Results tagged “pitchforkmusicfestival”

If Day 1 was all about politeness, then Day 2 of the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival was about shifting gears. The day dawned sunny and bright but clouds rolled in by the time we made it to Union Park, just in time to see some of the Plants & Animals action, rollicking around under the overcast sky and grooving on songs like "Good Friend." We thought it would be a standard Saturday: throw down a blanket and enjoy some mellower music and relax. Fucked Up had other ideas. Indeed, the band kicked off their set with the jolting, "Son the Father," the opening track from their most recent LP, The Chemistry of Common Life, and didn't relent for the rest of the set. Within the first two songs, lead singer Damian Abraham had already torn apart a beachball with his teeth and placed it on his head. Good, rocking times.

Tonight kicks off the annual Pitchfork Music Fest and music is on everyone's mind. There is no better complement to good music than good art and as you spend the weekend checking out your favorite bands, set some time aside for Flatstock, located inside the Pitchfork grounds.

Ah, it's that time of year again! Time for us to strap on our backpacks, get our over-sized sunglasses, slap on a fannypack, and head to Union Park for this year's Pitchfork Music Festival to mingle and and rock and sway with fellow music lovers, hippies, hipsters, and even a few regular folks. But this year, there's a twist. No, it's not tonight's Write The Night set-up. It's...the weather. That's right, for the first time perhaps, well, ever in its history, Pitchfork Fest won't live up to it's "Sweatfork" nickname. For tonight's opening set, you may even need...wait for it...a jacket. While we have sunny skies now, overcast skies and a few possible sprinkles are in order for later today as well as highs that will just crack 70. Brisk northwest winds of up to 20-25 mph will only make things cooler, especially tonight as lows drop to the mid 50s. We are not kidding. And tomorrow? More overcast and more showers with a high in the lower 70s. Maybe those hipster scarves will actually come in handy.

The Pitchfork Music Festival kicks off tomorrow evening and we're being completely honest when we say it is the event of our summer. Excellent booking and the laidback atmosphere, combined with what looks to be wonderful weather, provides the hope of an unforgettable weekend. Instead of boring you with a band by band rundown like everyone else is doing, this year we thought we'd let a couple off you step up and make the recommendations. Here they are.

Unsurprisingly, this year's amazingly solid Pitchfork Music Festival is selling out of its tickets. 2-day passes are gone with only single day tickets available. If you want to see Built To Spill play "Car" or actually witness The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne picking up a guitar connected to a distortion pedal you better get your tickets today.

The final adds to this year's Pitchfork Music Festival have been announced. Saturday gets Final Fantasy -- the dude with the violin from Canada, not the game -- the polite bucolic folk of Bowerbirds, Cymbals Eat Guitars -- does anyone else think these dudes are a Pavement tribute band? -- and Chicago trio Michael Columbia, while Sunday will now include the Thermals (YES) and Killer Whales.

The Flaming Lips have changed their mind and decided they will participate with the "Write The Night" fan requested setlist during their appearance at this year's Pitchfork Music Festival. This is exciting news, primarily amongst music critics filled with glee at the idea of Wayne Coyne picking up a guitar and rocking out to the oldies that most new Lips followers would be less familiar with. After denying early reports that their setlist would be chosen by popular vote, Coyne said tday “The Lips are more than glad to be part of ‘Write the Night’. They will do their best to accommodate the wildest and most obscure of requests - covers included.”

The Pitchfork Music Festival has added some new action. The lineup for Saturday, July 18 now includes the cerebral indie folk of Beirut, the nice guy Norwegian future-disco of Lindstrøm, DOOM's masked insanity, and hyperactive Baltimore indie rockers Ponytail. The Sunday show, meanwhile, gets Frightened Rabbit (who remind us of a Glaswegian version of the National, which is awesome), The Mae Shi from LA, DJ/Rupture (whose blog is the best), and Chicago veterans Dianogah.

Yeasayer, Plants and Animals, and Disappears have been added to Saturday, while Sunday gets Blitzen Trapper, Mew, Japandroids, and Women. Pitchfork Music Festival version 4 was already go for launch with previously announced highlights like The National, Grizzly Bear, and Wavves, but we think the weekend just got even better with these latest additions. When Blitzen Trapper blew through town this past February for two shows at Empty Bottle, their kind of wacko mix of nervy electronic bits covered in the dirt off Neil Young's work boots was a definite hit. Should work well in the hot sun of another Pitchfork. We're already laying out a blanket under the trees along Ashland; text us when you get there.

