Organizers of the Governor’s Ball Music Festival, which takes place on Randall’s Island in NYC from June 7th – 9th, are playing with fire. Not only is the always unpredictable Kanye West a top the lineup for this year’s fest, but they have just revealed that Guns N’ Roses will join Kings of Leon and West as the three headliners. Considering Kanye and GN’R front man Axl Rose have reputations for late arrivals, it’ll be interesting to see if either of ‘em wind up delaying their sets at the fest.

Outside of the headliners, the 2013 edition of the Governor’s Ball features an extremely varied lineup that below the headliners has hip-hop star Nas next to electronica faves Pretty Lights next to roots act The Avett Brothers next to indie darlings Grizzly Bear.

General admission and VIP tickets are available now through the fest’s website.

Here’s the full lineup for Governor’s Ball 2013…

KANYE WEST  +KINGS OF LEON  +GUNS N’ ROSES + NAS  +PRETTY LIGHTS  +THE AVETT BROTHERS  +GRIZZLY BEAR THE XX  +FEIST  +KENDRICK LAMAR  +BEACH HOUSE THE LUMINEERS  +THIEVERY CORPORATION  +ANIMAL COLLECTIVE CUT COPY  +EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS ERYKAH BADU & THE CANNABINOIDS  +YOUNG THE GIANT  +BLOC PARTY BEIRUT  +OF MONSTERS AND MEN  +LOCAL NATIVES DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979  +CRYSTAL CASTLES  +AZEALIA BANKS  +YEASAYER GARY CLARK JR.  +BEST COAST  +DIRTY PROJECTORS  +PORTUGAL. THE MAN MIGUEL  +DINOSAUR JR.  +HOLY GHOST!  +JAPANDROIDS  +TWIN SHADOW DIVINE FITS  +ALT-J  +DEERHUNTER  +THE VACCINES  +POLICA  +STEEL PULSE DILLON FRANCIS  +TOTALLY ENORMOUS EXTINCT DINOSAURS PAPER DIAMOND  +FUCKED UP  +WILD NOTHING  +ICONA POP  +THE KNOCKS HAIM  +ST. LUCIA  +FREDDIE GIBBS  +GRIZ  +ROBERT DELONG  +MS MR REIGNWOLF  +SOLID GOLD  +BEAR MOUNTAIN  +SWEAR AND SHAKE  +CHERUB PACIFIC AIR  +THE REVIVALISTS  +ROADKILL GHOST CHOIR  +ON AN ON THE RUBENS  +RUBY VELLE & THE SOULPHONICS

[via Consequence of Sound]

[Originally Published: September 14, 2011]

Inevitably, during our various existential journeys, we seek another earth, another space to explore, we wander amidst the gloom, and ponder it all, and face the reality that some one, some thing, controls our fate. The prospects of what we want to be are somehow always clouded by the ghosts of what we were, right? To change all of that is to see the world through a child’s eyes, a kid-like point of view, eh?

Talihina Sky. Kings of Leon. Final edition—#15, 75 in total—of season 5.

The documentary appears so innocent at first, even in light of the current drunken events which have played out as the band has seemingly imploded due to the abnormal rigors of success and the ever-dangerous life spent on the road, traversing from clubs to big marquee gigs in arenas and, gasp, stadiums. Yes, they may be back, even before Oasis, but does anyone venture to hold their breath? Watch this film, and decide for yourself.

I first saw the quartet in a small theatre several years back, and one could see and hear and feel the passion coming forth from the stage. What was ironic was that I stated in a show review, for either a site or a magazine, I don’t recall, and who really cares, that I felt the band was ready for bigger and more expansive venues. I didn’t really know how that would happen, and no one was more surprised than me that it really DID happen—the Kings of Leon became an arena rock staple, while garnering a fairly large fan base.

