Sasquatch! Music Festival: Rookies of the Year | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

Sasquatch! Music Festival: Rookies of the Year

Getting tired of Sasquatch news yet?

No?

Good.

Each year the organizers of the SASQUATCH! Music Festival do three things really well. First, they invite back popular performers from previous years, often times promoting them to the next larger stage. Secondly, they corale several of the regions most beloved bands into making the short drive out to Central Washington and thirdly, Adam Zacks and company add top notch festival virgins to the lineup bolstering their indie street cred.

This year is no exception.

Here are the top three rookies for the 2014 installment. One for each day of the festival.

FRIDAY: Hozier

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Hailing from the musical land of Ireland, 24 year old singer Andrew Hozier-Byrne— who records simply as Hozier— puts a very modern twist on Irish folk music.

Releasing two EPs thus far, Hozier sings comforting ballads and sonic R&B tales that, while set against landscapes very different from the string-laden ditty standards one would expect from the small U.K. nation, nevertheless still convey the folk themes of family heritage, hard-fought love, and changing times found in traditional Irish songs.

His progressive approach to folk music is most evident in the music video for his song "Take Me To Church," (below) which engages in an extremely visceral conversation about homosexuality.

Still, tunes like "Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Science" with its hand claps and swooning oohs and ahs can feel very traditional; an indicator that Hozier does indeed do a brilliant job of bridging the gap between old and new generations.

SATURDAY: Cloud Control

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Australian psych rock group Cloud Control creates quite the colorful musical canvas.

Broad, dark strokes of ethereal beats, (read chunky rock bass lines) create linear movements through otherwise bright splashes of tenor vocals, happy synth melodies and sunny choruses.

Their sophomore full length album Dream Cave is an aptly named record where each nugget of a song contains ship-in-the-bottle-like wonder. Or in other words, the songs are an expansive trip despite their relative short existence of barely a few minutes.

See what all that means in the very French-like video for their song "Dojo Rising."

SUNDAY: Lucius

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If there is a cure for a festival-day-three hangover, it's an exciting pop performance. Sunday of Sasquatch provides just that with Brooklyn quintet Lucius.

Bold and sexy defines their brand of youthful rock and roll. It's perfect for rolling down the open highway with all the windows down or lying on your back in cool grass locating all of the dinosaurs floating by in the clouds.

Twin-ish front women Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig add vintage mystique to the band's groovy and exuberant sounds making Lucius a sure fire hit Sunday afternoon on the Yeti stage.

Check out a live performance of the group's luscious pop anthem "Hey Doreen" below.

Ethan Maffey

Both a writer and a fan of vinyl records since age 5, it wasn't until nearly three decades later that Oregon Native Ethan Maffey derived a plan to marry the two passions by writing about music. From blogging on MySpace in 2007 and then Blogspot, to launching his own website, 83Music, and eventually freelancing...
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