{This is part two of our one-two punch showcasing the best in festival moments and photos from 2011. Start from the beginning here, where you can see picks #10 - #6!}

Favorite photo #5: Wye Oak :: Standing in the pit at Sasquatch! at the small stage is always a treat -- you're right up next to the performers, and unless someone's career has exploded between the time they got booked and the time the festival rolls around, there's not too many people mobbing the area surrounding the stage. Such was the case for Wye Oak, and while they were already a good, established band then with a solid crowd turnout, we were able to get up-close-and-personal for their set to capture this mid-song moment. If you haven't seen one of their many appearances -- Sasquatch! 2011, the shows with the National at the Neptune last month, or from the "HOLY SHIT" file: that time they played with Shearwater at the Triple Door in 2010 -- get out to see them on mid-sized stages while you can. {more photos from Wye Oak's set at Sasquatch!} {Wye Oak official}

Favorite moment #5: Del :: So, technically, this happened *during* Austin City Limits and not *at* Austin City Limits proper, but we couldn't compile a best-of without mentioning Del.

One morning, while loading up on espresso and bagels while uploading photos pre-fest on a hundred-degree day in Austin, we met Del. And as it turns out, Del is just an artist in a corner at a cafe, akin to those writing furiously in a notebook -- only he doesn't blog it, "show" it, exist anywhere on the internet, or have openings in art galleries. This is just what he does, and after getting permission to take his photo and chatting with him for a bit, we learned that this inky artpile is Del's form of art-therapy journal-y processing. While it wasn't a We Are Augustines set or a moment in front of the stage with Elbow, it was nonetheless a highlight of our ACL trip and well-worth preserving here in our 2011 storyline!

Favorite photo(s)-and-moment #4: Sharon van Etten

Favorite moment-and-photo(s) #4: Aloe Blacc

What an amazing, amazing pair of sets these two put on at Sasquatch! this year. Sharon van Etten's sparse, gut-wrenching performance rang out all the way into the darkest corners of our hearts where the best reverb lies, and Aloe Blacc held up to every expectation we had going into the set. The fact that they both looked good doing what they both obviously love {and are so, so well-suited} to do just made capturing it in photo-form all that much easier. {more Sasquatch! 2011 photos} {more about Aloe Blacc} {SVE official}

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Our last day out at this year's Sasquatch! music festival went out with an absolute bang. The morning started out with the sweet, big guitar + indie.altpop sounds of the Young Evils on the Yeti stage, followed by a smash-up singalong set by the Old 97's on the main stage (where we promptly got our Rhett-o-sexual on, big time!). On the recommendation of some friends, we took on the only blind set of the weekend -- a band we'd heard of but not listened much to, Noah and the Whale -- and we were not disappointed. It's worth noting they absolutely took the win for style points out of anyone else we saw all weekend, buttoned up in three-piece suits in what felt like baking summertime sun.

The foreign invasion continued with the gorgeous, orchestral buildup-melodies of Stornoway on the Bigfoot stage, followed by a shift-up into the tie for best set of the weekend, !!!. These guys were an absolute full-force marathon of awesome, tearing into the crowd, hamming it up for the photo pit, and bringing some of the best beats we'd heard over our time at the Gorge. Keep scrolling for more of Monday's photos!

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at Capitol Hill Block Party 2010

More photos from Saturday's Capitol Hill Block Party! This post is packed so tight with snaps there is really no room for words. So I'll leave it you to let us know what you saw and what rocked.

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This year may have been my favorite year ever for the Capitol Hill Block Party. With an up-to-date, enthusiastic focus on exciting developments in local hip-hop and rock, 2010 stands out as a year in which so many hot regional bands amped crowds and few out-of-region big name performers were as required. The presence of sponsors and participants like KEXP and The Stranger staff and other local writers among all the fans made it a San Diego Comic Con for local music culture.

