In the throes of a killer party at the Neptune last night, we were thrilled beyond belief to find out the details on another most excellent year for the Sasquatch! music festival, taking place out at the Gorge on Memorial Day weekend {May 25-28}. Sasquatch! is by far one of our favorite fests every year, and 2012 is going to be no exception.

We're particularly excited about partying down with the likes of Jack White, Beck, Tenacious D, Beirut, Girl Talk {hell yes!}, The Head and the Heart, Tune-Yards, Wild Flag, Blind Pilot, Mark Lanegan Band, The Cave Singers, Grouplove, Ted Leo, Deer Tick, Alabama Shakes, We Are Augustines, Shearwater {!!!!!}, Charles Bradley, Pickwick, Hey Marseilles, Sallie Ford, Dyme Def, Fresh Espresso, and Katie Kate -- but by no means does that even scratch the surface of the seemingly-zillion fantastic bands included on this year's lineup. As usual, there's a thoughtful mash of notable locals and squee-worthy headliners, so much so that slapping down the ticket price to spend the long weekend with twenty-plus thousand of your closest friends is an absolute no-brainer.

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There's still time-a-plenty to get your Friday donewith and head on down to Portland for this year's installment of what's quickly becoming our favorite regional city-wide music festival, MusicFest Northwest. For four sweet nights (well, five technically, if you count the goings-on around town that started Wednesday) some of the best local and national-worthy acts sweep in and take over our hip sister city. There's a little something for everyone, and we can state from direct experience that you will have a hell of a weekend should you make the venture down south! The price is reasonable (although we can't recommend the line-skipping VIP wristband privileges enough), the city is bikeable, driveable and parkable, and there's plenty to do in your late-late off-hours around town to keep things... well, let's just say 'entertaining.'

Sleep in, fill your sunny days with KEXP in-studios at the Doug Fir {full lineup available here}, and get your nightlife on at our recommended {** = MEGA recommended} shows below -- scheduling conflicts included:

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They're playing our song / Can you see the lights? / Can you hear the hum? / Of our song / I hope they get it right...

Talk about shooting a big bag of sad bastard.

For a mere twelve dollars, you can shimmy your way in to Neumo's tonight for a PDX double-header -- and have your insides slayed by Blind Pilot, a band I've been in love with since I first heard Cheryl Waters spin them on KEXP's Midday show. I keep a running list radio-side to make sure I remember bands that catch my attention, to reference later through playlists and MySpaces and the good (or indifferent) word of friends and music enthusiasts alike. And in the course of that first week I heard Blind Pilot over the airwaves, I wrote them down three different times. Three. That hasn't happened since... maybe Luke Temple, or the first time I heard Devin Davis. Anyway -- one's enough to notice, and two times is a trump card... but three hits? That's a non-negotiable. That means immediate procurment of tickets, albums, and anything I can get my hands on.

The title track off of Three Rounds and a Sound is my hands-down my favorite, but here's another goodie that made the list that week:

And not to that the lovely Laura Veirs will be holding second slot at the show, which makes the whole thing worth it at twice the price.

Hope to see you there!