It seems the organizers of Bonnaroo want another week to solidify their lineup, at least if past years and rampant internet rumors are to be believed. Last year ‘Roo officials sent an email to subscribers saying the initial lineup annoucement would be made in slightly under a week’s time. Well, that time has come and gone for us – leading us here at TRM to believe we’ll be seeing a week delay.

Why they are postponing it is not exactly clear. It appears ‘Roo organizers were so sure that Feb. 2 would be the day that they actually confirmed the date to one web site. Now it appears likely that we’ll be getting the announcement on Feb. 9th. All festival goers should receive an email announcement from organizers next Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, but nothing is in stone. Time will tell…

Here was last year’s annoucement, issued on Wed, Jan. 28th:

“It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The time when you finally see if the rumors are true or if we have some tricks up our sleeve…

 Can’t wait for the Bonnaroo lineup? We’ll be making our initial artist announcement on Tuesday, February 3rd. Check out the Bonnaroo website and look for an email, we have lots of exciting updates coming soon!”

Especially during Grammy week.  This place is always popping and has the coolest rock n roll vibe of any place I have ever seen, let alone stayed at.  It is a staple of Slash’s and I think Billy Bob Thorton is an owner.  They have classic rock prints all over the walls but it’s far from the cheese of a Hard Rock.

In the past 12 hours I’ve seen Jeff Tweedy, Billy Joe and Carrie Underwood…as well as countless record execs trying to dress cool.

Pianos in the Villas

I have stayed here a few times and also recorded in the studio in the basement

As far as rap acts go: 2008 was Kanye. 2009 was Snoop and Public Enemy. Now what? Well all indications point to Jay-Z as the next major rap act to hit The Farm. According to several outlets,  Jay-Z has signed on to be one of this year’s headliners, exciting news for any fan of hip-hop. As for which night and stage he’d play on, I’d have to think it’d be the big stage. Hova is simply too big for any other stage, in my opinion, even for a festival with jam band roots. I, for one, wi’ll be interested to see where he is placed, if the many rumor mill is to be believed.

Side note, if Jay does indeed play, there is a very good chance Kanye would join him on stage. Read about that possibility here: http://ruralminority.com/trm/2010/01/25/bonnaroo-2010-perfect-platform-for-kanye-west-return/

We started with a bare SBC 400 block. We took it to Bob’s Automotive (owned by Bob Repine, of former “Hemi Thrasher” fame) in Eldred, PA and had it hot tanked, bored .030 over, line honed, and decked. We added Ross Racing pistons with a slight dome for more squeeze. The air/fuel mixture will be fed to the Dart Pro 1 Platinum aluminum heads through an off-brand hi-rise single plane intake. The valves will open thanks to the .630″ worth of lift provided by the Comp roller cam setup. The Ford 9″ rearend will accept the monstrous Chevy-powered torque by way of a steroid-fed 350 Turbo, with a full manual valve body, and a 5000 stall converter; which was put together by our good friend Kevin at R&R Racing Transmissions in Olean, NY. All this in a car that should tip the scales around 2800 pounds.

In short, it’s going to be fast.

The music industry and The Sherman Anti Trust Act have been going toe-to-toe this week.  The most recent incident is a juicy allegation of price fixing amongst Guitar Center, Gibson, Fender, and other manufacturers.  Guitar Center is more or less synonymous with price gouging so there’s no surprise there.  Gibson is now run by an egomaniacal lunatic and, a few months ago, had its Nashville headquarters raided by the feds  for allegedly importing some endangered wood from Madagascar.  So, again, not a lot of raised eyebrows when those assholes are named in litigation.  The inclusion of Fender on the list intrigued me at first until I remembered this tid-bit:  I bought a new Telecaster last year on credit with the promise of 0% financing for an entire year.  I did what any rational person did and paid Fender $0 for the next 11 months.  Now February is approaching and they’re gonna tack on a bunch of interest if I don’t pay the balance in full.  I’ve spoken with friends, family, and a few bankers and they all assure me this is normal and I’m a dumbass.  Well who’s the dumbass now?  The gig is up, Fender!  I know all about your price fixin’…free Teles for everyone (or just me)!

While the FTC is busy getting their panties wet over $900 guitars, the Justice Department has found that the proposed merger of Ticketmaster and Livenation does not present a threat of monopolization to the live music industry.  Really?  TM and Livenation, as separate corporate entities, were already snugglin’ up uncomfortably close to Miss Monoply in their respective fields.  Now we’re supposed to believe that the combination of the largest ticket seller and largest venue booker is supposed to alleviate the problem?  Call me a cynic, but I’m pretty sure that’s way fucking off base.  There’s a lot of details and contingencies and yada yada yada but whatever.  I may not be a Supreme Court Justice or anything but I live with a Vanderbilt Law student and scored in the 92^nd percentile on the LSAT.  I’m pretty sure those two tid bits qualify me to call a spade a spade and call bullshit on this merger.

To top it all off, Christine Varney of the DOJ insists that as a result of the merger “we will see [ticket prices] come down.”  How many times did she have to practice that line in the mirror before she could say it without going into hysterics and messing her pant suit?  I know I sound bitter but trust me, I’m pretty much VIP at any show I want to go to anyway, so I’m fighting for you guys, not me.  I’m a man of the people…as long as I don’t have to rub shoulders with those people.  They’re generally poor and carry communicable diseases.