Means we recommend it

AA BONDY

(Sat, 1:05 pm, Yeti Stage) Mmmm, twangy! AA Bondy's calm, sincere country pop is about familiar country things, like love, and vices, and sad stuff, and happy stuff. It might be a little dull for solo at-home attention, but potentially perfect if you're drunk on a hill in the sunshine. Which you are, right? Right?! I mean, there's a harmonica involved. And doesn't a harmonica sound nice right about now? Yeah, I know. I knew it would. That's why I said it. LINDY WEST

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT

(Sun, 6 pm, Wookie Stage) Thanks to their song "Sometime Around Midnight," the Airborne Toxic Event have been everywhere since the release of their self-titled 2008 debut. They ran the gamut of late-night shows, they've played every music festival imaginable (CMJ, SXSW, Coachella, even Capitol Hill Block Party), and why? Because of that one song. If it weren't for their OMD- summoning hit, the Airborne Toxic Event would be nothing more than a tragically named L.A. band that borrowed a little too heavily from Interpol's book (a habit of theirs, apparently, as their name is taken from Don DeLillo's White Noise). MEGAN SELING

AMANDA BLANK

(Mon, 7:30 pm, Dance Tent) This Philly filly burst into consciousness in 2006 with her clever XXX vocal turn on Spank Rock's "Bump," which helped elevate the song into one of that electro-rap group's peaks. Frank, sex-obsessed motormouthed raps by attractive women will always be welcome, and Ms. Blank spits single and double entendres with the best of 'em. Some of her newer material destined for her debut, I Love You, finds Blank softening her hardcore approach and going for a more traditionally seductive vocal style (she cites first-LP Madonna as an influence). Broadening horizons is cool, but we submit that Blank should continue to be as nasty-as-she-wanna-be, the Sarah Silverman of this rap shit. DAVE SEGAL

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

(Sat, 5:40 pm, Main Stage) If you had told me in 2004, back when the band was yelping nonsense and touring with noise-scapers Black Dice, that Animal Collective would go on to produce a pop album as summery and perfect and emotionally rich as Merriweather Post Pavilion, I would have just made derisive squawking noises at you through a chain of effects pedals. But here it is, already one of the best albums of the year, and by far the finest of the band's career. It's also about the most ideal music possible for a pastoral summer festival, a blissful batch of songs that hits you like a cool breeze on a warm day, lingering in your skin's memory long after it's passed. ERIC GRANDY

ARTHUR & YU

(Sat, 5:25 pm, Yeti Stage) It makes sense that Arthur & Yu's Grant Olsen and Sonya Westcott named their band after their childhood nicknames, because their refined pop gems are, like childhood, playful, delightful, and fleeting. On their debut, In Camera, the band pair Westcott's whispery voice with twinkling bells, dreamy guitar, and other cheery acoustic toys that summon pleasant memories of popsicles, field days, and mud pies. MS

THE AVETT BROTHERS

(Sun, 4:10 pm, Main Stage) I'm still surprised how much I like these bluegrass punks, these brothers-of-beard from Hillbilly, North Carolina. Usually anything labeled "folk" or even remotely "alt country," well, it's just not my jam. But there's something unique and supremely honest, both in the Bros and in their music, I can't help but just plain believe them. And you know who else believes? Who sees the awesome genre-fuckery in their Violent-Femmes-via-the-Appalachian-Mountains sound? Rick Rubin. He just signed the Avett Brothers to Columbia and is producing their major-label debut, I and Love and You. It should hit record stores in late summer. KELLY O

AZIZ ANSARI

(Sun, 4:45 pm, Comedy Tent) Aziz Ansari is the gay Rollerblader from MTV's sketch-comedy show Human Giant ("Breaking's tough, turns are tough, but telling your parents you're gay is the hardest part of Rollerblading"). He's also a big M.I.A. fan—he's in love with her, actually, and he once acted out all his M.I.A. dream scenarios with Eugene Mirman playing the role of the beloved siren (it's on YouTube, check it). He also appears in new NBC show Parks and Recreation (which is basically The Office but, you know, about a city's parks department), as well as Observe and Report; I Love You, Man; and Flight of the Conchords. MS

BEACH HOUSE

(Mon, 6:30 pm, Yeti Stage) The music of Baltimore's Victoria Legrand (vocals/keyboards, daughter of film composer Michel Legrand) and Alex Scally (guitar/keyboards) springs from the Beach Boys' more autumnal moods, injecting a sundown chill into their beautifully morose pop. On their self-titled 2006 debut album and last year's Devotion, Beach House also recall the somber, lackadaisical prettiness of fringe figures like Kendra Smith (ex-Opal) and Damon & Naomi (ex–Galaxie 500). People are going to be languorously swaying their arms in the air to Beach House's gently glowing tunes. Sure, some will feel listless, but most should feel blissfulness. Beach House reside between pop and a soft place. DS

BEN HARPER AND RELENTLESS7

(Mon, 9 pm, Main Stage) Relentless7 are Ben Harper's new band. However, it's hard to imagine how different this band will be from his last one, the Innocent Criminals. As for Ben Harper, a good way to think about him is as the other half of Tricky. What they have in common is a spiritual father, Bob Marley. From the king of reggae they get the musical project of coding black masculinity in the context of globalization. Ben Harper continues this project with very little change in the politics. Tricky, on the other hand, revises it and implodes black masculinity into a pile of incoherent anxieties and resentments. Marley is Prospero, Harper is Ariel, and Tricky is Caliban. CHARLES MUDEDE

BISHOP ALLEN

(Mon, 2:45 pm, Wookie Stage) If you hate Vampire Weekend based only on the fact that they're from New York City, went to an Ivy League school, and sing cheery pop songs about nothing in particular, then you, my friend, will also hate, hate, hate Bishop Allen, who are Harvard grads from Brooklyn, star in "mumblecore" indie films, have a xylophone-heavy song about photographs, and have had their pop-culture-sweetheart status cemented by being featured in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. MS

BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW

(Mon, 1:40 pm, Wookie Stage) A buzz band that gives you a potent buzz? That's a concept we support 100 percent. Mysterious psychonauts from Pittsburgh, Black Moth Super Rainbow have two albums of pastoral/lysergical magic under their rope belts: 2007's Dandelion Gum and the new Dave Fridmann–produced Eating Us. In a nutshell, they sound like IDM masters Boards of Canada remixing the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" under increasingly stronger dosages of LSD—or like experimental electronic-gizmo-inventor Bruce Haack collaborating with Sly Stone circa 1971. Everything BMSR create sounds like it's melting in slow-motion and glazed in Day-Glo frosting. It's uniquely blurred cosmic slop. DS

