Take a break from the Bumbershoot action on Monday, 9/7, and come on over to our Queen Anne store at 20 Mercer to catch an in-store performance by Ra Ra Riot. The action starts at 7pm and, as always, it's free and all ages! Don't forget to buy their new album, The Orchard, while you're there!

The National and Okkervil River are teaming up for an end of summer blowout at Marymoor Park on September 11 and we want you to go! Our buds at STG were kind enough to provide a a few pairs of tickets to give to our loyal customers and friends, so have at it people! E-mail contests@easystreetonline.com with the subject line "Terrible Love" and include your full name in the message to enter. Winners will be drawn on September 7. Good luck!

Detroit garage-rock legends the Gories (fronted by the Dirtbombs' Mick Collins) will be making a rare appearance at Neumos Saturday, September 11 and we have a pair of tickets for one lucky winner! Just e-mail contests@easystreetonline.com with the subject line "House Rockin'" and include your full name in the message to enter. We'll draw a winner on September 9. Good luck!

Menomena's new album, Mines, is blowing up everywhere, and for good reason - it's fantastic! Here's your chance to go see them live and for free at the Showbox Market on September 10! You know the drill, don't you? Just e-mail contests@easystreetonline.com with the subject line "Lunchmeat" and include your full name in the message to enter. Winners will be drawn on 9/10. Good luck!

Spin is hosting a FREE Bumbershoot Kick Off event at the Crocodile this Friday with special guest Sune of the Raveonettes, who will be spinning platters from 7-10pm. RSVP at events@spin.com. This event is 21+ and entry is subject to venue capacity.

Here's the scoop on this week's featured new releases!

Bobby Bare Jr. - A Storm, A Tree, My Mother's Head - In 2008 a storm brought a tree crashing down on Bare's mother's house. Mom ended up with two broken vertebrae and Bare found the title of his new record, which was recorded in two days. "Throughout the album, traces of working man’s rocker Bruce Springsteen can be heard, while an at-times-subtle undercurrent of Nashville country runs through courtesy of growing up living and writing with his father, Bobby Bare, Sr." (American Songwriter)

Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses - Junky Star - Bingham and producer T-Bone Burnette team up again after winning an Oscar for co-writing "The Weary Kind" from the film Crazy Heart.  Junky Star is "a collection of barroom folk songs that, musically and thematically, cast back to vintage Dylan and, more specifically, Nebraska-era Springsteen ... New Depression-era tales of lucklessness and woe that alternate between stripped-down guitar ballads and full-band rave-ups." (Washington Post)

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (Legacy Edition) - Remastered 40th-anniversary edition of Miles's jazz-rock classic includes a bonus CD with several bonus cuts and a DVD containing a previously unissued concert performance by the Miles Davis Quintet filmed in Copenhagen in 1969.

Bill Frisell - Beautiful Dreamers - Seattle-based guitar virtuoso Frisell enlists the talents of violist Eyvand Kang and drummer Rudy Royston for ten original compositions and six interpretations of songs by the likes of Stephen Foster, Blind Willie Johnson, Benny Goodman and Little Anthony & the Imperials. "Following a well-worn path through surreal Americana, this collection alternates bucolic panoramas with dark hued gothic vistas." (All About Jazz)

Heart - Red Velvet Car - Heart's first album in six years is receiving some great reviews, with one writer calling it "their most substantial and artistic effort since Dreamboat Annie." "This time around Heart took a step back from the pop-rock endeavors of recent decades in favor of a multi-instrumental style. In addition to her signature guitar, Nancy Wilson and producer Ben Mink tried their hands at mandolin, dobro, banjo, fiddle, viola, cello and autoharp. The result is a tightly woven tapestry of hard rock riffs and multi-layered acoustics reminiscent of Heart’s 1970s catalogue." (Muruch.com)

Jenny & Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now - It's lovers' rock with Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley) and her boyfriend Johnathan Rice. "This is what would have happened to She & Him if they'd listened to early Tom Petty and Laurel Canyon folk instead of Lee Hazlewood and Brenda Lee. Poppy and easygoing and bright, stuffed to bursting with layered harmonies, dueling vocals and serpent metaphors stacked so high they border on the biblical..." (Washington Post)

Philip Selway - Familial - Philip Selway put his songwriting efforts on the back burner once he picked up a pair of drumsticks in his teens, but recently came back to it after 25 years as the drummer of Radiohead. Subtle and intimate acoustic folk is the general tone here.

Richard Thompson - Dream Attic - Many agree that Richard Thompson's idea of recording a live album of new songs was genius. Why? Because his walls come down on the stage. Thompson's a master guitarist but also a proper English gent who often thinks too much. The energy and blazing guitar work he brings to his live show is rarely as evident in his studio efforts.

Cold Cave is coming to Neumos on September 10 and joining them are Sleepy Eyes of Death and Absolute Monarchs! How's that for a killer lineup? Wanna win tickets? Just e-mail contests@easystreetonline.com with the subject line "Hello Rats" and include your full name in the message to enter. We'll draw winners on Wednesday, 9/8. Good luck!