Greetings.  It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?  For a variety of reasons, there’s not been much posting.  Life does get in the way, at least my life has anyway.   Other than the busy but not often tremendously exciting life I lead, there’s been a dearth of information on Airwaves.   We’re a month out and the buzz is…not really there.  I mean, is it just me?  Where’s the anticipation?  The build-up?  The attitude?  The HTML emails even?   The last two years I couldn’t wait for the last band announcements.  Felt like Christmas morning, and I’d go to the site, check out listings, start to cross reference them, because 75% I had never heard from before.

This year….pffffft.   No excited prose on the website about which bands were playing and why you will think they were cool.  (And more often then not, they were right.)   There’s a note saying more bands have been added, then the link goes to one Norwegian act only.  This generates about as much excitement as a sale on Skyr at Bonus.

Now’s the to address Vampire Weekend.  I’ll admit right off the bat, I am not a big fan.  I don’t dislike them, but I thought the critical raves were way over the top, which often happens with New York’s next big thing.  (See Strokes, The)   But again, they were one of the “it” acts this year, and Airwaves has them.  Wouldn’t you just want to SCREAM IT OFF THE ROOFTOP THAT YOU BOOKED VAMPIRE WEEKEND?   My non-professional opinion is yes, you would.   Unless…the shine is off, and they aren’t quite as hip as they were at this time a year ago.  Which is entirely possible, but if you make them one of your headline acts, my goodness make of a point of promoting that fact.

Did London Airwaves suck the air out of the organization?  Expansion always puts stresses on a business in ways that cause a loss of focus on the founding enterprise.   And other than promotion in Europe’s biggest media and music market, why do it anyway?  I always believed the charm of Airwaves was the fact that it is in Iceland! There are dozens if not hundreds of HUGE music festivals around the world.   Bonnaroo, Coachella, Roskilde, Glastonbury, etc, etc, etc.   Why franchise your festival to what is probably your biggest audience, and potentially not give them a reason to go?

I’m sure the event will sell out though, and I hope a good time will be had by all.   But it just feels like the wheels have fallen off the bus a bit.   The next event for dorky music bloggers like me is the actual festival schedule, when the strategizing begins for which acts you’ll see, and which ones will be sacrificed at the musical altar.   But please, gods of Airwaves, don’t take that away from us too.