Friday, Sep 4
Partly Sunny w/ Showers
a couple of showers. Winds from the WSW at 25 km/h.
High: 13 °C

Friday Night, Sep 4
Rain
a chance of rain. Winds from the WSW at 17 km/h.
Low: 9 °C

Saturday, Sep 5
Partly Sunny
partly sunny. Winds from the SW at 17 km/h.
High: 17 °C

Saturday Night, Sep 5
Mostly Clear
mainly clear. Winds from the SSW at 11 km/h.
Low: 8 °C

Sunday, Sep 6
Rain
periods of rain. Winds from the S at 22 km/h.
High: 18 °C

Sunday Night, Sep 6
Rain
rain. Winds from the S at 16 km/h.
Low: 13 °C

And if you prefer a more visual representation, via FallingRain.com

Doesn’t look great, but it won’t stop the fun

Who I’ll probably check out:

• Micachu & the Shapes
• Okkervil River
• The Acorn
• Simian Mobile Disco
• Florence & the Machine
• Fleet Foxes
• Royksopp
• Passion Pit
• Flaming Lips
• Basement Jaxx

Oh the bittersweet tragedy of festival timetables. Above is a playlist of some of the bands I hope to see on the Sunday. There’s no one I was really dying to see until quite late on the Sunday, and then of course several of them clash

Royksopp kick off at about 8.30pm, and Passion Pit start at 9pm. Both acts I really wanted to see in their entirety. Plus I hate running from one to the other, you lose time plus you end up right at the back of the crowd for at least one of them unless your prepared to be really pig headed and barge through the crowd which I’m not. Usually.

Same goes for the Flaming Lips who kick off at 10.15pm with Basement Jaxx on their heels at 10.30pm. I saw Basement Jazz at Electric Picnic before and they were incredible, but I’ve never seen the Flaming Lips.

Oh well. Who cares, it’s going to be a BLAST.

WHOOP WHOOP!

There’s just no let up. I probably shouldn’t have started researching bands – there are so many I hadn’t heard of that I now just have to see. And looking at Saturday the choices start to become very difficult.

Cap Pas Cap who I never heard of seem pretty good, same goes for Lost Brothers and Low Anthem, so I’ll try to make all of them.

Several people told me to go see Marina & the Diamonds, but she clashes with Roots Manuva. I really liked “Run Come Save Me” so the chance to see Witness (1 hope) played live wins out over the quirky beauty of Marina & the Diamonds I think. Tough call though.

Then you have Jazzanova at 5pm who sounds reallly great, but they clash with Jape - another really tough call. I’ve seen Jape a few times this year, but he rocked EP last year, and there’s nothing like hearing Floating live at Electric Picnic. Another band I never heard of, Magnolia Electric Co. also clash with Jape & Jazzanova, and they also sound lovely.

Jape finishes at 6.15pm and it’s looks like it might be time for a bit of running around. I might catch the start of Bat for Lashes, but I’ll definitely be running off to see The Whitest Boy Alive.

After TWBA I might go and catch the end of James Murphy & Pat Mahoney’s LCD Soundsystem Disco Set.

I think I’ll have to catch a bit of Madness. I decided not to go see them a few years back and I regretted it when I could hear them from my house. A couple of songs would probably do me.

Then I might take a little nap on the ground somewhere before heading to see Moderat who’s name sounds familiar and are really impressing me. That means missing 2 Many DJ’s but I saw them earlier in the year, so I’m ok with that. it also mean missing Chris Cunningham though, who is doing some audio visual thing which is meant to be great, so we’ll see.

Best laid plans of course.

Started trying to figure out what bands I would see based on a timetable which may or may not be accurate and comparing bands I never heard of on Youtube – the result is above, it’s a playlist of nine videos in the order the bands may be playing on the Friday night… see you there! Hopefully more playlists to follow if I can get the research time!!!

But just in case you missed it, or you just stumbled in here not ever having heard of Electric Picnic, here the acts that will play Stradbally in Ireland 29th, 30th & 31st August:

• Sex Pistols
• Sigur Ros
• Grinderman
• Franz Ferdinand
• George Clinton & The P-Funk Allstars
• My Bloody Valentine
• Goldfrapp
• Christy Moore
• Wilco
• The Gossip
• Duffy
• Underworld
• Tinariwen
• CSS
• Tindersticks
• New Young Pony Club
• Josh Ritter
• Lisa Hannigan
• Cathy Davey
• That Petrol Emotion
• The Breeders
• Michael Franti & Spearhead
• Sinead O’Connor
• Henry Rollins
• The Waterboys
• The Roots
• Kila
• Micah P Hinson
• Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes)
• Hayseed Dixie
• Foals
• Noisettes
• Candi Staton
• Juana Molina
• Turin Brakes
• Faust
• Midnight Juggernauts
• Tartit
• Hadouken!
• Silver Apples
• Mark Geary
• Teitur
• Blitzen Trapper
• Absentee
• Balanescu Quartet
• Lou Rhodes
• Adrian Crowley
• One Day International
• The Yard Dogs
• Tobias Froberg
• Boss Volenti
• Dawn Landes
• Constantines
• Yacht
• Lionheart Brothers
• Large Mound
• Emmy the Great
• Kormac & the BSQ Band
• Jape
• Dublin Gospel Choir

And more to be announced.

Plenty in there I haven’t a clue who they are, so maybe there’ll be a few gems for me to discover – but all in all it’s not a massively exciting line up for me.

Sigur Ros and Grinderman are tempting alright… and there’s a fair few in there who I would certainly like to see, but I’d have been more excited about them a year or two ago. Franz Ferdinand and CSS for example – I’m sure both would be great to see, but they don’t have that edge of excitement any more do they?

I saw Lou Reed play the point donkeys years ago and he was phenomenal, I saw him at the Leonard Cohen Tribute and he lived up to his legend and now, at the marquee he is going to perform Berlin in it’s entirety.

I refuse to use the words ‘rock opera‘ and will just say that I would go to this gig to hear ‘Caroline Says’ alone. Not to mention ‘Sad Song’, ‘How Do You Think it Feels’ and ‘Oh Jim’… wow, it’s weird knowing what the playlist is going to be!

I’m going out to buy Berlin today, and I suggest you do the same if you’re not familiar with it. It’s funny, just last week I realised that I had not updated my Lou Reed collection since my cassette days (yes cassette) and, shocked to discover I did not own a cd copy of new York I went out and bought it. I also looked for Magic and Loss but it wasn’t in any of the shops in town. So I was already on a rediscover Lou Reed buzz when this was announced.

I have to admit that after Magic and Loss I didn’t follow his next few albums, so they are now on my shopping list as well.

• R.E.M
• The Verve
• Kings of Leon
• Rage Against The Machine
• Kaiser Chiefs
• The Prodigy
• The Fratellis
• Interpol
• Chemical Brothers
• Ian Brown
• Counting Crows
• Stereophonics
• Editors
• The Raconteurs
• Aphex Twin
• Justice
• Panic at the Disco
• The Zutons
• Hot Chip
• The Feeling
• Scouting for Girls
• Roisin Murphy
• The Hoosiers
• Battles
• Kate Nash
• Newton Faulkner
• Band of Horses
• Seasick Steve
• Alabama 3
• Lightspeed Champion
• Pendulum
• Bowling for Soup
• Future Kings of Spain
• The Courteeners
• David Jordon

Is it just my grumpy mood or does the whole Summer music scene for 2008 feel a little tired and worn out?

Maybe they’re going for a different audience, or maybe some kick ass acts to be announced. So far I am completely unthrilled.