Hopscotch 2012 Lineup Release!

I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that last night I was anxiously watching Twitter for teasers and refreshing Hopscotch's homepage until midnight, when Hopscotch 2012's lineup was released. I read out loud the 175 bands to my roommates with the occasional (and frequent) yelps of joy. Headliners this year include The Roots, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Built to Spill (one of my personal favorite bands), Yo La Tengo, Liars, Sunn O))), and Zola Jesus. Some others that I'm excited about are Thee Oh Sees, Wye Oak, Deerhoof, The Mountain Goats, Versus, Exitmusix, Ducktails, Samantha Crain, Hubble, Midtown Dickens, Gross Ghost, Heads on Sticks, Jane Jane Pollock, Shark Quest, Airstrip -- the list goes on. For a full list (that even includes where the bands are from!) check out the lineup here.

They've added a few more venues in downtown Raleigh for the third year of the music festival, taking place Sept. 6-8. Festival goers will bounce around Raleigh City Plaza, Berkeley Cafe, Contemporary Art Museum (CAM), Deep South the Bar, Five Star, Fletcher Opera Theater, The Hive, Kings, Lincoln Theatre, The Long View Center, Memorial Auditorium, The Pour House, Slim's, Tir na nOg, and White Collar Crime. I suggest knowing shortcuts to venues ahead of time, so here's a map to help.

VIP, weekend, day and city plaza tickets are still available. See you at #hopscotch2012!

Photo recaps of last year's festival: Day One, Day Two, Day Three

Top 30—WKNC’s Top Albums of the Week, 11/10/11

1. Future Islands - On The Water (Thrill Jockey)

2. Zola Jesus - Conatus (Sacred Bones)

3. Widowspeak - Widowspeak (Captured Tracks)

4. Young Man - Ideas of Distance (Frenchkiss)

5. The Field - Looping State Of Mind (Kompakt)

6. Class Actress - Rapproacher (Carpark)

7. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy (4AD)

8. Megafaun - Megafaun (Hometapes)

9. Youth Lagoon - The Year of Hibernation (Fat Possum)

10. Sugarplum Fairies - The Images We Get (M-M)

11. Various Artists - GRPTPS Vs. PTLCK (Grip Tapes)

12. Viva Voce - The Future Will Destroy You (Vanguard)

13. Wilco - The Whole Love (Anti)

14. Wild Flag - Wild Flag (Merge)

15. Mandolin Orange - Haste Make/Hard Hearted Stranger (Self-Released)

16. Icebird - The Abandoned Lullaby (RJ's Electrical Connections)

17. Real Estate - Days (Domino)

18. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (Mute)

19. Bonnie Prince Billy - Wolfroy Goes To Town (Drag City)

20. Wavves - Life Sux (Ghost Ramp)

21. Mike Doughty - Yes And Also Yes (Megaforce-Snack Bar)

22. High Places - Original Colors (Thrill Jockey)

23. Jens Lekman - An Argument With Myself (Secretly Canadian)

24. Touché Amoré - Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me (Deathwish)

25. Donora - Boyfriends, Girlfriends (Rostrum)

26. Phantogram - Nightlife (Barsuk)

27. Jono McCleery - There Is (Counter)

28. Patti Smith - Outside of Society (Columbia)

29. Hella - Tripper (Sargent House)

30. Wu Lyf - Go Tell Fire To The Mountain (L Y F)

Get Forked

Just John and I had the pleasure of attending the sixth annual Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago's Union Park on the weekend of July 14-16. It was hot. Really hot. The crowds came, though, and were treated to great performance after great performance. Every show I saw over the weekend was top-notch. The festival's treatment of its fans was also top-notch. Thousands of bottles of water were passed out to the crowds to keep them hydrated (no thanks to the goons who just threw water everywhere instead of drinking it). Security were friendly throughout the entire weekend. Two air-conditioned city buses were brought in to help cool down festival-goers. What follows is a list of superlatives of some of the best, worst, and weirdest moments of the festival. Enjoy.

Best light show: The giant glowing crystals at Animal Collective

Biggest asshole: Ariel Pink, throwing another temper-tantrum and walking off stage halfway through his set

Most "f**k"s per minute: Odd Future

Highest number of gray-hairs in the crowd: Guided By Voices

Coolest stage wear: Nika Danilova of Zola Jesus' very modern dress

Best mosh pit: No Age (which I stayed in for about five minutes too long, causing a short bout of heat sickness)

Best dance moves: Cold Cave's Dominick Fernow, whose stomp-n-spin move was endlessly entertaining

Biggest dance party: Cut Copy, who got an entire field of thousands of people to dance

Most frequent weed clouds: Curren$y, unsurprisingly

Worst scheduling decision: Two-way tie between scheduling Odd Future and Shabazz Palaces, two of the festival's five hip-hop acts, on at the same time and putting DJ Shadow on when the sun was still out, making his projector-using "Shadowsphere" completely useless (though, to the festival's credit, they really couldn't have put him anywhere else)

Best facial hair: Ian Williams of Battles, whose handlebar-stache perfectly matched his swanky get-up

People who should have passed out from heat stroke but, miraculously, didn't: Yuck's Daniel Blumberg, who wore jeans and a long-sleeve, denim button-down and Cold Cave's Wesley Eisold and Dominick Fernow, both in black jeans, black shirts, and black leather jackets.