MusicfestNW

Q&A with Wheedle's Groove Director Jennifer Mass and members of Wheelde's Groove, moderated by music supervisor and producer George Drakoulias

Screening of the acclaimed documentary, Wheedle's Groove.

If pure sound had the capability to project images on a blank wall, Mini Mansions would be worthy projectionists. On a break from Queens of the Stone Age, Michael Shuman melded heads and locked arms with longtime friends Tyler Parkford and Zach Dawes in a dusty room in the San Fernando Valley. Here, they began a collaborative séance out of which birthed Mini Mansions in January of 2009...read more

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

We all know that “long-awaited” is overused in band bios, but ask any hardcore Heligoats or Troubled Hubble fans and they will tell you that they’ve worn out the edges of their seats waiting for the newest release from Chris Otepka, the man behind The Heligoats...read more

You probably think you know everything there is to know about Eleanor Friedberger. “She’s that girl from The Fiery Furnaces,” you’re thinking. “She is a great singer, I think she plays guitar….does she play guitar?” you’re asking. “She has a really great haircut,” you’re musing. And yes, you’d be right about all of these things...read more

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

Andrew and Sara have been playing shows as Hungry Ghost since January 2008. Summer 2010 saw the introduction of Lorca Wood on the bass. Sara used to be in Unwound and also plays drums in The Corin Tucker Band. Andrew used to be in the Irving Klaw Trio. Lorca used to be in The Drags and Baptist Arms...read more

Performance by Wheedle's Groove

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

Kelly Blair Bauman is clearly not in it for the money, but if you take into account his compelling back catalog (which may include one or two art records) and his stunning reinvention as a country-/folk-rock troubadour on his new album Gomorrah, the Portland, Oregon singer-songwriter is surely richer than most. Gomorrah is by no means a logical next step for Bauman; on the contrary, it’s a plank walk of heartfelt balladry, breezy jangle, and sadly beautiful waltzes from a man best remembered as vocalist/guitarist for Northern California noise-pop heroes Deathstar and the North Magnetic...read more

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

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 $10 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

“Flinn shows shades of M. Ward’s eclecticism and the Shaky Hands’ jangle-pop. It probably goes without saying, then, that Write Me a Novel is a very Portlandy record. That’s a good thing.”…read more

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

The new record began with the same surprise turn that started Corin Tucker’s career back in 1991, ended Sleater-Kinney’s 11-year year run in 2006 and inspired the punk-feminist rocker to redefine herself as a stay-at-home mom...read more

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

It’s been eight years since the release of Crooked Fingers’ Reservoir Songs EP, which found the band covering songs by Prince, David Bowie, Queen, Kris Kristofferson, Neil Diamond, and Bruce Springsteen. After requests from fans for a follow-up, Bachmann finally found the time to arrange and record Reservoir Songs Volume II, which will include his versions of great songs by The Kinks, Moby Grape, Merle Haggard, and others...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.

There’s something panoramic about The Joy Formidable’s music – their mountainous, fuzzed out riffs and ferocious, earthy rhythms shrouded in ethereal haze. It sounds like where they’re from: Childhood friends Ritzy Bryan (vocals, guitar) and Rhydian Dafydd (bass, vocals) grew up in rural North Wales, surrounded by rolling green hills and little else...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.

The rollicking pop songs of Monarques—the new venture for Oh Captain, My Captain’s Josh Spacek—don’t sound like they belong in the 21st century. On its debut self-titled EP, the band mines the piano-led luster of classic rock ‘n’ roll from the 1950s, coming off like Buddy Holly collaborating with Beulah. Spacek’s croon is perfect on tracks like the bouncing “Oh No,” and provides just enough drama to slower numbers like “Cold Cold Heart.” The Monarques have only been playing shows since September, so the fact that the band already has such a defined aesthetic is proof that sometimes all you need is a good song or two...read more

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

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 $15 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

Mnemonic Sounds is a Portland-based electro-pop band poised to become one of 2011’s hottest new acts. The band was formed in 2009 by pianist/vocalist Peter Suk and singer/guitarist Megan Danielle Ouchida after Peter heard Megan’s compelling voice on her solo recordings. He invited her to sing harmonies on a few of his songs, and both quickly realized they had stumbled onto a unique sound with tremendous potential...read more

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

Montreal’s Suuns possess a rare trait in rock music: restraint. They use it like an instrument, which makes their debut full-length Zeroes QC as unsettling as it is wonderfully exasperating. It’s immediately apparent in album opener “Armed for Peace,” a track that starts off like a robot breaking down in a hot desert; the song’s mechanic beat plods like iron-shoed footsteps as the melody of a wheezing synth mirrors the crackling sound of old transistors and circuitry being cooked in the sun...read more

