Category: pitchfork music festival Page 7 of 8

Pitchfork Music Festival 2012: Saturday Recap

On 07/15/2012

In chicago, class of 2012, live music, music, music festivals, pitchfork music festival, pitchfork music festival 2012, show review

Boy, I am bushed. Two days of music, rain and sun can wear a person out. To think there’s still one more to go. It’s going to be an interesting Sunday, that’s for sure. But let’s talk about Saturday for now. The only day to sell out at this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, it was also the day to boast the best lineup. I did my best to see as much as possible, which sometimes meant dropping in and out of sets when I did and didn’t want to. Let me sum the whole day up for you, artist by artist and timeslot by timeslot, as we did on Friday.

My day started with Cloud Nothings, whose name turned out to be ironic because while they were playing was when the dark clouds rolled in. After getting through some of their best moments on their great album Attack on Memory, it started to pour. As the heavy rain began to soak everything and everyone, the band launched into their 9-minute instrumental “Wasted Days.” The guitars chugged and the drums beat with furious hellfire, and the crowd mostly stayed in place and loved every single second of it. You could say the rain built in intensity along with the song. As they neared the finish line, the rain blew out the main set of speakers, and so only the on-stage monitors were left working. The band kept playing, and though you could barely hear it on the outskirts of the stage, their endurance was nothing short of impressive. It’s quite possible they risked their lives by continuing to play in such a downpour, and their reward was a die-hard enthusiastic response from the crowd. They weren’t able to finish their set, but when they threw their guitars down after their lengthy opus, they seemed resilient and grateful to the crowd for sticking around. It was absolutely worth every second, and made for one of the most memorable moments of the festival so far.

Starting immediately after Cloud Nothings’ aborted set, Atlas Sound saw the crowd was there early and just took the extra time. The rain had pretty much stopped the moment Cloud Nothings left their stage, so Bradford Cox played to a soggy park. He stuck to the back half of the stage, as the front half was quite wet, and brought nothing with him except for a guitar, a harmonica, and a pedal that cued various sounds. His set was remarkably formless, and appearing in whiteface and a small tan hat, he seemed ready to channel Bob Dylan. Unfortunately, his improvisational style and reworked melodies were rendered ineffective on a festival crowd. Having just come from a thrilling Cloud Nothings set, I was bored out of my skull for the first 10 minutes. Then I left, only to return after stopping to see Liturgy and feeling like my ears were being punished. From what I understand, Liturgy was having some sound issues early on. What I heard was one loud electric guitar, another louder electric guitar, machine gun drums and vocals that were more animal grunts than words. Having heard Liturgy’s records, I”m surprised at how their live show sounds not a whole lot like them. Returning to see the end of Atlas Sound’s set, he fared a little better than the first half, but all I really wanted was for Cults to start next.

Did I mention it started raining again when I went over to see Liturgy? Well, it did, and the rain kept up even as Cults prepared to take the stage. By the time they did though, the skies opened up and the sun started shining. The crowd let out a huge cheer when that happened. Seconds later, they cheered again as Cults started performing. Their bright indie pop was pretty much perfect for the weather conditions at hand, and based on the huge crowd that was watching them, everyone else seemed to feel that way too. They powered through their self-titled debut album, and mixed it up a little with a new song or two. It was an overly pleasant experience, memorable because of how it worked out, but there wasn’t anything extraordinary about it. I even popped over to see Youth Lagoon for a few minutes, more to take some photos than enjoy his set. Trevor Powers is a nice guy and he made a great record last year, but it’s not always the most engaging thing to watch live. He was actually better and more energetic than the last time I saw him, but he still couldn’t quite match what was happening over at Cults.

Things really clicked into high gear with Flying Lotus. So many DJs and producers spend their live sets sitting behind a table, twisting knobs and pushing buttons. I heard Clams Casino was like that on Friday and it was a little boring to watch. At least Flying Lotus was dancing, smiling and pushing buttons with exaggerated motions. That he was mixing and remixing popular hip hop was a bonus too, thrown in amongst his original material. The crowd was totally into it, and even moreso when tracks from Watch the Throne and the Beastie Boys came up. A rapper friend of his came out and added some vocals to some tracks and also functioned as a proverbial hype man, and the whole thing went off pretty splendidly. It became the most fun set of the day at that point, though we were only about halfway done.

Shortly before Flying Lotus wrapped up, I left to see some of Nicolas Jaar out of a devotion to my Class of 2012 artists. Upon arriving at the Blue stage, he hadn’t started despite it being 15 minutes past his printed set time. Apparently after Youth Lagoon ended on time, Jaar spent an exorbitantly long amount of time soundchecking. He finally started about 20-25 minutes late, which would throw off that stage for the rest of the day. Still, for the 15 or so minutes I watched his set, it was really, really good. So good, it pained me to leave for Wild Flag’s set. Jaar and his two man crew of a saxophone and guitar player were working on a formless composition that evolved over time, but had all these interesting nooks and crannies to keep you engaged. I wouldn’t exactly say it was perfect for a festival (the last time I saw him was in a church, which was perfect), but it was still remarkably effective.

Wild Flag is simply too good of a band to miss. Their talents are immense, and Carrie Brownstein is one of my all-time favorite guitar players. Come to think of it, Janet Weiss is one of my all-time favorite drummers too. Mary Timony is just fine, and Rebecca Cole is sort of Wild Flag’s secret weapon. She plays multiple instruments and adds little flavors to songs you might not notice initially but catch the closer attention you pay to her. One of my favorite moments in Wild Flag’s set was their cover of Television’s “See No Evil,” one of the more underrated rock songs of all time. They also played some new tracks that sounded great, not to mention my personal favorite off their self-titled debut, the nine minute “Racehorse.” I’m still upset that Sleater-Kinney is on “indefinite hiatus,” but Wild Flag as their close cousin works well in the meantime.

While the crowd was large for Wild Flag, it became astronomically huge for Sleigh Bells. After playing the small stage at Pitchfork two years ago and being paired up against the headliner that night, Sleigh Bells returned, bigger and more badass than ever before. They’ve got an extra guitarist to make their songs even louder, and a wall of amps to help accomodate for that. Alexis Krauss is a great and engaging frontwoman, running around the stage, throwing her fist into the air, screaming, and diving into the crowd. They loved every single second of the set, by the way. Jumping from “Demons” to “Crown on the Ground” to “COmeback Kid” to “Infinity Guitars,” there was no shortage of head banging hits, even as a song like “Rill Rill” provided some nice buffer from those moments. Sleigh Bells may have stolen the title of “Biggest Crowd Pleaser” from Flying Lotus earlier in the day.

With the Blue stage now delayed, I waited a bit before making my way to see some Chromatics. Their album Kill for Love is one of my favorites of 2012, and I was itching to see how well it translated live. Due to their own sound problems, Chromatics were about 25 minutes late to Nicolas Jaar’s 20, so in other words the delays were growing larger. Like Jaar though, when they got started, their set was golden. I was only able to catch part of their set, but the renditions of “These Streets Will Never Look the Same,” “Kill for Love” and “Lady” were all as good or better than their recorded versions. Word on the street is they also played their cover of Kate Bush’s classic “Running Up That Hill,” which I’m very sad to have missed. Hot Chip beckoned me away. I’m definitely going to have to see Chromatics the next time they’re in Chicago.

As for Hot Chip, their set went about as expected. The crowd was huge, they played all their dance hits, and everyone danced along to them. To say that it was fun would be an understatement. I even saw some senior citizens in their 60’s dancing like and keeping up with 25 year olds. Having seen Hot Chip live about 4 times now, I actually think this time was my personal favorite. I think they had just the right balance of songs to keep the energy super high and give the crowd exactly what they wanted. The sun was starting to set, the temperature went down by a few degrees, and everyone was in just the right mood, as they were with Cut Copy around the same time last year. The overall response might not have been explosive, but maybe that’s because people were too busy with their hands in the air.

Like Friday night, I chose to spend the headlining sets divided between the Green and Blue stages. Starting with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, spending time with Grimes, then returning to Godspeed before the end of the night. I got to see the first half hour of Godspeed because Grimes’ start time was delayed thanks to Nicolas Jaar and Chromatics earlier in the day. I expected many of their soundscapes to be quieter than they actually were, as I estimated many in the crowd wouldn’t understand what the band was trying to accomplish and would start talking out of sheer boredom. The good news is that the speakers were turned way up, so even the more minor moments were amplified to where you might have trouble hearing the person next to you. All the better, because Godspeed excels when you allow yourself to get lost in the music. They had a projector going behind them, providing visuals to go with the songs, and in combination it was both a beautiful and ugly experience. They were building to something when I left to go see Grimes, and when I returned for the final 20 minutes they were raging with an intensity I’ve grown to love out of their music. It was supremely impressive, but also just a little depressing to see the lack of a crowd watching them. Many people headed for the exits after Hot Chip, while plenty of others headed for Grimes.

But speaking of Grimes, Claire Boucher seems to be well on her way towards becoming a legitimate pop star. The Blue stage was more packed than I think I’ve ever seen it, and so many were there to keep the dance party going after Hot Chip. Boucher naturally obliged, running through some of the bigger moments on her latest album Visions, including “Genesis,” “Oblivion” and “Be A Body.” I’ve seen her perform twice already this year, and the first time I thought she was perfect, while the second she couldn’t have been worse. That second time wasn’t really her fault though, as she didn’t really get a soundcheck and was very, very sick. She was in good health at Pitchfork though, and has actually only gotten better at making her show run smoothly. She’s started to excel at looping her vocals and other bits, she dances a lot more, and has actual dancers to accompany her as well. If she’s gotten so much better in the four months since I last saw her, I wonder how well she’ll be doing in another year. I’m excited to find out.

Pitchfork Music Festival 2012: Friday Recap

By Faronheit

On 07/14/2012

In chicago, class of 2012, live music, music, music festivals, pitchfork music festival, pitchfork music festival 2012

When the Pitchfork Music Festival falls on a Friday the 13th, strange things are bound to happen. It was little surprise then that they did. The first and foremost issue to come up was the weather. The forecast said sunny and 90 degrees with a 20% chance of scattered thunderstorms. Shortly before the gates were set to open for the day, that 20% became 100%. A raging severe thunderstorm cell rode through Union Park, complete with a great lightning show and heavy downpour. It was already past 3pm when things calmed back down, and the gates weren’t even open yet due to the weather. Once they finally did get things cleaned up and ready, set times wound up delayed by 15-30 minutes for a bit (or permanently at the small Blue stage). Of course it only took a couple more hours before another storm cell rolled through, right around when A$AP Rocky and Tim Hecker were performing on separate stages. No lightning or thunder this time (there was plenty of that happening on and off the stage at A$AP Rocky), just steady rain that went on for what seemed like hours but was more like 40 minutes. To top it all off, my phone stopped working right around when that second storm hit, and so when people texted, called or Tweeted at me, I had no idea. It became a huge mess. Still, I lived to tell the tale of Friday the 13th at the Pitchfork Music Festival. Let me relate back to you what I saw today, music-wise. I took a bunch of photos too, but for the sake of time and editing I’m going to wait until the end of the weekend to publish those.

When the gates finally opened a little late, Lower Dens took the stage about as quickly as they could. They wasted no time crafting a brooding and dark atmosphere in Union Park, all of which was aided by the dark clouds overhead. Sonically, it presented a nightmare scenario, in the best sort of way. Visually, it was a bit boring. Jana Hunter and the rest of the band pretty much stood in the same spots all show, not moving much or even addressing the crowd. When Hunter did say something, it wasn’t exactly prolific or all that related to the crowd or location. “There are like, 50 porta potties over there. Did you know that? It’s a lot,” was just one of her between-song “gems.” Nice as it was to see Lower Dens perform, they don’t seem to take that word’s meaning at face value. At least the weather helped. Imagine what it’d feel like if they’d played those songs with the sun beating down on them at a fierce 95 degrees.

