In previous years, Norman Music Festival has done an incredible job of bringing acts to town that would rarely, if ever, come here. Of Montreal, Dirty Projectors and The Polyphonic Spree are were headliners that sparked an “oh, man, I can’t believe that they got them” excitement.

This year’s main stage doesn’t feature an artist like that. With the exception of Ty Segall, four of the five national touring acts on the main stage have been in the metro before (two of them in Norman!) within the last two years:

• The Walkmen: Meacham Auditorium, October 2009
• Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears: Diamond Ballroom, June 2009
• Peelander-Z: The Conservatory, October 2010, among other concerts
• Foot Patrol: Opolis, May 2010

Here’s the full Saturday main stage schedule, in reverse:

9:30 p.m. — The Walkmen
8 p.m. — Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
6:30 p.m. — PeeLander-Z
5 p.m. — Ty Segall
3:30 p.m. — The Fortune Tellers
2:30 p.m. — Foot Patrol
1:40 p.m. — The Non
12:50 p.m. — Penny Hill Party

Headliner letdown aside, I’m relentlessly stoked that The Non finally made it to the main stage, but I’m baffled that they’re opening for The Fortune Tellers on the bill. The Fortune Tellers are an on-again/off-again band based in the metro and, uh, Greece.

I’m also surprised in a good way that Penny Hill is opening the main stage (and a band, I’m assuming, as the “party” bit). Good for her!

Headlining other stages: jam band dude Keller Williams on the Jagermeister Stage, Mississippi indie-rockers Color Revolt (not to be confused with Colourmusic) on Sooner Theater Stage, and Austin indie-pop group White Denim at Opolis.

But the most exciting headliner of the entire festival is on Thursday night at Opolis, as Norman indie-rockers The Neighborhood are re-forming. Philip Rice (now of Visions of Choruses), Matt Duckworth (now of Stardeath and the White Dwarfs), Blake Studdard (also Visions of Choruses) and Eric Mai threw down some of the best rock that the metro has heard in recent years, and it was a shame that it fizzled out a couple years back. And now they’re back for at least one show, and perhaps more. This is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, headline of the festival.   

NMF4 is scheduled for April 28-30. The Gazette will be there, tweeting and blogging away, just as at SXSW.

I’m a Sad Panda, guys. I have to miss the Dustbowl Arts Market this year. This grieves me greatly. But just because I’m going to be lounging beside an Italian lake from the front terrace of a 16th-century farmhouse-turned-fabulous-B&B and drinking my way through Italy’s wine reserves (it’ll be hard work, guys, but I’m dedicated) doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have fun this weekend.

Seriously, though, I really am going to be a tiny bit sad missing this market. It’s one of my favorites. The Dustbowl Arts Market, for those not on an Italian vacation, is from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of Gray and Crawford in Norman.

There are more than 40 vendors slated to tempt you with their wares, including jewelry, clothing, pottery, photography, painting, textiles and more. The market also coincides with the Norman Music Festival.

So I’m just now recovering work-wise from Norman Music Festival. The below stack of music videos all came just before, during or in the week after the three-day extravaganza.

I’m even more sad that I missed The Gentle Art of Floating’s NMF set after seeing this video of what happened (and here’s a photo album, if you like cultivating regret):



Stuff catches fire inside a moving van during this Broncho clip:



The Royal Tenenbaums would approve of this hilarious clip from Arcade Fire-esque folksters Alcoholic Faith Mission, which details 12+ ways to bury your dead mouse:



Crossing the streams of awesome and ridiculous, here’s Jack Conte (Pomplamoose) performing the Mario theme completely on real instruments. Whoa:



The Black Ryder released this spaghetti Western video for “Sweet Come Down,” and it’s a clear example of a video outshining good-but-not-great track:



Emphatically dance-rockin’ Brits The Wombats invert “Lost in Translation” by having a party all over Tokyo, much to the chagrin of their tour manager:



Andrew Belle plays a delicate version of “The Ladder” that will please Ray LaMontagne fans while visiting The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, on which I wrote one of my first articles ever:



Still geeking out over my recent smartphone purchase, I’m thrilled that you can actually scan the barcode at 0:52 in this Lupe Fiasco video:



For no apparent reason, here’s Merge’s mellow-pop band The Ladybug Transistor performing a tune in a Holiday Inn bedroom: