80/35 2009: Which bands will play?

The Des Moines Music Coalition is planning to announce the initial wave of 80/35 acts April 7, so that means time for speculation is running out. Because I have way too much time on my hands I decided to compile a list of bands we won't see there, and some we could see at Western Gateway Park.

We'll start with the bands that won't be coming. The July 2-5 Roskilde Festival in Denmark has the following acts:
Coldplay (But you can see them June 12 at Wells Fargo)
Slipknot (May 14 in Cedar Rapids)
Madness
Oasis
The Mars Volta
Fleet Foxes
Nine Inch Nails

The July 2-5 Rock Werchter festival in Belgium is also taking some acts out of the running:
Dave Matthews Band (Playing Principal Park Sept. 25)
Prodigy
Oasis
Lily Allen
The Killers
Bloc Party
Lady Gaga
Jason Mraz
M. Ward
Kings of Leon
Nick Cave
Franz Ferdinand
Limp Bizkit
Rodrigo Y Gabriela
Social Distortion
Katy Perry
Mogwai
Yeah Yeah Yeah
Regina Spektor
Kaiser Chiefs
Nine Inch Nails
Mastodon

Some other bands who are otherwise occupied:
Wilco (80/35 Project Manager Amedeo Rossi said they have a as-of-yet unannounced west coast show)
Ani DiFranco (Playing Rothbury, but also playing the July 2-5 High Sierra festival in California.)
The Disco Biscuits (At Rothbury and High Sierra)
Blur (July 2-3 shows in England)

The following acts have a July 5 show in LA (making a Midwest show unlikely):
New Pornographers
Tegan and Sara
Death Cab for Cutie

And though I'm sure it saddens everyone, Def Leppard has a July 4 show in Toronto.

OK, so those are the unlikely acts let's see who is in the area and has July 3-4 open:
No Doubt (July 3 in Detroit, July 5 in St. Paul, no July 4 date)
Jack's Mannequin (July 4 in Milwaukee, no July 3 date)

Two acts I've heard on a lot of wish lists are Beck and the Beastie Boys.
Beck doesn't have any tour dates announced that far out. The Beastie Boys have only announced Bonnaroo on June 12.

Connor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band are doing a lot of festivals this year and being based out of Omaha means they're close. The group is at Summerfest June 25.

Ben Harper is at a ton of festivals this summer (Bonnaroo, Sasquatch, lots in Europe) and has no dates between a June 27 show in London and the July 11 All Good Festival in West Virginia.

Phish would be huge, but their tour doesn't seem to start until late July. There were rumors they would play Rothbury, but so far no confirmation of that.

The July 2-5 Rothbury Festival in Michigan is a likely source of a few acts, it happened last year with Yonder Mountain String Band, Jakob Dylan and a few others. I'm pretty certain you'll see one or more of these acts in Des Moines. I'm leaving out some bands that played here last year (Yonder Mountain) or played the area recently (The Black Crowes, Willie Nelson).

The Dead
Bob Dylan
String Cheese incident
STS9
G. Love & Special Sauce
Broken Social Scene
Les Claypool
Cold War Kids
MSTRKRFT
Matisyahu
Girl Talk
Guster
Flogging Molly
Railroad Earth
The Hold Steady
Man Man

Keep in mind that the headliner doesn't have to be someone touring in the area, it could be an act that flies in for a one-off show. That's the case for lots of hip hop acts. After The Roots last year I would hope the genre gets some representation in '09. They aren't headliner level, but Quannum All Stars with Lyrics Born are at Rothbury, and Lyrics Born is awesome.

So what do you think? Have you found some acts who seem likely? Any favorites you want to see there? How about local bands?