From show to show you could hear people playing music, talking music, sharing music, and loving music. If you were able to make it to the Capitol Hill Block Party this year, what are your favorite bands performing you've seen so far? Here are mine:

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Maserati played a stunning set with Sleepy Eyes of Death and Mono just a few weeks ago. I vividly remember my friend and I discussing the compelling drummer at length. He was utterly amazing. We were lucky we were there.

Unfortunately, drummer Jerry Fuchs fell down a broken elevator shaft Saturday night (11/7-09) in Brooklyn. He died early Sunday morning at the age of 34.

Fuchs also drummed for !!!, Juan MacLean, Turing Machine and Vineland.

Chunklet (Fuchs was a contributor) has posted a lovely, sad obituary. The Village Voice's Christopher R. Weingarten summed it up succinctly when he wrote this morning, "Jerry Fuchs was that totally fucking amazing monster drummer you saw play in at least one show in the last 10 years--it could have been with Maserati, Turing Machine, !!!, or the Juan MacLean, as he completely decimated his hapless kit and mesmerized everyone no matter what band he was in."

at Bumbershoot 2008

Bumbershoot is a musical extravaganza, spanning the three-day Labor Day weekend with more bands, arts, and elephant ears than anyone can possibly capture. We had a posse of imaginary writers (ChrisB, Chris Estey, imaginary elle, imaginary dana, and Cory), and photographers (Chona, Kyle, Nathan, and Andrew) all over Seattle Center, trying to capture the frenzy and mayhem of Bumbershoot 2008. Below you can see and read about our adventures during the first day, which kicked off with local electronic duo Beehive and ended with superstar Beck, and covered over 20 other bands in-between.

Enjoy!

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{!!! plays the Fisher Green Stage on Saturday, August 30 from 9:15-10:30pm}

!!!'s song "Me and Giuliani Down By The School Yard (A True Story)" is my favorite 9-minute song ever recorded. That may or may not be saying much because I usually think beyond the fifth minute a song descends into masturbation.

With !!!'s song, though, it is a perfect dance song; less of an F-you to Mr. Noun, Verb, 9/11 and more of a dance manifesto. For 9 minutes it maintains a steady beat anchored by a funky bassline but the psychadelic guitar parts build and descend regularly. I really love the lyrics, especially this second verse:

People always ask me, "What's so fucking great about dancing?"
How the fuck should I know? Yeah, even I can barely understand it
But when the music takes over, the music takes control
Here's a message to you, Rudy and you, sir, Mr. Bloomberg
And the rest of you ties-too-tight dudes
Y'all could learn a lesson, by losing inhibitions, yeah
Losing yourself in the music, losing yourself in the moment
Because we have nothing more than this very second
You can't count on the one coming after, no one's sure about the one before

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After much deliberation, here’s my top ten for 2007.

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Well, I am in the lovely capitol of Finland, Helsinki, or, if you're Swedish like Jens Lekman, Helsingfors. I'm a little loopy but some fun observations for you to enjoy:

- The Finnish equivalent to Home Depot is call Bauhaus. How awesome is that?

- There seem to be a lot of death metal fans on my flight from Berlin to Helsinki. I'm guessing it was either a festival or the Finns love death metal more than I imagined.

- Helsinki is the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska (more or less), but right now its downright pleasant: sunny, 70 at 9PM.

- I may attempt to go to one day of the 'Flow Festival' here in Helsinki that might involve seeing, very appropriately, Architecture in Helsinki and, less fittingly, !!!.

- The local "Stranger"-like newspaper here in Helsinki had a review of the White Stripes Icky Thump, and although I couldn't understand a word of it, I did see that they gave it 5 out of 5 stars. Even the Finns are falling for the Stripes charms, eh?

That's all for now ... more as it is warranted (and if my iBook doesn't completely die ... don't ask).

Myth Takes, the first !!! album since 2003's Louden Up Now, is much more focused, concise, and above all, a real dance-pop gem that doesn't get lost in its own meanderings.

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