With October hosting major music functions in its 31 days – Austin City Limits, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and the illustrious CMJ – San Francisco’s Treasure Island Music Festival nestles comfortably in between, boasting prestigious acts to grace the island shores as well as maintaining a crowd size that’s not overwhelming or annoying. Good weather afforded people the opportunity to dress up for the occasion and sample the special brownies the guy in the AT&T ballpark parking lot was offering.

Our highlights and lowlights included:

- Witnessing The Streets’ Mike Skinner being adorable: after he opened with “Let’s Push Things Forward,” he reminisced about his last SF experience that left him bruised— a jump off the balcony at The Fillmore. He then proclaimed to the audience below him “I’m gonna jump into the crowd and make love to you all” before punctuating his set with more words of adoration for the city by the bay.

- Missing Passion Pit as a result of waiting to take a shuttle to the island, which we also contemplated swimming to as a result of the delay. When someone started blasted “Sleepyhead” in the parking lot where we were congregating, it was met with “Yeah guys, let’s listen to the band we’re missing as we stand in line. Real smart. Idiot.”

- DJ Krush providing a most excellent soundtrack as we rode the Ferris wheel.

- Having dinner on a pirate ship.

- Girl Talk being all over the place: crowd-surfing during Dan Deacon’s set, jumping around on stage during his own, and then air pelvic thrusting timed to fireworks at the end of his dancetastic set.

- MSTRKRFT still is just two dudes with a laptop.

- MGMT playing “Oracular Spectacular” from start to finish, which is a good idea if the nostalgia factor is there. But having all your singles in the first half of your album – especially the dance-centric ones – guarantees that your audience takes off midway through your show.

- Afterparty with Dan Deacon, who is so rad I just want to hug him all the time.

It’s a strange world when your ex-love’s sister serves you liquor unexpectedly in the beer tent (why, how did you know I needed a beverage for this conversation?). But in all seriousness, at the end of the day when the guy in the penguin suit apologized to me for whacking my ear during Girl Talk’s set, I was glad to be in the company of some fun – and strange – folks. The Treasure Island Festival is fast becoming my favorite out of all the exravangaznas we have to offer, and it’s for good reason: we all just want to have a good time.

The Streets:

Girl Talk:

MSTRKRFT:

MGMT:

Afterparty with Dan Deacon:

Hot on the heels of their critically lauded full-length debut and a summer spent touring just about everywhere, Passion Pit has announced its plans to continue its brainraid through the fall, confirming a fall US tour. After a late September appearance on Letterman and a pair of shows at Central Park Summerstage with Phoenix, the band will hit the road, traveling across the country and ending up in California.

Tour dates are as follows:
09.25.09 New York, NY @ Summerstage
09.26.09 New York, NY @ Summerstage
09.27.09 Providence, RI @ Black Repertory Theater
09.29.09 Columbus, OH @ Newport Musichall
10.02.09 Lawrence, KS @ The Yard At Beaumont
10.04.09 Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Festival
10.07.09 Salt Lake, UT @ Urban Lounge
10.09.09 Eugene, OR @ U Oregon Student Union
10.10.09 Vancouver, BC @ Richard’s
10.11.09 Seattle, WA @ Showbox
10.14.09 Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theater
10.15.09 San Diego, CA @ Soma
10.17.09 San Francisco, CA @ Treasure Island

Passion Pit played in Los Angeles for two consecutive nights with Cale Parks and Harlem Shakes. Excellent efforts on the two opening bands on both nights, but this is about the dance band of the summer.

Both shows, one at the tiny Troubadour in West Hollywood, and the other at the more appropriately-sized Echoplex in LA, were sold out for the mere price of $15 each. Because of buzz and the hype, tickets were going for $45-$65 each on Craigslist. The local scalper is living large this week.

This pretty much applies to both nights, but everyone is amped to dance and have a good time with their new favorite band. The boys of Passion Pit come out on stage, frontman Michael Angelakos is that friend you have in school that decided to grow a curly afro and a beard, one of the dudes has a McLovin quality to him, and the other keyboardist cast away to the side looks like he’s just lucky to be in a band.

