Early this morning, via Twitter, President Obama’s campaign staff released a Spotify playlist of the music that will soundtrack the president’s upcoming reelection campaign. And the artists that made the cut represent quite an eclectic array of musicians.

Wilco, Ray Lamontagne and Arcade Fire round out some surprisingly indie choices, and other artists represent many other genres from soul to country to classic rock. Conspicuously absent, however, are any hip-hop songs.

In all, the playlist contains 28 songs, and includes notable artists like Bruce Springsteen (and his newest single “We Take Care of Our Own,”), Aretha Franklin and Al Green’s legendary “Let’s Stay Together.” President Obama sang a few bars of the latter song at a recent event at the Apollo Theater, surprising many in the audience, including his staff.

Country music also is represented strongly on the playlists, with Dierks Bentley, Sugarland, Darius Rucker, Montgomery Gentry and the Zac Brown Band all making appearances. In fact, Sugarland and Dierks Bentley each get two cuts on the list. The classic rock genre gets contributions from Earth Wind & Fire, Booker T. & the MG’s, REO Speedwagon and the Electric Light Orchestra all contributing music.

More seemingly out-of-place artists on the presidential playlist include No Doubt, Florence and the Machine, Noa and the Whale and Ricky Martin. A little known band called AgesandAges is also on the list, and have been described by local critics as a Portland, Ore. indie-band which features “raw choral pop.”

Other big names are U2 and James Taylor.

Spotify is a streaming music subscription service that was introduced to America last year. Users can sign up for a paid account, which will allow them to stream songs on their computer and/or mobile device with no ads. Users can obtain a free subscription, but the service plays ads between songs. Spotify users that already have an account can log in to the service and view and listen to the entire playlist.

This year’s Bridge School Benefit Concert lineup has been announced. The Neil Young annual event has a gigantic bill to celebrate the silver anniversary of the concert. It will take place on October 22 and 23 in Mountainview, CA at Shoreline Amphitheater.

Joining Neil Young for the weekend celebration will be Beck, Mumford and Sons, Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder, Arcade Fire and Los Invisibles with Carlos Santana.

Other performers listed on the official site of the concert include Diana Krall, the jazz queen, who will be performing on Saturday and Sunday performers Foo Fighters and Tony Bennett. It appears all the stars are showing up to support the cause near to Young’s heart.

The benefit concert is a fundraiser for the special school that was started in 1986 by Neil Young and his wife Pegi to help Ben, their son. On hand to help launch the inaugural concert were heavy hitters like Crosby, Stills & Nash, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. The show has become a staple for music lovers, which has taken place every year except for 1987.

On September 16, tickets will be going on sale at Live Nation. The concert proceeds will help to assist children with communication needs and disabilities.

This year Bonnaroo music festival is celebrating its tenth anniversary. They are bringing their A-game when it comes to the lineup. Headliners include The Black Keys, Arcade Fire and Eminem. It should come as no surprise that the festival has officially sold out. The only surprise is that it took three months for Bonnaroo tickets to sell out instead of weeks or days.

The festival audience is estimated to be 80,000. In addition to the big three acts, concert goeers can expect to see String Cheese Incident, The Decemberists, The Strokes, Mumford & Sons, Widespread Panic and Lil Wayne as part of the festival’s lineup, which proves the event will have a little something in the mix for everyone.

If the names just mentioned aren’t your thing, how about Scissor Sisters, Robyn, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals or Florence & the Machine. For lovers of country music, there’s icon Loretta Lynn.

In spite of some complaints about Bonnaroo (between the crowd and camping, things can get pretty backwoods and dirty), with this kind of lineup it isn’t hard to picture a sold out Bonnaroo when the festival opens on June 9.

On Tuesday, rumors that had been circulating for months about ACL’s festival lineup, were denied only to be later confirmed when the docket for the 10th anniversary festival was released officially.

