Matador At 21 Delivers Epic Lineup

If there's one indie label that could possibly be construed as "major", it'd have to be Matador. Not only were they the leaders of the indie movement in the early 90's, but they also have amassed an unparalleled lineup of both current artists and alumni, to the point of almost singularly defining an era in music.

Given that, we weren't exactly shocked (although frankly, quite pleased) to see that the label's annual "Matador At..." anniversary party will feature a bulletproof selection of their very best. Read along with us on this one kids: a reunited Pavement, the always lovely Sonic Youth, Belle & Sebastian, and a (what?!?!) seemingly reunited Guided By Voices. And those are just the headliners.

Former Matador signees Spoon will also be in attendance, along with Matador's long time kings of cool Yo La Tengo, and a vast selection of the label's current roster: Girls, Kurt Vile, Ted Leo, and Cold Cave, to name a few.

Needless to say, we are incredibly stoked for the event, which takes place October 1st-3rd of this year. While we're not exactly sure why it's in Las Vegas (Cheap flights and hotels? Rock stars like to gamble?) We will say that this fest is looking like the "it" spot for the fall. If you need some inspiration, it might be exactly the thing your looking for. Yum.

Hippies Are Dead's Second Anniversary: Photo Giveaway Contest!

Yes kids, that's right: it was two years ago today that Hippies Are Dead got our groove on with a tiny little post about an undersold Animal Collective show at The Fillmore. My how times change.

Here we are two years later, and still going strong. We've managed to expand to New York while maintaining a San Francisco presence, and we continue to be impressed and amazed as more and more killer music is propagated upon the world.

Of all of our experiences over the past two years, probably the most rewarding has been our coverage of live shows. Live music has been an HAD focus since the beginning, and as such it's provided the impetus for a lot of our original content, and more importantly the HAD Archive.

So, here's the deal: We're so excited about HAD's 2nd anniversary, that we want to hit you, our readers, up with a little thank you. As such, we'll be giving away two large-size (we haven't decided just how large yet), archival quality prints from the HAD Archive. All you have to do is send an email to contests@hippiesaredead.com with a note telling us which photo you'd like a print of, and how you discovered HAD. That's it! We'll pick two winners at the end of next week and get your photos on their way.

Thanks again for a great two years folks, we're looking forward to a lot more.