There’s something a bit bizarre about a fiendishly independent music publication organizing a festival to showcase the bands it has heaped praise upon. Pitchfork Media is the prince of the indie media world and helps emerging acts sell hundreds of thousands of albums or kicks them into the crap-stained gutter based on the decimal points they assign. So its easy to understand the benefits of throwing a hip festival; not only does Pitchfork get its name plastered (once again) all over the blogosphere, but the acts they’ve heralded get another boost besides being awarded an 8.3 and gaining entry to the exclusive halls of pretension.
The music at Pitchfork Music Festival isn’t only for hipsters and former indie fanatics. Here are some picks for each day of the festival, so you can avoid standing next to anyone who says he likes Hercules and the Love Affair but secretly watches MTV2.
Friday: Public Enemy is performing their seminal album It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back and Flava Flav is even going to be there. Regardless of how much I’d like to catch the glint of Flav’s epic jewelry in my eye, and maybe chat up some of his women, I don’t expect their set to hold many surprises. Mission of Burma, too, is an ultra-influential, ultra-skilled band performing their album Vs. But there is no act I am looking forward to this year more than the reunited Sebadoh, featuring lo-fi hero Lou Barlow reteamed with his former bandmates for the performance of Bubble and Scrape. Much of the alternative rock from the early to mid ’90s owes a debt to these guys’ emotional, yet unabashedly dynamic songwriting. See Sebadoh; you may not have heard anything by them, but I promise you’ll want to hear their albums after you see them shred Union Park to ribbons.
Saturday: Everyone and their drunk little sister is going to line up ahead of time for Vampire Weekend and The Hold Steady, so you may want to explore some of the lesser known artists playing sets today. If there is any reason for you to show up early, its Titus Andronicus. The New Jersey noise rock outfit combines the emotional acuity of Conor Oberst with shoegaze guitar sludge. Half an hour after Titus kicks off, Jay Reatard takes the stage elsewhere to perform his fresh brand of garage rock with indie-rock vocals. Don’t let his nom de rock fool you, Reatard’s sound is anything but slow or held back.
Sunday: Dance-punk outfit HEALTH performs in the afternoon and are sure to capture the section of the crowd eager to remove their clothes. Expect Girl Talk-ian chaos. King Khan and The Shrines play shortly thereafter, likely to blow a few ear drums with their crunchy classic rock influenced jams. Khan practically sweats rock ‘n roll gold, so expect to be rocked hard. Later, if you need a cool down, The Dodos will strum acoustic guitar and croon about bittersweet love affairs.
