We had to have some good tunes to get us through a year of watching a psychopathic plutocrat trying to pitch us back into the black and white world of fifties-era paranoia and imperialism. That victory against vileness confirmed, going back over the songs that made us swoon for the past few months is very pleasurable, as great music can transcend the tough times it was made to get through.

Below are the most repeated recent songs in my playlist, save for the tracks from bands I did publicity for. (I will say that I only do PR for bands I truly love, which is why the Big Freak roster is so small. I'm a picky and fussy little bear. But this is not the place to hype my own wares.) Also, I will note that I will not have a list of albums this year; I think there are still great full-lengths out there, but not enough for me to make a list of. You can blame that on the limited amount of albums I have access to; but I do buy and acquire enough that that's not quite the case.

It could very well be that there's too many great records coming out to keep track of 'em, and to get anything done in terms of keeping up the format of ten or twelve tracks released by one artist or group is increasingly becoming an arbitrary time-lump of expression. Yeah, it's the obvious technological changes (songs trumping long-players, even with the re-rise of vinyl), but also the fact that much more product and much less discriminating gatekeepers are flash-flooding over the trickle of sweet stuff. It's out there, but we're going to need new ways to hook in. This is making places like KEXP or NPR or WFMU, your extinction-threatened informed record store clerk, what you hear at your favorite DJ night, the journalist with an actual story, the in-touch blogger with deep tastes, even labels who don't sign every band (and publicists who don't take on every client, ahem), and of course beloved community-amping affairs like Three Imaginary Girls, that much more necessary.

Believe it or leave it.

Now to the tuneage, in order of honest amounts of plays (assuming my devices aren't fibbing):

1.) Dum Dum Girls, "Trees And Flowers"

It may be ludicrous to most big boy and bought off rock crits to say, but Dum Dum Girls is arguably the best rock band going today. Tapping into the sixties, seventies and eighties without being a straight hippie-power pop-new wave Freakbeat homage, and crystallizing a powerful dual voice in vibrant vocals and velvety music, they hypnotize as they freeze-dry your tears. Every song on this End of Daze EP is a too-sweet tease for a Dee Dee 2013. 

2.) THEE Satisfaction, "Queens"

"Whatever you do, don't funk with my groove." The apex-high point on possibly the best Seattle album of the year, awE NaturalE, it is a perfect song about sleek and confident boundary setting. Catherine Harris-White and Stasia Irons are truly among the best in modern art-soul, following up the heat from their dangerous live shows with a contagious meditation on Being and Blissfulness with a little help from mentor Ish (Shabazz Palaces). There are other great songs on the Sub Pop debut full-length, but this is first pick for my own mix-tape. 

3.) Constant Lovers, "Open Toe Heels"

Constant Lovers is a slow drag of a drug-dipped cigarette after feral sex. A stagger home after too many drinks with someone who lights all your fireworks. It's toxic-bad for you, but no mere basement-boy sludge-punk or anything like an AmRep rip off (cough cough). Don't trust the locals who pass on these guys, they're tourists in our town. This is the real Seattle sleaze and squeeze. This pole-dancing clear-heeled 3:31 freak-out is just going to shiv your liver and rot your gut but you won't smell a thing as she plows under. This is a particularly ballsy blast of hot spicy cocktail sauce at the center of their True Romance full-length (get it!!), a hard rock hassle truly good for these times. With Ben Verellen (Helms Alee) now on drums (!!!), maybe the feudal lords with labels will start buying in what's primo and already available in their own hoods and stop exporting cash and stash to GQ-core wanna-bes elsewhere.

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{This is part two of a three-part Sasquatch! 2012 photo recap. Be sure to check out part one here, and part three here!}

Day three {Sunday} at this year's Sasquatch! Music Festival saw us a bit tired, a bit beat-up from the sun and the hills, and a bit gritty from the seeming "dust bowl" that was starting to kick up and cover everything with a fine dirty mist. But we forged on into the day with high spirits, knowing a slew of good bands were on tap -- and we got things started with an uppy, poppy-tight set from Hospitality and a smooth, sexy, beat-laden set from Fly Moon Royalty. While the two bands hit opposite ends of the sonic spectrum, they both shared the commonality of putting on great performances, each showcasing their respective sounds near-perfectly.

