Hopscotch Music Festival
Encyclopedia
Hopscotch Music Festival is an annual music festival in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina
, United States
. It is presented by the Independent Weekly
, a locally owned alternative weekly newspaper and media company, and takes place the second Thursday through Saturday in September.
Other festival features include:
Hopscotch Co-Director Grayson Currin, also the Independent Weekly's music editor: "Several music festivals in the Triangle make it clear how strong the talent in North Carolina is, and they do it better and better each year. We don't want to replace that. Rather, we want to expand on it by showing that this area has the caliber of bands and listeners that can support a big music festival."
Steve Schewel, founder and owner of the Independent Weekly: "The Triangle has been thirsting for a big-bang urban music festival, and that's why—after 26 years of writing about music in our community—the Independent is bringing Hopscotch to town."
The headliners were hip-hop's most legendary group, Public Enemy, with Los Angeles trio No Age
and Raleigh's The Love Language
(Saturday) and indie rock giants Panda Bear
and Broken Social Scene
with Raleigh's The Rosebuds
(Friday). A surprise performance by Raleigh's Helping Hand Mission Marching Band electrified the audience prior to Public Enemy's performance.
Coverage of the 2010 festival included:
The complete lineup was: 9th Wonder, Active Child, Actual Proof, Akron/Family, All Tiny Creatures, American Aquarium, Americans in France, Aminal, Aquarelle, Atlas Sound, The Away Team, Balmorhea, Bear in Heaven, Bellafea, Best Coast, Big Remo, Birds of Avalon, Black Congo NC, Bowerbirds, DJ George Brazil, Bright Young Things, Broken Social Scene, Brutal Knights, Richard Buckner, Burning Star Core, Cannabis Corpse, Caitlin Cary's Small Ponds with Tres Chicas, Collections of Colonies of Bees, Cults, Greg Davis, Dex Romweber Duo, Double Dagger, Double Negative, Dungen, The Dynamite Brothers, EAR PWR, ExMonkeys, First Rate People, Floating Action, Followed by Static, Ben Frost, Fucked Up, Future Islands, Golden Boys, The Golden Filter, Goner, Gray Young, Ryan Gustafson, Hammer No More the Fingers, Harlem, Harvey Milk, Horseback, John Howie Jr. & The Rosewood Bluff, In the Year of the Pig, I Was Totally Destroying It, Javelin, Jeb Bishop Trio, Juan Huevos, Kaze, K-Hill, Kill the Noise, The Kingsbury Manx, Kooley High, Kylesa, The Light Pines, Locrian, Lonnie Walker, The Love Language, Lucero, Luego, Max Indian, Erin McKeown, Megafaun, DJ Merlin, Midtown Dickens, The Moaners, The Monologue Bombs, Motor Skills, Mountains, Jon Mueller, Marissa Nadler, No Age, NOMO, Ocean, Old Bricks, Panda Bear, Pattern Is Movement, Pictureplane, Plague, Pontiak, Public Enemy, Raekwon, Rapsody, The Remix Project, The Rosebuds, Ned Rothenberg, DJ Sami Automatic, Schooner, Sightings, Sleepy Sun, spcl gst, Spider Bags, Thien, Tigercity, Tortoise, Treasure Fingers, Tyler Woods, US Christmas, Sharon Van Etten, Veelee, Vincent Black Shadow, War on Drugs, Washed Out, Weedeater, Wet Mango, Whatever Brains, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Woods, Yip-Yip.
The headliners were The Flaming Lips
with Superchunk
and Dreamers of the Ghetto (Saturday) and Guided By Voices
with Drive-By Truckers
and The Dodos
(Friday).
