Recent Stories with tag bumbershoot

At Bumbershoot Monday, the Broad Street Stage had the awesome back-to-back-to-back lineup of Japandroids, Surfer Blood, and The Thermals.  Before their set, Surfer Blood briefly chatted with The Thermals in Japandroids' plush (souped up with a DVD player and wifi), creepy (tinted windows), environmentally friendly (biodiesel) Sprinter van.  All three bands play this weekend's MusicfestNW in Portland, The Thermals' new album, Personal Life, is out on Kill Rock Stars as of Tuesday, and Surfer Blood will be back in Seattle with The Drums, at Neumo's on October 4th.

Thomas Fekete, Surfer Blood guitarist: What famous people do you see from Portland in the grocery store?

Kathy Foster, Thermals bassist: Quasi-famous. Quasi.

Hutch Harris, Thermals guitarist/vocalist: I saw Danny Glover one time.  Danny Glover has a house in Portland.

KF: Steve Malkmus and I are on a softball team this summer.

HH: Except he kinda flaked out.

KF: He only played one game.

HH: What, Pavement had to tour?  Didn't they know he has a softball team?

TF: The first time I ever saw Steve Malkmus in person, he was sitting in a mall, cross-legged, eating an ice cream cone, by himself on a bench. It was pretty perfect.

K: What mall?

TF: It was in Barcelona.

HH: I made coffee for Art from Everclear one time.

TF:  Everlast tried to fight us.  Do you guys know the guys from Everlast?  Have they ever tried to fight you?  [laughs]  Because apparently they try to fight every other band in the world.... (more)

Monday at Bumbershoot was laid back and rainy, with a few noteworthy exceptions. My band hopscotch included The Clientele (Alasdair MacLean opened with a joke about bringing English weather), Greg Laswell (yet another singer/songwriter living down having a hit single on The Hills), The Meat Puppets (I don't need to explain this, right?), THEESatisfaction (the feel-good-yet-socially-aware set of the day), The Moondoggies (big crowd at the Mural Amphitheater for that one), Japandroids (two Canadian boys who rock the shit out of you), Bomba Estereo (a multi-culti dance fest), Jenny & Johnny (the cute was almost too much to bear, in person), Surfer Blood (power surf pop), and The Thermals (motherfucking tight).

If I'm honest, I usually hate multi-stage festivals. I don't like that you pay for the chance to see a bunch of bands and they all overlap and there's no way you can see them all. I don't enjoy waiting in line while I miss some of those bands.

That said, I still had fun at Bumbershoot on Sunday. Here are a few of my personal highlights.

I started the morning by visiting the Counterculture Comix and Flatstock displays. The Counterculture Comix collection was an impressive array of local comic art. I appreciated the old Rocket covers and Sub Pop cassettes and zines, in particular. Flatstock continues to impress with great poster art from both locals and out-of-towners.

Hey Marseilles drew a substantial crowd (the singer remarked that it was an "unnecessarily significant number" of audience members) and delighted fans with their feel-good orchestral pop. They've just gone national with their record, and I think fans of Death Cab or The Decemberists will be pleased with their multi-instrumental approach to songwriting. They sounded great at the festival and were the highlight of the early shows for me.

As a member of the press, I could not pass up the opportunity to get in to the Hole End Session. I waited in the requisite line with my press peers (Rolling Stone Brazil, for example!) and we made our way up the back stairs to a room in McCaw Hall to witness the crazy. We were not disappointed.

Courtney did play a few songs, but she also talked. For what seemed like hours, she rambled on and on in random directions, often changing thought in the middle of sentences. She mentioned she might not play later in the evening because of a death threat, she went on a strange rant about Jonathan Poneman, the founder of Sub Pop, and then about how her song "Samantha" was written to be as bad-ass as Trent Reznor's songs, even though she forgot some of the lyrics as she sang it. The End Session was difficult to watch and hilarious at the same time. (Sort of like Love's life, I'm sure.) She went on to chat with Charles Cross (who is working on the Kurt Cobain biopic) about cast members, mentioned how she remembers Cobain's "peen," and then she and current Hole guitarist Micko Larkin did a cover of Pearl Jam's "Jeremy." Since I want to share that misery with you, here's a video.... (more)

You've long seen Slightlynorth's work in our Flickr pool. This year we brought him in-house for Sunday at Bumbershoot, and he delivered the goods. Then he went to get a new tattoo. Rock photographers. The life they lead.

This sums things up nicely.

There is once in a lifetime, and there is once in a lifetime. Yesterday, a small group of about two hundred Bumbershooters (lucky End listeners, some VIPs, and yes, mostly press) gathered in a tiny room upstairs in McCaw Hall to see Courtney Love give a very intimate Hole performance.

Ultimately, it took up the biggest chunk of my Bumber-day, as we all excitedly waited in line for an hour, then waited for Courtney for half an hour, and then got four songs and a whole lot of talking from Ms. Love over the next hour.  I didn't know quite what to expect, and yet it went exactly as expected.

"Do we have an African-American child in our family now?" And so it began.

Over the next scatterbrained hour, Courtney went on to mispronounce "schadenfreude," rail against the Weekly's recent cover story on her ("the most irresponsible thing I've ever seen"), and occasionally answered a question from Red, The End DJ trying to conduct a Q&A--though it did take Red asking a question about the forthcoming Kurt biopic thrice to get a semi-coherent answer.... (more)

Plants and Animals

Yesterday was a good way to kick off Bumbershoot: the weather was just warm enough, we got a little sun, and Seattle Center wasn't too crowded. I'm vowing to make this year's fest a laidback experience. I'll catch what I can catch, and I'm not going to stress about it. Besides, it's easy to see a little bit of everything, if you're like me and start to get itchy after twenty minutes of a festival set. (Be sure to follow us @thesunbreak on Twitter, to catch our collective Bumbershoot observations as they occur.)

Saturday I started things out with Montreal's Plants and Animals, who combined their fuzzed-out, prog-leaning surf rock with words of wisdom: "It takes a good friend to tell you you've got your head up your ass." Their sped-up version of La La Land's "Tom Cruz" ended with a drawn-out jam. From there, I caught the tail-end of The Constellations, who played some cowbell from the photo pit, before closing their set with a cover of "I'm Waiting for the Man."

I made some time for one of the comedy stages, for the showcase with Joe Mande, Chelsea Peretti, and Donald Glover (Doug Benson is acting as MC, as well as appearing on Mark Maron and Chris Hardwick's live podcasts during the fest). Joe Mande covered his "hate crime fantasies," Twitter fights with celebrities, and the erotic origins of milk. Chelsea Peretti discussed the self-righteousness of owners of three-legged dogs. And Community's Donald Glover had a polished, easily excitable set that drew on everything from Michael Cera playing Shaft to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a "homeless man's fever dream." Thankfully, all three made fun of vegans.... (more)

Oh my god, Bumbershoot is like the beer bong of music. After just three bands Saturday afternoon, I was feeling a little cocky, and pulled over to post a photo gallery. Little did I know that at the end of the day, I'd have have heard six more: Justin Townes Earle, The Decemberists, Pete Molinari, Neko Case, Balkan Beat Box, Solomon Burke, and Visqueen. And that's missing two of the day's highlights, HEALTH and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.

But that seems to be the way Bumbershoot goes--it takes a village. Neko Case thanked the Decemberists, Rachel Flotard, and one of Bob Dylan's techs for all pitching in to get her gear concert-ready. Then she tossed her head back and filled Memorial Stadium to overflowing with that voice of hers. Please enjoy this photographic evidence of a day in the life of a Bumbershooter.

Here's our preview of Sunday at Bumbershoot--and here's the Monday rundown--if you'd like to make your own memories.

The English Beat play Bumbershoot at 9:30 p.m. on Monday, September 6.

Between the late 1970s and the early 1980s, dance clubs all over the world pulsed with a different backbeat as a small army of British kids picked up instruments and started their own scene. The movement became known as the second wave of ska, or two-tone, and it injected reggae and soul music with the do-it-yourself spirit of punk. Bands like Madness, the Specials, and Selecter gave clubgoers an upbeat alternative to punk’s strident rebel rallying cry by serving up butt-shaking, danceable beats with sociopolitical lyrics.

