Freshly sharpened pencils, lumpy apple slices and All Tomorrow’s Parties: it must be back-to-school time! Located in upstate New York at a country club with a capacity of only 2,800, this music festival sounds exactly like the liberal arts colleges I would have sacrificed myself at age 17 to attend. But instead of semesters of boredom and years of loans, this is just one big orgiastic weekend, September 11-13, partially curated by free love-enthusiasts The Flaming Lips.

The Sunday lineup, hand-selected and headlined by the Lips, includes Super Furry Animals, Boredoms, Crystal Castles, Deerhoof with Martha Colburn, and best of all, No Age performing Hüsker Dü with Bob Mould. I’m seeing colors right now. Check out the full line-up here.

In related Flaming Lips news, a new digital EP, titled “Songs from The Future Album Embryonic” is available to ATP ticket purchasers for free, and at basement bargain price for the rest of us. The three-song sampler should get you salivating for their first studio full-length in three years, coming out this fall… It’s about damn time.

What the hell? Something like 50,000 people die from the regular flu in America every year (this is not an official number, we’re paraphrasing what a friend told us), and not one tour has been canceled in our lifetime because of it. This swine flu is starting to piss us off.
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Since moving on from Mika Miko, the band’s former drummer Kate Hall has packed up her drum kit and has instead picked up a video camera. The musician turned artist has made music videos for bands like Erase Errata and Abe Vigoda, and now she has added Deerhoof to her portfolio; directing the video for the band’s latest single “Numina” off of 2008’s Offend Maggie.
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We’ve been anticipating Blur’s reunion since we first heard about it, and were even more excited when they confirmed the addition of Crystal Castles, Deerhoof and (to a lesser extent, it’s nothing personal) Vampire Weekend to the line up for their reunion shows at Hyde Park. But the hype keeps growing with the announcement of two intimate shows for fans before their awaited reunion. See how nice they are? They hype up the Hyde Park shows so it’s not as annoying when you’re told they won’t be Blur’s first shows back as originally advertised.
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Hot off the presses this morning from across the pond — Blur have announced the roster of bands who’ll join them in Hyde Park for their highly anticipated reunion gigs this July. Among the chosen ones are Crystal Castles, Vampire Weekend, Foals and more.
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