Because the Blue stage was under a delay because of the weather, I spent some time at the Green stage watching The Olivia Tremor Control. The Elephant 6 collective had eight people on stage, and looked like they’d just stepped out of an early ’90s time machine. That is to say they haven’t lost a beat from their heyday, even if they look a bit older. As they ran through some of their classics, sometimes smiles would erupt on their faces or they’d jump up and down to try and throw just a little more energy into a song. Their lighthearted melodies kept hopes alive for a great day at the festival too, which is more than can be said about Lower Dens. Part of me hoped that friend and former band member Jeff Mangum might make one of his trademark appearances, but I also knew that he’d probably be playing his own Neutral Milk Hotel set if that were the case. Alas, it was not to be. Still, it was nice to see OTC still doing what they do best, even if their time was slightly impacted by rain.

In the middle of The Olivia Tremor Control’s set, I decided to pop over to the Blue stage for a few minutes to see how Chicagoan Willis Earl Beal was doing. It was almost like walking into a completely different world. The OTC had 8 people on stage, Beal was by himself. They played instruments, and Beal sang along to some reel-to-reel tapes. They featured goofy and fun energy while Beal moaned of heartbreak and pain like a man that’s experienced both in large quantities. Beal created his own dramatic world inside his head, and was acting out plot points on that stage. It was harrowing and intense stuff, with wry bits of humor mixed in. He genuinely seems like a good guy, and with any luck this is only the start of success for him.

A$AP Rocky never seems to go anywhere alone. He’s got a whole crew called the A$AP Mob to support anything he says or does. When I saw A$AP Rocky perform at SXSW this past March, he was over 45 minutes late to his set, and the Mob did their best to cover for him the entire time, mostly by whipping the crowd into a frenzy. That’s essentially what hype crews are supposed to do anyways. For their Pitchfork set, the Mob performed two songs featuring individual members before Rocky emerged on stage. By that point, the rain had started and people were looking to get crazy. So too was Rocky and his Mob. There were stage dives and crowd surfing and chants (oh my, the chants!). Those guys had the crowd eating out of the palms of their hands, and it was used to good effect too. Between asking people to throw weed onto the stage and breaking up a violent altercation, it was a good day for A$AP Rocky. It was a good set too – one of the better ones I’ve seen in recent memory.

With the heavy rains during A$AP Rocky, I sought shelter under some trees near the front gates of the festival where I could still keep an eye on the stage. That didn’t stop me from spotting about a half dozen teens jumping over the fence and off porta potties to get in for free. Security was often swift in catching them, however a couple went undetected. These sort of things happen at every major music festival. I thought it was much less of a problem at Pitchfork, but after 6 people did it in 30 minutes, maybe that’s not the case.

Japandroids were up next on my schedule, and I was still buzzed from having seen them perform a few songs the day before at the intimate Lincoln Hall for an NPR taping. The songs Japandroids make seem built for stadiums, or at least outdoor music festivals, so I was ecstatic to see if it’d translate well. The answer wound up being both yes and no. To hear a song like “The House That Heaven Built” performed live is to watch a crowd get whipped into a frenzy that’s worthy of a stage jump or some crowd surfing in celebration. Brian King and David Prowse appear to be working so hard on stage to make every single moment count, like they want every single show of theirs to be their best yet. The desire to consistently top yourself is admirable, but I was left scratching my head at how the crowd was responding to the band. There was a somewhat large section of people front and center for that set, and they fist pumped and shouted along with every word, like a good Japandroids fan might do. Everyone else, or about 3/4ths of the crowd, simply stood there, expressionless. A truly great show affects everyone and converts the unconvertable. You’re in the presence of something so energized, exciting and fun you can’t help but throw your fist into the air too. Whose fault was it that didn’t happen? I’m not about to point fingers.

Dirty Projectors are a very good and very impressive band. Their intricacies in putting songs together sound intense on record, but imagine how they slam everything together live. There are so many harmonies to perfect and errant instruments to tweak it can be a lot of work. Frontman Dave Longstreth takes a lot of the credit for the overall sound of the band, and he did his best to make that vision a reality in the most entertaining way possible. The trio of female vocalists that includes Amber Coffman, Haley Dekle and Olga Bell were almost locked into their positions as they needed to be near a microphone most of the time. When he wasn’t playing guitar, Longstreth wandered around the stage and made attempts to engage the crowd. It wasn’t a whole lot to work with from a crowd perspective, but it sounded really great.

They key decision on which headliner to see was made with the ultimate realization that a smart music fan could see both acts with minimal interference. Purity Ring’s set was running a little late because that’s how the Blue stage was all day with the rain delay. So you could watch 20 minutes of Feist, go see a set by a band whose debut album isn’t out yet (so there’s not much material to play), and then return for another 30 minutes of Feist. Guess what? That’s exactly what I did.

The last time I saw Purity Ring, it was in a church at SXSW, and they politely requested that every single light in the place be turned off. Darkness is essential to their performance, because there’s a really cool visual element to it beyond the actual music. So unlike most of the bands that had their feet glued to the floor during their set next to a plain backdrop, Purity Ring kept you engaged with blinking lights. Many of the percussion elements were activated when Corin Tucker struck a multicolored lightbulb, and the stage setup also included some hanging beehive-like lamps that glowed and pulsated with the beats. Singer Megan James pranced around the stage and played with a construction light, and sometimes she’d strike a bass drum with a mallet. Yes, it’d light up too whenever she did that. Impressive as it was visually, sonically it left a little to be desired. The hits like “Belispeak” and “Lofticries” were met with enthusiastic responses from the crowd, but on the whole it felt like there wasn’t quite enough audible variation outside of the singles to institute a dance party or a greater response than simply, “Look at the pretty lights!”

Watching Feist‘s set felt a lot like watching a VH1 Storytellers episode. She had on her nice white dress and told some nice stories about her music, and she played with her band, backup singers and all. The songs were pleasant to hear, and she featured a lot from her Metals album because it’s her latest (and also her weakest). Maybe it was the rain earlier, or the inclination by many that Feist isn’t among indie rock’s top women anymore, but the crowd watching her set was shockingly thin. After hanging in the back for a bit, I wanted to see how close I could get to the front before the crowd got too thick. I didn’t make it all the way there, but I came pretty close. Having said all that, it might appear that I’m anti-Feist. That’s absolutely not true. I think her first two albums are great, and hearing “I Feel It All” complete with a rip-roaring guitar solo from Feist made my night. I didn’t know she had that in her, and it makes me want to hear her try more of that on future records. She also didn’t play her biggest hit, “1,2,3,4,” which while I’m sure left some disappointed, actually made me admire her more. Now if she would have played “Mushaboom,” I probably would have loved her forever. Maybe next time. For now though, her Friday night closing set had a very natural and relaxed feel to it. With some of the turbulence that happened earlier in the day that was weather-related and other-related, that sort of vibe was needed.

Pitchfork Music Festival 2012: Day 3 Preview

By Faronheit

On 07/12/2012

In chicago, lists, live music, music, music festivals, pitchfork music festival, pitchfork music festival 2012

As Pitchfork Music Festival weekend is nearly upon us, you may be wondering: What’s the weather going to be like? My response to that is: Let me tell you! At the moment, Friday will be sunny and 90 degrees for a high. Saturday will be 85 degrees with a 40% chance of scattered thunderstorms. Statistically speaking there’s a 60% chance we WON’T have thunderstorms then. Finally, on Sunday it’s set to be 88 degrees and sunny. Pitchfork Music Fest weekends have been much, much worse in the past. Still, with all that sun and with pretty hot temperatures at hand, there are two essentials you’ll need all weekend: water and sunscreen. Stay hydrated and avoid sunburn. Those are the keys to a successful weekend not just at Pitchfork, but everywhere. Cue the shooting star and “The More You Know” graphic. Okay, so the last couple days I’ve run previews for Day One and Day Two of the festival, along with a collection of songs from every artist performing and a carefully curated Spotify playlist. In other words, things are going along just swimmingly here during Pitchfork Music Festival Week. Today the preview coverage concludes with a look at the artists performing on Day 3, which is Sunday. Will it be great? Of course it will, and I’ll explain why in the paragraphs below. As usual, my personal picks for each day are highlighted with stars (**). As a manner of housekeeping, I’d also like to mention at this time that Pitchfork Music Festival coverage will continue all weekend long and through Monday, where I’ll bring you plenty of day-by-day recaps and share plenty of photos taken of the many bands performing. Keep an eye on my Twitter account as well for more up-to-the-minute updates during the fest. Thanks, and I hope you’re looking forward to this weekend as much as I am!

**A Lull (Blue Stage, 1:00)
Dirty Beaches (Green Stage, 1:00)
For the third day in a row, a local Chicago band is performing an opening set at the festival. That’s one of the nice things about the Pitchfork Music Fest is that they do try and give some love to the local music scene every year. A Lull is one of the more interesting bands you’ll find in Chicago these days, crafting tightly wound and endlessly fun but off-kilter psych-pop. They use a lot of tribal rhythms and harmonies amidst their drifting guitars and synths, and they do sound a bit like Animal Collective. That’s intended to be a compliment, by the way. As a contrast, Dirty Beaches doesn’t call Chicago home, but then again he’d be hard pressed to call any place home. Alex Zhang Hungtai is the man behind Dirty Beaches, and while he has associations with Taiwan and Canada, he’s spent most of his life drifting from country to country and never staying too long. That informs his music in a lot of ways, a lo-fi pastiche of ’50s doo-wop and rockabilly mixed with garage rock surges and arrangements that are forceful, minimal and threatening. His debut album Badlands is quite good, as is his live show reputation. Choosing between these two acts is tougher than you’d think, but I have to vote for A Lull out of local devotion, and because I find their sound a little more interesting and energetic than Dirty Beaches.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra (Red Stage, 1:45)
**Milk Music (Blue Stage, 1:55)
Sunday afternoon really becomes a battle of the lo-fi bands, and it all starts with Unknown Mortal Orchestra vs. Milk Music. While both bands have a home recorded and somewhat degraded quality to their music, the songs they create are certainly distinctive. They’re also a bit old school and camera shy. Nobody even knew who or what Unknown Mortal Orchestra was at first, because all that existed was a Bandcamp page with a couple songs on it. We’ve learned only a little more about them since then, but that doesn’t seem to matter too much, so long as the music is good. Their self-titled album came out last year to much critical acclaim, and songs like “Ffunny Ffriends” and “How Can You Luv Me?” are bouncy earworms that are fun and quirky. Expect their live show to be described in a similar way. Milk Music have virtually no presence on the Internet. Their website lists only tour dates and ways to buy their music (they only have one EP out). They didn’t have a Facebook page until recently, and have admitted that technology isn’t really their thing. Their music suggests the same. The Washington quartet takes the ’80s DIY hardcore rock scene as inspiration for their music. They’ve drawn comparisons to Dinosaur, Meat Puppets and Husker Du, and all feel warranted. Their set will likely be a head-banging and energetic good time. The smart and safe call would be to go with Unknown Mortal Orchestra here, however sometimes you need to go stupid and unsafe for the sake of a good time. I think Milk Music will be best at providing that.

**Iceage (Green Stage, 2:30)
**Thee Oh Sees (Blue Stage, 2:50)
With these two bands, you can’t go wrong. Either one you choose, you’re guaranteed to have an out-of-control and wild experience. The real question will be: Can they get the crowd on board with their antics? For Iceage, it’d be surprising if their set lasted more than 20 minutes. Their 25-minute debut album New Brigade came out last year with high praise and people calling it a welcome revival of the punk genre. Still in their teens and early 20s, they’ve got plenty of energy to spare, and their live shows have become notorious for moshing and body surfing by band members. Photos of fans walking away bloody, but with smiles on their faces should tell you all you need to know. Thee Oh Sees have less of a punk edge to their sound, but they’ve got more than enough energy and back catalogue to keep things exciting. They’re best described as a psych-pop band, and their swirling melodies will likely blast out your eardrums if you’re close enough to the stage. They run around like chickens with their heads chopped off, and scream song titles before launching into them. If you can’t handle that heat, then stay out of the kitchen. If you’re afraid for your ears or your physical health, maybe this point in the afternoon is a good time to take a break and explore some the non-music options the festival has to offer. For the rest of us, you can probably catch all of Iceage then 90% of Thee Oh Sees if you move quickly. I’d recommend trying both.

