Yup. There sure are a lot of exclamation points up in that headline, and with good cause: we're heading off for Austin City Limits this weekend, to catch some bands and some tan in the near-hundred-degree sun. Between pre-trip laundering, hydrating, charging our camera batteries and getting all that three-ounce-or-less business handled for the flight, we thought we'd take a minute to let you know about some of the acts we're particularly excited about this year -- especially since there seems to be a particularly strong PNW presence to be reckoned with every single day of the 'fest.

The start of the fest on Friday is kind of like easing in to that hot, soapy, not-too-dirty-yet festival bath. Hometown heroine Brandi Carlile will be getting things going early in the day, and we're hoping her sweet sounds will put us in the right kind of mood to slide over into Ray LaMontagne's late afternoon set -- they're both playing at the AMD stage starting around 2p. As the day darkens, we hope to get a little more gritty with the Cave Singers, and while Cold War Kids and Bright Eyes blow their sets out back-to-back {on the Honda and AMD stages respectively, for those of you following along in your custom-made schedules at home}, we might have to weasel our way forward to get a bigger-than-Bumbershoot-sized helping of Charles Bradley as he closes out the Vista Equity stage just before forever-legend Mavis Staples. As to whether we end day one with Kanye West or Coldplay -- my vote's on Kanye. But seeing as the fest is all sold out except for a few Sunday passes, we might not be able to make it close enough for a photo report. Fingers crossed!

Pending crowd surges (and weather permitting), we hope to also make time to get a little Delta Spirit, Smith Westerns, Kurt Vile, and Santigold into our schedules too!

more...

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:

more...

Sunday morning's installment of the Sasquatch! music festival found us with smiling, weary eyes and happy tired feet from all the blissing-out (two posts' worth!), which worked out perfectly with the grey sky vibe and our first sets of the day. The alt.folk.traditional-yet-bizarre sounds of Cotton Jones began the trip for us on the small (Yeti) stage, and their sounds bled nicely into the warm, longing big-guitar melody of the Moondoggies on the Bigfoot stage. Bursts of sun came through just in time for the straightforward rock of Black Joe Lewis, who lifted us up perfectly to take on a dusk set from Gayngs and a mindmelting mainstage show from the Flaming Lips.

Photos below!

more...

There's only one place to be on Saturday night, and that's at the benefit show for Drew Grow out at Columbia City Theater. Featuring (mostly) acoustic performances by The Maldives, Kevin Murphy of The Moondoggies, Mychal Benjamin Goodweather of Campfire OK, Bryan John Appleby, Jake Hemming of Big Sur, Ghosts I've Met and, apparently, some special secret guests.

On top of what will prove to be a compelling night of live music, CCT will be opening its doors early for a silent auction starting at 7 with all proceeds going to Drew Grow and the Pastors' Wives. It includes items like three nights at the Doe Bay Retreat House for you and 19 of your closest friends, $2,000 worth of web-design by Hardly Coded, and an array of more affordable items too. In addition, a merch market will be open all night with vinyl from Damien Jurado, prints from Dylan Priest and Sarah Jurado, special silk-screened posters made just for the benefit by Killorn O'Neill -- the list goes on and on.

True story: be there, or kick yourself in the pants forever. When good people come together doing great things for a worthy cause, magic is bound to happen.

more...

My love for the Moondoggies is rooted in an accident, by way of KEXP: it was the one-two punch tracks that made it onto my radar a while back of "Save My Soul" > "Changing" that got me onto their brand of junk. And I say 'accident' there because I wasn't seeking out any new alt.beardrock, and while I loved those songs, I wasn't aching in the soles of my workboots for more Moondoggies music as a result of that listen. But inherent in those songs was some kind of catch, something that couldn't be denied -- it seemed like no matter how many times I heard that combo, I just couldn't get sick of it. The lines translated, every single time. The music lifted me up and sat me gently back down in my seat, every single time. And just as that started to fade out, my recent obsession with the video for "Empress of the North" -- so lovingly illustrated by Drew Christie -- faded in, coupled with the pinch of fame generated by Lynn Shelton's $5 Cover. And all of a sudden, this band was taking up a legitimate percentage of my bandwidth.

Suffice it to say, the Moondoggies are what's good, and I'm hooked. Their presence on the scene is increasing these days, and with good cause -- they've got an earnest brand of indie.Northwest.lumbercore going, varying in sounds-like influences from The Band to Band of Horses depending on the track, the weather, and the day of the week. And everything I hear makes me pay more attention, every new track makes me want to listen to one more, and everything they've done lately takes them one step further from separating themselves from the Great Beard Movement of the last few years.

It's quite an accomplishment to transcend a pigeonholed state like lumbercore / beard rock, and these guys have done it. They're taking everything that's good about that kind of sound and pulling it across the land of post-hippie jam bands, closer to the other side of that wide road into a more genre-less territory -- where things are still all heartache-y-breaky but lean a little more toward anthematic, and bands like the Avett Brothers hold seat at the top of the hill. Case in point, the Moondoggies have released a track off the new album Tidelands, that's been on heavy rotation since the end of last week at our imaginary desks. It's called "What Took So Long" and you can go 'n get your repeat on over at the band's Soundcloud page here.

more...

There's not too many things you can compare to a Cave Singers show. The sheer size of the music, the presence that this band creates when they take the stage -- it's almost surreal. They're enrapturing, they're the real deal, and they're playing at the Showbox (at the Market) this Friday night. Hardly seems possible that this show is already here, seeing as we're still reeling from their sets at Pickathon and No Depression this summer, but it is indeed all happening. And the rest of the bill just sweetens the deal!

The Moondoggies will be playing the middle-slot on Friday, bringing their heartfelt-yet-ballsy everythingness to our willing eyes and ears. They've got a new album out called Tidelands, which they released last month on Hardly Art, and one of the standout tracks has been transformed into the most wonderful four minutes of visual heartache we've ever seen in a cartoon. (Yes, a cartoon.) Drew Christie has taken the swoon-worthyness of "Empress of the North" and set it to animation, as only he can -- and here's the living proof, so you can see the radness for yourself:

To round out this triple-win, the night will be opening up with a new(er)(ish)(notreally) group you might have heard about called Lovesick Empire. It's made up of a few of our favorite locals who come together for a dark, pre-White Stripes, dare we say, 'grungy?' authentic Seattle sound -- just take a listen to "White Wolf Blood" and "Home Sick" on their MySpace page and see if you disagree. We seriously can't hardly wait to see them live!

more...

at Doe Bay Music Festival 2009

The Second Annual Doe Bay Festival was a magical experience up on Orcas Island. A music festival like no other, and likely the closest thing to the free-loving style of the 60's that I'm likely to experience.

the Long Winters

more...

I was going to wait until it got a little closer to the event before mentioning the Doe Bay Music Festival here but I hear that tickets are selling very fast and would hate for it to sell out before any of our readers heard about this great event. As someone who does most of their recreational traveling based around out-of-town shows, this sounds like a perfect excuse to get out of Seattle for a few days without going too far from home.

more...