By the time Sonic Youth took the Capitol Hill Block Party main stage you had better be friends with your neighbor because it was a shoulder-to-shoulder situation.

Meanwhile, Ballard’s Grynch rocked Vita’s beans.

The iconic New York noise rockers closed down the main stage of the Block Party’s final day Saturday night with a set filled with material from “The Eternal,” their latest release. Sonic Youth definitely drew the biggest crowd and was the major selling point Saturday but they really were just the musical icing on the cake during a day filled with amazing national and local artists. 

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Earlier in the day Ballard MC Grynch performed a set at the KEXP stage in the back of Caffe Vita’s warehouse. It included all material from his free EP “Chemistry,” including “My Volvo” a song with the catchiest hook to come out of Seattle since Mix A Lot was on the scene, and it was capped with an a capella freestyle. Also appearing on the KEXP stage were nine-piece Americana band The Maldives prior to their packed set at Neumos. Kevin Murphy, frontman for The Moondoggies, a band that rocked the main stage at the beginning of the day, also played a solo set at the impromptu stage that had a backdrop of bags of coffee beans. 

Sonic Youth also dropped by the KEXP/Vita stage to do a quick Q&A with Andrew Matson of the Seattle Times. During the 10-minute interview Kim Gordon shared her views on social media (she doesn’t like blogs and encouraged everyone to delete their Facebook profiles), Lee Ranaldo said he dropped by SAM on Saturday to check out some art and Thurston Moore barely said a thing. But its didn’t matter that the interview wasn’t probing — it was just cool to be in the same room as Sonic Youth. It was like the Block Party’s own mini SXSW panel.

The Youth hold court

Kevin Murphy of The Moondoggies

While Sonic Youth was being interviewed, Beth Ditto proved herself to be soul punk goddess during Gossip’s set. Her amazing pipes combined with her charisma and energy seemed unstoppable. Gossip’s cover of Aaliyah’s “Are You That Somebody” was an unexpected surprise. Less surprising, but still a bit of a surprise, was The Thermals‘ cover of Green Day’s “Basket Case,” a song they covered at the Pitchfork Music Fest.

I wasn’t able to see Truckasaurus because there were lines out both entrances at least 20 people deep waiting to get in to Neumos. The same thing prevented me from catching The Moondoggies. At a festival where there lots of national talent, it was nice to see the local groups get lots and lots of love too.

You can catch the Ear Candy Day 1 Report here and check out more Seattle music coverage at EarCandyBeat.com

The first day of Capitol Hill Block Party 2009 was about logistics. And music, of course. This first day wasn’t as crowded as last year’s first day which made for nice access in and out of venues and stage areas. The new layout worked well and the decision to make Neumos 21 and older made for a tolerable crowd size there too, which was a welcome change from last year’s fest.

I got a tip about a special KEXP stage sponsored by Caffe Vita and the Seattle Times so I headed there right away. The stage, which required a special ticket, was in front of hundreds of bags of coffee beans, making it perhaps the most appropriately Seattle stage ever.

A band whose music I will be looking into ASAP is Band of Skulls. This UK trio played the best set I saw in the afternoon. It was outright massive and loud rock. But it wasn’t just me who was won over by their unabashed rock asssault, They managed to impress nearly every one of my fellow music jounos who saw them on the Neumos stage. If their album Baby Darling Doll Face Honey is half as good as their live set was it will easily be one of my favorite albums of the year.

Aside from the sweaty-versus-sexy rock battle, the other rock genre battle of the day was between two garage bands. Seattle’s The Blakes played Neumos at about the same time Atlanta’s Black Lips played the main stage. I caught two songs from each band and the clear winners were The Black Lips mostly because they got people to dance whereas The Blakes crowd was filled with your typical motionless hipster Capitol Hill set.

The last set of the night I saw was They Live! and it is not a stretch at all to say these guys are going to be big. Get them on the right tour or get them the right amount of exposure and they will blow up, so see them while you can. There is nothing happening in Seattle right now that can match They Live!’s energy, stage presence and rapping skills. Be warned Seattle, your next rap superstars are here and they are They Live!

The Capitol Hill Block Party starts Friday and with it comes tons of quality music that will be blaring from the streets of Seattle’s central hipster hangout. The Ear Candy crew will be there all weekend providing photos and reviews of the happenings as well as live updates via Twitter. Here are 10 local acts you simply must see if you’ll be spending the weekend at CHBP.

1) They Live! (10:00, Neumos, Friday)

Theses guys have been blowing up the local Internets. Every Seattle music blog has been abuzz with anticipation for their forthcoming EP, which will be released next month. They play conceptual hip hop that’s fun to dance to. Expect their set to be one big party.

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2) Past Lives (8:00, Vera stage, Friday)

Former members of the Blood Brothers band together to form another impressive post-punk band. Expect loud guitars and screaming. Hey, it’s former members of the Blood Brothers, what else did you expect?

The Blakes (Photo: Travis Hay/Ear Candy)

3) Wild Orchid Children (1:00, Vera stage, Saturday)

Fun, and somewhat spazzed out rock. An impressively loud and wild band that will likely make its mark during a weekend filled with many a loud and wild bands.

4) The Blakes (6:15, Neumos, Friday)

It’s been a couple of years since these guys dropped in on the Seattle scene with their booze-infused garage rock. Hopefully they have come back to us packing new material with their CHBP set.

5) New Faces (4:45, Vera stage, Saturday) 

This group of young Anacortes kids have been rapidly gaining momentum in the local rock landscape thanks to playing plenty of shows and a lot of airplay on Seattle’s favorite bastion of cool KEXP.

6) The Lonely Forest (7:15, Vera stage, Saturday) 

This is another group of youngsters that have been making a serious splash. Their record “We Sing The Body Electric” is one of  the most underrated local albums of the year.

7) The Dutchess and the Duke (4:00, Main stage, Friday)

If the Rolling Stones still made good music and they had a female singer some of their music might sound like this.

8) Sportn’ Life Showcase (feat. D Black, Fatal Luciano and Spaceman) (10:30, Neumos, Saturday)

Okay, so this is really three local artists, not one, but Seattle has so much quality hip hop talent and Sportin’ Life Records is one of the hottest 206 labels around right now that you simply have to see this showcase.

9) The Maldives (6:30, Neumos, Saturday)

This nine-piece roots-rock band just released its Tequila/Someday EP. It dropped in advance of its upcoming sophomore full-length due out on Mt Fuji Records next month.

10) Moondoggies (3:15, Main stage, Saturday)

If you’re not hip to the Moondoggies there’s no time like the present (or I guess really there is no time like 3:15 Saturday) to get wise to the foot-stomin’ rock of these Hardly Art stars. These guys are the rock ‘n’ roll kindred spirit to the Maldvies’ Appalachian-Northwest twang.

Bonus: The Gossip (9:00, Main stage, Saturday)

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Olympia’s soul punks The Gossip. I’ve never had the privlige of seeing them live so I am really looking forward to catching at least part of their set this weekend. Their new single. “Heavy Cross,” (see video above) is the iTunes free single of the week, so head on over to iTunes and cop that.

CHS is partnering with Ear Candy to cover this year’s Capitol Hill Block Party. You can follow live Twitter coverage here: http://twitter.com/earcandyblog