The final round of performers has been announced to fill out the bill for the 2012 Pitchfork Music Festival, July 13-15 in Chicago's Union Park. Added today: Wild Flag, Big K.R.I.T., Beach House, Chavez, Atlas Sound, Real Estate, Ty Segall, Oneohtrix Point Never, Cults, Nicolas Jaar, King Krule, Thee Oh Sees, Lower Dens, Youth Lagoon, Dirty Beaches, Lotus Plaza, The Psychic Paramount, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Milk Music, Outer Minds and A Lull.

The 2012 Pitchfork Music Festival, July 13-15 in Chicago's Union Park, has added nearly a dozen bands to its lineup, including the return of Sleigh Bells and Dirty Projectors, plus Flying Lotus, Danny Brown, Clams Casino, the Olivia Tremor Control, Iceage, the Men, Purity Ring, Schoolboy Q and the Atlas Moth.

The Pitchfork Music Festival has announced dates and its first slate of bands for its annual summer indie-rock party in Chicago's Union Park.

Vampire Weekend, Feist, Godspeed You! Black Emperor are among the artists announced this morning for the acclaimed independently run fest, which will take place July 13-15.

One of the first things you learn to do in journalism school is rewrite press releases, but when they come along as eloquently written as this one that arrived today -- from Between Friends, the Chicago domestic violence preventative organization that was one among several advocacy groups at the Pitchfork Music Festival last weekend trying to counter the frequently hateful message in the lyrics of rap group Odd Future and their Sunday performance -- I say run the thing verbatim.

It's a fine coda to an odd moment in a great festival ...

Three days, three stages, 45 bands. I'm one man, I didn't see them all. But here's the table of contents from this blog's dispatches during another great year at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago's Union Park:

FRIDAY
• Guided by Voices, Neko Case
• Battles
• James Blake
• tUnE-yArDs, Animal Collective
• Gatekeeper, EMA

SATURDAY
• DJ Shadow, Fleet Foxes
• The Dismemberment Plan, Twin Shadow
• No Age, Off!
• Cold Cave

SUNDAY
• Cut Copy, TV on the Radio, Deerhunter
• Yuck, How to Dress Well, Kurt Vile
• Odd Future (interview with Hodgy Beats, plus more Q&A)

ETC.
• The CHIRP Record Fair (plus someone's find)
• Sunday's heat, cooling opportunities
• Take your photo with Rahm Emanuel
• Pitchfork festival heads to Paris

VIDEO
• Odd Future's show, the crowd, and fan reactions
• Keeping cool in the heat
• Out in the crowd
• Interview with Battles
• Interview with James Blake

Cut Copy was the hit of the Pitchfork Music Festival's third night, delivering a set of its '80s-inspired dance-rock that had Union Park jammed and jumping.

They're just four clean-cut Australian blokes in nice shirts. But in the middle of "Saturdays," just as the sun was fading out a broiling afternoon, Dan Whitford called out a simple arena-rock, crowd-juicing trick -- "On the count of three, I want you to go crazy! One, two, three, go!" -- and craziness ensued. It is a beautiful, beautiful thing to watch a crowd of nearly 18,000 people jumping and waving hands in time, freaking the frack out, throwing inflatable things around and spraying water, with wide eyes and smiles from ear to ear.

The crowd was putty in Whitford's hand, a dynamic performer who makes up in audience engagement what he lacks in his pinched voice. Whitford commands the stage with a kind of authority that produces results; when he sings about something "in the sky" and points toward it, you look up.

Cut Copy is not a complicated band -- this is basic pop with disco grooves and lyrics about reaching for the stars, holding onto your dream and trying to get you on the phone -- and the crowd was full of fans, people who knew when to "ooh," when to "yeah!" and who cheered the songs they recognized just from the first synthesizer note. The band pulled from its whole catalog, including tracks from the latest album, "Zonoscope," and the new single "Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution" (a song from 2010, though it gained some note during the Arab Spring, so now it's a new single out July 25, packaged alongside a remix by fellow Pitchfork performer Toro Y Moi). When they started "Lights and Music," a propulsive tune with dissonant synths and the bassline from the Pretenders' "Mystery Achievement," the park went crazy without being told. Even Whitford was taken aback by the crowd's enthusiasm, blurting a "Wow!" when the song ceased.

As acts compete to fill the void left by LCD Soundsystem, the Oprah of indie dance-rock, Cut Copy might have a chance for a breakthrough.

London quartet Yuck has been one of the biggest hypes this year -- the lines to see each of several showcases last spring at SXSW were long and futile -- and while they couldn't hope to live up to it, their '90s Shoegaze Fanclub shtick is growing on me.

Curly-haired Daniel Blumberg plays guitar and sings with a permanent crick in his neck, often stooped as he grinds out Lush swells on guitar. His longtime mate and fellow guitarist Max Bloom fills whatever spaces Blumberg doesn't -- he added a great slide solo to "Suicide Policeman" -- and the parts make for a pleasant whole. They were more laid back Sunday, swinging between the riffy fun of "The Wall" and a few songs so easygoing and with melodies so loping I half expected Jackson Browne to join them. In March I said "it should make for a harmless summer '90s revival," and voila.

BY ARIEL CHEUNG
Staff Reporter

Clint Pogue and girlfriend Courtney King, both 22, traveled from Missouri to attend the Pitchfork Music Festival, but it wasn't just for the concerts -- it was also for the record fair.

Since Pitchfork's inception, CHIRP Radio has hosted a record fair, which offers deals on vinyl, crafts and clothes.

"It's pretty awesome," Pogue said. "I really love the idea of having a true music library, and we get really sweet deals."

This year, 45 vendors participated in the fair, which is placed inside the festival area. Music Direct, a record store on Laflin, has been a part of the fair since it began.

"We like to expose a new generation to vinyl and give good prices," said Kyle Vanderlaan, 30, of Music Direct.

Jenny Lizak, vice president and marketing director for CHIRP, said the record fair is part of what makes Pitchfork great.

"When Pitchfork started, they wanted it to be more than just music ­this allows people to do some shopping, buy the bands' music and get out of the sun," said Lizak, 33. "It's park of the Pitchfork experience."

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For controversial rap group Odd Future, Sunday afternoon at the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival began with a little damage control.

Less than an hour before taking the stage in Chicago's Union Park, members of the group delivered boxes of cupcakes to the anti-violence organizations on site -- the same organizations manning booths and handing out paper fans containing domestic violence resource information specifically to counter what they saw as dangerous expressions of hate, violence and homophobia in Odd Future's music.

"They took some of the fans, too," said Amanda Wapiennik with Family Shelter Service. "One of them said, 'See we're nice.' I said, 'We never said you weren't.' ... That's exactly the kind of dialogue and exchange we're looking for."

It was nice while it lasted.

And here's how they were beating the heat ...