In their short set, they play the best songs off their debut LP Manners, “Folds in Your Hands” and “Little Secrets”. The crowd goes crazy for the single “The Reeling” and blogger favorite “Sleepyhead”. The band has cleaned up and polished the tunes from their Chunk of Change EP. “I Got Your Number”, “Sleepyhead” and “Better Things” all have peppier disco feel to them. The crowd takes the place of the child choir, echoing and singing along “higher and higher” and “OH NO!” If you don’t focus on his voice constantly cracking, it is a really good time.

Angelakos is young, and fairly new, so his stage banter needs some work. Wait a few months, and that humbled and modest attitude they are sporting now will soon turn to snappy attitudes and flashier outfits. That is, if in a few months, Angelakos still has a voice. Auto-tune and production are his friends, because that dude is so pitchy. From time to time, you’ll see people giggle at his warble and whine; not hitting high notes, fading off. The music, though, is so heart-thumping and fun, that his screams go unnoticed, and the dancing continues.

The second night at the Echoplex was a bigger production with a video backdrop and lights, more distraction from his voice. The Echoplex show was more energetic and exciting. On both nights, they only played for fifty minutes. For those people that paid $50 for a ticket, that’s a dollar minute. Everyone had the idea that the smaller venue meant a better, more intimate performance, but really, it was kind of a lackluster show. The second night had more people, so more people to impress, and all in all, a better showing.

Oakland’s wallpaper. bring the jams every time. They sing about Trader Joe’s Two Buck Chuck, wear T-Rex costumes and dollar sign beach towels as capes, and constantly talk about mall girls they want to text their love to.

One of the masterminds behind wallpaper., Ricky Reed, also has been busy twiddling knobs doing remix work in between producing content for wallpaper.’s new album, due later this year. Reed’s takes for remixing tend to reside in the vein of funk and soul, as evidenced by his new remix of Passion Pit“s “The Reeling”. It starts out with some Fela Kuti-approved percussion before dipping into a hybrid of Cuban grooves and contemporary electro synth, with the chorus being backed by a nice subtle hint of trumpets. This is a dude after all who spliced a track recently about “I’m at the Pizza Hut/I’m at the Taco Bell/I’m at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell,” threw in a brass section, and made it dance-worthy.

According to wallpaper.’s Twitter page, Reed and UK darling Calvin Harris were the only two people approved to do “The Reeling” as a remix, which, we’re not sure is completely true, but hey. Exclusivity, we’re all about it. You can also check out Reed’s other Passion Pit remix of “Sleepyhead”, which may rival “The Reeling”’s popularity, over at Hype Machine.

Passion Pit – “The Reeling” (wallpaper. Remix)

You’ll either love this album …

On the full-length debut Manners, Michael Angelakos appropriates and amplifies the elements that made Passion Pit’s Chunk of Change EP a success. He remains unabashedly loyal to his shrill voice, supplementing its high-pitched yelps with infectious pop hooks and relentless energy. Emerging last fall, Angelakos was just a sensitive northeastern frat-boy penning songs to his ex-girlfriend. The winter passes and he’s a boldly confident indie-star that records in fancy-studios with producer Chris Zane (Les Savy Fav, The Walkmen), books back-up children’s choirs, and has the sessions covered by The FADER. Out of the dorm-room into the spotlight, indeed. “Look at me,” he declares on the Red Bull-infused lead single “The Reeling”. It’s vigor sets a precedent: Chunk of Change was meant for his girlfriend’s bedroom and Manners is meant for Times Square. “The Reeling” is an attention-grabbing (“here I am! Won’t someone understand?”) and self-absorbed affair, but one that is utterly awesome. As badly as I want to roll my eyes when he mutters something about his “confounding destiny,” the all-encompassing chorus immediately trumps my cynicism.

Though bigger is definitely the operative word in describing the shift from EP to LP for Passion Pit, his girlfriend remains a dominating topic. Themes of partnership and loyalty permeate Manners as he toys with grand language and convoluted metaphors. On “Little Secrets”, he talks about “outlining wet sidewalks in halogen” before the chorus’ proclamation: “no one needs to know we’re feeling higher and higher!” “Eyes As Candles” comes off as a total love anthem while the sing-a-long “na na na” chorus epitomizes his pop sensibilities. In other cases, it seems he’s just trying to come to grips with his new attention (“my world astir and sickly”).
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The seamless flow between tracks is a product of Zane’s experience and grants Manners a strong cohesion. The songs converse with one another and ultimately make Manners sound like the product of a full band realizing their own sound.