READ ON

The fallout from this past weekend’s Vomitgate continues to bring some more less then wanted attention on the Kings Of Leon. First came the news that the cancellation of the remaining 29 dates of the U.S., due to lead singer Caleb Followill’s “vocal issues and exhaustion,” could cost the band as much as $15 million to promoters, venues and others who lost money from the tour. The latest in this seemingly soap opera-style saga, which has also included a telling Tweet from the band’s drummer Jared, comes news that the band’s management firm Vector has been taking down fan uploaded clips of the incident from YouTube.

According to a post on Rolling Stone’s website, the removed clips “have almost exclusively focused on stage banter rather than the band’s music,” going on to say that that is “somewhat dubious since the firm is taking them down on copyright claims,” also stating that this may a preemptive move to “obscure evidence that could lead insurers to believe that Followill was drunk rather than exhausted.”

• List Time: Musicians Turned Children’s Book Authors
• Ben Folds to release a three-disc career retrospective set
• Cover Alert: Ronnie Spector tackles Amy Winehouse
• Ryan Adams’ new album to feature “elegant country-rock songs”
• Download This: Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters, 11/17/75
• The Swell Season’s Marketa Irglova to release her solo debut

Finally, on August 9 the San Francisco Giants will honor the legacy of another important San Fran institution – the Grateful Dead – as for the second year in a row they will host a Grateful Dead Night at AT&T Park. The themed night, which coincides with the 16th anniversary of the passing of Jerry Garcia, will see Bobby, Phil and the Giants third base coach Tim Flannery singing the National Anthem, with Mickey Hart and Bill Walton handling the 7th inning stretch duties. In addition, the night will also feature special Deadhead tribute sections for fans to sit in throughout the stadium, pre-game performances from Dead tribute bands and a Dancing Bear statue giveaway, with partial proceeds from the ticket sales going to the Futhur Foundation, the Rex Foundation and the Unbroken Chain Foundation.

VH1′s Storytellers series debuted in 1996 with the concept of letting artists share the stories behind their greatest songs – and those songs themselves – in an intimate setting. Over the past 15 years, legendary performers such as Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Sting, Tom Petty and Steely Dan have all filmed episodes of Storytellers. The next season of the show, which kicks off in May, features more of the same as some of our favorite artists grace the Storytellers stage including My Morning Jacket, Kings of Leon, Death Cab For Cutie, Ray LaMontagne and Cee Lo Green.

Is there a more perfect band for Storytellers than My Morning Jacket? We can’t wait to hear Jim James wax poetic on the stories behind MMJ classics. We’re also hoping the Kings retell the “pigeon shitting” story. No word yet on air dates for the 15th anniversary season of Storytellers other than the May start, but we’ll let you know when the full schedule is revealed.

Back on Thursday we presented a list of ten concerts in which the cliched phrase “the show must go on” was lived up to. Apparently the Kings of Leon didn’t get the memo about that unwritten rule of show biz as the group high tailed it out of the Verizon Amphitheatre near St. Louis after just three songs last night thanks to a bunch of pigeons shitting on them.

Angry Fans Post-Shit Show

According to the group’s representative, the venue – known to jam fans under its previous name, the Riverport Amphitheatre – has “a significant pigeon infestation problem” and at yesterday’s show both opening bands came off stage covered in excrement. The problem intensified when Kings of Leon took the stage…

“Jared (Followill) was hit several times during the first two songs,” [band management representative Andy] Mendelsohn said of the band’s bassist. “On the third song, when he was hit in the cheek and some of it landed near his mouth, they couldn’t deal any longer. It’s not only disgusting — it’s a toxic health hazard. They really tried to hang in there.” [CNN.com]

Concertgoers were not pleased and in the video above you can hear the word “pussy” bandied about. Drummer Nathan Followill blamed the venue in a tweet saying, “Don’t take it out on Jared, it’s the ****ing venues fault. You may enjoy being shit on but we don’t. Sorry for all who travelled many miles.” No one from the venue has commented yet, but we’re not exactly sure what steps the venue could’ve taken. You would’ve thought the audience suffered from the same shit, yet according to the group’s publicist “no fans got pooped on as far as we know.”

