Victoria Jacob Photo

Hip-hop duo Das Racist is one of many “it” indie bands playing New London’s I AM Festival, Sept. 12.

I AM Festival
With Deerhoof, The Drums, Das Racist, Free Energy, Tim Easton, Pretty and Nice, Cassavettes, The Weird Beards, The Vultures, M.T. Bearington, Above Below, Total Bolsheviks, Chasing Trinity, Get Haunted. Noon-11 p.m. Sat., Sept. 12. Custom House Pier, Waterfront Park, New London. iamfest.org. Free.

In this, its fourth annual installment, the I AM Festival has affirmed — as if there had been much debate up to this point — its position as the preeminent and most reliably sweet indie rock festival in Connecticut. I AM returns to its established, sea-breezy pier-top perch in New London's Waterfront Park with its highest-profile lineup to date of touring acts and a cracking-as-always roster of Connecticut bands. And as always it's organized grassroots-style by a few dedicated New London scene-boosters and costs nothing for all to enjoy.

In years past, I AM (which stands for Independent Art and Music) has displayed a knack for showcasing acts positioned at the point of making good on their breaks and their buzz, just briefly before the point where, in retrospect, one could say they truly arrived. In 2006, that was party-minded pop-collagist Girl Talk and ebullient indie-poppers Matt and Kim, then still in the process of turning blogosphere praise into rapt audiences. Last year, that was Jay Reatard, who was at the time well-known-enough to headline the festival, but who's just experienced the year in which he became more an artist people listened to than one people read about.

This year, it's difficult to say who's in that position: Free Energy, a fairly traditional indie rock band, is currently raising eyebrows after signing to famed dance-rock/electro label DFA Records; The Drums, a poppy but compellingly arty Brooklyn band that's managed to gain a startling amount of buzz with only their first few shows; Pretty and Nice, signed to Sub Pop Records offshoot Hardly Art, has been touring for a while, but their nervy garage-pop seems destined for a larger audience than they already have. Even hip-hop duo Das Racist has the novelty/stoner rap blog hit "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" to their credit. Word on the Web is they want to be taken seriously now.

This year's I AM differs, though, in the sense that the headliner is a long-established indie rock mainstay still on top of their game — specifically, the inventive, charged, prolific San Francisco band Deerhoof.

"It's nice to have a name like Deerhoof to anchor onto, which we haven't really had," says Sean Murray, co-organizer and co-founder of the festival. "There's typically a head-scratcher —" Das Racist this year, Murray predicts. "I think [Free Energy] are gonna be the sleeper hit of the festival. I definitely think The Drums have that tag this year as the band you're gonna kick yourself for not seeing. It's only going to be literally their eighth or ninth show. But even The Drums and Das Racist are gonna be like, 'Where's Deerhoof?'"

While Deerhoof may be bringing fans down to New London from far and wide and the promise of seeing what's up with a handful of bands music bloggers are fawning over may specifically bring them down early in the afternoon, one of the I AM Festival's key characteristics is how bands from Connecticut (or close by) get to share these stages, and do so into the evening, helping assure them audiences that are fully awake and of a respectable headcount.

This year that includes New Haven's avant-skate rock trio The Vultures (who drop their long-awaited, razor-sharp first full-length Chingus exactly a week after I AM) and psych-pop ensemble M.T. Bearington (who had to cancel last year's festival but have continued to amass audience goodwill through 2009); Boston's Cassavettes (a band Murray was so excited about "I promised them I would book them once a month — I definitely haven't done that!"); and, from New London, ukulele-punker Brian Skidmore and his band The Weird Beards ("they've been getting a huge following as of late," Murray says. "They've been doing this for a while and are really coming into their own"); Total Bolsheviks (who Murray says have been accumulating "set pieces" for their show — "I'm wondering what the hell they're planning"); Get Haunted (featuring the former singer of The Royale Brothers); Above Below ("somewhere between eight and 12 people — it's like funk, hip-hop, jazz. They have a rapper who's a professor at Conn. College"); and Chasing Trinity ("they're really pushing the all-ages scene").

All this on two stages, plus a tent full of vendors and crafters. Briefly, attention will be on New London, the other city on the Connecticut shoreline with the word "New" in its name. And I AM's organizers are using that opportunity to boost fans, touring bands and local bands all in one brushstroke. It's a good thing to be. It's a good thing that I AM.