Every five years, Merge Records, one of the greatest independent record labels of all time, throws itself a festival in its home base of North Carolina. Merge was founded in 1989, the same summer label founders Mac MacCaughan and Laura Ballance started Superchunk. (They came up with the name for the label while driving from legendary Sub Pop Lame Fest in Seattle — read their great 2009 label history Our Noise for more such factoids!) That means we’re up to 35 years of the label that gave us classics from Neutral Milk Hotel, Magnetic Fields, Spoon, Arcade Fire, Destroyer, Wye Oak, Waxahatchee, and many more.

Merge 35 is set for July 24-27 at the legendary Cate’s Cradle in Carrboro. Tickets go on sale next Friday, Feb. 9 at 11AM ET. The lineup features a bunch of excellent Merge artists new and old, including Superchunk, Destroyer, Wye Oak, the New Pornographers, William Tyler, Torres, Mary Timony, Hiss Golden Messenger, Rosali and many more. Here they are in alphabetical order.

LINEUP:
A Giant Dog
Eric Bachmann
Greg Cartwright (of Reigning Sound)
The Clientele
Destroyer
Friendship
Fruit Bats
Hiss Golden Messenger
Imperial Teen
David Kilgour
Mike Krol
Lambchop
H.C. McEntire
Carson McHone
M(h)aol
The New Pornographers
Previous Industries
Redd Kross
Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn
Rosali
Superchunk
Mary Timony
TORRES
William Tyler
Wye Oak