MusicfestNW

Admission with MusicfestNW wristband or $20 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 8pm.

Dreamy and feverish, hooky and repetitive, obsessive and claustrophobic – that’s The Kills’ fourth album, “Blood Pressures”. ‘Obsessive and claustrophobic?’ repeats Jamie Hince: ‘yes, I like that. After we’d made the record, Alison and I talked about the theme: there’s a lot about gender, about relationships; it’s about sex – so, blood pressures’...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or FREE Nike Sportswear pass. A limited number of Nike Sportswear passes will be given away at Jackpot Records (both locations) on the day of show. Doors open at 5pm.

In the middle of the year 2000, after years of playing together in previous bands, Brian Lane, Jesse Lacey, and Garrett Tierney recruited guitarist, and soon to be friend, Vincent Accardi and formed Brand New. After a year or so of “doing their time” and the obligatory, and seemingly endless, runs of self booked shows and tours, the Long Island quartet finally recorded and released their first record, Your Favorite Weapon. As it set the course for the next decade of music the four youths were to embark on, the record also established what would become both a longtime musical partnership and friendship with local producer/engineer Mike Sapone, who is sometimes referred to as a fifth member of the band...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW wristband or $20 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 7pm.

There are a handful of things about Viva Voce that lend themselves to a just-the-facts presentation: This songwriting team —Kevin and Anita Robinson – met and married in rural Alabama over a decade ago and made their first four-track demo as Viva Voce in 1998. Since then, they have relocated to Portland, OR, released a number of critically acclaimed recordings and toured extensively including stints with the Shins and Jimmy Eat World...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW wristband or $20 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 7pm.

Out of the ashes of Dinosaur Jr., Lou Barlow teamed up with his pal Eric Gaffney to make low-fi 4-track recordings. The duo made two albums, “Weed Forestin” and “The Freed Man,” and released both on cassette. They released “Sebadoh III” in 1991. Songs on that album were written by Barlow, Gaffney and a new recruit, bassist Jason Loewenstein. The name Sebadoh was chosen because it sounds like “We’re the best.” when played backwards on a four-track tape loop. In 1994, Eric left the band and was replaced by Bob Fay...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW wristband or $25 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 8pm.

Admission with MusicfestNW wristband or $20 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 7pm.

The Archers of Loaf were darlings of the indie world in the early to mid-‘90s, thanks to an off-kilter sound that was edgy and challenging, yet melodically accessible at the same time. Cornerstones of the Chapel Hill, NC, indie scene that also spawned Superchunk and Polvo, the Archers’ chief inspirations were the Replacements and Sonic Youth, but that only began to tell the story...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $15 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

Canadian two-piece Handsome Furs don’t just shrug off this myth on Sound Kapital, they reject it with every fiber of their shared being. Like Fad Gadget and Suicide before them, husband and wife Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry use keyboards and drum machines to forge life-affirming anthems taut with muscle and blood. These nine songs of innocence and experience occasionally look ahead to a better world in the not-so-distant future, but Handsome Furs know what time it is: Now. They are fully engaged in the moment and their surroundings, wherever that may be...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $10 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

Al James (aka “Dolorean”) has returned to writing and recording, with his first album in nearly 4 years, The Unfazed, set for release October 26 on Brooklyn’s Partisan Records (Deer Tick, Mountain Man, Holy Sons). The album was engineered by Rob Oberdorfer and mixed by Tony Lash (The Dandy Warhols, Death Cab For Cutie, Elliott Smith). Y For nearly a decade Al James’ alter-ego, Dolorean, has been writing and recording music in Portland starting with 2003’s Not Exotic, which landed the young poet/songwriter on the review page of the Sunday New York Times review section for its beautiful, thought-provoking songs and James’ elegantly sparse vocals (early comparisons were Will Oldham, Elliott Smith, Nick Drake and Sam Beam)...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $12 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

Twin Sister is a band based in and around New York. Andrea Estella sings, Bryan Ujueta plays the drums, Eric Cardona plays guitar, Gabel D’Amico plays the bass, and Udbhav Gupta plays keyboard...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $13 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

Kylesa, the Savannah-based quintet who have won widespread praise for their earth-shaking blend of psychedelia and hard rock, return to the road on May 25 for a series of headlining dates as well as performances at venerable summer festivals including Bonnaroo, Pitchfork Music Festival and Maryland Death Fest...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $15 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

Phantogram’s music sounds like it’s made by a band from the city. Electronic loops, hip-hop beats, shoegaze, soul, pop — each finds its way into their songs. Unexpectedly, the band doesn’t live and work in a major urban center, but rather calls the town of Saratoga Springs, NY (population 26,186) home. Despite the cultural influence of local Skidmore College (where fellow beat-experimenters Ratatat formed) and a relatively small scene of adventurous musicians and listeners, Saratoga isn’t exactly teeming with fans of J. Dilla, My Bloody Valentine or Serge Gainsbourg...read more

Admission with ticket included in MusicfestNW wristband package or $32 advance ticket fromTicketswest. Doors open at 4pm.