Coverage of the 2011 festival included:
The complete lineup was: All Tiny Creatures, Andrew Cedermark, Annuals, Apache Dropout, Apex Manor, Apple Juice Kid, Bandway, Barn Owl, Bass Drum of Death
, Beach Fossils, Beans, Bird Peterson, Black Lips, Black Twig Pickers, Bombadil, Braids, Brain F≠, Budos Band, Bustello, Caltrop, Carlitta Durand, Cassis Orange, Charlie Smarts, Cheyenne Marie Mize
, Chip Robinson, Cold Cave, Coliseum, D&D Sluggers, D-Town Brass, Dan Melchior Und Das Menace, David Daniell, Dawn Golden and Rosy, Cross, Des Ark, Diamond Rings, Dinosaur Feathers, Disappears, DJ Thien, Dreamers of the Ghetto, Drive-By Truckers, Duane Pitre Sextet, Dustin Wong, Dylan Gilbert, Earth, Embarrassing Fruits, Empress Hotel, Eric Carbonara & Jesse Sparhawk, Family Dynamics, Fan Modine
, Fight the Big Bull, Filthybird, Flight, Ford & Lopatin, Frank Fairfield, Frontier Ruckus, Future Islands, Gauntlet Hair, Generationals, Grandchildren, Gross Ghost, Guided by Voices, Heads on Sticks, Hog, Horseback, Hospitality, Invisible Hand, J Mascis, Jack the Radio, Japandroids, JEFF The Brotherhood, Jennyanykind, John Vanderslice, Jon Lindsay, Julianna Barwick, Justin Robinson and The Mary Annettes, King Mez, KORT, Krallice, L.E.G.A.C.Y., Last Year’s Men, Le Weekend, Little Scream, Liturgy, Lonnie Walker, Lost in the Trees, Lower Dens, Man Will Destroy Himself, Man/Miracle, Mandolin Orange, Mount Eerie, Mount Moriah, Mouthus, North Elementary, Old Bricks, Oneohtrix Point Never, Onward Soldiers, Organos, Oulipo, Oxbow, PC Worship, Pepper Rabbit, Peter Lamb and The Wolves, Prurient, Reading Rainbow, Rhys Chatham, Royal Bangs, Royal Baths, Shit Horse, Sir Richard Bishop, Soft Company, SPCL GST, Spider Bags, Steve Gunn, Super Vacations, Superchunk, Swans, Temperance League, Tender Fruit, The Body, The Caribbean, The Dodos, The Flaming Lips, The Foreign Exchange, The Hairs, The Light Pines, The Loners, The Love Language, The Men, The Moderate, The Necks, The Old Ceremony, The Prayers and Tears, The Strugglers/ Brice Randall Bickford, The Tomahawks, Times New Viking, Titus Andronicus, Toro Y Moi, Twelve Thousand Armies, Twin Shadow, Tyvek, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Vivian Girls, Weekend, Wembley, Wesley Wolfe, Whatever Brains, White Ring, William Tyler, Wooden Wand, Woodsman, Xiu Xiu, XRay Eyeballs, Yair Yona.
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is presented by the Independent Weekly
Independent Weekly
The Independent Weekly is a tabloid-format alternative weekly newspaper published in Durham, North Carolina, United States and distributed throughout the Research Triangle area and counties .The Independent is a member of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and has a...
, a locally owned alternative weekly newspaper and media company, and takes place the second Thursday through Saturday in September.
Overview
Hopscotch Music Festival features local, national and international bands in just about every genre — rock, hip-hop, alt-country, heavy metal, dance, punk, classical, noise, drone, folk and more.Other festival features include:
- Band-curated bills — Festival organizers ask local bands to curate their own shows.
- Artist-and-author series — Festival organizers present free discussions between musicians and authors.
- Poster series — Festival organizers ask local artists to design limited-edition posters for the festival. The artists sell them at the festival and keep all of the proceeds.
- Day parties — Labels, websites and arts organizations book their own day parties.
History
Hopscotch Director Greg Lowenhagen, also the Independent Weekly's marketing director, came up with the idea for the festival after moving back to the Triangle area from Austin and Chicago: "When I returned from being away, I realized the Triangle, with its strong music heritage and abundance of local talent, seemed ready for a different, more nationally recognizable festival to call its own."Hopscotch Co-Director Grayson Currin, also the Independent Weekly's music editor: "Several music festivals in the Triangle make it clear how strong the talent in North Carolina is, and they do it better and better each year. We don't want to replace that. Rather, we want to expand on it by showing that this area has the caliber of bands and listeners that can support a big music festival."
Steve Schewel, founder and owner of the Independent Weekly: "The Triangle has been thirsting for a big-bang urban music festival, and that's why—after 26 years of writing about music in our community—the Independent is bringing Hopscotch to town."
