As Sasquatch! quickly approaches, I examine the line-up and check out bands I’ve never heard before.

Picture courtesy of Line Out.

Today’s band: The Moondoggies
From: Seattle (pretty much every band unfamiliar to me is a local band from Seattle)
Scheduled time: Monday, May 26 at 2:10 pm on the Yeti stage
Evidenced garnered: Three songs from their MySpace page

“Ol’ Blackbird” is dopey groove-rock, with a heaping side of sticky hippie jam. Tambourine shaking and LOTS of electric piano makes this track sound awfully dated, not really in a retro kind of way, either. The lyrics are pretty asinine: “Ol’ Blackbird way up in the sky/Ol’ blackbird keep on flyin’ high/Ol’ blackbird way up in the tree/Ol’ blackbird don’t bother me.” Fucking brilliant. Cough.

“I Want You to Know” sounds like ’70s soft-rock played by an all-male Fleetwood Mac. It gets rockin’ for a couple bars here and there, but never fully blows up. Plenty of piano, too, though, both regular and electric. Do these guys have seven keyboardists or just the one, who’s calling all the shots? As the song goes along, it solidifies, gaining momentum, but a false ending and reprise overinflate the song a bit, considering how easygoing it started off.

“Night and Day - demo,” however, is a peaceful acoustic song with appealing harmonies atop bluegrass fingerpicking. It feels like a small, puffy cloud floating along a blue sky on a summer day. Perfect for Sasquatch, right? It’s almost like a madrigal, but then the drums stomp on and that barrelhouse piano kicks in with the rest of the band. There goes that piano again, filling in every last bit of space with pumping groove. Someone please hand the pianist a Xanax, please? Soon, though, a slower “Heart of Gold” drumbeat picks up, and we’re off on a spacier vibe. The small, puffy cloud is rising higher, and growing.

How will they fare at Sasquatch?
They’re up against the Hives, so they might do pretty well. They should definitely attract the hippie contingent, who won’t be into the Hives. (Who is into the Hives? What demographic do they serve? Wanna-Swede white-suit-wearing hipsters?)

Will I make a point to see them?
I might. Their set overlaps with the lovely Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, so they won’t have me for the first few songs, but if Pela doesn’t do it for me, it may be Moondoggie time.

Listen to the Moondoggies here.