**Ty Segall (Red Stage, 3:20)
The Men (Blue Stage, 3:45)
The lo-fi noise rock love fest officially wraps up in the 3pm hour on Sunday with Ty Segall and The Men. Ty Segall is quickly turning into the new Robert Pollard, cranking out multiple albums over the course of a single year. Segall will release 3 full lengths in 2012, but his latest with his band is called Slaughterhouse. It is a wild, fuzz-laden and ear-destroying ride through a house of horrors with Segall as your carnival barker guide. It’s the sort of madness that brings back memories of the earliest records released by The Stooges, but with less emphasis on establishing a groove and more on peeling back pop hooks. In a live setting, Segall and the band are punishingly loud. If you’re close enough to a speaker, your ears could be ringing for days. Knowing you’ve been thoroughly rocked though, it won’t matter nearly as much. The Men are a loud rock band, but in a more reasonable ’90s indie rock sort of way. Their latest album Open Your Heart has gotten great reviews and drawn comparisons to both Foo Fighters and MC5. You can actually hear bits of both in their sound. Mostly though, The Men are a fun band that makes energetic and often loud rock songs, with a few instrumentals and softer bits in between. In other words, they’re a little more balanced out and nuanced than what you’ll get from the hyper-punk of Ty Segall. Both sets will be good, but I think Segall’s will both kick ass and take names.

Real Estate (Green Stage, 4:15)
**Kendrick Lamar (Blue Stage, 4:45)
If insane sets from Iceage, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall and The Men totally zapped you of your life force on a Sunday afternoon, there’s nothing better than finding a shady spot in the park and listening to some Real Estate. After two critically acclaimed full lengths and an EP, the band has established themselves as the perfect soundtrack band for a relaxing day at the beach. A shady grass oasis in Union Park runs relatively close to that setting, so try it out and see if it works. The last time Real Estate played the Pitchfork Music Festival, I liked their on stage vibe, but it was sleepy and not at all beneficial to the large crowd standing in the hot sun. Expect more of the same this year, so be smart and find a place for the drifting guitars to wash over your relaxed body. Kendrick Lamar earns my recommendation for this time slot not just because Real Estate’s set will be slow and drifting, but also because he’s a genuinely talented and formidable presence in hip hop. His 2011 album Section.80 was heralded by some as the “rebirth of West Coast rap,” and it came complete with some sort of secret connection to Dr. Dre. Whatever he’s up to and whoever he knows, Lamar holds his own by taking on introspective topics in his tracks and geeking out to things besides money and women. He’s absolutely an exciting new figure in hip hop, and with any luck he’ll be very popular very soon. Seeing him on the small Blue stage should be a treat.

**Chavez (Red Stage, 5:15)
Oneohtrix Point Never (Blue Stage, 5:45)
One of the things the talent bookers at Pitchfork Music Festival like to do is place a great reunited or “classic” indie band on the lineup. Typically, that band will play their set in the 5pm hour on Sunday. Superchunk did it last year. Actually, that doesn’t extend beyond last year, so I guess it can’t be called “typical.” I guess it was a poor train of thought. But for the second year in a row, a legendary indie band plays late Sunday afternoon. That honor goes to Chavez, and I guess a three year career with two great full lengths constitutes “legendary.” Gosh, I’m bad at this. But Chavez’s sound, in case you’re not familiar, is heavy on the guitar attacks, falling somewhere between post-punk and prog-metal. Comparisons to Guided By Voices and Shellac are pretty accurate, and via their very sporadic live shows since reuniting in 2006 have been pretty damn exciting. By comparison, Oneohtrix Point Never features zero guitars and his songs often glide along softly. Oneohtrix Point Never is the name under which Daniel Lopatin (of ’80s pop revivalists Ford & Lopatin) records solo. He takes in and repurposes old vocal recordings with fresh melodies and backing beats to accompany them. It makes for a fascinating listen, and earns its comparisons to things done by The Books. I’m not sure what he’ll do at Pitchfork, but if its anything like his albums there will be a creative ambience to it. It’s not so much dance music, but its beauty might just be the thing you need on a late Sunday afternoon.

**AraabMuzik (Green Stage, 6:15)
King Krule (Blue Stage, 6:45)
Similar to Clams Casino, AraabMuzik is another hip hop producer stepping out into the spotlight to showcase the many beats he’s created. So place another check mark in your instrumental electronica artist category. And while he has worked with A$AP Rocky and Cam’ron, many of the compositions that appeared on Electronic Dream weren’t exactly club bangers nor could you imagine somebody rapping over them. They were just a little too subdued and weird to make them seem mainstream, and that was actually a huge part of the charm. One of the most fascinating things about AraabMuzik is how he approaches his live performances, moving past simply pushing buttons and actually creating some beats and percussion work on stage. Very few electronica artists can operate with that sort of intensity and physical presence, and it’ll be something to behold at Union Park. For those wanting to hear a band play guitars, your option on the other side of the park is King Krule. Londoner Archy Marshall operates under the King Krule name, and to look at him you’d think the 18-year-old was actually even younger, what with his small frame and baby face. Yet listening to his deep crooner voice you’re almost instantly reminded of Leonard Cohen or Billy Bragg. Marshall also has a very distinctive sound, one which often merges jazz, rockabilly, electronica and hip hop. If you think that’s a weird description, try listening to some. It’s interesting stuff. Maybe not as interesting as what AraabMuzik is doing, but still interesting.

**Beach House (Red Stage, 7:25)
The Field (Blue Stage, 7:40)
Sunday will mark the third time Beach House have performed at the Pitchfork Music Festival, after sets in 2007 and 2010. It’s fascinating to think about how far they’ve come since then. both on their records and in their live performances. The early material was so soft, wispy and minimal, yet beautiful in the sort of way an antique gets when the light hits it just right. Nobody thought the duo would be able to top their last album Teen Dream from 2010, which wound up close to or at the top of many critics’ year-end lists. Shockingly, Bloom does reach a new peak for the band, giving their melodies more of a pulse and soaring skywards in ways that can actually connect with the larger and larger crowds they’ve been performing in front of. They may not be the most engaging live band, but they’ll make the most of their early evening time slot. The sun will be at just the right place in the sky to give everything that nostalgic glow present within the music. Axel Willner is otherwise known as The Field, and what he brings to the festival at such a late hour is some rather engaging experimental techno. He loves looping beats and other elements, going so far as to call his last record Looping State of Mind, and then throws actual instruments on top of them to give it more of a band feel. Being able to incorporate punk or shoegaze into an electronica track takes serious talent, which The Field has. You might not be able to dance to a lot of it, but it’s compelling, often beautiful stuff that in some ways is more effective on a crowd than Beach House’s calmer pastiche. This matchup is a tough call, but I think Beach House has the edge only because their material is slightly stronger.

**Vampire Weekend (Green Stage, 8:30)
As is custom on Sunday nights, the headlining act performs unopposed. Purity Ring plays against Feist on Friday night and Grimes plays against Godspeed You! Black Emperor on Saturday, but nobody plays against Vampire Weekend on Sunday. Of all the acts all weekend long, they’re probably the most popular anyways. I’m glad to see that Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig gave up a lucrative career in hip hop to start a band with his Ivy League friends that liberally draws on the Afropop stylings of Paul Simon. I hope that doesn’t come off as at all mean or menacing. Really I’m just joking around a little because there’s not a whole lot to say. Go see Vampire Weekend. Have lots of fun. Sing along to the songs you know. Get excited that they’ll probably play a few new ones too. It’ll be a nice and comfortable end to a nice and comfortable weekend. I’m happy to say that I’ll see you all on the other side.

Pitchfork Music Festival 2012: Day 2 Preview

By Faronheit

On 07/11/2012

In chicago, class of 2012, lineup, lists, live music, music, music festivals, pitchfork music festival, pitchfork music festival 2012

How are you getting to this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival? There’s a whole world of options out there for you to explore beyond simply driving yourself. Take a train, bus, bike or even walk if you’re close enough. Union Park is easily accessible via whatever form of transportation you choose. If you bike there, make sure to lock it up inside the Chicago Reader Bike Village, or risk returning to a stolen or unrideable bike. The neighborhood around the park isn’t super dangerous, but it’s not the safest in the city either. If you absolutely feel like driving is your only way to get there, maybe try and carpool with people that live near you. Amovens Ridesharing is a viable option too if you don’t mind traveling with a stranger or two. I’m not saying you have to take these options, I just wanted to make sure you were aware of them as a way to reduce your carbon footprint. Doing that, along with dropping any aluminum and plastic you see into the designated recycle bins placed throughout the park can really help make the festival green. That little environmental piece out of the way, let’s talk about what’s going to be happening in Union Park on Saturday. Like yesterday, I’ve broken down the bands performing hour-by-hour and designated my own suggestions with the double star(**). It’s a great day with some tough choices, so make sure you see what you can when you can! For music selections not only from artists playing Saturday, but the entire weekend, be sure to look through this post or stream things via this Spotify playlist.

**The Atlas Moth (Blue Stage, 1:00)
The Psychic Paramount (Green Stage, 1:00)
Saturday at Pitchfork Music Festival starts out HEAVY. By heavy, I mean LOUD. The Atlas Moth is a Chicago band that makes what’s consistently and accurately described as “doom metal.” Put a different way, it’s the soundtrack to your nightmares. Now just because nightmares have a negative reputation doesn’t mean The Atlas Moth should. These guys are more than just a metal band, because they do an excellent job trying to incorporate other elements from genres such as blues and psychedelia into their sound. You may want to bang your head and get inside of a mosh pit for their show, but if you can pay close attention to what’s happening on stage while you’re doing that, you’ll notice a band with a great ability to turn their guitars into an effective weapon. Similar things could be said about The Psychic Paramount, an instrumental trio out of New York. The sort of music they make is best described as experimental, but they certainly don’t know much about the word “silence.” There’s a ferocity to their songs that’s exciting and engaging, and even in the absence of lyrics there’s a sort of post-rock transcendence that shines through and can grab hold of your emotions. Their latest effort II is a very widescreen affair best experienced in an arena…or maybe even a music festival? The choice is tough between these two loud bands, but ultimately I think The Atlas Moth will put on the crazier show, giving your Saturday the wild start it deserves.

**Cloud Nothings (Red Stage, 1:45)
Lotus Plaza (Blue Stage, 1:55)
Choosing between Cloud Nothings and Lotus Plaza is the first of a few real challenges that Saturday presents in scheduling. Cloud Nothings are fresh off their critically acclaimed new album Attack on Memory, which is filled to the brim with fun, catchy and energetic punk tunes. Frontman Dylan Baldi may not seem like the type of guy who will tear his throat to shreds for a song, but he does it both on record and when performing with the utmost conviction. It’s definitely a site to behold, and also worth watching if you want to stay amped for the rest of the day. Lotus Plaza is the side project band of Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt, and they carefully balance the genres of psychedelia, shoegaze and dream pop to the point where all of those descriptors fail to fully capture what the band actually sounds like. That’s a good problem to have, and one of the reasons why their latest album Spooky Action at a Distance earned quite a bit of praise from critics and fans alike. Listening to them perform such well-structured and breezy tracks might actually make it that much more enjoyable to be hanging out in the shade near the Blue stage. Still, I can’t help but think that since it’s not supposed to be blisteringly hot on Saturday, fun in the sun is where it’s going to be at. Keep some Atlas Moth energy going and jump around for Cloud Nothings.

