last year’s logo

More information about this year’s Bumbershoot lineup is gradually becoming available with a “short list” of artists mentioned in today’s Post-Intelligencer:

Devo, Ani DiFranco, Son Volt, Brazilian Girls, The Decemberists, The Gospel Hummingbirds, Billy Preston and Mavis Staples . . . Black Uhuru, Tift Merritt, Digable Planets, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, DeVotchKa and Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, as well as Keren Ann, Sonny Landreth, Duke Robillard Band and Billy Joe Shaver. [p-i]

The full slate of performers won’t be announced until July, but this starter list should be just enough for everyone to engage in the annual rite of complaining about how the festival used to be so much better in the misty memories of Labor Days past. Perhaps as a means of countering just those predictable feelings of historical relativism, the official site is still partying like it’s 2004 with a banner ad reminding us that last year’s big acts included Seal, Nickleback, and Puddle of Mudd. [Take that, naysayers!]

While the list isn’t heartstoppingly great (was anyone expecting Coachella on the Sound?), there’s still a lot for a lot of different people to be happy about (which is the real point of Bumbershoot, isn’t it?). By the time Labor Day weekend rolls around, setting a daily agenda will require some surprisingly tough choices and you’ll have great time among the crowds and fried foods.