Frequency blog: Music news and reviews from Bend and Central Oregon, by Ben Salmon | The Bulletin

If you’re on the Internet today, you may have noticed that the ginormous Tennessee music festival Bonnaroo is taking no fewer than NINE HOURS to announce its lineup, one excruciating band at a time. I’m all for creative announcements and hit-count-inflating promotional efforts, but it’s pretty ridiculous, really.

But, people are interested. You may be too. If the Bonnaroo Web site doesn’t work for you, try the MySpace or the Twitter.

Here’s something much more exciting, though, and much closer to home: Pickathon, the fast-growing indie-roots festival held each summer on 80 woodsy acres southeast of Portland, announced much of its 2010 lineup today. Last year, Pickathon’s lineup jumped to a new level of cool, and this year appears to be no different, with the following acts on the bill and “notable additions” to follow in the next few months:

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, The Heartless Bastards, Billy Joe Shaver, Langhorne Slim, The Cave Singers, These United States, Richmond Fontaine, Jill Andrews, The Cairo Gang, Frazey Ford, Breathe Owl Breathe, The Deep Dark Woods, T-Model Ford, Chatham County Line, Black Prairie, Megafaun, Michael Hurley, Roadside Graves, Elliott Brood, Stone River Boys, Red Stick Ramblers, Cotton Jones, Black Lillies, Casey MacGill’s Blue 4 Trio, Foghorn Stringband, Martha Scanlan, Seth Bernard and May Erlewine, Weinland, Sallie Ford, Frank Fairfield, Water Tower Bucket Boys, Town Mountain, Woody Pines, Captain Bogg Salty.

That’s a pretty awesome lineup. I can’t wait to see who else is playing. And, the double-bonus for Central Oregonians is that a few of these bands usually stop here and play on their way to and from Pickathon. Last year, we got Vetiver, Breathe Owl Breathe, Town Mountain and The Hackensaw Boys that way.

For more info on Pickathon, including when, where, cost, and so on, visit the festival’s Web site.

Vetiver performing at last year's Pickathon. Photo by Alissa Anderson