Or you’ll hate it …

Michael Angelakos’ shrill falsetto rambles worse than before. Firstly, he sings without direction or care. The helium-sucked screams on tracks like “To Kingdom Come” and “Little Secrets” aggravate more than appeal. Secondly, his saccharine lyrics reek of vague generalities and vacuous moralizing. “So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh just to prove I’m alive,” sings Angelakos on “Make Light”. The rest of the album is plagued in Angelakos’ self-absorbed pontifications of his purpose on this world: “everyday I lie awake and pray to God today’s the day.” Frankly, it’s hard to ever know what he’s talking about. (See: “that’s a frosty way to speak/ to tell me how to live next to your potpourri.”) Without care for syntax, grammar or general sense, his words flail amongst a cacophony of Atari-like noises and cookie-cutter pop structures.

Album launch pad “Make Light” picks up right where we left off. Angelakos shrieks unintelligible nothings like a prepubescent girl in the back seat of a long car ride. It’s truly cringe-worthy to hear Angelakos emulate Jackson 5 and belt out, “let this be our little secret/ no one needs to know we’re feeling/ higher and higher!” And Sweet Moses, is there actually a song called “Let Your Love Grow Tall”? And did he actually just affix the lyric “tall as the grass in the meadow?” to the song title? Worst is Angelakos’ self-victimizing when he boldly claims he want to “make light of my treacherous life.” Cry me a thousand rivers. “We’re swimming in a flood, you know?” No, I don’t. Chunk of Change was characterized by charmingly saccharine devotion, but Manners is full of obtuse nothings without ever being poetic.

Angelakos is putting the cart before horse. This album defines his artistic persona: an uninhibited and anxious grandstander, not unlike Brendan Flowers or Adam Levine. This is fine, if you have the hype to justify it, but Passion Pit doesn’t. Manners only confirms that “Sleepyhead” is still the best track.

Passion Pit have a whole lot to be excited about — they’re hitting the road in May, they’ve got their first full-length hitting the streets May 19 and they’re celebrating the whole thing on a boat. We’ve got the newest single from their upcoming LP, “Moth’s Wings,” and details about where you can catch them live.

Keeping in the trend of talking about bands for no reason except everyone keeps telling us we should care, Passion Pit is having a CD release party for Manners on Monday, May 18 as part of the Rocks Off Concert Cruise Series on board “The Temptress” in New York City. The album will be out May 19 via a joint release between Columbia and Frenchkiss Records. In the meantime, check out “Moth’s Wings” and their upcoming tour stops below.

Passion Pit – “Moth’s Wings”

Passion Pit on tour
05.23.09 – George, Wash. (Sasquatch! Music Festival)
05.24.09 – Portland, Ore. (Wonder Ballroom)
05.26.09 – San Francisco, Calif. (Bimbo’s)
05.28.09 – West Hollywood, Calif. (Troubadour)
05.29.09 – Los Angeles, Calif. (Echoplex)
05.30.09 – Pomona, Calif. (The Glass House)
06.02.09 – Dallas, Texas (Granada Theatre)
06.03.09 – Austin, Texas (Emo’s)
06.04.09 – Houston, Texas (Warehouse Live)
06.05.09 – Baton Rouge, La. (Spanish Moon)
06.06.09 – Atlanta, Ga. (The Drunken Unicorn)
06.08.09 – Richmond, Va. (The National)
06.09.09 – Washington, D.C. (Black Cat)
06.11.09 – Manchester, Tenn. (Bonnaroo)
06.13.09 – Covington, Ky. (Mad Hatter)
06.14.09 – Chicago Ill. (Empty Bottle)
06.17.09 – Buffalo, NY (Mohawk Place)
06.18.09 – Boston, Mass. (Paradise)
06.19.09 – New York, NY (Bowery Ballroom)
06.20.09 – New York, NY (Bowery Ballroom)

Here’s your second really good reason to head down to Austin this year: Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band and the Beastie Boys have been announced as headliners for this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival, October 2-4 in Zilker Park.

The three-day, eight-stage festival will also feature Kings of Leon, Thievery Corporation, the Dead Weather, Ghostland Observatory, Sonic Youth, Bon Iver, Passion Pit, Arctic Monkeys, the Decemberists, Girl Talk, Phoenix, School of Seven Bells and Dan Auerbach among the 130 bands and artists booked.