2010
The first Hopscotch Music Festival took place September 9–11, 2010. It featured 130 bands in 10 venues.The headliners were hip-hop's most legendary group, Public Enemy, with Los Angeles trio No Age
No Age
No Age is a two-person American indie rock group consisting of guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/vocalist Dean Allen Spunt. The band is based in Los Angeles and is currently signed to Sub Pop records...
and Raleigh's The Love Language
The Love Language
The Love Language is an indie rock band from Raleigh, North Carolina headed by Stuart McLamb.-Origin:The Love Language began amidst a torrent of quarter-life crises and angst. Following a split with his band, The Capulets, Stuart McLamb and his girlfriend broke up and he fell into a serious...
(Saturday) and indie rock giants Panda Bear
Panda Bear (musician)
Noah Benjamin Lennox also known as Panda Bear, is an experimental musician and a founding member of Animal Collective.-Early life:...
and Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed in 1999 by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Most of its members currently play in various other groups and solo projects, mainly based around the city of Toronto...
with Raleigh's The Rosebuds
The Rosebuds
The Rosebuds are an indie rock band from Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Its current members are Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp...
(Friday). A surprise performance by Raleigh's Helping Hand Mission Marching Band electrified the audience prior to Public Enemy's performance.
Coverage of the 2010 festival included:
- Rolling Stone, "Public Enemy, Broken Social Scene Lead Hopscotch Fest"
- "This is something that's in front of your face," said Chuck D of the Hopscotch concept. "And when it's done well, it makes people say, 'Shit, maybe this is what it's about anyway."
- "We've had a scene in North Carolina for a very long time," said 9th Wonder, taking a breather between events in his hotel room on Saturday. He's referring not just to NC's hip-hop scene, but also its indie-rock bands, centered around Chapel Hill's Merge label for the past two decades. "There's been ups and there's been downs, from the hip-hop side to the rock side, but Hopscotch brings it all together and brings validity to it."
- Paste Magazine, "Hopscotch Festival 2010 Greatest Hits"
- My favorite part was the energy of a crowd out to see some music. Nothing was going to stop them from seeing music. They were going to see all the music. That sheer determination converted me: I slipped into the crowd and immediately abandoned all pretense of maintaining an academic disinterest in the bands I'd only heard of peripherally. It swept away my staunch decision to maintain no bias when seeing a band I kind of love right now.
- 521studies, "Hopscotch Music Festival 2010 recap video"
- Pricefilms, "9th Wonder Night at Hopscotch" (video)
- New Raleigh, "New Raleigh Does Hopscotch: Day One"
- Based on our New Raleigh staff's experience, the first night of Hopscotch was a crazy mess of success!
- One of the really nice things about the fest so far is that the bands all seem to be playing right on schedule. So, none of the normal guessing games of what the "real" set time will be: Hopscotch set a time frame and they're sticking to it.
- New Raleigh, "Hopscotch Highlights"
- In a weekend in which I heard "best weekend ever" uttered a record number of times, how do you pinpoint the most epic of moments? Everything about that weekend was beautiful.
- A huge cultural event for the downtown, commercially driven, and beautifully organized for attendees.
- Raleigh will never be the same after last weekend.
- New Raleigh, "Hopscotch, Visually"
- New Raleigh, "Hopscotch Videos from Lloyd Hammarlund"
- Music.MyNC.com, "Hopscotch Night 1: The Wait Is Over, And It's Good!"