Even amongst that stable of great bands, the English Beat stood out. They knew how to get a crowd moving like any good dance group, could deliver lyrics as persuasive as any Gang of Four polemic (Exhibit A for the defense: the addictive and acerbic "Stand Down, Margaret"), and produced an incredible armada of classic pop songs over the course of their three albums.

Dave Wakeling, the English Beat’s lead singer and guitarist, crooned his songs in a supple baritone that felt incongruous coming from a boyish white kid. And in addition to tackling topicality, his lyrics addressed the perils, joys, and comic absurdities of that old devil Love with disarming and welcome sophistication. If Cole Porter had grown up in Birmingham, England on a steady diet of Prince Buster and Motown, he’d have written songs like Dave Wakeling’s.

The English Beat folded in 1983, and Wakeling followed that up with a stint in the pop band General Public and various solo projects. Most recently, however, the self-described troubadour’s been on the road with a reformed English Beat for the last five years. He’s the only original member in the current stateside incarnation of the band, but he’s surrounded himself with a tight and empathetic group of young guns who help him deliver the old hits with a spark that sets the proceedings head-and-shoulders above your standard nostalgia act.... (more)

Every year Bumbershoot stirs to life like some shaggy animal slouching toward elephant ears. Some things are always the same: If you're in a hurry to catch a show, don't head down the covered arcade between the Center House and McCaw Hall, jammed with shoppers ambling along a medina's worth of soap, sunglasses, and T-shirt sellers.

And don't try to cut between the Mural Amphitheatre and the food carts, because you'll end up with a plate of spaghetti on you. Spaghetti!

But other elements make every Bumbershoot different. The weather (mostly cloudy so far, but t-shirt friendly except for a mist this morning), the way your personal band list leans toward roots or rock or random, the world you step out of for a day or two (the wars, sputtering economy)--all these combine to make a Bumbershoot unlike the rest. For a weekend, the oncoming fall has to hold up--we're off to the fair.

Written from within the luxuriously appointed media room at Bumbershoot, stocked with both apple *and* orange juice!

"An agonizing crawl" is how the state's chief economist, Arun Raha, describes the economic recovery in Washington. "Anemic," "risk," "uncertainty," and "weaker" are also keywords. While corporate profits are now higher than pre-recession levels, Raha says:

We have cut our 2011 employment growth forecast roughly in half, from 2.7% to 1.3% (annual average basis). We do not expect to reach our prerecession peak in overall employment until the second quarter of 2013.

On the local front, both Costco and Nordstrom won praise from Barron's for their Q3 results. TechFlash reported on AT&T's boost to the signal at Qwest Field and Husky Stadium. The Storm continue to be awesome. Native Americans are understandably still outraged that a wood carver was shot to death by Seattle police. Keeping the unfortunate streak going, police shot an armed, reportedly suicidal man in West Seattle yesterday. Sound Transit will run one-car light rail during low-demand times to save money.

In Belltown, the Croc is "absorbing" the Via Tribunali space. The CD News had their own armed shooter to report on. Eastlake was plagued by a rash...of car prowls. A medieval country faire is holed up in Volunteer Park this weekend, battling the tide of modernity that is PAX. Blogging Georgetown envisioned Airport Way South on a diet. Watch out for angry Ents: 140 trees are being displaced for the Mercer Street Improvement Project. Yesler Terrace historic?... (more)

It's Bumbershoot this Labor Day weekend (see our takes on Saturday and Sunday's lineup), and before we get to the acts, let's recap on strategery:

• Daily tickets are $22 (no mainstage) or $40 (mainstage). The $22 Saturday tickets are already sold out. Buy in advance, 'cause at the gate it'll go up to $30 and $50, respectively. All adult-accompanied kids 10 and under get free festival admission (doesn't include mainstage).
• You can meticulously plan an electronic schedule ahead of time using this online whirlygig or keep your options open by stocking your pocket with a printed PDF version
• Driving anywhere near the Seattle Center will be a pain, slightly less if you get there very early. Any number of buses will drop you there, including special festival shuttles. From Capitol Hill, it's the mighty #8. From downtown, you take the Monorail and arrive in style.
• Check the weather before you go and dress appropriately (or not, what the hell, it's your life). For the pack: water bottle, something blanket-y to sit on, sunscreen, sweater. On Monday, you'll probably want to bring an umbrella and waterproof jacket, just to be safe. 

