2008 Seattle Festival Guide

Sasshoot?  Bumberfest?  Sub Pop Block Party?  There are so many music festivals in and around Seattle, it can be pretty easy to get them all mixed up.  Here is a handy guide with dates, locations and links so that you can plan your summer.

Sasquatch:  When:  May 24-26  Where:  the Gorge Amphitheatre  Line-up Highlights:  Modest Mouse, R.E.M., The New Pornographers, M.I.A., The Breeders, Grand Archives, The Cure, Death Cab for Cutie, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, The Blakes, Sera Cahoone, The Cops, The Flaming Lips, The Mars Volta, Built to Spill, The Cave Singers, Kinski  My thoughts:  A very impressive line-up.  Plus many of these artists have not revealed plans to get any closer to Seattle than this.  More info:  http://sasquatchfestival.com/2008/

Noise for the Needy:  When:  June 11-15  Where:  Various clubs around Seattle  Line-up Highlights:  The Black Angels, Peter Parker, The Heavy Hearts, Math & Physics Club, New Faces, Lonesome Rhoads & the Good Company, Past Lives, Partman Parthorse, Amateur Radio Operator, Feral Children, Common Market  My thoughts:  Lots of great shows happening all over town.  Proceeds this year will benefit Urban Rest Stop.  More info:  http://www.noisefortheneedy.org/2008/index.php

Georgetown Music Fest:  When:  June 13-14  Where:  Georgetown neighborhood  Line-up Highlights:  Helmet, The Hands, Slender Means, Carrie Akre, The Lashes, Skullbot, Helms Alee, and more  My thoughts:  Last year’s best festival has once again assembled a great line-up of mostly local bands.  While you’re in the neighborhood, grab some pizza at Stellar Pizza and a drink at the 9 lb. Hammer.  More info:  http://www.georgetownmusicfest.com/

Showbox sold to the Devil

OK, remember when a big bad national “entertainment” group (and I use that VERY lightly) AEG swooped in and peed all over Bumbershoot this year? Well, get ready for the Showbox Clubs to start reeking of that same tangy subway smell.

AEG, those geniuses that thought Fergie was viable as a performer – let alone HEADLINE Seattle’s largest music festival, struck a deal on Tuesday Dec 11th with Jeff Steichen, longtime owner of the Showbox for the purchawse of the Showbox Clubs (SoDo and Market) If you take a second and check out the AEG website, you’ll see that they are resting on the laurels of booking some “huge” names such as Justin Timberlake, Bon Jovi, Prince, Christina Aguilera, Kenny Chesney and Paul McCartney. Let’s not forget Celine Dion and Yanni. Barf.

At least they are retaining Jeff Steichen and Chad Queirolo as General Manager and Talent Buyer/Manager, respectively, so there should be some local influence, but the possibility of Celine playing the Showbox… EVER… kinda makes me wish it was getting turned into condos…

A Summer-y of Summer Shows and Albums

Though I was in LA for half of June, working all of July, bed-ridden with SARS for six weeks after July 30th and MIA for most of September, I still managed to bear witness to some rock and some roll and a lot of hip hop this summer.
I downloaded the new Common album, “Finding Forever” and despite the rough and dissonant track “Southside”, wholly endorse it top to bottom. You have probably heard “Misunderstood” with the Nina Simone sample on KEXP. This was in heavy rotation in my work van until…
Talib Kweli’s “Eardrum.” Dang, Kanye was busy, what with producing some of this album plus “Forever”. Judging by the credits, it’d be hard to beat this album: Pete Rock, Madlib, will.i.am (now off the hook as Fergalicious is off doing something else) and longtime producer Hi-Tek are responsible for its release. The beats and themes bounce all over on “Eardrum” as much as his flow on “Country Cousins.” (Is that an “Earth, Wind and Fire” sample in there?) Try to put this one down.
By the time I saw Lyrics Born and Rodrigo y Gabriela rock crowds at Bumbershoot, I had probably played Queens of the Stone Age’s “Era Vulgaris” about 30 times. These artists bolstered my faith in the State of Music 2007 as much as the subtext of “Era Vulgaris” tried to question it.
A special thanks to a couple of NWMBers for inviting me along to the Spoon show last month. Like an old locomotive trying to gain momentum, the band had to fight the mass of their last album – too slow and cumbersome for this listener – to get the show going. Once into the second half of the performance, though, they found their groove and sated up the sold-out Showbox crowd.
Surprise surprise at my friend Michael’s wedding reception at the Sunset Tavern: a private show by our beloved Cops. A great preview of the new album followed a short set during the cocktail hour that featured “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” and “Ballroom Blitz”. Hell yeah! Since my last visit to The Cops in late 2005, they have added a guitarist (Brandon of Free Electricity) and replaced founding bassist Brian Wall with Drew Church. They as solid as ever. I am eager to see them again this week with The Blakes at the Croc.
A fellow NWMB editor invited me out to see Two Gallants at the Croc earlier this month. The harmonics and minor-chord whiny-ness of Modest Mouse plus the two-piece frenetics of Hella. They totally underwhelmed me but it afforded me the opportunity to check out Blitzen Trapper, newly signed to hit maker Sub Pop. My idea that night: Radiohead mates with The Eagles and has a rockin’ Wilco baby. Whatever that whiskey-stained thought means. Check ‘em out and decide for yourself. Or grab the free show on the “KEXP Live Performances” podcast on the omnipresent iTunes.
I have been missing out on the goldenthroat rock, so tomorrow I am going to see Chris Cornell do something at the Paramount. Maybe he’ll take his shirt off. Or maybe he’ll play Billie Jean and I will try to sing along. Lately he has been covering Zeppelin’s “Thank You” and that out to be goldenthroat-tastic.
If Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings are on the road, I will have to catch the support of their third release. Anyone into it?

Bumbershoot Day 2 & 3

More Bumbershoot.  So after a full day of Bumbershoot, I was pretty tired.  Then some things came up and after that I just couldn’t motivate myself to head down to the Seattle Center.  So there is nothing to say about day two.  If anyone is dying to know what happened, the Seattle Weekly and the Stranger had professionals covering the event.  The Stranger has some nice pictures from day 1, here.  Full coverage on their ‘Slog’.

So on to Day 3…

The Festive Season

Summer is coming to Seattle.  Well, if not what most people would consider summer, at least the chance of a few rain free days in succession are headed our way.  And with the summer come the music fests, street fairs, block parties and so on.  Personally, I’m not a huge fan of outdoor stages.  I prefer my live music without the sunburns and baby strollers.  I feel if rock was meant to be played outside, guitar amps would plug into trees.  Rock is born in dark basements and in bedrooms late at night.  Music sounds best, to me, when it entirely fills a small, awkward space.  But I know most people enjoy huge outdoor concerts.  And here in Seattle, we put on some pretty great music festivals.  And while, it isn’t my favorite way to see bands, I still go.  I get pretty excited when the line-up announcements start coming in.  So here are the some highlights of this year’s festival season…