Live Nation has offered refunds to all who purchased tickets to last night’s gig. The pigeon who shat on Jared is making the most of its 15 minutes by starting a Twitter feed. Hopefully the birds stay away from the Kings of Leon’s show at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Chicago tonight.

On May 17, Sub Pop will release a 2 disc/3 LP collection of rarities, including out-of-print and unreleased tracks from Iron & Wine called Around The Well. In conjunction with the release, the bearded folk-rocker has put together a special intimate five-city, ten show tour. Each show will feature a unique set list, determined by fan voting, beginning March 6 and running through March 30. The shows will be made available after the tour is completed on Iron and Wine’s official live recording site, Played Last Night.

If you’re not into Sam’s singer-songwriter stylings than maybe you’ll want to check out one of these recently announced tours…

• Thao & The Get Down Stay Down line up a month long trek (begins: 04/17)
• STS9′s upcoming run sees them spending multiple nights in cities (begins: 02/28)
• Brooding rockers The National schedule a short eight date tour (begins: 05/21)
• NMAS put together a 22-city Spring tour (begins: 03/20)
• Kings Of Leon will hit arenas across the country (begins: 04/19)
• Brit-pop act Travis crosses the pond for a NA tour (begins: 03/27)

Finally, Brit indie-rock act Gomez will hit the road this Spring in support of their sixth studio album A New Tide which hits stores on March 31 – the same night they will play a record release party at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. The band will kick off their tour at SXSW before heading to the East Coast where they will team up with former BtN act Josh Ritter for a handful of co-headlining dates as well as show with new HT fave Blind Pilot. In anticipation of the release Gomez is currently offering up a free download of Airstream Driver via their website, so head on over and grab it today.

We hope that you rang in 2009 with style last night. I spent mine with My Morning Jacket as they ripped the roof off the Garden with a monster three and half hour show that included some fantastic covers. So, as you manage to shake off your first hangover of the year I figured we’d cut right to the chase and unload a batch of links to get you through the day…

• List Time: Best Album Cover Art Of ’08
• The Boss to release a Wal-Mart only Greatest Hits disc
• A cassette tape of a drunk John Lennon sells for $30 K
• Amander Palmer is pissed that her videos are gone from YouTube
• Cover Alert: Lykke Li tackles Kings Of Leon
• Paul’s Boutique will get reissued for its’ 20th anniversary
• An Apples In Stereo song is featured in a new Pepsi ad
• Zooey Deschanel and DC4C’ Ben Gibbard got engaged
• Give a listen to the demo that got Biggie Smalls signed
• AD kicks down a Jeff Magnum solo show from ’96
• Merl Saunders estate is suing Jerry Garcia’s over unpaid royalties

We here at HT want to wish you all a very Happy New Year and are looking forward to big 2009. READ ON for the full setlist and some videos from MMJ’s Monumental New Year’s show at the Garden…

Next month, the Sundance Channel will debut a new 13 episode talk and live performance show hosted by Attractions/Imposters front man Elvis Costello. The hour long show called Spectacle: Elvis Costello with… will feature “the best elements of talk and music television, inviting viewers to enjoy an in-depth conversation between host and his guests, punctuated by musical performances by Costello, his guests and a wide variety of musicians.”

The series debuts on December 3 at 9 PM when Elvis will be joined by Sir Elton John. Upcoming episodes feature an impressive array of acts including The Police, Lou Reed, She & Him, Jenny Lewis, Norah Jones and President Bill Clinton. We got our DVRs set already!

• List Time: 12 Best Current TV Theme Songs
• IAFYAF introduces us to the music of Montreal’s Land Of Talk
• KOL recorded a performance for Pancake Mountain
• Cover Alert: Jens Lekman tackles Boyz II Men
• Play The Flaming Lips’ Christmas On Mars on-line game
• DeRo asks: What Happened To The Alt.Rock Class Of ’93?