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

Though still a young band, Greylag has been in the works for several years. Andrew Stonestreet and Daniel Dixon began collaborating from afar, after a chance meeting in Kentucky. Eventually they both moved to Portland, Oregon and begin piecing together what would come to be known as Greylag, with the help of the variously talented Brady Hutton Swan and Mark Robertson...read more

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

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

Brainstorm is like an eight-dollar smoothie of ecstatic art rock, gospel spirituals, and African highlife. This high energy 2-piece manages to seam together a variety of influences into one coherent onslaught of shimmering pop, which will put a smile on your face and a tune in your head. Crushing riffs, explosive percussion, old world chanting, casio disco, and jaunty tuba lines make Brainstorm one of the most exhilarating and unique bands around...read more

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

Dirty Mittens first formed in 2006 and over the next five years have only a self-released EP. Prolific is perhaps not the first adjective that springs to mind…read more

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

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

How could I have not known about Ume? An Austin trio fronted by a whirling dervish of a singer/guitarist who in the standard PR head shot looks like she wouldn’t hurt a fly; yet give her a guitar, a Marshall stack and a mic and stand back, way back… File under – Do Not Overlook and Go Tell Your Friends…read more

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

Born Canadian, but based in San Francisco, Dirty Ghosts embody years of wildly different influences, and approach each of their songs with a with a well-thought out but hard to pin down sound and a strong devotion to quality. With vocals from guitarist Allyson Baker and drum programming from Aesop Rock, the results are nothing less than hypnotic...read more

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

Dennis Coffey is an American original. Only in America (and specifically, only in Detroit) could one man play guitar with a group of legends as diverse as Del Shannon, The Temptations, and George Clinton and Funkadelic. However, the list of iconic artists, producers and writers Dennis has worked with the world over only scratches the surface of what the man has done and the contributions he’s made to the canon of popular music...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 $15 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

Speakers everywhere this fall will rejoice with the arrival of Eyes at Half Mast, the third record from Talkdemonic. The Portland, Oregon duo of Kevin O’Connor and Lisa Molinaro have been playing together since 2003; she plays the viola and cello, while he plays everything else, including, but not limited to: drums, synths, and acoustic instruments. The result is an intoxicating blend of symphonic strings and explosive percussion; achingly beautiful music...read more

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

Thousands is an acoustic band from Seattle. The members are Kristian Garrard and Luke Bergman…read more

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

WITCH MOUNTAIN was formed in Portland, OR in 1997 by Rob Wrong (Iommi Stubbs, ex-M99) and Nate “Nanotear” Carson (Point Line Plane, Two Ton Boa, Sunn0))) collaborator, etc). By 2000, the groundwork had been laid, the demo Homegrown Doom was remastered and released in Europe, and Dave Hoopaugh (Iommi Stubbs, Comavoid, Towers) was brought in to be the final bass player after a string of many...read more

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

Purity Ring is the futuristic pop project of Corin Roddick and Megan James. Purity Ring makes lullabies for the club, drawing equally from airy 90s r&b, lush dream pop, and the powerful immediacy of the very best modern indie pop. Megan James’ remarkable voice is at once ecstatic and ethereal, soaring joyfully through Roddick’s carefully chopped beats, trembling synths, and past her perfect counterpoint – a ghostly pitched-down vocal which both underscores hooks and renders the entire musical backdrop beautifully alien...read more

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

Hardly anyone knows that Unknown Mortal Orchestra is some guy called Ruban Nielson. At first the ‘band’ was just a song called Ffunny Ffrends, which somehow found it’s way onto literally hundreds of music blogs in a few days after it was posted to a brand new bandcamp account. Over the months that followed, the Unknown Mortal Orchestra gradually invited willing listeners into a world where junk shop record collections came to life and recombined in freakish new combinations...read more

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

B L O U S E is based out of a 6,000 square-foot warehouse in North Portland. The project started in the summer of 2010, after Los Angeles native Charlie Hilton met Patrick Adams in art school. They made a few home recordings and soon began spending nights at the warehouse recording with Jacob Portrait (Producer of Mint Chicks, Dandy Warhols, Starfucker)...read more

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

Members of Crackerbash, Dharma Bums, Atomic 61 and Guided By Voices combine forces to make you rock and shake…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.

