Between delayed lineup announcements and intermittent homelessness, it's been a bumpy summer for outdoor live music in NYC.  You'd think Jelly's announcement of its Pool Party schedule would perk things up. But even that unveiling was laced with drama and inevitable hipster backlash.

First there was rare restlessness among Brooklyn's notoriously listless indie cognoscenti. The Jelly website was a total rock tease for weeks, withholding (or scrambling to put together) an official lineup for this season's installment of its wildly popular Pool Parties. Then a fake schedule was posted to Jelly's twitter feed yesterday in a bit of sly, misleading guerilla marketing for the actual announcement or a rival's prank or intern negligence.

Finally the Real McCoy went live last night (posted below), even if you couldn't get the scoop on the official site, which was stubbornly down 'til five minutes ago, with a taunting "ALMOST DONE!!!" headline and nothing else.

Now, the rabid music geeks who don't appear to like any music at all over on Brooklyn Vegan have turned the comment pages into a bitter cesspool that makes the Gowanus Canal glisten like a Tahitian high tide by comparison.

Excerpts reveal terse criticism:

"what a shitty lineup"

...and schoolyard mockery:

"Oh, also on July 18th there will be a tent where your mom will be giving free handjobs."

"Booked your mom as a special guest"

...and more subtle digs at a free series that has been mobbed in the past:

"AT least they won't have to worry about overcrowding this year."

There is some choice, subtle wordplay:

"SURE LOOKS LIKE JELLY IS IN A JAM. GET IT?"

But there's also a more perceptive, though reassuringly profane gripe about the increasingly electro-leaning (Cut Copy, Memory Tapes, Chromeo, Delorean) shindig:

"Underwhelming lineup. Nobody here on the level of Dirty Projectors/Grizzly Bear last year. This shit is too dance-y."

That commenter, alias GOD, is on to something. Traditional rock appears on the calendar in hook-laden (Future Islands) and less accessible lo-fi noise (No Age) form, and the Pool Parties inexplicably kick off their new year with a tribute to old masters of brooding rock Joy Division on July 11th.

But dance music continues to make inroads with a demographic of self-conscious and perpetually weary 20-somethings that not too long ago refused to dance. It's especially interesting given the slew of al fresco dance-offs like Sunday Best and Warm Up that the Pool Parties are slowly starting to resemble as they all compete for weekend crowds.

No word yet on the fate of the Slip N' Slide, which was conspicuously absent last year after Jelly's shindig moved from McCarren Park Pool to Williamsburg's East River State Park. But a more important question is whether the Pool Parties have slipped and slid from their old spot atop the summer music totem pole.

Ignore the Negative Nancies over at BK Vegan and decide for yourself:

July 11
Xiu Xiu and Deerhoof play Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures
Why?
Fang Island
Pictureplane

July 18
Murder City Devils
Obits
Jeff the Brotherhood
Silverghost

July 25
Cap'n Jazz
Lightning Bolt
No Age
The Death Set

August 1 (at Brooklyn Bowl)
TBA Block Party

August 8
Cut Copy
Memory Tapes
Glasser
Restless People

August 15
!!!
Lee Fields
The Strange Boys
Future Islands

August 22
Chromeo
TBA
The Suzan
Telephoned

August 29
"Super Special Guests"
Delorean
Dominique Young Unique

[Photo via Robert Stolarik/NYT]