at Gorge Amphitheater

Pavement (Courtesy: Victoria Vanbruinisse for City Arts Magazine)

Every Memorial Day Weekend, scruffy hipsters and hippies alike who lack the cash to drop on a desert jaunt -- complete with $5 bottles of water and scorching heat -- descend upon the Gorge Amphitheater in George, WA (yes, that's really the name) for the 3-day Sasquatch! Music Festival.  There are considerably less stages and less big names, but the views are gorge-ous (har har), and you can easily find all of the previous year's blogworthy acts and at least a couple legendary ones before the weekend is through.  And since this is Washington, the festival organizers provide a free water bottle refill station to save plastic.  And did I mention it's beautiful out there?

This year my Concert Companion (hereafter known as the CC) and I packed the car full of hoagies, Coronas, yogurt, fiber bars and a nice sturdy tent, and set out Friday night on the 2 1/2-hour trip from Seattle to George.  In the morning we woke up to sunny skies and a slew of young, unwashed, bleary-eyed yet still really attractive festivalgoers.  Everyone was friendly and out to have a good time.  Some entrepreunerial folks set up a grill with hot dogs, tacos and breakfast burritos in preparation for the drunk munchies.  Once you've all shared the same lineup of Portapotties, had a few beers, and brushed your teeth together in a makeshift sink, the camaraderie pretty much starts a-flowin'.

And now, here's a breakdown of noteworthy events, day-by-day...

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With End of Year listmaking being the favorite holiday pasttime for a lot of us around here, we asked some of our local music friends to submit their own top 10 lists this year. The first to return theirs was Scott Giampino, the talent buyer at the Triple Door. His list (in no particular order, he says) is after the jump.

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TIG was lucky to have to incredibly talented photographers covering Bumbershoot this year: Erik Clineschmidt and Jason Tang.

I've really loved looking through their photos and want to post all of them (and will be posting more very soon), but here are my favorite photo from each.

Janelle Monae by Jason Tang:

I really love how you can see the reflection of the crowd in this photo of Mayer Hawthorne's bassist by Erik Clineschmidt:

You can see more and upload your own photos to TIG's Flickr pool.

The story with Mayer Hawthorne is that he recorded a couple of neo-soul songs and the would-be head of his label, Stones Throw, initially assumed they were covers before eventually signing Hawthorne. It is an easy assumption to make. Listening to Hawthorne for just a few minutes, you hear his soulful crooning over breakbeats and don't initially assume it's a white kid in his late twenties. Claiming inspiration from artists like Curtis Mayfield, Smokey Robinson and Isaac Hayes, Hawthorne wouldn't be out of place if one of his songs came on the radio in the middle of a playlist of songs from his aforementioned heroes.

Hawthorne is set to release his first LP, A Strange Arrangement, just a few days after his set at Bumbershoot on the LA-based hip hop label Stones Throw, who were said to have signed him after hearing just two songs. They also released his single "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" as a 7" with a red heart on the vinyl. Hawthorne is set to begin his first headlining tour, with Bumbershoot being his first stop.

Here's his single "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out":

{Mayer Hawthorne and the County play Bumbershoot at 4pm on the Fisher Green Stage on Saturday, September 5.}