The Pitchfork Music Festival announced the addition of Matt and Kim, Charles Hamilton, Fucked Up, Wavves, The Duchess and the Duke, M83, Black Lips, and The Very Best to this year's line-up. If you haven't grabbed your multi-day passes we suggest you do so now since this line-up is proving to be a doozy.

We've gotten word from sources inside the Pitchfork camp that The Flaming Lips will be playing this years festival! They'll be joining Built to Spill, Grizzly Bear, The Jesus Lizard, The National, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Pharoahe Monch, Tortoise, Vivian Girls, The Walkmen, and Yo La Tengo. The line-up -- that's not even complete yet -- already makes those 3-day tickets well worth the money.

As the weather continues to shift to spring, it's only natural that we start thinking about summer, right? Summer equals festivals for a lot of us, so this week we checked in with Chris Kaskie of Pitchfork Media to talk about what goes into putting together the Pitchfork Music Festival, coming up this July.

Credit Greg Kot for jumping the gun and forcing their hand before the curators even announced the line-up on their site -- a move we personally find somewhat classless -- but announcing the first few Pitchfork Music Festival acts have been announced. The Jesus Lizard (yay!), Built To Spill, Tortoise, and Yo La Tengo will open the fest with fan picked set-lists.

2009 Pitchfork Music Festival tickets go on sale Friday, March 13, even though no bands have beeen announced yet. We assume that means we're going to get at least a taste of the line-up in the next week? Is it too much to ask for a little Jesus Lizard? Or -- heavens crack open -- Pavement? This year's fest takes place in lovely little Union Park on July 17 through July 19.

                       

The Pitchfork Music Festival rolled to a triumphant close yesterday with a much-delayed set by Cut Copy literally stealing the show from the headlining Spoon. A few scheduling changes led to minor confusion between crowds from time-to time, but the organizers did a good job of trying to constantly remind people where they should be and when from the various on-stage announcements delivered by either Tim Tuten or Damon Locks throughout the day. It was also the dryest and warmest day of the weekend, but folks were looking out for each other and helped each other cope with the bright heat that settled over Union Park.

                   

Ah, the rain. In previous years we've always half jokingly call the Pitchfork Music Festival "Sweatfork" due to the usually oppressive heat, but this year the afternoon storms brought about "Mudfork" and the attendant rise of the mud people. Saturday is usually the most crowded day of the festival and this year was no different, although we must admit we're seeing less and less of the ironic gym suited American Apparel crowd and more and more of, well, normal folks.

            

Day one of the Pitchfork Music Festival went off with nary a hitch. Mission of Burma turned in an energetic and well received set, even thought the grounds were still slowly filling with attendees. Sebadoh's revisiting of 1993 brought back lots of fond memories to this writer, while pumping up and amplifying their classic tunes to great effect. We did notice that the majority of the crowd seemed into it, even if the age bracket was one that was unsure exactly who Sebadoh was. Gimme classic indie rock?

The Pitchfork Music Festival kicks off its 2008 edition this weekend at Union Park, and we've been highlighting some of the "can't miss" acts of the weekend on Chicagoist over the next few days. Today we'll tackle eight acts from the sold-out Sunday line-up. But before we do, you should know that Saturday and Sunday are completely sold out and there are only a few walk-up tickets that will be available for tomorrow's show. If you waited too long though, you can still catch a few of the acts -- Fleet Foxes, Extra Golden, Boban Markovic, and A Hawk and a Hacksaw -- for FREE starting at 6:30 p.m. tonight at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. Now on to Sunday's highlights.

The Pitchfork Music Festival kicks off its 2008 edition this weekend at Union Park, and we're going to highlight some of the "can't miss" acts of the weekend on Chicagoist over the next few days. Today we'll tackle the Friday night line-up, filled with nostalgia, brio, blood, sweat, tears, and louder than a Bomb Squad production.

