My Bloody Valentine Draft Sonic Youth for ATP: Nightmare Before Christmas

My Bloody Valentine will curate 2009's ATP: The Nightmare Before Christmas festival, which goes down at Minehead, England's Butlins Holiday Resort December 4th through 6th. If MBV wasn't enough reason to hop the Atlantic, so far Kevin Shields has recruited Sonic Youth, De La Soul, EPMD, the Horrors and Sun Ra Arkestra. Tickets go on sale this Friday, April 17th, at a one-week-only early bird price of £130, which includes a room at the resort.

This marks the second time since My Bloody Valentine's reunion that the Loveless group have curated an ATP event: In September 2008, MBV headlined the inaugural ATP New York, which also featured Dinosaur Jr., Yo La Tengo, Mercury Rev, Bob Mould and full album performances by Meat Puppets, Tortoise and Built to Spill. Kevin Shields must also really love EPMD and Thurston Moore, as both the rap group and the Sonic Youth frontman were on hand for the Catskills festival as well.

As Rock Daily previously reported, the 2009 ATP New York fest will be hosted by the Flaming Lips, who will bring along Animal Collective, Panda Bear, Jesus Lizard, Autolux and Melvins. The Feelies will also be on hand at Kutchers' Country Club in Montecello, New York to perform their entire Crazy Rhythms and Suicide will play their whole eponymous debut album. Tickets for that festival, going down September 11-13th, are on sale now.

And the Breeders are curating next month's ATP in England, which takes place May 15-17th. The Deal sisters have recruited X, Teenage Fanclub, Deerhunter and Gang of Four for their lineup, though "Kelley really wanted Emmylou Harris and Ralph Stanley," Kim Deal told Rock Daily, adding her dream was to book Dolly Parton.

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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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