Coldplay, Beastie Boys, Tool to Headline 2009 All Points West Festival

The Beastie Boys, Tool and Coldplay will headline the three nights of this year's second annual All Points West Festival, which goes down July 30th to August 2nd at New Jersey's Liberty State Park. Acts rounding out the lineup include My Bloody Valentine, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend, Arctic Monkeys, Echo & the Bunnymen, MGMT, Black Keys, Fleet Foxes and many more. Tickets for Coachella's sister festival go on sale Friday, April 3rd for both single-day and three-day options.

Because many concert-goers experienced epic travel delays at last year's inaugural APW (click here for Rock Daily's complete 2008 APW coverage), the festival's promoters say there will be more ferries running to and from the fest at a lower price. Additionally, the light rail option will be free this year. Also a plus, organizers say the beer gardens queues won't require you to wait 45 minutes to get a drink or use the restroom.

To help stave off the recession-related problems that have riddled festivals this year, APW organizers are offering a multitude of payment plans for three-day passes ranging from half-now, half-later plans to a deal that includes a 10 percent charge upfront and 30 percent for the next three months leading up to the fest. For more details, check out the All Points West site.

Friday, July 31: Beastie Boys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend, The National, Fleet Foxes, MSTRKRFT, Q-Tip, The Pharcyde, Organized Konfusion, The Knux, Ra Ra Riot, Seasick Steve, Telepathe, Shearwater, Heartless Bastards, Flying Lotus, College Humor Live, Arj Barker, Eugene Mirman and Bo Burnham.

Saturday, August 1: Tool, My Bloody Valentine, Gogol Bordello, Arctic Monkeys, Neko Case, The Ting Tings, Yelle, Crystal Castles, St. Vincent, Tokyo Police Club, The Cool Kids, Kool Keith, Cage the Elephant, Chairlift, White Rabbits, Electric Touch, The Postelles, Black Gold, College Humor Live, Tim & Eric, Judah Friedlander and Jim Jeffries.

Sunday, August 2: Coldplay, Echo & The Bunnymen, MGMT, The Black Keys, Elbow, Silversun Pickups, Mogwai, We Are Scientists, Ghostland Observatory, The Gaslight Anthem, Etienne De Crecy, Lykke Li, Akron/Family, Steel Train, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, College Humor Live, Janeane Garofalo, Michael Showalter and Todd Barry.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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