Closing out a fall US tour, on October 19 the Decemberists will unveil its multimedia project Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles. This unique live show will feature the Decemberists in conjunction with filmmakers Guilherme Marcondes, Julia Pott, Peter Sluszka and Santa Maria, each of whom created their own animated shorts to accompany pieces of the band’s The Hazards of Love. The show will be presented in conjunction with Flux, and will be a benefit for the Grammy Foundation’s Grammy In the Schools music education program for high schoolers. The band will play the entire musical piece synchronized with the animation along with an additional second set of older and newer music. A limited presale will begin at 10:00 AM PT tomorrow morning at http://www.decemberists.tickets.musictoday.com, and general tickets will go on sale on Friday, September 18.

It begins with the dry, uneven rumble of a bass drum. It’s a simple sound, uncompressed and clear. Years ago, the drum was probably covered in bright colors, but the paint is all faded now. You could sit there all day listening to that bass drum.

La Strada hail from New York, but adapt what they call old-world instrumentation (meaning accordion and strings) to their laid-back folk songs. The result lies somewhere between a sea chanty and a Beirut song, but it is some of the best folk-pop music this side of The Decemberists.

The songs are carnival-esque at times, majestic at others, and mostly addictive. Mostly. Opener “Orphan” with its lullaby tempo and saccharine lyrics “Wake up, you silly / Shake your sleepy head,” is a little too pretty, a little too cute. But this artificial sweetness is cut short by the salty wheeze of the accordion on the anthemic “Sun Song”, which escalates into a march while lead vocalist James Craft’s fragile tones climb higher, summitting on the glorious sentence every teenager in America longs to hear: “You’re 21!” This is where the real meat of the record lies: in La Strada’s talent for melody, their odd sense of humor, and their ability to surprise.

Ernest Jenning Record Co.

In the wake of the ever increasing pool of festivals and the possible merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the idea of paying $200 to see live music during a recession resulted in our pockets slapping us back into reality. But to be fair, the Sasquatch Festival — presented by Live Nation and tickets sold by Ticketmaster — is one of the cheaper weekend-long festivals and the line-up could quite possibly be the best yet.

Of course, this has left us all wondering at what point does the festival circuit become too congested, leaving them all a bit redundant and watered down? Those who remember the 90s will remember that Lollapalooza took time off for this very reason. But we digress, the Sasquatch Festival will take place May 23-25 at The Gorge in Quincy, WA and features the just-announced-today-union of Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction as the festival headliners. But the rest of the line-up is what excites us and looks like this:

Kings of Leon, Ben Harper & Relentless7, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Erykah Badu, The Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, TV On The Radio, Animal Collective, Silversun Pickups, Bon Iver, Santigold, Of Montreal, Explosions In The Sky, Devotchka, Peter Bjorn & John, Gogol Bordello, M. Ward, The Avett Brothers, Doves, Calexico, Grizzly Bear, M83, Girl Talk, The Gaslight Anthem, The Walkmen, Chromeo (dj set), Deadmau5, Mugison, Sun Kil Moon, Airborne Toxic Event, Blitzen Trapper, Shearwater, BLK JKS, The Wrens, Tobacco, Monotonix, King Khan & The Shrines, St. Vincent, Passion Pit, John Vanderslice, Bishop Allen, Blind Pilot, AA Bondy, Black Moth Super Rainbow, The Knux, Ra Ra Riot, The Dodos, Beach House, Arthur & Yu, The Submarines, Owl City, Viva Voce, James Pants, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, The Builders & The Butchers, The Dutchess & The Duke, Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head, Dent May & His Magnificent Ukelele, Fences, School of Seven Bells, Death Vessel, Horse Feathers, Hockey, Point Juncture, WA, The Pica Beats, Loch Lomond, Vince Mira & more to come.

And the comedy line up includes:
Zach Galifiankas, Demetri Martin, Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job, Todd Barry, Jon Benjamin, God’s Pottery, People’s Republic of Komedy & more.

Ok, got that? Now, as for tickets, beginning on February 28 (on sale weekend only), a discounted 3-day festival pass will be available until March 1 at midnight at $154.50 for the entire weekend with single tickets costing $56.50. Beginning March 2 a 3-day pass will run you $199.50 and a single ticket $66.50 and if you wait until the last minute (and tickets are still available), starting May 11 the weekend pass is $229.50 and single tickets will be $76.50.

Oh, and Ticketmaster will have all your ticketing needs. Go figure.