For its 13th installment, Pickathon already tapped Mavis Staples, Bill Callahan, Lee Fields & The Expressions, plus the Fruit Bats and others, and are now completing the lineup with 11 new acts – pushing the total near 50. Most notably, Black Mountain, Grupo Fantasma, and Wye Oak will be making the trek to the northwest, but the “Disneyland for music lovers” wouldn’t be complete without the sounds of Corrine West & Kelly Joe Phelps, Michael Hurley, Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter, L. C., Ulmer, Lightning Dust, Dawn Landes, Sunday Valley, and Eilen Jewell.

Tickets for the weekend will be available here beginning April 9th at 3 p.m. EST. In conjunction with Live & Breathing, the event’s promoters launched the The Pickathon Pumphouse Sessions, which features 2010 Pickathon artists like Dr. Dog, Breathe Owl Breathe, Little Wings, These United States, Langhorne Slim, Megafaun, and Fruit Bats performing in the secluded 10×10 pumphouse on the Pendarvis farm. The sessions can be viewed via the Pickathon blog.

Mavis Staples, Bill Callahan, Califone, Lee Fields & The Expressions and Fruit Bats are some of the bigger acts playing during the August 5th-7th weekend. Other notable acts include Damien Jurado, Vetiver, Laura Veirs, The Sadies, Richard Swift, The Builders and The Butchers, Danny Barnes, Sonny & The Sunsets, Elliott Brood, Truckstop Darlin’, Rock Plaza Central, Buffalo Killers, Whitey Morgan & The 78′s, Ages and Ages, Charlie Parr, Cahalen Morrison & Eli West, Pokey LaFarge, and Ted Jones and The Tarheel Boys, with an additional 10 to 15 more bands being added in the coming months.

“We are the slow food music festival,” describes Pickathon’s co-founder Zale Schoenborn. “We want people to come and immerse themselves. We could be at five times the amount of people but we are going to stay super small on purpose.”

Staying small allows for the gregarious family-like atmosphere which benefits both the festival-goers and the artists.

“We get feedback from people that we are their favorite weekend of the year,” Schoenborn continues. “We call the festival the year’s greatest music party. There’s very little hassle. Like security barriers – there are basically none. There is nothing separating you from the artists. The artists are almost always out in the audience, totally jaw on the floor watching the other artists. It’s kind of a weird description, but it’s basically the Disneyland for music lovers. There are six very distinct stages that have really unique vibes, and you feel like you’re on a different planet when you’re at each of them.”

The more manageable size also helps for the festival to enforce their sustainability and environmental angle. From being completely plastic free (even beer cups), to having solar-powered stages and lights, Pickathon is leading the way among festivals.

“We don’t charge for water,” notes Schoenburn. “We don’t have any plastic on the premises. There are 10s of thousands of dollars we are losing by doing things like that. It just makes sense to us but we are definitely the lone cowboys on the festival scene. “

But what Pickathon is best known for is the type of artists they attract. Though they started out as a small outfit that specialized in traditional music, they’ve grown to have a diverse and varied music lineup.

“It’s really about supporting artists in this really unique niche in the music festival world,” says Schoenborn. “It’s been really great to us because there’s no one really doing what we are doing. Mixing the more hardcore traditional music with the type of music you wouldn’t see at a bluegrass festival. I always thought, ‘Why would I want to go to three days of the same music?’ I want to be challenged and have an interesting mix going on here. So as a festival, that was a totally new idea.”

This year, Schoenborn is excited to have some really unique acts on the bill, such as Lee Fields& the Expressions. “We haven’t had a serious, hardcore soul band such as Lee Fields ever, especially on that level, and he’s one of the freaking legends of this universe,” he admits. “One of the common features of all the artists featured at Pickathon is that they are really strong singers. So obviously we are honored to have Mavis Staples play. I also love Damien Jurardo, Richard Swift, Califone. There’s a great young band out of Ohio that I’m very excited about called the Buffalo Killers. They are a three-piece classic rock out of the 70’s in a Black Keys meets Black Sabbath way. ”

The hardest choice for Schoenborn is trying to work in the artists who have requested to play the festival again and again. “All artists want to return and it’s a hard choice to make,” he explains. “They all want to come back and though we are major, we are not one of the major festivals, yet they try and make space in their schedules to play. We are super appreciative but we don’t have bands coming back every year as a matter of keeping the music in cycle of what’s being released this year and supporting a wider ring of artists and making it so that when they come back, people are really excited to see them.”

Caset Laforet of the Toronto-based “death country” band Elliot Brood is one of those repeaters and is delighted to be playing Pickathon for the second year in a row.

