Frequency blog: Music news and reviews from Bend and Central Oregon, by Ben Salmon | The Bulletin

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Posts Tagged ‘festivals’

Much of the Musicfest NW lineup announced

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

I love Musicfest NW. This four-day bacchanalia of music rules the streets and clubs of Portland each September, providing area music nuts with dozens of performances by a slew of excellent small-name bands and an increasing number of high-profile acts.

I went to MFNW each of the past two years, and it is a blast. You can read my reports from 2007 here and here and from 2008 here. (Go ahead and click them. Anyone can view them, not just subscribers.)

Anyway, the festival, sponsored primarily by the alt-weekly paper Willamette Week, will happen again Sept. 16-19, and organizers just announced a good chunk of the 2009 lineup. It looks strong as usual. The bigger names aren’t totally my speed, but this list is pretty solid top to bottom:

Sunny Day Real Estate / Explosions in the Sky / Girl Talk / Bad Brains / The Get Up Kids / Will Sheff (of Okkervil River) / Dirty Three / Monotonix / Mudhoney / Frightened Rabbit / The Twilight Sad / Dillinger Four / Swollen Members / Beach House / John Vanderslice / The Long Winters / Viva Voce / The Pains of Being Pure at Heart / Pink Mountaintops / OM / Portugal. The Man / The Builders & The Butchers / Langhorne Slim / Chairlift / Loch Lomond / Cymbals Eat Guitars / Team Dresch / Bobby Bare Jr. / Erase Errata / The Zeros / JD Twitch (Optimo) / Eluvium / Youth Group / Titus Andronicus / Mount Eerie / Trash Talk / Crom / Japanther / Mayer Hawthorne & The County / Despise You / Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey / Grouper / Richard Swift / Austin Lucas / Brother Reade / The Love Language / Anders Parker / The Morning Benders / Miniature Tigers / Damien Jurado / Grand Archives / Common Market / We Were Promised Jetpacks / Rocky Votolato / Copy / Red Fang / Saviours / Norfolk & Western / Nurses / Explode Into Colors / Portland Cello Project / Guidance Counselor / Fences / Weinland / Panther / Amazing Baby / The So So Glos / The Soft Pack / Port O’Brien / Liv Warfield / Edward Sharp & The Magnetic Zeros

Now let’s see … I’m pumped about Explosions In The Sky, Monotonix, The Long Winters, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Pink Mountaintops, Titus Andronicus and Brother Reade. Slightly less pumped but still pumped about Sunny Day Real Estate, Mudhoney, Frightened Rabbit, We Were Promised Jetpacks and Nurses. Oh, and head-over-heels ecstatic about Eluvium.

How about you? What jumps out at you on that list? And is anyone out there planning on going to this thing?

Girl Talk performs at Musicfest NW in 2007. Photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell

Tags: festivals, Musicfest NW
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A guide to upcoming music festivals (updated)

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

(Update: The look of this post did not turn out how I’d hoped. I think I’ve fixed that. More importantly, a colleague reminded me that Breedlove Guitar Co. is holding a festival later this summer, so I’ve added those details below.)

For music fans, summer means one thing: festivals, festivals, festivals. After a fall, winter and spring of crowding into dark, sweaty bars and clubs for live music, there’s something about crowding into bright, sweaty pastures for live music that just sounds so refreshing.

Central Oregon has its share of music festivals, though the number in 2009 will be smaller than in past years. More on that later. For now, let’s focus on the present.

Festival season kicks off this coming summer solstice weekend with the Coyote Festival, held at Summer Lake Hot Springs near Paisley. That’s not exactly in Central Oregon, true, but we’re going to count it because there are a whole lot of local bands playing there, and a whole bunch of people from the area are heading down for the party.

The lineup is headlined on Friday by Taarka and Larry and His Flask, on Saturday by Moon Mountain Ramblers and David Jacobs-Strain, and on Sunday by Coyo. There’ll be three stages, fire dancers, workshops, drum circles and, of course, dips in the hot springs. Kids are welcome, too, and there are activities planned for them.

Tickets to the Coyote Festival for the entire weekend cost $50 and are available at Music Makers, The Cosmic Depot, Bend’s Indoor Garden Station and Ranch Records in Bend. There are also discounted rates for kids and for single-day passes. You can find a ton of info at www.coyotemusicfestival.com, or by calling 541-943-3931.

The fun doesn’t stop this weekend, though. After the jump is a list of music festivals happening within an easy drive, along with all the details you need to know.

(more…)

Tags: 4 Peaks Music Festival, Bend Roots Revival, Breedlove Festival, Coyote Festival, festivals, Jade's Jazz Festival, Moon Mountain Music Festival, Outback Festival, Sisters Folk Festival
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