The 2010 lineup video has been posted on youtube, and it is official Outside Lands fails in 2010.  Kings of Leon and Further are the first two bands (aka headliners) that you see on the video.  Further I can understand having, because its former Grateful Dead members Phil Lesh and Bob Weir.  Kings of Leon are horrible though and if Outside lands is banking on them bringing in a huge younger crowd just based on them it will not happen.  KOL was like the flavor of the month last year and many of my friends see them as being sold out and mainstream after their success last year.   Just judging from the headliners that you had the first two years you would expect better.

There are some shining lights as you go down the list though.  Nas and Damian Marley, Gogol Bordello, Bassnectar, The Strokes, and People Under the Stairs are promising performers.  Knowing Outside Lands from past years though those acts will not be given the performance slots they deserve and would be better seen headlining their own shows.  Social Distortion is not pure Fullerton punk either, why not add Agent Orange or The Adolescents.  Having Social Distortion is like bringing the pop punk from Fullerton to Outside Lands.  You also have to look and see that the most notable artists of 2010 so far Broken Bells, Black Keys, and LCD Soundsystem are nowhere to be found which is a huge disappointment, especially LCD who seemed to be appearing at many festivals.

At a price of 75 dollars for a two day ticket, I don’t see this as a worthy investment.  By not going this year I am also  making a statement that the top tier of this lineup is not what Outside Lands should be about.  You can take a trip up north to Seattle for the 3 day Capitol Hill Block for 60 dollars, which is what I did.  MGMT, a band that Outside Lands should have made a #1 priority to get on the bill but didn’t deliver, is scheduled to appear along with the Dead Weather.

I am really interested in what you all think. Make your voice heard.

Hey I first wanted to thank everyone for following both this blog and livemusicblog, it has been kind of a trip seeing the increase in traffic over the past month.  Unfortunately new original content by me will not come until June 1st when the lineup will be released.  I am finishing up my senior year in college right now and hope fans of my writing support my decision to stick with my number one priority right now which is school first.   I also do not want to get involved in rumor passing, other than official clues from Ranger Dave, because I feel like that is a wrong thing to do and it spoils the surprise that the great people that work so hard to put this concert on try to bring with the lineup announcement.

I have had an increase in traffic from like 100 views a day in 2009 to around 150-200 views a day over this past month.  I pose a challenge to my fans in between now and June 1st, tell as many people as you can about my Outside Lands blog and lets try and double this number to 300 or even 400 views a day when the new post is uploaded.

Here’s their predictions

1. Louisville, KY: “Ranger Dave’s winter hibernation is now over.”

Obviously My Morning Jacket, who were inactive all this past winter. Plus, not too many other festival-type bands from Louisville.

2. Fort Collins, CO: “Ranger Dave will be serving white russians.”

I’m thinking this is Devotchka, from Colorado with a Russian name. Update: The clue for Fort Collins is actually “Ranger Dave loves feasting on big city burritos in the town where the rams roam.” Big City Burritos and the CSU Rams are in Fort Collins, and so is Pretty Lights.

3. Woodstock, NY: “Ranger Dave loves hanging in Woodstock, NY around midnight.”

It’s gotta be Levon Helm. He holds infamous “Midnight Rambles” at his studio in Woodstock, and his tour itinerary shows him playing in L.A. on Aug. 15.

4. Los Angeles, CA: “Ranger Dave used to be a robot.”

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. (Alex Ebert used to sing for Ima Robot.)

5. Fullerton, CA: “Ranger Dave loves his Southern California punk rock from Fullerton.”

You can’t say Fullerton punk rock without saying Social Distortion.

6. Montreal, Canada: “Ranger Dave is part Arab, part Jewish and a little French Canadian.”

Chromeo, without a doubt.

7. San Francisco, CA: “Ranger Dave worships this infamous Black Rock DJ.”

Bassnectar, I’m sure, who’s a staple at Burning Man in the Black Rock desert.

8. New Orleans, LA: “Ranger Dave digs brass bands from Treme.”

The television show or the actual neighborhood? Either way, it’s probably the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, since their tour itinerary puts them in Los Angeles on Aug. 18.