BLIND PILOT

(Sat, 1:30 pm, Wookie Stage) Portland's Blind Pilot come to Sasquatch! following a European tour with Counting Crows (hey, remember when that Counting Crows guy got kind of fat and everyone got weirdly mad and he had to drop out of rock 'n' roll for a while?) and the Hold Steady. Take from that what you wish. Blind Pilot's cheery road-trip folk is full of chugging acoustic guitars and quiet, aloof vocals. They do adorable, Portland-y, borderline-annoying things like tour the West Coast on their bicycles. They would probably be fun to play cards with. This is obviously a compliment. LW

BLITZEN TRAPPER

(Mon, 3:50 pm, Wookie Stage) Blitzen Trapper's breakthrough third album, Wild Mountain Nation, presented the Portland sextet as the would-be bastard spawn of the Grateful Dead and Trout Mask Replica being pushed down the stairs by Camper Van Beethoven. Last year's Furr—the band's Sub Pop debut—added power-pop hooks and an attractive FM-radio sheen, while incorporating enough oddball noise-art to silence all suggestions of selling out. The album-to-album schizophrenia suggests a young band playing dress-up, but the recorded evidence suggests that, for this freaky-talented collective, album-to-album schizophrenia may be the point. DAVID SCHMADER

BLK JKS

(Mon, 5:25 pm, Yeti Stage) Johannesburg quartet BLK JKS create moody, arty rock that tunes in and turns on to TV on the Radio's lofty frequency. They tap into the same mutedly anthemic nature that their New York City sonic kin do, with uplifting results. Metal, soul, and native South African elements figure into BLK JKS's firmament-filling sound, as heard on their Mystery EP, coalescing into earnest songs one can imagine prog-rocker-turned-world-music-facilitator Peter Gabriel or Luaka Bop majordomo David Byrne championing. BLK JKS appeared on the cover of Fader last year, and now they're playing large U.S. festivals. Sometimes the hype machine works properly. DS

BON IVER

(Sat, 8:45 pm, Wookie Stage) Nothing amps a record's buzz like a good backstory, and Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago came with a great one that got greater with each retelling. Last I heard, after being acquitted of involuntary manslaughter, Justin Vernon holed up in a remote Wisconsin cabin with dirt floors and no running water to record his magnum opus of heartbreak, inspired by his merciless dumping by Julia Roberts's actress-niece Emma Whatever and pieced together on a four-track between fits of sobbing as Vernon slowly became encrusted in his own filth. For true: God could not create a more gorgeous setting than the Gorge for the impassioned acoustic strum and spooky falsetto croon of the man they call Bon Iver. D. SCHMADER

THE BUILDERS AND THE BUTCHERS

(Sun, 4:20 pm, Yeti Stage) Apocalyptic freak-out folk rock is the only phrase that seems fitting for the Builders and the Butchers' menagerie of guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, accordion, drums, bells, washboard, and more. In songs like "When It Rains," "Spanish Death," and "Bottom of the Lake," they sing about misery and death, but they do so with vaudevillian, flamenco, and Gypsy-punk influence. It's like if the Decemberists listened to Slayer records after school instead of doing their homework. MS

CALEXICO

(Sun, 3:05 pm, Main Stage) After seceding from Giant Sand, Tucson's Calexico (led by Joey Burns and John Convertino, who also play in Friends of Dean Martinez) have maintained an enduring career as NPR favorites. They masterly craft border-town music (Americana-tinged folk rock with mariachi Tejano music) that has cast an understated charm for 13 years. Mellow and melodically nuanced, Calexico's music comfortingly glows with a noncloying familiarity; it's not surprising they also serve as accompanists for artists such as Iron and Wine, Victoria Williams, Richard Buckner, and Neko Case. Naturally enough, Calexico do a very simpatico cover of Love's "Alone Again Or." DS

CHAMPAGNE CHAMPAGNE

(Sat, noon, Yeti Stage) Somebody's got to do it. The Champagne(s) will open Sasquatch!—they're the numero-uno-very-first group playing, high noon on Saturday. Are they nervous? Fuck no. Champagne Champagne are fearless. Big festivals are nothing new for the trio—two MCs, Pearl Dragon and Thomas Gray, and former Blood Brother and current drummer for Past Lives, Mark Gajadhar—the third show they ever played was the 2008 Capitol Hill Block Party, and more recently, they were kicking ass and taking names at SXSW. Saying they're hiphop isn't quite right. Gray claims, "Our only goal is to make music that makes us feel good." I'd bet my baby toe that their balls-out onstage party will make you feel good, too. Don't miss it—I said twelve noon! KO

CHROMEO (DJ set)

(Mon, 9:40 pm, Dance Tent) Chromeo's two albums, She's in Control and Fancy Footwork, show the Montreal-based duo of P-Thugg and Dave 1 to be experts of all things synth pop, electro funk, and lover's rock, so a DJ set from the pair should prove perfectly, powdered-dance-floor smooth and so, so gangsta. (They have a couple DJ mixes out there you can track down to test this theory.) Expect a few Chromeo originals, a lot of '80s-vintage dance jams, and whatever else the living Middle East peace accord (Dave 1's Jewish; P-Thugg's Arab—awww) feel like playing. Be sure to let them see your two-step. EG

CRYSTAL CASTLES

(Sat, 10:05 pm, Dance Tent) Toronto's Crystal Castles (Alice Glass and Ethan Kath, joined onstage by drummer Christopher Robin) have ridden the electro-disco wave to its crest, playing several big international festivals and scoring a deal with Last Gang Records, which released their self-titled debut album in 2008. Crystal Castles' shows often feature Glass stage-diving and climbing on stuff, in addition to singing in that affectless way that electro vocalists with robot fetishes love to do. Musically, CC strike a righteous balance between danceable trackiness and tart, memorable melodies. The group's don't-fuck-with-us attitude paradoxically makes you want to fuck with their oft-prickly tracks. DS

DEADMAU5

(Sun, 10:05 pm, Dance Tent) It can be hard to stand out as a DJ, stuck as you are behind the turntable decks while the crowd (if they're doing it right) are too busy dancing to pay you a passing glance. So good on Ontario DJ/producer Deadmau5 for finding a great, eye-popping gimmick: wearing a giant, grinning, dementedly Disney-esque mouse head, whose x-ed out eyes light up, menacingly, to his thumping tech-house beats. His tracks can tend a little toward the trancey (or, ugh, "progressive"), but the best of his songs, like the two-part fuck-up rave anthem "Sometimes Things Get, Whatever"/"Complicated," easily overshadow the inventive headgear. EG

DEATH VESSEL

(Sat, 2:10 pm, Yeti Stage) A band named Death Vessel sounds like it should be fronted by some longhaired, wannabe Swede who plays intelligible black metal and always has a teeny-tiny hint of fake blood coming out of the side of his mouth as he screams, "Death to Skwisgaar Swigelf!" over and over into his microphone. Instead, Death Vessel, a neotraditional folk band from New York, are fronted by a longhaired man named Joel Thibodeau who sings in a bizarre and impossibly high soprano; have toured with Low, Iron and Wine, and the Books; and have two albums on Seattle's own Sub Pop Records. Descriptions of the music range from early Americana to contemporary psychedelic. I suspect it's hard to ever describe them without addressing the sheer weirdness and beauty of Thibodeau's crazy, crazy voice. KO

