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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2011 was {is still!} a great year, not only for releases but also for live shows, festivals, and those grit-of-the-stage-under-your-fingertips kinds of moments that we have all come to love and live by: nights like The Head and the Heart blowing the roof off of Porterhouse in West Seattle, a few sweet Lovesick Empire sets, John Darnielle's solo show at UW, and some incredibly intimate events like David Bazan's performance at Barsuk Records and some killer in-studios at KEXP. And with that said, here's the start of {one of} our 2011 countdown, featuring our top moments and photos of the 2011 festival circuit:

Favorite photo #10: Andrew McKeag :: Whether he's taking a big stage with his regular band {The Presidents of the United States of America}, holding court as a Honky, or anything in-between, this man simply does his thing with an understated level of skill that most musicians can only hope to attain (and manages to look pretty damn good doing it, too). Pictured above as part of the Kasey Anderson and the Honkies set at this year's installment of Bumbershoot, Andrew made us pretty happy to have gotten to the 'fest in time for the early bands that day with this dead-on look into the lens. {more KA&tH shots from the 'shoot} {POTUSA official} {KA&tH}

Favorite moment #10: WATERS :: Maybe it was just that moment -- being New York City for a few days and suddenly realizing that the city has basically charmed your pants right off, and being totally okay with it -- in conjunction with some incredible live sets day after day after day,  but we really, really did very much dig the WATERS set that went on as part of KEXP's broadcast from the Ace Hotel for this year's CMJ. It was all those things you hope for from an indie rock band: big guitars, a cohesive sound, and an overwhelming sense of want-more! once the music stops playing, all wrapped up in a surprise as we hadn't seen or heard them enough previously to know what to expect -- get a taste of their glorious noise over at Stereogum, where a post this year offered a free download that's still up for the taking. {more photos of WATERS at CMJ 2011} {WATERS}

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Pull up those bootstraps, kids, because The National isn't the only game in town that's got a double-decker lineup in Seattle this week. The Cave Singers are about to put on two nights of amazing sound-wall that'll knock you clear off your feet! Here's the deets:

Night One, also known as this coming Thursday, December 1st. The Cave Singers pack the one- in one-two by taking the stage for an all-ages night at the Vera Project {7:30p doors / $16 adv / buy tickets!}, with a stage-warming by none other than our pals The Young Evils -- who may very well be working on putting out one of our favorite local albums of 2012 as we breathe and type. It'll be a great room to catch both bands in with a music-focused, booze-free crowd.

If you're heading to the Neptune (or one of the other fine establishments in town) this Thursday, fret not: Night Two will be going down on Capitol Hill at Neumos on Friday, December 2nd. Sound-wise, it'll be a much darker-tinged night with openers The Builders and the Butchers taking the pre-Cave Singers stage spot, and also worth noting: this show is 21+. {8p doors / $18 adv / buy tickets!}

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Austin City Limits is usually a shoe-in to win, and this year's festival was no exception. Beat down with brilliance, both in the form of relentless sunshine and amazing bands playing their hearts out everywhere we looked, we took to the grassy knolls of Zilker Park doused in 50 SPF and spent the first day and a half of our show-goings with the likes of Brandi Carlile, Delta Spirit, Ray Lamontagne, the Cave Singers, Kurt Vile, Cold War Kids, Foster the People, Charles Bradley, Bright Eyes, Mavis Staples, Telekinesis, Aloe Blacc, Phosphorescent, Iron & Wine, the Moondoggies, and Fitz and the Tantrums. Every single stage was thoughtfully billed, easing in our late-mornings with incredible starts, and building seamlessly through their lineups during the day to absolute crescendos of performance from the headliners at night.

In between soaking up sun, getting our fill and desperately looking for shade, and dodging errant shower-storms with the camera, we even managed to grab a few photos to prove it all went down. Here's a mere fraction of what we were able to take in -- keep an eye on the site for part II of our photo-review, coming up shortly!

Seattle's own Brandi Carlile, tearing up the giant AMD stage before Ray Lamontagne on day one:

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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!

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There's one word that comes to mind above all others in regards to Monday night's Fleet Foxes / Cave Singers show at the Moore -- and that word is simply stunning. The impeccable sound, lighting, and setup of the Moore made for a veritable breeding ground of amazing, as two of the Pacific Northwest's best alt.beardcore bands brought their respective brands of greatness to the stage. The Cave Singers let loose with a tight, polished, best-of catalog-spanning set that washed over us like the force of nature they are -- followed by this imaginary's inaugural live Fleet Foxes set.

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Pretty Girls Make Graves/Murder City Devils musician Derek Fudesco sat down (literally) to pick at a little jig. Just brittle, minimalist little guitar lines, more in common with art-punk rock like Wire or even Robert Fripp than the robust traditionalism of country rock, but played on an acoustic guitar. More-electro/less-rock, Hint Hint's Pete Quirk came along to happily harmonize some trippy images through it, and the even weirder/more aggressive Cobra High gave the trio its last defining elemental base in percussionist Marty Lund.

The story really isn't that much more heavier than that. A couple of albums on Matador didn't freak the normals to the point of phenomenon, but it assured fans of the band's dense, gently dizzying, near-trance-folk-rock-plenty-more jams. I would recommend experiencing the band live before bringing up questions about authenticity (none of the bands listed above lusted after audio verisimilitude, so expecting a genuine hoe-down development from TCS is rather silly), and sharing the glow of their toe-tapping timberline-tapestries with the hushed throng who digs 'em instead.

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We're barely two weeks into 2011, and it already looks like this year's gonna be a doozy.

On top of SXSW lineup leaks trickling through the Twitter feeds and rumors flying about additions to this year's Sasquatch lineup, the fine files of our inboxes have seen fit to let us know about two great definites coming up for February. So, get your calendars out and proceed as follows:

#1. John Darnielle, solo at UW for Rainy Dawg Radio's Birthday Bash {2/15}

Hot off the e-presses:

The University of Washington's campus radio station, Rainy Dawg Radio, is celebrating it's eighth birthday with one of the most important and prolific songwriters fo this generation: on Tuesday, February 15th, John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats will play a one-night-only show at Meany Hall, located on the University of Washington Campus.

Right? We know. Seriously. Watching JD perform "an intimate solo set spanning songs new and old from his extensive catalog" is the best post-Valentine's Day activity we can think of. If you're lucky enough to be a UW student, tickets are available for $12 at the By George Cafe. The rest of us can happily fork over our hard-earned cash ($20 for non-students) at any TicketsWest outlet.

#2. The Cave Singers, in-store at the Queen Anne Easy Street {2/22}

Everyone's already all a-buzz about the new Cave Singers album that's due out in February, and if you haven't gotten your paws on it yet, you can get a taste Tuesday, February 22nd -- not only is that New Release Tuesday for these fine gents, it's also the day that they'll be playing an in-store set to celebrate at the Queen Anne Easy Street Records.

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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!

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Day two at MFNW: also known as Friday, September 10th. With tons of shows all over the city to choose from, we chose to spend our imaginary day with the folks over at KEXP for a series of kick-ass in-studios, and to focus on the highly anticipated Okkervil River / Bobby Bare Jr. and Tallest Man On Earth / Cave Singers sets that night.

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