The Langerado Festival moves to Miami for its 2009 installment (taking place March 6-8), and the just-announced lineup was announced a day later than it should have been. Looking at the array of acts, you have to wonder if they spent that extra 24 hours trying to find a real headliner. Death Cab? Snoop Dogg? Thievery Corporation???
While I spend the rest of the day trying to get my head around the idea of Thievery Corporation headlining anything but a Starbucks managers convention, here’s the rest of the lineup as it stands today.
(By the way, seeing the Pogues sandwiched between Dashboard Confessional and Matisyahu hurt my soul.)
Death Cab For Cutie
Snoop Dogg
Thievery Corporation (Live)
Slightly Stoopid
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
Dashboard Confessional
The Pogues
Matisyahu
Flogging Molly
Michael Franti & Spearhead
Broken Social Scene
Cafe Tacuba
Umphrey’s McGee
The Disco Biscuits
Robert Randolph & The Family Band
Pepper
The Faint
Cold War Kids
Steel Pulse
Public Enemy
Gym Class Heroes
Tricky
Girl Talk
Chromeo
Mute Math
Bad Brains
Ozomatli
Against Me!
George Clinton & Parliament / Funkadelic
Tortoise
DeVotchKa
Black Kids
Grupo Fantasma
Holy Fuck
Budos Band
Tokyo Police Club
Lotus
The Virgins
The Gaslight Anthem
King Khan and the Shrines
Lucero
Murs
Ra Ra Riot
Tortured Soul
Rebelution
K’Naan
The Egg
Zac Brown Band
Tigercity
The Aggrolites
Cloud Cult
Spam Allstars
Rachel Goodrich
Blue King Brown
The Heavy Pets
Awesome New Republic
The Postmarks
Suenalo Sound System
Live Painting by LEBO
They couldn’t throw Miami a few bones? Some freestyle? TK Records style soul? Trick Daddy? Rep your hood, Langerado.
Langerado 2009 [Official site]
@Michaelangelo Matos: Agreed. Snoop’s not a nobody. It’s not a headscratcher to me. And Thievery Corporation are huger than the indie rock types probably think.
@Lucas Jensen: Ego Trippin’ didn’t even go gold. Thievery Corporation have precisely zero certified albums. But, hey, if you don’t think Snoop and Thievery are a step down attraction-wise from R.E.M. and the Beastie Boys, I’m not sure what I can tell you.
Last R.E.M. album to go gold: Reveal, in 2001.
Last Beastie Boys album to go gold: To the 5 Boroughs, in 2004.
And no, it’s not a headscratcher to me either. Mid-sized festival has mid-sized headliners–wow.
And, as the above-mentioned certifications attest, had mid-sized headliners last year, too. (Not that you mentioned the headliners from last year in the post.)
@Michaelangelo Matos: To clarify, you’re saying that Thievery Corporation are stars of the same level as R.E.M. (5 albums platinum or beyond) and the Beastie Boys (all of their albums platinum or multiplatinum other than their instrumental disc)? I’ll give you Snoop, despite the fact that he was down bill on the Rothbury festival last year (behind 311 and John Mayer), but seriously, you want to be the person defending the Thievery Corporation? Seriously?
“This band headlining this festival = not surprising” isn’t “defending” anyone.
as far as R.E.M. and Beastie Boys, in 2009 they’re both oldies acts. not sure how that’s any better than middle-headliners, honestly.
@Michaelangelo Matos: Last R.E.M. album to go gold: Reveal, in 2001…
I know this has nothing to do with your point, but the statistic you cite here makes me sad. I have never been an R.E.M. fanboy, but I think Accelerate is a terrific record, and the “headscratcher” for me is that it’s stuck in the mid-300s.
I’m with Michaelangelo M. This is kind of a Bonnaroo-lite anyway, and those bands are big crowd-pleasers the hippie/fratboy types love.
