Earlier we posted the five favorite shots at Bumbershoot from the fantastic photographer Jason Tang. His also brilliant colleague Erik Clineschmidt offered his five favorite photos from last weekend at Bumbershoot. They are:

Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs:

Modest Mouse fans:

No hands:

Colors of [Sonic] Youth:

Hosed in the pit:

at Bumbershoot 2009

Sunshowers and bleachers. Red and blue Samsung balloons were being kept in the air by palms attached to distracted bodies. The attention of the crowd too busy staring at the sound crew on the main stage, readying themselves for the cheer that they were to send up shortly as Karen O took the stage, shortly after the understated Nick Zinner and Brain Chase that are the ever-talented and too-cool-for-school members of Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

These musicians are performers. Or at least, they understand the nature of their stage roles. As they played hit after hit and Karen O mustered the most sincere love for Seattle’s Bumbershoot audience, I found myself wondering if Karen O could be considered one of the only current day rock stars. Maybe it was just because she danced like Mick Jagger at moments, maybe it was the way she walked off set half way through the set for a slight costume change, either way I found myself realizing that, whereas I was disappointed when Mirah dropped a lyric or didn’t hit a note, I didn’t mind when Karen O’s stage antics led to losing some of her vocals because of her entertaining performance.

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Late last night, Bumbershoot unveiled their final lineup for the Labor Day weekend festival this year (barring any unforseen cancellations, of course). As usual, it looks like a pretty great lineup. I was especially thrilled that The Yeah Yeah Yeahs will be playing a Main Stage show. Also added were Cold War Kids and Old 97s, also playing Main Stage sets. Disappointing: that Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, De La Soul and The Long Winters will be playing at the same time (9:30pm on Saturday night).

The full schedule is here.

I (and a lot of TIG writers) will be writing more in the coming days uptil to and through Bumbershoot about who we are excited to see this year but who are your "can't misses"?

{Photo of Cold War Kids by Julie Harmsen from the TIG Flickr Pool.}

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at The Gorge

Sasquatch was a doozy. I wrote a lil bit o' news about a few bands I saw each day via my check-in's for days 1, 2 and 3. There were people having sex during the Decemberists right out in front of {supreme being} and everyone, and I met a TON of Canadians "eh". I saw a kid wearing a fleece pajama jumpsuit all three days (shower? yeck) and my toes have never been as dirty as they were after three days of music and camping. Verdict: sunburned, dehydrated, jolly good time. The itsy bitsy press trailer was anything but cush, so I kept my ass out and about amongst the common-folk gorging themselves on the sweet sweet sounds of Sasquatch. Here is what I heard:

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know we just got done with the 2008 lists, but this one's clamoring for my top compilation spot for '09 already!

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Here's a video put out a while back from The North American Halloween Prevention Initiative. It's kinda weird and it was hard to get my brain around it before the morning muffin... but it features a ton of awesomeness in the line-up -- and that's good enough for me.

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I am amused that down in the hinterlands of the top 100, you might get confused and think it was the 90's again.

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For this week's NME update, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs take #1, but there are three new songs for us to enjoy...

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This week, there is only one new song on the NME top 10, but it's one that I am excited about.

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Comets hit the Earth! Let's buy sneakers!

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