By the time Bumbershoot reaches Monday, everyone is pretty damn tired. But if you're still able to summon up the energy to make it to Seattle Center early, there are plenty of good options, in the form of rootsy Bobby Bare Jr. (12:30), country and banter care of Brent Amaker & The Rodeo (11:45), the big pipes of Nouela Johnston in People Eating People (12:30), and JEFF the Brotherhood (1:15), who are neither brothers nor named Jeff.

Monday is also your last chance to check out those things you've been meaning to do all festival, like hitting up the short films in SIFF Cinema, the Counterculture Comix retrospective (curated by Larry Reid and our good friends at Fantagraphics), or seeing some dance, theatre, or comedy. Especially if it's raining outside. We've been giving shout-outs to comedy throughout the festival, but I'd like to give a special mention to Kumail Nanjiani, who specializes in the fish-out-of-water humor of being a Pakistani in America. (I also went to college with him--jealous?) He's performing as part of a comedy nerd lover's dream showcase with the also-very-funny John Mulaney and Nick Kroll (3:45).... (more)

As previously mentioned, this year's Bumbershoot arts program includes an appearance by Shimon, the Jazz-Improvising Marimba Robot that gave Stephen Colbert such a fright earlier this year. Lele Barnett, who's curating the Sounds Human exhibit, just confirmed that at tonight's free arts preview the celebrity robot will be jamming with the famous Trey Gunn (from King Crimson) and Chris Brokaw (from Come & Codeine) for a one-night-only performance. Shimon will be on the marimba all weekend, but tonight is your only chance to see this particularly exciting musical collaboration.

The Human-Robot musical summit beings at 6 p.m. in the Lopez Room. Be there on time. Just because the robot loves to improvise, it still has its brethren's hard-coded fondness for maintaining a tight schedule. 

It's Bumbershoot this Labor Day weekend, and before we get to the acts, let's recap on strategy.

• Daily tickets are $22 (no mainstage) or $40 (mainstage). Buy in advance, 'cause at the gate it'll go up to $30 and $50, respectively. All adult-accompanied kids 10 and under get free festival admission (doesn't include mainstage).
• Driving anywhere near the Seattle Center will be a pain, slightly less if you get there very early. Any number of buses will drop you there, including special festival shuttles. From Capitol Hill, it's the mighty #8. From downtown, you take the Monorail and arrive in style.
• You can meticulously plan an electronic schedule ahead of time using this online whirlygig or keep your options open by stocking your pocket with a printed PDF version
• Check the weather before you go and dress appropriately (or not, what the hell, it's your life). For the pack: water bottle, something blanket-y to sit on, sunscreen, sweater. Maybe an umbrella? The forecast looks like the festival might (again) live up to its namesake climate protection device.

More than the other two festival days, Sunday is the one with a mainstage lineup as likely to draw former fans looking for a trainwreck as current fans in seeking magical musical moments. In their heyday (aka "the nineties") the headliners released near-flawless and now-iconic albums and then became different kinds of unglued. As far as I'm concerned, Hole's Live Through This is an unassailable classic. Despite all of the tabloid drama, ditching the rest of the band, and the absurdly ungrammatical twitter breakdowns, that record and her rogue 1995 post-VMA appearance will have me on Team Courtney and hoping that her performance falls into the category of "unexpected brilliance" instead of unmitigated disaster.

courtney love (photo by & courtesy of whitney pastorek)

Then there's Weezer. Weezer of that self-titled (aka "Blue") album that wore out many an early model Discman. Weezer that took seemingly forever to come back with still-beloved masterpiece (Pinkerton, aka "the misogynistic one," or in more charitable moments, the self-lambasting one) because their frontman was hiding out in a tinfoiled room at Harvard while suffering to stretch a malformed leg. Weezer that decided that if playing a song with the Muppets was cool (it kind of was!), then why not release a single about being the worst human in California, or make an album of internet memes, or do something called "Raditude," or put the dude from LOST on the cover in ultra close-up. They're headlining.

