2008 Festivals Preview

After the end of the year best of lists are done for and the holidays are over, it’s the season for rampant speculation about who is playing what festival. The fun rumors this year include Metallica and Led Zeppelin at Bonnaroo and My Bloody Valentine at Coachella. Here at Ohmpark, we heart festivals and will be keeping you informed on all of these developments. Here are the fests I’m looking forward to:

Click here to read the entire post…

Torrrents Of The Day: Echo Project

Download some great shows from the fest:

Disco Biscuits 2007-10-12 Echo Project

MMW – 10/12/07 – Echo Project

Umphrey’s McGee 2007-10-14 – Echo Project

Thievery Corporation 2007-10-13 Echo Project

Les Claypool’s Fancy Trio 2007-10-12 – The Echo Project

Live Review: The Echo Project

The newest fest to spring up in this golden age of weekend festivals was right here in Atlanta last weekend. My crew ran 5 cars deep last Thursday afternoon in very little traffic or delays (just me making a few wrong turns) on the way to The Echo Project. We arrived around 5pm to find a very empty field:

We setup camp and commenced drinking at our campsites. Thursday night Dubconcious performed about 50 feet from our camp, which was almost at the entrance of stage area. One very nice thing about a small festival as opposed to, say, Bonnaroo, is most everyone is a short walk to all the action. Friday we went to the stages before noon and were rewarded with a Flaming Lips sound check. They performed at least 2 full songs and treated it as a mini-performance:

We then checked out Elevado next, and now that I know their new album well, it was very enjoyable. They seemed to be having some issues with the sound equipment, and were not very happy about. Frontman Justin Sias was hilariously crazy jumping down in the audience to dance around, crawling under the stage and disappearing for a while and then for the finale laying motionless in the audience clutching a ghetto trombone. Between how good this band is and all they do with ISP, i definitely put them in the high echelons of Atlanta’s kickass music scene. The Echo Project security tried to stop me from taking pictures with my cellphone because i didn’t have a photo pass, but since no one will give me a photo pass, we gotta go guerrilla:

Click here to read the entire post…

Back From Echo Project

I am ITP briefly before heading to Birmingham, AL to catch Earlimart tonight. Echo Project was really, really fun. I can’t stop listening to the new Radiohead album, and it seems that’s the case with everyone. Porcupine Tree in Asheville, NC last week was kickass. More on all of these things very soon, plus a big festival announcement and Voodoo Fest coverage next week, so keep it tuned here.

The Echo Project Releases Schedule

Thanks to Benjammin for keeping on top of the Echo info. Take a look at the schedule here. You can also check out my personalized schedule. Breaking the schedule down, Friday is by far the best line-up and scheduled very well for hitting up all those awesome artists. I like the Saturday day line-up, but after 10pm there is not much that appeals to me except Atlanta’s own Treasure Fingers. Sunday is a little sparse, but there’s enough to keep me happy throughout. I have to say I think they did a great job scheduling the acts they have for the most part. I can’t believe this thing is less than 2 weeks away.

Humpday Randomnimity

Last Tuesday night I caught Midlake at The Earl and they were really awesome. Here’s a couple bad pics ( I swear I’m getting my own real camera soon):

If you are unfamiliar with these guys, think Thom Yorke meets Fleetwood Mac. They just released a digital EP called Oak And Julian. Here’s a cut and a bonus:

Midlake : Oak & Julian : Roscoe (acoustic)
The Chemical Brothers : We Are The Night : The Pills Won’t Help You Know (Featuring Midlake)
So, the Echo Project‘s 3rd round of artist auditions didn’t all come out at once and I missed a few additions when I reported it last week. Here is the full Echo Project Line-Up:

The Killers
Phil Lesh & Friends
The Flaming Lips

Thievery Corporation
moe.
 The Roots
Spoon
Cypress Hill
Les Claypool
Michael Franti & Spearhead
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Rodrigo Y Gabriela
Umphrey’s McGee
The Disco Biscuits

 Stephen Marley
Rabbit in the Moon
Gza (Genius) and Slick Rick featuring the Fyre Department
The Bravery
Medeski Martin & Wood
MSTRKRFT
Cat Power & Dirty Delta Blues
Polyphonic Spree
Butch Walker
JJ Grey & Mofro
Secret Machines
Son Volt
Avett Brothers
Perpetual Groove
Brazilian Girls
Man Man
RJD2
Lyrics Born
The Album Leaf
The Benevento Russo Duo
Tea Leaf Green
ALO
God Is An Astronaut
Bassnectar
Ryan Shaw
Dirty Dozen Brass Band
The Egg
Toubab Krewe
Wood Brothers
Snowden
Futureman and His Black Mozart Ensemble
RAQ
Dubconcious
Spam Allstars
Afromotive
Greenskeepers
Lazaro Casanova
Marc Ford
Col. Bruce Hampton & The Quark Alliance
Telepath		 Little Birdy
Collective Efforts
Boom Box
Marchforth Marching Band
Scissors For Lefty
Dead Confederate
Benzos
Barrel House Mamas
Strut
Something Japanese
Grimace Federation
Spencer Durham Band
Jamie McLean
3S Hostage
Sam Thacker
Lord Is My Shotgun
Entropy
Ployd
Mike Zarin
Sorted
Munir
Random Rabbit
Sonar
Soundwave
Mayhem
Habersham/Numinous
Secret Live
Brandon B
Treasure Fingers
Truform
Chris Grass
Eric ZBD
and more…

