Pitchfork...who's going....

[LouieB]

Yup, I will be there, so look for me in the record tent all three days, but I will also be catching the music as well.

 

Too bad there seem to be none of the Chicago avant/improv acts of the past. But the schedule sure is packed....

 

LouieB

[Degenerex]

I'll be there Saturday and Sunday.

 

Whatever you do, don't miss the Hold Steady.

 

Besides them, I'll be checking out: Spoon, Dinosaur Jr. Spiritualized, Vampire Weekend, Jay Reatard (reminds me of Husker Du live), Boris, Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, M Ward, Les Savy Fav, King Khan... and then probably check out some bands I'm unfamiliar with.

 

Anyone ever see Jarvis Cocker live? Any chance of some Pulp songs?

[deepseacatfish]

I will be there on Friday and Saturday. Definitely not as stellar a lineup as previous years...but we'll see there's still a good handful of bands I want to catch.

 

And I'm definitely going to be catching the Hold Steady.

[MrRain422]

I'll be there.

 

Most excited for:

Dinosaur Jr

Mission of Burma

Les Savy Fav

Fleet Foxes

Public Enemy

The Dodos

Ghostface & Raekwan

[uwmryan]

Only going on Sunday - looking forward to M. Ward and King Khan

[insideoutoflove]

i'll be there saturday and sunday

 

for those who havent heard, there is a free concert tonight at pritzker pavillion in millenium park called "Music Without Borders: Pitchfork Music Festival Preview Night". Fleet Foxes, Extra Golden, A Hawk and A Hacksaw, and Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar will be playing. well worth it especially since it's free! i'd go if i wasnt sick as a dog right now.. im saving my energy for this weekend

 

if anyone ends up going, be sure to report back!

 

info here

[DrNo]

Fleet Foxes and King Khan. Two of the best live shows I've seen in quite some time.

[tangara]

I'm checking out the show tonight as well as Friday/Saturday/Sunday's festivities. Very much looking forward to Fleet Foxes, Elf Power, Jay Reatard, Dino Jr and Public Enemy!

[Scalzunfield]

I'm in Sat and Sun . . . Fleet Foxes, Jarvis, Vampire Weekend, M Ward, Bon Iver, Apples In Stereo, and most of all . . . SPOON!

[radiokills]

Mission of Burma

[Dr. Steve Brule]

thankfully all the bands I care to see are playing club shows. Saturday night at Bottom Lounge is gonna fucking rule with King Khan and the Shrines, Jay Reatard and non-festers Cheap Time, A/V Murder and The Dutchess and the Duke (whom I don't much care for). Boris is at the Empty Bottle Sunday night with Torche and Nachtmysium. I might go to the fest Sunday to peruse the record fair and sit under a tree and possibly hear M. Ward.

[LouieB]

Clearly Pitchfork loves both Spoon and Mission of Burma, both of whom have performed in years past.

 

Incidently it may rain.

 

LouieB

[MrRain422]

Yeah, it's pouring right now here in Logan Square. Hopefully it will stop soon because I'm gonna head out in just a bit. Sucks.

[WaronWar]

I'm going Saturday and Sunday with an amigo.

[LouieB]

More rain....

 

Saw Public Enemy...most of them...had a good time.

 

LouieB

[WaronWar]

Yeah, I went today (as in Day 2 of Pitchfork) and it was a pretty good day.

 

 

I saw:

 

Titus Andronicus-They were a big punk band with lots of guitars. They were pretty good.

 

A Hawk and a Hacksaw-Only stayed for several minutes and then left because I didn't really dig it that much.

 

Caribou-They were my favorite act for the day. I had heard a lot of hype at college that I would really like these guys, and they ended being stellar.

 

Fleet Floxes- Caught a bit of them and had good harmonies, but my friend and I were really far back. So we decided to go catch the Fuck Buttons (most likely the most interesting name there)

 

Fuck Buttons- Were okay, but were basically a heavy dark electronic band.

 

Vampire Weekend-I thought they were pretty much overrated, but my friend really thought they were catchy and unique.

 

The Hold Steady-A heavy roll lickin' bar band, in short. I just wish their songs had some variety.

 

Animal Collective-For all the hype surrounding this band, I did not really like them at all. I thought the vocals were somewhat annoying and got in the way of some of the interesting instrumental stuff they had going on.

 

But I am looking forward to seeing M. Ward, Dino Jr., and Spoon. And I was happy to pick up the CD of Drag City's reissue of a Jim O'Rourke trio record of free improvise music he did with Darin Gray and Chris Corsano in 2005 in Japan.

[LouieB]

I saw WaronWar....

 

I have to admit I didn't see all that much and what I did was underwhelming. I was having a ball selling records and sold a copy of Beggar's Banquet to Jim Becker of Califone at the end of the night (who I thought was Tim Rutilli at first, silly me...) I would say that about 2/3 of the folks at Pitchfork were from out of town and I don't mean the suburbs, but literally out of town. I sold a bunch of Joni Mitchell records to a woman from Denmark on Friday.