- Music.MyNC.com, "Hopscotch Night 2: Broken Social Scene Wins The Night"
- Music.MyNC.com, "Hopscotch Night 3: 'As Perfect As It Could Be'"
- Flickr group pool, "Hopscotch Music Festival 2010"
- Independent Weekly (the festival organizer), Hopscotch Music Festival article archives
The complete lineup was: 9th Wonder, Active Child, Actual Proof, Akron/Family, All Tiny Creatures, American Aquarium, Americans in France, Aminal, Aquarelle, Atlas Sound, The Away Team, Balmorhea, Bear in Heaven, Bellafea, Best Coast, Big Remo, Birds of Avalon, Black Congo NC, Bowerbirds, DJ George Brazil, Bright Young Things, Broken Social Scene, Brutal Knights, Richard Buckner, Burning Star Core, Cannabis Corpse, Caitlin Cary's Small Ponds with Tres Chicas, Collections of Colonies of Bees, Cults, Greg Davis, Dex Romweber Duo, Double Dagger, Double Negative, Dungen, The Dynamite Brothers, EAR PWR, ExMonkeys, First Rate People, Floating Action, Followed by Static, Ben Frost, Fucked Up, Future Islands, Golden Boys, The Golden Filter, Goner, Gray Young, Ryan Gustafson, Hammer No More the Fingers, Harlem, Harvey Milk, Horseback, John Howie Jr. & The Rosewood Bluff, In the Year of the Pig, I Was Totally Destroying It, Javelin, Jeb Bishop Trio, Juan Huevos, Kaze, K-Hill, Kill the Noise, The Kingsbury Manx, Kooley High, Kylesa, The Light Pines, Locrian, Lonnie Walker, The Love Language, Lucero, Luego, Max Indian, Erin McKeown, Megafaun, DJ Merlin, Midtown Dickens, The Moaners, The Monologue Bombs, Motor Skills, Mountains, Jon Mueller, Marissa Nadler, No Age, NOMO, Ocean, Old Bricks, Panda Bear, Pattern Is Movement, Pictureplane, Plague, Pontiak, Public Enemy, Raekwon, Rapsody, The Remix Project, The Rosebuds, Ned Rothenberg, DJ Sami Automatic, Schooner, Sightings, Sleepy Sun, spcl gst, Spider Bags, Thien, Tigercity, Tortoise, Treasure Fingers, Tyler Woods, US Christmas, Sharon Van Etten, Veelee, Vincent Black Shadow, War on Drugs, Washed Out, Weedeater, Wet Mango, Whatever Brains, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Woods, Yip-Yip.
2011
The second Hopscotch Music Festival took place September 8–10, 2011. It featured 150 bands in 13 venues.The headliners were The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips are an American alternative rock band, formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983.Melodically, their sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock arrangements, but lyrically their compositions show elements of space rock, including unusual song and album titles—such as "What...
with Superchunk
Superchunk
Superchunk is an American indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, consisting of singer/guitarist Mac McCaughan, guitarist Jim Wilbur, bassist Laura Ballance, and drummer Jon Wurster. Formed in 1989, they were one of the bands that helped define the Chapel Hill music scene of the 1990s...
and Dreamers of the Ghetto (Saturday) and Guided By Voices
Guided by Voices
Guided by Voices is an American indie rock band originating from Dayton, Ohio. Beginning with the band's formation in 1983, it made frequent personnel changes but always maintained the presence of principal songwriter Robert Pollard...
with Drive-By Truckers
Drive-By Truckers
Drive-By Truckers are an alternative country/Southern rock band based in Athens, Georgia, though three out of six members are originally from The Shoals region of Northern Alabama, and the band strongly identifies with Alabama. Their music uses three guitars as well as bass, drums, and now...
and The Dodos
The Dodos
The Dodos are an American indie rock band consisting of Meric Long and Logan Kroeber.- History :The Dodos began playing music together in 2005, when musician Meric Long, who had been gigging steadily in San Francisco as a solo singer-songwriter, was introduced to Logan Kroeber through a mutual...
(Friday).
Coverage of the 2011 festival included:
- USA Today, "Looking for a hip, new music fest? Try Hopscotch"
- "It turns out the Hopscotch Music Festival is a huge reason to head down to Raleigh, N.C., in a few weeks. [... It] sounds like a not-to-miss weekend."
- Spin, "8 Best Moments of Hopscotch Festival"
- "'How much control do we have over the disco ball?' singer-songwriter John Vanderslice asked onstage at the Berkeley Cafe on Friday night. Someone flicked a switch and the room filled with color, to the delighted oohs and aahs of the crowd."
- News & Observer, "Hopscotch: perfection, indeed"
- "It is the nature of events like the Hopscotch Music Festival to either grow to oversized proportions, or wither and die. If Hopscotch's organizers could somehow bottle it and keep the festival right at this year's size indefinitely, that would be a very fine thing because it's really been perfect so far. The clubs have been crowded, but mostly not too crowded, with a great energy at shows around town and out on the street. Hopscotch has brought together a wonderful sense of critical mass -- the feeling that there's not only a lot of people on the town to hear music, but the right people."
