Catch Gogol Bordello live on KEXP tomorrow at 5:30 pm!
photo by Kate Sumbler

This weekend, we’ll be posting live from Bumbershoot with pictures, interviews and reviews. If you’re listening at home, be sure to tune in. Here are the set times for our live broadcast:

Saturday Lineup

12:00 St Vincent
1:15 Yungchen Lhamo
2:30 The Gourds
3:45 Bert Jansch
5:30 Gogol Bordello

Sunday Lineup

12:00 Watson Twins
1:15 Menomena
2:30 Iceage Cobra
3:45 Art Brut
5:30 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
6:30 Step Cousins
8:00 Dyme Def

Monday Lineup

12:00 Fleet Foxes
1:15 Andrew Bird
2:30 Tokyo Police Club
3:45 Mocean Worker
5:30 Steve Earle

*Subject to change

If you’re going to be at Bumbershoot, you can still sign up to see most of these events on the Music Lounge. Otherwise, keep checking back as we’ll have constant updates throughout the weekend!

Everyone’s flipping out about the new Band of Horses song “Is There a Ghost” that leaked this week. The new song, downloadable (still!) on their MySpace page, assures fans that their forthcoming sophomore Sub Pop release, Cease to Begin, will be no slump. Go check it out and listen here on KEXP ’cause we just can’t get enough of Ben Bridwell’s stratospheric falsetto.

Okkervil River appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien earlier this week and performed “Our Life is Not a Movie Or Maybe” from their recently released album, The Stage Names.

Here’s their official video for the song, also released this week:

New album news:

According to The Tripwire, The Futureheads have completed a new album, which they recorded in Spain. Look for new songs streaming on their MySpace page in the near, uh, future.

R.E.M.’s Mike Mills reveals to Billboard that the band’s next album is set for release in the spring of 2008. Mills says that the legendary Athens group is “two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through” recording but is hesitant to discuss any details about the album’s direction, a tact maintained by all members of the band. Mills says that he and Michael Stipe and Peter Buck “made an agreement we weren’t going to say what it is or not because we don’t want to have expectations out there in any direction. But, of course, you can go on YouTube and listen to some of the Dublin shows and get a pretty good idea of where we’re going.”

Leeds’ iLiKETRAiNS are set to release their debut full-length, Elegies to Lessons Learnt, in October on Beggars Banquet. For now, though, you can check out the video to the first single, “The Deception”:

Devendra Banhart, one of the Sunday night closers at Bumbershoot this year, will soon release Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon (September 25). At his website, he’s revealing two songs at a time from the forthcoming album, like this one:

Devendra Banhart - So Long Old Bean (MP3)

Looking to Beat poet Jack Kerouac for inspiration, Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard isn’t going On the Road but rather to Big Sur for inspiration. According to the San Francisco Weekly, the DCFC frontman has decided to retreat to the Big Sur cabin where Kerouac wrote the novel of the same name to develop ideas for the next album. Circulating through his mind, after participating in a documentary about Big Sur produced by Kerouac’s nephew, are the parallels of the musician’s life to the one Kerouac describes. Says Gibbard, “Living this life in the same sorta way that Kerouac lived … you get to hang out at shows and drink and you’re able to not really face reality and adulthood the way most of my friends are.” Read more here.

Here’s one of the new songs Ben Gibbard played earlier in the year at First Avenue in Minneapolis, which may or may not be on the new album, called “Casino Blues”:

Salon of Shame: reliving your high school angst = fun!

It’s no surprise that there’s a ton of music to see at this week’s Bumbershoot festival. But, don’t be fooled, there’s a bunch of amazing non-music things you should see while wandering the Seattle Center.

Throughout the whole weekend Flatstock 14 will be set up at the Fisher Pavilion (open from 11am-8pm) and filled to the rim with poster art (and the artists themselves) from around the world. Been looking for that awesome Shins screenprinted poster from that San Francisco show last year? Yep, it will likely be there… along with a bunch of other posters that you don’t yet know that you need.

Whatever you do, don’t miss the Salon of Shame on Saturday, 12:00 PM at the Leo K Theatre. Join Seattle’s Ariel Meadow Stallings, founder of the Salon of Shame, as she and other local notables as they revisit their most spectacular diary entries, melodramatic poetry and thesaurus-dependant high school essays. This Bumbershoot edition will feature founder Stallings, plus Brangien Davis, (Editrix, Swivel magazine), Doug Nellis (designer, Seattle Times), Cienna Madrid (Stranger freelancer), Phyllis Fletcher (reporter, KUOW), Ashley Bach, Kim Holloway, Veronica Dorazio, and poet Marc Mazique. KUOW’s Jeannie Yandel hosts. The SoS’s have been selling out as of late, so getting in to see it is even more of a treat.

