Yoss

Also described Hen Ogledd and Gazelle Twin as "EOTR favourites" in another tweet. Don't think you can read anything much into it, but I'd be delighted with those. Particularly Gazelle Twin as I have at least seen Hen Ogledd recently. (She doesn't strike me as someone who's just going to play a festival for the sake of it, though, without being satisfied about the when and where and set-up.)

Steady on folks, I've not scratched the surface of the current playlist yet. There were more acts than usual in the first announcement, so maybe it'll be a bit longer before the next one, but who knows. That new Aldous Harding song is indeed tremendous - would love to see her back, particularly as I missed her for Parquet Courts last time. But I thought, having pulled out last year, she was more likely to have been in the first announcement if she was coming at all. Hope I'm wrong (again). Otherwise, happy to see what turns up. For me I'd have Cherry Glazerr or The Beths or suchlike. (I'd have said Estrons but the buggers have just split up.) Ex Hex might be a possibility, played here the other year and have a new album on the way. Self Esteem / Rebecca Taylor says she's looking to play a load of festivals this summer as well.

Yeah, saw them in Glasgow last week - having likewise missed them at EotR last year - and was very impressed.

No, fair point. I suppose their could be a difference in remuneration, but they wouldn't necessarily be aware of that either. (And I've no idea how such things work.)

Which would be considered the higher / more prestigious billing - subbing the Woods or headlining the Garden? Ezra Furman did the latter in 2016 and the former in 2018, so I suppose that's presumed to be a promotion. But I'd have expected more bands to prefer the Garden headline slot. (For much the same reasons as it's where I'd prefer to see them.)

Happy to acknowledge being wrong. Maybe by this summer she'll no longer be specifically touring the current album but just going through the back catalogue. Which would be great.

Bit of a mixed bag - Parquet Courts, Mitski and Stella Donnelly were three of my top four in my 2018 albums [/eps] list so gotta be happy with those, particularly as I missed seeing Mitski live. Otherwise there's not a huge amount to get me excited yet, but as ever there's bound to be some gems among the stuff I don't know. (And it's always a great weekend anyway.) As others have observed it's a slightly odd-looking choice of headliners - even from within their own line-up. But I'm rarely there for the headliners anyway, so whatever. I'm hoping the likes of Parquet Courts, Courtney Barnett and Deerhunter will be headlining the Garden rather than subbing the Woods. Either way, looking forward to it already.

Only one I remember folks getting right a couple of years back was Foxygen. So by no means is it only headliners.

Speaking of which, Green Man are announcing their first tranche on 29th January. I think EotR usually give them a week or so lead, so we're presumably talking early February.

Maybe so. And according to someone on the Green Man thread, they've apparently said she won't be there, so that'd make EotR most likely if you're right.

I'd thought we might get Courtney Barnett last year but it seems a bit less likely this year. She's done two UK tours with the current album already and looks like she's got a busy enough season down under during their summer. Unless she manages to find some time in there to record some new material she'll be flogging a pretty tired horse by August. Won't mind if I'm wrong though. Be surprised if there aren't some names in common with that pitchfork article - Girlpool, say. Hopefully we'll get Stella Donnelly back already, she's got an album coming up and will be touring with band this time, and I'm going to say Pip Blom just because she / they have recently signed to Heavenly Records which gives them a decent chance of turning up sooner or later.

Dunno whether you mean the full line-up or just the headliners, but either way I do indeed disagree. Strongly. So many good female artistes around, including several of my favourites of the weekend, that it didn't occur to me to question whether any of them were there on merit. Of the headliners I can't say I was fussed about Feist. But overall I thought it was a better headline line-up than last year's (which was incidentally all-male).

Jay Som

No, it wasn't segregated - we'd mailed them to establish that beforehand - it was just done by the stewards as you parked up. We told them we had two large pitches (though they didn't actually check) and they left us space for the tents between our two vans, though it was all pretty informal. The other supposed change in arrangements - that cars towing caravans would have to be parked in a separate area once the van was unhitched - didn't happen. At least, not to us - can't say I went round checking.

Quite apart from everything else, they're the best covers band in the world.