- Mountain Xpress, "Hopscotchin' in Raleigh"
- "The festival is like a younger cousin to SXSW or CMJ. It's loaded with afternoon label showcases and corporate parties, then the official performances at a dozen venues across town. However, where the enormity of cities like Austin or New York make it all but impossible to jump between bars without spending your entire festival en route, Hopscotch is small enough that skipping between shows actually makes sense. Plus, roaming the streets between can't-miss acts leaves lots of time to run into new friends, get sidetracked into unexpected shows or end up on a random adventure. And there was plenty of that."
The complete lineup was: All Tiny Creatures, Andrew Cedermark, Annuals, Apache Dropout, Apex Manor, Apple Juice Kid, Bandway, Barn Owl, Bass Drum of Death
Bass Drum of Death
Bass Drum of Death are a grunge band signed to Fat Possum Records from Oxford, MS. The band was formed by John Barrett, who performed solo with a bass drum and guitar until 2008, when Colin Sneed began playing drums. Their debut LP, GB City, was released on April 12, 2011. The vinyl was also...
, Beach Fossils, Beans, Bird Peterson, Black Lips, Black Twig Pickers, Bombadil, Braids, Brain F≠, Budos Band, Bustello, Caltrop, Carlitta Durand, Cassis Orange, Charlie Smarts, Cheyenne Marie Mize
Cheyenne Marie Mize
Cheyenne Marie Mize is an American folk singer-songwriter from Louisville, Kentucky.-Biography:Cheyenne Marie Mize's “Before Lately” album was released in 2010 as an introspective, meditative affair followed by the “We Don’t Need” EP in 2011 featuring more dynamic moods and experimentation...
, Chip Robinson, Cold Cave, Coliseum, D&D Sluggers, D-Town Brass, Dan Melchior Und Das Menace, David Daniell, Dawn Golden and Rosy, Cross, Des Ark, Diamond Rings, Dinosaur Feathers, Disappears, DJ Thien, Dreamers of the Ghetto, Drive-By Truckers, Duane Pitre Sextet, Dustin Wong, Dylan Gilbert, Earth, Embarrassing Fruits, Empress Hotel, Eric Carbonara & Jesse Sparhawk, Family Dynamics, Fan Modine
Fan Modine
Fan Modine is an American indie pop band, whose core member is singer and songwriter Gordon Zacharias. Originally based in Boston, Zacharias has lived in Carrboro, North Carolina since 2001....
, Fight the Big Bull, Filthybird, Flight, Ford & Lopatin, Frank Fairfield, Frontier Ruckus, Future Islands, Gauntlet Hair, Generationals, Grandchildren, Gross Ghost, Guided by Voices, Heads on Sticks, Hog, Horseback, Hospitality, Invisible Hand, J Mascis, Jack the Radio, Japandroids, JEFF The Brotherhood, Jennyanykind, John Vanderslice, Jon Lindsay, Julianna Barwick, Justin Robinson and The Mary Annettes, King Mez, KORT, Krallice, L.E.G.A.C.Y., Last Year’s Men, Le Weekend, Little Scream, Liturgy, Lonnie Walker, Lost in the Trees, Lower Dens, Man Will Destroy Himself, Man/Miracle, Mandolin Orange, Mount Eerie, Mount Moriah, Mouthus, North Elementary, Old Bricks, Oneohtrix Point Never, Onward Soldiers, Organos, Oulipo, Oxbow, PC Worship, Pepper Rabbit, Peter Lamb and The Wolves, Prurient, Reading Rainbow, Rhys Chatham, Royal Bangs, Royal Baths, Shit Horse, Sir Richard Bishop, Soft Company, SPCL GST, Spider Bags, Steve Gunn, Super Vacations, Superchunk, Swans, Temperance League, Tender Fruit, The Body, The Caribbean, The Dodos, The Flaming Lips, The Foreign Exchange, The Hairs, The Light Pines, The Loners, The Love Language, The Men, The Moderate, The Necks, The Old Ceremony, The Prayers and Tears, The Strugglers/ Brice Randall Bickford, The Tomahawks, Times New Viking, Titus Andronicus, Toro Y Moi, Twelve Thousand Armies, Twin Shadow, Tyvek, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Vivian Girls, Weekend, Wembley, Wesley Wolfe, Whatever Brains, White Ring, William Tyler, Wooden Wand, Woodsman, Xiu Xiu, XRay Eyeballs, Yair Yona.