The last time I saw them was when they were touring behind their second self-titled ("Green") album. It was fun. There was a lot of confetti. I have no idea what to expect because I haven't been able to bring myself to listen to a whole Weezer song since "Beverly Hills." Their mainstage show will break that drought and may extinguish any lingering warm sentiments toward the band. All the joys and sorrows of being old enough to have important bands from your childhood stick around long enough to throw gasoline on your memories.  Or it could be amazing! That's why I'll be there, instead of bolting across town to the Paramount for Pavement, a band whose window of opportunity opened and closed before I was paying attention, I guess. ... (more)

It's Bumbershoot this Labor Day weekend, and before we get to the acts, let's recap on strategy.

• Daily tickets are $22 (no mainstage) or $40 (mainstage). Buy in advance, 'cause at the gate it'll go up to $30 and $50, respectively. All adult-accompanied kids 10 and under get free festival admission (doesn't include mainstage).
• Driving anywhere near the Seattle Center will be a pain, slightly less if you get there very early. Any number of buses will drop you there, including special festival shuttles. From Capitol Hill, it's the mighty #8. From downtown, you take the Monorail and arrive in style.
• Check the weather before you go and dress appropriately (or not, what the hell, it's your life). For the pack: water bottle, something blanket-y to sit on, sunscreen, sweater.

Saturday Picks!

You can meticulously plan an electronic schedule ahead of time using this online whirlygig or keep your options open by stocking your pocket with a printed PDF version. But no matter what, there is a knife hidden in every Bumbershoot--an inevitable knife--that stabs the moment you realize two of your favorite things are playing at the exact same time. What to do? Me, I say roll with it and wait until you are there and need to make the call. Often you're in the mood for one or the other by the time the moment of decision rolls around.

That said, for a themed day, there's a couple of tracks you could run. Here's an all alt.folk.country day in music with Star Anna & the Laughing Dogs (1:15 p.m.), Zoe Muth & the Lost High Rollers (2:45) or The Maldives (3), Justin Townes Earle (4:45), The Decemberists (5:30), Pete Molinari (6:45), Neko Case (7:15), and Bobby D (9, mainstage), if you're into older dudes.... (more)

It's a relatively quiet week for the Seattle literary scene, due to the closure of all Seattle Public Library branches, and the hoopla of Bumbershoot. On the bright side, this means that no Library materials are due and no late fines are accrued, for a week. On the less bright side, the Library is closed! Oh, the horror. And there is horror aplenty on this week's calendar, with genocide, environmental destruction, and yet more evidence that U.S. immigration policy and procedure has been less than stellar for many, many shameful decades.

Next week there will be a happy, fluffy bunny reading if I have to make it up.

08/30/10 12 a.m. The Seattle Public Library
The Seattle Public Library system is closed Aug. 30 through Sept. 6
In order to help meet $3M in budget cuts, the entire system is shutting down for a week, saving about $655K. This year, as opposed to last, some online Library services will be available. To leave a comment for the city librarian or the Library Board, call 206-684-0471. Be polite.

08/31/10 12 p.m. Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Jayne Castle (Jayne Ann Krentz)
Midnight Crystal
The (not very) pseudonymous author will sign book three in her Dreamlight Trilogy.

09/01/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Judith Armatta
Twilight of Impunity: The War Crimes Trial of Slobodan Milosevic
I have to admit, the whole genocide thing really freaks me out. The last time I tried to read one of these sorts of books, I had screaming nightmares for weeks, after getting through only a few dozen pages. I can't imagine what the journalist who reported on Milosevic's trial could talk about that wouldn't send me back into therapy. I'm not proud.

09/01/10 7 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Matthew Kahn
Climatopolis
The author will talk about "Urban Life in a Hotter World." Soylent Green is PEEEEEEOPLE! You heard it here, first.... (more)

June is here (sorta, if you don't look outside), and with that comes the first wave of artists tapped for this year's Bumbershoot.  It's the festival's 40th anniversary, so that means trotting out musicians both old and new, which in this case means Bob Dylan and Hole. Dare we dream of a croaky-voiced Courtney Love-Bob Dylan trainwreck duet?