Charles Bradley was down and out when Gabriel Roth of Daptone Records happened upon him performing his Black Velvet act at the Tarheel Lounge in Bed Stuy. Roth recognized his raw talent and directly brought him into the Daptone “House of Soul” Studios for a session with the Sugarman 3. “Take It As It Comes” was Charles’ first single on Daptone and it proved him as a worthy vocalist. Roth eventually brought Charles out to Staten Island to see Dirt Rifle and the Bullets, a young funk band playing James Brown and Meters influenced songs. Thomas Brenneck, songwriter and guitarist for the Bullets, hit it off with Charles and they began working together. They released two singles on Daptone under the name “Charles Bradley and the Bullets,” but the Bullets soon dismantled in order to form the afrobeat influenced Budos Band...read more

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 $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 $13 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

Smashing up from the Bay Area underground, Black Cobra is ready to take the heavy music world by storm! Formed in 2002 by Rafa Martinez (Acid King, -16-) and Jason Landrian (ex-Cavity) this duo has been laying waste to audiences, taking on all comers, and leaving the remains to rot in their wake. Their sound is a crushing mix of High On Fire-tinged stoner metal and Buzzov*en’s Southern-fried sludge, with a heaping dash of Melvins-style drone to wash it all down...read more

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

Lead singer of White Arrows, Mickey Schiff was born blind. At the age of 11 after years of gradual eye exercises and otherworldly determination, he regained his sight. Someone who has experienced and achieved this is undoubtedly going to be profoundly effected and perhaps understandably, a degree in Business Studies was not ever going to be an option for Schiff when he came to select his subject for college: he chose Ritualistic Shamanism...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 $12 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

Richmond Fontaine was formed in 1994 at the Portland Meadows horse track over a shared love of old SST records and bad whisky. Never has quite so propitious a venue been the point of a band—fifteen years later, it’s as though they never left…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 $15 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

Gothenburg, Sweden is a hotbed of diverse and escalating musical talent. From the mighty Soundtrack of Our Lives to idiosyncratic songsmiths José González and Jens Lekman, through to the unpredictable pop styles from the likes of Love is All and Audrey, not to mention the infamous black metal scene, Gothenburg now boasts the dynamic, organically soulful pop sounds of Little Dragon...read more

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

Arguably the most infamously named band in the annals of popular music — for years, radio found their moniker unspeakable, and the press deemed it unprintable — Butthole Surfers long reigned among the most twisted and depraved acts ever to bubble up from the American underground. Masters of calculated outrage, the group fused the sicko antics of shock rock with a distinct and chaotic mishmash of avant-garde, hardcore, and Texas psychedelia...read more

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

When my husband Damien wrote the songs you find on Saint Bartlett, we were living in our dream home. While it weighed in at less than 600 square feet, it had windows on all sides, vaulted ceilings with exposed beams, and best of all, a porch overlooking Vashon + the Puget Sound...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 MusicfestNW Wristband or $12 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

Introducing herself as a solo artist with the epically rocking seven-minute single “The Grey Ship” – backed by “Kind Heart,” her slowly rambunctious and flailing sixteen minute take on Robert Johnson’s classic “Kind Hearted Woman” – EMA invites you deeper into her world with her debut album, Past Life Martyred Saints due on May 10, 2011...read more

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

“Hey, d’you remember that night when you told me, ‘You know, you’re pretty good, but you’re no Ray Davies’?” asks YOU AM I lead singer Tim Rogers, with raised eyebrow and a sly grin, before cuffing me on the shoulder, laughing like a drain, and spluttering, “I’ll always remember that…”...read more

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

“What have these people done to music?” wails Sallie Ford on Dirty Radio’s explosive opener, “I Swear.” She’s raging against sound-alike pop stars foisted on the public by mainstream media, but it’s a question worth putting to the interrogators, too. The answer: Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside vigorously mines a sweet spot between modern and vintage...read more

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

Marketa Irglová is an Academy Award winning musician and actor born in Valasske in the Czech Republic on February 28, 1988. While neither of her parents played music, her father was a concert promoter in her home country and music was a constant in their household. Two years later the family welcomed another daughter, Suzie. At eight years Marketa began learning the piano, though her mother, Jana insisted a year later that she also learn to play guitar...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 $12 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

The Thornes came together in April 2009. They were formed from members of The Legend of Dutch Savage, The Golden Calf, Poison Idea and Slough Feg. Before they were in all those bands they were in other bands together such as Bast and Crotch Rocket. They exist to make music that is full of energy and heavy as hell! When they play live it’s loud, fast and fun while simultaneously huge and shrouded in darkness...read more

