Las Vegas Weekly

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Looking for an excuse to head west for Labor Day Weekend? If you're a music lover, you got a big one today, when LA's annual FYF Fest unveiled its 2012 lineup.

From where I'm sitting, it's loaded with quality bands, especially considering two-day passes will cost just $77 (on sale Friday at 5 p.m. through Ticketfly). By way of comparison, Coachella tickets were priced around $300 this year, and while that SoCal fest ran one extra day and featured headliners like Radiohead and Dr. Dre, I actually spot more acts on the FYF flier that excite me. Call me crazy.

For starters, in keeping with tradition, this year's FYF Fest will feature a bunch of veteran punk, hardcore and post-hardcore bands—some of them recently reunited or rarely seen—like Refused, Quicksand, American Nightmare, Turbonegro, Hot Snakes, Converge, Redd Kross, F*cked Up and Conor Oberst's Desaparecidos.

The bill is also loaded with indie darlings of varying types and sizes—M83, Beirut, Yeasayer, Sleigh Bells, Interpol's Paul Banks, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Warpaint, Atlas Sound and more—along with electronically-oriented acts like Simian Mobile Disco, James Blake, The Field and John Maus.

Rounding out the poster: a few alt-rock veterans (Dinosaur Jr., The Vaselines), some noisy experimentalists (Liars, Lightning Bolt, Black Dice) and underground hip-hop icon Aesop Rock.

The fest runs Saturday and Sunday, September 1 and 2, which means you'll probably have Monday's holiday to rest/recuperate/travel home. As it did last year, the event takes place outdoors at LA State Historic Park, the only aspect that gives me pause. The 2011 edition turned into a massive dustbowl—particularly for those of us near the rail for favorite acts—and left me with a nasty cough that lasted more than a week. It won't keep me from going back.