Single-day tickets are available online as of today, and via Ticketmaster this Friday. Just a reminder on how the tickets are different this year: 

The Bumbershoot Standard Ticket ($40 advance/$50 gate) includes guaranteed Mainstage admission, as well as first-come, first-served access to all other Festival venues. The Bumbershoot Economy Ticket ($22 advance/$30 gate) gives ticketholders first-come, first-served access to everything at Bumbershoot except the Mainstage performances in Memorial Stadium. Economy Ticket holders may be able to purchase Mainstage Upgrade Tickets on-site for $30, if space in the Mainstage is still available day-of-show.

There's one more Mainstage act to be announced (mayhaps Soundgarden?), along with the literary, comedy, performing arts, visual arts, film and theater artists, and whatever other music groups get added to the bill. Check out the lineup by day, and the full list is after the jump.... (more)

Along with their sold-out performance at the Gorge this Memorial Day, it's just been announced that fresh-outta-Coachella reunited indie icons Pavement will also be playing an all-ages show at the Paramount Sunday, September 5th. Yep, that's right smackdab in the middle of Bumbershoot--so make it work, people. Apparently, Stephen Malkmus and Co. really like Washington State for the long holiday weekends.

Tix start at $35 and go on sale this Saturday, April 24th at 10 a.m. Full details after the jump. (Video of Pavement kicking off their show last week at Pomona's Fox Theater with Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain's first track "Silence Kid" above.)

Date: September 5, 2010 @ 8 p.m.
Venue: Paramount Theatre (all ages)
Price: $35, not including applicable fees
Seating: General Admission (Flat Floor) & Reserved Seating (Balcony)
On sale date: Saturday, April 24th @ 10 a.m.

Ticketing information: Online at tickets.com, in person at the Paramount Theatre box office (M-F 10 a.m.-6 p.m.), 24-hour kiosks located outside the Paramount & Moore Theatres, charge by phone at (877) 784-4849, or online at stgpresents.com.

There was one non-negotiable must-see at Bumbershoot Monday, and that was the Lost writers panel. Sorry Say Hi, Black Joe Lewis, Grand Hallway, and the Lonely Forest, you were playing at the wrong time; there was no way to catch any of your sets and also be back at the Leo K. Theatre early enough to snag some seats. I wasn't alone: the nerds had shown up early, and there was a long line of folks who were just not going to get in. For those of us who made it, however, we were treated to a lively discussion between Entertainment Weekly's Lost guru Jeff Jensen and Lost executive producer-scribes Carlton Cuse, Eddy Kitsis, and Adam Horowitz.

The show is three weeks into filming its sixth and final season, which Kitsis claimed would be "all killer, no filler." The writers showed the three teasers previously viewed at Comic-Con (and subsequently all over the tubes), which seem to indicate that perhaps time has been rebooted following Juliet detonating a hydrogen bomb in the season finale. Everyone will have to wait... (more)

Like many of you, I've spent the last few months loudly declaring this year's Bumbershoot as one to miss after skimming the list of lackluster headliners. In recent weeks, I've turned around on the event. Yes, it's crowded. Yes, some of the headliners are a complete snoozefest. But it's still one of the best large-scale events in Seattle, and I'd be a fool to ignore it out of my own elitism. Plus, there's funnel cake! I decided I'd at least check out one day, and Sunday's the day.

Sunday's musical lineup (as with the other days) is solid if you look past the names in the largest type. First off, there's Vivian Girls. Between their dates here and this year's SXSW (where they played an amazing 18 shows in 3 days), I've seen Vivian Girls plenty of times, and only once been disappointed (stink-eye for you, sound guy at Neumos ). Somewhere in their hectic touring schedule they've managed to finish up their sophomore album, so this date promises a lot of new material.

I'll also be scratching my indie-rock itch with... (more)

"There's always a chance you're going to get something you don't like, or is against the rules you established, or is outside of the framework of what you thought it was going to be, and that's part of what's very exciting about it."

