“You can only attend one day of the Capitol Hill Block Party, which one do you want?” That was the question posed to me.

With sets from great bands like Battles, Explosions in the Sky, Grynch, Cold Cave, Champagne Champagne, and He Whose Ox Is Gored spread over the Seattle festival’s three days, how does one choose? 

Let’s see. On Friday I can see Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Cults, and Fucked Up in a single day, as well as local favorites Fresh Espresso, the Absolute Monarchs, and Theesatisfaction?

That is an absolutely killer lineup. Now I just have to figure out how to pack all of it into a single day.

For the past couple months Missoula, Montana's Total Fest has been leaking it's line-up a band at a time. Yesterday, they unveiled the last of the bands taking part in this year's fest happening August 18-20.

The icing on the cake of this year's stellar line-up is former Amp Rep face-melters Hammerhead, as well as the band that spawned from Hammerhead's demise, Brooklyn, NY's Vaz.

Other notables include Helms Alee, Kowlooned Walled City, Big Business, White Shit, and Olympia's Milk Music. Unfortunately, Akimbo was forced to cancel due to prior commitments. 

It might appear that Land of Pines burst on the Seattle Indie-pop scene overnight, but really it’s been an organic, steady growth. I first saw most of the band’s current lineup perform as Capitol Basement, while they were freshman at the Bush School. 

Then, predominantly directed by Evan Easthope, whose style in those days resembled Eddie Vedder, the band sounded like what you would expect from their name: music you would hear in a high school basement.

Fast forward to today. Though the band members are not much older than high school age now, their sound has come a long way. The vocal dichotomy between Kessiah Gordon and Easthope creates a more pop friendly, danceable sound. 

I felt kind of strange seeing one of the UKs most popular dubstep artists at the Tractor Tavern, which usually caters to alternative/country artists, but nonetheless  James Blake left a sold out venue wanting more.

Blake's most recognizable aspect is his vocals, which are effected by autotune and reverb. I was curious how his material was going to be performed live - I really didn't want to see him standing in front of a turntable - so I was happy to see an electronic drum set, sampler, guitar, and keyboards.  

All his songs blend aspects of soul, R&B, and dubstep. At times his music felt so minimal that you could hear a drink order from the bar. But, take that quiet dead air as a praise to James Blake's ability to completely captured his audience with an almost perfect blend of melody and rhythm. 

Battles, a trio of musicians consisting of drummer John Stannier and guitarists Dave Konopka and Ian Williams, creates sounds that are hard to define. “Rock” simply doesn’t suffice. 

Technically, their genre is math rock – a type of music that changes rhythm so quickly it’s sometimes hard to keep up. It feels like you are in a racecar, going 100 mph but making sharp turns every few seconds. 

Battles May 5 show at the Crocodile show was upbeat, incredibly fast-paced and just fantastic. They even gave us a preview of their new album, Gloss Drop, which will be released in June. 

Gloss Drop marks the first Battles album created sans Tyondai Braxton, the band’s former lead singer who left in August for a solo career. It was clear the band has accepted his departure, though, as they did not play a single song from their Mirrored album or subsequent EPs.