The music festival season is upon us! Line-ups, dates and venues are continuously being announced for this summer's crop of festivals. Here's the lowdown on some of the biggest American musical smorgasbords:

It's been a long eight years for America…longer for some than others (see New Orleans). Luckily, we have some very creative musical artists out there suffering along with us. For them, the first amendment is expressed through their music.

On October 7th Rise Against will release Appeal To Reason, the follow up to their breakthrough record, The Sufferer & The Witness which featured the anthemic smashes "Ready To Fall" and "Prayer of the Refugee."

Punk veterans NOFX have joined the line-up at the U.S. Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

...In April, Billy Corgan announced that Smashing Pumpkins will reunite and begin recording a new album... Rihanna released her sophomore disc, Unfaithful, featuring the single S.O.S., which includes a sample of Soft Cell's Tainted Love... and Cee-Lo and DangerMouse's collaboration, Gnarls Barkley took the U.S. by storm, as their hit single Crazy stormed the charts and took off as one of 2006's most popular tunes.

In 2003, Mest frontman Tony Lovato fulfilled his childhood dream -- and it almost killed him. "As a kid I always said that if I ever played the whole Warped Tour, I could die the next day a happy man," Lovato says, who performed on the punk rock summer tour's stage a few days after having back surgery. As always, Mest gave one hell of a show. "The next day, which was my birthday, I woke up literally in tears because I couldn't move my back at all."