For Valentine’s day this year, AC Entertainment decided to give its fans one of the best loving gifts any music festival-goer could ask for, the lineup for Bonnaroo’s 11th year.

The Joy Formidable @ Cat's Cradle

The headliners include Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Phish and The Beach Boys. What I found particularly neat about this year’s lineup is many of the acts chosen for Bonnaroo have made visits to the Triangle’s venues in the past year or plan to in the next few months — The Beach Boys (coming in April), Bon Iver, The Avett Brothers (coming in March), Feist (coming in May), Ludacris (N.C. State University’s campus last year), Ben Folds Five, Umphrey’s McGee, Punch Brothers, Yelawolf, Dawes, The Black Lips, Phantogram, The Joy Formidable, The Antlers, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Das Racist, Delta Spirit, Trampled by Turtles, The War on Drugs (coming in March), and Fruit Bats, just to name a few.

Fruit Bats @ Motorco

This is just another reason to pat yourselves on the back for being a part of the Triangle’s taste-making community, whether you’re a venue, musician, concert goer, radio listener, or even blog reader. You’re awesome.

The festival will take place about nine hours away from Raleigh in Manchester, Tenn. on June 7-10.  Tickets will go on sale Saturday, Feb. 18, at noon.

RELAX

The night started off slowly at Lincoln Theatre on Tuesday, Oct. 4. Greeted by the musical stylings of Insane Clown Posse and a technicolor beach scene emblazoned with the mandate “RELAX,” the pockets of young folk scattered throughout the venue seemed unsure of how to proceed. From the chatter, I gleaned that most knew at least one of the acts was but few knew all three, myself included.

Despot getting his heart rate up.

A fairly short, red-headed man with a wholly acceptable beard took the stage in the form of Despot just after 9 p.m. to the crowd’s mild interest. People pushed forward a bit. There were some heads nodding and a few brave souls mouthed lyrics but everyone else was still waiting for the show to start.

I had never seen Despot perform before and I thought he had a good presence on stage. He came across as a little spaced out at times, but his delivery was clean and he was genuinely funny between songs. At one point he set his mic down and attempted to lead the crowd in some light aerobics, which I felt was a refreshing change of pace from the usual hands-in-the-air nonsense. Near the end of his set he announced: “This next song was written in a remote cabin in your state during a schizophrenic freak out. You should be proud!”

Danny Brown was clearly more of a crowd favorite. He and rapper friend/acting hype-man Dopehead (who seemed to be doing his level best to eat the microphone while he was rapping) got those proverbial hands in the air with nonchalant delivery and more bass than the audience knew what to do with. Brown himself was all swinging arms and shrugging shoulders bound up in the best exotic fish Hawaiian shirt I’ve seen in a while. He was obviously enjoying himself, so I had no problem following suit.

Danny Brown and Dopehead engaging in thoughtful discourse with the audience.

Next up: Das Racist. The joke rap/weed rap/whatever rap trio was obviously who everyone was waiting for. Suddenly Lincoln Theatre seemed a lot more crowded. Maybe not Hopscotch crowded, but space was definitely at a premium within spitting distance of the stage.

Heems

Heems started off by claiming that they were Skrillex and introducing almost every song as “another dubstep banger.” Their set drew pretty heavily from the group’s first non-mixtape release, Relax, but there were quite a few classics sprinkled in (notably, “You Oughta Know,” “Rapping 2 U,” and “Who’s That? Brooown!”). Lakutis, who had been DJing/cuing music and samples via laptop for all three acts, even took up a mic to perform a song from his own upcoming release.

Kool A.D. rapping to someone's mom.

At one point the audience was asked to throw any old non-smart phones they had onto the stage. Someone actually threw an old flip phone up and Kool A.D. proceeded to call that person’s mother and rap his verse to her in the next song.

Danny Brown and Despot came back out for an all-star rendition of “Power” near the end of the set. Kool A.D. took a few stage dives. Lakutis triggered that air horn sample (you know the one) a few hundred more times. It was a fun set. I caught up with Dapwell after the show for a few minutes in which I told him that Atlanta was a 30-hour flight from Raleigh and he told me about a new auto-tune pedal they’re going to work into the set. I borrowed Heems’ charger when my phone died and he didn’t really mind.

Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart

1. Don Van Vliet, more popularly known as the iconic experimental rocker Captain Beefheart, passed away on December 17 due to complication from multiple sclerosis. The Michael Warner Gallery that represented his work as a painter officially announced his death, and in a statement said, “Don Van Vliet was a complex and influential figure in the visual and performing arts.” He was 69 years old. (via Rolling Stone)

2. Singer-guitarist of Sonic Youth, Thurston Moore, has announced plans to work on a solo album. The album, which will be produced by Beck, is titled “Benediction” and will be released on Matador Records. (via Philadelphia Weekly)

3. Das Racist was recently detained and deported from the United Kingdom after being stopped at customs. The group has claimed that they were detained for over eight hours after problems with paperwork. Following their wait, they were sent back to Switzerland. (via DasRacist.net)

4. After completing a song for an upcoming movie, in an interview with Pitchfork, The National’s Aaron Dessner has mentioned a collaboration between the band and singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten. The band is currently working with her in the early stages of an upcoming record that is in its earliest of stages. (via Pitchfork)

5. Peter Bjorn and John have announced their next record. The follow-up to 2009′s “Living Things” is titled “Gimme Some” and will be released March 29. (via Pitchfork)