It’s that time of the year again. Bumbershoot takes over the Seattle Center campus Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, ringing out the summer with a bang. As of now, most weather services are foretelling rain-spattered dreariness, but there are still plenty of reasons to brave the (possible) deluge and do the venerable arts festival to the hilt.
I’ll cop to it: Much as I enjoy the film, comedy, and art presentations at Bumbershoot, it’s the music that inspires the gluttonous consumer in me. I am fully aware of how categorically lame and ill-rounded I am because of this, but what the hell.
For all the (not entirely unfounded) grousing about Bumbershoot’s growing pains in recent years, it’s always hit the bullseye on the music front. This year proves to be no exception. The below list could easily be three times bigger (especially if you factor in the staggeringly consistent homegrown lineup), but I’d like to keep things relatively lean and mean. Enclosed, please find a semi-random helping of the music acts that have me most excited about Bumbershoot 2016.
Tame Impala: If the ghosts of John Lennon and George Harrison simultaneously possessed an Australian kid whose tastes leaned towards warped psychedelia, shoegazer music, the odd synth funk song, and a pound or two of weed, you’d end up with something akin to the sounds generated by genius singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker. Despite harboring a major man-crush on all three Tame Impala long-players, I’ve never managed to see the band live, and I’m hoping for awesomeness from Parker and his reputedly solid sidemen.
Billy Idol: One discomfiting Bumber-trend carried over from last year is the dearth of legendary/classic pop and rock musicians. Despite full acknowledgment of the relative expense (and, sadly, the dropping-like-flies mortality) involved in employing said veterans, the trend remains kind of a bummer. Everyone’s favorite Reagan-era peroxide-coiffed new-wave crossover artist, then, is pretty much the one legend-by-default playing Bumbershoot this year. God bless him, he’s still a singular presence and a helluva showman.
Naked Giants: Great garage rock bands sprout from the local soil like dandelions, if dandelions brandished fuzz tone amps. Naked Giants just might be the best new band kicking the genre around right now. And they more than proved their mettle as a live act with a stellar, adrenaline-stoked set at last year’s Timberfest.
Run the Jewels, Tyler the Creator: For my money, one of the best hip hop acts Bumbershooting it this year is Run the Jewels, the rap sorta-supergroup, whose visceral, growling style rocks as hard as most metal acts. The other most compelling hip hop artist hitting Bumbershoot 2016 (to these ears, at least) is Tyler, The Creator. The guy’s lyrical content’s problematic sometimes (especially if you’re a woman or gay). But his verbal flow’s distinctive and solid, and the production work on his tracks is staggering—a complex and ever-grooving stew of synth pop, velour soul, industrial rock, and movie soundtrack atmospherics, often driven by distinctive faux-trap-drum beats. Like any hip hop release worth its Parental Advisory sticker, the language in the below video is resolutely NSFW.
Melanie Martinez: I’m a relatively recent convert to Martinez’s razor-witted, funhouse-mirror take on mainstream dance pop, and she’s one of the most interesting and subversive big-selling acts around at the moment.
So Pitted: You could be really damned lazy, and call So Pitted a grunge band. The occasional thick heaviness of their attack definitely evokes the bastard offspring of punk and metal exemplified by Mudhoney, Tad, and Screaming Life-era Soundgarden. But So Pitted’s knack for crushing volume, neck-snapping time changes, and unexpected side trips into grinding art-punk (plus palpable melodies and riffs rising from the chaos) could deliver one of the fest’s most powerful sets.
Desi Valentine: Valentine is one hell of a left-field discovery. He plies a distinctive brand of soul that sounds like an eighties-sleek riff on sixties R&B, and his raspy sidelong voice brings to mind the great Bobby Womack. Dude is a damn snappy dresser, too.
Pony Time: This Seattle two-piece delivers lovably, lovingly sloppy garage rock with songs too short to wear out their welcome and too fun to resist.
Thunderpussy: Go figure: I’ve never seen this demolition crew of women, whose mastery of Thee Almighty Riff puts most dude-dominated rock bands to shame, live. Here’s to breaking that drought this weekend.
Chevy Metal: If you’re nostalgic for (or just pining after) classic Camaro rock a la Van Halen, Queen, and Bad Company, Foo Fighter Taylor Hawkins’ hard-rock cover band should provide ideal accompaniment for the kegger in your mind.
Radiation City: These Portlanders have always consistently, beautifully reproduced their succulent swing-band/Beach Boys/new wave/dance music fusion live.
Bob Moses: Tom Howie’s smoky, mournful vocals and his and Jimmy Valance’s merger of electronic music and quietly dark guitar pop sounds like dance music made for grown-ups, and it translates famously in a live setting.