Major headliners include Stevie Wonder (billed as the festival’s primary headliner who will have the only closing spot on Wednesday), Arcade Fire and Kanye West, which confirmed speculation following a picture that was published by SPIN Magazine with those three names. In terms of the three performers, not too many were surprised by Arcade Fire and Kanye West. Although, Stevie Wonder heading the top of the billing does seem out of place. However, the ACL festival does tend to choose their closers based on whom people most want to say they have seen. Stevie Wonder, despite not being very relevant currently, definitely is a legend.

The ACL’s festival lineup has some other surprises besides Wonder for this fall. Coldplay is one of the biggest headliners that have caught festival attendees completely off guard. They will perform on Saturday or Friday night, during one of the most coveted night spots opposite My Morning Jacket, Arcade Fire and Kanye. Coldplay will be a major draw among fans. Six years ago, they performed at the music festival and got a great reception.

Other highlights from the festival lineup include Empire of the Sun, Bright Eyes, Cee-Lo, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Fleet Foxes, The Head and the Heart, Cut Copy, Santogold, Cold War Kids and Ray LaMontagne.

The ACL festival will run September 16-18.

Thanks to leaks on the internet, the Montreux Jazz Festival announced their lineup for 2011 a few days early. The huge list of acts this year making their way to Switzerland include Deep Purple, Paul Simon, Sting, Ricky Martin and Santana.

Deep Purple performing at Montreux Jazz is particularly noteworthy considering that their song “Smoke On The Water” is a description of a real life fire at Montreux Casino. The line in the song about “Funky Claude” refers to Claude Nobs, the festival’s founder. Deep Purple with perform with a symphony orchestra at Montreux Jazz on July 16.

On July 6 Ricky Martin will be performing, on July 11 Sting will bring his “Symphonicity” tour to Montreux, on July12, Seal with perform and on July 14 Paul Simon will take to the stage.

Also highly anticipated are the Montreux collaborations including the Miles Davis tribute which will feature Sean Rickman, Sean Jones, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Marcus Miller. John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana will also perform together on July 1 before Santana performs on July 2.

The schedule also includes the artists Liza Minnelli, Femi Kuti, Jimmy Cliff, Raphael Saadiq, Melissa Auf Der Maur, Donovan Frankenreiter, Larry Graham and Graham Central Station, B.B. King and Arcade Fire.

Montreux organizers had planned to announce their lineup on April 14. However after they discovered it had been leaked on the internet, they made their initial announcement today.

Organizers stated that the fact that the information was catching this much attention and gave rise to so many rumors flattered them, although they would have preferred to announce their program on the scheduled April 14 date.

More acts are still scheduled to be announced on April.

On Monday, producers announced that Arcade Fire, Phish and Muse will be headlining the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival’s fourth annual edition. The event will be returning to their original run of three days on August 12-14 at Golden Gate Park.

Over 50 performers and bands are scheduled to perform at the mega event, including big name artists like the Roots, the Decemberists, Girl Talk, MGMT and the Black Keys. On Thursday tickets will be going on sale.

We are ecstatic about this stated Gregg Perloff, Another Planet Entertainment founder, the concert-promotion firm from Berkeley co-presenting the festival along with New Orleans-based Super Fly Productions, who also present Tennessee’s Bonnaroo Music and Art Festival. We believe this is the world’s best lineup.

Organizers last year had to cope with a summer concert season that was sluggish by trimming down the festival to just two days. The event still drew approximately 80,000 people over the course of the weekend to the park. Perloff is hoping with the bill this year to have even bigger numbers.

He said, the great thing about these bands is that they are credible and popular. That combination is rare.

Other performers scheduled to make appearances include OK Go and Beirut, Erykah Badu, the Original Meters, Deadmau5, Warren Haynes Band, Big Audio Dynamite, Arctic Monkeys and John Fogerty. Two sets will be formed by Phish. SFOutsideLands.com lists the complete lineup.

Once again, the festival will be spotlighting several local wineries and restaurants. Several art installations will also be spread across Speedway Meadow and Polo Field.

Perloff said, each year we want to do things better. This is a work in progress. However we have always thought to hit our stride would take four years.

Three days passes for Outside Land Music and Arts Festival taking place on August 12-14 will cost $175 to $199.50. Three day VIP tickets cost $450. A three day VIP parking pass will cost $140. For more information, visit SFOutsideLands.com.