**Atlas Sound (Green Stage, 2:30)
Liturgy (Blue Stage, 2:50)
It’s almost a sure thing that the Lotus Plaza and Atlas Sound sets will overlap. For those that don’t know, the irony is that both Lockett Pundt (Lotus Plaza) and Bradford Cox (Atlas Sound) are bandmates in Deerhunter. So it’ll kind of be battle of the side/solo projects. Atlas Sound made headlines last year for the drifting and beautiful record Parallax. Atlas Sound made headlines THIS year for agreeing to a fan request and performing “My Sharona”…for an hour. It was shocking, weird and kind of cool. Let’s hope he doesn’t repeat that though for his Pitchfork set, otherwise we’d miss such gems as the poppy “Mona Lisa” and the guitar rock of “My Angel is Broken.” Like The Atlas Moth earlier in the day, Liturgy is poised to deliver their own set of earth-scorching metal, though like most bands performing at the festival, that’s only part of their story. See, Liturgy is an anti-metal metal band. Translation: they make metal music, but everything about them suggests the opposite. They wear t-shirts and jeans instead of black leather get-ups and face paint. They sing about exploring religion instead of worshipping Satan. It still has all the heavy guitars and menace, just in a cleaner package. Liturgy may be outsiders to the metal community, but indie kids have a soft spot for them. So which of these two options is the better choice? Personal taste factors into it a little, but in terms of the overall quality of the music, I vote for Atlas Sound, even if his set might lack the energy and intensity Liturgy’s will definitely have.

**Cults (Red Stage, 3:20)
Youth Lagoon (Blue Stage, 3:45)
Cults are a fun band. They do indie pop right, and perhaps the best single of 2011 (or 2010 if you count the 7″ version) was their song “Go Outside.” It sparkled in all the right ways. Their self-titled debut album kept that train rolling and introduced new gems like the racing “Abducted” and the bouncy “Never Heal Myself.” They’ve been on tour for what seems like forever in support of that record, so it stands to argue that they’ve come up with a few new songs along the way. Perhaps they’ll introduce a few of them during their mid-afternoon set. Youth Lagoon also has a highly loved debut album that came out last year called The Year of Hibernation. Trevor Powers is the man behind the name, and he made a record of bedroom pop in his actual bedroom. There’s a hushed intimacy to his songs that evokes the mental image of sunlight streaming through the slats of some window blinds. Glorious and soaring as many of his songs may be, their subdued vibe might not fit well with the outdoor festival crowd. Still, playing on the Blue stage with some tree canopies can make for a nice break. I saw both Cults and Youth Lagoon perform in the same 24 hour period earlier this year, and while neither show was perfect, Cults were just a little bit better, which is why they earn my recommendation here.

Flying Lotus (Green Stage, 4:15)
**Nicolas Jaar (Blue Stage, 4:45)
If you really love experimental electronica, this point in your Saturday is going to be a tough one. Flying Lotus, also known as Steven Ellison, probably considers himself more of a producer than an actual musician. He takes sounds from various different music genres including jazz, hip hop and IDM, and swirls them all together to create something wholly unique and engaging. Sometimes that means songs are bouncy and upbeat and endlessly danceable, but other times a tangent will take over and you’ll be entranced by some slow motion saxophone or other disparate elements. By contrast, Nicolas Jaar plays sets that are a little more freeform. While he does have albums and mixtapes, which are collages of sounds and styles (very similar to Flying Lotus), he refuses to stick to a script. Depending on where and when he’s performing, he will customize that set with very little officially mapped out. He played a set in a church at SXSW this year and it was dark, respectful and introspective, with only brief flashes of danceable beats. In the space of an outdoor afternoon festival, he’s likely to go lighter, breezier and poppier. You still might not be able to dance to it, but there’s something exciting about the unpredictability of it all and the hope he might just stumble onto something truly transcendent.

**Wild Flag (Red Stage, 5:15)
Schoolboy Q (Blue Stage, 5:45)
Not many people, especially musicians, like to throw around the word “supergroup.” Yet when your band is formed out of members from other important bands, it becomes like the Avengers or Justice League, because with their powers combined shall come something greater than they can do on their own. With members Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney, Rebecca Cole of The Minders and Mary Timony of…Mary Timony, Wild Flag was born to rock. And they do, all over their self-titled debut album. Their songs are vigorous and punk-strewn, and it’s even more impressive to watch them perform. Sleater-Kinney obsessives may be just a little disappointed, as the wail of Corin Tucker is missed, but everything else about this band is spot-on and really what rock and roll should be. On the opposite end of the park and sonic spectrum, Schoolboy Q brings his dark tales of hip hop to a late afternoon set. The cover for his album Habits & Contradictions features a masked person licking his very serious face. It brings up the idea of having a “dark passenger” on your shoulder, tempting you and telling you what to do. Schoolboy Q is definitely in his own world, and in that sense it’s always exciting to hear what he’ll do or come up with next. Make your decision about which of these acts to see based on your own tastes.

**Sleigh Bells (Green Stage, 6:15)
**Chromatics (Blue Stage, 6:45)
The last time Sleigh Bells performed at the Pitchfork Music Festival, it was 2010 and they were up against Pavement’s headlining set and their first Chicago show in over a decade. In other words, it was tough to actively make the choice to see them. They were riding a huge wave of buzz too, thanks in no small part to their smashing debut Treats. The duo of Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss bring high octane energy to their shows, as he plays heavy riffs backed with electro beats and she bounces and sings along in her schoolgirl-like voice. That combination of hardcore and sugary sweet elements was bound to fizzle out sometime, but they proved resilient on their sophomore album Reign of Terror earlier this year by going deeper and more refined. The hype may have died down a bit, but Sleigh Bells’ live show is more engaging and dynamic than ever. And hey, they’re not playing against Pavement this time. They are playing against Chromatics though, an electro-pop group built by dynamo producer Johnny Jewel. Here’s an act that has the sort of buzz Sleigh Bells did 2 years ago. That’s mostly bolstered by the long-awaited release of their 90-minute opus known as Kill for Love earlier this year. It’s a glorious patchwork of dark alley instrumental electronica and synth-pop of the highest and catchiest order. While they lack the fire of Sleigh Bells, Chromatics make up for it with intensity. I’m calling this 6pm face-off a toss-up, and thanks to their sets starting 30 minutes apart from one another, you can see most of both. I recommend that you do.

**Hot Chip (Red Stage, 7:25)
Danny Brown (Blue Stage, 7:40)
On Sunday of last year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, dance band Cut Copy had the privilege of performing right before that night’s headliners TV on the Radio. With the sun starting to set and the crowd surprisingly riled up (maybe they were all at just the right level of drunk), Union Park became a massive dance party. Right around the same time but on Saturday instead, Hot Chip will take the stage. I expect an almost identical result. While the band’s previous album One Life Stand was a bit mellower and more serious than anything they’d done previously, Hot Chip’s latest record In Our Heads feels like a course correction with more mature songs you can dance to. Bring your green hat and we’ll get the party started. Danny Brown, meanwhile, is like many of the hip hop acts on this year’s lineup: operating on his own plane of existence. His screechy and weird vocals are unlike anything else in hip hop, to the point where many people turn his tracks off without giving him half a chance. They’re missing out though, because Brown’s words tend to tell of his own hardships in life (of which there are MANY), while also peppering in plenty of humor. Not many rappers are able to pull off that delicate balance, but Brown does it while wearing skinny jeans and a haircut best described as “distinctive.” He’s not exactly for me, which is why I’m handing this match-up to Hot Chip.

**Godspeed You! Black Emperor (Green Stage, 8:30)
**Grimes (Blue Stage, 8:40)
When you think about some of the polar opposite acts playing against one another in the same time slot, there’s probably none that sticks out more than Godspeed You! Black Emperor vs. Grimes. Here’s how it breaks down. Godspeed makes post-rock. It’s less the Sigur Ros or Explosions in the Sky sort of post-rock and more the art movie soundtrack sort of post-rock. Single tracks can go on for 20 or 30 minutes and roll over you like waves of emotion as violins mourn one minute and guitars rage the next. They project films onto a screen during their performances, functioning as visual aids to help pull you further into their progressive and oft-heartbreaking melodies. If people can actually shut up and pay attention to the music, GY!BE’s performance could be the weekend’s most revelatory and powerful set. The problem is you’re outside in the grass with your friends, one of whom is likely to say they’re “bored” before starting up a conversation. If it doesn’t happen to you it’ll happen to somebody near you, and the meaning of it all will likely be ruined. So maybe you take note and go see Grimes’ set, Her latest album Visions is futuristic pop of the highest order. Her entire goal when performing live is to get you to dance. She’ll be dancing while twisting knobs, playing keyboards and building vocal loops, and if she can do 5 things at once, you can do that one thing with her. The two times I’ve seen Grimes perform this year contained some of the best and worst moments I’ve ever seen at a live show. One of those times she was really sick though, so hopefully her health will be fine on Saturday night and things will proceed brilliantly. Coming off the dance party high Hot Chip will likely provide, Grimes will be the exceptional cap to what could be a very fun Saturday.

TOMORROW: PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL 2012 COVERAGE CONTINUES WITH A DAY 3 PREVIEW!

Pitchfork Music Festival 2012: Day 1 Preview

By Faronheit

On 07/10/2012

In chicago, class of 2012, lineup, lists, live music, music, music festivals, pitchfork music festival, pitchfork music festival 2012

Okay, so you’re headed to Union Park this weekend for the Pitchfork Music Festival, but are either confused or conflicted about who or what to see during your time there. Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us, even those that are familiar with 95% of the artists performing. Don’t fear, however. I’m here to help. Starting today and wrapping up on Thursday, we’ll take a day-by-day look at the “essesntial acts to see” at this year’s Pitchfork Fest. If you’re looking for some additional music education on these artists, make sure you have a look at this post, in which you can download or stream a song from every single artist on the lineup. Take a taste, and if you like what you hear, you can invest in a full album or maybe just go see that particular artist perform at the festival. That said, let’s get started with a look at your best bets for Friday. My personal picks are affixed with stars (**).

Outer Minds (Blue Stage, 3:20)
**Lower Dens (Red Stage, 3:30)
This year’s Pitchfork Music Festival starts off local. Chicago’s own Outer Minds have the designation of playing the first set of the weekend, and if you’re fortunate enough to get there early, there’s plenty to love about these guys. Their core sound is garage rock, but thanks to some fun harmonies and a few blistering guitar passages you could say there’s a psychedelic influence in there too. The band’s self-titled debut album came out in March, and you can stream or buy it digitally here. If their live show is anything like their record, it should be a really fun and energetic time. Facing off against Outer Minds will be Lower Dens, the Baltimore soft pop band whose latest record Nootropics is one of 2012’s finest offerings so far. Excellent as these songs may be, and as engaging of a frontwoman as Jana Hunter is, Lower Dens might best be described as “sleepy.” In other words, with the summer afternoon sun beating down on your face, it could be tough to enjoy the band’s darker yet slowly gorgeous melodies. You might be best off with the cutting energy of Outer Minds to start things right, however I’m giving the official recommendation to Lower Dens based solely on the strength of their material.

Willis Earl Beal (Blue Stage, 4:15)
**The Olivia Tremor Control (Green Stage, 4:35)
Willis Earl Beal’s debut album Acousmatic Sorcery is a thing of raw beauty. Another artist with strong ties to Chicago, his life story is as fascinating as his music. He’s been homeless, joined the Army, left CD-Rs of his music in random places, busked on the street, auditioned for The X Factor and posted flyers with his phone number on them encouraging people to call and he’d play a song for them. What do all these things say about the man? Well, in his 27 years you’d say he’s LIVED. The pain and hardship comes through in his powerful singing voice, which goes from a whisper to a gruff howl with very little effort. His set should be one of the most fascinating of the entire festival, and any fan of the blues and soul music should make an appointment to see it. On the other side of the park will be Olivia Tremor Control, and fans of the Elephant 6 collective of the ’90s will have plenty to get excited about. The band released two effortlessly catchy and classic indie pop records in the form of 1996’s Music from the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle and 1999’s Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One before breaking up. Their much heralded reunion in 2009 hasn’t resulted in a lot of large scale touring, so when they do play shows some excitement comes along with it. Also it’s not impossible to think that former band member and close friend Jeff Mangum might drop in for a song or two, simply because he can.

