Indie-folk group Bliztzen Trapper - Carrie Browstein's (Sleater-Kinney) favorite band from Portland, OR - has a sound which is a little bit like the Kinks colliding with the Grateful Dead and Pavement.

Blitzen Trapper - who recently signed with Sub Pop Records - formed in 2000, and they currently operate as a sextet featuring Eric Earley (guitar/vocals), Erik Menteer (guitar/keyboard), Brian Adrian Koch (drums/vocals), Michael VanPelt, (bass), Drew Laughery (keyboards), and Marty Marquis (guitar, keyboards, vocals).

They self-released their first three albums (which hopefully will be available at the show). Wild Mountain Nation was released in 2007 with critical acclaim from critics such as Madison Music Review, Pitchfork Media, The Nerve, and Spin Magazine. Rolling Stone had even picked "Wild Mountain Nation" as one of their 100 best songs of 2007.

These guys are a one of a kind act and should not be missed.

Fleet Foxes are from Seattle and fit into the My Morning Jacket and Band of Horses genre. They are a perfect fit with Blitzen Trapper. I've been listening to their album "Ragged Woods", on their MySpace site and it is amazing and one of my 2008 favorites so far.

As far as the their sound? Lead singer Robin Pecknold puts it best: “We grew up listening to the music of our parents. The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, The Zombies, Joni Mitchell, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Love, Marvin Gaye, Bach, Crosby Stills & Nash, Bob Dylan, Buffalo Springfield, and every other perennial ‘60s band you’d expect to find in the record collections of baby boomers.”

“We aim to be adventurous and true to ourselves and to enjoy our time together—the music we make is a reflection of our instincts. To me, the most enjoyable thing in the world is to sing harmony with people, so we do that a bunch. We love acoustic guitars, electric guitars, big rolling tom drums, mandolins, dulcimers, bass guitars, bass pedals, organs, pianos, kotos, and most of all harmony and melody. We’ve succeeded for ourselves if we’ve made a song where every instrument is doing something interesting and melodic. We try to draw from the traditions of folk music, pop, choral music and gospel, baroque psychedelic, sacred harp singing, West Coast music, traditional music from Ireland to Japan, and film scores, and are inspired by the music of our friends and contemporaries in the Seattle music family.”

Come early to catch Fleet Foxes' opening set!