Following their huge success at the BRIT Awards and the Grammys, Arcade Fire is adding concerts to their United States tour.

At the most recent Grammy Awards, the group nabbed the “Album of the Year” award for its third album, which is titled The Suburbs. This album also won the “Best International Album” award from the BRIT Awards, which was also held recently.

Among the new performances will be their first concert on April 9th in Broomfield, Colorado’s 1STBANK Center. Other new concerts have been added up to and including a May 4 show in The Woodlands, TX, at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.

The other dates that Arcade Fire added to their schedule are an April 11 concert in Orem, UT; an April 13 concert in Phoenix; and April 14 concert in Las Vegas; an April 18 concert in Santa Fe, N.M.; an April 20 concert in Kansas City, MO; an April 27 concert in Indianapolis; an April 28 concert in Memphis; an April 30 concert in Dallas; and a May 3 concert in Bee Cave, TX.

Based on information on Arcade Fire’s website, the tickets to these new performances will be available shortly.

Dates that were already included on the tour are an April 16 show at Coachellea, a May 6 concert at the Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans, and a three-concert set on April 22 and April 23-24 at Chicago’s UIC Pavilion.

The band intends to tour in Europe between June 17 and July 17. They also have two other performances slated for the United Kingdom on August 31 and September 1.
Arcade Fire and U2 will play a joint concert on July 30 in Moncton, New Brunswick at the Magnetic Hill Music Festival.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 2011 lineup will be bringing together country, jazz, pop and international rock headliners, including Jeff Beck, Kid Rock, Robert Plant, Bon Jovi, Arcade Fire, John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and Sonny Rollins. Scores of local acts from Louisiana and nearby will also be included as part of the impressive roster, as well as many Haitian performers.

Other artists scheduled to appear on the festival’s 12 stages this year over two weekends, April 29 – May 8, are Lauryn Hill, Tom Jones, Cyndi Lauper, the Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons, Jimmy Buffett, Jamey Johnson and Louisiana blues, rock, zydeco, Cajun, folk and gospel musicians such as Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, the Neville Brothers, Irma Thomas, Trombone Shorty, and Galactic.

Due to the strong cultural and historical connection between Haiti and New Orleans, festival organizers have focused much of their attention on performers from the Caribbean nation, including Tabou Combo Wyclef Jean, Emeline Michele and Boukman Eksperyans. Information on tickets is posted at the Jazz & Heritage Festival website.

Will Butler of Arcade Fire says the band will be touring next Spring.

The band has gigs booked through the middle of December when their dates in the UK end.  However, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Butler said the band would definitely announce additional shows for 2011′s first quarter.

He said, next Spring we will definitely tour.  The weather is a lot nicer for driving around in during the spring than the winter.

On November 2 Butler gave a talk at Northwestern University, the college in Illinois where he used to attend.  Butler discussed the work the band was doing with the charity Partners For Health.

Butler also said Arcade Fire was going to begin new writing sessions prior to their spring dates.

He said, this winter we will be experimenting.  We don’t know for sure what we will do in February.  However we will be off probably in January and March.  We haven’t ever successfully written anything or done much of anything while in the middle of touring.

Butler added that they would see if they could get into a rhythm that was different than just tour, rest, tour, rest.  We will see if we are able to intertwine those two things a bit.

Arcade Fire’s Portugal gig is being canceled due to NATO.

The band was set to kick off their dates in Europe at Lisbon’s Atlantica Pavilion on November 18.  However the military alliance is forcing the show to be postponed.

On November 19-20 the NATO Heads of State And Government are holding a summit meeting.  Authorities are not allowing the gig to proceed due to their resource for security being stretched because of the events’ close timing.

Arcade Fire did offer to perform their show on November 17, a day earlier.  However the organizers determined the date wasn’t feasible.

Scott Rodger, manager of Arcade Fire said, the whole band is disappointed in being forced into the situation.  However there ‘s nothing else we can do.  All tickets will be refunded and we will trying getting back to Portugal to see all of fans as soon as possible.

Starting on November 3, full refunds on tickets will be made at their point of purchase.