Pick Your Poison: Wednesday 5-14-14

When you really think about it, Chicago is incredibly blessed when it comes to music festivals. It’s the third largest city in the country, but first when it comes to fests. L.A. doesn’t really have a major festival unless you count Coachella which is out in the desert a couple hours away. New York has things like Governor’s Ball and The Roots Picnic, but they’re not necessarily massive spectacles. The city has plenty of shows, most are just spread out all over the place instead of concentrated at a big festival. And while other major cities like Seattle, San Francisco and Austin all have multiple music festivals, none are quite the collection that Chicago has, which includes Lollapalooza, Pitchfork, Wavefront, and North Coast, just to name a few. But the one I really want to talk about right now is Riot Fest & Carnival. They just announced a majority of their lineup, and suddenly have established themselves as a major player in the music festival world. This marks the 10th anniversary of Riot Fest, and I guess they wanted to pull out all the stops. Originally started as a punk rock festival in line with the Warped Tour (minus the tour part), the last couple of years they’ve moved away from that theme a bit to incorporate different types of bands, ideally to bring in a greater collection of people. Last year they orchestrated a big “get” in having The Replacements headline in what were their first reunion shows (and pretty much the only ones they did in 2013 I think). That, plus bands like The Dismemberment Plan and Pixies were enough to get me out to Humboldt Park for a day that was a little rainy but also delightful. This year I’m automatically in for all three days thanks to a stacked bill that includes The Cure, Jane’s Addiction, The National, Rise Against, Weezer, The Flaming Lips, Slayer, The Offspring, Wu-Tang Clan, Samhain, Descendents, Tegan and Sara, Metric, Cheap Trick, Patti Smith, Mastodon, Afghan Whigs, Pussy Riot, Superchunk, Naked Raygun, Failure, The Dandy Warhols, Andrew W.K., Kurt Vile, The Get Up Kids, Motion City Soundtrack, Hot Snakes, Thurston Moore, The Pizza Underground, The Hotelier and a whole lot more. There’s plenty I want to see, and you should come out September 12-14 if you can make it. Three day passes are on sale now and can be purchased here. There are also smaller Riot Fests in Denver and Toronto during different weekends in September if you’d prefer, but Chicago is the big one. It might be my favorite festival lineup for 2014, though Pitchfork is fighting hard for that honor, as it does every year. Okay, let’s get to today’s Pick Your Poison. Good tracks in this set come from Champagne Jerry (ft. Kathleen Hanna), Flagship, Fur Cough, The Landing, Malibu Shark Attack and TOTEM. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from Cheerleader, Greys, Joan As Police Woman, LCTRISC, and Sharon van Etten.