Music / Nightlife

Concertgoers take in Capitol Hill Block Party 2013. (Marcus Yam/The Seattle Times)

The Capitol Hill Block Party — Seattle’s favorite one-day actual block party-turned three-day corporate-sponsored music festival — is returning to a fenced-in Pike Street for the 17th year this weekend.

Friday’s lineup boasts headlining indie-rock veterans Spoon, who haven’t released an album since 2010s “Transference” but have a new one called “They Want My Soul” on the way that comes packed with a wannabe slacker-pop summer anthem “Do You.” Brooklyn DIY keyboard/drums dance-pop sweethearts Matt & Kim will also bring their energetic, feel-good live set to the main stage.

After the success of Timber! Outdoor Music Festival last year, organizer Kevin Sur felt one emotion: a deep, abiding gratitude to everyone who had helped bring it off without a hitch.

It was a feeling that stuck with him as he chose soul revivalist Charles Bradley to top a 2014 lineup that includes J. Mascis, Damien Jurado and the Seattle Rock Orchestra. The festival runs July 24-26 and kicks off Thursday afternoon with a performance by the Shumba Marimba Ensemble.

“We felt like we had an overwhelming amount of support from the music community in making our first year a success, and that got me thinking about Charles Bradley,” Sur said.

For those seeking a little outdoor fun, while staying out of the sun, Light in the Attic’s First Annual Summer Spectacular offered a great way to find some relief from the record-breaking heat.

Overton Berry’s set gave LITA’s event a jazzy touch . (photo: Gillian G. Gaar)

The Seattle-based record label, known for its reissue projects like the “Wheedle’s Groove” CD and film covering Seattle’s ’70s-era funk scene, and a lavish box set by iconoclastic singer-songwriter Lee Hazlewood, hosted a laid-back afternoon of live entertainment yesterday at their warehouse/record store on a quiet street in Ballard.

(Peter Boettcher Photography)

Electronic music is so ubiquitous today that EDM (electronic dance music) fans may not appreciate how revolutionary the music was in the early ’70s.

German group Kraftwerk pioneered the sound, releasing the mesmerizing album “Autobahn” and its title track in 1974.

Chilean tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana with bassist Pablo Menares and drummer Francisco Mela. (Photo by Chris Cameron)

With two large stages bookending the stately Vancouver Art Gallery and a student showcase by the Robson Square ice rink — plus a wall of food booths lining Howe Street — the Vancouver International Jazz Festival transformed downtown Vancouver into a fairgrounds Saturday and Sunday, attracting an all-ages, urban crowd in sunhats and shorts to a wealth of free shows.

There, and in ticketed events on Granville Island and at Ironworks, a late-night Gastown venue, the 12-day festival stayed true to its mission of presenting a challenging menu of international acts.

For whatever reason, for those first few days, the ladies ruled.

Timber! Outdoor Music Festival, which takes place July 24-26 at King County’s Tolt Macdonald Park, has added an impressive schedule of outdoor recreational activities to its outstanding musical lineup. Along with musical sets by Charles Bradley, J Mascis, Damien Jurado and Rocky Votolato attendees can also participate in kayaking and…

Before any musical acts took the Gorge Amphitheatre main stage at KUBE 93’s Summer Jam on Saturday, it was announced that Rick Ross, one of the headliners, would not be performing as scheduled. Though artists not being able to make the trek out to George, Wash. is a fairly regular occurrence and Miami’s Ross has suffered health complications on long flights in recent years, his absence took a great deal of star power away from the lineup, and the crowd’s audible disappointment hinted the thing was doomed to fail before it even began.

KUBE 93’s annual Summer Jam is back at The Gorge again this weekend, but this year adds an extra day of high-powered rap acts to become a two-day festival well worth the trip out to George, Washington.

Saturday’s main lineup reads like a typical radio-rap festival in 2014

“We did well,” said executive director Rob Townsend, who predicted attendance would top out “where it needs to be” — above 200,000, many of them young people.

We’re entering the home stretch…