When Conan O'Brien moved from the 12:30 slot to the more high-profile "Tonight Show," there was concern in the media (and in the MTV newsroom) that O'Brien wouldn't be able to be as aggressively weird as he was allowed to be on his old show. But on Friday, a familiar face returned to the fray: Former Eminem rival Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, who took his microphone to Bonnaroo to poke fun at dirty hippies and take down a handful of bands, including TV on the Radio and the Beastie Boys. Triumph's Beasties interview was probably the finest bit, which saw Robert Smigel's puppet note, "It used to be 'Check Your Head' and now it's 'Check Your Prostate.'" Check out the entire clip below.

I envy you ... the unwashed masses, the blissfully unemployed, the bearded and bedraggled. You get to go to Bonnaroo, to revel in four days of unadulterated muck and music and mind-altering substances. I don't, because I am stuck in meetings all week.

And this is most certainly a bummer. See, I love Bonnaroo. I think it's the best fest in America, an experience every music fan must have at least once in their lives (and I'm not just saying this because, back in 2007, I got to fly a helicopter there).

But this year, because of the time constraints due to back-to-back-to-back business meetings (read: impending adulthood), I'm not going to make it down to Manchester, Tennessee. I will probably regret this for the rest of my life, because Bonnaroo 2009 looks like it's going to be a blast.

And, yeah, I know that the weather forecast for Manchester could charitably be described as "cataclysmic" — the phrase "strong storms" is bandied about, which should make camping in an open field with 80,000 other revelers a rather messy affair — but that doesn't change the fact that there are tons of can't-miss moments spread out over the fest's four days. Which means that if you're brave enough to, uh, brave the weather, you're gonna be in for a treat.

So even though I won't be down in Tennessee with you, I figured I could still lend a hand. I've thrown together a Bonnaroo Cheat Sheet, highlighting some of the fest's best acts. These are the bands you probably can't afford to miss, even if you have to trudge through six feet of water to check them out.

» Thursday: A bit of a light schedule, as most of the 80k will still be setting up their tents, but you'd be doing yourself a favor if you checked out Passion Pit, a much-buzzed electro-pop outfit from Massachusetts who just released their debut disc, a dazzler called Manners. If you can get past frontman Michael Angelakos' pinched squeal, there's plenty of goodness.
Read more...

By Alex Shapiro

It's only February, but music lovers across the country can already start planning their summers: After months of speculation surrounding Coachella and Bonnaroo, the initial lineups for both have been announced, and they are amazing!

The Coachella lineup is made up of some heavy hitters: Former Beatle Paul McCartney will kick off the fest, followed by '80s goth-rockers the Cure, with synth-rock group the Killers closing it out on the last day. The other 116 announced acts make up a smorgasbord of techno, rock and rap acts that will prevent anyone from saying, "There isn't one band there I'd pay to see." If I was anywhere near Indio, California, I wouldn't miss this one. Read more...

The announcements for 2009's music-festival season are fast approaching, and rumors are flying all over about who's playing where.

Through some smart Net sleuthing (on artists' MySpaces, etc.), many artists' festival appearances have already been identified. LAist.com, for example, has determined that the Killers, No Age, Girl Talk, Hold Steady and Fleet Foxes will be at Coachella.

But what about the more outlandish rumors? The juiciest one for Coachella is clearly Britney Spears. Many speculated earlier this week that it's well within the realm of possibility for the pop star to drop by the fest (as Madonna did in 2006). She just happens to be performing in Los Angeles that same weekend, and the Coachella grounds in Indio are just a few short hours' drive away.
Read more...

So I am sitting here at my always cluttered desk and on it, oddly and appropriately sitting next to one another, are “Peace: The Biography of a Symbol” (a book marking the 50th anniversary of the peace symbol), and a press release from Columbia Records touting the fact that their breakout band MGMT will be playing the Big Three US festivals this summer: Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza. Plus, in June, they’ll play Glastonbury and open for a little band by the name of Radiohead. But I digress. Back to the peace symbol book being next to MGMT --

"Hippie" is, I think, a much-maligned and none-too-fashionable word -- one that probably has never applied to me, but I wouldn't mind if it were. And it’s a term that's been thrown liberally about in describing Ben and Andrew of MGMT, as well as folks like their erstwhile tourmates Yeasayer. (Ohio punk band Psychedelic Horses--- even dedicated a not-so-flattering song to Yeasayer called "New Wave Hippies." But more on that indie beef another time...)

Now, certainly there are psychedelic elements to MGMT, and certainly they have politically lefty roots (Wesleyan U, plus Andrew’s dad Bruce VanWyngarden is the editor of Memphis alt paper The Memphis Flyer). The press release calls MGMT "mind-bending" and "futurist" -– OK, but what about the "h" word?

How does the band feel about the term? Find out after the jump. Read more...

Icelandic post-rocker's Sigur Ros have been busy recording their follow up to 2005's critically acclaimed Takk in New York City over the last few weeks, and work has seemingly progressed nicely. The band posted a message on their website Wednesday saying that they’ve laid the “foundations” for 11 songs and are now off to familiar territory in Sunlaugin, Iceland to complete work with producer Flood (U2, Nine Inch Nails, The Killers) with a tentative release date of late spring/early summer. The band added that "no one has heard any of these songs before.” The band’s label confirms they’ll be playing Bonnaroo and several European festivals over the summer, and will most likely preview some of their new material at these shows.