 

Now to the acts I did see part of.

 

Fleet Foxes are a cross between Crosby Stills and Nash and the Beach Boys without songs. They sounded great but had very little to hang the harmonies on.

 

The Hold Steady was a good old straight ahead band that did catch my attention, but eventully wore it out.

 

Did I see some of Vampire Weekend...yea I did and have since forgotten what they sounded like.

 

Animal Collective.....prog is back....I enjoyed the light show and the electronics, but found it to be fairly wearing after awhile. I was expecting a larger group (I think there were three people), but they used a drum machine I think and could have benefited by a real drummer and a real bass player, if you ask me.

 

I have to say that this fest is so fucking packed it is sometimes beyond belief. That is why they can charge so little, because there are just a ton of folks in a very small park. The lines for the porta-johns are very long and toliet paper was nonexistent by late afternoon. It was muddy as well from the heavy rain we have been getting, but fortunately the rain held off for most of the day and the evening was beautiful.

 

So far the highlight for me was Public Enemy. And the highlight of their performance was Flavor Flav being booed when he mentioned he was having a second reality TV show. About halfway through their performance of It Takes a Million I realized that the album I liked more, Fear of a Black Planet was the album I was expecting (okay so I haven't pulled out my copies in more years than I care to admit.) It is kind of funny to see a bunch of hardcore rap guys get nostalgic about an album they made 20 years ago. Is It Takes a Million really the rap Sargent Peppers? Yea I am not much of a rap fan so it is difficult for me to gage since PE's first four albums are about the only rap I own. None the less it was fun to see them, although after about an hour I retired back to the record tent.

 

Okay sure I do realize that I am way to old for this sort of thing anymore, but even Rosie got fatigued by the huge crowd. Somehow it seems like there are far more people this year than last when at least for the afternoon acts you could get sort of close and people were moving around more. But really I would go back to sell records and talk to the fans, which has been the highlight for me.

 

Of course hanging in the record tent I did buy a thing or two including a two LP limited addition set of the Exploding Star Orchestra, which I am pretty psyched about, two Red Red Meat singles on Sub-Pop and a Rotary Connection LP for $2.

LouieB

[Preferred B]

Fuck Buttons- Were okay, but were basically a heavy dark electronic band.

 

I've pondered this band name - maybe someone can help me out. Is "fuck" being used as a adjective modifying the noun "buttons," as in "What kind of buttons are those? Why, they are fuck buttons." Or is "fuck" functioning as a verb, making it more of a command: "Gaaaah! Fuck buttons! Buttons can go to hell!"

 

?

[Scalzunfield]

It was a pretty good day yesterday. My friend and I actually saw actress Julia Styles. She was having a conversation with some friends about 5 feet from where we were sitting and I turned to my buddy and said "is that who I think it is?" Kind of weird. I'd always expected I'd eventually run into someone at least somewhat famous at a rock show/festival, but that's not the name that popped into my head.

 

On to the music: I got in free because my buddy got a VIP pass since he does promotional stuff for Matador so we had to be in 3 specific places to hand out crap. What we saw:

 

Titus Andronicus: No thanks. Was bored by them after a couple minutes and this guy just flat out could not sing. No voice whatsoever.

 

Jay Reatard: This is one of those guys we had to see and hand stuff out at. And I'm glad I saw him because now I know I shouldn't listen to him again. He played for maybe 25 minutes and I'm pretty sure I heard about 15 songs in that span (although it could have been 5 songs, they all sounded pretty similar).

 

Fleet Foxes: I liked 'em going in but their harmonies blew me away. I think they're getting a little overhyped: I don't think the songs are as great as my buddy and PFork make them out to be, but they're pretty decent folk tunes and they played some of them. They could REALLY work on stage presence. The lengthy pauses between songs were Grateful Dead-esque.

 

Dizee Rascal: Another one we had to be at. I don't liike rap and I'll be the first to admit it, but this guy was awful. I knew it would be bad when he comes out and says "yeah yeah yeah what's with all the f*cking wussy sh*t. man, enough of that folk sh*t." Did he realize he was the only rap act on the menu yesterday? And that his rap sh*t represents maybe 5% of the acts playing this weekend? What a joke.

 

Vampire Weekend: The tightest band I heard all day. They still need to work on their stage presence, but I think the songs are there and they definitely sound great playing music together.

 

!!!: What the hell is the hype about with these guys? Sure, they had more stage presence than just about anyone I'd seen to this point, but the songs were...lacking. Seriously lacking.

 

Caribou: Decent songs, kind of neat 2 drummer set up. I wasn't really impressed, but I definitely didn't feel the need to run screaming.

 

The Hold Steady: I've heard great things, I've heard the new album (once) and I thought they were pretty good...for the first half hour or so. Then it all started to sound the same. They were definitely lively and it made for a little excitement, but their songs need some variety.