Over the course of his ten-year career, Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam has become one of today’s greatest story tellers, crafting meticulous tales full of forlorn love, religious imagery and wistful dreams. It’s been more than three years since his last studio effort, The Shepherd’s Dog, which was widely praised by fans and critics alike. While Beam’s early albums were sparse, intimate solo affairs, Shepherd’s introduced layered textures and poly-rhythmic sounds that allowed his lyrics to spring to life. It’s only natural then, that Beam took this sonic collage and built upon it for his new album, Kiss Each Other Clean. The result is a brighter, more focused record that retains the idiosyncratic elements that make Iron & Wine such an engaging band...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW wristband or $16 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 7pm.

Black Up is the new sonic move from Shabazz Palaces. Like rich velvet hijabs or gold threaded abayas. Luxury as understood by the modest. Shabazz Palaces. If Bedouins herded beats instead of goats and settled in Seattle instead of the Atlas Mountains, this would be their album. Forward thinkers but nostalgic for a sparer time when ancient astronomers only recognized five planets. Hip hop. Black light uses electromagnetic radiation to eradicate microorganisms, but shabazz didn’t come to kill a sound, just to shine their own incandescent lamp on this...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $15 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

PS I Love You was originally the solo project for multi-instrumentalist Paul Saulnier who has performed in everything from a country-rock band to an improvised noise duo. PS I Love You was intended to be his experimental, pop music outlet using guitar looping pedals, keyboards with some gadgets and gimmicks. The addition of Benjamin Nelson on drums suddenly transformed PS I Love You’s little songs into mini, soaring rock anthems. This marked a new beginning for the band. What folks are saying about PS I Love You: As the nostalgia for bullshit ‘80s dance music seems to be subsiding for a re-appreciation of’90s gritty angst, PS I Love You have emerged at the perfect time...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW wristband or $18 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 8pm.

Sharon Van Etten came to Brooklyn via Jersey via Tennessee via Jersey. Along the way, she sang in choirs, rejected her school’s music program, worked at an all-ages venue, trained as a sommelier, and got a full time job at a record label. She also had some bad experiences in relationships...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $15 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

Dirty Beaches is the sound of waves against a picturesque and putrid shore, the silent rumble of a Chevy as it speeds by in slow motion. Sparse but condensed, relentlessly edging forward: this is music for locomotive travel, for racing your weary motorcycle through neon archways and into dusky tunnels. The man behind Dirty Beaches is Alex Zhang Hungtai; solo performer, sound-smith, and trans-Pacific nomad...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or FREE Nike Sportswear pass. A limited number of Nike Sportswear passes will be given away at Jackpot Records (both locations) on the day of show. Doors open at 8pm.

“We tried to make ‘festival weapons,’ so when we play them, it’s like throwing a million hatchets into the audience,” explains Jesse F. Keeler, one half of DJ/production duo MSTRKRFT, describing the songs from the upcoming album, Fist Of God (to be released 3/17 on Dim Mak/Downtown). “When we play our own records, they need to be big.” Indeed, when it came to following up their acclaimed debut, 2006’s The Looks, MSTRKRFT looked to their experience behind the decks, spinning everywhere from packed, sweaty clubs to major festivals like the World Electronic Music Festival and Bonnaroo. “When we made The Looks, we hadn’t started DJ-ing professionally,” says Al Puodziukas, the other half of MSTRKRFT better known as Al-P...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $15 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

The Thermals are an indie/alternative/post-pop-punk rock band from Portland, Oregon, USA.  The group formed in the summer of 2002…read more

Admission MusicfestNW wrstiband or $18 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 8pm.

Over the course of their four full-lengths albums to date, including their revelatory 2008 Sub Pop release Furr, the Portland band has already made that much clear. And, Earley’s considerable poetic talents and his band’s hard-earned chops have gained them a growing international audience. The band’s continuing exploration of American music that spans from the ‘60s folk movement to the country sounds of the ’70s, to the pop balladry and prog rock of the ’80s has earned it notice ranging from Rolling Stone magazine to late-night network television to Yo Gabba Gabba, among a great many others. This fifth album, Destroyer of the Void, takes Blitzen Trapper one step further, building on the band’s seamless marriage of the familiar and the fantastic to, literally, create an otherworldly experience...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $15 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

Virginia’s extreme sound nihilists PIG DESTROYER deliver savage grindcore that is both intentionally confrontational and thoroughly pummeling. PIG DESTROYER formed in 1997, when vocalist J.R. Hayes and guitarist Scott Hull decided to unite in their efforts to create utterly destructive grindcore. The trio began rehearsing and immediately found that their common musical interests produced intelligent and incendiary music...read more

Admission with ticket included in MusicfestNW wristband package or $32 advance ticket fromTicketswest. Doors open at 3pm.

