Head to Head:
Now that the Lollapalooza schedule is out, it's time to make some difficult decisions about whom to see. This is just like the time that both my secret lover and the city's moralistic-but-tough District Attorney were both kidnapped by a lunatic and I could only choose to save one. Wait, that's Batman's life. None of that happened to me. Sorry guys.
Dominick Mayer:
Last week, the hour-by-hour Lollapalooza schedule was released. Being that I've been trolling the official Lolla message boards for months now like it's my job (better than /b/, I guess), I knew of the major headliner conflicts a while ago. Arcade Fire vs. Soundgarden fills me with sad, but I'm not missing the former for anything, and I'd rather seen MGMT before AF than Cypress Hill before Soundgarden. (The fact that Pitchfork has a better rap lineup than Lolla this year is a damn shame. More on that in a second.)
This isn't to say my schedule was free of conflicts, and this week I'm going to be looking at the worst one. For me, it's not any of the usual suspects. I'll see both Green Day and Empire of the Sun, because I actually like Green Day and I can't handle a 2 hour, 15 minute set of their stuff. (That, and after seeing THIS, I can't say no to EotS.)
I feel like I should be bothered by Matt & Kim-Dirty Projectors, as everyone else is, but I'd rather give a Casio keyboard and an acoustic guitar to a preschool class; it'd sound the same as the Projectors and it'd be exponentially cuter.
For me, the worst conflict occurs Friday afternoon, right around 4:00. I'm not skipping Devo for anything in the world, but there are a number of bands that could've been put against them that aren't The New Pornographers. I didn't like Together as much as I did Twin Cinema or Mass Romantic, but I've yet to see them live, and the streak will continue. The bigger drag is that Kidz In The Hall will be doing a set over on the DJ stage, which I'll also be missing. You've probably heard Kidz before, just for this endlessly sampled track:
Because I'll miss that, the only remaining option for rap the whole weekend is B.o.B, who's a) not all that great and b) starts at 11:30 in the morning Friday. I feel like that's more than a bit of a dropped ball.
Ryan Peters:
Whoa. WHOA. I was completely unprepared for Dominick’s jab at the Dirty Projectors there -- not that I can’t see where he’s coming from. Generally, it drives me batshit crazy when people drop this one-liner in a conversation: “You either get it or you don’t.” It takes matters that are purely subjective and aesthetic -- such as whether something is poignant, funny, catchy, boring, etc. -- and puts the onus on the critic to “get it,” as if we were living in a perpetual game of “Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?” and there is a secret riddle to be sussed out.* Having said that, I really believe that the Dirty Projectors are the type of thing that you either appreciate or you don’t. But to my mind, “Stillness is the Move” was the second-best song of the year:
The only thing with a better hook was Drake’s “Succesful”:
Thus, for me, the conflict between Matt & Kim and the Dirty Projectors is an actual conflict. They’re both going to make me want to dance, but I’ll probably end up choosing the Dirty Projectors. (I mean, Matt & Kim don’t have any former Destiny’s Child members remaking their songs, do they?)
That’s not the only tough decision to be made, however. For some reason, the Lolla schedule-makers thought it would be a good idea to make me choose between Frightened Rabbit and Erykah Badu. Listen, people, I want to see them both, and I have a feeling that both sets will work to a big climax, so I can’t leave one for the other. This is how Sophie must have felt.
The one group that is virtually problem-free for me is the headliners. The Strokes are an easy choice over Lady Gaga, who will obscure the fact that she writes great pop songs but doing something “edgy” like wearing a funny outfit. LOOK OUT, ESTABLISHMENT! I like Green Day, but 21st Century Breakdown pales in comparison to American Idiot!, and I’m sure they’ll be playing mostly from the newer album, which means I’ll be over at the Phoenix set. I’m a big Soundgarden fan (if you haven’t been back through your 90s music collection recently you should pick up your Soundgarden cds; they stand up to time remarkably well. Not so much you, Macy’s Playground), but The Arcade Fire is one of the best live bands you’ll ever see. I promise you that. See them, you won’t be disappointed.
Not for nothing, at some point I’m going to have to choose between going to the DJ tent to see Flosstradamus, and walking behind the bathrooms to puke from heatstroke. Decisions, decisions.
*Were this actually the case, it would make me extremely happy. Side note: Whenever anyone in this game or on this show would ask the namesake question, I would always think, “Gosh, I dunno, try SAN DIEGO. If I were a famous diamond thief named Ryan St. Madagascar, and you were searching the globe for me, you could probably start in Africa.
Posted by Ryan Peters on Jun 17, 2010 @ 1:01 am