You can get three-day festival passes for $185 (no service fees), plus check out VIP package options, here. Headlining band Pearl Jam will also be appearing on the Austin City Limits TV show while they’re in Texas — the public television series was the inspiration for the festival eight years ago.

Austin City Limits Music Festival Line-Up
Pearl Jam
Dave Matthews Band
Beastie Boys
Kings of Leon
Ben Harper and Relentless7
Thievery Corporation
John Legend
The Dead Weather
The Levon Helm Band
Ghostland Observatory
Sonic Youth
Mos Def
Toadies
Flogging Molly
The B-52s
Lily Allen
Citizen Cope
Arctic Monkeys
The Decemberists
Coheed and Cambria
Andrew Bird
Girl Talk
STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9)
Phoenix
Bassnectar
Bon Iver
!!!
The Avett Brothers
The Airborne Toxic Event
Medeski, Martin & Wood
Clutch
Michael Franti & Spearhead
Grizzly Bear
Heartless Bastards
Passion Pit
White Lies
Dan Auerbach
The Walkmen
The Scabs
Reckless Kelly
Devotchka
Blitzen Trapper
The Virgins
Here We Go Magic
Eek-A-Mouse
K’ Naan
Asleep at the Wheel
Dr. Dog
The Raveonettes
The Knux
Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears
State Radio
Los Amigos Invisibles
The Felice Brothers
Federico Aubele
Raul Malo
Daniel Johnston
Poi Dog Pondering
Brett Dennen
Rodriguez
Henry Butler
Preservation Hall
Sam Roberts Band
The Greencards
Sara Watkins
Walter “Wolfman” Washington
David Garza
John Vanderslice
Zac Brown Band
Todd Snider
School of Seven Bells
The Dodos
Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3
Alberta Cross
Deer Tick
Bell X1
Alela Diane
The Wood Brothers
The Parlor Mob
Rebirth Brass Band
Marva Wright
Terri Hendrix
L.A.X.
Lisa Hannigan
The Low Anthem
Sons of Bill
Suckers
Sarah Jaffe
Cotton Jones
The Henry Clay People
Papa Mali
Jypsi
Vince Mira
Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights
Mimicking Birds
Jeffrey Steele
Jonell Mosser
Leatherbag
Keith Gattis
Damien Horne
Sarah Siskind
Dexateens
Nelo
Danny Brooks
Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
The Soul Stirrers
The Durdens
Palm School Elementary
The Gospel Silvertones
Diaconos
Quinn Sullivan
Ralph’s World
Q Brothers
Milkshake
Telephone Company
Loose Cannons
Lunch Money

At last, the Lollapalooza rumors are put to rest — Depeche Mode, Tool, The Killers, Beastie Boys, Kings of Leon and (of course) Jane’s Addiction will be headlining this year’s festival, along with an impressive cast of supporting bands, Lollapalooza organizers confirmed today.

More than 100 bands/artists/DJs will take the Lolla stage this year, including TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend, Andrew Bird, Animal Collective, Arctic Monkeys, Fleet Foxes, Silversun Pickups, Bon Iver, Crystal Castles, Los Campesinos! and Passion Pit. This year’s event will also introduce “Perry’s”, a nightclub style stage featuring dance and electronic music. The DJs set to spin include MSTRKRFT, Bassnectar, DeadMau5, Animal Collective and Bloody Beetroots.

After selling out last year for the first time since Lollapalooza took roots in Chicago, ticket sales don’t seem to be lagging. Early bird discount passes went on sale at the end of March for $195. Regular priced tickets are $205, and of course if you’re not like the rest of us, worrying about saving $10 on a $200 concert ticket, you can always check out the VIP options at Lollapalooza.com.

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
STS9 (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
Santigold
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 performers at Perry’s
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)

Looks like synth-pop Bostonites Passion Pit are taking this major label thing seriously. In preparing to follow up the hyped-up Chunk Of Change EP with the release of their first full length record, Manners, next month, the band has debuted the video for the lead single “The Reeling” on MTV.

Upon first listen “The Reeling” might not strike as much of a hook and catch as the groups’ more talked about single “Sleepyhead” from the EP, but with the aid of their cleverly crafted video, the new Passion Pit single has a unique appeal, that will keep you stimulated visually for the duration of the almost-five-minute song. The sound of the new single is broader, but the creative appeal behind the groups’ sound is still ringing freely through the track, and we’re sure that even if “The Reeling” doesn’t create as much of a stir as “Sleeyhead” did, the new Passion Pit album will still be streaming from our speakers.

