Via Bumbershoot.org comes an early lineup announcement for the 38th annual Space-Needle- Key-Arena- Experience-Music-Project- inclusive event up in Seattle over Labor Day weekend. For the uninitiated, the festival is not so much an exercise in stagehopping as it is checking out the activities between the stages while thoroughly enjoying the last truly great bit of weather afforded the city before nine months of rain set in. On to the lineup:

Beck, Stone Temple Pilots, Lucinda Williams, Neko Case, Ingrid Michaelson, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Jakob Dylan, !!!, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Saul Williams, Joe Bonamassa, M. Ward, The Walkmen, Asylum St. Spankers, Dan Deacon, MIDIval PunditZ, Blitzen Trapper, Bedouin Soundclash, Tim Finn, Dale Watson, John Vanderslice, Final Fantasy, The Fall of Troy, Orgone, Forro in the Dark, Ryan Bingham, Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby, Arthur & Yu, Darondo and Nino Moschella, Pacifika…

This year’s Literary Arts program welcomes graphic novelists Dan Clowes and Adrian Tomine, sci-fi legend William Gibson, a special edition of Starlee Kine and Arthur Jones’ Post-It Note Reading Series, authors Nathan McCall, Francesca Lia-Block, Kevin Sessums, and more.

For those of you who enjoy great rock art and inevitably end up spending way more than you should at SXSW’s Flatstock poster convention, that’ll be back this year as well.

Advance 3-day passes are very affordable and on sale now. The music lineup looks fine and all, but having been several times myself I can attest that the $6 blackened salmon sandwich booth is the real star of the show. Jesus! I can taste it now. Do as you will.