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

Across the globe, there are hundreds of young men and women who have taken up acoustic guitars, inspired by the grand folk and country tradition, and set about put their sleeve-worn hearts into musical form. But the result is often feather light and wispy and all too easily forgotten amid the din of the modern age...read more

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

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

Having only being together for less than a year now, TxE have wasted no time. They’ve already self-released their first EP, collaborated with industry heavyweights such as Waajeed, Planet Asia, Phil The Agony & illmaculate, and toured the West Coast together – all while still building a strong following at home through countless shows & a flawless reputation for always getting it in true...read more

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

It seems a matter of formal procedure in Portland music circles to mention Archers in tandem with Matador Records recording legends/legendary drunks Guided by Voices. So here you go: Archers sound an awful lot like GBV. However, the dueling, drunken and disastrous guitars of brothers Chris and Mike Cantino are a cause for celebration in their own right...read more

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

Dearest John, For you a book. Le Balloon Rouge. From world of impossible probabilities. A world of the very young and the very old. Those that have time for imaginings and who possess young hearts. In this world “a king properly wears a beggar’s rags...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW wristband or $16 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 8pm.

From her current home base in a 200-year-old farmhouse in rural Vermont, Anaïs (“uh-NAY-iss”) Mitchell writes songs that are as intimate as conversations and as rich in detail as short stories. The daughter of “hippie back-to-the-landers” whose father was a novelist and English professor, she remembers her family’s home (another farmhouse in the same state) containing “a library full of novels, and lots of old folk and psychedelic rock albums...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $12 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

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

Hailing from Spokane, Washington,The Globes (Walters Ourada, Musselwhite and McCotter) formed in their teenage years, spending afternoons in their sleepy city collaboratively dissecting and interpreting the fundamentals of songwriting, experimentation and craft while forging together their own musical inspirations to fabricate a singular and precocious sound based on the traditional guitar, bass, drum lineup...read more

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

In a dark room, through a haze induced by fog machines, you observe celestial projections and pulsing lights. An infectious sound floods your brain-space, a driving synth-rock voyage guided by a female voice which commands attention in its come-hither breathiness. You can hardly make out the shadowy figures responsible for this electrifying experience, and much to the chagrin of photogs, you won’t have much luck capturing their live set on camera. However, this disassociation proves blissful: you find yourself dissolving into their sonic atmospherics, dissolving into the packed dance-floor where your body is part of a massive, churning tide...read more

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

Formed in Portland, Oregon, in 2011, Mission Spotlight writes music about the modern American west. Inspired by the records of George Jones, the Byrds and Roger Whittaker playing on their parents’ turntables, and influenced by the alt-country sounds of Whiskeytown...read more

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

It’s uncommon for a contemporary artist to create a timeless album, an album that is both surprising and comforting. Yet after only a few listens to the new record from WEINLAND, a soon to be well known quintet from Portland, Oregon, you’ll know it’s still possible. Their achievement is celebrated on Breaks In The Sun, the follow up to 2008’s critically acclaimed La Lamentor (Badman Recording Co.), and the manner in which they wrote and recorded this collective work...read more

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

A mix of lo-fi hi-fi, happiness, sadness, playfulness, revolution, dissolusion, candy pop, garage rock, northern soul, psychedelic, brit pop, pre-post punk, moth fuck explosion. A spark of creativity-a fluxus moment–a Happening…Read More

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

Pickwick was formed in 2008 when singer Galen Disston left Los Angeles and relocated to Seattle, Washington. Originally an alt-country group, Pickwick spent the following two years trying to establish themselves in the Seattle Folk scene...read more

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

Transient started playing shows in March 2008. Since then we have played with so many amazing bands and have met so many rad people. We would like to personally thank everyone who has helped us along the way!!!...read more

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

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

Caleb Klauder’s warm sound, authentic and familiar, feels all at once contemporary and vintage, as though it’s coming from the porch next-door. Raised between Orcas Island, Washington and Little Cumberland, Georgia, Klauder took his first steps in Knoxville. If his music could invent a genre, it would be New-school Americana, infusing old standards with Northwestern attitude and spinning out modern classics made elegant with Southern charm. Klauder writes his rough-hewn lyrics among the chickens scratching in his garden in Portland, Oregon, where he works as a musician and carpenter and is raising his 13-year-old son, Elijah...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 $13 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

