Feeling a little jealous of your friends who are heading out to the 4 Peaks Music Festival? Or maybe you bought your 4 Peaks ticket a long time ago and now that The Bite of Bend is here, you're a little down about missing one of the great bands on that lineup?

Whether you're staying in town or headed out to camp and frolic, there is plenty to keep your ears happy!

Let's start with Thursday night...



LAST BAND STANDING FINALS- Liquid Lounge, 8pm, Free

Pick up an issue of the Source later today or tomorrow and you'll see a breakdown of the championship round. Even if you missed the nine weeks of competition that led to this, the four bands vying for your vote tomorrow night should give you a good indication of where our local music scene is right now. Three of the four bands are using female vocalists and one even throws in some violin.

Moving on to Friday...

Feeling a little jealous of your friends who are heading out to the 4 Peaks Music Festival? Or maybe you bought your 4 Peaks ticket a long time ago and now that The Bite of Bend is here, you're a little down about missing one of the great bands on that lineup.
Whether you're staying in town or headed out to camp and frolic, there is plenty to keep your ears happy!

Let's start with Thursday night...



LAST BAND STANDING FINALS- Liquid Lounge, 8pm, Free

Pick up an issue of the Source later today or tomorrow and you'll see a breakdown of the championship round. Even if you missed the nine weeks of competition that led to this, the four bands vying for your vote tomorrow night should give you a good indication of where our local music scene is right now. Three of the four bands are using female vocalists and one even throws in some violin.
Moving on to Friday...

4 PEAKS MUSIC FESTIVAL- Rockin A Ranch, Noon, tickets at www.4peaksmusic.com

This festival will last you the entire weekend and is sure to saturate your ears with some of the best string music around as well as stimulate your dancing feet. Just be sure to take in a couple of my favorite bands who will be there.

Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers: I saw them at Portland's Mississippi Studios last year and I can tell you that their music is absolutely captivating.
Fruition: This band makes music that is reflective and emotional as well as dance worthy.

Poor Man's Whiskey: Just get ready to move your feet. Whether barefoot or wearing boots, they will be hoppin'! Check out a video of them below. Where'd their clothes go? Who needs clothes when you've got whiskey barrels?
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stSfDm4pH38 480x395]

Saturday & Sunday...

BITE OF BEND- Downtown Bend, 11am, Free

The music here gets underway at 11:00am each day and if you can tear yourself away from stuffing your face with all the edible goodies, will provide you with hours of listening pleasure. The festival has a little bit for everyone including the Hawaiian sounds of Bill Keale, a Led Zeppelin tribute, and brilliant honky tonk from Whitey Morgan & the 78's.
My personal picks are Saturday's set by former Bend rock band The Autonomics, as well as Sunday's performance by Seattle world music group The Polyrhythmics. If you want to see what a downtown Bend dance party is like... show up to this one for sure!

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu25X2sFob0 480x395]

Did you see this year's summer guide in last week's issue of the Source? If you did, you might have come across our music editor's recommended summer playlist. If not... no worries. Just click play below and you can start listening immediately! (if you've started a Spotify account that is)

SOUND reviewed the new Big Jambox wireless speaker system from Jawbone and you can read what we thought of it when you pick up this week's issue of the Source on Thursday. In the meantime, we thought we'd find out from our readers what you use to stream music when you want to listen to Billy Ocean with a little more oomph than your cell phone speaker provides.

So let us know - What speaker system will you be using to listen to your tunes while away from home this summer?

SOUND reviewed the new Big Jambox wireless speaker system from Jawbone and you can read what we thought of it when you pick up this week's issue of the Source on Thursday. In the meantime, we thought we'd find out from our readers what you use to stream music when you want to listen to Billy Ocean with a little more oomph than your cell phone speaker provides.
So let us know - What speaker system will you be using this summer to listen to your tunes while  away from home?

The Source Weekly and BeNT are giving away two tickets to see famed Hollywood glam-rapper Mickey Avalon at Bend's Domino Room on June 10th. All you have to do to win is tell us something glamorous about yourself in a comment below! We'll pick the winner tomorrow afternoon.

Mickey Avalon

$20 at ticketswest.com

June 10th, 8pm

 The Domino Room, 51 NW Greenwood Ave.

I'm exhausted. I'm also a little sad that my fourth consecutive Sasquatch Festival is over. This was my first year attending the festival as media and I've got to say that working the event is way more tiring than merely attending the event. Finding time to hang out with friends, jump from stage to stage to photograph the performers, and of course just plain taking time to enjoy some of the great music over the course of a four day festival is actually quite daunting. Nevertheless, I did it and I loved it. 

Based on the performances I saw this Memorial Day weekend, here are the bands I would say you should never EVER miss should you have a chance to see them in concert. At the end of the post are links to photo coverage for the event, including some taken by Christopher Nelson at the Sasquatch main stage, a special set featuring Nate Ruess of Fun., and some of the people who attended the 11th annual edition of the festival.

• Yellow Ostrich: The unique sound achieved by building layers of looped guitar and vocals when paired with wildly creative lyrics make for a strong and powerful performance whether seeing them in a small venue or at a big festival.