.A.'s leading purveyors of perversity, and the godfathers of alternative rock. Recently reunited with long-estranged bassist Eric Avery, they began shaking off the rust (they hadn't performed in their original incarnation in more than 17 years) at tiny L.A. clubs earlier this year, but their Thursday night headlining gig at Playboy's "Rock the Rabbit" party was their first time working a big room. Or, more specifically, a big supermarket.

In a move that was either pure coincidence or pure brilliance, the Playboy bash was held in an empty grocery store attached to a slightly skeevy strip mall in a decidedly unsafe area of Austin. It's difficult to think of a more perfect setting for Jane's tawdry, tarty rock (the bevy of Bunnies parading around the party were a nice touch too). Whether it was due to the joy of feeling at home, or the joy of playing music together again, Jane's came out feisty, fiery and fierce.

On this night, there were no selections from Jane's softer side, just plenty of pummel, from opening number "Three Days" to the incredibly raucous set-closer "Stop!" Showing a swagger that only the best bands possess, Jane's threw haymakers, with guitarist Dave Navarro pulling solo after solo out of his axe, frontman Perry Farrell patrolling and posing, and the reformed rhythm section of Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins remaining in lockstep.

Songs like "Standing in the Shower ... Thinking" (during which Farrell patted his crotch dry with a towel, then tossed it into the crowd), "Ted, Just Admit It ..." and a particularly massive "Ocean Size" sent the crowd into hysterics — there was even some crowd surfing, which sent the Bunnies scattering — and showcased a band still very much at the top of its game. Navarro and Farrell shared a smooch, Avery and Perkins exchanged knowing nods, and frankly, it was as if those 17 years never happened.

MTV News was Live & Mobile at the South by Southwest festival this week, with blogs, articles plus live and on-demand video of all the bands, gigs and BBQ!

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