Pitchfork Music Festival 2009 - pt. 2

Blitzen Trapper
At a hippie music festival, they are the indie band, at a indie festival, they are the hippie band. use whatever label appeals to you, but Blitzen Trapper make timeless rock and roll, with touches of folk, psychedelia, blues and even glam rock. And dudes got some pipes you don't notice until you see them live. The drummer looks like cousin it, has one of the most righteous beards of all time, and the Garfunkel-esque rhythm guitarist applied about a gallon of sun screen to his forehead.



Couple pictures:














Fucked Up
Art-damaged hardcore outfit Fucked Up have one hell of a front man. Damian Abraham made the typical stage banter actually humorous, telling the crowd the crown they are better than "that Animal Collective record, they sound like Phish." Too easy? Maybe, but shifting one's jokes to the crowd at hand isn't always easy at is it probably seams. He was grabbing the beach balls out of the air and deflating them with his teeth, eventually wearing one as a hat. Here's a quiet moment during "Crooked Head."
















The Flaming Lips
The last show on the last day. Word has it they spend $5,000 on confetti, that about sums it up. It's the second time I've seen the Lips. They played a couple new songs, and some super rarities, not of which translated live that well. And they let the crowd decide (by applause) between "She Don't Use Jelly" and "The W.A.N.D." The crowd chose "Jelly." I wanted the other. Why can't we have both? They also didn't play "Free Radicals," so that sucked. But otherwise the Lips were as entertaining as ever, even if i was a mile away.















Ponytail
I don't care what my friends think, Ponytail is awesome, especially live. The post-punk guitars absolutely destroy. Sure, "singer" Molly Siegel's lyrics are all ecstatic yelps and "whooos!" and "whyatcha!" But that's the point. She is just pure joy and energy on stage, personified. The band started as an art school project that took a life of its own, after all, and her voice is just an abstract instrument. I couldn't help but smile the whole time. (Insert joke about wondering if she's a boy or a girl .... that shit's tired, grow up).




Yeasayer
before the show, I was sort of ambivalent about Yeasayer. Now I get it. Polyrythmic without losing it's groove, soulful while still digitally relevant - the band finds a happy area somewhere between TV on the Radio's poppier moments and something actually on the radio. One of the more amazing moments of the festival happened during their set, when it started dropping buckets of rain, only to stop when the band reached the chorus of it's indie hit - "Sunrise" - and the big yellow guy actually peaked his out from behind the clouds.















Grizzly Bear
I only saw part of this show. Another bedroom/ear phone band.
"Two Weeks"


Cymbals Eat Guitars
This was the first show on Saturday, and I only saw the last three songs. it was impressive enough to prompt me to order their CD. It's not only one of the best debuts of the year, it's one of the best records of the year. Not immediately as engrossing as seeing the band's energy live, the album "Why There Are Mountains" is a grower, and it's been in my car nonstop since its purchase.

Pitchfork Music Festival

Of course, several of the bands I most want to see at this weekend's Pitchfork Music Festival are playing at the same time, so I'll be seeing some half-shows. But, one of the biggest advantages of the P4k fest is it's condensed lineup that stresses quality over quantity — at a reasonable price. There are only two bands playing at any one time, as opposed to 4 (like Bonnaroo). Plus I won't have to dodge trust-fund hippie acts cluttering every other stage. Instead I'll have to watch my back for scarfed trust-fund brats riding around on fixed-gear bicycles.

I plan on taking some pictures, and maybe some short videos.

Bands I don't plan on missing:

SATURDAY, JULY 18

8:30 The Black Lips (I will probably have to skip the National, they play at 8:40. Oh well, I see them as more of a sit-at-home-with-the-headphones kind of band rather than a jump-in-the-heat-and-sweat-all-over-your-neighbors kind of band. And who would want to miss the dissolving depravity of a Black Lips show. It's rock 'n' roll devil's music with all the fun and dirt and stink of the garage. )

Take My Heart - Black Lips

5:30 Wavves (He had an onstage breakdown a few weeks ago in Europe, and then broke his wrist skateboarding this week. We'll see how well the lo-fi train wreck plays out.)

4:30 Ponytail (Orgasmic screams bellowing from a petite art school student backed by post punk guitar riffing and swirling? Sounds good to me.)

3:35 Bowerbirds (In a festival concert setting, I like big loud guitars and concussive drumming more than mellow, female/male singer-songwriter duos, but their album is tits. I'll probably just leave the Pains of Being Pure at Heart show 15 minutes early to catch the last few songs from this boyfriend/girlfriend team.)