Passion Pit – “The Reeling”

When he’s not busy being the best boyfriend in the world and writing endearingly catchy love-album’s for his girlfriend, Passion Pit front man Michael Angelakos is in the studio, busting out new tracks for their debut album Manners, which will be released May 19 in the U.S. on Frenchkiss and May 18 on Columbia everywhere else. Until then, we’re have to make due with the pretty darn stellar Chunk of Change EP and new single “The Reeling” which is currently streaming on their MySpace Page.

“The Reeling” sounds notably grander than the E.P. (as is no surprise considering the mass studio effort going into Manners) but retains Angelakos high-pitched falsetto and bubbly-pop inclinations. It’s a high-pitched, Red Bull-infused, uber-energetic affair that sees Angelakos so excitable yapping “Is this the way I’ll always be?” as a children’s choir responds “Oh no!” It’s both catchy and irritating.

On an more frustrating note (and only perpetuating the recent Canada vs U.S. divide further), Passion Pit have cancelled their originally postponed Canadian tour citing “personal medical issues”. Guess I’ll have to wait longer before I’m harmonizing to “Sleepyhead”.

Passion Pit:

05.23.09  - George, WA (Sasquatch! Music Festival)
05.24.09  - Portland, OR (Wonder Ballroom)
05.26.09  - San Francisco, CA (Bimbo’s)
05.28.09  - West Hollywood, CA (Troubadour)
05.29.09  - Los Angeles, CA (Echoplex)
05.30.09  - Pomona, CA (The Glass House)
06.02.09  - Dallas, TX (Granada Theatre)
06.03.09  - Austin, TX (Emo’s)
06.04.09  - Houston, TX (Warehouse Live)
06.05.09  - Baton Rouge, LA (Spanish Moon)
06.06.09  - Atlanta, GA (The Drunken Unicorn)
06.08.09 – Richmond, VA (The National)
06.09.09  - Washington, DC  (Black Cat)
06.11.09  - Manchester, TN (Bonnaroo)
06.13.09 – Covington, KY (Mad Hatter)
06.14.09  - Chicago IL (Empty Bottle)
06.17.09 – Buffalo, NY (Mohawk Place)
06.18.09 – Boston, MA (Paradise)
06.19.09 – New York, NY (Bowery Ballroom)
06.20.09 – New York, NY (Bowery Ballroom)

Correspondent Meiyee Apple takes us through her guide of SxSW day parties with her search for free music and drinks on Friday, March 20. You can see the Thursday, March 19 installment here.

The Thursday night after my day party extravaganza was filled with Scandinavian bands at the Oya/Oh My Rockness showcase with the Casio Kids, Wavves, and some hardcore band who’s only lyrics for their song “Jeans and Heels” were “jeans” and “heels.” Instead of capping the evening with a late-night party session, I went and ate a “Sloppy Burger” at Magnolia and passed out.

There were high hopes on hitting a bevy of day parties.

The ones that that I hit:
Aussie BBQ with Youth Group
AAM Extravaganza
Reeperbahn Festival Party
Spin Magazine party with the Black Lips, Crystal Method DJing, and Echo and the Bunnymen (totally missed Passion Pit and am still kicking myself for it)

Of course with all that was going on, a lot of parties on my agenda were missed:
BMI Acoustic Brunch (woke up too late)
Onion A/V Club party (long was WAY too line)
Showcasing Scotland at The British Music Embassy (too busy getting hammered at the Spin Party)
The Music Stimulus Event (too busy getting hammered at Spin Party)
Next Big Nashville (too busy getting hammered at the Spin Party)
New Zealand Music Party (too busy getting hammered at the Spin Party)

Upon nightfall, I reported back to the sprawling and wonderful FADER Fort. I had not consumed anything solid all day, despite all the free food at the parties. Hence, the obvious inebriation at the end of my day.

I headed over to the Austin Music Hall for the Touch Tunes Ultimate Party with Datarock, Tricky and Devo. Datarock rocked my socks, Tricky made me fall asleep (due to the lingering booze), and Devo revealed new songs, wore new costumes, and sang the hits. Those old dudes are so timeless.