Also, Beasties and REM are the Tom Jones of music fests. Not many people under 30 are digging on them, and they’ve never quit touring (much) so there’s no retro love either.
@Michaelangelo Matos: Did you make the same point when Prince was added to Coachella?
@Dan Gibson: Just to try to ease the tension here, I’ll kick in a twenty dollar bill towards your Langerado three day pass when the on-sale date rolls around.
Wait, that was supposed to be @Michaelangelo Matos. I don’t deal well with disagreement, apparently.
@Dan Gibson: I wouldn’t have stamped my feet if someone had, no.
Though 3121 is certainly a good deal better than anything R.E.M. or the Beasties have made this decade.
And obviously Snoop is an oldies act too. That’s part of your point about him being not-quite-a-headliner, surely?
@unperson: OMG That’s exactly what I was just thinking, wouldn’t it be the coolest if suddenly after Girl Talk the music from “Me estás quemando” started playing?
@Michaelangelo Matos: You’re right. They’re perfectly legitimate acts to ask people to pay $165 for. I take it all back.
@Dan Gibson: I think for that audience that Thievery Corp and Snoop are absolutely stars on the same level, and keep in mind that I am an REM fanboy and I like the Beasties quite a bit, too. I wasn’t really picking a fight here…I was merely saying that I didn’t think it was that big of a deal or a real headscratcher to me is all that these were the two headliners.
Any idea if GruveShroom is playing this year?
@Dan Gibson: Oh, it’s $165. Eesh. But, still, a Death Cab concert would cost 30 bucks or more. Girl Talk would be 25. And so on and so on. I’m not sure how Parliament/Funkadelic is live these days, but it would be worth checking out. It’s not highway robbery is all I’m saying. And I bet some folks get added to the bill. I’M not gonna pay that dough, but I’m not exactly the target audience for this one.
I was merely saying that I didn’t think it was that big of a deal or a real headscratcher to me is all that these were the two headliners.
Shhhh! You’re giving it away!
@goldsounds: GruveShroom™ has been on hiatus since the bassist, Devin “Pinky” Henshaw, got picked up for picking up teenage “Sugar Magnolias” using the personal ads in Relix.
@Lucas Jensen: hahah!
@Michaelangelo Matos: Stop arguing with me and step up your Wordscraper game, Matos.
I spend the rest of the day trying to get my head around the idea of Thievery Corporation
This is really a fine sentence on its own.
Thievery’s already sold out 3 of 4 consecutive nights at the 9:30 Club which are still over a month away, and they play in DC quite a bit. They’re pretty great live, too. I’m not saying they deserve a headlining spot on the bill, I’m just saying.
It’s odd because half the lineup is blog bands from 6 months ago, and half of them are horrible mainstream bands from 1 - 6 years ago. Gotta kinda narrow that focus, guys.
Well, at least Slightly Stoopid is playing.
Was Jack Johnson unavailable?
Please, please, please let them book the wrong Lucero by accident. Some mariachi music is just what the d-bags likely to show up at this goddamn thing need.
I’d pay to see a Pogues/Cafe Tacuba/Bad Brains tour, but a festival with three good acts wedged among six dozen bands/performers I wouldn’t watch on a dare? Yeah, no thanks.
x
I thought we were rid of Dashboard Confessional! I actually thought about that dude yesterday for the first time in ages. Ugh.
haha wait a second, Snoop Dogg and Thievery Corporation, who’ve reliably headlined festivals for years now, aren’t fit to headline a festival? sorry, not buying it.
@Michaelangelo Matos: snoop is sort of a post-musical celebrity these days. (maybe his headlining set will consist of him re-enacting scenes from ‘father hood’?) and the lineup is pretty weaksauce overall.
@Michaelangelo Matos: Thievery specifically weren’t big enough to headline last year (they were down bill from R.E.M., the Beastie Boys, Phil Lesh, 311 and the Roots). What changed in the last year?
Looks like crap but it’s still better than Lollapalooza was last year.