THE DECEMBERISTS

(Sat, 7:05 pm, Main Stage) I freely admit that all signs (particularly the Colin Meloy solo album, which maybe wasn't the smartest idea) point to the time being just about perfect for a serious Decemberists backlash, maybe the third or fourth in a series. And if they were a joke band, that backlash would be deserved. But they're living the dream and will do anything up to and including crazy-ass un- Decemberisty shit—tossing in an uncharacteristic Skynard-ish riff because the song demands it—to keep us on our toes. That's not a band you can take lightly. PAUL CONSTANT

DEERHOOF

(Mon, 12:55 pm, Main Stage) Better than most other American bands, San Francisco foursome Deerhoof conflate sweet 'n' sour pop melodies with artful clangor. Their music is perfectly modulated between cute and cantankerous, control and chaos. Satomi Matsuzaki is a delightful indie siren whose lemon-creamy, singsong vocals hold their own amid Greg Saunier's tight, frenetic drumming and Ed Rodriguez and John Dieterich's alternately delicate and furious guitar interplay. In a career loaded with strong albums, Deerhoof continue to apply flavorful twists to their winning approach to rock. They're a classic example of a group aging with grace and without compromise. DS

DENT MAY & HIS MAGNIFICENT UKULELE

(Sat, 3:15 pm, Yeti Stage) I can't decide if I'm more in love with Dent May & His Arch-Indie Satire or Dent May & His Twee Retro-pop Genius. Luckily, The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele doesn't force you to choose. Songs like "College Town Boy" and "You Can't Force a Dance Party" are as slyly funny as they are gleefully catchy, with May delivering droll jabs (and more sincere sentiments) in an exaggerated doo-wop croon over his namesake four-string and golden orchestral instrumentation. Live, May's band adds a more insistent rhythmic pulse to many of his numbers—the dance party will feel perfectly natural. EG

DEVOTCHKA

(Sat, 4:30 pm, Main Stage) DeVotchKa are "Gypsy punk," according to the internet, or "a four-person band that plays peaceful, old-world folk with a bunch of crazy instruments, like theremin and bouzouki and violin," according to me. A stoner turned me on to them. A stoner who likes Burning Man and used to be homeless. DeVotchKa began as a backing band for burlesque shows, they get their name from the word for "little girl" in that language from A Clockwork Orange, they scored the soundtrack to Little Miss Sunshine, they have six albums to date, and they will sound beautiful in the great outdoors. Accordions were made for the outdoors. CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE

THE DODOS

(Sun, 6:30 pm, Yeti Stage) On paper, San Francisco's the Dodos sound a lot messier than they actually are—an attack of guitar, toy piano, xylophone, horns, and various percussion instruments. But their small orchestra doesn't overwhelm. Instead, Meric Long and Logan Kroeber carefully craft complex pop songs that approach the childlike without crossing over into more-annoying-than-charming territory. MS

DOVES

(Sat, 2:20 pm, Main Stage) Doves sound like a catchy So-Cal pop band crossed with something morose, like Radiohead or maybe Morrissey. Ordinarily, I'm not a hypercatchy-pop fan and I tend to roll my eyes at sulk-rock, so I can't figure out why Doves appeal to me on such a fundamental level. Maybe it's because the sadness doesn't feel like a put-on or an affectation. Or because each track's catchiness serves as an antidote to its own atmospheric melancholy. Each song feels like a tiny triumph, like actually getting out of bed on a gloomy, cold morning. PC

THE DUTCHESS AND THE DUKE

(Mon, 4:20 pm, Yeti Stage) Not really a duchess, nor a duke, but Kimberly Morrison and Jesse Lortz are members of Seattle's music monarchy. The pair grew up together, playing in bands throughout the Emerald Kingdom, sometimes with each other, sometimes apart, before declaring, "She's the dutchess, he's the duke!" They released an album with that name that's so heartbreakingly beautiful, so surprisingly ugly, so vulnerable, noble, and raw—well, it's hard to compare them to anyone else. They're self-described "campfire punk," which holds true—if you're sitting around a midsummer night's blaze, unplugged, with a young Billy Shakespeare, singing about the beauty and tragedy of so many marshmallows burned alive. KO

ERYKAH BADU

(Mon, 7:30 pm, Main Stage) Enough wonderful things cannot be said about Erykah Badu's last album, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War). All of the promises she made in Baduizm are fulfilled by this record, which owes a heavy debt to the genius of Jay Dee, one of the greatest hiphop producers to walk the earth and the eat the sun (converted into sugars by photosynthesis). What Badu achieves is a perfect synthesis of neo-soul with Jay Dee's two-step hiphop beat. Many years ago, Mary J. Blige was supposed to become the queen of this kind of hybrid (soul and hiphop), but she never went far enough. On New Amerykah Part One, Badu goes to the terminal point, obliterating the distinction between the forms. I have nothing but respect for the badness that is Badu. CM

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY

(Mon, 8:45 pm, Wookie Stage) Three years ago, I entered a cafe in the middle of downtown Portland and heard Explosions in the Sky playing on the sound system. The beauty of the music arrested me. I found a seat and listened to this cinema of lyrical rock. No words, just moods. No concepts, just feelings verging on the epic. The band, from Austin, made that day special. I ordered coffee. The beautiful barista behind the counter was as lost in the music as I was. Indeed, is there a better place to listen to post-rock than in a cafe in the middle of Portland? Possibly a location that has a majestic view of the river that defines the Pacific Northwest, the Columbia. CM

FENCES

(Sun, 3:15 pm, Yeti Stage) During Fences' set, it's important to be as close to the stage as possible—otherwise you might miss the tender nuances in the Seattle band's acoustic ballads. On their debut, The Ultimate Puke EP, singer Chris Mansfield delivers a handful of tunes (sometimes alone, sometimes with a band) that are gripping, beautiful, and quiet. So get close. Closer even. Because when his quivering voice delivers the lyric "Please girl, don't you die on me," you don't want to instead be hearing some bro whining about his sunburned back tat. MS

FLEET FOXES

(Mon, 4:55 pm, Main Stage) As everyone knows and few could have predicted, last year Fleet Foxes took over the world—touring the globe, topping critics' polls on both sides of the Atlantic, and, wonder of wonders, giving a musically rewarding performance on Saturday Night Live (whose sound crew managed to make TV on the Radio sound like Wang Chung over a bad cell-phone connection). The key to everything: those gorgeous vocal harmonies, which in this age of Ashlee Simpson lip-synch debacles, rightly dazzle listeners with their simple, gorgeous unfakeability. Tonight the little Seattle band that could gets a victory-lap showcase in a preternaturally perfect setting. D. SCHMADER