Hospitality:

Fly Moon Royalty:

Then, the rockin' boy-band part of the day got going, with alternating takes from Gardens & Villa, War On Drugs, and Deer Tick. Gardens & Villa were a nice transition from the upbeat Hospitality and played a bright, synth-y dream-sound set and the War On Drugs ramped it up a bit with a bigger, bulkier sound before Deer Tick took the stage and jammed it on out into the rock-o-sphere. It's worth noting that Deer Tick were on the Sasquatch! campus for the remainder of the weekend, and wound up filling the hole in the weekend left by Mogwai (who had visa issues coming into the US) with a covers-only set, bouncing whip-tight renditions of the Replacements and Nirvana out into a thrilled crowd as Monday night started to fade to black.

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It seems crazy to be talking about it already, but ready or not, 2012's Sasquatch! Music Festival is right around the corner! Next weekend, in fact, we'll be packing up our cars and celebrating the impending start of summer by spending a long weekend in the sun, poring over four days of band schedules and making the most of our annual trip to the Gorge Ampitheater in George, Washington. The last few years have given us festival weekends for the books {here's some proof from 2011 and 2010}, and this year looks like it will be no exception -- there's tons to see every day no matter what your personal taste is, and at the moment it looks like the weather is going to hold out, too! So, let's take a look at some of the highlights that we can't wait to take in -- and you can play along at home by making your own Sasquatch! day-by-day schedule here.

FRIDAY

There seems to be a build built in to the fest, both per-day and over the course of the weekend, too: Friday starts by easing us into a warm bath with the smooth sounds of Allen Stone, who will be kicking things off at the Sasquatch Stage at 5:00p. And if that "blue-eyed soul" sound isn't your thing, don't worry -- you can take it in the opposite direction with the post alt.indie vibe that Yellow Ostrich does at 5:15p on the Bigfoot Stage instead {pop on over here for a sample of what we love about these guys}. Then, Iceland's made-famous-to-Seattle-via-KEXP allstars Of Monsters and Men take the 6:00p spot on the Sasquatch Stage, while recent buzz band Polica blow out the Bigfoot Stage at 6:30. There's plenty to experience Friday besides (and around) these four picks, but our last can't-miss recommendation is 110% for Girl Talk's set at 8:30 on the Sasquatch Stage, sure to be a power-hour that will leave the crowds (and us!) happily hopped-up in preparation for the next three days of music.

SATURDAY

We can't really think of a better way to begin the first weekend day of Sasquatch! with back-to-back sets of awesome on the Sasquatch Stage, first with Pickwick at 12:00p, followed immediately by Charles Bradley and his Extraordinaires at 1:05p. {It's worth noting that we've been buzzing with love for Charles Bradley since his set in KEXP's Bumbershoot Music Lounge last year, and we can't wait to catch him on the big stage!} Well-primed, we'll head into some modern American roots tunes from Blitzen Trapper at 2:10p on the same stage, and we'll cap the first part of the day off with what's sure to be one of the best revival-jam sets of the weekend, Alabama Shakes at 3:00p on the Bigfoot Stage. Speaking of, we're quite sure you're in the loop with AS's recent release, Boys & Girls, but just in case you haven't gotten into it yet, check it out here.

Saturday shakes up at 3:30p, with a turn for the funkier side: THEESatisfaction will be bringing all the goodness from their latest release {and then some!} to the Yeti Stage right about then, and there's tons to check out over the course of the afternoon and early evening (Portlandia, Kurt Vile and the Violators, and Dum Dum Girls stand out as choices worthy of your festival time) before Helio Sequence's Bigfoot Stage set at 6:30p and Metric's Sasquatch Stage set at 6:40p. Those bleed into our absolutely-can't-miss pick for Saturday, tUnE-yArDs on the Bigfoot Stage at 7:30p {!!!!!}, and the night caps off with The Shins and Jack White back-to-back to close out the Sasquatch Stage starting about 8:10p.