The two big additions i missed were Spoon and Rabbit In The Moon. Back in my short-lived raver days, Rabbit In The Moon was my favourite electronic artist. They are like taking Flaming Lips and GWAR to a rave; their live show is an incredible spectacle. DJ Monk is no longer part of the team, but with Confucius still producing the music and weird-ass frontman Bunny doing really trip stuff on stage, I can guarantee the spun out wooks are gonna love this show. If you are going to this fest, don’t miss this show(and don’t be sober for it):

Bunny was riding in a ball across the audience way before Wayne:

Mastodon‘s Brent Hinds is in the hopsital from a head injury that occurred at the MTV Video Music Awards. Some Mastodon related vids:

Featuring Queens Of The Stone Age‘s Josh Homme:

News report on Mastodon:

And here’s an Eddie Vedder track featuring Sleater-Kinney‘s Corin Tucker:

Eddie Vedder : Into The Wild (movie soundtrack) : Hard Sun

Echo Project Expands Line-up

America’s newest music fest, right here in the A-town, just keeps getting better. Here’s the full line-up with the new additions (since that’s how Echo Project posted it and i don’t have time this second to sort through it):

The Killers
Phil Lesh
Thievery Corporation
moe

The Roots
The Flaming Lips
Cypress Hill
Les Claypool
Michael Franti & Spearhead
Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Umphrey’s McGee
Disco Biscuits
Stephen Marley
Bravery
Medeski Martin & Wood
mstrkrft
Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
Polyphonic Spree
JJ Grey & Mofro
Secret Machines
Son Volt
Avett Brothers
Perpetual Groove
Brazilian Girls
MAN MAN
Lyrics Born
The Album Leaf
The Benevento – Russo Duo
Tea Leaf Green
ALO
God is and Astronaut
Ryan Shaw
The Egg
Toubab Krewe
Wood Brothers
Snowden
Futureman and his Black Mozart Ensemble
RAQ
Dubconscious
Spam Allstars
Afromotive
Greenskeepers
Lazaro Casanova
Marc Ford
Col. Bruce Hampton & The Quark Alliance
Telepath
Little Birdie
Collective Efforts
Boom Box
March Fourth Marching Band
Scissors for Lefty
Dead Confederate
Benzos
Barrel House Mamas
Strut
Something Japanese
Grimace Federation
Spencer Durham Band
The Jamie McLean
3$ Hostage
Sam Thacker
Lord is My Shotgun
Entropy
Ployd
Mike Zarin
Sorted
Munir
Random Rabbit
Sonar
Soundwave
Mayhem
Habersham / Numinous
Secret Life
Will
Brandon B
Treasure Fingers
Truform
Chris Grass
Eric ZBD

The most notable additions to me are Snowden, Futureman, Entropy, Dubconscious, Dead Confederate, and Treasure Fingers, but there are alot of artists i don’t recognize. i really need to get tickets.

Echo Project Artist Additions

Now added to the line-up:

The Flaming Lips
Thievery Corporation
Les Claypool
The Bravery
Secret Machines
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
MSTRKRFT
JJ Grey and MOFRO
Son Volt
The Egg
The Album Leaf
Man Man
Tea Leaf Green
The Benevento/Russo Duo
Lazaro Casanova
Telepath

This line-up is certainly doing its best to go old-school Bonnaroo. Despite the fact that the hippies putting this together obviously don’t know indie music well (The Bravery, The Killers, bleh), they did get some bands I’m really happy about seeing on here (Man Man, The Album Leaf, Thievery Corporation) in addition to now having pretty much every jamband I love (although the Allman bros./Gov’t Mule family could use some repping). I was going to go to this to party regardless of the line-up, but they are putting together something special now and they are going to have more additions on top of that. You can get your $120 early bird tix right now and see the full line-up of what is now Atlanta’s biggest festival here.

Shows You Needs To Know

We reported it first here Friday, but now that more details have been released, we are again going to tell you about the Joanna Newsom show coming to Atlanta on November 11th. In addition to being one of only a handful of shows right now, it is also going to feature a full orchestra. As we’ve mentioned before, we are big Joanna Newsom fans and if you haven’t checked out what the hype is all about, its time to:

Ok, another huge concert announcement for Atlanta is The Echo Project. Wondering what that is? Well, it is a Bonnaroo-style music fest being held October 12th-14th on a 350 acre private farm right outside Atlanta along the Chattahoochee River to raise money for some environmental causes. Here’s the initial line-up:

The Killers
Phil Lesh And Friends
The Roots
Moe
Cypress Hill
Umphrey’s McGee
Micheal Franti And Spearhead
Stephen Marley
The Disco Biscuits
Cat Power And The Dirty Delta Blues
Rodreigo And Gabriella
The Polyphonic Spree
Brazillian Girls
Perpetual Groove
The Avett Brothers
Lyrics Born
RJD2
Toubab Krewe
Spam Allstars
ALO
Greenskeepers
The Afromotive

Early bird tickets go on sale today at 10am for $120. Looks like the hippy version of Music Midtown. Check the website out.

Tonight Pelican is at the Drunken Unicorn. I’ll see you there.

Tommorrow My Brightest Diamond will be doing a free acoustic show at Wordsmiths Books in Decatur before playing at Vinyl that night with Rasputina.

Thursday is the Rock The Bells festival at the Amphitheatre-formerly-known-as-Lakewood. hip-hop will be well represented by The Wu-Tang Clan, Talib Kwali, Supernatural, Rahzel, Nas, Jedi Mind Tricks, Immortal Technique, Erykah Badu, David Banner, and Pharoahe Monch.

If that’s not your thing, you can see Tokyo Police Club at Vinyl Thursday instead.