
What in THE F*CK! I was just looking for a newish Danny Brown music nugget, to say something about how all the acts I'm most excited to see at Sasquatch this weekend (Danny Brown + Nacho Picasso + Earl Sweatshirt + P.O.S + Macklemore & Ryan Lewis + Brothers From Another) were all rap... And then I was even gonna say something about the new article out, just today in
XXL Magazine: "The New New: 15 Seattle Rappers You Should Know"
But can I talk about either of these? NO! NOT ANYMORE! I just watched a video of Danny Brown getting a freaking BLOW JOB, knob-bob, and/or a "STAGE DOME" at a show in Minneapolis.
Post beej (or is it rape?!), wrote Danny Brown, to Kendrick Lamar, on Twitter: "I didn't miss one bar bruh bruh." See for yourself.
If you didn't already get your Sasquatch tickets (which sold out in a record 90 minutes time) then you are shit out of luck. If you did buy tickets, however, you are probably quite stoked right now because the festival just added Elvis Costello and the Imposters to the line-up.
To throw in a game-changer like Elvis Costello weeks after tickets already sold out? Now that's just mean.
Last night's Sasquatch! Launch Party at the Neptune featured the eclectic lineup of Cody ChesnuTT (you have to read Larry's piece on ChesnuTT here), Built to Spill, and a special surprise* (*not actually a surprise) appearance by Macklemore.
The lineup was announced, and people talked about it in very good and very bad ways, all over the internet. I LOVE camping and I LOVE people watching, and I LIKE music (JK music, you know you're my #1), so Sasquatch is super fun for me. Plus people on drugs! And free Pop Chips! Even if only three women will be there to play, total, that just means more Pop Chips in the lady-tent, am I right? (Side note: please book more ladies everywhere, all the time, tho.)
To see the full lineup, and talk about how YOU'RE feeling about it, check out Megan's post here and then listen to Josh Bis' Sasquatch Spotify playlist here.
Now then, here are some wonderful photos from last night, taken by Molly Bauer.

I loved Cody ChesnuTT's dance moves (lots of butt wiggling) and outfit (WWII-style helmet, red sweater). His bass player was also super entertaining. Actually, they all were.

Before the show, some friends told us the surprise guest was definitely Macklemore, because, "it was all over Craigslist."
The Sasquatch lineup was revealed in person to the Neptune and to the greater internet universe late last night.
Because I had a spare hour this morning and wanted to get a chance to dig below the headliners, I put together this somewhat arbitrary* playlist of as many Sasquatch artists as I could find on Spotify. Let's all have a listen together?
* Methods: for each band, choose two "top hits" from the Artist page. Bands not yet in the celestial jukebox: Reignwolf, Odesza, Nissim, Nacho Picasso, Let's Talk, Rose Windows, and Peace. Comedians Nick Offerman, Nancy & Beth, Brody Stevens, James Adomian, Jenny Slate, Joe Mande, and Brett Gelman also omitted.
Let me know if I've missed someone or make a case for inclusion of songs more representative of a band's true ultimate essence not captured by the robot algorithms within Spotify's dark heart.

