Pitchfork Music Festival 2013 Preview: Saturday

By Staff in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 17, 2013 7:00PM

Saturday is looking to be a pleasant day in Union Park so while there's no real need to stoke our metaphorical fires there are still a bunch of bands playing that day that have us all hot and bothered. In a good way. Here are our picks for Saturday at the Pitchfork Music Festival.

Raddest way to start your Saturday:
White Lung on the Green Stage at 1 p.m.
Riot Fest isn’t until September but White Lung has us feeling like we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Arguably the closest thing to traditional punk on Pitchfork’s lineup this year, we love the band’s 2012 sophomore album Sorry and can’t wait to see its inescapable energy and quick cuts (few of the songs surpass the two-minute mark) overflow into Union Park. It’s an early set but we’re not doubtful singer Mish Way’s fittingly abrasive vocals and the band’s hard hitting riffs will give us the kick in the ass we need to get through the remainder day two. - Katie Karpowicz

Best chance to rage against your shitty boss:
Pissed Jeans on the Red Stage at 1:45 p.m.
If you don't listen that closely to a Pissed Jeans record, it might slip by as just another (very solid) effort from another group of weirdos deeply indebted to 80's hardcore. Pull out the lyric sheet and read along with frontman Matt Korvette's tortured, teeth gnashing, tongue-chewing vocals, and it's another story. Korvette weaves tales inspired by the minutia from the lives of disillusioned early middle aged upper middle class white males, giving a strangely subversive, self-aware bend to the otherwise somewhat conventional proceedings. Their heavy, eccentrically energetic live shows are catathartic experiences, well-loved by a certain subset of grownup punks that might identify a little too closely with Korvette's love letters to ice cream and R-rated movies. - Matt Byrne

Best reason to lie down and look at the sky dreamily:
Phosphorescent on the Green Stage at 2:30 p.m.
Matthew Houck heads up the dreamy tunes poured out by Phosphorescent. His latest release Muchacho is the sort of album you dim the lights to, slap on the headphones and sink deep, deep into it’s sonic bath. If you ever wanted to return to the womb only to found it lit from deep within by the dimming rays of a summer sun, this is the soundtrack that would be playing in the background. For this set we recommend finding some shade, laying down, and allowing the sky to sprinkle between the leaves above as you give in to the transcendence of the music.
- Tankboy / Jim Kopeny

Most likely to fit 30 songs into a 45 minute set:
Parquet Courts on the Blue Stage at 2:50 p.m.
An interesting dichotomy arises when considering Parquet Courts: they get often stuck with the "slacker rock" label, but their twitchy, nomadic breakout album, Wind Up Gold, has an almost Jay Reatard-level capacity for overstuffing earwormy hooks and weird lyrical themes into short bursts of rock and roll. After glancing at the length of each track, of which there are fifteen in just over a half hour, it's hard to believe that songs as catchy and instantly memorable as "Careers in Combat" or "Light Up Gold II" both clock in under at under a minute and fifteen seconds. It's only on the krautrock-influenced breakout track and surefire set highlight, "Stoned and Starving," that the band really spreads out, wringing more tension and release from a song about buying Swedish Fish from the convenience store than ever thought possible. -Matt Byrne

Hardest rocking women of the weekend:
Savages on the Green Stage at 4:15 p.m.
Just one full length release in and Savages is already one of the most buzzed about bands on Pitchfork’s 2013 roster. If you’re the type of person that associates all-female bands with Daisy Rock guitars, just stop right there. These London-bred women are every bit as musically talented as any other artists at the festival this year with a post-punk sound that’s edgy, unpolished and angry but never sloppy. It’s a style that’s rhythmic enough to get our heads bobbing and our toes tapping so here’s hoping the midday heat has broken by the time they take the stage on Saturday - or else things are going to get sweaty! - Katie Karpowicz

Best reason to bring earplugs even if you’re standing a half mile from the stage:
METZ on the Blue Stage at 4:45 p.m.
METZ’s self-titled debut shows that Canadians may be nice but they aren’t always polite, because this band’s sound is loud and rude and gloriously abrasive. I predict this to be one of the most brutal sets of the weekend, and not just because this is certain to be the part of the day where the heat is so oppressive you think you might die. After hearing METZ you’ll see that sound can be even more oppressive than the environmental elements surrounding you. - Tankboy / Jim Kopeny

