Last fall, Raleigh, NC held its first-ever Hopscotch Music Festival with some impressive headliners. The festival, featuring shows in small venues stretching across the smallish downtown, was a huge success and elevated Raleigh to indie heights it hadn’t seen without being lumped with Durham/Chapel Hill. Well, Raleigh is one step closer to being the new Austin, Texas: Hopscotch stuck, and the lineup for the 2011 Hopscotch has just been announced, causing jaws to drop everywhere.
This year, the festival goes from September 8 through 10 and boasts quite a few big names: The Flaming Lips, Guided by Voices, Drive-By Truckers, and Swans are just a few. Of course, you don’t have to have your own encyclopedia entry (J Mascis! Sir Richard Bishop!) in order to play the festival: there are over 135 bands, including everyone from the likes of Japandroids, Oneohtrix Point Never (plus Ford & Lopatin), and Earth, to local bands like Des Ark and Lonnie Walker.
Of course, with a lineup of such caliber, the price suffers the necessary evil that befalls all developing festivals (remember when Pitchfork was cheap?). As opposed to last year’s 3-day all-club ticket for $45, this year it’s $65 — $105 to include the major headlining shows in addition to access to the smaller clubs. Still, considering the bang for your buck (if they’ve worked out some of the space issues they had last year), that’s totally reasonable as a birthday-plus-Christmas gift for yourself. Tickets are on sale now!
Full lineup (see alphabetized list here):
The Flaming Lips, Guided By Voices, Drive-By Truckers, Superchunk, The Dodos, Swans, Yelawolf, Japandroids, J Mascis, Black Lips, Earth, Twin Shadow, The Love Language, Rhys Chatham G3, The Foreign Exchange, Krallice, Cold Cave, The Necks, Toro Y Moi, The Budds Band, John Vanderslice, Weekend, Liturgy, Kort, Lost in the Trees, Little Scream, Disappears, Lower Dens, Beans, Julianna Barwick, Xiu Xiu, Royal Bangs, Braids, Bombadil, Oneohtrix Point Never, Beach Fossils, Barn Owl, Lonnie Walker, Jeff the Brotherhood, The Light Pines, Bird Peterson, Annuals, Royal Baths, Ford & Lopatin, The Old Ceremony, Generationals, Cheyenne Marie Mize, Woodsman, Reading Rainbow, Mount Eerie, All Tiny Creatures, Frontier Ruckus, The Prayers and Tears, Apex Manor, Bandway, Fight the Big Bull, Sir Richard Bishop, Dinosaur Feathers, Wooden Wand, Des Ark, Grandchildren, Man/Miracle, Mouthus, Horseback, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Body, Prurient, Frank Fairfield, Flight, Gauntlet Hair, William Tyler, Duane Putre Sextet, Jennyanykind, Spider Bags, Tyvek, Dawn Golden and Rosy Cross, Andrew Cedermark, Mandolin Orange, Chip Robinson, Apache Dropout, Hog, Las Year’s Men, PC Worship, Jon Lindsay, The Super Vacations, Onward Soldiers, Empress Hotel, Steve Gunn, Dustin Wong, Whatever Brains, David Daniell, Mount Moriah, Organos, King Mez, Apple Juice Kid, Thien, Jesse Sparhawk & Eric Carbonara, Invisible Hand, Carlitta Durand, Old Bricks, Black Twig Pickers, Dylan Gilbert, The Tender Fruit, Twelve Thousand Armies, Filthybird, Yair Yona, The Tomahawks, Caltrop, Wesley Wolfe, Shit Horse, Heads on Sticks, Gross Ghost, Justin Robinson & The Mary Annettes, Embarrassing Fruits, Family Dynamics, Yardwork, Soft Company SPCL GST, The Loners, Cassis Orange, Wembley, Bustello, L.E.G.A.C.Y., Charlie Smarts, The Strugglers, Jack The Radio, The Moderate, Peter Lamb & the Wolves, Man Will Destroy Himself, Dan Melchior Und Das Menace, Le Weekend, Oulipo, D&D Sluggers, The Caribbean
• Hopscotch Music Festival: http://hopscotchmusicfest.com