E*Rock is a multi-disciplinary artist and electronic musician based in Portland, Oregon who runs the record labels Audio Dregs and Fryk Beat and produces animated music videos with the Wyld File crew. Most often though his work finds itself home on various forms of music driven media such on the covers CDs, LPs, DVDs, concert posters, magazine covers, zines and also his contributions to music videos and animation have appeared on MTV2 as well as in The Museum of Modern Art in Paris. He has also toured the USA, Japan and Europe with a combination of his video art performance and electronic music...read more

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

Nine years is a long wait between albums, especially in the now-you-see-them, now-you-don’t world of underground rock. But if you are Julian Koster, founder and leader of the recording and performance aggregation known as The Music Tapes, nine years is merely a tick of the 7 Foot Tall Metronome that stands by your bed while you are sleeping...read more

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

BOAT is a band about stories. BOAT is a band about stories about dinosaurs, quirk, real-life, baseball, blisters, punctuation, and the ferocious sounds of lobsters and snakes. See, these things are all details that make up the boys of BOAT, a band begun as a basement dream of one David Crane (let’s call him D.) that spiraled into one of the most resourceful, most imaginative bands in Seattle. And details count...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.

From the greater Athens-Atlanta-Asheville area, the four have been playing music since the beginning of recorded history, but playing shows as Reptar since December 2008. Since then, Reptar has created quite a sensation around the Southeast and just wrapped up a 7″ recording with producer Ben Allen (Sean P. Diddy Combs, Gnarls Barkley...read more

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

Celilo (pronounced suh-lie-low) from Portland, Oregon, USA gives a slight nod towards Dark Side era Pink Floyd, 70′s Neil Young, and the Fleet Foxes with their laid back and lyrical Americana that straddles the boundaries between indie rock, psychedelia and atmospheric folk. A banquet of dreamy soundscapes, surreal rhetoric, and an early Genesis-like tendency to shift gears mid song to emerge from a dark forest of sound onto the modern sunlit plain...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW wristband or $16 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 8pm.

For the moment, Joe Pug has it figured out, career if not life: Just write the songs that have to be written, play them for anybody who will listen, tour as if you had no home. Oh, and give your music away. Which isn’t to say he won’t be selling his debut full-length offering, Messenger (released 2/16/2010 on Lightning Rod). But free is how he came to make it, more or less...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $12 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

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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 $13 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

Super Melody is the brainchild of James Cecil, the Melbourne-based artist and producer who made his name with globe- and genre-trotting pop group Architecture In Helsinki…read more

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

M. William Helfrich is a family man. Signs of his children are all over his first album, Mister Nobody Baby from the drawing by one son printed on the disc itself to the title given to him by another. Around a decade ago Helfrich moved to Portland, OR from Malheur County near the Idaho border and began playing his beautifully sparse songs to small audiences....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 $12 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

Lost Lander is a project founded by songwriter/forester Matt Sheehy when he began work on a new album with producer Brent Knopf. The two often worked remotely... Read More

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

Apocalyptic metal band A STORM OF LIGHT have completed work on their new album, entitled “As The Valley Of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade." Formed by multi-faced artist/musician Josh Graham (Neurosis, ex-Red Sparowes/Battle Of Mice), A STORM OF LIGHT have become a whole new musical entity on its own merits, taking singer/guitarist Graham’s experiences from his previous musical repertoire and finding its own unique voice through the vessel known as A STORM OF LIGHT...read more

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

Deelay Ceelay is a collaboration between video artist/musician Chris Lael Larson and percussionist Delaney Kelly, fusing live instrumentation with synched projected visuals. Deelay Ceelay blur the divide between music, experimental film and performance while emphasizing the creation of a two-way exchange with audiences...read more

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

Argentina-born Fernando Viciconte came of age musically in L.A. fronting the hard rock band Monkey Paw. He moved to Portland, OR, in 1994 and released Season in Hell, a downbeat collection of country rock, in 1996. His sophomore effort, Widows, saw a harder-edged approach that at times recalled his Southern California days. The Spanish language album Pacoima (1998) represented an abrupt shift as Fernando explored his So Cal barrio roots, swinging from border rock to Tex-Mex to Mexican R&B...read more

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

Natasha Kmeto (pronounced “kuh-meh-toe”) is an electro hip-hop, singer-producer based in Portland, OR. With a rich musical background in jazz, r&b, electronic and hip-hop she likes to describe her music as “futuristic soul.”...read more

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

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

Bare Wires patents their own brand of electrified garage punk with their latest album Seeking Love (Castle Face). The Oakland based trio fuses glam glitter pop with garage punk grime, producing what has been called everything from “Soft Punk” to “Leather Jacket Rock”...read more

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

Macklemore emerged on the Seattle music scene in 2005 as young musician, fresh out of college, and ready to conquer the world. Armed with what still stands as one of the region’s classic Hip-Hop records, The Language of my World, Macklemore stood with members of a new breed of Seattle artist, alongside peers including the Blue Scholars and Common Market, bringing a level of enthusiasm, passion, energy, and artistry to a scene that welcomed him with open arms...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $5 at the door. Doors open at 9pm.