On Sunday, if you’re getting a wee bit nostalgic for sitting in a small box and telling a man of the cloth all of the bad things you’ve done and evil thoughts you’ve had, you should drop by the NW Rooms to visit the Portable Confessional Units. There isn’t a real priest listening to you verbalize your sins, but isn’t that almost better? Think of it as free therapy. And after all of your visits to the Bumbershoot beer garden the day before, you may need a couple of Hail Mary’s to make you feel better… wait, Hail Mary’s or bloody Mary’s? We always get those two confused.

On Monday, at 12.30pm stop by the Leo K Theatre for a literary talent show of sorts brought to use by the fine smarty pants at Yeti, “a general interest magazine for people with marginal interests.” The show will be a riveting account of travels throughout Mauritania and the western Sahara in search of sublime performances, Seattle’s raddest nine-year-old interviewing one of its biggest alternative rock stars and the dramatic reenactment of some very strange instant messages.

Now that we’ve covered a sprinkling of the publicized events happening, we can switch over to discuss some unsubstantiated rumors we’ve been hearing in our imaginary ears. Did you hear the one about the two awesome local band members who might be covering one naughty R&B star? Or how about a certain Barsuk recording artist will have a member’s Mom come up and serve as director of their backup choir? Of course, this is all hearsay, but exciting nonetheless.

You’re the bumberbest,
three imaginary girls

High iPod rotation:
Tarwater
Parker Longbough
Northern Portrait

(Three Imaginary Girls is a Seattle-based website that showcases the great music of the Northwest and beyond to music lovers worldwide. We post a Settle live show calendar to help you fill your day-planner with loads of great shows, as well as record reviews, live show reviews, and an imagi-blog to entertain you throughout the day.)

It’s that time again, when Seattleites get to discover the best of Portland’s burgeoning music scene. On the last Friday of every month, KEXP sponsors PDXplore at the Sunset Tavern in lovely Ballard. This month we are showcasing A Weather and Laura Gibson.

A Weather is one of Portland’s up and coming new talents. They are signed to Conor Oberst’s Team Love label and have opened for Bright Eyes to a crowd of 1200. Check out their MP3:

A Weather – One More One Night Stand (MP3)

Laura Gibson is a talented indie-folk singer and songwriter preparing for a European tour this fall. She has received press on both NPR and in the New York Times.

Laura Gibson - Hands in Pockets (MP3)

Come on by!

Sunset Tavern
Ballard, Seattle
7pm Early Show
$5, 21+

photo from MySpace

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection, chosen by Afternoon Show host Kevin Cole, is Got It (What You Need) by Galactic from the 2007 release From the Corner to the Block on Anti-.

Galactic - Got It [What You Need] (MP3)

Three years in the making, From the Corner to the Block positions Galactic as a modern day house band, molded from the likes of The Meters and Booker T. & the MGs. Galactic’s last effort included vocalist Theryl DeClouet. Who better to replace him than some of the biggest MCs in hip-hop. Juvenile, Gift of Gab, Lyrics Born, Chali 2na, and a host of others tell tales of various corners, all atop the New Orleans funk that has cemented Galactic in the upper echelons of the jam-band scene. These two genres have been facing a collision of this variety for some time, culminating in the live performance debut of this material at Bonnaroo in June. For the millions who weren’t at Bonnaroo, the current tour features several MCs from the album at each show. The Seattle stop features Chali 2na and Boots Riley, happening 10/19 at the Showbox. This monstrous collaboration has already led to Mr. Lif recruiting Galactic to write and produce his next record, proving that anything can happen in the current state of music. Check out the band’s MySpace page and website for complete details, and don’t miss this video featuring Chali 2na, live at Bonnaroo:

Kid Theodore outside of KEXP
photo by Jim Beckmann

Earlier this month, we at KEXP received an email informing us that “one of the biggest bands in Utah” (I know, right) “is heading to Seattle on Aug 30.” Needless to say, we were impressed. No, actually we forgot about it, until, sure enough, on August 30, there was a band at our doorstep… literally.