Tim Hecker (Blue Stage, 5:15)
**A$AP Rocky (Red Stage, 5:30)
The five o’clock hour on Friday brings together an interesting paradox of talent. Tim Hecker is a great Canadian producer and electronica composer whose last couple records have been deep and gorgeous soundscapes worthy of the critical acclaim they’ve received. You could also describe them as very serious and often intense examinations of the way technology and digital elements have overtaken traditional and organic instrumentation. What this really amounts to is that if you’re hoping to get some shade by the smaller Blue stage and just sort of relax for a bit on a blanket, listening to Tim Hecker will provide you with a cool breeze, even if nature doesn’t hand you one. As for A$AP Rocky, his star has been on the rise all year long. Fresh off the his LiveLoveA$AP mixtape, he and the A$AP Mob have courted controversy and violence in a way not all that dissimilar from the way Odd Future was doing last year. Of course Rocky has a reportedly three million dollar record deal, which also puts the stakes pretty high for his official debut album LongLiveA$AP when it comes out in September. Expect to hear him perform a bunch of that new stuff while the A$AP Mob riles up the crowd in between tracks. It could be a total disaster ending in some crowd insanity, or it could just be a whole lot of fun to watch. Either way, the guy might be the next Jay-Z or Kanye West, so best to see him now before the rest of the world sinks their teeth into him.

**Japandroids (Blue Stage, 6:15)
Big K.R.I.T. (Green Stage, 6:25)
Have you heard Celebration Rock yet? It is a triumph of an album for Japandroids, and one of 2012’s best rock records. If you like your guitars loud, your drums pounding, and anthems you can shout along with, Japandroids are not only the best thing happening in this time slot, but perhaps for all of Friday. Expect plenty of fists in the air, mosh pits and crowd surfing too. This is a high energy, high octane show, and these sorts of bands don’t come around as often anymore. Not only that, but Brian King and David Prowse are serious about their craft and play as if their lives depended on it. Celebrate life, celebrate rock and try not to get hurt while doing so. It’s quite likely that Big K.R.I.T. will bring a lot of energy and celebration to his set too, though his version of hip hop is a bit more conscientious and introspective than many others. Don’t worry though, that makes him one of the more unique voices in the genre these days, and his talent has been very apparent over his last couple records and mixtapes, most notably Return of 4Eva. You’re not going to get the style and flash of an A$AP Rocky, but he mines the nostalgia of the mid-’90s era of rap when the genre was so much more than that. If the idea sounds appealing to you, his set might have that same effect.

Clams Casino (Blue Stage, 7:15)
**Dirty Projectors (Red Stage, 7:20)
Clams Casino is the second instrumental act performing on Friday. Unlike Tim Hecker though, Clams Casino has made a name for himself by rather brilliantly producing a bunch of hip hop. Everyone from Soulja Boy to Lil B to A$AP Rocky (of course) have used his beats and instrumentals as backing for their own rhymes. Instead of letting those compositions sit behind vocals, Clams Casino has released a pair of free mixtapes and an EP containing pieces he’s worked on for others or just himself, all of it sans vocals (but not necessarily vocal samples). These things stand up so well on their own, he can play live shows with them and get people moving and/or shouting along if they happen to know some of the hip hop tracks the beats originally appeared on. Count on his set to be a good, danceable time. Then there’s Dirty Projectors, a band that has scooped up quite a bit of critical acclaim these last few years for their wildly inventive songs. My thoughts on the band’s latest opus Swing Lo Magellan can be found here, but in a nutshell it’s their most accessible and effortlessly enjoyable record to date. If you’ve heard Dirty Projectors before and didn’t like it, their live show surely won’t do anything to change your mind. What it will showcase are the impressive talents of Amber Coffman, Haley Dekle and Olga Bell, whose vocal ping-ponging must be seen to be believed. Frontman Dave Longstreth is the mastermind behind it all, and though he’s not the warmest or most personable guy in the world, he lets the music speak for him. You should be paying close attention.

**Purity Ring (Blue Stage, 8:20)
Feist (Green Stage, 8:20)
Purity Ring don’t have an album out yet. Their debut, Shrines, is set for release at the end of this month. In the meantime, there have been a few singles that have caught the ears of many a tastemaker. What makes this duo so unique is their ability to turn hip hop and electronica elements into compelling pop music. They actually like to describe it as “future pop,” and given the glitchy samples and fun other little tweaks they throw in against Megan James’ smooth vocals, that’s not far from the truth. Perhaps the main reason why they’re “headlining” the small Blue stage on Friday night has less to do with popularity (as that’s still steadily building) and more to do with how their live show is structured. At 8:20pm there will still be a bit of sunlight left, but Purity Ring prefer to perform in total darkness. Their stage setup includes multi-colored lightbulbs that pulsate and pound with the beats. So not only do the songs draw you in and stick with you, but you’ll likely remember the visual elements as well for quite some time. As for Feist, well, she’s simply a delight. Her records Let It Die and The Reminder were strong representations of female singer-songwriter pop. People fell in love with her thanks to cute songs like “Mushaboom” and “1,2,3,4”. Goofy choreographed music videos and a few acting appearances on comedy shows have only made her that much more endearing, which is why it was such a disappointment when her new album Metals didn’t fully follow in those footsteps. No worries though, because her headlining set at this year’s festival has every indication of being highly enjoyable and entertaining. She may even bring a few people from the crowd up on stage to spice things up a bit. She’s great like that. If you watch her set, there’s a high likelihood you’ll end the night smiling, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

TOMORROW: PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL 2012 COVERAGE CONTINUES WITH A DAY 2 PREVIEW!

Pitchfork Music Festival 2012: The Songs

By Faronheit

On 07/09/2012

In live music, mp3, music, music festivals, pitchfork music festival, pitchfork music festival 2012

Welcome to the start of Pitchfork Music Festival Week here at Faronheit! Starting today and going all the way through next Monday, I’ll be bringing you each and every play-by-play concerning the festival. That includes previewing the artists playing, commenting on how sets go during the fest, and a full post-mortem that includes plenty of photos. So I invite you to take this journey with me whether you’re going or not, primarily because it’s going to be a lot of fun and there’s so much great music involved. Want proof? This introductory post features music from every single artist performing this upcoming weekend. Most have mp3s for you to download, but some artists have Soundcloud streams only, because they prefer it that way. If you don’t want to download all of the songs below and like your taste testing via streaming, I’ve also assembled a Spotify playlist in which you can stream a track from (almost) every artist performing, AND it’s all carefully arranged in an order that is designed to create the most satisfying listening experience possible. Check that out if you’re so inclined. For everyone else though, feel free to take the songs posted below for a test drive to see what strikes your fancy. You might just discover your new favorite band even if you won’t be in Union Park this weekend!

Album Review: Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan [Domino]

By Faronheit

On 07/09/2012

In album review, BNM, music, pitchfork music festival, pitchfork music festival 2012

One of the most fascinating things about Dirty Projectors is how they continually evolve with each new record. It’s been almost 10 years since the band released The Glad Fact, which at the time really wasn’t much more than frontman Dave Longstreth and Yume Bitsu’s Adam Forkner playing oddball songs people had trouble describing. Things got even more fun in 2005 with The Getty Address, a concept “opera” that was about the destruction of the environment, 16th century explorer Hernan Cortes, and featured a main character named Don Henley. There was dense orchestration mixed with some more modern R&B beats that certainly gave it a unique feel and sound. When people started to earnestly pay attention to this eccentric and sometimes brilliant band was in 2007 with the release of Rise Above. The record was an attempt by Longstreth to re-interpret the classic Black Flag album Damaged track-by-track, in spite of not having listened to it in over 15 years. His focus also shifted away from epic, orchestral arrangements and more towards dense polyrhythms and visceral vocal harmonies. Band membership was somewhat streamlined too, and after working with a wide variety of people including members of Vampire Weekend, Dirty Projectors became a more comfortable five piece with people Longstreth actually seemed to care about. The real challenge was getting people to care too. Such wild musical ambitions often made for difficult results, and the critical love the band received didn’t exactly earn them a huge increase in fans. They are the sort of band best described as “not for everybody.” On their last album Bitte Orca however, they went a long way to help rectify that stigma by moving in a more accessible art-pop direction. Key elements such as West African-inspired guitar lines and offbeat percussion remained, but never had the band produced something that was so light, airy and altogether fun to listen to. After years of wandering through a desert of his own wildly strange vision, Longstreth had finally found the balance needed to take the band to the next level of success.

That was three years ago, and since then restlessness has once again gotten the better of Dirty Projectors. Never content to do the same thing twice, or even keep the same lineup for too long, there have been a few changes made in preparation for the release of the band’s new album Swing Lo Magellan. Keyboardist and singer Angel Deradoorian has taken a hiatus to focus on other projects, and drummer Brian McOmber left the band, with Mike Johnson taking his place. A close listen to the new single “Gun Has No Trigger” also yields some clues as to what’s in store on the new record. The arrangement is best described as minimal, with an unwavering beat and light flourishes of bass guitar being the only instruments used beyond Longstreth’s lead vocal and the harmonies of Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle. The poppy, R&B-like flavor of “Stillness Is the Move” off Bitte Orca is nowhere to be found. In fact, not one song on Swing Lo Magellan even comes close to that level of funky, resonating catchiness. That’s not the point though, because this is a fresh batch of songs written with different intentions in mind. Whereas the last album was very self-conscious by carefully reappropriating certain sounds in creative ways, Longstreth has called the new material deeper and more personal, but also more playful with an emphasis on writing great individual songs rather than leaning on an overarching theme. Instead of retreating from the more pop sensible and accessible song structures, the band drives even further towards them. The way they do it varies from song to song, as do the styles somewhat, but when you’re anchored by distinctive guitar playing along with equally distinctive percussion and vocal styles, those constants do great work keeping everything pretty uniform even when they’re anything but.

Swing Lo Magellan begins with Longstreth clearing his throat. It turns out to be the first of many raw “sounds of the studio” that appear on the album. “Unto Caesar” contains the most obvious use of the technique, with Coffman and Dekle asking, “When should we bust in the harmonies?” right in the middle of a verse, and later commenting on the lyrics with, “Uhh, that doesn’t make any sense, what you just said.” Such off the cuff moments actually lend the record quite a bit of levity and sharply reduce the impression that Longstreth is a bit anal retentive when it comes to song arrangement. Is almost everything else pieced together in an almost ironclad fashion? For the most part, but that’s another point Longstreth is trying to make: music should inspire you and relate to you rather than simply existing in a vacuum of your own complacency. Songs like “Offspring Are Blank,” “About to Die,” “Just from Chevron” and “Impregnable Question” tackle the big topics of birth, death, environmental disaster and love, because if you write about trivial things you’ll get trivial responses to your music. The whole thing is very nicely summed up at the end of the record with “Irresponsible Tune,” where Longstreth adopts a ’50s style croon and a lone acoustic guitar to make his case. “Without songs we’re lost/and life is pointless, harsh and long,” he espouses with the same sort of tender conviction that’s so effective across the rest of the album. Even if he sang it as though he didn’t believe it, that doesn’t make the words themselves any less correct.

What makes Swing Lo Magellan such a compelling listen is that you’re never able to put it into a box or describe it to someone easily. If you’ve heard a Dirty Projectors record before then you’ve probably got a reasonable grasp on what they sound like, even if words fail you. Opening track “Offspring Are Blank,” for example, is extremely organic in its initial approach, the melody created via humming voices and the rhythms sustained by handclaps. Three kids on a school playground can recreate it, no instruments needed. Until the chorus, that is, when the sky cracks open and the electric guitars and drums come to life next to Longstreth’s soaring vocal. The dynamic shift from quiet to loud and back again calls attention to the verse-chorus-verse nature of the song while also sucking you in with a dynamite hook. On a different side of the spectrum, “Just From Chevron” has no chorus or hook, and plays out as a story where Coffman and Dekle narrate the beginning and end while Longstreth belts out a meaty lead role through the middle portion. It’s a unique way to put together a song, but the lyrics about a dying oil employee’s final words are what sell and justify its existence. If you’ve ever wanted to hear Dirty Projectors get a little psychedelic, “Maybe That Was It” is a guitar-heavy dirge that’s one of the most normal things the band has ever done. There’s nothing inherently weird about it outside of some light effects applied to Longstreth’s vocals, yet such a straightforward approach almost leaves the song sounding like the odd man out. When you’ve got a record full of handclaps, alien-like harmonies and various electronic bric-a-brac, avoiding such things can give you the impression there’s something wrong.