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM

(Sat, 1:15 pm, Main Stage) Some might characterize the Gaslight Anthem as a guilty pleasure, given their current status as alt-rock radio gods, but are you ashamed to like Springsteen? Because to like the Gaslight Anthem is basically admitting that you like Springsteen. They're good ol' Jersey boys who kick out anthemic choruses and passionate verses that paint pictures of Americana—gospel choirs, first wives, old white Lincolns. There are far worse things in modern music to associate yourself with. MS

GIRL TALK

(Mon, 7:15 pm, Wookie Stage) In case you're just joining us: Girl Talk is music made out of a bunch of other music, but unlike in hiphop, where a basically new song will be embroidered with a distantly recognizable riff from an old song, Girl Talk's songs are made entirely of that embroidery—a little Hall & Oates, a little Fleetwood Mac, a little Metallica, a Lil Wayne, a shit ton of other stuff you can't recognize because you're not a supercomputer, all of it baked together into a "song." His tracks aren't satisfying in the way songs are, because they don't really begin and end; they're satisfying in the way that, like, the internet is satisfying. They just go and go. Live, he makes his songs on the spot, out of all the shards he's collected on his PC, but he doesn't just stand there behind his laptop like certain people I could mention. He works up a sweat, and takes off his clothes, and crowd-surfs. CF

GOD'S POTTERY

(Mon, 2 pm, Comedy Tent) Holy crap, are God's Pottery funny, unless you are a humorless Christlover. The acoustic duo, made up of members Jeremiah Smallchild and Gideon Lamb, met at Christ Our Leader College, according to their bio, and "though school was important to them, they spent most of their time strummin' and singin'." Their first song was "Jesus," followed by the equally popular "Jesus Jesus" and the inevitable "Jesus Jesus Jesus." They got their name from their friend Kimmy Gatewood: "Aren't we all just pieces of God's pottery?" Praise fucking be. JEN GRAVES

GOGOL BORDELLO

(Mon, 3:50 pm, Main Stage) Gypsy punk—you either like it or you don't. The haters say it's all backward-looking, fake-transgressive stuff that white people like. The lovers say that Gypsy music and punk rock are close cousins to folk music, which is (at its heart) disaster music, and that we're living in disastrous times. Gogol Bordello, no matter what your tastes, have some sincere savagery pumping through their meaty, immigrant hearts. So what if they like their apocalypse with a bit of accordion and minor-sixth chords and hard liquor? What's the problem? BRENDAN KILEY

GRIZZLY BEAR

(Mon, 1:50 pm, Main Stage) Grizzly Bear's 2006 album Yellow House proved them to be supreme purveyors of orchestral pop, lightly sugared and built to last. Unlike many who work in this increasingly crowded area, though, Grizzly Bear favor understatement. All four members sing in a mostly distant, wispy manner, as group leader Edward Droste layers their vocal meringue over deftly arranged songs played on electronic and acoustic instruments. They sound like Animal Collective, but with the wildness and unpredictability reined in. Grizzly Bear drop their third album, Veckatimest, May 26; Stereogum is calling it their best yet, and the two cuts we've heard promise great things. DS

HEARTLESS BASTARDS

(Mon, noon, Main Stage) This Cincinnati group's name is a misnomer. They've got heart for miles—although it's possible they're bastards; I've never met them, so I can't be sure. Anyway, guitarist/vocalist Erika Wennerstrom is the star of Heartless Bastards, coming across like Patti Smith's younger, rootsier sister. On Heartless Bastards' latest album, The Mountain (their third for the Fat Possum label), Wennerstrom and company infuse their country rock with urban grit while eschewing Nashville corniness. Essentially, Heartless Bastards play alt-country: The "alt" stands for altitude, of which their songs reach a high degree. DS

THE HENRY CLAY PEOPLE

(Sun, 2:10 pm, Yeti Stage) The Henry Clay People are a rootsy rock quartet from Glendale, California, who are currently on tour with Ben Harper and the Relentless7. Their songs are classic rock 'n' roll, sunny and sad, with just touches of boozy country on some songs—twangy guitars, flaring organs, heavy plunking pianos. Upon first listen, they recall the Hold Steady without the narratives or Crooked Rain–era Pavement without the cleverness. Which is to say they sound fine, and probably pretty satisfying on a warm, beer-drinking afternoon, but not remarkably distinctive. EG

HOCKEY

(Sun, 1:30 pm, Wookie Stage) Maybe it's unfair, but I'm always suspicious of bands like Hockey, who seem to come fully formed out of nowhere with major-label contracts already in hand. The band met at a private liberal-arts college outside of L.A.; were signed to Epic, shuffled to Columbia, dropped, and signed again to Capitol/EMI, all based on the apparent strength of some L.A.-area gigs and a self-produced EP; and have relocated to Spokane and now Portland in search of "a small yet up-and-coming music scene" in which to establish themselves. They sound like the Strokes with some keyboards; it's not bad—hell, "Too Fake" has a great chorus—but still... suspicious. EG

HORSE FEATHERS

(Mon, 2:10 pm, Yeti Stage) Portland band Horse Feathers—aka singer-songwriter Justin Ringle and friends—could probably have one hell of a whimper-off with Bon Iver backstage at the Gorge this weekend. With the right VIP pass, you could sit next to them and try to pick out which one you had to strain harder to hear. But while Ringle is just as soft-spoken a singer as that other band, his songs are more intricately, if just as delicately, decorated, his acoustic-guitar picking and plaintive voice accented with strings, banjo, mandolin, and singing saw. Horse Feathers' most recent album, last year's House with No Home, is a beautifully understated heartbreaker. EG

JAMES PANTS

(Sat, 9 pm, Dance Tent) James Pants definitely wins the Traveled the Least Distance to Get Here Award for Sasquatch! The Stones Throw DJ, instrumentalist, and oddball soul singer lives in Spokane, but when he's not rocking Eastern Washington, he's flying to L.A., NYC, Paris, and beyond to flaunt the quirky depths of his record crates and flex his bizarre brand of showmanship. As a DJ, Pants expertly mixes thrift-store funk, outré hiphop, '80s electro, and '70s new-age cheese into a surprisingly groovy stew. As a live performer with a band, James Pants is like the Jesse Jackson 5, sermonizing about the importance of getting down and feeling good in between songs that compel you to do just that. EG

JANE'S ADDICTION

(Sun, 10 pm, Main Stage) Remember when Jane's Addiction were America's best rock band? Their reign lasted for about 17 days in 1988, right after Nothing's Shocking came out, and it achieved the rare feat of making hard stadium rock sound ambitious, dangerous, and sexy. They followed that stone classic two years later with the alternately funky and progtastic Ritual de lo Habitual, which was almost as stratospheric as its predecessor. Jane's even looked good rocking the scarf-and-no-shirt look. Sadly, Perry Farrell and company didn't know when to quit reuniting and besmirched their legacy with Strays. Still, flaunting a catalog loaded with monumental stunnas, Jane's should be nothing if not intriguing, even at this late date. DS

