Spoon, St. Vincent, Mastodon head up Hopscotch Festival

Raleigh's Hopscotch Festival, which takes place September 4, 5 and 6, revealed its initial lineup today. The 5th Annual Hopscotch Festival will feature Spoon and St. Vincent as headliners Friday with progressive Atlanta metal outfit Mastodon, NC's hard rock masters Valient Thorr, and Detroit's reignited punk trio Death heading up Saturday's bill.

Other acts include San Francisco folk-rock act Sun Kil Moon (featuring Red House Painters' Mark Kozelek), a solo set from current psych-folk favorites Phosphorescent, stoner kings High on Fire, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore (who will play his own set and join other acts as the festival's Improviser-in-Residence), British producer Jamie XX, indie jazz pop quartet iiii, Brooklyn psychedelic dance duo Prince Rama, Canadian DJ and producer Lunice, buzzing garage rockers Diarrhea Planet, veteran space rocker Nik Turner's Hawkwind, experimental soul dance outfit Ava Luna, Canadian punks White Lung, Mississippi synth-soul guru Dent May, and the first appearance from former Ween frontman man Aaron Freeman's new band Freeman (pictured). Freeman includes members of the triangle's Lost in the Trees, Megafaun, and the Foreign Exchange.

Read the 115 act lineup here.

Hopscotch's lineup consists of almost half NC-based acts including Charlotte rapper Deniro Farrar, reunited Chapel Hill rockers the White Octave, Asheville garage rock combo Reigning Sound, Raleigh's Lonnie Walker (who'll open for St. Vincent and Spoon Friday), Raleigh roots rock favorites American Aquarium, and Raleigh rock trio Young Cardinals. Another round of acts will be announced at a later date. The schedule will be released in June.

I'm particularly interested in the appearance of Death, the subject of the compelling documentary produced by Charlotte filmmaker Jeff Howllet. The Hackney brothers' punk trio predated punk in the `70s, but its work was never widely heard. It was only years after brother David's death that their music went viral and was actually released. Given renewed interest in their music brothers Dennis and Bobby Hackney reformed the group with a new guitarist and have been playing sporadic gigs for the last couple of years and recently put out a new album.

VIP tickets and 3-day passes, which include entry into all the clubs hosting acts as well as both headlining shows in Raleigh's City Plaza, are currently available here . Individual tickets for the City Plaza shows will be made available soon for $40 per night.

Hopscotch takes place at a series of venues in and around downtown Raleigh. For more information check out http://hopscotchmusicfest.com/.