Similar things could be said about the title track. Longstreth’s relaxed vocal is paired with a lightly strummed acoustic guitar and a very standard, unflinching snare rhythm. As he waxes poetic over those 2.5 minutes of folk, there’s something almost Dylanesque about it. That brings up a great point: Dave Longstreth and Bob Dylan have quite a lot in common. Both are very odd and mysterious creatures, about whom we know everything and nothing at the same time. The attitudes and opinions we’re supposed to glean from the songs themselves are nearly useless, because either the lyrics are too strange to make any sense out of, or the times we do understand will be contradicted in the next song or record. Interviews are awkward, and often classified as train wrecks. Yet in description, people tend to use the words “ahead of his time.” At the end of it all, the one thing we can remain sure of is that be it Longstreth with Dirty Projectors or Dylan and his band, we will always keep expecting the unexpected. It may not always work out or be the easiest to digest, but at least they’re still trying to reach that next level of greatness. That’s more than can be said about a vast majority of artists making music today.

Dirty Projectors – Gun Has No Trigger

Buy Swing Lo Magellan from Amazon

Album Review: Beach House – Bloom [Sub Pop/Bella Union]

By Faronheit

On 05/22/2012

In album review, BNM, music, pitchfork music festival

In the span of six years, Beach House have gone everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Their 2006 self-titled debut was met with warm embraces by virtually everyone that heard Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand’s soft and somber take on bedroom pop. The interweaving of carefully plucked electric guitar and lackadaisical keyboards next to Legrand’s emotional vocal style made for a grand base to build off of, and that’s essentially what they’ve spent their last couple records doing. Their popularity has continued to increase with each new effort, and in late 2009 they signed a new record deal with major indie label Sub Pop that only bolstered that profile more. It helped that their third record Teen Dream turned out to be one of 2010’s best, sending their subdued melodies skywards with all the grace of a freshly lit firework. The moving parts remained the same, but the dynamics had changed. It stands to reason that album put the band at a precipice, and the only way they could go from there was down. The real surprise is that their new record Bloom does nothing of the sort. If anything, the album title alone suggests that Beach House has finally blossomed into one of the most talented bands making music today. That the music is tighter and better than ever before only helps to prove that.

Perhaps the first thing you should know about Bloom is that you probably won’t fully grasp its power from a single listen alone. It’s a complicated piece best experienced in one 60 minute chunk rather than in singles or jumping around to perceived highlights. Each track is in many ways its own highlight, but together they build upon one another both instrumentally and emotionally. The main contrast with Teen Dream is that record primarily took the idea of a break-up and spent each track hashing and rehashing through the scars left behind. Great (and sad) though it was, the central idea often tried to cram too much into one song, and the consistent commentary on being mentally wounded by another person seems rather simplistic in retrospect. That was sort of the idea though, as Legrand and Scally said in interviews for that last album. They felt as if their first two records were a bit too slow moving and emotionally terse, and the idea with the third one was to open up a wider expanse with greater heft. Successful though it was, the thought of “too much, too fast” also applies quite well. Bloom seeks to smooth out those not very rough edges by keeping the big songs but trying to do less with them. They’re no longer shoving a truckload of food for thought down your throat in 3 minutes, but instead are exercising portion control.

The lyrical ideas and concepts that Legrand sings about are better organized and clearer on the whole, even as they tackle more abstract subject matter. What do you do and how do you feel about the loss of innocence in your youth? Can you hang onto those qualities that brought you such joyful moments as a kid? How does the divorce of your parents or your sibling falling victim to disease affect your life? Those aren’t lighthearted topics, but Beach House have never been a lighthearted band. Still, like any good memory bank there are thoughts on good times too; those fever dream moments that put a calm smile on your face. There’s an intimacy to them as well, because the emotional response such nostalgia triggers is unique to your own personal experience. This record does a fantastically subtle job of lending itself to become exactly what you want it to be at certain times. In that respect its brilliance lies with how much of yourself you invest in it. As a kid, did you ever have a toy or stuffed animal that you spoke to and had very personal “conversations” with? You hay have shared things with that inanimate object that nobody else knows about even today. Yet that toy or stuffed animal was manufactured in a plant somewhere and there were millions more like it shipped around the world to kids who also shared their unique hopes and fears with them. What we were looking for then was a sympathetic ear that passed no judgment and didn’t talk back. Bloom is kind of like the adult version of that. You can’t hug an mp3 (even if you can do that with a CD or vinyl record) or go on adventures with it, but you can listen carefully as Legrand’s voice draws you in and puts you at ease. Her words, though dark at times, are plainspoken and broad enough to give you the impression she’s singing to you and only you. “What comes after this momentary bliss?” she asks into the void on “Myth”. Instead of pondering that future, perhaps it’s best to simply enjoy the present.

For all the emotion and careful arrangement that went into making Bloom such a solid, singular piece of music, it winds up being Beach House’s most pop-friendly work to date. The verse-chorus-verse structure is in full effect on each track, and the hooks are hammered remarkably hard to make sure they stick in your head. Listen to the album enough times and you’ll be able to hear the chorus of almost every song in your head simply by reading its title. Strong as they all are, it’s “Wild” that earns the first spot on the mantle next to the band’s other classic tracks like “Master of None”, “Gila” and “Zebra”. Scally’s guitar work bounces off the figurative walls as the synths glide just beneath them with all the grace of a piece of ice on a hardwood floor. The drum machine motors along in classic Beach House style, and Legrand’s vocals both soar and ache at the same time. Somewhere around the middle of the record, it’s tempting to get lost in tracks like “The Hours” and “Troublemaker”, both of which don’t quite have the same effect as everything leading up to them. The purpose those songs serve though is to build towards the next peak. Like any number of post-rock bands that start a song quietly and get louder until the tension results in the bursting of a musical dam, that moment arrives in all its glory on “Wishes”. It’s a remarkable track on its own, but when paired with the couple songs leading into it there’s just a little more shimmer and sparkle in its step.

In more ways than one, shimmer and sparkle is a great way to describe Bloom as a whole. The experience of listening to it is akin to viewing a sunset on a placid lake or running through a lawn sprinkler on a hot summer’s day. Its gauzy beauty envelops you in its arms and comforts as much as it unsettles lyrically. Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand have found a way to make their already established sound come off as fresher and more gorgeous than ever before without sacrificing their best qualities. Very few artists have it in them to conjure up such a brilliant record in the direct wake of what many believed was a career watermark a mere two years earlier. This is their 1-2 punch like Radiohead’s OK Computer and Kid A or The Beatles’ Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. People will not only be talking about this album for the rest of 2012, but likely well beyond it too. For a record whose title and subject matter are all about the impermanence of life, love and relationships, Beach House have made something that may just last forever.

Buy Bloom from Amazon

Snapshot Review: Lower Dens – Nootropics [Ribbon Music]

By Faronheit

On 05/07/2012

In album review, mp3, music, pitchfork music festival, snapshot review

So much of music today is all flash with not a whole lot of substance to back it up. That’s not meant to reference live shows with towering stage set-ups and blinding strobe lights, though those sorts of things do factor in. No, this has much more to do with the way melodies are constructed, with upbeat energy and massive choruses. As is the case with people and life in general, sometimes the little or quieter moments carry the most meaning. Lower Dens seem to know this and embrace it. Their first album Twin-Hand Movement was a drifting, atmospheric set of music that played largely off progressive and shoegaze influences. Singer Jana Hunter, having established an offbeat solo career prior to forming this band, provided a haunting core to the group. Her voice mixed with the sparse instrumentals often landed the group somewhere between Beach House and The xx in the “recommended if you like” bin. Lower Dens’ second and newest effort Nootropics does what any good sophmore record should do and expands upon what’s already been established. Synths and a light sprinkling of electronica add depth and new wrinkles to the band’s otherwise guitar-focused sound, and they go a long way towards making the album shimmer in just the right light. The last album felt like it wasn’t entirely sure about what it wanted to be, occasionally drifting off the main route and onto side streets to explore uncharted territory. The confidence, poise and focus they’ve now attained enriches the new record in almost every way: the drums are just a little crisper, Hunter’s vocals ache and swirl just a little more, and the overall beauty just has that much more of a devastating impact. This isn’t an album that tells you how to feel with its lyrics, but instead one that carefully guides you with somber melodies that are difficult to ignore. To the rabid pop music fan, some of these nuances and subtleties can be lost or written off as boring. The album’s finale “In the End is the Beginning” hits its stride early on and then sustains itself for more than 12 minutes without quitting. The track “Lion in Winter” comes in two parts, though they effortlessly bleed into one another and play out over nearly eight minutes. Early single “Brains” plays with minimalist psychedelia for five minutes, then releases right into the more propulsive Neu-like groove of “Stem”. It’s through these pairings and slow motion sojourns that we’re supposed to allow the darkness to fully envelop us. There’s anxiety and despair in there too, but in spite of the record’s overall moodiness the beauty bleeds to the surface and makes everything easier to take. It wouldn’t calm your mind as well as it does if the opposite were true. Those qualities are a large part of Beach House’s aesthetic too, and Lower Dens sound more like them than ever on Nootropics. That’s especially true on tracks like “Propogation” and “Nova Anthem”. Where the two bands truly disconnect though is in their presentation. Victoria Legrand is a very present and up-front vocalist, which is evident from Beach House’s albums. She takes charge and lets her voice soar when the melody requires it, and the band’s music is often described as lush or full-bodied as a result. By contrast, Hunter’s presence on the new Lower Dens record is wispy and in many ways detached from the other instruments, as if she’s wary of the outside world and its ability to hurt her. That emotional blockage contributes to the album’s fragility and brings otherwise invisible moments into focus. So while it lacks a certain degree of heart, it more than makes up for that via smart, well-considered craftsmanship. With an album title that references so-called “smart drugs” designed to improve brain function, Lower Dens appear to have taken some before sitting down to make this record. Let’s hope what they learn here sticks with them for the future.

Lower Dens – Brains

Lower Dens- Propagation

Buy Nootropics from Amazon

Pick Your Poison: Thursday 4-5-12

By Faronheit

On 04/05/2012

In lineup, mp3, music, pick your poison, pitchfork music festival

Well friends, let me use this post to keep you apprised of some of the latest happenings with the good ‘ol Pitchfork Music Festival. The complete lineup was finally revealed today, after two separate doses of acts to try and get you interested earlier. The end result? I’m interested in this lineup but also a bit disappointed. Things are certainly less high profile than last year, even as Feist and Vampire Weekend are still pretty big names. My main concern is how good this is all going to sound in an outdoor, daytime setting. Artists like Beach House, Real Estate, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Clams Casino, among others, don’t exactly make music to be enjoyed under the sweltering sun. Now Sleigh Bells, Iceage, Wild Flag, Grimes and Cloud Nothings – those are acts to get you moving. There’s lots more hip hop this year too, none of which can be considered bad at a festival thanks to heavy beats and guys shouting instructions at you (hands in the air!). A$AP Rocky and Danny Brown at least should be good for some high energy halfway crazy sets. So though I might not be totally thrilled with this year’s lineup, I’m convinced things will turn out well anyways. Even if they don’t, it’s kind of nice just to hang out in Union Park with everyone. You can buy single-day passes to the festival for $45 by clicking here. You can have a look at the full lineup by going here. Come on out to the fest this July with me. We’ll have some fun, drink some beer and see some good live music. Okay, onto the business of Pick Your Poison. Recommended tracks today come from Alexander Tucker, Caltrop, Father John Misty (aka J. Tillman ex-Fleet Foxes), jj, King Tuff, Midnight Magic, MNDR, Ólafur Arnalds and Young Hines.