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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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Fans of all things Carrie Brownstein have an extra reason to rejoice this holiday season: having just wound up her amazing Wild Flag tour, Brownstein and SNL's Fred Armisen have recently announced they are taking their comedy hit Portlandia on the road with a six-city tour! The duo don't just star in the series, they also co-created and wrote everything too, accounting for the ease with which the characters interact onscreen. Can't you just imagine the pair sitting in a cafe together, brainstorming and kidding around?  There are so many great moments in the series, from the "Flyer Wars" skit, to one couple's quest to find out just "how local" their locally sourced meal is... whether you're a self-proclaimed hipster, cyclist, or groupie, there's sure to be a moment in the series where you find that you and your friends are gently laughing at yourselves (I, like many of us, have been known to "put a bird on it" myself).

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Welcome to Rocktober, everybody! And what better way to start the month than with a celebration of what makes the Seattle music scene so great? Yep, we're talking about KEXP. The fall pledge drive is on, and it needs your pledge of support!

You can call anytime this week {locals call 206.903.KEXP, toll free is 866.903.KEXP}, log in online and do an electronic pledge, or walk yourself on over to the station and give. There's tons of great thank-you gifts -- shirts, totes, lunchbags, 500 Club memberships -- nothing is too small to count. Whether you can give five dollars, five dollars a month, five hundred dollars, or five hundred dollars a month, everything makes a difference and everything is appreciated. We've given to the station at varying states of financial gain (and diress), we've been one-time donors and Amplifier Club members, and year after year we remain in good standing in whatever capacity we can, giving our hard-earned money (and time, when we can!) to support a cause that's near and dear to our hearts for so many reasons.

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Wild Flag is a quartet love affair smooshing Portland and D.C.-based warrior women together, combining the velvety and violent vocals/guitars of Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney), Mary Timony (Helium), and Rebecca Cole (The Minders) with the superb shuffle and stomp of mighty drummer Janet Weiss (S-K, Quasi, etc.).

Wild Flag is a rock album that needs to be in everyone's playlist this year, as it constantly excites and snuggles up to the listener with openly emotional attempts at romantic music-fandom bonding ("Romance"), twists and turns about feeling hot and cold with mysterious scratches ("Something Came Over Me"), whilst a whole lot of skittery guitars tweak and even psyche-chug above Weiss's skin-rattling fury. It's boss.

Sounding as fresh as a debut by a Go-Go's era femme-powered new wave band made up of grown-up punks, all of those great garage gal voices bringing to mind glories recent (e.g. The Woods, by S-K) throughout, but also the brutal, passionate art-pop rants of Lene Lovich ("Boom"), and even early 70s feminist rock ("Glass Tamourine"). Dub bass notes dangle with Elastica-sharp guitar tones ("Short Version"), and all out expansive American Patti Smith-esque rock anthems spill towards the end of the ten track full-lenth ("Race Horse," "Black Tiles").

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Sleater-Kinney are kind of like capers: you either really like them, or you really don't. Perhaps the most polarizing quality about them was the sound of Corin Tucker's voice -- that aside, the musicianship was almost always razor sharp and drum tight, and their breakup was a mixed bag of sadness. The reunion of drummer Janet Weiss (previously of the delectably square-jawed Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks) and guitarist Carrie Brownstein is therefore both wonderful, because they are excellent musicians, and -- despite the fact this may be Riot Grrrl sacrilege -- free of the histrionics of Tucker's vocals. Joined by Mary Timony (Helium), and Rebecca Cole (The Minders), the four come together like a Pacific Northwest rock-and-roll Voltron to create Wild Flag. Commenting on likelihood of the union, Merge Records stated on their website that "if someone drew a visual representation illustrating the ways in which all indie bands are interconnected, Brownstein, Cole, Timony, and Weiss would be in the same tiny sphere, so playing together felt almost inevitable." Amen.

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