Most exciting nostalgia performance that’s not The Breeders playing Last Splash:
Swans on the Red Stage at 5:15 p.m.
Though Swans ringleaders Michael Gira made it very clear when the band began making music again in 2010 that the reformation was not a reunion, it was still the first time the NYC natives had been active since 1997. This is the noise-rock outfit’s first year at Pitchfork and likely the first time a good deal of Chicago fans will get to catch the band since the first leg of its career. With two post-hiatus releases under their belt - including the critically acclaimed and excessively eerie 2012 release The Seer - the sound of Swans’ set this weekend isn’t going to be the fastest or the flashiest but it’s sure to be one of the biggest.
- Katie Karpowicz

Best Reason to Like Canada:
Ryan Hemsworth on the Blue Stage at 5:35 p.m.
If you think the world's obsession with electronic music has waned, you are definitely wrong. Pitchfork seems to have its electronic music game on lock this year, bringing in a handful of electronic acts to fulfill your dance music needs. You may or may not have heard of Ryan Hemsworth but that doesn't really matter. Hemsworth has gained significant momentum with his remixes and self-released EP, Still Awake. Anyone who can remix a song by the Backstreet Boys with a straight face deserves a star in my book. - Tiffany Kwak

Band most likely to ironically yell “Fuck sentimentality” from the stage:
The Breeders on the Green Stage at 6:15 p.m.
Now that Kim Deal has quit The Pixies again, The Breeders is no longer her “other” band. It’s her only band (unless she ever decides to revive The Amps). She and the band will be trotting out Last Splash in its entirety so expect a massive crowd sing-along during “Cannonball.” Part of me wants to view this as the cash-in it surely is but, unlike her “first” band, I never got to see The Breeders in their heyday, so I’m happy to goofily jump along with the rest of the crowd. I re-listened to Last Splash recently and you know what, it’s still a fucking great album from beginning to end, so this will be a blast. - Tankboy / Jim Kopeny

Most likely to make the festival setting work on their own terms:
Low on the Blue Stage at 6:45 p.m.
Last month, at an outdoor concert in their home state of Minnesota, Low made a whole bunch of people angry and confused . Their set at Rock the Garden consisted of one, 27-minute long song, a droning, abrasive take on a track from their 1996 album, Curtain Hits the Cast. The performance caused some controversy because of the populist setting (it was an all-day festival sponsored by a local public radio station), and Low's normally quiet (though still intense) performance style. While no one knows what to expect from their Pitchfork set, be it expansive drones or a relatively straight-ahead set of cuts from their excellent new album The Invisible Way, with older tracks peppered throughout, Low will make it work for themselves. -Matt Byrne

Most Underrated Member of the Knowles Family:
Solange on the Red Stage at 7:25 p.m.
The first rule here is don't confuse Solange with her famous older sister. They may share the same last name, but they do not share the same musical stylings. For starters, her most recent record, True, showcases a more mature sound influenced heavily by music from the 1980s (think New Wave and early R&B). No doubt that Solange's music and personality are woven into one giant package - she's not pretending to be anyone but herself. That's reason alone to check out her performance.- Tiffany Kwak

Best Chance to Hear Something New:
Rustie on the Blue Stage at 8:45 p.m.
It is really easy to see how popular electronic dance music has become when you see that Pitchfork has booked Scottish producer Rustie to close out Saturday's festivities (not to mention booking Ryan Hemsworth and UK-based Andy Stott to DJ earlier in the day). It's hard to describe Rustie's sound because he skillfully layers different genres to make extremely intricate tracks that you have never heard before. Some people say he's helping aquacrunk become the next big thing, but we just like to think of it as Good Electronic Music You Can Dance To.- Tiffany Kwak

RELATED:
Pitchfork Music Festival 2013 Preview: Friday
Pitchfork Music Festival 2013 Preview: Sunday
Your 2013 Pitchfork Music Festival Survival Guide

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