JOHN VANDERSLICE

(Sun, 2:35 pm, Wookie Stage) John Vanderslice, who plainly has the ideal first and last names, and whose love for raw analog sound and knack for writerly narrative have often put him on a stage with the Mountain Goats, has a brand-new record out called Romanian Names. Among the most popular new baby names in Romania are Alexandru, Radu, Vlad, Ioana, and Mihaela. The top three surnames are Popescu, Popa, and Radu. Chances are high of being named Radu Radu. JG

KING KHAN & THE SHRINES

(Sat, 3:40 pm, Wookie Stage) If you've enjoyed being kissed by the Black Lips, you'll worship King Khan & the Shrines. Garage rock can sound staid and rote when it's rehashed by dullards, but KK and crew inject way too much wild energy and hoarse, Indian-subcontinent soul into the genre to fall into that trap. Through some inexplicable alchemy, these guys animate 40-plus-year-old tropes into some of the most blazing-ass rock 'n' roll happening today. When the Nuggets people get around to canonizing the '00s, they should give King Khan prime placement on that boxed set. DS

KINGS OF LEON

(Sat, 10 pm, Main Stage) Nashville's Kings of Leon are lately known for their hit "Sex on Fire." Sounds hot, right? No. It sounds like a song about syphilis. Over a limp guitar riff, singer Caleb Followill mutters: "Hot as a fever, rattling bones/I could just taste it, taste it." A symptom of syphilis is a fever and sore throat. Then: "Soft lips are open, knuckles are pale/Feels like you're dying, you're dying." Syphilis causes weakness or discomfort, and weight loss. Not so sexy now, is it? Still, I'm sure tons of people will start making out when they play it. MS

THE KNUX

(Mon, 6:05 pm, Wookie Stage) While Jay-Z and Dizzee Rascal are content to harness the inexhaustible power of Billy Squier riffs, the Knux—New Orleans-by-way-of-L.A. brothers Kentrell and Alvin Lindsey—take it back to the old school, composing their own goddamn rock riffs on their own goddamn guitars à la the track that started it all: Run-D.M.C.'s "Rock Box," which featured original guitar work by Eddie Martinez. If none of the tracks on the Knux's 2008 debut, Remind Me in 3 Days..., achieves the perfection of that instigating classic, they have a complete blast trying, and they're said to be even more intense and exciting live. D. SCHMADER

LOCH LOMOND

(Mon, noon, Yeti Stage) Loch Lomond look backward to literally hundreds of years of music history—a few of their songs start out sounding something like the Irish Rovers—and that's not a bad thing. But a comprehensive knowledge of the history of folk music isn't enough to recommend a band, either. But Loch Lomond somehow sound urgent and compelling and modern—perhaps it's the plaintive vocals—and that's their real genius. This isn't some folky Squirrel Nut Zippers–style riff; this is the past lurching forward into the future at freeway speeds. The beauty is that it sounds like such a natural evolution. PC

MAD RAD

(Sun, noon, Yeti Stage) Mad Rad are three white guys who essentially began their career by getting banned from every major music venue in Seattle. Pretty glam career move. They make music videos in Seattle's woefully underappreciated alleys and don't have a Wikipedia page. Their only album so far, White Gold, is reportedly hiphop, but it's hiphop dipped in ice, or hiphop covered in cocaine and sprinkles, or hiphop from deep space. "Donut Truck" is a yummy, bleepy, burpy confection; "Glitzerland" is an echoey, electronic, not-gay cousin of '80s Pet Shop Boys stuff; "My Product" is a catchy-as-fuck fall-of-capitalism dance hit. So glad they'll be at Sasquatch!, considering I've yet to be able to see them at home. CF

MARIA BAMFORD

(Sat, 3:30 pm, Comedy Tent) No one delivers an "Uhhhhhhhhhh" quite like Maria Bamford, and nobody has ever done impressions of phlegmy fathers and mall-walking bitchez in such an astute and dark and exhilaratingly genius way. Because Bamford is not just genius for a ladycomic (eff you, lady-haters!)—she is a genius comic, full stop, and if you disagree, kindly hold still so that I may kick you directly in the bamfords with my ladyfoot. If she really gets going, if you can catch her off on a squeaky, weirdo, storytelling tangent, your life might not be the same afterward. (Better. I mean that your life will be better afterward.) LW

M83

(Sun, 7:15 pm, Wookie Stage) French band M83 have always dealt in wide-screen, shoegazing synths and guitars. But where their earlier works were often ambient or instrumental, their new album, Saturdays=Youth, finds the band turning their sweet sound to the task of scoring stunning, melancholic, and deliberately cinematic (the album wears its '80s John Hughes fixation on its sleeve) pop anthems—it's their best yet, with traditional song structures and earworming male/female vocal choruses and everything. Delete one misstep "Up!" and you have pretty much a perfect album, with highlights like the misfit love ballad "Kim & Jessie," the exuberant runaway theme "Graveyard Girl," and the hypnotic, drifting "We Own the Sky." EG

MIKE WATT AND THE MISSINGMEN

(Sun, 12:15 pm, Main Stage) Oh, Mike Watt. The itinerant bassist, with his sometimes disastrously infected taint, has been flitting around the pantheon for so long, when so many of his friends and admirers have ascended: Thurston Moore, J. Mascis, Raymond Pettibon, Les Claypool... He's messed around with the experimental, the avant, and the noize—but he really just loves to rock, in that driving, hitting, late-'80s style he developed with the Minutemen and carried on into every band since. BK

MONOTONIX

(Mon, 4:55 pm, Wookie Stage) These fucking wild men have toured with the Silver Jews, had the cops called on them more times than you, and set actual fire to actual chunks of the Comet Tavern. Maybe something about being a high-octane garage band from Tel Aviv makes them diffident toward (or attracted to?) rock 'n' roll conflagrations. There are no musical surprises—just driving, sweaty, mustachioed, dirt-kicking fun. Monotonix aren't the kind of band you sit around and listen to. They're the kind of band you dance to, then invite home to drink the place dry and gangbang your sofa. BK

MOS DEF

(Sat, 7:15 pm, Wookie Stage) Mos Def is to underground hiphop what Nas was to the postmodern period of hiphop. Both had in them a promise to lead the art to its next level. Rakim fulfilled this promise for the modern age. Run-D.M.C. for the classical age. Nas and Mos Def failed to fulfill their promises. Nas led us directly to commercial crap; Mos Def abandoned the underground movement for acting. Nevertheless, Mos Def, who got things started with Black Star and Rawkus Records, is the most articulate rapper that the world has ever produced. The rash he caught on his lips made rap in perfect English. CM