 

Jarvis Cocker: So much more than I was expecting. Having limited exposure to pulp and absolutely loving his solo album, I didn't know what I was gonna get. But he had a great stage presence and played a bunch of brand new material. The only drawback is the mix wasn't that great. His vocals seemed drowned out and it seemed like everything was turned up to 11. Still, I think this was my favorite performance of the evening and it felt like a good one to leave on. The new album sounds like it'll be great: I can't wait.

 

Heading out in a little while for today's festivities. Hope you all have fun too.

[LouieB]

It was a pretty good day yesterday.

 

Jay Reatard: This is one of those guys we had to see and hand stuff out at. And I'm glad I saw him because now I know I shouldn't listen to him again. He played for maybe 25 minutes and I'm pretty sure I heard about 15 songs in that span (although it could have been 5 songs, they all sounded pretty similar).

 

Fleet Foxes: I liked 'em going in but their harmonies blew me away. I think they're getting a little overhyped: I don't think the songs are as great as my buddy and PFork make them out to be, but they're pretty decent folk tunes and they played some of them. They could REALLY work on stage presence. The lengthy pauses between songs were Grateful Dead-esque.

 

 

The Hold Steady: I've heard great things, I've heard the new album (once) and I thought they were pretty good...for the first half hour or so. Then it all started to sound the same. They were definitely lively and it made for a little excitement, but their songs need some variety.

 

Jarvis Cocker: So much more than I was expecting. Having limited exposure to pulp and absolutely loving his solo album, I didn't know what I was gonna get. But he had a great stage presence and played a bunch of brand new material. The only drawback is the mix wasn't that great. His vocals seemed drowned out and it seemed like everything was turned up to 11. Still, I think this was my favorite performance of the evening and it felt like a good one to leave on. The new album sounds like it'll be great: I can't wait.

Hey stop and introduce yourself. I am easy to find.

 

Yea, what was that with the FF long pauses between songs?? I suspect they maybe just have never played in front of this many people before. I think they were intimidated. They also should have turned down the reverb a bit; I think they were going for a MMJ vibe perhaps.

 

Actually did not see Jarvis Cocker, but what I heard was really good. He was doing just regular old rock/singersongwriter, change it up every once in awhile stuff and it sounded good. Sorry I didn't actually go out and check him out, because I think he had something going. I was sorry I missed Jay Reatard, because he has so much buzz.

 

EVen though I am not a Dino Jr fan or anything at least I have heard and heard of these guys so that will be good. I also have to try and catch something at the small stage; I used the portajohns over there yesterday so I didn't have to wait in the mud, but unfortunately nothing was on the stage. Meanwhile Spoon, who I saw two years ago, have really hit the big time so that should be interesting to see.

 

Pat Sansone was spotted in the crowd yesterday, not by me.

 

LouieB

[solace]

I've pondered this band name - maybe someone can help me out. Is "fuck" being used as a adjective modifying the noun "buttons," as in "What kind of buttons are those? Why, they are fuck buttons." Or is "fuck" functioning as a verb, making it more of a command: "Gaaaah! Fuck buttons! Buttons can go to hell!"

 

?

 

pretty sure "fuck button" is a euphemism for the clit

[MrRain422]

I've seen Fleet Foxes twice before without the long pauses. There was feedback throughout, so I think they were maybe trying to work out some sound problems.

[Dr. Steve Brule]

The Bottom Lounge show was pretty incredible last night. In fact I am too tired and bruised from somehow maintaining a front row position all night to go to the fest today. Jay Reatard is one of my favorite musicians around right now, and his recordings sound NOTHING like his live show. His latest singles are very new-wavey with synths and such, but he makes no attempt to recreate that live. He reminds me of when I saw the Ramones live; despite knowing the catalog well I could only identify the song maybe halfway through, or once the next one already started. King Khan and the Shrines are on their first US tour and I knew it was not to be missed, and it was not to be missed. I've been loving the Cheap Time album and they were right on. A/V Murder were intense and the Dutchess and the Duke were much better live than the album I tried to listen to and hated.

 

This is my best picture, of King Khan

 

 

 

I'm now resting to gear up for the metal at the Bottle tonight.

[Preferred B]

pretty sure "fuck button" is a euphemism for the clit

Wow, how have I never heard that before? At any rate, I guess that means it's the adjective + noun scenario. I have to admit I preferred the second option.

 

Nice photo, Sam!

[Scalzunfield]

I was just exhausted yesterday, but enjoyed the Apples In Stereo, Dodos, M Ward, and Spoon.

 

Overall, I was totally underwhelmed by this festival. Recent money issues made this the first live music I'd been to since the Wilco Residency and it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. It was okay, but that was it: just okay. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but I felt the lineup maybe could have been better at points.

 

Spoon was excellent. It was my first time seeing them and I'd gladly shell out the cash to see them again. The girl and I had fun.

 

On a side note: Louis, I got to the Merch tents around 3 and was totally blanking on where you said you'd be. I'm about 99% certain I know what you look like just from having seen you and a host of others at nearly every Chicago show I've attended over the past 7 or 8 years. I tried looking around a little bit, but didn't see you. Hope you had a great day.