All Points West's Best: 24 Can't-Miss Sets

The thing that makes All Points West, the New Jersey festival currently celebrating its second year, so special is its knack for pairing your favorite bands with your new favorite bands. To get this out of the way immediately, write down the following names: the National and the Gaslight Anthem. Those are the bands you will leave this festival loving, and the bands you can expect to see closing out festivals in a few years time.

Which is not to short-sell any other act on the lineup. What makes planning a perfect All Points West so tricky is the fact that every act is worthy. What more can you say about a festival where, when the Beastie Boys cancel, their replacement is Jay-Z?

On a bill loaded with must-sees, here are our picks for the cream of the crop. And stay tuned throughout the weekend — Rolling Stone will be on the ground bringing you live reports, photos and interviews direct from APW.

Friday

1:00-1:40 p.m. - Heartless Bastards
This is the way you want to start a music festival, with Erika Wennerstrom's unbridled, unholy howling and a barrage of blackened riffs. The Heartless Bastards have been refining their sound since 2003, moving from scuffed-up blues riffing to pained and potent guitar rock. The change in style hasn't diluted their power: their songs are still emotional tornadoes, perfectly capturing the agony of heartbreak and the matchless pain of raw longing. At 1 in the afternoon, with the hot summer sun at the height of its powers, their set is a must-see.

2:00-2:45 p.m. - Shearwater
Here's a way to prep yourself for Coldplay's closing-night slot. Austin's Shearwater packs all of Chris Martin's bright-eyed stridency into smaller, artier packages. Their latest record, Rook, was an underrated masterpiece. Its sweeping songs are loaded with both odd ornithological references and dark contemplations of mortality. And, sure, that kind of heady intellectualism doesn't always make for prime summer listening, but Shearwater's ace-in-the-hole is Jonathan Meiburg's grand, majestic voice — the kind of roof-reaching tenor that can generate chills even in 90-degree weather.

3:35-4:25 p.m. - Fleet Foxes
Few things are better suited to outdoor enjoyment than four-part harmonies and long, loping country songs. Fortunately, Fleet Foxes deliver both in abundance, dosing their windswept Appalachia with coy indie rock sensibilities. There's a haunting, madrigal quality to their songs — they sound like incantations you might hear moaned out in monasteries — provided those monasteries were located on a mountain range in North Dakota. Equal parts magic and mystery, Fleet Foxes are country music for people who gave up on country music.

4:50-5:40 p.m. - The National
A few weeks ago at the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago, the National got a rowdy, drunken crowd of 20,000 to do the impossible: go pin-drop silent and pay attention. Such is the power and potency of this remarkable band. Trust us: of the recent crop of indie bands clamoring for space on blogs and iPods, this is the one that will be around in 20 years. Their tiny songs expand effortlessly to fit a festival setting, starting out as tiny pirouettes and steadily building to grand, stormy conclusions. It helps that frontman Matt Berninger is one of rock's most riveting presences, moving from confined to unhinged within the space of a single song. If their APW set is on par with past performance, expect a dazzling set that demands both respect and reverance of its audience. Indie rock generation, your new R.E.M. has arrived.

5:30-6:20 p.m. - Organized Konfusion
Organized Konfusion may not have sold as many records as their mid-'90s hip-hop peers, but the lyrics of MCs Pharoah Monch and Prince Po were without any clear equal. Both have gone on to moderately successful solo careers (their records continue to be underrated masterpieces rather than commercial blockbusters), making this reunion the kind of rarity that's not-to-be-missed. At a time when hip-hop has gone limp with Auto-Tuned non-stars, Organized Konfusion's grand, grimy sound should provide a welcome respite.

6:10-7:00 p.m. - Vampire Weekend
A year ago it seemed like Vampire Weekend were alienating as many people as they were convincing. Pouty gripers took issue with the group's upper crust background and champagne sensibilities, while still others fretted over what they deemed an "appropriation of Afropop." From this distance, those arguments seem sillier than ever. Vampire Weekend write light, jubilant pop songs, buoyed by big choruses, laced up with leaping guitar and helmed by Ezra Koenig's bright-eyed tenor — experts in the very kind of bright, skipping songs that summer is made for. Is it their fault they have a thing for boat shoes and polo shirts?

7:15-8:45 p.m. - Flying Lotus
Flying Lotus's Los Angeles was a small, mysterious record that appeared out of nowhere and hypnotized most everyone who heard it. It's hard to tell how his songs will play outside — Lotus' area of expertise is the kind of dark, dubby electronic music that defined the first Portishead record. If he's on, though, he's not to be missed: Lotus' songs have a weird, indescribable energy, built on big beats and decorated with twisting, off-key synths and eerie, disembodied vocal snatches. If he can fight his enemy the sun, Lotus should be able to bring a welcome bit of evil to August in New Jersey.

9:10 p.m. - Jay-Z
And to think: Jay is a replacement act. It doesn't matter the kind of music he plays: Jay-Z is a rock star, one of the few left in popular music, commanding the stage with the kind of ease and bravado that comes from years of experience. Jay has performed both solo and with a live band, but his command and delivery is the same in both settings. He adds emphasis to key phrases and restructures songs to suit his mood and environment. And though he'll likely be previewing tracks from the forthcoming Blueprint 3, like any good showman, Hova knows that the people are there for the hits. The spirited bounce of "Roc Boys" and metal crunch of "99 Problems" are perfect close for a cool summer night.