VJ Kittyrox started her DJ career in 1986, making her first 80s mix tape at age nine. At ten, she fell deeply in love with Adam Curry and remained glued to MTV until many years later... Read More

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

I’ve started to think of Holcombe Waller as the forgotten man. When we met in college, in the late 90s, he was the brightest whitest hope among us to save music forever. While the rest of our arty clique was still fucking around trying to find an aesthetic, a style, a sound to glom onto, he was already a veteran – still stoking the embers of an old school, you-can-only-make-it-in-Hollywood-style record deal...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 $12 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

RABBITS is a power trio from Portland, Oregon. The band comprises one drummer (Kevin Garrison) and two guitarist/vocalists (Joshua Hughes and Seth Montfort). RABBITS has been described as sludge, hardcore, punk, and thrash, or amalgamations thereof which may be succinctly characterized as “moonshine metal” for the simple, potent, dirty, and often chaotic concoctions RABBITS brews...read more

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

Purple N Green is the new Portland Experimental Digital Funky project from: ...read more

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

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

The Stepkids are three singer/songwriters. “A lot of what excites us about this band is this band itself,” says bassist and keyboardist Dan Edinberg. “It’s not either of us; it’s about creating an entity where the entity itself is what’s important.” As a result, every song on the Stepkids self-titled debut album is written with equal input from each member...read more

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

AgesandAges is not a cult. Sure, the seven-piece Portland group exudes enough electric joy that it feels like a big tent revival. And sure, one finds oneself using church words to describe the band’s sound: a powerful, life-affirming and exploratory blend of lessons learned, set ablaze with a buoyant, unbridled optimism. And yeah, there are frequent lyrical references to voluntary seclusion, communal living and an existence “under the radar” littered throughout the band’s debut, Alright, You Restless...read more

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

There is a hunger in Mad Rad. A want. A want to kill and be killed, to feast and be feasted on, to love and be loved. Animalistic, the crux. Pressing, the message. You are sentient, with ears. You’re alive now, in skin. Mad Rad is here to save you, and your deepest darkest fantasy. Everything is going to be alright. Just hang on tight...read more

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

Heralded as a favorite among Canada’s new breed of independent musicians, Dan Mangan’s travels initially took him everywhere but home. Spending most of the last six years toting guitar and merch-sack, Dan experienced Vancouver as more of a resting place than roost. He toured nearly non-stop in support of his debut album Postcards And Daydreaming, testing his words, honing his craft, and building a dedicated following. Graciously, if un-strategically, Mangan pretty much accepted every gig that came his way...read more

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

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

Over the course of some sixteen years and six remarkable albums, The Ladybug Transistor have confirmed their standing as the preeminent exponents of lush, formalist pop music. With a superlative new record, Clutching Stems, at the ready, their pursuit of a singular musical vision remains as true as ever...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW wristband or $16 advance ticket from Ticketswest. Doors open at 8pm.

Born and raised in Lewiston, ID, Justin Ringle has a natural affinity with the West.  Its space, beauty, and nonconformity seem to be reflected in the music of his band Horse Feathers, named after an expression he heard his grandfather use.  In Ringle’s hands, the common meaning of this expression comes to life: two things that can’t possibly exist together are spun into a gossamer delicacy of music shot through with lyrical weight...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 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 MusicfestNW Wristband or $15 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

Thee Oh Sees are the latest incarnation of songwriter, singer, and guitarist John Dwyer’s ever-evolving pop-folk psychedelic group. Dwyer, who hails from Providence, RI, has been active on the San Francisco indie scene since the late ’90s, working with several bands, including the Coachwhips, Pink & Brown, Yikes , Up Its Alive, and Swords & Sandals, among others, and he formed OCS (which is an acronym for Orinoka Crash Suite, Orange County Sound, or whatever Dwyer decided it was on any given day) initially as a vehicle for the experimental instrumentals he was producing in his home studio...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 $12 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