Here's who's playing the festival, happening May 24-27th at the Gorge:
Mumford and Sons
Vampire Weekend
the Lumineers
the Postal Service
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
the xx
Sigur RÓs
Cake
Arctic Monkeys
Primus 3D
Grimes
Bloc Party
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Steve Aoki
Built to Spill
Alt-J
Imagine Dragons
Empire of the Sun
The Tallest Man on Earth
Andrew Bird
Azealia Banks
Deep Sea Diver
Solange
Japandroids
Reignwolf
Danny Brown
Youngblood Hawk
Shout Out Louds
Dropkick Murphys
Tame Impala
Dirty Projectors
Toro y Moi
Youth Lagoon
Baauer
Lusine
Death Grips
Holy Ghost
John Talabot
Matthew Dear
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
Surfer Blood
Suuns
OCNotes and the Golden Gods
Bombino
Menomena
Red Fang
Wake Owl
Disclosure
Odesza
Kingdom Crumbs
Theoretics
Beachwood Sparks
The Barr Brothers
Brown Bird
Nissim
Nancy & Beth
Fang Island
Luke Sital-Singh
Brett Gelman
Jenny Slate
James Adomian
Telekinesis
Akron/Family
Elliott Brood
Sean Nelson
Atlas Genius
Knowmads
RA Scion
Nacho Picasso
Brothers From Another
Divine Fits
ZZ Ward
Schoolboy Q & Ab-Soul
Mike Birbiglia
Let's Talk
Four Color Zack
The Presets
Azari & Ill
Brody Stevens
Jon Daly
Hundred Waters
Totally Enormous Extinct
JJ Grey & Mofro
Kyle Kinane
Laidback Luke
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Joe Mande
Nick Offerman
Rose WIndows
Devendra Banhart
John Talabot
Peace
Willy Moon
Ryan Bingham
Yppah
Indians
El-P
Chvrches
Robert Delong
Earl Sweatshirt
Killer Mike
Shovels & Rope
Radical Face
Shad
Wild Belle
P.O.S.
Michael Kiwanuka
Twin Shadow
Torche
Diiv
Caveman
Baths
Father John Misty
Porcelain Raft
Black Rebel Motorcyle Club
Jherek Bischoff
Sea Wolf
Capital Cities
Ticket information, the schedule, and more available at sasquatchfestival.com.
Confidential to whoever was doing the live feed on Ustream: Thanks for the hand puppets.
On February 4th, the Neptune will host the Sasquatch Launch Party. Built to Spill and Cody ChesnuTT will play, Luke Burbank will host, and Sasquatch organizers will announce the line-up for the annual Memorial Day Weekend festival.
It's already been rumored that the Postal Service are reuniting, possibly for Coachella, but there's no way they'd get back together and NOT play Sasquatch, right?
Telekinesis also has no Seattle date on his upcoming spring tour (featuring members of Say Hi, Wild Flag, and the Globes!).
Hmmm... Who else do you think might be appearing?
Tickets to the party are free and available Saturday, February 2, at the Neptune Theatre box office. First come, first served.
Discounted 4-day passes for Sasquatch! Music Festival will go on sale Fri. Nov. 23 at 9 am PST at sasquatchfestival.com. These special passes will be available through Dec. 31, unless they're all sold before then. Sasquatch! happens May 24-27, 2013 at the Gorge in Quincy, Washington. The fest's organizers will announce the full lineup in February.
Post submitted yesterday morning but published this morning due to editorial resources being dedicated to yesterday's murders. —Eds
Hospitality is a K Records band from Brooklyn that I found out about from impatiently skipping around the Sasquatch festival website's media player of bands playing the festival. I was so pleasantly surprised by their song "Friends of Friends," that I made it a point to check them out. They were fun and charming live, plus the wind was blowing so hard during their set on the Bigfoot Stage and it reminded me of the music video for Blur's "Song #2."

The fourth and final day of Sasquatch was the hottest of all. We had been on the fence about leaving on Sunday, but ultimately decided we could handle one more night. Our newest camping neighbors had a DJ (?!) hunched over a laptop in the front seat of a huge truck, blaring music for the entire campground to hear at 2 am! His "set" included such favorites as The Eagles, some very depressing Radiohead, but mostly just trance (trance, trance).
Don't Talk to the Cops was the perfect last music to see. I don't think I have ever been more determined to dance at 4 pm in the blazing sun. Kids in gold lamé leggings and bikinis were losing their minds. A girl next to me was actually dirty dancing! There was a lot of guest star action - OC Notes and Ronnie Voice shared the mics, while Them Team did some impressive breakdancing without succumbing to heat stroke. Trent Moorman drummed better than any computer ever and Josh Rule played a different instrument every few minutes like it was NBD.

After trying to understand so much music all weekend, it was good to just hear tunes I knew and loved, from Seattle, from right now!

Less showy, but nonetheless enjoyable were sets from Feist, the amazing longevity of classic indie hits from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Silversun Pickups, modern afrobeat futurism from Seattle's favorite Shabazz Palaces, as well as an intense Yeti closer from Ted Leo.
So many more photos after the jump.

The moral of the story: Come prepared. I brought what I thought would be enough supplies to last the three-and-a-half day stint. Most of it was gone by the second day. When you run out of stuff, you either have to convince your ride (or yourself) to drive out for replenishments or be subjected to these and similar markups. YEE-HAW.

You guys. Four days is just a lot of days of the Sasquatch Music Festival. By the time evening rolled around I'd succumbed to drinking American Sized cans of Bud Lite and leaving my camera in the beer garden instead of bringing it with me to take pictures of Spiritualized. Eternal hugs to the outstanding production team who recovered my gear, wheezing curses to the sprint up and down the steeper-every-time hill, and longing regrets for having to miss almost all of Spiritualized due to a schedule change that put them up against Beck due to a last-minute Mogwai cancellation (Deer Tick filled in with a "covers set" — Replacements and Nirvana, not Scottish post-rock).
We didn't make it through Beck's whole performance, but the first third was a veritable greatest hits collection with the set front-loaded with the likes of "Loser", "Sea Change", "Devil's Haircut", and a medley that included his take on Price's "Raspberry Beret." What we saw seemed entirely gimmick free: no puppets, light shows, or zany dance moves — just an assured performance drawing from an incredibly deep collection of beloved songs. I haven't followed Beck very closely over the years, yet found myself recogning just about everything and finding it difficult to tear myself away to return to the parking lot for the drive back to Ellensburg. Did anyone make it to the very end? Induce some jealously by letting me know what I missed.
A few more quick snaps of Beck and Spiritualized after the jump; more from the rest of the festival once we return to the warm embrace of Seattle this afternoon.
And it is Honda, who had some sort of picture-taking contest in which you could win a Civic or something. Anyway, here is the depot:

When did festival-goers get so keen on dressing like animals? They were everywhere I looked, dressed like cats, tigers, bears, dogs, several unicorns, a few pikachu, horses and various kinds of birds...it's like fucking Halloween out there. And normally (such as in the case for Halloween,) I think that it's used as an excuse for people to dress "sexy," but it was too hot and there were too many full-body fur suits and rubber pony masks for that to be the case. I asked a festival photographer friend Kyle Johnson to shoot a few pictures of these beasts, but there's no picture that could document how disheartening it feels to have some jerk in a dirty panda costume cut front of you in an already super lame Sasquatch porta-potty line.