Greg Lundgren just spread his hands and chuckled. It was Tuesday afternoon, and we were sitting in the dark front corner of Lundgren's bar, the Hideout, chatting about his upcoming exhibition at Bumbershoot, Dada Economics. For the past year, Lundgren, through his experimental art and theatre company Vital 5 Productions, has been in the process of giving out a total of nine $500
Arbitrary Art Grants (three of which will be done at Bumbershoot). The grants range from best performance art protest of performance art (at NW New Works this spring) to video submissions of dancing like you're being shot at. The works have been collected by Lundgren into Dada Economics, an anarchic, populist art exhibition that speaks to the latent—and in Lundgren's view, suppressed—creative... (more)

Despite the talk of a monsoon this weekend, I ain't care. If fewer people venture to Bumbershoot this year, that is fine by me. It just makes for more music, comedy, and performances for the rest of us.

This year I am all about Monday. The music lineup is solid. Ignore the Black Eyed Peas (please--maybe that will make them go away), and take your pick from The Lonely Forest (3:15-4:15pm, EMP), Champagne Champagne (4:45-5:45pm, EMP), Trucksaurus (7:45-8:45pm, EMP), Portland Cello Project (6:45-7:45pm, Northwest Court), Say Hi (2:30-3:30pm, Broad Street), Mirah (4:15-5:15pm, Broad Street), Metric (9:30-10:45pm, Broad Street), The Cave Singers (6:45-7:45pm, Mural Amphitheatre), Janelle Monae (5:45-6:45pm, Fisher Green), and Franz Ferdinand (7:45-9:00pm, Memorial Stadium). Any or all of the above is sure to please.

While the overall Bumbershoot music lineup seems to be flailing at best (above company excluded), their comedy offerings only get better, and on Monday you've got tons of great laugh options, including... (more)

About five minutes into her dance film Holding This For You, Marissa Rae Niederhauser throws herself against the wall, slides to the floor, and begins trying to untie a key knotted to the front of her dress. But Ben Kasulke's camera stays trained to her face; she squints a little as she works, purses her lips before biting the lower one, and only when she's mostly worked her way through the knot and closed her eyes does the camera trail down to her breast as she pulls the key off the ribbon. She holds it tightly in her hand for a long moment, her face, turned from the camera, slightly out of focus, and then drops it.

"Different stories work better onstage, and different stories work better on film," explained Niederhauser last week at Smith, near her home on Capitol Hill. "And I'm particularly drawn to small facial gestures and physical details. Onstage, dance is great to have these big, sweeping spacial patterns and geometric forms, kind of like a kaleidoscope. But this was kind of more a psychological drama,... (more)

"I've actually never been to Bumbershoot," said Kristen Ward, somewhat matter-of-factly, sitting over mid-day drinks at the Matador in Ballard earlier this week. It was a somewhat surprising admission, considering that her performance this Saturday at noon—the first musical performance of the entire festival, as it happens—is her second appearance at Bumbershoot. "Even after I played last time, I just left. I had to go to work, or whatever I was doing. So, yeah. This is my second time going, but just because I'm playing."

In Ward's case, it all makes sense: Despite calling Seattle home since 2001 (she's lived in Ballard for the last five years), she's still more country than city, and just plain doesn't like being stuck in such a big crowd, though she relishes the chance to play for them. Raised in Eastern Washington, she prefers getting out of town on her days off, up to the Skagit Valley or the like, to sitting around cafes or bars, and even mentions some vague plans involving a vintage Airstream... (more)

There's plenty of good things to say about Telekinesis, but if there's one reason that their set this Saturday at Bumbershoot (EMP/SFM's Sky Church, 8 p.m.) is a can't-miss, it's that it promises to be the most danceable performance on the lineup. Which is sort of crazy, because Michael Lerner, the singer-songwriter who's the heart and soul of the quartet, is, to look at him, a pretty run-of-the-mill Seattle indie rocker, this from a town famous for its too-cool-to-dance indie rock scene. But such is the charm of Telekinesis, whose Merge Records debut Telekinesis! has earned the outfit acclaim as one of the best new acts out of Seattle this year.

Lerner's songs may be about standard indie rock fare--loneliness, alienation, absent girlfriends, and so on--but he makes them work on the strength of his lyrics which, even in the ballad "I Saw Lightning," come off as sincere and sweet. Telekinesis is brilliant power pop hearkening back to Big Star, with super-catchy rockers like "Coast of Carolina" (which lulls... (more)