If it weren’t for recent alternative hitmakers The Naked and the Famous and Silversun Pickups, the main stage at BFD 2012 on June 2 at Shoreline Amphitheater would feel like a 1990s time machine. Jane’s Addiction, Garbage and Cake will headline the festival, Live 105 has announced.
Jane’s Addiction originally broke up in 1991 at the height of their popularity, They have reunited, broken up and reunited again since then, with no letup in the accompanying drama. Last year, they released just their fourth album in the over 25 years since the band was founded, The Great Escape Artist.
Garbage peaked in the mid-’90s with hits like “Stupid Girl” and “Only Happy When It Rains”; they never officially broke up, but have gone on “hiatus” several times. They are set to release their fifth album, Not Your Kind of People, next month.
Of the returning ’90s alt-rock soldiers, only Cake has been active continuously since they formed in 1991. Best known for their 1996 hit “The Distance,” their sixth record Showroom of Compassion debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts in 2011.
New Zealand’s the Naked and the Famous formed in 2008, the same year Jane’s Addiction reunited for the second time. Sounding eerily like Passion Pit’s long-lost twin band, they made the alt-radio Top 10 in 2010 with “Young Blood.” Fellow indie rockers Silversun Pickups, best known for “Lazy Eye” and “Well Thought Out Twinkies,” will release their new album, Neck of the Woods, next month.
Some of the festival’s coolest offerings are in the Subsonic Tent, which has become a magnet for up-and-coming, electro-friendly acts. This year Oakland’s Wallpaper, who are suddenly all over the late-night-television circuit and even have a song in the Top 40 despite an expletive in its title, will play there, as well as San Francisco’s budding girlrap star K. Flay, who killed last year on the local stage. Subsonic Tent mainstays the Limousines will do something slightly different this summer, spinning a DJ set. Other tent acts include Knife Party, Dragonette, and AmpLive of the Oakland duo Zion I performing with Eligh.
On the Soundcheck Local Band Stage this year are two South Bay bands, The Holdup and Young Science. The Stone Foxes, A B & The Sea, New Diplomat, Dirty Ghosts and more will also perform on the local band stage.