Alexander Tucker – Window Sill

Beast Make Bomb – Flagpole Sitta (Harvey Danger cover)

Caltrop – Birdsong

Conveyor – Mane

Dubious Ranger – The New Eve

Father John Misty – Nancy From Now On

The Funk Ark – Hey Mamajo

Giant Giant Sand – Forever and A Day

The Grey Area – Ourselves

jj – Beautiful Life

Joshua McCormack – The Phantom King

King Tuff – Bad Thing

Midnight Magic – Psycho For Your Love

MNDR – #1 in Heaven

Ólafur Arnalds – Allt varð hljótt

Paul Barker – reSpite

Wazu – Happy Endings

Young Hines – Can’t Explode

SOUNDCLOUD

Mr. Fogg – A Little Letting Go

Ny – Music

Pitchfork Music Festival 2011: Day 3 in Photos

By Faronheit

On 07/20/2011

In chicago, live music, music, music festivals, photos, pitchfork music festival, pitchfork music festival 2011

Click past the jump to see a whole lot of photos from Day 3 of the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival. You can see photos of Yuck, Kurt Vile and the Violators, OFWGKTA, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Baths, Superchunk, Deerhunter, Cut Copy and TV on the Radio.

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Pitchfork Music Festival 2011: Day 2 in Photos

By Faronheit

On 07/20/2011

In chicago, live music, music, music festivals, photos, pitchfork music festival, pitchfork music festival 2011

Click past the jump to see a huge number of photos from Day 2 of the Pitchfork Music Festival. Artists in this photo set include: Julianna Barwick, Woods, Sun Airway, Cold Cave, No Age, Wild Nothing, Gang Gang Dance, Destroyer, The Radio Dept., The Dismemberment Plan, Twin Shadow, Zola Jesus and Fleet Foxes.

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Pitchfork Music Festival 2011: Day 1 in Photos

By Faronheit

On 07/20/2011

In chicago, live music, music, music festivals, photos, pitchfork music festival, pitchfork music festival 2011

Click through the jump to see a large assortment of photos from Day 1 of the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival. There are photos of EMA, tUnE-yArDs, Thurston Moore, Guided By Voices, Neko Case and Animal Collective.

Pitchfork Music Festival 2011: Final Thoughts

By Faronheit

On 07/19/2011

In chicago, live music, music, music festivals, pitchfork music festival, pitchfork music festival 2011, show review

What a weekend. If you’re a music festival purist and committed yourself to attending as much of this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival as possible, you likely wound up tired, aching and several shades of red. Temperatures steadily rose all weekend long, the sun never vanished from the sky, save for the final 90 or so minutes each day, and if you weren’t careful, heat exhaustion could easily have taken you down. Thankfully festival organizers along with a crack security and medical team all worked hard to ensure that people were safe as well as having fun. I never officially checked with the medical tent to see how many people were treated for heat-related issues, but I did spot a few people getting visits from the EMT fairy off on the sides of a couple stages. There were maybe two times all weekend I also heard ambulances drive off the festival grounds with sirens blaring. Hopefully nobody had any serious health issues. Particularly helpful over the weekend, but especially on Sunday, was the ample availability of water. If you weren’t bringing your own in, there were a handful of water fountains you could fill up at for free (even though the lines were almost always long), and for the truly devoted fans that refused to leave a certain stage, bottles of water were being distributed by security between sets. On Sunday they reportedly gave out over 13,000 bottles of water, and no doubt many needed it. Even if you couldn’t get a free one, the price of bottles of water was reduced to $1 for Sunday as well to make it that much more of an enticing option. In other words, things were made that much more manageable by everybody at the festival, from the organizers and security through the crowds. This is a festival in which community matters more than anything else and everyone takes care of everyone else. So whether you wound up in a mosh pit at No Age, OFF! or Kylesa or were simply joining in as Odd Future asked everyone to throw their middle fingers into the air, there was a bond and a kinship going on between indie music lovers that is unlike any other vibe in the world.

Part of what makes the Pitchfork Music Festival so special is how small it is. Capacity at Union Park is 18,000 people, and while the festival sold out all three days (only Sunday in advance), it was never difficult to get around. Three stages organized well enough so it’s only a couple minute walk between each makes it that much easier to absorb as much music as possible in an extended weekend. The size also makes it easy enough to meet up with your friends or run into old acquaintances you didn’t expect to see. The lines are never too long for anything either, save for water or beer depending on the time and temperature. Even then you’re likely not waiting for more than 10 minutes. Restrooms were in ample supply too, and if you went to the right spots lines could very well have been avoided almost entirely. There seemed to be a lack of hand sanitizer to use post-restroom though, which would have been a bigger problem had the weather not been so hot that your entire body was probably feeling very unclean already. The crowds at the individual stages can be a bit much at times though, depending on what artist you’re seeing. Some of the biggest crowds of the entire weekend were at sets by The Dismemberment Plan, Odd Future and Cut Copy, making them all difficult to get a good vantage point unless you staked out a spot early. The smaller Blue stage in the back also saw packed crowds on most days, and while some of the heavy traffic was dependent on the artist performing, the primary goal seemed to be to find a place with heavy shading where it was also close to the music. The Blue stage offered that, so in some cases it didn’t matter who was on stage when. But how did the bands fare overall this past Pitchfork weekend? With my day-by-day-by-day recaps on the books, let’s talk best of fest and worst of fest.

The Best

With Friday boasting a smaller array of bands and a later start time, there were fewer highlights from that day. Those that showed up early were rewarded however, because sets by tUnE-yArDs and Battles were exceptionally special in their own, unique ways. Merrill Garbus enchanted so many people at the small stage with her really fascinating looping technique married to one incredible singing voice. Battles, on the other hand, went nuts with percussion and pieced together some goofy instrumentals that were as much fun to watch as they were to dance to. As they’ve only got a couple of “original lineup” reunion shows left, Guided By Voices proved yet again that age is just a number. A cigarette in one hand and a bottle of liquor in the other, Robert Pollard continues to be a genuine rock star. This between his wild kicks into the air and the other guys pulling off the windmill guitar moves convincingly. They played what can best be described as a greatest hits set, and it was yet another reminder that once they’re done they will be missed. As to Friday’s headliner Animal Collective, they impressed simply by keeping everything together and not venturing off on strange psychedelic flights of fancy. Lots of actual songs were played, a few new and some old favorites. The set was suspiciously lacking in material from their last and most essential record “Merriweather Post Pavilion”, but things were still very engaging and enjoyable anyways.

Cold Cave was one of the wildest things on what was ultimately a pretty wild Saturday. Temperatures were in the upper 80s and they came out dressed in heavy, long sleeve black leather. Despite looking like a motorcycle gang in sweltering heat, they moved and danced around the stage like they were on fire (perhaps they were it was so hot). Their stadium-sized synth-pop anthems soared into the atmosphere and truly engaged what would otherwise have been a listless crowd. They were a big part of turning a slow moving start to the day into something better and more fun. The immediate follow-up to Cold Cave came courtesy of No Age, who only expanded upon the enthusiasm they brought to the table. Dean Spunt and Randy Randall like things fast and furious, and by the looks of a heavy mosh pit, so did the crowd. Destroyer’s late afternoon set didn’t quite possess the energy that was key to the earlier bands’ success, but Dan Bejar & Co. came on at just about the right time for a cool down. The smooth and rather jazz-infused tunes off the new album “Kaputt” made for some of the best moments of that set, ultimately perfect for just hanging out with your friends in some nearby shade. There are no more shows listed for The Dismemberment Plan right now, and as a result their set at Pitchfork may very well have been their last as part of a “we’ll see how it goes” reunion. The band was all smiles almost their entire set, looking like they were having the most fun in the world together on stage. The crowd completely ate it up too, as they ran through a host of the best songs in their excellent catalogue. If that really was their final show, it’s pretty safe to say they went out as one of the top sets of the entire weekend.

For all the anticipation and early sell-out crowds of Sunday, there appeared to be a certain weakness in the artists performing that’s not apparent on paper. Even the controversial hip hop collective OFWGKTA put on a relatively tame show after attracting so much attention for their insane performance on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” a few months back. But in spite of sound issues that eventually resulted in a pretty epic meltdown, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti made for a seriously wild time. He took his frustrations out through much of the performance by head banging, crawling on the ground, playing air guitar and a host of other halfway nuts things that made the set extremely rich in entertainment value. And despite the vocal issues that plagued the set (and caused the set to be aborted), nothing appeared to be too amiss, unless what was taken at face value as “weird for the sake of weird” was actually not supposed to be that way. Like Guided By Voices on Friday and The Dismemberment Plan on Saturday, the “veterans” of Superchunk very much proved that they’ve still got plenty of fight in them. Theirs was a high energy and blistering set that paid proper lip service to their newest album while also reaching back for older highlights. They may take some long breaks between recording and touring, but Merge Records isn’t going to run itself. There was something about Cut Copy’s set that felt like it was the tipping point for the entire weekend. One final burst of energy and celebration before the more relaxed vibe of TV on the Radio. The crowd for Cut Copy was massive, and in turn created one gigantic dance party. It wasn’t quite dark enough for their light show to be completely effective, but even as the sun dipped below the horizon you understood the main idea: this is a band on the verge. Expect them to be reaching the same heights as an LCD Soundsystem or maybe even a Phoenix sooner rather than later. Last but by no means least, TV on the Radio brought their multicultural sound to close out the festival in a classy fashion. By all means they were the best of the three headliners and ran through a set filled with old and new favorites. Capping it off with a cover of Fugazi’s “Waiting Room”, it was the exclamation point on what had already been a great weekend.

The Worst

The majority of the acts I saw all weekend were solid but not necessarily noteworthy. If you don’t see something mentioned in the best or worst sections, chances are I either missed the set or it was neither good nor bad enough to warrant a comment. Unfortunately not every act can be amazing, or even mediocre. Call it a bad day or a bad environment or blame it on something, but there were a couple acts that might best be referred to as “bad pennies”. There were no complete failures, but if I walked away out of boredom or disgust then something went tragically wrong with the set. Thurston Moore did himself no favors in a late Friday afternoon set. He chose to keep it acoustic most of the time, and worked out a bunch of long and sluggish instrumental passages before finally breaking out his vocals. In the meantime the sun was beating down something fierce and you don’t really think about it until your mind goes there out of boredom. Saturday afternoon’s set by The Radio Dept. was easily my most anticipated of the entire weekend. I love their records and had never seen them live before. Overly mild-mannered might be a good way to describe their set. It was like they were those three shy guys you knew from high school who just sat in the corner and never talked to anybody. No real personality went into their live show, nor was there much in the way of energy. It sounded to me like the volume on the speakers had been dialed back a bit for their performance too, because standing about halfway back in the crowd I could barely hear the songs. With a little more gusto it would have been okay. Most likely they’re just no good in the festival setting. As for Sunday, I can’t quite say that any of the artists I saw were exceptionally poor, even if Twin Sister’s set came relatively close. Also, while I genuinely admired Shabazz Palaces’ set, it lost some serious points by delaying for 20 minutes due to sound issues. It would have been nicer to have heard what they could have done with those extra 20 minutes.