“It’s one the best ones we’ve played in North America,” says Laforet. “How it’s set up, how it’s run, their environmental stance –we’re really lucky to come back.”

Just as it draws in festival-goers, the relaxed vibe and innovative staging options is what keeps the artists like Elliott Brood in full support of Pickathon.

“It makes it much more of an intimate experience when people can actually see the bands and talk to them,” Schoenborn says. “We stayed at a hotel offsite but we still spent most nights just hanging out at the festival and meeting different people. You’re all standing in the same food line-ups and watching the same shows together. It’s amazing for artists.”

The festival has already sold-out of its pre-sale tickets, but remaining tickets, as well as the rest of the line-up, can be found on their website at www.pickathon.com.

For you linguists out there, the title is an amalgamation of the words “life” and “lie”, two huge topics that Francis goes on to tackle heavily. And, as Prefix Magazine reports, it’s also a reference to some lyrics from the Non-Prophets song “The Cure”; now you know.

Putting it all together, the Rhode Island native tapped a backing band of producer Brian Deck (Iron and Wine, Modest Mouse) and Califone’s Jim Becker and Tim Rutili. As for those famous friends and guests, the list is just as impressive. Former Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle laid down the instrumentals on “Houdini”, while Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla produced “Three Sheets To The Wind.” Also joining in on the lighter than air musical meditations of God and hypocrisy are Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous and members of Calexico. Jay-Z-esque!

So far not much in the way of shows lined up, but we’ll let you know about any tour dates once they’re announced. Li(f)e is scheduled to be released on May 11th via Anti Records.

Li(f)e Tracklist:
01. Little Houdini
02. Three Sheets To The Wind
03. I Was Zero
04. Slow Man
05. Diamonds And Pearls
06. Polterzeitgeist
07. The Baby Stays
08. 16 Years
09. Worry Not
10. London Bridge
11. Love The Lie
12. The Best Of Times

On a side note, now seems like a good opportunity to remind you of our SXSW Day Party with Sled Island Music Festival. Click here for more details!

In addition to the previously reported presence of Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear, we can also tell you that the Chicago post-rock outfit Califone will debut All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, the companion film to the band’s most recent album, at Sundance. The film, was written and directed by frontman Tim Rutili,  draws on the same themes and inspirations as the album, telling the story of a fortune teller named Zel (played by respected cult actress Angela Bettis) who lives and works in an old house crowded with ghosts. Oh, and get this: Califone will also be performing a live soundtrack alongside the film at the opening screening at Sundance.

Also making its debut at the festival will be the Runaways biopic starring Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie and Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett. Also featured in the film are St. Louis garage rockers Living Things, who appear as The Ramones.

As TwentyFourBit reports, a number of musicians have also contributed to the sounds that will resonate from Sundance’s many films. Moby will supply music to Waste Land, a documentary about Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, while The Roots soundtracked Night Catches Us, a new film about their hometown of Philadelphia in the 1970s. What’s more, folk singer Jaymay scored the sounds of How I Met Your Mother’s Josh Radnor’s directorial debut, Happythankyoumoreplease.

Not bad, huh? And considering Sundance is still a month away, I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve heard of the indie invasion…

James Huggins/James Husband:

On October 27th, James Huggins, best known to you and me as the dude who plays all the different instruments in Of Montreal, will make his solo debut, under the name James Husband, with the release of A Parallax I via Polyvinyl. According to Pitchfork, the 12-track effort was recorded between 2003 and 2008 in Athens and Stockholm, with help from his of Montreal bandmate Dottie Alexander, Swedish pop starlet Jenny Wilson, and Andy LeMaster of Now It’s Overhead. Samples of what to expect can currently be heard on Huggins/Husband’s MySpace.

Califone:

Chicago rockers Califone will soon submit its entry for most depressingly titled album of 2009 with the release All My Friends Are Funeral Singers. Due for release on October 6th via Dead Oceans, the 14-track is described as a “dense collage of sounds, expertly formed into fully realized pop songs.” Sounds like the perfect music for film, right? Califone apparently thought so too, and penned a companion film of the same name. Both the album and the film will be featured on the band’s recently announced fall U.S. tour

Beak>:

While a new album from his main outfit is still said to be coming, Portishead producer and multi-instrumentalist Geoff Barrow will devote his attention for the foreseeable future to his brand new project, Beak>. Formed earlier this year, the band also features Billy Fuller and Matt Williams. On October 19th/20th, they’ll make their self-titled debut with an album recorded in one room, without overdubs, over the course of just 12 days — or, the complete opposite of a Portishead recording seasion. For a preview, hit Pitchfork to listen to a track called “I Know”.