Salt Lake City band Kid Theodore, who gained some music blog buzz last year with their debut “goodnight… goodnight,” set up shop on the sidewalk outside of the station and performed for passersby and KEXP-folk on their way to lunch. The band, who seemed to play songs mostly from their new album, didn’t seem to care that they’d garner much more attention somewhere else, where there was a bit more traffic — say, Pike Place Market — and let it all rip, kicking the air, dipping the standup, and even climbing the walls.

Though the band describes their own sound as “very eclectic, energetic… similar to The Doors, The Kinks, & Spoon,” you might find yourself comparing them favorably to Cold War Kids. Major props to these guys for taking a chance.

If you’d like to check them out, they’ll be at the Comet Tavern tonight. Otherwise, check their MySpace page for where they’ll be next. Spokane, they’re coming for you!

Bumbershoot’s Ultimate CD Design Competition winner
designed by Craig Slike

As we’re all undoubtedly excited for this year’s Bumbershoot, chock full of local bands, great indie films, and tons of greasy fest food, what are the local bands themselves looking forward to? How has their summers treated them? And which of the overly pop headliners would they suffer through? (I’ll give you a hint: the one with the most “humps”.)

To indulge me with their Bumber-opinions, I gathered together quite a list of local rockers, including members of Saturna, Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head, Mono in VCF, Seaweed, Das Llamas, Shake Some Action, Fleet Foxes, and Sneaky Thieves.

The first question I had to know was what fellow Bumbershoot acts are they hoping to catch? Fellow local bands were hot on their lists, with votes for Dyme Def, the Whore Moans, Siberian, the Cave Singers, and the Lashes. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club made it to three of the bands lists, with Jordan of Mono in VCF proclaiming, “They’re the baddest rock band in all the land.” Crowded House also garnered three votes. The Fucking Eagles were greatly advertised by Wade Neal of Seaweed, who told me, “They are said to command a stage–actually, I have seen them about 22 times, and they exhibit massive wild abandon in the best sense.” [edit. coincidentally, John Atkins, also of Seaweed, plays in The Fucking Eagles] Who else was greatly popular among these musicians? Well, each other! Seaweed, Fleet Foxes, and twice mentioned Mono in VCF, were on their lists. Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head’s Luke is one who rooted for Fleet Foxes, with this great preview: “I’m really excited to see Fleet Foxes. I caught them at the Capitol Hill Block Party and they were so sweet on the ears. Seeing them in the Sky Church is going to be a double trip.” Besides music, comedy will be caught; Seaweed’s Wade will be laughing at Geoff Brousseau and Owen Straw’s jokes. A festival must-see for Shake Some Action’s Chris is the film festival (yours truly must agree, I love the film section.)

After hearing what they’re looking forward to, I asked about their fondest memory of past Bumbershoots. I know which food booth Fleet Foxes like to hit up, with their excited, “Elephant ears, elephant ears, elephant ears!” Kerry of Das Llamas had having a bit of a phonetic issue as a kid…”When I realized that it’s called Bumbershoot and not “bumpershoot”. I guess I thought it was a festival dedicated to the braking devices on the back of drag racers. Seemed like an event where you’d go to see some monster trucks and buy a gun. I think I was about ten when the name thing was brought to my attention.” But the most memorable experience seems to be had by Ryan Carroll of Saturna, who reminisced, “I think the most memorable would have to be Mudhoney and The Ramones. Mudhoney opened up with a home crowd and so many people were throwing lemons and screaming for the Ramones that they got a bit frustrated and talked shit to the crowd. Then the Ramones came on and played back-to-back songs for two and a half hours. Joey Ramone, looking like death, left the stage for a few songs and the rest of the band didn’t miss a beat. If you didn’t look on stage, you wouldn’t even have known he was missing. Crazy show!”

Sadly, Labor Day Weekend is the last big weekend of the summer before us Seattlites head into eight+ months of gray. Those three months of summer just aren’t enough time to do everything you want; not even for the bands. Seems everyone regrets not getting to the outdoors enough–dreams of camping, laying on the beach, and car trips were all woefully not fulfilled. All is not lost though, as Jordan and Hunter of Mono in VCF reports they have no complaints to give, “We had the best summer ever. We made our debut album and I we’re all really happy with it. I can’t say I regret anything about summer 2007. It’s been our best summer ever although it’s been a bit of a blur. We did pretty much what we set out to do. We also went to Mexico and British Columbia. It was great.”