MT. ST. HELENS VIETNAM BAND

(Sat, 4:20 pm, Yeti Stage) This quintet was born making online PSAs about safety. Safety first in the pit of Mt. St. Helens and safety first in the jungles of Vietnam: agreed. Otherwise we don't know why they are named this; it is nonsense. We do know that the band includes several members of the defunct In Praise of Folly as well as a 14-year-old drummer who is quite, quite good. JG

THE MURDER CITY DEVILS

(Sun, 5:20 pm, Main Stage) Reunion tours can go a couple of ways. For every mind-blowing My Bloody Valentine, there's a badly bloated Sex Pistols. But of this festival's reformed rockers, the Murder City Devils are unquestionably on the righteous side of things. Their few shows over the past couple years have found the Seattle band as boozy and badass as ever, with singer Spencer Moody howling pure, 100-proof fire about broken bottles and empty hearts while the band dutifully rips it up behind him, upending classic punk rock and roll with great, gothic organ lines and sinking-ship sea chanteys. EG

M. WARD

(Sat, 3:25 pm, Main Stage) M. Ward is great. He writes these songs (on piano, acoustic guitar, drums) that sound like they were written 40 years ago, he performs them like he's performing them 40 years ago, and he has the sort of hair (a block of curly dark thickness) that looks like it's clipped out of a photo of someone from 40 years ago and stuck to his head. As a performer, he's a little distant, so don't do that typical audience thing where you try to engage; lie on your back, watch the sky, and pretend you're hearing him on the radio. Like, a really, really great radio. CF

NATALIE PORTMAN'S SHAVED HEAD

(Sun, 9 pm, Dance Tent) NPSH began as an exceedingly dorky, monstrously cute synth-and-drum-machine band that played the opening party for 826 Seattle (the Seattle youth- literacy mission that's part of Dave Eggers's empire of preciousness). I was there and saw the glint of priapic malignancy in their teenaged eyes. Now they're singing electro-rock dance songs with lyrics like "Me and your daughter/Hotter and harder/Spending a sweet, sweet summer" and "I like it when you say you have a gun in your bag/That's so hot, that's so hot." For a moment, it seemed like they'd be just another mayfly novelty band. But I knew they had the dirty in them. BK

NATASHA LEGGERO

(Mon, 4:30 pm, Comedy Tent) Natasha Leggero has appeared on Reno 911!, The Tonight Show, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and several other programs. Her standup bits available on YouTube include riffs about how American Idol contestants are frequently not worthy of idolatry and how mainstream hiphop is sometimes not very good (lucky for her, Sasquatch! is relatively light on both hiphop and American Idols this year). She also does some cute/funny stuff about class antagonism and how dreadfully impossible it is to find good help these days. EG

NICK THUNE

(Sat, 2:15, Comedy Tent) Born and raised in the Northwest, comedian/musician/actor Nick Thune eventually struck out for L.A., where he honed his comedy (scoring two Tonight Show appearances and a Comedy Central special) and pursued acting (playing a small but important role in Knocked Up). His music—typically produced by singer-songwriter Thune and his acoustic guitar—is closely linked with his comedy, with Thune's standup venturing into Flight of the Conchords/Lonely Island territory, but with a goofy sweetness all his own. D. SCHMADER

NINE INCH NAILS

(Sun, 8 pm, Main Stage) Nine Inch Nails have been making records the whole of my adult life, but I couldn't bother to care about any of them until last year's Ghosts I–IV, a 36-track opus that flirts with justifying the "Trent Reznor is a genius" blather I've been hearing since 1989. Did I mention that Ghosts I–IV is entirely instrumental? Gone are the always-problematic lyrics, and with them the adolescent psychodrama and Halloween hellishness that repelled me, leaving only a rich, dramatic soundscape that's equal parts Steve Reich and My Bloody Valentine. When I gushed about Ghosts on Line Out, die-hard Reznor fans shared my enthusiasm and urged me to revisit NIN's pre-Ghosts output. The cumulative consensus: "You must see them live." Fair enough. D. SCHMADER

OF MONTREAL

(Sun, 8:45 pm, Wookie Stage) Of Montreal's latest freak-pop opus, Skeletal Lamping, was one of those albums that I immediately loved, played on repeat until I nearly poisoned it for myself, and then shelved for months. Putting it back in the rotation a few weeks ago, I was pleased to discover that I still totally love it. The album is an epic psychosexual suite made up of deliriously fractured pop nuggets, integrating psychedelia, funk, rock, disco, and retro pop with arresting results. As bizarre a record as it is, though, Of Montreal's live spectacle attempts, recklessly, to go even further, with set pieces, costumes, choreographed scenes, and the occasional horse. Brilliant. EG

OTHER LIVES

(Mon, 12:35 pm, Wookie Stage) I sure hope you guys like emoooooooootions!!! And strings. And emotional strings and violins all full of feeeeelings. And pianos! And finding out all about how people feeeeeeeel! And how about the opposite, also? How emotional it is to not feel emotional? Here is a lyric: "Many lives were taken/But I didn't cry/I didn't know them/And I just looked on with no expression." WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! PAAAAAAAARTYYYYYY!!! EMOTIONAL PARTY!!! LOOK ON WITH NO EXPRESSION AND ALSO SHOW ME YOUR BOOOOOOBS! LW

OWL CITY

(Sat, 12:25 pm, Wookie Stage) Ohhhhhh, aren't you just adorable, Owl City? Look at you go, over there with your haircut and your little grin! Half of Owl City's MySpace photos are of pretty flowers and swimming pools and Ferris wheels and balloons, and the other half are pictures of Owl City himself, aka "Adam," who is a cute boy—so cute you don't even mind that he's sometimes wearing flip-flops. Then you get to the part that's all, "I follow Jesus Christ wholeheartedly. He is my life, my strength, my all." And then you just can't escape the feeling that Owl City's precious, shimmery electronic pop sounds exactly like what Jesus must listen to while he's flying around Care-a-Lot in Tenderheart Bear's Cloudmobile. LW

PASSION PIT

(Sat, 2:35 pm, Wookie Stage) Passion Pit are one of the most underappreciated bands in America, mostly because there hasn't been much to appreciate yet, except for an EP called Chunk of Change that simply refuses to get old for me. Do you like Hot Chip? Do you like ecstasy? Do you like pretty love songs made out of cool sounds? Passion Pit are an electro act from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Chunk of Change was originally a Valentine's Day gift from lead singer Michael Angelakos to his girlfriend (awww), and then became a campus hit at Emerson College, where Angelakos was going to school, and then Frenchkiss Records released it and Pitchfork/CMJ/etc. went gaga. They are still in that not-as-big-as-they're-going-to-be state (first-album release date: May 19), so see them now and you'll get to say you saw them back when. (Seriously, bring ecstasy.) CF

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOMEDY

(Daily, 12:45 pm, Comedy Tent) Seattle's hardest-working comedy collective takes its place among the nation's best alternative comedians on the Sasquatch! comedy stage—where if all goes right, it will handily hold its own. Comedy will forever be hit-or-miss, but the PROK empire—now boasting outposts in Brooklyn and L.A.—was built on its reliable habit of not sucking. When one member has an off night, one or two others knock it out of the park, and more often than not, the whole team ends up winning. Perennial PROK offerings: shocking non sequiturs, knowing assholism, and, just to mix things up, good old-fashioned well-constructed jokes. D. SCHMADER

THE PICA BEATS

(Mon, 1:05 pm, Yeti Stage) Remember the Decemberists? Ye Olde Decemberists? Remember their completely unlikely rise to the top of the heap even though they made these long, strange, tedious songs about crane spouses and such, and dressed in tattered aristocratic togs, and put on live shows about as engaging as grainy old photographs? We should at least thank them for popularizing the idea of history as source material (tip of the hat, Decemberists!), but let's put those albums away now and all get into the Pica Beats together—beautiful, wry, alive, strange in a good way, not a moment of tedium. Portland ain't cool anymore! Long live Seattle bands! CF

POINT JUNCTURE, WA

(Sun, 1:05 pm, Yeti Stage) Full disclosure: I've never seen them live, I'd never even heard of them before this year's festival, and the name is worrisome. But this Portland band have got some songs. They're riding a Teenage Fanclub wave, an urgent sadness with lots of little guitar parts wandering around and bumping into each other in a pop playpen—but with a raggedy, rough edge that keeps their sound from sliding off into forgettableness. Amanda Spring, the drummer, sings with a sweet hoarseness inherited from Kim Gordon, and her band means it. I look forward to seeing them for the first time. BK

RA RA RIOT

(Sat, 6:30 pm, Yeti Stage) Ra Ra Riot got my attention the same way the Futureheads did four years before them: with an entrancing Kate Bush cover. Ra Ra Riot's "Suspended in Gaffa" wasn't as revolutionary as the Futureheads' "Hounds of Love," but it served to lead me into The Rhumb Line, RRR's stellar Barsuk release of 2008. Both live and on record, Ra Ra Riot come on like a chamber-group spin on the Arcade Fire orchestra, brandishing their dramatic string flourishes and sweeping melodies with a bookish precision. D. SCHMADER

THE RED WINE BOYS

(Sun, 2:15 pm, Comedy Tent) Comedy courtesy of Jon Benjamin (Adult Swim, Wet Hot American Summer, Tinkle) and Todd Barry (Flight of the Conchords, Pootie Tang, Sex in the City), who, in previous performances, have posed as wine snobs. It is, allegedly, funny. But they haven't toured here and don't have much in the way of online videos, so we're not promising anything. BK

SANTIGOLD

(Mon, 2:50 pm, Main Stage) Santigold is party music, or at least let's-get-drunk-and-dance music, or (if you don't have friends) take-the-roof-off-the-car-and-drive-somewhere-fast music—all energy, brightness, shouting, glitter, fuzz, occasional spookiness, and oblique, knowing lyrics. I finally got around to downloading Santogold a couple months ago—after a hundred thousand hipsters loved it first, after she went on tour with Coldplay, after "L.E.S. Artistes" made number two on Rolling Stone's singles of the year, after she changed her name to Santigold—and, if you're not familiar yet, it's worth it. Especially "L.E.S. Artistes," one of those songs that sounds like it has always existed. The words have formed patterns in my brain. CF

SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS

(Mon, 3:15 pm, Yeti Stage) My Bloody Valentine's sonic offspring continue to proliferate almost two decades after that paragon of distorted beauty, Loveless, appeared. Brooklyn's School of Seven Bells (Claudia and Alejandra Deheza and Benjamin Curtis) strive for Kevin Shields and company's radical renovation of oceanic rock bliss on their debut album, Alpinisms (Ghostly International). That they don't match it is no disgrace; nobody else has, either. However, SVIIB have crafted a work awash in aqueous guitar and keyboard textures, swoonworthy melodies, and enchanting, unclichéd femme-goth vox. Not Loveless, then, but certainly lovable. DS

SHEARWATER

(Sat, 4:45 pm, Wookie Stage) Lowercase-s shearwater, according to Wikipedia, is a medium-sized long-winged seabird: "They are nocturnal at breeding sites, preferring moonless nights to minimize predation. They lay a single white egg." Capital-S Shearwater, on the other hand, are a band—formed by a couple members of Okkervil River—that prefer maudlin piano, bleating brass, occasional loudness, and pretty, warbling male falsetto. It is not hard to imagine Shearwater, capital S, perched on a cliff on a moonless night, laying a single white egg, and then the egg hatches and out comes America (the band, not the place), singing the Last Unicorn theme song. Only heavier. They're like that. LW

SILVERSUN PICKUPS

(Mon, 6:10 pm, Main Stage) Favorites of Los Angeles' powerful NPR affiliate, KCRW, shoegaze-rock band Silversun Pickups have gone on to play the Coachella festival in 2007 and place tracks on video games like Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour. Silversun Pickups' leader Brian Aubert writes gauzy, mellifluous songs—and sings them mostly in a feminine stage whisper—that should appeal to fans of Smashing Pumpkins' lush Gish days and My Bloody Valentine's Isn't Anything. Swoon, Silversun's new album, is one of those self-fulfilling prophecies of a title. It should come with its own wind machine. DS

STREET SWEEPER SOCIAL CLUB

(Sun, 1:10 pm, Main Stage) Street Sweeper Social Club are the alliance of Harvard-educated Rage Against the Machine guitar-slinger Tom Morello and the Coup's infamous detonator-button-pushing MC Boots Riley. What these two have in common is an affinity for leftist politics expressed as raging party music, respectively rap-rock and hiphop. Morello's guitar sounds like it always does—half marching, half moshing, fried in effects; Riley's MCing is less strident then Zach de la Rocha's and less douchey than Chris Cornell's. Still, I can't listen to this stuff without picturing a sea of stoned, sunburned kids in Che Guevara T-shirts for whom leftism is mostly a handy, temporary signifier of rebellious individuality and for whom hard rock is a handy outlet for excess testosterone. Party for your right to fright, bros. EG

ST. VINCENT

(Sun, 3:40 pm, Wookie Stage) What St. Vincent does is really a kind of purer version of what Liz Phair was really good at 15 years ago: forcibly pushing pop music to the point where it just starts to rub into flatness. She uses children's voices and string instruments to create something that is just one off-key note from pop perfection. But that gap—that beautiful gap—is the difference between a song you can just consume and toss away onto the junk pile of memory and something artful and truly unforgettable. PC

THE SUBMARINES

(Sun, 5:25 pm, Yeti Stage) The Submarines feel more like commodity than art. They're so pleasantly and innocuously poppy that you just want to go... buy things. Like flower pots! Or summertime dresses! Or a super-pink iPod! And then you want to do some weird stuff that humans only do in commercials, like spin around in a field (WTF?!) or dance in front of a wall in sunglasses you're not sure you can actually pull off. It's hard to be mad at the Submarines—with their glockenspiel plink-plinks and Blake Hazard's frank, raspy little-girl vocals—kind of like how it's hard to be mad at an iPod or a pile of pretty flowers or summertime. But also, you know, eh. LW

