Music festival season is in full swing. We warmed up at South by Southwest, recovered financially (back to zero), and then eeeeased our way back into it at the free single-day celebration of sweaty hipsterdom that is Coney Island's Siren Fest. For the east coasters, that experience will likely pale, in musical intensity, when compared to Jersey's All Points West (Radiohead! Andrew Bird!) next weekend. Lollapalooza starts today in Chicago (Broken Social Scene! Jamie Lidell! Dr. Dog!), and Seattle's equally ridiculously-named Bumbershoot (Beck! STP! M. Ward!) closes out the month. The first-ever nighttime show at Golden Gate Park will be played by Radiohead in San Fran's Outside Lands festival (Wilco! Regina Spektor! Tom Petty!) August 22nd through 24th. If you're hitting any or all of these up, you'll doubtless be very very broke by October, so you should probably stick around SF for the free semi-unknown but still legendary festival a friend just turned us on to called Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.
A gamut of acts from gnarly, old-school cowboy rock like Jerry Jeff Walker to Ukrainian dance punk maniacs Gogol Bordello will rock the park that weekend, and there are rumors of Dolly Parton being tacked onto the line-up soon. Indulge in the Bad Livers, Poor Man's Whiskey, Red Wine, Iron & Wine, and by that time, you'll be so tipsy you won't bat a blissful eye when MC Hammer (yes, MC Hammer) takes the stage.
Note: A bunch of these musicians' names have been laboriously linked to downloads (thanks, in part, to Stereogum) for your edification & enjoyment. Feel free to share other faves.
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