Bumbershoot is choosing a very elegant yet fun way to throw itself a 40th birthday party (!) this Wednesday, September 1.

Kurt B. Reighley, KEXP DJ and author of the just-released extensive tome on all things roots-rowdy, United States of Americana, is hosting this party and ice cream social at Teatro ZinZanni. It's all about crafting up your own noggin-cover, and bringing it down to be judged by Evening Magazine, the hosts of The Marty Reimer Show, and Mr. Reighley himself (who gives a lot of coverage to crafting and homemade creativity in his new book too).

Here are the instructions:

 

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If you're headed to Bumbershoot, be sure to swing by Flatstock, where our friends at Seattle Show Posters will be running a special deal exclusively for TIG readers.

Simply download THIS COUPON and present it at the Seattle Show Posters booth, and you will receive their popular "Scream" print FREE with any purchase over $10.00!

That's a whole lot of awesome for your hard-earned dollars.  Be sure to stop in early, as this giveaway is limited to stock on hand.

Download your coupon HERE.

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The lineup for Bumbershoot is starting to fill out and they just unveiled about 60 artists yesterday. The additions are:

Jason Mraz / Kasabian / Audrye Sessions / The Knux / Akron/Family / Vivian Girls / The Devil Makes Three / Elvis Perkins in Dearland / Maximo Park / Wale w/ UCB / OTEP / Mirah / Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears / 3 Inches of Blood / U.S.E / Kay Kay & His Weathered Underground / Say Hi / Mayer Hawthorne & The County / The Minus 5 / Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band / Telekinesis / Everest / Oren Lavie / The New Mastersounds / Dyme Def / Delhi 2 Dublin / The Dusty 45s / Visqueen / Truckasauras / Head Like a Kite / Akimbo / Paul Oscher “Alone with the Blues” / Parenthetical Girls / Massy Ferguson / The Lonely Forest / Sleepy Eyes of Death / Past Lives / Macklemore / The Whore Moans Present: The Black Atom! / Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder / Wallpaper / Point Juncture, WA / D.Black / Spaceman / Kim Field & The Mighty Titans of Tone / Handful of Luvin’ / Champagne Champagne / Romance / Kristen Ward / Dept. of Energy / Hotels / The Kindness Kind / Mark Taylor Quartet / Black Whales / Kore Ionz / Grand Hallway / Anomie Belle / Steve Griggs Quintet / We Are Golden / Olympic Sound Collective / The Not-Its! / Central Services’ Board of Education / Recess Monkey

Adding to the already announced names:

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I doubt this is an April Fool's joke so I'll put it out there, Bumbershoot announced the first list of acts to play this year. There are certainly some that I'm really excited to see (some again) and others I'll pass on.

I know there'll be a lot of people bitching about Katy Perry but remember that booking her sells tickets that pay for other acts and you can choose to do something else while she plays.

Here's the roster so far:

Sheryl Crow / Modest Mouse / Katy Perry / Michael Franti & Spearhead / De La Soul / Raphael Saadiq / Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan / The Long Winters / Sly & Robbie & the Taxi Gang / World Party / MSTRKRFT / Roy Ayers / Common Market / UH HUH HER / Dave Alvin and The Guilty Women / Eric Hutchinson / No Age / Matt & Kim / Dead Confederate / The Cave Singers / Swollen Members / Vieux Farka Touré / Lenka / Gang Gang Dance / Todd Snider / Holy F**k / DJ Spooky / Iglu & Hartly / Low vs Diamond / Sera Cahoone / Eleni Mandell / Carrie Rodriguez / The Honey Brothers / Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head / Extra Golden / Cordero / Forgive Durden / Hey Marseilles / Adrian Xavier, and much, much more to be announced.

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at Bumbershoot 2008

Bumbershoot on Labor Day was full of great performances, both from local bands and national acts. Check out some great words and photos from the big day!

