We interrupt your regularly scheduled Capitol Hill Block Party coverage for an announcement regarding the 40th annual Bumbershoot festival which will be taking place Labor Day weekend.

It's no secret Ear Candy loves Bumbershoot. It's also no secret that Ear Candy loves a party. So it shouldn't be a secret that us here at Ear Candy HQ are beyond excited to work with the folks at Hard Rock Seattle to present the Official Bumbershoot After Party on Sept. 5 featuring Sufer Blood, Dead Confederate and Futurebirds. Here are some more details:

Headlining the party will be Bumbershoot artists and 2010 breakout act Surfer Blood. Surfer Blood has been an Ear Candy favorite ever since they dropped by Chop Suey back in Decemeber of 2009. If you're unfamiliar with Surfer Blood check out Mike Ramos' review of their album Astro Coast and scope out the video for "Swim" below.

The lineup for the 2010 Sasquatch! Music Festival will be announced one week from today at the Crocodile during the Sasquatch! Launch Party which will feature Surfer Blood, Atlas Sound and Seattle's own Fresh Espresso.

Tickets for the event are free and can be picked up at Easy Street Records beginning Friday with a limit of two per person, or you can win tickets by listening to 107.7 The End. The launch party will be hosted by Luke Burbank and it marks the first time the festival's lineup will be announced live. I would've gone to the Crocodile to see Surfer Blood simply based off the band's recent show at Chop Suey and the excellence of their newly released record Astro Coast. The Sasquatch! lineup announcement is a bonus.

Artist: Surfer Blood
Album: Astro Coast
Home town: West Palm Beach, Fla.
Label: Kanine Records
Score: 7.0/11

Surfer Blood has been making waves (terrible pun, I know) on the national indie scene since their single "Swim (To Reach the End)" took the Interweb by storm during the latter half of 2009. The Pitchfork-aided hype was imminent, as the track's reverb-heavy, pop-tinged, power-chord rock and washed-out, melodic vocal shouts made for a perfect late-summer anthem. "Swim" was on plenty of "best of 2009" lists, and just weeks into 2010 the Florida quartet has released their anticipated debut Astro Coast. The 10-track album takes everything good about "Swim" and builds on it, creating an LP that sounds like a sunny-day skate down a Los Angeles boardwalk.

They do rock 'n' roll a little differently in Canada.

That's the thought I walked away with after watching Vancouver, B.C. duo Japandroids at Chop Suey Tuesday night. The group made about as much noise as two people can during their 60-minute set, but don't go mistaking their post-punk sounds for your typical unintelligible noise rock. As far as twosomes are concerned Japandroids' brand of noise isn't as polished as The White Stripes nor does it carry as much of a low-end thump as Local H. Guitarist Brian King and drummer David Prowse's (aka Japandroids) garage rock sounds like some of the most awesome power rock you've heard disguised in the body of a Pitchfork-approved indie group.
 
Things started slow and the band was playing a little loose, which could be racked up to the show being the group's last U.S. date on its three-month fall tour, but it was clear Prowse and King were having a blast. As the set progressed Japandroids became more and more of a two-headed beast of guitar and drums one song at a time. When the band reached "Heart Sweats," the second to last song of the night, they had been firing on all cylinders for quite a while and the sweaty moshed-out all-ages crowd were eating up every drum hit, guitar squeal and sccream-along chorus. Before leaving the stage King let slip the group's next stop in the Evergreen state. He told the crowd he'd be returning with Prowse to play a festival in the spring. Can you say Sasquatch!?