9. Versailles, France: “Ranger Dave is wondering what Glendale, Mesa, Tempe and Scottsdale have in common.”

Phoenix, which will make lots of people stoked.

10. Santa Cruz, CA: “Ranger Dave likes his grass from Santa Cruz via Vermont.”

Definitely the Devil Makes Three, a bluegrass trio from SC by way of Vermont.

–

UPDATE: More clues just in!

11. Memphis, TN: “Ranger Dave is the reverend of love with single stem roses for the ladies.”

Easy—that’s Al Green.

12. Newmarket, Ontario: “Ranger Dave is in a Japanese fraternal order with Steve Guttenberg.”

That’s gotta be Tokyo Police Club. (Steve Guttenberg starred in the Police Academy movies.)

13. Niafunke, Mali: “Ranger Dave has to travel to Mali to find the blues.”

This could be any number of people, but it’s Vieux Farka Toure, Ali Farka Toure’s son, who lists the Outside Lands date on his website.

14. Warri, Nigeria: “Ranger Dave will then backpack to Nigeria on his way to Germany to cleanse his soul.”

Most likely Nneka, from Warri, whose mother is German.

15. Melbourne, Australia: “Ranger Dave raises dionaea muscipula with bad attitudes.”

That’s gotta be the Temper Trap.

http://www.bohemian.com/citysound/?p=3201

The third annual Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival dates have been officially announced this morning.  The event will take place over two days instead of three this year, August 14-15.  Location as always will be Golden Gate Park, and the lineup will be announced June 1, 2010.  Listen up to Ranger Dave on twitter for clues on who will be performing this year.  Early bird tickets will go on sale this Friday May 7, 2010 for 115 dollars.

I think that it is a great idea to turn this into a two day festival, definitely makes it more affordable to go to.

What do you all think of the date change?

http://www.sfoutsidelands.com/

http://livemusicblog.wordpress.com/

Here’s my wish list. Who’s on yours?

Faith No More (From San Francisco, keep with the Mars Volta/Primus aspect of the first two years)

Bassnectar (San Frans best DJ, performing at a lot of festivals this year.)

Beastie Boys (New album, they owe us for last year)

Gorillaz (Going for broke on this wish list, but I just feel like a night show in Golden Gate Park would be enough to bring them, and they were able to bring both Pearl Jam and Dave Matthews last year.)

Soundgarden (Reunion was announced, no shows happening so far)

Them Crooked Vultures

MIA ( I wanna see her come back and headline a stage this year, loved seeing her live last year.  New album this year, first single off of it is awesome)

•           Matt: Alex and I meet in 9th grade at Calabasas High School and have been playing with each other ever since. We meet Don and a mutual friends house jam when we were in 10th grade and he was in 11th at Agoura High School which is next to Calabasas (this was 2005). We were all friends for a while and would occasionally get together to hang out and jam, but it wasn’t until 2007 that we got serious about making music together. We’ve had two bass players and two drummers who are no longer with us, Jordan’s been part of our family for almost a year and a half.

•           What was it like performing at such a huge event?

•           Alex: Oh man, it was awesome. Never have we been given so much free shit. Everyone has been great to us, it is such a huge and well run festival, one of the best experiences of all our lives.

•           Were you inspired at all since you were performing in Golden Gate Park which is famous for hosting great music?

•           Donald: Most definitely. The park is gorgeous, it is such a pleasure to be surrounded by thousands of giant, beautiful tree’s while playing music. We were blessed to have this experience.

•           What are some of the advantages of performing at a festival like Outside Lands as an up and coming band?

•           Jordan: The experience has been unreal, we’ve never played a festival before, we’re used to playing in small clubs, backyards and on the street so this was an great way to shake-up our relationship live performances. It was also amazing meeting musicians that we look up to. We played with Portugal. the Man in Santa Cruz on the Thursday before OSL then on the same stage as them here in San Francisco so we had a lot of time to talk and bond with them and that has been a dream. They are all great guys.

•           What is next for Infantree?