Kate Tucker and the Sons of Sweden

You can usually gauge the quality of afternoon shows at Bumbershoot by following the crowds. If the crowd grows as the show progresses, there is something compelling about the show that is bringing in people; if people are leaving, they were probably there to just kill time until until the next item on their itinerary. Ballard's Kate Tucker and the Sons of Sweden's crowd kept growing exponentially every time I turned around. Playing just past noon on Monday afternoon, Tucker came on stage and was shocked by the attendance ("I only expected there to be about 3 people here"). She and her band entertained the growing crowd with her sincere and accessible Americana sound and her lovely, sincere voice and vulnerable lyrics. (ChrisB)

Kate Tucker and the Sons of Sweden. Photos by Andew Curtis.

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at Bumbershoot 2008

Sometimes a picture says a 1,000 words. If that's the case, then we've got a whole lot to say about the rock and roll goodness that was Day 2 of Bumbershoot 2008, as captured by photographers Chona Kasinger, Andrew Waits, Nathan Feder, and Kyle Johnson.

Our coverage includes reviews of Tapes N' Tapes, the Saturday Knights, Speaker Speaker, Sons and Daughters, Brother Ali, and loads more.

Have a look, won't you...?

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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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Not to lose any momentum from last Saturday's fantastic Old 97's show, the band has just been added to the 2008 Bumbershoot roster. Can I get a woot, y'all?

Also joining the 97's at the fest are Nada Surf, Flobots, and, yes it's true, the Offspring.

Bumbershoot is also going green, and no, I don't mean they're serving up weed (that's Folklife, people). The festival is taking strides to save the planet, encouraging patrons to bring their own non-disposable water bottles, reducing the number of printed programs and brochures, reusing signage from previous festivals, and powering the festival with net-zero energy (via Seattle City Light) and biodiesel generators, and more. You can even purchase carbon credits to offset your travels to the festival at bumbershoot.org.

Current lineup is as follows, and the Bumbershoot peeps claim even more will be announced in about a month:

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Great news for all you Nada Surf fans out there (and I proudly include myself among you): Nada Surf just announced a slew of West Coast and European tour dates, including a Seattle stop at Bumbershoot!

Here are all the dates, straight from the Barsuk press release:

20-Jun Germany, Southside Festival
22-Jun Germany, Hurricane Festival
27-Jun Germany, Darmstadt, Central Station (part of Sommerperlen)
28-Jun Germany, Jena
2-Jul France, Orleans, Campo Santo Festival
5-Jul France, St. Dewis de Gastines
13-Jul Belgium, Liege Festival Les Ardentes
17-Jul Spain, Benicassim Festival
18-Jul France, Angouleme, Garden Party
20-Jul UK, Latitude festival
7-Aug Salt Lake City, UT, Gallivan Center
15-Aug Spain, Aranda de duero-Burgos, Sonorama Festival
22-Aug Spain, Galicia, Villagarcia de Arousa
23-Aug France, La Ferme du Rock
28-Aug Costa Mesa, CA, PAC-Samueli Theatre
30-Aug Seattle, WA, Bumbershoot
2-Sep San Francisco, CA, Great American Music Hall
3-Sep San Francisco, CA, Great American Music Hall
4-Sep Portland, OR, MusicFest NW
5-Sep Los Angeles, CA, Troubadour
6-Sep Los Angeles, CA, Troubadour

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Just as you catch your breath from Sasquatch, Bumbershoot goes and announces the next round of bands playing this Labor Day. This round includes some of the Northwest acts, bolded in the list below...

The latest additions:

T.I. / Keyshia Cole / Adele / Minus the Bear / Battles / Aiden / Unearth / Sondre Lerche / The Whigs / Thao with The Get Down Stay Down / Langhorne Slim & The War Eagles / These Arms Are Snakes / The Blakes / Mark Pickerel & His Praying Hands / Barcelona / Kinski / Throw Me The Statue / J-Boogie's Dubtronic Science / Tyrone Wells / Howlin Rain / Monotonix / The Shackeltons / Star Anna / West Indian Girl / Ravens & Chimes / Hadley Caliman Quintet featuring Thomas Marriott / Grynch / The Hands / Joshua Morrison / Matt Jorgensen +451 / Chester French / PWRFL Power / The Girls /

Bands on the lineup who were previously announced:

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