The MusicfestNW lineup for 2015 was announced this morning (check out their fancy ad in this week's Portland Mercury!) and we've got the full rundown on the fest, which stretches out to three nights and two days this year, after last year's two-day/night event. 2014 was the first year MFNW took place at the Waterfront, scaling back from the multi-venue, near-weeklong event of years past, and 2015 marks another first: Matthew McLean, formerly of Monqui, has taken over the booking reins from longtime MFNW director Trevor Solomon, and is rustling all these fine ponies bands into a three-day corral of music, fun, and (presumably) sun.

Musicfest will take place on August 21-23, and the organizers have made a big point to say there will be free water, in response to the controversy surrounding the festival's bottled water last year. But enough about the essential tools needed to sustain life—let's check out the music! McLean's a great booker, and he's put together some really good bands.

FRIDAY AUGUST 21
Foster the People
Misterwives
Milo Greene
Lost Lander

SATURDAY AUGUST 22
Beirut
Belle and Sebastian
Twin Shadow
Battles
Title Fight
Cayucas
Talk in Tongues
Sales
Alialujah Choir

SUNDAY AUGUST 23
Modest Mouse
The Tallest Man on Earth
Danny Brown
The Helio Sequence
Lady Lamb
Strand of Oaks
Pure Bathing Culture
Divers
Beat Connection

In my opinion, the can't-miss band of the weekend is Strand of Oaks, who played what might have been my favorite show of 2014 at the Doug Fir. With their Heal album, Timothy Showalter & Co. have hit a new level of fervent, soaring rock, featuring the kind of songwriting that goes right for the jugular. Divers are not far behind, and they deliver their punk-edged songs with a similar all-or-nothing passion. I'm also a big fan of the Tallest Man on Earth, although he's augmented his very potent, direct acoustic-guitar-and-voice sound with twinkly production flourishes on his upcoming album Dark Bird Is Home. And Belle and Sebastian are, as they've always been, simply exquisite, as anyone who was at their wonderful Roseland show on April 9 can attest.

There are some new names to me, including Misterwives, Sales, Talk in Tongues, and Lady Lamb (although I imagine it's a streamlined version of Lady Lamb the Beekeeper?). And Foster the People don't really do anything to get my motor revving. Still, they're better than Girl Talk! There's a lot of other good shit on here, including local bands like Lost Lander, Pure Bathing Culture, the Helio Sequence, the Alialujah Choir, and some folks who call themselves Modest Mouse.

Regularly priced tickets officially go on sale Friday [actually, they seem to be on sale now], but you can go now to the MusicfestNW site now for early-bird tickets (they're cheaper) and enter the presale code "SUMMER." Pretty nice, right? I don't think that code's been posted anywhere yet.

To tide you over until August, here's some further reading—recent articles we've written on bands who are now part of the MusicfestNW lineup:

• Belle and Sebastian - The Party Line
• Strand of Oaks - What Comes After the Blues
• Danny Brown - Art for Art's Sake
• Lost Lander - Walking on a Wire
• Alialujah Choir - From the Ground
• Divers - Border Songs