“It’s a record about moving forward,” says Peter Silberman. “Hospice was kind of all-encompassing for a while and Burst Apart feels like us moving on from it. Not to abandon it, but to keep it in its place and figure out what’s next.”…read more

Admission with ticket included in MusicfestNW wristband package or $32 advance ticket fromTicketswest. Doors open at 3pm.

In February 1999, three longtime friends from West Texas went to a pizza place in Austin, Texas, for aprearranged meeting with a young man from Illinois. The Illinoisan had just moved to Austin, and he hadput up a flyer that caught the interest of the others. They ate pizza and discussed movies and arcana.They also decided to meet the next day with their various instruments (two guitars, bass, and drums).This happened, and over the coming months they picked a band name, then picked a better band name,then wrote and recorded an album. That album, called How Strange, Innocence, was largely out of tune,but the band members didn’t really notice at the time. They optimistically printed 300 copies, and gavemost of them away. It turned out they really liked playing together, so they kept doing so...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW wristband or $20 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 7pm.

Akimbo has barreled their way through the United States and Europe over the last decade with all the fervor of a demon army bent on conquest. Forging a path of righteousness with a thunderous sound and a menacing presence in today’s underground rock scene, Jon Weisnewski (Bass/Vocals) and Nat Damm (Drums) have solidified a unique and devastating sonic battle axe left embedded in the skulls of their...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW wristband or $20 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 7pm.

“Yob might be one of the best bands in North America,” declared Ben Ratliff in a feature New York Times article in March of 2010 that can be best described as gushing. The Eugene, OR-based doom metal trio has seen similar praise worldwide, with a growing host of fans citing the band as one of the most profound and accomplished doom metal phenomena of the 21st century. …. It’s all too rare for a band to reach such moderate success and massive acclaim based on sheer quality of music...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW wristband or $18 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 7pm.

Avi Buffalo was once just the kid named Avi (short for Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg). Years of 12-hour days attacking the guitar (plus lessons-to-mentoring with seriously iconoclastic local blues guys) revealed a pretty preternatural talent for making a very special kind of bent but lovely pop song...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $15 at the door.Doors open at 8pm.

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $13 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

Anyone who was lucky enough to see Ted Leo and the Pharmacists live over the last year or so got an advance preview of some of the songs that make up THE BRUTALIST BRICKS. I was at a more than a few of those shows, and let me just say that as someone who has witnessed some of the most important rock shows in the last twenty-plus years* I could not believe what my eyes were seeing and my ears were hearing...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $15 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

OFF!, the LA-based punk/hardcore quartet formed in 2009 by Keith Morris (Black Flag/Circle Jerks), Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides), Mario Rubalcaba (Earthless/Hot Snakes/Rocket From the Crypt) and Steven McDonald (Redd Kross), have signed with New York based Vice Music. The initial output of the band will be issued this Fall as four EPs comprising a total of 16 songs...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW wristband or $20 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 7pm.

Descriptors fail in the same way that describing the shock of the sudden or new or subtle grace of magnitude fails. Each and every time. Because words are idea shorthand for experience and experience can only be transmitted, if you’re lucky or unlucky enough to miss it the first time, through comparative measures and means: a nightmare is an unhappy dream, death is like when life stops and the earth calls, and violent change is when everything is no longer the same but hurts because of it...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $15 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $13 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

San Francisco psych wunderkind Ty Segall continues a tireless musical assault on ears and minds with his third album, Melted. Segall says it sounds like “cherry cola, Sno-Cones and taffy.” Indeed! Over the past two years he’s released records more often than most people do laundry, but somehow there is still a heap of anticipation for this new album on Goner packed full of truly psychedelic pop songs with great vocals and exciting arrangements...read more

Admission with ticket included in MusicfestNW wristband package or $32 advance ticket fromTicketswest. Doors open at 3pm.

Having been asked to compose the biographical material for WIT’S END, the new album from Cass McCombs, it somewhat felt like a trap had been set and that I’d willingly walked into it by accepting the challenge. To be forthright, yours truly could be considered neither a casual nor objective observer, having familiarized myself with the subject at hand over the past decade in various capacities. In the process of preparing for this exercise, I was reminded of one our earliest encounters...read more

Admission with ticket included in MusicfestNW wristband package or $32 advance ticket fromTicketswest. Doors open at 3pm.

“Now it’s hard to remember it any other way.” Band of Horses singer Ben Bridwell’s compellingly evasive lyrical style will never let the listener on to the exact intent of this line as it appears in “Neighbor,” the expansive Infinite Arms album closer, but taken out of the context of the song it becomes a sentiment of currency. The present state of the band is as close to ideal as rock n’ roll can be. Having assembled a true creative and personal collective, designed and signed the record deal of his dreams, and made a fantastic new album... Read More