Alright, so this year’s headliners seem mismatched for the discerning ear of Seattle, as echoed by Dylan of Mono in VCF who answered, “D. None of the above.” But who is the bands’ (tongue in cheek) choice out of Fergie, Sean Paul, or Panic! at the Disco? Almost unanimously Fergie was voted; Saturna: “Fergie for sure! Especially if she has one of those accidents on stage like last summer.” NPSH: “Hands down: Fergie. She’s like the most popular and most glamorous female singer in the game today. She is our collective guilty pleasure. I can’t wait to be lining down the block just to watch what she’s got.” Mono in VCF: “All I know is that Fergie has always reminded me of Michelle Pfieffer in Scarface. But I’m sure that’s been said before.” Seaweed: “We are playing against Fergie, but I think we can make it over if she wants us to join her as a backup unit.” David of Shake Some Action: “Fergie! humps!”

Well, who would they book as the headliner if they were in charge of the MainStage? I also gave the leeway of picking anyone alive or dead. The list included some great acts, including Bauhaus, My Bloody Valentine, Johnny Cash, 1960s Rolling Stones and the Beatles, the Poppy Family, X, Mark Hollis, Cold Crush Brothers, Charles Mingus, Cheap Trick, and the Stone Roses. However…some were a bit imaginative….Gary of Shake Some Action provided a full line-up, “That’s the kind of power people would regret giving me! But, if I were in charge, the Friday headliner would be Little Richard, Saturday’s headliner would be Elvis Costello and the Attractions, and Monday’s would be Flamin’ Groovies.” Luke of NPSH envisioned a Unicorns reunion, “I would have to choose a reunited Unicorns to headline. They would play for 3 hours and there would be sword fights, pyrotechnics, campfires, costume changes, getting naked, backup dancers, and all your favorite Unicorns greatest hitz. It’d be so magical.”

The strangest goes to Fleet Foxes: “Martin Luther King on bass, Abraham Lincoln on drums, Mahatma Gandhi on lead guitar, King Midas on rhythm guitar, with Harry Nilsson singing, playing Randy Newman songs. If we have godly powers might as well put them to good use.”

But the ultimate answer of all goes to Kerry of Das Llamas, who provided this gem: “I guess if I’m bringing people back from the dead it would have to be really, really good. Like the Superjam to end all Superjams. Keith Moon, John Bonham, Neil Pert and Buddy Rich on drums. On guitars, Django Reinhardt, Dimebag Daryl, Kerry King, Steve Vai (we’d have to kill him first for popular approval), Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads. Oh, and Bo Diddley, Mississippi John Hurt and Buckethead (sans bucket). Bass would be Flea, Les Claypool and Cliff Burton (They’d have their own section of the stage with a flashing sign that read “Bass Camp”). On keys I’d throw in Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, that dude from Styx with the ego problem and Yanni. I don’t know a whole lot about strings, so I’d have to get Yo-Yo Ma to put something together. We’d also have to wake up Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Joe Strummer, The Ramones, Otis Redding and Buddy Holly. Up front with the conductors wands would be Ennio Morricone and Philip Glass. We’d have to use the stage set up that Iron Maiden used in their heyday but with the addition of that giant bong from Cyprus Hill’s ‘97 tour and two or three of those “drum orb” things that Tommy Lee used. Everyone would be harnessed with elastic straps like in the Thunder Dome… Tina Turner could come too.” Organizers of Bumbershoot…take note.

Catch a slough of in-person interviews posted all weekend long over at Three Imaginary Girls, including interviews from Tiny Vipers, The Fucking Eagles, The Trucks, and many, many more!

Interviews conducted and written by Rachel LeBlanc

You have an impossible number of local bands to see at Bumbershoot this year. Even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t be able catch half of them, so here are three recommendations from Travis to help you make some tough choices! Good luck!

Menomena

These Portland, OR, math rockers were in the KEXP studio on June 1st and if you happened to be listening at the time you know just how good it was. Menomena is a band that is hard to categorize, sometimes it sounds more like indie rock, and at other times it has much more of an experimental feel towards it. Either way Friend or Foe their 3rd and most recent album is one of the best I have heard so far this year. You can catch them on the Sound Transit stage at 6-7pm on Saturday or if you are listening to KEXP on Sunday at 1:15 pm they will be playing at our KEXP Bumbershoot Music Lounge.

