The synthesizer was the instrument of choice for most bands for the duration of Pitchfork; however no band put it to better use than Mew. The Danish quintet played disco-funk designed for arenas. The romanticism of the band's ambitious songs and the octave-climbing vocals of singer Jonas Bjerre peaked in long, fragmented songs like "Special" that featured irresistible pop choruses that, despite their repetition, was cathartic.
Throughout the set, Bjerre demonstrated just how high the ceiling is on his vocal range, at one point emulating the sped-up production style of Kanye West. The electronic crunch that lined most songs contrasted the band's song structures, which were peppered with sweet spots and always felt like a journey worth taking.
And the acts keep pitching in to this year's Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago's Union Park July 17-19. More bands announced today: Saturday will see performances by Yeasayer, Plants and Animals, and Disappears; and on Sunday, the festival will be adding Blitzen Trapper, Mew, Japandroids, and Women.
To recap the 2009 line-up so far ...
Friday: Built to Spill, The Jesus Lizard, Yo La Tengo, Tortoise
Saturday: The National, Yeasayer, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, F***ed Up, Plants and Animals, Matt and Kim, Wavves, Charles Hamilton, The Duchess and The Duke, Disappears
Sunday: The Flaming Lips, Grizzly Bear, M83, The Walkmen, Pharoahe Monch, Blitzen Trapper, Black Lips, The Very Best, Mew, Vivian Girls, Japandroids, Women.
We have a correction regarding the Flaming Lips' performance at the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival. The "Write the Night" series, in which tickets holders get to vote on the songs that they want to hear, is happening on Friday, with Built to Spill, the Jesus Lizard, Tortoise, and Yo la Tengo. The Flaming Lips will be closing out the Festival on Sunday, July 19th, but they will not be part of the "Write the Night" series, as was previously indicated. We apologize for any confusion. Any problems regarding tickets purchased due to what was previously reported can be addressed with TicketWeb for reimbursement at info@ticketweb.com. Thanks, and we hope to see you in July.
Neither Pitchfork promoter Mike Reed nor Lips manager Scott Booker could be reached for comment (yet), so it's not clear what happened. But with all things Flaming Lips, the buck stops with bandleader Wayne Coyne, so let me direct this to him:
Hey, Wayne: You guys have been playing more or less the same set for almost a decade now; a few new songs get added, one older song gets dropped in per night, and maybe a cover, but mostly we get a lot of eye candy, with very few if any real musical surprises. How is this major Chicago festival appearance going to be any different than the Lollapalooza show a few years ago, or any of a dozen recent Lips shows your fans may have caught in these parts? What's the matter, buddy: Afraid to deviate from the standard set list, stretch out as in the old days, and either succeed brilliantly or fail nobly? Don't you think the fans at an eclectic, diverse and independent festival in one of the cities that has always been among the band's strongest bases of support deserve and would accept something a little left of center--something different and special? Or is this just another paycheck like all the other big corporate festivals and the Kraft salad dressing commercials?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah... um, no, no, no, no, no, no.
The Flaming Lips pre-space bubbles, plushies and confetti guns, circa 1989.
Promoters of the Pitchfork Music Festival have announced that Oklahoma's venerated psychedelic-pop weirdoes the Flaming Lips will close out this year's three-day concert in Union Park on July 17 to 19.
The Lips have become a staple on the festival circuit in recent years with their low-tech whiz-bang stage shows, though many longtime fans have been disappointed by the lack of older material in their sets and the overabundance of shtick (bandleader Wayne Coyne singing "Happy Birthday"--that sort of thing).
At Pitchfork, however, the band will be reprising the opening night's "Write the Night: Set Lists by Request" concept, inviting fans to cast their votes online for the songs they'd most like to hear. If they vote wisely, the Lips actually pay attention to the balloting and Coyne deigns to pick up a guitar again, the results could almost be enough to make one forgive the band for selling out to those annoying Kraft salad dressing commercials or picking on those poor, sensitive kids in the Arcade Fire (among numerous other sins of late).
In any event, here is one veteran Flaming Lips fan's choice for the ultimate live set list, in chronological order from early in the band's career to the present. (If the group plays these songs, I'm happy to take them in any sequence they wanna give 'em.)
1. "Jesus Shootin' Heroin" (from "Hear It Is," 1986)
2. "Everything's Explodin'" ("Oh My Gawd!!!... The Flaming Lips," 1987)
13. "The Captain is a Cold-Hearted and Egotistical Fool" (outtake from "The Soft Bulletin," 1999)
14. "Waitin' for a Superman" ("The Soft Bulletin," 1999)
15. "Pompeii am Götterdämmerung" ("At War with the Mystics," 2006)
Yeah, yeah, many Pitchforkers may quibble with only one official song from "The Soft Bulletin," but the band has been playing much of that album in concert regularly since its release. Even more so with "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" (2002). This is a chance to get the band to revisit a rich catalog that stands with some of the best in rock history--and I mean, right up there beside Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and certainly any band of the alternative generation--and the vast majority of the songs I've chosen haven't been heard live in more than 15 years.
