Alert your friends and family! Start calling the folks in your phone tree! Send out smoke signals! Tweet! Facebook! The word is out on the street now—the initial lineup for this year's MusicfestNW is here!!!!
Please accept our excitement as genuine because, even though we have a bit of an inside track on this event—WW puts the thing on every year—the lineup that organizer Trevor Solomon and his crew put together never ceases to thrill us. And this, the 12th MusicfestNW, is no exception. Just a few highlights: Silversun Pickups, Girl Talk, and Beirut are all doing shows at Pioneer Courthouse Square! The Old 97s will be performing Too Far To Care in its entirety! The Red Bull Common Thread series featuring sets by Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, and J. Mascis!
If you want to hurry to the lineup, scroll on down from this introduction here, but first some pertinent details:
This year's MFNW is going down from the 5th to the 9th of September. Wristbands and tickets for shows at Pioneer Courthouse Square, Crystal Ballroom, Roseland Theater, and the Aladdin Theater will be going on sale this Friday, June 1st via Cascade Tickets (click here to find out just which shows are happening where). The prices are $125 for a wristband that gets you into everything - including the three shows at Pioneer Courthouse Square; or you can pay $75 for a ticket to one of the outdoor shows and the rest of the fest.
Now, we could go on and on about each of the local and international acts playing at the festival this year, but instead, we just wanted to take a moment to highlight those bands that we wouldn't dare miss at MFNW 2012. We hope this helps you work out your own plan of attack for what is sure to be a busy, busy five days.
Robert Ham's Picks:
Swans - Michael Gira has made it clear that this is no reunion, this is a resurrection. And you can hear it in the sound of the previous Swans album My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky, and the band's upcoming two disc release The Seer. Gira and his band sound fiery, spiritual, intense, and a little frightening. Presented in a live setting, their soulful scratching rock only burns hotter and provides more spine-chilling moments.
Mirroring - Liz Harris aka Grouper and Jesy Fortino aka Tiny Vipers join forces on this project, and the result of their intuitive and brilliant collaboration, the recently released LP Foreign Body, is one of those albums you don't recover from easily. The two combine the already perfect crystalline sounds of ethereal dream pop (Harris) and space folk (Fortino) and create a kaleidoscopic vision that will leave you reeling as you float gently downstream.
Omar Souleyman - This singer's music has been described by no less than Bjork as being "Syrian techno." It's a fair shorthand for what Souleyman's sound (traditionally known as dabke) is all about, but in place of the 4/4 pulse is a loping, stomping almost glam-like Middle Eastern beat. Souleyman has become an international sensation via a series of compilations released on Sublime Frequencies which cherry pick from the singer's 500+ releases, and his live performances inspire the kind of wild dance parties rarely seen outside of The Matrix Reloaded.
John Maus - The last album We Must Become Pitiless Censors of Ourselves by this 32-year-old former sideman for Animal Collective was one of the most talked about albums of 2011. For good reason too as Maus took the dreamy hypnogogic swirl of his former employers and applied it to the glitterbomb joy of modern techno and IDM. His is the kind of music that never really resolves, choosing instead to melt away into the distance and leaving you scrambling after it.
Redd Kross - The last we heard from this long-running glam-garage outfit was way back in 1997 with the release of Show World. The band - led by brothers Steve and Jeff McDonald - never really disappeared though, hitting the road for short tours including stops at Yo La Tengo's Hanukkah shows and playing through Australia at the behest of Hoodoo Gurus. The quartet has finally hit the studio again for a new album Researching The Blues, a disc that finds the Kross in fine fettle with a raging joy that belies their advanced collective age.
Casey Jarman's Picks:
Girl Talk - Okay, he truth is I'm not all that big of a Girl Talk fan. But where spectacle is concerned, I can't imagine anything cooler than watching him play Portland's Living Room. When I mentioned this to someone the other day, they said "yeah, but what if it rains?" If it rains, things will get immeasurably more epic.
Hazel/Gossamer Wings reunions - A few months back I watched Hazel's low-key reunion show at Al's Den in the basement of the Crystal Hotel. It was revelatory for me: I had seen the legendary Portland group's reunion show in 2005, but the members seemed at odds with each other and somewhat distracted. Here they looked at home and genuinely stoked to be playing together, and it sounded amazing.That Hazel founder Pete Krebs is gathering up his old Gossamer Wings buddies for another run is also fantastic, unexpected news.
The Tallest Man on Earth - That voice—a little bit early Dylan, a little bit Jeff Mangum—is pretty addictive. The questions have always revolved around Kristian Matsson's staying power. There's a new record on the way, and new single "1904" is pretty good, so I've got high hopes. Matsson played MFNW when he was just a babe, but he's returning a lion.
A-Trak - He's the first name on the list, so it may seem like I'm cheating, but perhaps nobody on this list—save Big Freedia—can get asses shaking like A-Trak can.
Menomena/Typhoon - Both acts have new albums coming out; both have huge expectations on them; I have absolutely no idea what either record is going to sound like. Menomena's new lineup should mean something different and Typhoon has been working in leisurely fashion on its new record out at Pendarvis Farm. We're sure to hear a lot of new material at these giant Portland gigs, and that's cause for celebration.
Initial MFNW 2012 Lineup:
A-Trak
AAN
Alialujah Choir
And And And
Arrington De Dionyso
Beirut
Big Business
Big Freedia
Black Mountain
Blouse
Bobby Bare Jr.
Brainstorm
Brown Bird
Casey Neil & The Norway Rats
Ceremony
Cheap Girls
Chelsea Wolfe
Copy
Craft Spells
Crystal Antlers
Danny Brown
Dante vs. Zombies
Daughn Gibson
Defeater
Dinosaur Jr.
Dirtclodfight
DJ Beyondadoubt
DJ Cooky Parker
DJ Mr. Jonathan Toubin
Erik Koskinen
Evian Christ
Fort Lean
Fucked Up
Future Islands
Gardens & Villa
Girl Talk
Grandparents
Guantanamo Baywatch
Hazel
Headaches
Hey Marseilles
Holcombe Waller
Hosannas
Hot Snakes
Hungry Ghost
I Break Horses
J. Mascis
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit
Joe Pug
John Maus
Joyce Manor
Julia Holter
Kendl Winter
King Khan & the Shrines
Lake
Lemolo
Lightning Bolt
LP
Mac Demarco
Mean Jeans
Menomena
Milo Greene
Mirroring
Moonface
Mrs. Magician
Naytronix
Nite Jewel
Old 97's
Old Light
Omar Souleyman
Onuinu
Palmas
Passion Pit
Pete Krebs and the Gossamer Wings
Pokey LaFarge & the South City Three
Pure Bathing Culture
Purity Ring
Quest For Fire
Radiation City
Red Fang
Redd Kross
Sad Baby Wolf
Sandpeople
Sebadoh
Silversun Pickups
Sloan
Snow Bud & The Flower People
Starfucker
Stay Calm
Sun Angle
Swahili
Swans
Tanlines
Tender Forever
The Builders and The Butchers
The Curious Mystery
The Dangerous Boys Club
The Dimes
The Drowning Men
The Growlers
The Helio Sequence
The Men
The Needful Longings
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
The People's Temple
The Soft Moon
The Suicide Notes
The Tallest Man On Earth
These United States
Touche Amore
Trampled By Turtles
Trust
Tyler Lyle
Typhoon
Vice Device
White Fang
White Lung
Xiu Xiu
Yelawolf
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