If you pay attention to this sort of thing, you've probably heard that the new Hold Steady record, Stay Positive, sucks. I may have even been the one to tell you that, after one or two spins, but after spending some quality time with it I've changed my tune like Kid Rock with a ProTools rig.

The Pitchfork Music Festival made a few announcements today. El Guincho had to cancel, and Ghostface and Raekwon are now performing at a different time due to last-second changes in their travel plans, causing the Dodos to go on a tad earlier than expected. No biggie, we can roll with that. The good news is the announcement that all three stages should have comparable sound systems this year, so we won't have a situation -- like Dan Deacon / Girl Talk -- where only the lucky few right next to the artists could hear what's going on. This is welcome news indeed.

Well, Lou was already gonna be at The Pitchfork Music Festival (July 18-20) anyway since Dinosaur Jr is playing that Sunday, but now he'll be there opening night as well, leading Sebadoh through Bubble and Scrape! Other new additions are: The Hold Steady (squee!), Elf Power, Caribou, Icy Demons, Boban Markovic Orkestar, Titus Andronicus, Bon Iver, Times New Viking, HEALTH, High Places, and Mahjongg.

It may be too cold for 70's gym shorts (a la the Pitchfork Music Festival), but you can bet that tonight's Vampire Weekend show at Schubas will double as a winter fashion show/breeding ground for Chicago's hipsterati. The NYC quartet's kinda creepy, kinda awesome take on indie rock "world music" has earned them plenty of blog love, packed houses, and a contract for their first full length release with powerhouse XL Recordings.

Girl Talk, aka one Greg Gillis, has been wowing audiences from the Empty Bottle to the Pitchfork Music Festival with his wildly popular brand of mash-up wizardry. Just try to hold a stoic cool-kid pose when Gillis brings his one-man jammin' train through town in January, with newly minted prince of the hipster dance party Dan Deacon in tow. Metro, January 26, 7:30 p.m. (all ages) and 11:30 p.m. (18+), $16. On sale Saturday....

The Empty Bottle, in conjunction with Britain's The Wire magazine, will host this weekend's fifth annual Adventures in Modern Music festival, a self-described "celebration of 'outsider sounds.'" The festival promises to pack 'em into the Bottle for sets by groundbreaking artists both new and historic. Daily lineups, with highlights: TONIGHT (Wednesday): White Magic, Badawi, Holy Fuck, and Graveyards & Zac Davis Drag City's White Magic is fronted by the smoky-voiced Mira Bilotte, who channels a...

If you’re not totally familiar with The Hideout, you’re not alone. It’s not called “The Hideout” for no reason – it’s tucked away amidst warehouses and a U.S.P.S. processing center in the gritty industrial neighborhood just south of the North Branch of the Chicago River. A hand-painted “Hideout Block Party, an unpretentious celebration of local, national, and international talent that ends in a nice donation to charity, and this year’s lineup challenges Pitchfork for the...

Day three of the Pitchfork Music Festival got off to a slow start, with a smaller crowd, but we chalk that up to stronger headliners and more folks electing to arrive later in the day. Since one of our other writers was already covering the earlier bands, we elected to begin our coverage with Stephen Malkmus' main stage appearance. Malkmus' set was one of the ones with the most buzz, since it could be argued...

Chicagoist had the foresight to divide the days of the Pitchfork Music Festival amongst ourselves, so as to offer you, the reader, consistent, non-sunburned coverage of as much of the weekend as possible. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the breakfast-slot hits and misses from the past two days: SATURDAY Voxtrot surprised with a buoyant set of danceable candy on Saturday afternoon. On record their synth-pop is passable but not extraordinary,...

We entered the Pitchfork Music Festival grounds a little late Saturday, since the CTA saw fit to make sure all the buses we needed to take were running extra slow, while suspending Blue Line service between Western and Clark/State. They picked a bang-up weekend to make sure they removed the primary vein of public travel right from the heart of the hipster corridor. As we arrived though, we were dually serenaded by the noise of...

The first day of the Pitchfork Music Festival showcased three classic acts, performing their classic albums. Slint re-created their seminal Spiderland, and while watching their set we realized that they are definitely one of those bands everyone name-checks, but almost no one has actually heard. Kind of like how dudes in the '90s would talk about how awesome Patti Smith's Horses was because that was just the sort of thing you were supposed to say....