As its name implies, MFNW is a four-day music festival of bands hailing from the Pacific Northwest. I'm pretty jazzed about it. The $50 four-day pass (in the form of a wristband, which I find kind of silly) was a knee to the stomach, but it really does turn out to be the most cost-effective way to see a lot of music in a lot of different venues. Especially given that many of the shows I want to see are $16/$20 at the door.
With a cursory look at the lineup, I only really wanted to see a few bands: Fleet Foxes, M Ward, Langhorne Slim, Deerhunter, Death Vessel, Built to Spill and Dan Deacon. But then sponsor Willamette Week went and gave out a CD sampler with the purchase of a wristband. I've been listening to it and now I'm all excited about other bands, which pretty much makes deciding on which shows to go to downright impossible. ::sigh::
Actually, you can listen to it, too: MFNW Streaming Sampler. (And, is that Neko Case crooning on the Crooked Fingers Track?? Ah, yes.)
I've talked about my love for Fleet Foxes here before. A few weeks before driving cross-country, I purchased their EP (Sun Giant) and first full-length album (self-titled). I listened to both all the way through at least once each day of the trip. It almost feels like something of a pilgrimage to finally get to see them. You can listen to full-length tracks on Last.fm.
Some of the bands brought to my attention by the sampler include Crooked Fingers, The Helio Sequence, No Age, Lackthereof, The Love Language, The Builders and the Butchers, Blitzen Trapper, Old 97s, The Shaky Hands, The Night Marchers, The Gits, Mimicking Birds, Battles, Thao with Get Down Stay Down and Blue Giant. Decisions, decisions!
I'm also really excited that my favorite PNW radio station, Seattle's KEXP will be recording free, live studio sessions throughout the festival. I'm totally going to the Helio Sequence set. (Also, KEXP has great podcasts: Song of the Day, Live Performances, Sonarchy Radio, Music That Matters -- Check 'em out [opens in iTunes].)
On with the festival!
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