Finally, just when you thought that The Beatles vault had been totally exhausted there comes news of a new 14 minute plus “lost” song called Carnival Of Light that Sir Paul McCartney is trying to get released. McCartney had previously tried to get the track released for the The Beatles’ Anthology, but was vetoed by the other band members and representatives for John Lennon. We hope we get to hear this soon.

We had so much going on last week that we took a week off from the Friday Mix Tape. But fear not loyal readers, we’re back with another edition of the Mix Tape packed full of some heady tunes to get your weekend started. With Election Day right around the corner we’re feeling a bit patriotic, so we’ll feature songs named for a state. Just sit back and enjoy…

We kick things off with Wisconsin, a bonus track from Bon Iver’s achingly beautiful album For Emma, Forever Ago. Next up, we’ve got Philadelphia’s own Dr. Dog displaying their knack for harmonizing singing an ode to California, that can be found on their EP Takers & Leavers. From there, we’ve got the slow burner Arizona from the Kings Of Leon who will headline their biggest U.S. show to date in January at Madison Square Garden. We then move on to Yo La Tengo covering The Kinks with Okalahoma, USA from their covers record Fakebook. After that, we’ve got one from the melodic, shoegazers Ambulance LTD with the dreamy Michigan. Finally, we close things out Cat Power’s sultry take on Old Blue Eyes signature tune New York, New York from last year’s Jukebox.

• Click Here To Download This Week’s Mix Tape

As we mentioned earlier, we’re less than a week away from the release of Rhino’s latest Grateful Dead vault release Rocking the Cradle: Grateful Dead, Egypt 1978 on September 30. The 2 CD set, culled from the band’s run at the Sound & Light Theater outside of Cairo, is also being packaged with a DVD that will include a mini-documentary called the Vacation Tapes along with 95 minutes of spectacular concert footage. To get you ready for the release Spinner is currently sharing an exclusive video of Deal.

• Check out the first trailer for the Biggie Smalls biopic Notorious
• CLD urges you to sign the petition to get Pete Seeger a Noble Prize
• Ear Farm took in Saturday night’s Fab Faux show at RCMH
• List Time: 11 Best Kings Of Leon songs
• Stereogum offers up the new Vampire Weekend track Ottoman
• WNEW interviews UK buzz band Noah & The Whale

Finally, Ray Davies is stirring the rumor mill about a possible reunion of the original dysfunctional brother fronted rock band. According to a BBC report the former Kinks lead singer is claiming that the major obstacle holding things up is if his brother Dave, who has experienced some health problems over the last few years, feels good enough to commit to it. The Kinks have not performed together live since 1996, and are the only major British Invasion band whose original members are all still alive. The clock’s ticking!

Yesterday, Scotty offered up a fantastic B-List of albums hitting shelves this month that he’s looking forward to. I thought I’d continue along those lines today with a mix tape chocked full of music that is also being released in the coming months, as we see the leaves turn colors and our days grow shorter. So sit back and enjoy some Feel Good Hits For The Fall…

We kick things off with the first single off of Ray Lamontagne’s third album Gossip In The Grain. Here’s the emotive singer/songwriter with the soul-infused You Are The Best Thing. Next comes some straight ahead rock from the Kings Of Leon with Sex On Fire. From there we move into the gospel tinged Acid Tongue, the title track from the ever adorable Jenny Lewis’ sophomore effort, that features Chris Robinson, M. Ward and others on backing vocals. Then, we’ve got a couple from two former BtN artists Okkervil River with Singer Songwriter (which might be one of my favorite tunes of the year) and Blitzen Trapper with the rootsy, harmonica laced cut Furr. Finally, we close things out with some indie-piano-pop from Ben Folds with You Don’t Know Me which features vocals from Regina Spektor.