It is sheer madness that there are so many great live performers appearing at Bumbershoot 2010 this year. This is my personal schedule to see a cross-section of irascible indie-ness (be it indie pop-friendly Pac NW hip-hop, indie rock, Brooklyn funk, etc.) but mostly focusing on those TIG-sparking artists who either put out a great record recently (and may or may not have gotten the deserved acclaim) or have one coming right up.

So let's begin the plan, and bear in mind if you haven't heard the music that may already be available from these performers, we would recommend checking the releases hyped below out before you attend Bumbershoot 2010. This is not because you would be in any way disappointed with what you will see and hear when you hit the full-genre full-on phenomenon that is the festival this year; just the opposite, we want you to already have some of these songs down to sing/chant/rap along when they pop during the sets. All are recommended and approved.

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Tonight, Bumbershoot unoffically begins with my friends from Ear Candy's kick-off party at the High Dive. It'll be quite the party, to say the least.

The main reason I like this bill is because it combines two great rock bands (The Redwood Plan and Born Anchors) with two great hip hop acts (Victor Shade and Grynch). The headliner of the night is Victor Shade, a brand new collaboration between Common Market's RA Scion and producer MTK. This will be their first show ever, so you'll probably not want to miss that.

This is the type of show that should happen every night because it takes risks with its booking and forces the crowd to listen to something that they may not be previously exposed to. It'll open with Born Anchors, a straight-forward rock band and continue with the buzz band The Redwood Plan, who are an excellent dance-rock band that has a heavy reliance on synths and hooks. With Grynch and Victor Shade, they'll surely close the night out like the party it is.

Ear Candy's (F)unoffical Bumbershoot kick-off party is tonight (Friday, September 4) at the High Dive with Victor Shade, Grynch, Born Anchors and The Redwood Plan. $10, 21+, 9pm.

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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The eight finalists have been announced, and the competition goes down this Friday, June 15th at the Vera Project. The show is all-ages and free, it starts at 7:30, and the competitors are...

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