No Country’s Shaky Knees Rundown | Friday, May 9th @ Atlantic Station, Atlanta

Like we told you yesterday, we’re extremely pumped about the upcoming Shaky Knees Music Festival at Atlantic Station in Atlanta from May 9 – 11. We’re so excited, in fact, that we’ve gone ahead and made our lineup for the weekend. While there’s definitely room for flexibility, below the jump you can check out No Country’s “Absolutely Cannot Miss” shows at this year’s Shaky Knees. If you’ll be attending the festival, we hope to see you guys at some these shows. If not, well, you can still buy tickets here, or you can check out the videos we’ve got after the jump to familiarize yourself with the bands anyway.

THE NATIONAL
@ Peachtree Stage | 9:30 – 11:00

To begin, we’d like to introduce you readers to Friday’s headliner, The National. Chances are you’ve probably heard of the National before, or at least heard their music, since this Cincinatti born 5 piece has been playing together since 1999 and enjoyed a great measure of success over the course of their career. The group currently has 6 studio albums, and over the course of those albums has developed a unique sound that draws upon influences as varied as U2 and Leonard Cohen. The result is a warm, organic vibe that will stick with listeners for quite some time. With such rich melodies and mature songwriting, The National have certainly proven their domination of the indie acoustic rock space, and we highly encourage everyone to check out their set at Shaky Knees. They are, after all, Friday’s headliner.

WHITE DENIM
@ Peachtree Stage | 3:00 – 4:00

If the name White Denim rings a bell for you, but you just aren’t sure why you’ve heard their name, it might because they were one of our featured Bonnaroo Band of the Days a few days ago. Of course, you might already be a fan of White Denim, as this four-piece psychedelic group from Austin has been growing rapidly since their inception in 2006. White Denim plays a very heavy, distorted rock sound that is injected with the intellectualism and power of psychedelia. The group also likes to pull in the occasional soul or reggae influence in their tracks. What the audience is left with is a sound that embodied their favorite elements from a variety of genres and twists them into something engaging yet never before heard. They do this best live, so you really should try to catch this act at Shaky Knees if you can.

ROADKILL GHOST CHOIR
@ Vinyl at Centerstage | 12:30 AM – 2:00 AM

Continuing in the Bonnaroo theme, we’ve got Florida based five piece Roadkill Ghost Choir. This act plays Southern rock how it should be played: loud and passionate. Of course, the band does have its tender moments, but by far they excel most when jamming on a particularly groovy riff, and playing to the impressive vocals of lead singer Andrew Shepard. This group has made a lot of progress recently, including a stint on Letterman, and they are certainly deserving of your listen if you’ve got a minute.

THE BLACK CADILLACS
@ The Earl | 11:30 PM – 12:15 AM

The Black Cadillacs are our fellow statesmen, hailing from Knoxville, Tennessee. The five piece’s blues-rock sound has definitely taken hold here in Nashville, and we’re happy to report that these guy’s names and music are seemingly popping up everywhere around here. We suspect that Atlanta and the attendees of Shaky Knees will be equally as pleased with their dirty yet delightful sound; after all, it’s tough not to like the raucous sounds coming from the Black Cadillacs and their debut effort, Run. This show’s definitely going to be a fun one, and we highly recommend you catch this act.

CAGE THE ELEPHANT
@ Peachtree Stage | 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM

We’re like, 99.99% sure you’ve heard of Cage the Elephant before through our site, on the radio, in the record store, in the gym, in the coffee shop, in… well, they’ve most likely been on in the background somewhere that you have been recently. Since their self-titled debut hit shelves back in 2008, this Kentucky (and Nashville) based four piece has been all over the map, and reached a level of success that most bands can only dream of. The group’s sound tends to change considerably from album to album, but their most recent effort, Melophobia, will certainly appeal to the indie rock crowd at Shaky Knees. Seeing as indie rock seems to be the theme and target audience of Shaky Knees, we anticipate this to be one of the best attended and most anticipated performances of the entire weekend.

WILD BELLE
@ Piedmont Stage | 2:15 PM – 3:00 PM

Wilde Belle is one of those bands whose debut album absolutely rocked. While it’s impossible to predict where they will go from here, the strength of Isles is undeniable, as their rapidly growing fan base attests to. The brother-sister duo plays plays a delightful indie-pop getup, which often feature prominent baselines and drum parts. In comparison to many of the indie-rock based acts featured during Shaky Knees, we suspect this one will have a bit more of beat to dance to. Furthermore, the chemistry between Natalie and Elliot Bergman is quite evident in their studio recordings, and they were even more interesting the last time we saw them live at Starry Nights Festival. This one is a definite must see while you’re at Shaky Knees, and if you like what you hear, they actually have a Nashville show on May 7th at the High Watt.

MAN MAN
@ Boulevard Stage | 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Our final act that you cannot miss on Friday at Shaky Knees is Man Man. Beginning in Philadelphia back in 2003, Man Man has made a name for themselves playing an incredibly unique style of music, which draws upon aspects of music from across the experimental rock genre. The band centers around the piano abilities of Honus Honus, with the rest of the musicians playing a huge number of different instruments. Because of the ever changing instrumentation, each and every Man Man track has a different vibe, but all of them beg to be listened to, but don’t just take our word for it: check out one of Man Man’s more popular tracks, “Head On (Hold On To Your Heart)” below, and formulate your own opinion on this unique act.