ZEKE established a nasty disposition while cutting teeth on their own brash hardcore punk. ZEKE formed in 1993 with an original lineup of Blind Marky Felchtone, Donny Paycheck, Mark Pierce, and Dizzy Lee Roth. The band’s first release was 1993’s ‘West Seattle Acid Party’ single on Wrecking Ball Records, followed by the ‘Holley 750′ single on IFA Records. ZEKE then set out to bring their energetic recordings to the stage and established a more than formidable reputation as “the live band to beat” via concentrated regional touring...read more

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

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

By some counts, the number of Centro-matic or related releases is in the hundreds at this point; three EPs, a soundtrack cut and a cassingle were released while you read this—each one a surprise and revelation. But none more so than the album now in your possession: Candidate Waltz, what Will Johnson (songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist) calls the band’s “meat-and-potatoes pop record.”...read more

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

What was born in an explosion of feedback and noise has mutated into something else entirely. Something like a revelation. An unexplored world: shadowy and macabre, yet lush, organic, almost phantasmagoric…read more

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

GIVERS is a band made up of five friends from Lafayette, Louisiana—it should be stated firstly that the music they make is simply an ongoing reflection of this bond. It is this connection that fuels every aspect of creation and performance for the band. They began their journey together as friends somewhere between high school and college, playing in various bands around Lafayette. Eventually the five would all come together for one night of improvised music at the request of a friend to fill an empty slot...read more

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

ABX (pronounced like three consecutive letters) and STV SLV (pronounced “steve sleeve”) are collectively known as The Hood Internet. For the past three years, the duo have been chewing up the indie, pop, rap and R&B landscapes and spitting out pure fire. Like laptop-armed alchemists, they draw from their expansive interest in the many faces of modern music and re-imagine songs for mass public consumption through thehoodinternet.com...read more

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

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

For almost ten years now, Rhett Miller has balanced a solo career with a band career, as both the leader of the rock band Old 97′s and as an acclaimed singer-songwriter in his own right. Last year, the Old 97′s released their seventh album, Blame It On Gravity. Now, just a year later, Miller returns with his fourth solo record, the self-titled Rhett Miller...read more

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

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

The Olivia Tremor Control originated in Louisiana around 1988 as the trio of Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss, and Jeff Mangum. They ended up in Athens, Georgia around 1992 and recorded the “California Demise” EP which they released themselves on seven-inch vinyl...read more

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

Born in Tennessee and raised in Louisville, KY, Matthew Cooper relocated to Portland, OR several years back and has since spent many a night holed up in his house transforming the vibrations in his brain into sweeping walls of elegant noise... Read More

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

I once came very close to dying (bug-bite, failed organs), and though my life was spared thanks to thanks to modern medicine and a kidney given to me by my father, nonetheless I live with a persisting sense that my time is borrowed. My resolution–what I intend to do with my finite allotment– is to reach some small, yet conclusive understanding of my life in particular and the world in general; an understanding accomplished, in part, through a combination of music and words...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 $15 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

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

Emily Wells is an anomaly among musicians most of whom spend their careers striving for a major label deal. Before she was old enough to vote, a major label was courting Wells, two music-publishing companies were competing for the rights to her songs and she was recording with award winning producers. By the time she was legally buying her first drink, however, Emily had chosen a different path. With true indie ethos, she moved from New York, leaving in her wake a lucrative deal from a major label, the renowned producers, recording studios, and a manager. During that period of her life, Emily had been offered everything that most musicians want. Everything except what she, as an artist, needed most: creative control...read more

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

Danielle Sullivan and Thomas Himes formed Wild Ones in the fall of 2009. The Portland based synth-pop duo started with a handful of bedroom recordings but quickly evolved to include bass player Clayton knapp and drummer Andy Parker. Bassist Knapp simultaneously functions as the band’s recording engineer and helped produce their debut EP “You’re a Winner”. The five piece is currently working on a full length record and booking shows to promote their new release...read more

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

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

Despite their individual musical pedigrees, the seasoned musicians that make up progressive string band Black Prairie aren’t moonlighting. The ensemble is pulled together from different corners of Portland, Oregon’s remarkably rich music scene, and while the high profile of each musician in the band – which includes three-fifths of the Decemberists – ensures a certain amount of attention, it’s clear that Black Prairie are in it for purely musical reasons. They’re playing a brand of Americana that defies easy categorization, cross-pollinating a number of different styles while exposing the venerable, forgotten roots of folk and bluegrass...read more

Entry with MusicfestNW Wristband or $15 at the door.

