Words and Photos by Andrew Parks Summer festivals are always scatter-brained affairs, but I’m still not sure what to make of Pitchfork’s sixth annual soiree. In many ways, it felt like the first time I covered Coachella: 2005, the year Bright Eyes, a newly-reunited Black Star and a bunch of spandex-wearing grasshoppers (The Locust) brought [...]

(flamgirlant and p-clark weigh in) So this year, Jayson & I snapped some quick videos of the Pitchfork Festival — we talked to a few bands and shot some performance footage (we also interviewed Flamgirlant and Ptolemyclark, which you can watch above). We thought we’d close out our Pitchfork Fest coverage by sharing some of [...]

Sadly, Pharaohe Monch did not come onstage looking like this …or all the stuff that Joe didn’t mention, or that he already covered and I am chiming in with my two cents’ worth regardless. Like I said, this was my first Pfork festival, and I (rather predictably) had a blast. I agree with Joe, however, [...]

(what $5000 worth of confetti looks like) If I was forced to sum up this year’s Pitchfork Festival in a simple, two-word phrase, that phrase would be: modest pleasures. None of the bands pulled off mind-blowing sets, no one upped the creative ante or brought out special guests or strange inventions. Instead, all the performances [...]

no picture, because my hotel’s wireless is garbage “It’s so 90s indie rock,” remarked Alex a few songs into Cymbals Eat Guitars’ rousing, rollicking set. He was right, and it wasn’t a dis: Cymebals Eat Guitars offered lean, energetic rock songs, topped with their singer’s hoarse, searching yelp. They were first up on Saturday’s Pitchfork [...]

Doug basking in the glorious rays of his indie guitar jammery I have seen Built To Spill live somewhere between five and seven thousand times. When I was 17, I listened to Perfect From Now On the way I used to listen to, like, Led Zeppelin IV or Paul’s Boutique. That is, endlessly, with Talmudic [...]

photo by robert loerzel. check out his whole, awesome pitchfork photo gallery here. There was a point during Night 1 of the Pitchfork Festival where I realized that I had just watched Yo La Tengo, was currently watching Jesus Lizard, and was about to go watch Built to Spill. This made me wonder if my [...]

So tomorrow AM, Joe and I are leaving for Chicago for the three-day incredible-live-music binge that is the Pitchfork Festival. It’s my first time there, and I am pretty amped. We put together a nice little primer hub on this year’s festival, which you should check out here, to get a flavor of these year’s [...]

In a couple of hours I will be hopping on a plane to Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival, my third trip to what has quickly become the only summer fest I genuinely enjoy. A whole bunch of 17 Dots folks will be making the trek, including Joe, Amishi and some behind-the-scenesers as well. We’ll [...]

I know a few of you have been inquiring about a feature that has gone dormant — “Ask Amishi.” There are many reasons for this, most of them having to do with Amishi’s unwillingness/inability to be honest when we ask her about music. I’m happy to say, though, that “Ask Amishi” is returning, and in [...]

Here is a round-up of all the posts from Yancey and Joe from their time at the Pitchfork Festival. Enjoy… Day One Day One Wrap-Up [Yancey] Day Two Ken Vandermark Powerhouse Sound [Joe] Voxtrot / Grizzly Bear [Joe] Battles [Joe] Iron and Wine / Mastodon [Joe] Mastodon [Joe] Mastodon / Clipse [Joe] Cat Power [Joe] [...]

Well, De La Soul just brought out Prince Paul, officially flipping me out. However lackluster they’ve been in the past is irrelevant now; they have the whole huge crowd in the palm of their hand, getting them to holler back hooks and join in in the chorus to “pass the plugs”. Its absolutely triumphant, and [...]

It’s something to see: across the field the New Pornographers are storming through “my slow descent…” while on the second stage, de la soul’s DJ is soundchecking, ready to start up the second the NPs quit (the pornos never quite fixed those sound problems, but they soldiered on anyway). Its been like a fantasy world [...]

it was a bumpy start for a Neko-less New Pornographers; the low end was too loud and it was bludgeoning everything in sight. “use it” was splotchy and blunt, more about percussion than melody. It’s evening out a little now. “the laws have changed” is just starting to get airborne, and Kath is doing a [...]

Right now Kevin Barnes is onstage dressed as Tim Curry from Rocky Horror: leather corset, leather underpants, fishnet stockings, leather policemans hat. And now they’ve brought out a guy in a puffy suit, whose head is comprised of cardboard cutouts of Barnes’ face. The guitarist has pink wings on. The music this band makes is [...]

Day two of the Pitchfork Music Festival was long. So many acts, so many of them great. Here’s a quick-and-dirty image-based recap.

wow. I was one of the few completely underwhelmed by “the greatest,” but chan marshall sounds fantastic tonight. Backed by members of dirty 3, blues explosion and delta 72, she’s turning songs inside out, making them dark, smoky ciphers. Her voice is gorgeous and chalky and the band, anchored in burbling organ, captures that Memphis [...]

Ok, Mastodon are totally killing it.

there’s no picture, because I am attempting to do this as-it-happens. We’ll see how it goes! The weather in Chicago is gorgeous, breezy and crisp and cool, and right now Ken Vandermark Powerhouse Spund is in the middle of a fierce, ferocious set. The combo is aptly named; like the best 70s no wave bands, [...]

Friday was nostalgia night at the opening of the Pitchfork Music Festival, a chance to for-reals out-dork, out-know and out-class everyone on music snobbery and it be (somewhat) accepted. Quick: who most quickly identified the closing, non-Spiderland track of the Slint set? Who could identify more than three people on stage while the GZA played? [...]