Beg Waves - Ponytail

3:20 The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (A Pitchfork-endorsed act with a gag-inducing name? Check. Abuses all the "correct" influences at just the right time to be "hip"? Check. Do I like them anyways? A little bit.)

2:30 Fucked Up (Hell yeah, Pink Eye and his other misfits are going to destroy. Too bad I'm going to be too tired after this show to enjoy the rest of the day.)

Come Saturday - The Pains of B...

SUNDAY, JULY 19

8:40 The Flaming Lips (nothing to say here. The put on a fucking spectacle.)

7:25 Grizzly Bear (The first half of their new album, "Veckatimest," is pretty awesome. The rest? Puts me to sleep. Either way, I'll wanna catch a little of the most blog-buzzed band of the year)

6:30 Vivian Girls (Along with Grizzly Bear and the rest, P4k might as well be called Brooklyn Weekend: Chicago Addition. Oh well. These girls ain't too shabby.

5:30 Japandroids
5:15 The Walkmen

(This is the scheduling conflict I'm most pissed about. I've worn out my copy of Japandroids 2009 full-length debut "Post-Nothing," and the Walkmen's "You and Me" is one of my favorite records (and classiest) of '08. I figure since Japandroids only have one full length, and the Walkman have half a dozen, the latter's show will go quite longer. So they should have scheduled Japandroids first, so you could start there an then move on. Oh well.)

The Boys Are Leaving Town - Ja...

Donde Esta La Playa - The Walk...

The Rat - The Walkmen

In The New Year - The Walkmen

4:15 The Thermals (This is my most heavily anticipated show. I'm going to injure myself. Hopefully the set is "The body, the blood, the machine" heavy.

A Pillar of Salt - The Thermal...

Returning to the Fold - The Th...

2:30 Blitzen Trapper (Some roots-rock will be a nice change of pace from the rest of the noise damagd, post punk fair filling the lineups here. Plus, Blitzen Trapper rule. Will be a good start to day number two.

Furr - Blitzen Trapper

God & Suicide - Blitzen Trappe...

The biggest loser

These horrible album covers have nothing to do with this blog entry. To see more, and where I got them from, I highly recommend you visit this: http://neilperkin.typepad.com/only_dead_fish/2008/02/the-worst-album.html

or for the full version, this: http://jeffbridges.com/worstalbumcoversever.pdf

I'm a really big loser, so occasionally I like to play a little game with myself (No, not that. But yeah, also that.) I go to Metacritic.com and guess what the over-all score different albums and movies are going to receive before I read any reviews (both about movies and music I have seen/heard and ones I have not.) I'm really, really good at it, too, because like I said, I'm a huge fucking loser.

I'm gonna publicly play my little prognostication game on Warped Coasters now, but limit the scope to how many stars some up-coming albums will receive from the most predictable of all music rags: Rolling Stone. I still love their features and longer stories, but no discerning music fan has bought Rolling Stone for the reviews since probably 1969.

Now that I'm finally publishing my worthless talent, I will probably botch all of these predictions and hang my head in shame for perpetuity.

Bob Dylan - (as of yet untitled): 4.5 stars
This would be an easy 5-star prediction, but they gave Dylan's last album "Modern Times" a (deserving) 5-star rating. Also, they already gave both U2 and Springsteen 5 stars this year, which is one album past their usual 5-star stockpile. You know they will prolly give him 5-stars anyway.

Green Day - "21 Century Breakdown": 3 stars
"American Idiot" got 3.5 stars. The follow up could totally blow, but Rolling Stone has been writing so many hype-dredging previews that they won't be able to admit it if it does. Also, they can't give it more stars than "American Idiot" since that was, like, the biggest album of 2004. Or, they could try to payback history by giving the follow up 4-stars to please people that actually care about these kinds of things. For the record, I'm totally ambivalent about everything Green Day has released since "Dookie," which I will still love forever.

Decemberists - "The Hazards of Love": 3.5 stars
Good indie bands always get 3 to 3.5 stars, unless it's the album Rolling Stone wants to champion to regain some sort of cred. The Decemberists have been around too long for that kind of desperate grab, so expect a review in the default and noncommittal 3-star range.

Wilco - (as of yet untitled): 4 stars
Wilco always gets 4 stars. Whatever. If I think it's not up to par, Rolling Stone will like it and talk about how our Dads love it. If I think it's great Rolling Stone will say they tried some new things that don't always work. Either way it will get 4 stars.

Grizzly Bear, Iron and Wine, Silversun Pickups: all 3 stars.
See Decemberists