20.Jul.2009 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival: Reporter’s Notebook
* Scattered in the Flaming Lips Sunday night set between the hits were two new tracks from their upcoming album, Embyronic. This being the Internet age, you can already see a fan video of fairly decent quality for “Silver Trembling Hands” on Youtube, and you can bet the other new track, “Convinced of the Hex,” [...]
2009 Pitchfork Music Festival Day 3: The Flaming Lips
A Flaming Lips concert is quite unlike any concert you’re likely to attend. It’s like a birthday party. Not just for you and your friends, but for everyone. There were 15,000 birthdays yesterday, and giant orange and yellow balloons, and orange and yellow confetti shot into the night sky, and dancing frogs and dancing foxes, [...]
2009 Pitchfork Music Festival Day 3: The Evening Shows — Japandroids, M83, Grizzly Bear, Mew
Was it a breeze I couldn’t feel? Was there a fan I couldn’t see? Or, was it the power of Rock ‘N’ Roll? I can’t say for certain whether the wind which kept the hair of Japandroids’ guitarist Brian King in perpetual motion was man-made or natural, but I’d like to think it was the [...]
2009 Pitchfork Music Festival Day 3: The Thermals
For those of us who witnessed the music and culture of the ’90s firsthand, the unfolding revival of the past decade can be a bit unnerving. At one point Saturday, I sent a text to my photographer, Laura Webb, asking if flannel is back. A quick scan of the crowds Saturday and Sunday revealed the [...]
2009 Pitchfork Music Festival Day 3: The Early Shows — The Mae Shi, Frightened Rabbit, and Blitzen Trapper
Walking into the final day on the 2009 Music Festival, early arrivers had a chance to see what would perhaps be the final Mae Shi show. Late last week, news broke that three of the four existing members were splitting off and forming a new band, Signals, leaving Jeff Byron to hold on to the [...]
Seen and Heard at the Pitchfork Music Festival Day 3
* Gogol, used as a fashion accessory. A paperback of the Russian author’s Dead Souls, with the title and author neatly displayed, was sticking too perfectly out the back of those cut-off jean shorts for a little light reading. * Granted, I was in Chicago, but I still didn’t expect to see someone wearing a [...]
19.Jul.2009 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival Day 2: The Black Lips
The biggest obstacle facing bands at this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, and every edition of the festival, for that matter, is how to take an act catered to bars, small clubs, and 1,000 person capacity concert halls and transform that act for the bigger venue. If you’re a band who stands and plays with little [...]
2009 Pitchfork Music Festival Day 2: Matt and Kim
To demonstrate the power the Brooklyn band Matt and Kim have over a crowd, see the following text exchange: Me: I heart Matt and Kim, maybe Kim more than Matt, but I heart Matt, too. Laura: They are cute, like buttons Now, I had never seen the keyboard and drum duo live before, nor had [...]
2009 Pitchfork Music Festival Day 2: The Late Afternoon Cynic Takes in Ponytail and Wavves
Considering Fucked Up’s blazing, early afternoon performance on the Aluminum Stage, it shouldn’t be all that surprising that I went through a late afternoon funk. I would spend the late afternoon and early evening, wandering from stage to stage, failing to be impressed. No one can deny Ponytail’s energy and exuberance. Neon clad front woman, [...]
2009 Pitchfork Music Festival Day 2: Fucked Up
When you hear Fucked Up on record, and especially, Damian Abraham’s shredded voice, you’re bound to make some assumptions about the Toronto progressive, post-hardcore band. For example, you might assume Abraham lives on a diet of smoothies– Glass, thumb tack, sandpaper, and bleach smoothies. Or, perhaps you’ve dug into the lyrics of one of their [...]