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $8 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

Boy Eats Drum Machine is a singular figure of the West. He does things his own way, thank you very much, and does those things well enough to run his own one-man gang.  Sometimes his voice is low and dry like the great Oregon deserts. Other times it resonates warmly, as though reflecting off the hills. He’s a turntablist’s turntablist, robbing breaks and sound textures from vinyl even after most of his contemporaries switched to laptops. He often mixes together twangy guitars, soulful blasts of tenor saxophone, and bassy, soundtrack worthy, analog synth. He’s an artist-outlaw...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 $15 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

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

VURSATYL and JUMBO the Garbageman, the MCs and heartbeat of LIFESAVAS, were drawn together by fate and necessity. They first met playing basketball and rippin’ freestyling sessions in Portland, Oregon city parks. Working different projects out of the same makeshift studio, their eventual mutual respect for each other led to an explosion of writing and performing songs and routines with JUMBO at the decks. JUMBO and VURSATYL gained local notoriety by playing a lot of shows as a last-minute duo, thereby becoming known to promoters as, literally, “lifesavers.”...read more

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

Eternal Tapestry started in the fall of 2005, conceived after original members Nick Bindeman and Dewey Mahood discovered their mutual love of Sonny Sharrock and Neu! It was these two vastly different artists who helped the band’s sound take shape, free improvised guitar with structured rhythms and lots of layered ambient sound. They asked a few friends to join them in the band and so it began. Nick’s younger brother Jed moved to Portland, Oregon in the summer of 2006 and joined shortly afterwards...read more

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

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $13 at the door. Doors open at 7:30pm.

Born in San Diego, raised in Nevada City, grazed in Portland, OR, Bobby Birdman is currently hovering in Los Angeles...read more

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

There’s a moment at which Kelli Schaefer’s debut album Ghost Of The Beast goes past simply being fantastic to that rarified air of being truly transcendent. It happens in the song “Sister K”, a track that as it pulses forward with a shuffling train-like drum beat and slow building layers of guitar and ambient noise. As Schaefer rolls out devastating lyrics about the pain that all of us face at one point or another in our lives, she reaches the chorus: “After a good fight with illustrious intentions/after a good fight we barely broke the movement/after a good hard fight with the purest of desire.”...read more

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

Alela Diane is a homebody by nature. The Portland, Oregon-based, Nevada City, California-bred musician, though traveled the world over, is most at peace within audible range of a crackling fire and her cat’s paws padding across the wood floors of her creaky Victorian residence. And although her methods thus far have echoed this aspect of her being—from fashioning hand-sewn CD jackets for The Pirate’s Gospel, to nearly spit-shining 2009’s To Be Still in her Dad’s studio-the reach of her success has spanned quite a bit further...read more

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

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

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

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

Together since 2008, Violet Isle’s infectious tunes are winning over the Northwest. Now, it’s time to win over the rest of the country with finely-crafted, song-driven, watch-out-you-might-start-singing-along, tunes. Violet Isle’s music is built around the strong melodies and unique chord progressions of lead vocalist and acoustic guitarist, Sean Garcia...read more

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

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $8 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

Finn Riggins is the result of a longtime collaboration between Cameron Bouiss, Eric Gilbert and Lisa Simpson. Having met while completing their music degrees at the University of Idaho, the trio began playing music together in 2000, an endeavor that would ultimately culminate in what is now Finn Riggins. In August of 2006, Bouiss, Gilbert and Simpson quit their jobs and moved to Sun Valley, Idaho to stitch together the outlines of Finn Riggins at “the helibase” – a secret practice spot/tour launch pad...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 $10 at the door. Doors open at 8pm.

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $8 at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

Formed in early 2010, the band has played events such as SXSW, Cornerstone, and the Alaska State Fair and toured in 40 states. The band completed a 2-month nationwide tour with Tyrone Wells and Andrew Belle in the fall of 2010 in support of their debut EP, Wolves, which features the single “Back To You”...read more

Admission with MusicfestNW Wristband or $15 at the door. Doors open at 8:30pm.

1-2 Buckle My Shoe began as a challenge in the Spring of 2006. Saye Saye was planning her going away party in honor of her move from Portland, OR to Atlanta, GA. A couple friends decided they wanted to form a band to play at the party. They joked they were going to perform ten, 10-second songs. P-Dub and Saye Saye decided to form their own group to play at the party, and make it a battle of the short-song bands. The other band failed to get their act together, so 1-2 Buckle My Shoe played the party, and won the battle by default. The show rocked the basement! ...read more