Dyme Def

Breaking into the Seattle scene with their first album, Space Music, Dyme Def are quickly becoming an essential piece to Seattle hip hop. Space Music has a defining mixture of harder hip hop and pop which helps to make it one of the best hip hop cds that Seattle has seen in a long time. Dyme Def comes as a fresh voice in hip hop as it breaks out of the Blue Scholars / Gabriel Teodros sound that lingers over our hip hop. Dyme Def will be playing at the October 8th Audioasis High Dive Benefit with Common Market. If you want to get a chance to see them before October then head over to the EMP Sky Church at 1:15pm on Saturday. Or you could tune in to KEXP at 8pm on Sunday as they will also be a part of the KEXP Bumbershoot Music Lounge.

For Years Blue

As the winners of this years Sound Off! battle of the bands held at the EMP this band won the rights to play at Bumbershoot. For Years Blue is comprised of 5 underage kids from Spokane who are making excellent orchestral indie rock. To win the competition they beat out the rising Seattle band with a strong following, Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head. I highly suggest that you go and see For Years Blue at the EMP sky church at 12:15 pm on Monday, which should look a lot like this:

photo by By Jerry Morris

This week’s local pick is actually two different 7″ singles by the Seattle, punky, power-pop group, The Cute Lepers. The Cute Lepers is led by Steve E. Nix who you may recognize from fellow Seattle punk outfit, The Briefs. The band has a fair amount in common with The Briefs which is to be expected, but they are defiantly more on the pop side of the spectrum than The Briefs.

The first single is the Terminal Boredom / Prove It 7″. The first track on it (”Terminal Boredom”) is one of those rare pieces of power-pop perfection that begs you to sing and clap along. The song also has a great section filled with the gagging noises of Steve E. Nix. The second song on the single is a bit more mellow but still lots of fun.

The second single is the So Screwed Up / Cool City 7″. It follows in the same way as the songs of the first single, “So Screwed Up”, but it has more intricate guitar work than the others and seems to be faster, and shorter, more like a Briefs’ song.

You can find some of these songs and information on how to buy the singles on the band’s Myspace.

Thanks to Curtains For You and The Pleasureboaters whom both had impressive performances on Audioasis this last Saturday. Check out the KEXP Streaming Archive, it’s definitely worth it.

September 1st Audioasis will be LIVE from High Dive in Fremont with our most exciting line-up this year. Visqueen and Seaweed will be performing live on KEXP!

photo by Matt Kowalczyk

At 6 pm, power pop punk band, Visqueen, featuring the lovely Rachel Flotard along with Ben Hooker on drums, Tom Cummings on guitar and vocals, and current bassists Barrett Jones, will bring their high energy and witty banter, and blow your socks off with those Visqueen hits that we all love. Prepare yourselves for some new songs as well.

At 8 pm, deep-rooted Tacoma punk rockers Seaweed will be giving KEXP listeners and High Dive comers an exclusive performance. After a seven year hiatus, Seaweed will be performing the songs you remember from the glory days of grunge, and, yes, they’ll be adding new material into the mix. It’s enough to make Audioasis host Abe Beeson cry — and us local nerds too!

Also playing that night are Patient Patient, Megasapien, and With Friends Like These. Tickets are still available, but they’re not going to be for long. This show is going to sell out. Buy ‘em now!

Visqueen - Blue (MP3)

Seaweed - Thru The Window (MP3)

photo from MySpace

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection, chosen by Afternoon Show host Kevin Cole, is And Keep Us Safe ’til Morning by Post Harbor from the self-released 2007 album Praenumbra.

Post Harbor - And Keep Us Safe ’til Morning (MP3)This self-released debut has been seeing some action on both KEXP and other local stations for good reason. A quartet, complete with new post-album drummer, Post Harbor create songs that begin with all the beauty of a Sigur Ros tune only to dial up the percussion and angst, triggering reminders of Sunny Day Real Estate and all of their lo-fi bliss. As with any local band fighting for a record deal or some form of financial freedom, these guys have been hitting up the clubs, mostly 21+ clubs, in hopes of spreading the word. The result has been unanimously positive, a sign that maybe these guys will soon get the attention they deserve. After you’ve checked out the tracks on their MySpace page (definitely not enough), head over to Easy Street Records where the CD is available for purchase. Meanwhile, check out this video of Chani from their February performance at The Crocodile: