The big news over the weekend (if the Twitter feed of my local rock writer friends is to be believed) is that a) the Sasquatch Festival will once again be happening for the ninth time in nine years from Saturday, May 29 through Monday, May 31; b) 3-day passes are now sale for the discounted price of $170 and were as of Saturday morning (while the national unemployment rate dropped to 10.2% last week) and c) the recently-reunited Pavement is headlining (at least) one night.

The full lineup is set to be announced on February 16. Possibly NSFW video after the jump.

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at The Gorge

Oh Monday! Dear third day of camping, hair unwashed, everything I own smelling like sunscreen. After packing everything up post-haste we hoofed it to see one of the two early shows that day, the Heartless Bastards. I'd heard scattered ruminations about them but didn't know much and I'm patting myself on the back for checking them out. The Heartless Bastards are a Cincinnati-by-way-of-Texas band fronted by Erika Wennerstrom, whose soulful Patti Smith/Chrissie Hynde voice unites with the rough and tumble southern sound of her Austin band to form a rich and raucous kind of alt-country that is anything but boring.

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at The Gorge

I'm from Texas and all, but sitting on a rock in 85 degree heat with no shade, clouds or wind isn't my idea of completely awesome. Especially when after all that I walk back to the sticky hot tent to drink and then pass out in my sleeping bag, only to await the next day of the same. So that's my excuse for missing Calexico (but my amigo Sam caught them and wrote about it ). On with St. Vincent!

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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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More details about my first ever Sasquatch experience (and the bands I saw there) coming in the next few days!

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The heat and the glaring sun has been getting to me, so I ended up missing Calexico to stay longer at camp under the sweet shade.

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I'm going to act like Gaslight Anthem didn't happen and the Doves were the first band I saw...

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Sasquatch 2009 is a mere two days away. Go see bands all three days, cheer your head off, drink some beer and/or smoke a joint. Get dirty campin' toes and sweat through your forehead bandanna (or brave kilt-lifting style winds like in 2007). Come back harried and skip out on work Tuesday. Recount every last moment, with positive embellishments, to anyone fool enough not to attend. Buy the tshirt and flaunt the shit out of it.

Here is your big bad SASQUATCH 2009 PREVIEW.

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...then holy mother of God I've got a tour for you.

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I don't know a lot of details as to how an event of this magnitude will go down, but I do know that there are some free tickets at play, most likely for lucky guy or gal who can funnel massive amounts of sugar and pastry down their gullets at an incredible rate.

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