[Devo]

[Datarock]

[Echo And The Bunnymen]

Following up on their industry-acclaimed EP Chunk of Change, Passion Pit is releasing their first full-length album, Manners, this upcoming May. We already know they’ve taken a page out of Columbia Records label mates Peter Bjorn and John’s handbook and enlisted a bunch of school kids for one of the singles, so this time around we’re assuming the album isn’t just another belated Valentine’s Day present made for Michael Angelakos’ girlfriend.

While reports have been semi-conflicting (e-mails out of Gigantic Studios where they recorded Manners have mentioned Columbia Records as the home of the release, and press agents at the Columbia U.S. offices have been name dropping their recent signing) Manners is apparently due out on Frenchkiss in the U.S. on May 26, and the UK release will be eight days prior on Columbia Records proper, May 18. Along with the new album, the Massachusetts band is going to be touring like crazy in both North America and Europe, with the inevitable stint at SxSW.

Manners track listing
01. Make Light
02. Little Secrets
03. Moth’s Wings
04. The Reeling
05. Eyes as Candles
06. Swimming in the Flood
07. Folds in Your Hands
08. To Kingdom Come
09. Sleepyhead
10. Let Your Love Grow Tall
11. Seaweed Song

In the wake of the ever increasing pool of festivals and the possible merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the idea of paying $200 to see live music during a recession resulted in our pockets slapping us back into reality. But to be fair, the Sasquatch Festival — presented by Live Nation and tickets sold by Ticketmaster — is one of the cheaper weekend-long festivals and the line-up could quite possibly be the best yet.

Of course, this has left us all wondering at what point does the festival circuit become too congested, leaving them all a bit redundant and watered down? Those who remember the 90s will remember that Lollapalooza took time off for this very reason. But we digress, the Sasquatch Festival will take place May 23-25 at The Gorge in Quincy, WA and features the just-announced-today-union of Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction as the festival headliners. But the rest of the line-up is what excites us and looks like this:

Kings of Leon, Ben Harper & Relentless7, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Erykah Badu, The Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, TV On The Radio, Animal Collective, Silversun Pickups, Bon Iver, Santigold, Of Montreal, Explosions In The Sky, Devotchka, Peter Bjorn & John, Gogol Bordello, M. Ward, The Avett Brothers, Doves, Calexico, Grizzly Bear, M83, Girl Talk, The Gaslight Anthem, The Walkmen, Chromeo (dj set), Deadmau5, Mugison, Sun Kil Moon, Airborne Toxic Event, Blitzen Trapper, Shearwater, BLK JKS, The Wrens, Tobacco, Monotonix, King Khan & The Shrines, St. Vincent, Passion Pit, John Vanderslice, Bishop Allen, Blind Pilot, AA Bondy, Black Moth Super Rainbow, The Knux, Ra Ra Riot, The Dodos, Beach House, Arthur & Yu, The Submarines, Owl City, Viva Voce, James Pants, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, The Builders & The Butchers, The Dutchess & The Duke, Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head, Dent May & His Magnificent Ukelele, Fences, School of Seven Bells, Death Vessel, Horse Feathers, Hockey, Point Juncture, WA, The Pica Beats, Loch Lomond, Vince Mira & more to come.

And the comedy line up includes:
Zach Galifiankas, Demetri Martin, Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job, Todd Barry, Jon Benjamin, God’s Pottery, People’s Republic of Komedy & more.

Ok, got that? Now, as for tickets, beginning on February 28 (on sale weekend only), a discounted 3-day festival pass will be available until March 1 at midnight at $154.50 for the entire weekend with single tickets costing $56.50. Beginning March 2 a 3-day pass will run you $199.50 and a single ticket $66.50 and if you wait until the last minute (and tickets are still available), starting May 11 the weekend pass is $229.50 and single tickets will be $76.50.

Oh, and Ticketmaster will have all your ticketing needs. Go figure.

We’ve asked you before, and we ask you again: what’s better than a bunch of kids singing? Beats us. Michael Angelakos of Passion Pit seems to be on the same page. While working on the band’s first full-length album, the 46 members of the children’s choir at PS 22 on Staten Island came into the studio to lay down some vocals.

These kids even have their own web site, and they blogged about their experiences in the studio. Luckily FADER TV was there to take the whole thing in, so we don’t have to rely on words alone.