Green unicorn girl RULES, and headdress girl DROOLS. In fact, her fashion sucks. Correct me if I'm wrong.


Sunday-funday super-snaps by Josh Bis. So much more after the cut.


Look at all these photos shot by Stranger sharp-shooter Josh Bis! Yeeeee-esh!


Lots and lots more after the jump!
Here's a group of kids I was happy to meet! We crossed paths just outside of the Media Area, where a maze of bathroom water overflows into a dirt path, now affectionately called HEPATITIS MARSH.

What are your names and where are you from?
Kate: I'm Kate from Seattle!
Craig: I'm Craig from Seattle, WA!
Katie: I'm Katie from Seattle! I'm his brother (points to Craig).
Craig: I'm your sister!
Katie: I'm your sister!
What's the best thing you've seen this weekend?
Kate: St. Vincent. By far.
Craig: Trampled by Turtles, hands down.
Katie: Oh my God, do I have to choose one?
You can say as many as you want.
Craig: Put the Head and the Heart in there.
Katie: Okay, Wolfgang Gartner was sick. Well, uh, Alabama Shakes! Man, they were legit! And Allen Stone!
Do you think this atmosphere is an appropriate way to celebrate Memorial Day?
Kate: Yeah! Yeah!
Craig: Yes, definitely.
In what way, do you think?
Craig: We're having a damn good time.
Kate: Everyone's down to party and it's fine.
So tell me how you feel about JonBenét Ramsey.
Katie: Uh...
What about Flamin' Hot Cheetos?
Katie: I mean they taste pretty good but they're kind of bad for you so I can't say I eat them.
What's better, sweat bands or sweat shops?
Kate: (unsure) Sweat bands? (more sure) Yeah, sweat bands.
And do you consider Mother Earth a MILF?
Craig: Absolutely!
Thanks to Katie, Kate & Craig!
Howlin' Rain
Watching Howlin' Rain, the band comprised of members of Comets on Fire and Drunkhorse, beards fly about the stage, but it really just makes me wish I were watching Drunkhorse or Comets on Fire, and the Yeti Stage seems the most middling of stages—cramped, the sound deadened by the surrounding structures instead of rolling out into the wide open spaces.
War on Drugs
Up the hill a bit at the Bigfoot Stage War on Drugs' guitar sounds had no such trouble. The wind and I think the heat affect how the sounds go out, and in the hot sun their Springsteen/Dylan-esque thing sounds kind of perfect. If I take one thing away from the festival I'd like to be the moment they start "Comin' Through" and I have a cold $11 24-ounce beer in hand. Bittersweet it was.

Wild Flag, the Walkmen, and Dyme Def
The Bigfoot Stage rules throughout most of the rest of the day. Wild Flag and Walkmen are total pros and both put on flawless sets. Across the walk at the Maine Stage (hardy-har), which is a new addition this year, Dyme Def have the crowd in full swing. It's some of the worst white-people dancing I've witnessed in years, but at least they have the confidence to try. (I do not.) The Maine Stage is dedicated to NW hiphop acts, and although there's little sound bleed over between it and the stage, it feels a little tacked on. Also, why the "Maine Stage"? They ain't got no Samsquanches in Maine.

Zola Jesus
Zola Jesus is a tiny human being. But this didn't stop her from blowing out the difficult Yeti Stage with her tremendous bellows. The crowd is a bit light, and I can't help but think she deserves to be out on that Main Stage with that gorgeous backdrop to compliment such espansive sound.
Instead it is the Head and the Heart.

Beirut
Beirut's sound is pleasant as the sun sets, but the lack of decent sleep and the sun are conspiring to end my night. I go back to camp for a "short nap" and wake up around midnight and spend several hours kicking myself for missing Bon Iver.

Things overheard in the camping grounds on Monday morning:
Canadian pointing at BBQ: "Hey this thing is still smoking. What should I do with it?"
"Let's go back, cause I think I lost everything."
"I'm sorry, but four days without a shower is pretty skanky."
Cigarette butts and cans and broken bottles litter the grounds. The troops are weary. We hear that Mogwai "had trouble with their visas," and had to cancel, but that Spiritualized will do a mega-set to make up for it. We are not sure we can make it.