•           Don: Going back home to record our second album at the TreeHouse aka Matt’s basement, we are really stoked because we have like 22 songs to record and all of them are better than anything on Tree-P (we played all unrecorded material at OSL). It should be a grueling and fun process, we’ll be playing shows sporadically in LA and on 3rd Street in Santa Monica through out the recording. If anyone wants to be in the loop, we have a communal twitter

Day one started with Midnite, an awesome reggae group from St. Croix, they delivered some great vibes to what looked like a very dismal and bored SF audience.  But even though the crowd wasn’t really into it Midnite still put on a good show.  After a while I made my way over to the Main Stage and watched the end of what sounded like a terrific by The Silversun Pickups.  I got to see them do a good rendition of “Panic Switch”, which is on of my favorite songs at the moment.  Q -Tip was the next performance of the day, and he gave one of the best performances of the festival.  Tip dedicated the set to fallen comrade DJ AM, and he concluded his show with a guest appearance by Phife from Tribe Called Quest.  Finally Thievery Corporation kept the Speedway Meadow crowd grooving into the night with a set which included many guest vocalists.  I had been hearing that their shows lately had not been that good, but they put on one of the most dynamic live shows that I have ever seen.  You were taken on a musical journey almost. The show started off with the heavy hip hop beats of ” Sound The Alarm”, from there you taken through many genres including Hindu, Brazilian funk , and reggae.

Day 2 started with checking out  the Dirtbombs and Zion I early in the day.  Zion I won the crowd over more because they are a local Bay Area hip hop act.  Amp Live has to be one of the best DJ’s that I have seen concert.  Groundation was next and the hillsides surrounding the Presidio Stage were full of people trying to get a view.  The local reggae act jammed out an awesome mid-day set, being a more energetic act on stage than Midnite helped make them the better reggae act at Outside Lands.  Portugal The Man was probably the act that I was most excited to see on day 2, because they are from my home town which is Portland.  They put on a short but still memorable set which included some older songs that I had never heard before and an awesome rendition of “People Say”.  I also caught most of Bat For Lashes at the Panhandle Stage, Natasha Kahn just as amazing live as she does on CD.  Then it was over to the Twin Peaks for my first ever TV On The Radio show, and they did not disappoint.  Having the horn section really helped give their live show some dynamic.  Going through songs like “Golden Age” and “Crying” guitarist Kyp Malone got to flex his vocal chops.   For a singer that sounds so vacant on recording Tande really got into the music and got the crowd on their feet.  The final performance that I viewed on day 2 was The Mars Volta, and all I could say after watching them was “wow”.  That performance was the definition of rock n roll, complete with stage breaking, awesome guitar solos, and the craziest lead singer that I have ever seen.

Day 3 started off with what I thought was the performance of the weekend by an up and coming act out of Kentucky called Cage The Elephant.  For being such a young act they showed so much confidence on stage, putting on a very well rehearsed show.  Lead singer Matt Schultz felt right at home with the SF crowd, head banging along with them, and even jumping into the crowd at the end of their show.  Atmosphere came next and he blew the crowd away performing a set heavy with old favorites.  At 3 I headed over to the Panhandle Stage for a very inspired Matt and Kim performance, which I felt like the sun should have come out for.  Dead Weather then put on an awesome performance at the Twin Peaks stage.  Alison Mosshart their singer was awesome to see live, and of course you can’t go wrong when you have  Jack White in your band.  Finally it was off to see the performance that I had been waiting all weekend for M.I.A.  She put on an awesome show, even though they only gave her an hour to perform.  Horns were thrown out like at her Coachella performance to help get the audience participating.  “A lot has changed….” she explained “I got engaged here. I had a baby here.  I’m kind of fucking scared of this place”.  She paid respect to the Beastie Boys with an awesome mash-up of “Intergalactic” and “Sabotage” with some of her lyrics.  M.I.A did debut a new song called “Born Free”, which got a mixed reception from the crowd.  “You’ll catch on later..” she said as the song ended.

All in all it was an awesome weekend of music in Golden Gate Park. and I can’t wait to see what they come up with for next years festival.  Even though I heard that the crowd this year wasn’t as big as last year, this concert still helped bring 1 million dollars to Parks and Recreation department of SanFrancisco.