In Conclusion

Writing-wise (photos coming soon), this wraps up my coverage of the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival. If you went, whether it was for a few hours, a day, or the entire weekend, I hope you had a blast. I know I did. Upon looking back at the entire 3 days as a whole, my one comment might be that while the same ethos and spirit endures at this grand boutique festival, there was just a little something lacking this year. The likely cause is with the lineup, which while diverse didn’t quite feel as strong as the last couple years. A band like Fleet Foxes doesn’t quite deserve to headline, at least not yet, and there didn’t seem to be quite as many freshly hyped acts this year. Still, the talent pool they did put together may have been the best options available, and if you run a music festival for long enough you’ll realize that every year can’t be a home run. So in keeping that baseball analogy going, color this year a triple. The festival has gotten to a point where it’s functioning exceptionally well with the location, food, security and other facilities, but if there’s not a whole lot for people to get excited about, they’re not going to show up anyways. Part of the proof in this pudding is how ticket sales went this year, with Friday and Saturday not selling out in advance, which is what the last couple years have brought. Call the slower sales economy-based if you like, but people are willing to spend more if you provide them with a higher quality product. They don’t quite need to go to the lengths of seducing the 10.0-winning Kanye West to perform (at what would likely be a significant pay cut for him), but pulling a Portishead or a My Morning Jacket rabbit out of their proverbial hats would most assuredly have a significant impact on ticket sales. If 2011 was them making the best of a somewhat bad situation, they did extremely well for themselves. I can safely say that I’m already excited for next year, even if the lineup once again just misses the high watermark already established for one of the best music festivals in the world today.

Pitchfork Music Festival 2011: Day 3 Recap

By Faronheit

On 07/18/2011

In chicago, live music, music, music festivals, pitchfork music festival, pitchfork music festival 2011, show review

It seems we have come to the end of the road for this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival. It was a supremely fun 3 days filled with dozens of interesting artists that ranged from incredible to incredibly disappointing. My overall ruminations on the weekend will be handled in a different post. In the meantime I want to continue in the same tradition of the last two days, in which I keep up with the day-by-day recaps. Here’s what I bore witness to on Sunday (Day 3):

The goal was to make it to Union Park by 1:45pm to see Yuck‘s set. That was at the latest. I got stuck writing my recap of Saturday night on Sunday morning, so that caused a bit of a delay. Then traffic on the highways continued to pile additional delays on top of that. I was a mere couple blocks away from the festival and the time read 1:40pm. A band I thought may have been The Fresh & Onlys was playing off in the distance. Turns out Yuck started their set just a tiny bit earlier than scheduled. So I missed about a song. They put on a very good and energetic set, or at least crafted accurate representations of studio tracks. Smiling isn’t exactly Yuck’s thing, but they also appeared to be having a good time despite the blistering heat. The crowd pretty much did the same.

Seeing Kurt Vile & the Violators was by no means my genuine intention. It was more a matter of convenience and the safety of knowing that How to Dress Well was likely not doing so…well on the smaller Blue stage. Really it turned into a way to pass the time while waiting on Twin Sister about 20 minutes later. Quieter acoustic folk music hasn’t done so well this weekend, particularly with the sun feverishly beating down on everyone, which is why I felt like Vile was going to nosedive. To my pleasant surprise, he did not nosedive, but rather pretty much the exact opposite. Whether it was the fans blowing his amazing mane of hair around or just a very well put together backing band, there was energy and plenty of other compelling reasons to watch that set. Even a slower, more difficult song like “On Tour” was smartly played with the larger crowd in mind. I was so entranced, I forgot about Twin Sister and finally jogged my memory about it 10 minutes into their set.

In terms of Twin Sister, it was at that point, around 90 minutes into my day, that I felt like the heat was just starting to get to me. Loading up on water and shade became essential, and Twin Sister on the Blue stage was a good location to do both. I found a spot in the back corner of that area and downed a couple bottles of water with friends while trying to cool off. Twin Sister absolutely helped with that, providing a fun and energetic set of songs that made you want to get up and keep going with your day. Calling their set prolific or revolutionary is definitely too excessive, but remarkably pleasant bordering on excellent might be how I best describe it. Part of me wishes I was motivated enough to get up off the ground and actually watch what was happening on stage, but there was a certain sense of contentment just turning off that mode for a small period of time.

The set clearly most people wanted to see on Sunday was Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All aka OFWGKTA. Women’s rights groups and anti-abuse organizations were up in arms about the hip hop collective’s booking, and were threatening to do an all-out protest of it as a result. The festival organizers instead cut a deal with them, providing them with their own tent to raise awareness. They also were handing out plenty of paper fans that mentioned domestic violence and provided contact information for those in need of help. This was all to provide counter-programming to the inane ramblings of OFWGKTA, given that so many of their tracks appear to advocate rape and abuse and other unseemly things. Just prior to their set, the Odd Future boys went out to the abuse awareness tent and brought the women there cupcakes. This was all in an effort to show there were “no hard feelings”. Then they did their thing, often complete with catchy choruses that included lyrics like “smack that bitch” and “suck my dick”. The crowd appeared to be eating it up, throwing hands (or middle fingers) in the air as instructed, while the boys on stage took turns interacting with the crowd/crowd surfing. One of the more amusing things about their set was how they’d finish a horribly abusive or angry song against women, and would follow it up by telling everyone to go by and visit with the women’s advocacy group. “We hope they’re listening to our set right now,” one of them said seconds before launching into an extremely vulgar track about rape. In other words, the whole thing was counter-intuitive and just a bit confusing. But it was still fun, and those guys are talented even if they’re not the cleanest or friendliest hip hop group around. Mostly I’m just glad there wasn’t a riot.

After getting about 45 minutes into Odd Future’s set, I thought I’d go for a change of pace and see how Shabazz Palaces were doing. It was definitely a quieter vibe on that side of the park, and the lighter crowd made it nicer as well. They had some sound issues that delayed their start time, but once things got going it was definitely strong hip hop that was very much the anti-OFWGKTA. More minimalistic and subdued in nature, the duo made the most of what they had brought with them, including a number of live instruments (as opposed to the DJ sample-fest that was Odd Future). There was something about that set that had all the class and dignity you could ever want. The 20 or so minutes I heard were a good palate cleanser before I allowed my curiosity to pull me in the direction of another stage.

That other stage was the Green stage, where Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti were playing. The past show reviews I’ve read from people who’ve seen Ariel Pink before appeared to describe him as moderately pensive, often with an attitude that suggested he’d much rather be someplace else doing something else. That was NOT the Ariel Pink we met at the Pitchfork Music Festival. This version was completely nuts. Like, serious screw loose in the head sort of nuts. Depending on how that dynamic works on stage, it can lead to rousing success or total meltdown. It actually turned out to be a mixture of both. The great parts came in the early going, with Pink singing/manipulating his vocals through a headset connected to a small soundboard. The headset was needed because of all the jumping around, head banging, and wacky gestures he tended to make. The guy had more energy than he knew what to do with, and channeled as much of it as he could into his performance. The crowd ate it up. But as time went on, he kept leaving the band and retreating back stage for one reason or another, always to re-emerge and crank out another song. Yet simultaneously you could watch his mood go from crazy happy to crazy pissed, and it eventually erupted into a meltdown that had him walking off the stage for good, once again leaving the rest of the band there to politely end the set about 20 minutes early. Sound issues were to blame, apparently, as Ariel was reportedly not happy with what was going on with his vocals. For the 40 or so minutes that the set lasted, almost all of it was of an exceptionally high quality, vocal problems be damned.

Compare Ariel Pink to Baths, the 1 man DJ band. The words “DJ band” are probably used incorrectly here, but Will Wiesenfield uses a laptop and a sampler on stage. No actual instruments there, but he does do a fair amount of singing via the tracks he composes. That was one of those legitimately fun dance sets where despite the temperatures you can just let your hair down and have a blast. What makes Baths so engaging outside of the music is how Wiesenfield runs his show. He legitimately seems excited about playing these songs, and rather than just carefully mix together that might appear to be a lot more beat than melody, he dances, head bangs (sorta), makes wild flailing motions with his arms, sticks his tongue out Michael Jordan style, and overall turns boring and normal on its head. It was a lot more entertaining than I thought it would be.

Then there’s Superchunk. Here’s a veteran band that’s been around for ages, but there have been significant breaks due to a number of different factors. Somehow though, Mac McCaughan and the rest of the band don’t seem to have aged much. I think I spotted a grey hair or two, but otherwise they’re still on the right side of youth. They played like it too, seamlessly blending a lot of their classic catalogue with a bunch of material off their latest record “Majesty Shredding”. The crowd totally ate it up, and there was much singing and jumping around. Superchunk has always been one of those bands that delivers each and every show they play, and this one was no different. They put themselves out there and got enduring love and respect in return, as they should.

Deerhunter is an interesting sort of fish. The sun was beginning to set when Bradford Cox, Lockett Pundt and Co. took the stage, and immediately something felt a little weird. That is to say, the guys in the band appeared to be a little stand-offish and difficult. It didn’t help that the first thing they did was dive into a huge squall of white noise. They looked like they were sweltering in the still overly hot temperatures, but the great news is that once they’d finally gotten some legs underneath them, they were solid as ever. Deerhunter hit all the hallmarks they’re pretty much required to at this point in their careers, making an epic spectacle out of “Nothing Ever Happened” or settling into the grooves of a “Revival”. And hey, they even threw in a little bit of amusing banter to continue to charm us. For a band that, in my opinion, got off to a rocky start, they really kicked into high gear and things turned out as good, if not better than hoped.

My most anticipated set of Sunday was Cut Copy, and that’s almost entirely because of how much I love their music yet have never seen them perform it live. Apparently a lot of people were also looking forward to Cut Copy, as it wound up being one of the most heavily attended non-headliner sets I saw all weekend. They had an interesting lighting set up behind them which is likely more effective in a pitch black venue but worked well enough as the sun was beginning to drift below the horizon, casting a large shade over much of the park. With the cooler temperatures too, things became ideal for a dance party. A dance party is exactly what Cut Copy gave us, cranking out one hot cut after another. Leading early on with “Where I’m Going”, the highlights were spread smartly across the duration of the set. There was a point about halfway through the set in which they “announced” that the show was over and that they were saying goodnight, something that would have been a lot more effective had they legitimately left the stage instead of immediately confessing it was a joke. But from “Hearts on Fire” to “Lights and Music” through “Need You Now” and “Take Me Over”, there wasn’t a single key moment they missed, and I had a blast. It was a cathartic release, a celebration of everything the festival had been and done up until that point, and a very nice warm-up for TV on the Radio.

Let’s do a brief recap of the headliners at this year’s festival. Animal Collective on Friday night was good, if not great, but their extremely experimental psychedelic bent makes them a bit difficult to truly get into and enjoy (from a very mainstream perspective). Fleet Foxes are far more pleasant and easy to love, but they’re also much quieter and still new enough to where they might not yet be ready to headline a festival. But when you talk about TV on the Radio, that is a band with enough time in existence and an impeccable/energetic/appealing catalogue of music. In other words, they’re the real deal. They also wound up being the purveyors of the best headlining set of the festival. Naturally, there was a bit of an emphasis on their newer material, so “Nine Types of Light” got a fair amount of play across their 75 minute set, but there was plenty of time for highlights galore. Starting with “Dear Science”‘s opening energy burst “Halfway Home”, things jumped off right from the start. There was the 1-2 punch of “Young Liars” moving into “Staring at the Sun” that was simply excellent if you love the band’s older stuff. The way that songs like “Will Do” and “Caffeinated Consciousness” fit in amongst “Wolf Like Me” and “A Method” was pretty seamless too. The one song I personally missed hearing was “Golden Age”, but I’d like to think in place of that they chose to cover Fugazi’s “Waiting Room”. When they hit the first notes of the song, I thought it would just be a tease before launching into something else. They were not kidding around, and it turned out to be a remarkably great cover. I love that song, and while it may not have the same ferocity from which Fugazi would have performed it, the sheer force and technical accuracy was all it needed and was given. That provided the perfect cap on a weekend-long journey that was more fun than I’ve had in quite awhile. Thanks, TV on the Radio.

This wraps up my day-by-day recap of the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival. My coverage is not yet complete though. I’ve got several hundred photos to weed through and edit for your consumption, along with a look back at the full weekend that was, complete with a bunch of “superlatives” directed at many bands that I bore witness to. So keep your eyes peeled, I’m hoping to have everything taken care of within the next day or two.

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Hello, and welcome to Faronheit! I hope you enjoy your stay. Before you read onwards, let me quickly explain a couple things.

Contact information: faronheit@gmail.com