Yeah, yeah, I know, Ezra at the Merc already posted on this. You gotta get up pretty damn early (6:57 to be exact), or alternately, stay up pretty late, to fool the Ace. Anyway, I thought LC faithful would still like a peek at this year’s early festival lineup. Keep in mind that the finished roster will include 40+ bands. PDX POP NOW! takes place from August 3-5 at Portland’s Audio Cinema warehouse. As always, the fest is free and all-ages:

The Blow
The Shaky Hands
Blitzen Trapper
The Robot Ate Me
Laura Gibson
Yellow Swans
Ethan Rose
Nice Boys
March Fourth Marching Band
Copy
Dat’r
Sandpeople
Point Juncture, WA
Black Elk
3 Leg Torso
Corrina Repp
The High Violets
The Maybe Happening
Hurah Hurah
The Snuggle Ups (in one of their final performances)

The list so far is largely predictable in the best way. The Shaky Hands really came into their own at last years fest, and the band has changed an awful lot in the last year, so the style an d pace of their set will be a big, exclamation point-leaning question mark. The Snuggle Ups are always a lot of fun, hopefully they are towards the end of one of the evenings (a dance-fest with Copy would be great). Hopefully they give March Fourth the outdoor stage. It’s great to see the Sandpeople on the list, that should get crazy (anyone who’s been to one of the group’s Hawthorne Theater shows knows how crazy the kids go for the ‘Peeps), and it’s also great to see some of our longtime favorites, Corrina Repp and Point Juncture, WA (the latter plays in Pendleton this Thursday–who wants to go?) on the list.

If I might editorialize for a half-second, let me use my pedestal to ask for some PDX POP NOW! presents.

1) A Britt Daniel solo set (No Spoon tour date scheduled for August 3rd)
2) Typhoon! (One of my favorite Portland bands, these guys would be huge at PDXPOP)
3) Cool Nutz, Chillest Illest or the Cleveland Steamers (or all of them at once)
4) Captured by Porches in a nearby alley (A man can dream, can’t he?)

Ok, so maybe I don’t have the sway around Stumptown to actually get any of my wishes. But some of them have already been fufilled (see above list) and again, a man can dream.

Links:
PDX POP NOW!

Photo: The Shaky Hands playing at a PDX POP NOW! in-school show earlier this year. Taken by Jason Quigley