Friday on My Mind: Sasquatch! Music Festival 2013

It’s time again for Friday on My Mind, our weekly blog post where we look at videos centered around one common theme. This is a collaborative effort between KEXP and King 5 News.

It’s finally here: Sasquatch 2013. This festival has grown to be one of the premier festivals not just in the Northwest, but throughout the world. This year’s amazing edition kicks off today out at the Gorge Amphitheater in George, WA, and will run through Memorial Day this Monday. Have you already made your lists of what you are seeing this weekend? If you are having a difficult time deciding, here are a few of the amazing artists we recommend you check out during your Sasquatch adventures this weekend:

The Postal Service – We Will Become Silhouettes Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and Jimmy Tamborello, who also makes music as Dntel, formed The Postal Service after Gibbard contributed to the song “(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan”, which was featured on the Dntel album Life of Possibilities. Gibbard and Tamborello continued to work on new songs, which eventually became the album Give Up. When the album was originally released in 2003, it was Sub Pop’s most successful release since Nirvana’s Bleach. The deluxe 10 Year Anniversary edition of Give Up was just released this past April. Beyond their Sasquatch performance on Monday at 10pm, the band is currently reunited for an extended world tour and will be playing at Key Arena on Thursday, July 18th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rKC7ElkTUQ

Vampire Weekend – Giving Up the Gun

Vampire Weekend have come a long way since they played John in the Morning at Night at the Crocodile back in September 2007. Now you can see them play the Bigfoot stage at Sasquatch tonight at 9:45pm. Their latest album, Modern Vampires of the City, just debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts. KEXP has been proud to have played them first and often through the years. Watch for cameos in the “Giving Up the Gun” video from Lil Jon, Joe Jonas, RZA, and Jake Gyllenhaal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bccKotFwzoY

Alt-J – Something Good (LIVE on KEXP)

The members of Alt-J met while attending Leeds University, and formed in 2008. Their debut album, An Awesome Wave, won them the Mercury Prize for 2012. We’ve been playing them for a while now and it looks like the rest of the world is starting to discover this great band. Here they are giving an exclusive performance of “Something Good” as a part of our VIP Club Concert Series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABn8P0MweO0

Honorable Mentions:

Sigur Rós - Brennisteinn

Last weekend, the band appeared during a new episode of The Simpsons and provided a rendition of the show’s theme song, as well as creating new music for the episode. This makes Sigur Rós the only band to have written and performed the most original music for the show than any other band during the entire history of the series. Make sure you don’t miss Sigur Rós this Saturday at 11pm or watch The Simpsons this Sunday. It's win win. Here's the official video for "Brennisteinn" off of thier upcoming album Kveikur, which will be out worldwide on June 18th. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc6zXSdYXm8

Empire of the Sun – Alive

Australian duo Empire of the Sun formed in 2008. Luke Steele was a member of The Sleepy Jackson and Nick Littlemore was a part of the electronic project Pnau. They had been working with each on songs for some years before their debut, Walking on a Dream, which was released in 2008. They’ll be playing this Here is the over the top official video for “Alive”, the first single from their upcoming second album, Ice on the Dune, which will also be out on June 18th. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPKAwJKGSDc