Ah, so many sexy Bonnaroo memories from ‘08! Let’s start off with a bang, specifically the Royal Bangs, our new favorite rockers, whose late-night set featured tracks from the Knoxville quintet’s awesome new album, We Breed Champions. We got a thrill meeting guitar magicians Larry Campbell and Charlie Sexton, who were key members of Bob Dylan’s greatest post-Rolling Thunder band from 1999 to 2002. Sexton played with up-and-comer Matt Morris (a singer-songwriter on Justin Timberlake’s Tennman Records), and Campbell tore shit up with Levon Helm. And we’ve rapped with Ed Vedder before, but it was rad to chat up Michael McCready, who told us that Pearl Jam are crackin’ away on a new disc, to be produced by Brendan O’Brien. PJ bassist Jeff Ament updated us on his reunion with Green River at Sub Pop’s 20th-anniversary party in July. “We had a couple of practices two months ago, and it was the first time Stone [Gossard] and I had been in a room with those guys in 25 years or so,” Ament says. “It was like, ‘Yeah, we’re grunge!” Ament also informed us about an upcoming battle of the bands, on the basketball court. “‘Jeff, you better bring your A game, Gramps, ’cause the Jacket’s gonna be ballin’ on y’all,’” Ament read from an e-mail he’d received from My Morning Jacket’s Jim James.” ‘We’re gonna put the hurt on you, dawg!’” The showdown was supposed to take place at last year’s Lollapalooza, but the Jacket backed out. “We couldn’t make it,” says James. Why not? “Um, we had to rehearse with an orchestra.”

*****

We felt quite haggard upon our return from Tennessee, but there was no time to rest. We saw Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers rip up the Garden — they played our new favorite Petty song, “Sweet William,” a hard-to-find B side to their ‘99 single “Room at the Top.” (Check it out on YouTube.) And we caught an amazing Steely Dan set at the Beacon, where they killed with album cuts like “Everything You Did” and “Show Biz Kids.” (Walter Becker also took a rare turn at the mike, singing his ass off on “Gaucho.”) Waiting on our desk when we got home was Brian Wilson’s wild new opus, That Lucky Old Sun. “Morning Beat” is about the joys of waking up in L.A.; “Forever She’ll Be My Surfer Girl” features Beach Boys-esque harmonies; and “Narrative: Venice Beach” offers the killer line “Venice Beach is popping like live shrimp dropped on a hot wok…. Home for all the homeless, hopeless, well-heeled and deranged.” After a listen, we rang Mr. Wilson in his studio. “It’s something completely different from Pet Sounds and Smile,” he says, heaping praise on his 12-piece backing band, the Wondermints. “There are narrations, there’s a theme song — ‘That Lucky Old Sun’ — and then there are regular songs. It goes back and forth between them. How else would I describe it? I would describe it as a piece of art.”

Photo: Getty