It hasn’t even been a week since the Coachella lineup dropped, and while it has some highlights (LCD Soundsystem) and some lows (does anyone really want a Guns and Roses reunion?) but overall, The Governors Ball it is a pretty solid lineup, especially if you like EDM. Then the upstart New York festival had to go and outdo their west coast competitors in just about every way imaginable. Better headliners? Check. Better sub headers? Check. Better undercard? Break. Basically as far as bang for your buck goes, being on Randall’s Island Park on June 3-5th is a far better deal than Coachella. As for right now it beats every festival lineup and Bonnaroo better be about to pull a rabbit out of it’s hat when it drops its own lineup next week if they want me back for a 4th time.
For starters you either love the idea of Kanye West headlining a festival and don’t even bother to see who else is playing or it’s not even worth giving time to see who else is playing because it sounds so unappealing that Kanye West is headlining a festival. There really isn’t much middle ground with him. I know some people can take him or leave him, but for most people you either worship at the church of Yeezy or him and his self-righteous ego can go shove it where the sun doesn’t shine. With a new album ready to drop any day now on February 11th, you can rest assured plenty of songs off of Swish will be played while he mixes in songs from the greatest hip hop song book of the new millennium. Expect other festivals to eventually get Kanye to headline, but as of right now this causes Gov to have an edge over all other lineups. Will he eventually show some love to Chi-town fest Lollapalooza, a festival he hasn’t played in 8 years now? Only time will tell.
Back from the grave are The Strokes who are about as New York of a band as it comes since The Ramones. While they haven’t released any new music in over 3 years they are still just as popular as they were when Is This It came out in 2001. With the weird sojourn that Julian Casablancas decided to embark on with his The Voidz disaster, it is a welcome sight to see him back with his old band especially if rumours of new material are true. The biggest complaint by Gov Ball diehards are that The Strokes played in 2014, Kanye headlined the fest in 2013, and fourth name Beck was the top act in 2012 so it is all a bit of a repeat. For those that have never gone, this is pure excitement. The Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. is pulling double duty by also playing a solo set some time during the festival.
The last headliner is The Killers, a band that is a bit head scratching at first look but really is a great pick. While they haven’t come out with any new material since 2012 they pack enough hits to fill a headlining slot. Also if you look at the history of Gov Ball, it’s not like they have a super huge headliner in the three-slot like the majors do anyway. Brandon Flowers on his own last year was a pretty big draw at festivals so there should be more than enough people excited to sing along to All These Things That I’ve Done.
If there is any kind of theme going on with the bill, it has to be that people have not accepted that the early to mid 2000’s are passé as far as music goes. Not only does indie icon Beck seem to only get better with age like a fine wine, you have acts like Death Cab for Cutie suddenly a big draw again. Mysteriously Bloc Party is still a thing, the real queen of the gay music scene Robyn hopefully, finally, please I’m begging you to release new music is playing and 90’s peace loving rap group De La Soul will all be gracing the stages. Due to the tragedy is Paris last year; people actually remembered that Eagles of Death Metal were around as they have flirted with minor mainstream relevance once every few years. It is great to see EODM finally recognized for how much fun they are, and I hope they maintain their presence. They always stood for rock and roll being the ultimate expression of freedom and the attacks in Paris will only reinforce the affirmative power that music brings to us all.
In the past, Governors Ball has included plenty of big name EDM acts like Deadmau5, Big Gigantic, A-Trak, Pretty Lights and Axwell and Ingrosso but this year they have completely done away with all kinds of music that end in –step. They have plenty of dancey acts, just without the big bass drops. M83 will have people going nuts when the sax solo hits on Midnight City. Haim, Two Door Cinema Club and Matt and Kim will all have the rockers checking their hipster privilege and letting loose. Sure Jamie xx is straight electronic music, but he is more like a grimy London rave than the type of acts you see at Ultra or Veld. Plus he actually spins vinyl, something probably only De La Soul still does. Miguel will bring the sex jams to grind up on the least creepy person around you, Big Grams will make you happy that at least one member of Outkast is still making music (c’mon Andre, you’re killing us, just make something, anything!) and Thundercat will make you believe that jazz can be fun.
In the Coachella lineup reaction piece I did last week I got to excitedly talk about all the Canadian acts who are making it big at the States largest festival, but sadly I can’t do the same for Governors Ball as the lone act, Purity Ring is about half down the poster. With so many great acts that call the Great White North home, it is a shame there isn’t more of us down there when NYC is so close to the border.
As I stated at the end of the Coachella review, I knew that once their lineup was dropped we would start to see who was going to be on the festival circuit, and over half a dozen names repeat on the Governors Ball bill, a high number considering festivals need to make themselves stand out and with so few artists comparably playing on Randall’s Island.
Next week the other major festival Bonnaroo will most likely announce their lineup and while it appears that Pearl Jam, Dead and Company and LCD Soundsystem will be playing, there are still plenty of surprises left. What festival so far is the one most likely to get your money?