SUN KIL MOON

(Sat, 6 pm, Wookie Stage) Mark Kozelek's post–Red House Painters project, Sun Kil Moon, follows in the glum, pebble-kicking footsteps of his previous band, but with a little rockier sound. That Sun Kil Moon have been booked for a large outdoor fest in a warm-weather month seems slightly absurd; they make quintessential rainy-day music, ideal for sulking and nursing wounded feelings by oneself. Whatever the case, Kozelek's lugubrious voice relating tales of woe should comfort those going through emotional shit while the gentle, slow-pulsed folk rock—and sedated Modest Mouse covers—should offer respite from the more, um, animated rockin' happening during Sasquatch!. DS

TIM AND ERIC

(Sat, 6 pm, Comedy Tent) When Wonder Showzen sadly trudged off to televisionary purgatory, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! won the title of Funniest Show on TV. The comics walk much the same ground as the dearly departed puppets—left-field humor, serious attempts to fuck with the audience's patience, and creepy moments that are more unsettling than funny. Their live show is more of the same, with the audience left in the occasionally horrific space between humor and discomfort. Much like someone poking directly at your brain, you never know what response you're going to come up with. PC

TOBACCO

(Mon, 8:35 pm, Dance Tent) You've heard of Daisy Age hiphop, right? Tobacco goes beyond that and gives you magic-mushroom-juice hiphop. The creative mastermind behind Pittsburgh's Black Moth Super Rainbow, Tobacco smokes you out with some incredibly trippy productions on his debut solo joint, Fucked Up Friends (Anticon). His bumps sound Ultimate Breaks & Beats-y, but the analog-synth tones with which he augments them are more Dr. Leary than Dr. Dre. Warped mellotrons and flutes also play an integral role in Tobacco's mind-warping head-nodders. Like Boards of Canada, but even funkier and more blatantly psychedelic. DS

TODD BARRY

(Sat, 4:45 pm, Comedy Tent) When comedian Todd Barry is onstage, he's generally soft-spoken and blasé, cracking jokes about the ridiculous merchandise in the SkyMall catalog and how people are stupid. He was Mickey Rourke's boss in The Wrestler, and he's also appeared on Flight of the Conchords, Wonder Showzen, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. MS

TV ON THE RADIO

(Sun, 6:35 pm, Main Stage) Yes, they're internationally adored and seemingly incapable of making an album that lands anywhere but the top of year-end critics' lists, but somehow TV on the Radio still manage to seem underrated. Maybe it's just my friends, many of them die-hard music lovers who "just don't get" TVOTR. Is a preexisting love for the band's brilliantly synthesized reference points—Sign o' the Times, Remain in Light, Loveless (that weeping-whale noise on "I Was a Lover" is pure MBV)—mandatory or a hindrance? God only knows. But allegedly, the band's even more amazing live than on record, as hordes of lucky Gorge-dwellers will learn firsthand tonight. D. SCHMADER

VINCE MIRA

(Sat, 12:15 pm, Main Stage) At last year's Sasquatch!, Vince Mira almost caused a riot. No one was impressed at first, when the petite, pompadoured teenager took the stage. But once he started singing, the crowd rushed toward him, singing along, taking video with their phones, and probably checking for wires to make sure he wasn't a robot. This is because the young Mira sings with a voice that's inexplicably just as deep and aged as the late Johnny Cash, whose songs Mira covers with unbelievable talent. Recognizing a good thing, Sasquatch! not only brought him back, they put him on the Main Stage. MS

VIVA VOCE

(Sun, 12:25 pm, Wookie Stage) Does it make sense to say it sounds like someone plays the guitar sideways? The riff on "Devotion" sounds like it's been slammed sideways through an amp. That wonky, distorted sound crossed with the perfect, cooing backing vocals over the chorus sounds like it shouldn't work, but it does. Viva Voce combine the perfect and gentle and beautiful—like Anita Robinson's whispery, smooth vocals—with sharp, harsh (but technically marvelous) guitar work. It's like a barbed-wire fence wrapped in velvet, and it's compelling, gorgeous stuff. PC

THE WALKMEN

(Sun, 2:05 pm, Main Stage) The Walkmen are an indie-rock boat caught in a garage-rock squall, with all the high winds and sweet lulls. D.C.-born and NYC-bred, they make sweet, horrible noise that the old folks might just barely recognize as something they would nod their heads to, but nothing they'd want to go see. Which is precisely why you should want to go see them. BK

THE WHITEST KIDS U'KNOW

(Mon, 3:15 pm, Comedy Tent) The first season of The Whitest Kids U'Know was a magical time. The Abraham Lincoln assassination sketch is one of the wrongest, funniest bits of presidential humor ever, and the sheer, maniacal "Who's-on-First?"-iness of the "New Thing" sketch ("If you use an incomplete sentence, you get kicked in the balls!") makes for a classic routine that's sure to be ripped off for years to come. Their work since has been more uneven, but some sketches have matched that early, frantic genius, and a live audience might propel them to glory. PC

THE WRENS

(Sun, 4:45 pm, Wookie Stage) Heralded by the UK Guardian as one of the best live bands in the world, New Jersey's the Wrens insist on stumbling into that distinction. According to the band's blog, preshow rehearsals are kept to a minimum ("no more than three") to preserve the proper vibe for the shows, which are ravishing events featuring four grown men playing music they love—a melodic guitar-soaked racket that's equal parts classic rock and alterna-rock—as if their lives depended on it. The Wrens' most recent release is the 2003 masterpiece The Meadowlands, but recent shows have found the band trying out numerous new songs. D. SCHMADER

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

(Sat, 8:30 pm, Main Stage) Like everyone with ears, I was terribly let down by Yeah Yeah Yeahs' sophomore effort, Show Your Bones, but their new album, It's Blitz!, is a tremendous return to form for the trio. With synths! On the deservedly exclamatory new album, Karen O is as tunefully sultry and high-strung as ever (though less yelpy than on their early work), and her überconfident siren songs are backed by Nick Zinner's newfound fondness for buzzing, enveloping analog synths, as well as his usually fiery guitar work. "Heads Will Roll" makes such an ecstatic disco bloodbath of PiL's "This Is Not a Love Song" that it's almost a shame the band's not playing the Dance Tent. EG

ZACH GALIFINAKIS

(Sun, 6 pm, Comedy Tent) When Zach Galifianakis is not berating audience members, he plays weirdo characters like his own twin brother, a pretentious illiterate, and—my favorite—a 5-year old who complains about having a beard. Also: On funnyordie.com, you can see him interview, tickle, and then molest Michael Cera. You know, if you're into that kind of thing. MS

This story has been updated since its original publication.