Anyway, this is my list, and I'm stickin' with it! If you think you can do better, I'd love to see it.
Though it's unlikely that most of the 17,000 fans who've attended each day know it, the Pitchfork Music Festival originated as a small concert run by a grassroots group called Interchange formed to register voters before the last Presidential election.
Through its remarkable growth, Pitchfork has retained that activist spirit: Some 70 volunteers have registered more than 1,200 voters from 34 states and the District of Columbia over the course of the festival's fourth year at the West Side's Union Park. But the community spirit is here in other ways, too.
The second day of the fourth annual Pitchfork Music Festival kicked off amid a whole lot of mud and a light but steady drizzle that has yet to abate. But the first of Saturday's main-stage acts was anything but soggy.
Titus Andronicus is a distinctive indie-rock band from suburban New Jersey led by bushy-bearded vocalist Patrick Stickles that has at times featured as many as 11 members onstage churning through the most aggressive shoegazer psychedelia you've ever heard--or, if you prefer, the dreamiest hardcore punk you can imagine. For this gig, Stickles was joined by a mere five band mates, but that was more than enough to create an impressive wall of sound, with as many as four guitars churning away at some points.
"Sun is falling down/Sky is falling down/Seasons falling down/Air is falling down," Boston art-punk legends Mission of Burma sang in "Weatherbox" Friday night, midway through the opening set of the fourth Pitchfork Music Festival, as their guitars, bass, drums and tape loops evoked the fury of bombs falling in the midst of an earthquake during a vicious thunderstorm.
Thankfully, the real downpour stopped not long before the band officially opened the three-day festival in the West Side's Union Park. But it was an ominous message nonetheless, with the weather threatening to dampen souls if not spirits all weekend long at what has become the premier celebration of the musical underground in Chicago and the entire U.S.
And what the heck IS an "independent lifestyle communications and brand agency" anyway -- I mean, besides something that sounds like it should be linked to Rolling Stone instead of the leading indie-rock Webzine?
I'm just asking, because I'm having a hard time parsing a word of the corporate triple-speak in this very strange press release issued Monday.
Pitchfork Selects Tangible Worldwide As Integrated Agency-Of-Record
Pitchfork Media has appointed Chicago-based lifestyle communication and brand agency Tangible Worldwide as its first Integrated Agency-of-Record.
Chicago, IL (PRWEB) May 19, 2008 -- It has been a month of firsts for Pitchfork Media, the world's most influential voice in independent music. Following the launch of Pitchfork.tv and its first international music festival, ATP vs. Pitchfork, held May 9-11 in Camber Sands, England, Pitchfork has appointed Chicago-based lifestyle communication and brand agency Tangible Worldwide as its first Integrated Agency-of-Record.
"Tangible Worldwide is a company that shares both our passion for music and our unique independent vision. We are excited to be working with them and look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together," says Ryan Schreiber, Founder/President of Pitchfork.
"All of us are huge music fans, and many of us have been loyal Pitchfork readers from the beginning," says Merrick, Principal and Creative Director of Tangible Worldwide. "This is an ideal partnership for our young team and exemplifies everything we represent as an agency. We can't wait to show off what Pitchfork and Tangible can do together."
About Tangible Worldwide:
Tangible Worldwide, LLC is an independent lifestyle communications and brand agency headquartered in Chicago, IL. We only represent brands that represent our team as consumers. We represent your brand because we can't help it. We would do it whether or not we had your business. As your agency, we create relationships that are Tangible Worldwide™. See for yourself at www.tangibleworldwide.com.
About Pitchfork Media:
Launched in 1996, Pitchfork Media is the leading resource for independent music. Attracting 1.6 million unique visitors per month and 250,000 visits per day, Pitchfork is widely acknowledged as the music world's primary tastemaker. On April 7, 2008, Pitchfork launched its online video channel, Pitchfork.tv, which was met with high praise and over 2 million views within its first month. Pitchfork also hosts its own music festival, aptly titled the Pitchfork Music Festival, a three-day event showcasing over 40 of independent music's best bands and artists on three stages. For more information go to www.pitchforkmedia.com, www.pitchforkmusicfestival.com, or www.pitchfork.tv.
After stringing us out f-o-r-e-v-e-r before announcing the full roster of acts for the fourth annual Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park on July 18-20, promoters have made the entire lineup and daily schedule public (though rumblings are they still have one more surprise in store at some other point this season).
The verdict: It's a strong bill, but quite obviously suffering from festival glut, that intense, often corporate-funded battle with the new plethora of big-business logopaloozas trying to remake the summer concert season, for better or worse, as chronicled earlier and often on this blog.
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